This weekend was a "special" weekend for us. This past weekend was the first time, Finorah & Conall became members of the "Egg Delivery Express". Back in June, I got 8 days old chicks through the mail. In November, I got my first egg. Two months later, I'm pretty positive all 8 hens are laying, but due to the shorter days, we usually only get 4-5 eggs a day (I'll do an all-about-my-chickens post soon). In the past two months, I've given a dozen here and there, but we haven't delivered any eggs in the neighborhood yet. Well, this past weekend, we had enough eggs in the frig to give away two dozen to our neighbors.
The kids were so excited to deliver the eggs. Unfortunately, we picked a time where one of our neighbors were gone and the other only had their oldest home. But, the deliveries were made and the cul-de-sac enjoyed eggs from my girls for the weekend.
This weekend also saw a new makeover in our house. Finorah loves putting on makeup, as all little girls do. But this was a first for her. She must have seen me filling in my eyebrows on Saturday evening and decided to give her eyebrows a lift. She has quite the imagination and loves making herself pretty. I think that she is a trendsetter and foresee purple eyebrows as a trend coming in 2017.
And this morning, Conall was watching his iPad and I had to giggle at how long his hair has become. His headphones acted as a headband and pushed his hair up in a spiky do.
Being that we have finally stopped running from the holidays, the holiday hangover has set in. All the holiday decorations are down and the house feels cold and bare. So I'm trying my best to do some spring cleaning in hopes that spring comes quickly. Last weekend, we got a little bit of snow. So on Sunday, when the temperatures were frigid, E tied the snow sleds on to the three-wheeler he bought before Thanksgiving and took the kids around the yard 5-6 times.
Poor Con. The snow was kicking up from the front of his sled, as evidenced by the mittens in the third & fourth photos. The poor kid kept trying to move his handmade scarf out of his mouth and his snow-laden mittens would put more snow on his face. The sled rides didn't last long, but they had fun while it lasted.
E had stopped for some reason and this was him starting -- do you see the whiplash the kids are getting?
Another big event (besides the return of school this week) was that Con moved into his big boy bed. Yes, he is almost three and he has been sleeping next to me for the entirety of those three years. In fact, he never even slept in his bassinet during our hospital stay on his delivery. That kid has always been snuggled in next to mama. I held him in the hospital while he slept and his dad slept in the bed next to mine, as I watched the Super Bowl and tried to stay awake for the commercials. To be fair, I didn't sleep very well at the hospital, not because of pain, but because of my bed -- it was an pneumatic bed. Every time I moved, that stupid bed would inflate or delate -- and it was SOOOOO loud. Thank goodness we only stayed in the hospital for 36 hours. When we got home, the little boy slept next to me in our bed, cordoned off by pillows on either side. I had been sleeping on my side for 7 months, so it was ingrained in my head to not roll forward onto my stomach. And he always slept so wonderfully next to me.
Well, after almost three years, he has officially be moved. I thought that it would be a hard transition for him. And it may end up being. But right now, he is taking his big boy bed transition amazingly well. We lay with him until he falls asleep (just like we do with Finn) and we go in and lay with him if he wakes in the middle of the night until he falls back asleep (just like we did with Finn when she used to wake up in the middle of the night). After he is adjusted to sleeping in his bed, we will slowly be weaning both of them of us laying with them to fall asleep. While there are nights, I wish I could just ship them to bed and shut the door, I try to remember that these nights aren't going to last forever and that in a few years, I am going to long for the nights when they both wanted me to snuggle with them while they lull off to dreamland. It's crazy how fast time moves sometimes.
I have finally stopped from all the holiday running -- on January 9th -- almost 17 days after we began. The reason that the post is titled "in the Modern Era" is because I forgot my big-girl camera and everything that I snapped was taken on my phone. And while I was cursing and cussing because I had to start deleting songs, apps, and texts from my phone in order to save memory for photos, I am thankful that my phone is decent enough to capture memories. Unfortunately, Eain's family came late and we only got to spend three hours with them over the holidays. They stayed at our place while we were in Iowa due to convenience and hopefully we will get to spend more time with them.
One caveat -- this is not our entire December, this is just all the holiday things that we crammed into December (minus the kids receiving their video messages from Santa as I'm sure that no one cares to see our dirty faced kids' faces while they react to a video message that none of you have seen).
This year was our second annual trip to the North Pole Express in New Hope. Con was so patient waiting for the train (but that's when the patience ended for him).
Finn & I waiting on the train for it to leave the station
These are my kids -- I couldn't get Con to look at me and smile at the same time. Do what I do all the time -- deal with it.
Finn spying on Mrs. Claus and Santa as they visited with others on the train
Conall had his first holiday program. See that stud there in the checkered shirt, suspenders, & red pants? I was so proud of him. He hasn't had the best response to school (at least to drop offs) and the Halloween parade was a disaster. E had a meeting and couldn't attend with me, so I expected nothing less than a full blown meltdown. He was amazing!!! He waited until the end of all their songs to see me and want to leave his seat (where we took our seat on the floor in front of all the parents bc the director wanted to ensure that the kids get to experience their program even if they were quite ready).
Here are two of Conall's songs. The second song, he was a sour puss the whole time. I was furiously trying to shake my imaginary bells to get him to do it while he stared at me. I found out later that he was mad because Miss Pam gave him a green bell when he wanted a blue one.
Mrs. Claus even made an appearance!
There was tons of things to do after the program. He got his hand painted with a candy cane. Like the red nose for the reindeer pokey?
My sweet boy.
Every year, I make ornaments for family out of the kids' thumbprints. This years turned out great!
Finn's program was amazing as well. She practiced so hard on her songs.
Here are two of the three songs that she sang. She really loved that Marshmallow World song.
And guess who stopped by??? The big man himself!
We were lucky enough to have E's parents join us and they got their photos taken with Santa as well.
The week before Christmas, we went to Shady Brook Farms, which is a huge drive through light display. We all piled in the back of one of our neighbor's truck and had so much fun.
Christmas Eve with the cousins
The annual Christmas Eve in Christmas jammies (who can you guess was mad about her non-colorful jammies?)
Christmas morning with the gifts that Santa brought for them (we had to call him on Christmas Eve and tell him where we were so he knew where to deliver the gifts to).
Lumberjack Con
Serial Killer Finn
These two are only separated by five months and they were intently watching something on the iPad.
They were so intent that they missed Finn dancing like a mad women in front of them.
Papa and all the boys watching sharks
Mimi & Papa's beautiful holiday decor (at least some of it)
When we got back from our long drive, we had the kids open up the gifts that E & I gave them. We were so excited to give them!
And finally, I took photos of all the holiday cards that we got this year (if you sent us a card, I thank you). I love getting holiday cards -- it makes my kitchen so festive.
