Christmas With The Windle's

This year was so magical for Natalie. It's the first year she really seemed to 'click' and get what happens at Christmas. We had so much build up with Zazoo and many Santa visits. But the best was Christmas Eve. After church and looking at lights with hot chocolate, we got on Christmas jammies and read The Elf on the Shelf one last time. My dad snuck out and put on our family Santa suit and went outside. Natalie went out to feed the reindeer, and we came back in and heard jingle bells!! When she saw the Big Man at the door she screamed "I gotta get Santa his cookies!!!!". She then dropped them all the way through the house to the door. You can even see them sliding off her plate! He brought her a horse tire swing. We told her since she caught him, he'd have to come back to bring the rest of the presents when she went to sleep.




She had a blast the next morning. Santa left her and Jacob a letter on the cookie plate (which was refilled after the spillage). We opened Santa presents first - she got tap shoes, jingle bells, a Christmas plate and cup, and Cootie. Ryan then cooked up a big breakfast. After we cleaned that up, we did the other presents with my parents and Grandma Joan.




Finally, we had a lot of snow! It's pretty much snowed all weekend, but nothing really accumulated after Christmas.

Jacob's A Small Fry

I was expecting Jacob to measure like Natalie at his appointment, but BOY are they different! He was 25% for height, which was 22 1/2 inches. He has grown 3 inches though! He was 50% for weight at 11 pounds 8 oz. He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. Poor little man cried a lot more than Natalie and cries anytime I touch his legs. He's happily napping now under the influence of Tylenol.

2 Months Old

Happy 2 months Jacob! Amazing how it goes so fast, but seems like he's been here forever at the same time. He'll be getting a 2 month check up on Tuesday, as well as his first vaccinations. Poor little guy, though I guess since he's sick they might hold off on the vaccines. Here he is with his elephant, his big sister, and holding tight to a brush. Maybe he's practicing singing to be the next American Idol.






And just for those that don't rememer,Natalie used to rock the mohawk too! Here she is at the same age as Mr. J.

Busy Day

What a fun day today has been! First we went to story time at the library. Santa came and read the Night Before Christmas. It's a really old building, with beautiful rooms inside. Santa and all the kids sat in front of the fireplace and it was so well decorated! Unfortunately, I only have camera phone pics. I did take the camera, but when I got there, realized it had no batteries inside. I did have some friends take a few so I'll post them since mine are pretty fuzzy.


Then we went to our friend April's house. She had our playgroup friends over for pizza and playtime! Natalie had a good time, especially eating the chocolate covered pretzel rods! Ryan got off work early and picked her up so she could nap, while Jacob and I stayed to chat.

Sadly, I took Jacob to the doctor today. He had no fever, but he had a little bit of a wet cough and was hoarse. Everytime he tried to cry hardly any sound came out. The dr. prescribed amoxicillian and said he probably has a little bronchial infection. Poor little man!

Ryan also did a few cool projects for me while I was out and Natalie was sleeping. We wanted to build a pool table top for when we have parties. We will cover it with a table cloth and use it as a table or a serving area. He even padded the corners to protect the little ones. He also worked a little more on my sewing room cabinets. They are all painted, we just are waiting on 2 sewing tables and then we can decide the layout. He also put some MDF on top of one set and is gluing my cutting mat on top so I have a built in cutting area for sewing and scrapping. I am SOOO excited!

The Case of the 2 Year Old and Too Much Church

What a day! We made our second visit to St. Paul's Lutheran, where Jacob will be baptized in January. If you remember, our last visit was filled with Natalie dancing and taking up the spotlight of the children's message. Today was no different. Everyone was sitting quietly listening, and Natalie decides she needs to tell everyone to look at her beautiful Jesus cross necklace. The pastor acknowledged her necklace. She interrupts again to tell him that he likes his shoes. More laughter from the congregation. She breaks in for the third time to tell him her friend Regian is getting baptized. He thought she said Jacob is getting baptized so he explained to everyone that her brother would be getting baptized there in January. He also said next time maybe Natalie could just give the Children's message.

But, she was not so cute the rest of the time. She was pretty unruly, even with my arsenal of crayons, books, and paper. She tried to draw in the hymnal, write on my check, etc. She was also yelling "NOT FAIR" anytime we told her no or took something away. It was quite possibly the longest hour I've experienced in awhile! And no, there is no nursery or children's church so I guess she'll just have to learn to behave better.

We then went over to First Baptist to watch our friend's daughter (the previously mentioned Reigan) get baptized. There was much more talking here. "Where is Reigan? Why is she changing clothes? Why did she get baptized? Why is she wet now?". After awhile Ryan took her out to the lobby where she ran laps around him in circles while the ushers laughed. She stopped, looked at them, and took a bow. She came back in so she could put her quarter in the offering plate (a pro after doing this at the previous service). During THAT quiet time she let out a loud fart which made several people turn and giggle. If that wasn't enough, Jacob decided to let one loose too. Maybe THIS was the longest hour of my life.

Now all the chldren are sleeping and Ryan and I are on different floors trying to enjoy some peace and quiet. Here are some pictures of us. We at least look like a nice church going family!

Late is Better than Never

Finally got around to posting Jacob's 1 month elephant pic. Well, if I'm being honest, taking it too. But better late than not at all! I love my little man and can't believe how fast the time is going!

Here he is back at the hospital when he was still so scrunchy!

Parade **First Place**

Natalie and I went to the Santa Parade this weekend. Ryan was busy at drill so me and the kids went at it alone. We rode the float with Natalie. It was SO cold! I forgot how cold it gets out here in Missouri. We had on layers, coats, an a blanket, but she was still pretty miserable. Once the float started going though she loved it! Her studio made the front page of the paper, but they took the picture of the girls dancing behind it (you can see the corner of the green float we were on at the front of the picture). We warmed up with a 'rice and beans' lunch with friends, hit a craft fair, and a birthday party! Then Ryan and I went to his Christmas party while our friend Sarah watched our kids. No pictures of us because I didn't like anything I tried on, but we still had a nice time!

**You can watch at www.sedaliademocrat.com her group is in the 3 min section**

Jacob and Natalie

Daddy's favorite game! I love comparing pictures of the 2 kids at the same age so here you go! They are both around 6 weeks here. I should have tried to recreate it with the same angle, but good enough! What do you think?

Meet Zazoo, Our Elf on a Shelf

After hearing about this book, The Elf On The Shelf, I just had to get in on this tradition. The story explains that the elf lives in your house, and flies every night to the North Pole to tell Santa if you were naughty or nice. Then the next morning the 'shelf elf' is in a new place. So it's kind of a game for the kids to find him each morning. The story is cute, and I love the vintage-looking illustrations and the elf himself! Natalie named ours Zazoo. And it will be a pretty good behavior monitor (as I just heard Ryan ask her if he should tell Zazoo she was being bad, ha ha).

Making Meals

So after so many wonderful meals I recieved after Jacobs, we have finally eaten our way through them. We had so much we were able to set aside and freeze. So last week and this week I've started to meal plan and cook again. It keeps our shopping and eating out on a good budget. I loved having stuff in the freezer to pull out and heat up, so I'm working on making a larger batch and freezing half.

Tonight's dinner is Spaghetti Pie, from the Deceptivley Delicious cookbook. Not only is it good for sneaking in veggies for the kids, it's also good for picky husbands! There is 1/4 of carrot puree and 1 cup of broccoli puree. It made a TON of meatballs so I decided to freeze those to pull out for spaghetti or meatball subs. The noodle mixture was also huge, so I froze half of that to use again later! I wasn't sure how to freeze the meatballs, until I found my Jello-Jiggler's egg molds. Voilia! Perfect meatball freezers! Once they are frozen I'll put them in ziplocs instead.



These meals take a long time to prepare if you don't puree ahead of time and store it up. I'm better at doing that when I'm making baby food since it's all the same!

But Jacob is going through a growth spurt and pretty much only eats and sleeps. He was being pretty awake before the last 2 days. And changing nap time to 'quiet time' for Natalie is really helping too. Although she has taken more naps during quiet time than she did during nap time, go figure! So even though it took about an hour, everyone was sleeping and I got to sneak a quiet lunch in too!

Recipe:
Meatballs are 1 lb ground turkey, 1 egg white, 1tsp garlic salt and 2TBS parmesean and 1 cup puree brocoli. Cook noodles and mix in a jar of tomato sauce, 1 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup puree carrot, and salt/pepper. Put the noodle mix in a pie pan and lay meatballs on top. Sprinkle with 1 cup mozz cheese. Bake at 350 for 25 min.

Smiles and More

We had a great Thanksgiving trip. We enjoyed time with family. Our once small family now had 20 adults and 10 kids! It was a fun time and nice to spend the day together. Natalie now has 'cousins' for all her stuffed animals here at home.

We also took in a Santa parade. Natalie got to put in her request to the big man himself. He said he'll bring her lots of candy if she makes him chocolate chip cookies!


We also got to meet Susan's newest boy, Spencer! Sadly, he was born weighing almost the same as Jacob at a month! I won't post the picture of us because she doesnt' like it :-), but here's one of the daddies and babies.



Jacob is a smiling machine!

Jacob's Skin Colored Again!

No longer is my son a giant speckle, he looks like a sweet, clear skinned baby. The pictures still make him look a little bumpy, but the redness is gone and so are almost all the yellow crusty flakes. I called the dr. this morning and they said if the rash is gone not to use the cream. Eczema can be caused by dry skin, so I'm looking to find a good baby lotion for sensitive skin. I'm thinking Aveeno or Eucarin or something like that. Natural and dye/scent free. I am so pleased with how much better he looks!

Eczema

I took Mr. J to the dr. yesterday after his rast stared looking leaky around his ear. We were given a prescription cream for eczema. After 2 treatments he already is looking so much better!

Before


1st Treatement


2nd Treatment


3rd

Jacob's 1 Month Update

I can't believe it's been a month already. Here's the latest news on Mr. J!

* We had to move the shoulder straps up a slot on the car seat, so he must be getting taller!

* He is very alert after his bath time and uses that time to talk - he's making all kinds of ooh's and ahh's instead of just crying!

* At 3 weeks and a day, he got a HORRIBLE case of baby acne as well as cradle cap on his face. But I don't want to skip pictures but please excuse that he looks like the 'before' picture of a Proactive commercial!

* He started smiling at us!!! YAY!!!




Here's Natalie's smile for reference!

The Church Lady

Ryan and I tried a church today, as we are trying to find somewhere that we can have Jacob baptized before too long. Natalie went with us to the actual service, which is different than our old church. She used to go to kid's church, so sitting for an hour I was a little nervous. She was good though - she liked listening to the songs. Then came the children's message. I wasn't sure if she would go up there by herself, but she ran up no problem. She listened well, and then the pastor said they would each get a whistle shaped like a cross to take home (he was talking about how Jesus will come and they should tell people about it). Well he said they had to work for it, and had them all sing a song together. The whole church sang and Natalie spun around and around in circles. Everyone was laughing at her impromptu dance performance. The pastor loved it, and picked her up and said she is an example of how excited everyone should be about church. After the children's message, he brought her up several more times in the sermon and at the dismissal. In a small church, you know our visit won't soon be forgotten!

Children's Logic

Natalie was talking to Oma this morning. Oma said she was going out to lunch with friends. Natalie then said (with a giant smile on her face) "We should go out to lunch with our friends too!". I told her they were busy and she said "All the daddies should go to work so the mommies can stay home with the boys and girls and go out to lunch". Cute!

Jacob's New Tricks

Here is my little man working on lifting his head and following objects with his eyes and ears!

Fun With Crayons

I have decided I want Natalie to be crafty like me. So the other day, we melted down her old crayons so we could make some fun new ones. Plus I had scored some good deals on crayons earlier so I had new replacements for her to open. Here's how they turned out! We just peeled them, broke them, and put them in some old mini muffin tins and baked for 20 minutes at 120 degrees.