3-year-olds are fun.

We are going to the drive-in tonight for New Year's Eve. So I'm trying to get Lincoln to lay down and take a nap. We've been working on the laying down part for two hours now. Lincoln and I just had the following conversation.
Me: Lincoln, can I take your fries?
Linc: No.
Me: Are you still eating your fries?
Linc: No.
Me: So you are finished with your fries?
Linc: No.
(I took the fries)
Me: Linc, do you want to watch cars?
Lincoln put his blankie over my head.
Me: (after removing blakie) Do you want to watch dinosaurs.
Lincoln put his blanket back on my head.
Me: (removing blankie again) Lincoln, look at me...
I was cut off by Lincoln putting blankie back on my head.
Me: (speaking with blankie still over my head) Lincoln, if you want to go to the movie you have to have a rest. What do you want to watch.
Lincoln: (removing blankie) Peek-a-boo I found you, Mama. Mama in blankie. Mama hiding.

At that point I realized that the nap was probably a lost cause.

Christmas Day

Santa took this picture before she went to bed last night:

Then this happened:



and before long it looked like this:

We had a fantastic Christmas morning. Lincoln was so excited about every single present that he had to open them and play for a good ten/fifteen minutes before he would open another. Savannah tore through them all, then played. She kept saying over and over, "This is the BEST Christmas ever!" I guess that means she was pretty happy.

Christmas afternoon wasn't as great. It started out with a certain someones who had volunteered to be in charge of Christmas dinner showing up two hours late with said dinner, then taking another hour to get it ready. Then while we were eating we got a knock on the door which turned out to be someone from the housing office informing us that there was some kind of problem and our power would be turned off for the next few hours. So we decided to take the kids to a movie. All four of them. Well the someones who were late with dinner also forgot their purses with their IDs to get on base, and once we got that fixed they realized that they had forgotten other things too, and by the time we went back home we were doing to miss the movie. So we drove up to the temple to see the lights, only to find that the gate was locked. The little bit of lights we saw from the street were really pretty though.

We came back home, just the four of us and had a great evening playing with the kids toys and watching the movies from their stockings. Jesse and Lincoln have been fighting over the remote control Hummer my mom sent all day. Lincoln freaks out and screams, "My turn!" every time Jesse touches it, and Jesse apparently isn't getting the hint because as soon as Lincoln is distracted he tries again. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that. I do have a picture of the kids playing with the croquet set that one of Camille's kids sent for Lincoln. It is so cute! Oh, and Lincoln didn't wear a single piece of clothing all day! The kid really is a nudist. Clothes are a sensory issue for him, and since he was already having a hard time with all the excitement, presents, lights, and extra people today we just didn't push it.

Finally, the real reason for the celebration today. Before putting the kids to bed we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. The kids blew out the candles on the birthday cake and we talked about the birth of Baby Jesus while eating Christmas Funfetti cake.

Oh, and I have to share this last picture too. Instead of presents under the tree, from the time the tree gets put up until after the kids are in bed on Christmas Eve, their nativity set takes center stage under the tree. They are allowed to play with it all the time, it keeps the presents from getting unwrapped or even being seen while making sure the area under the tree isn't empty, and it helps us all remember what the real gift of Christmas is. Every time I look at it I can't help but smile. Last night while putting gifts under the tree I decided to take a picture. Merry Christmas everyone. May your lives be blessed.

Christmas Eve

We decided to do Sea World for Christmas Eve. Here are a few highlights from the day...

Then we came home, decorated some cookies from Santa, opened the kids Christmas jammies, and watched Polar Express before bed. Lincoln put his jammies on, but was naked again within five minutes. He's a nudist.

Christmas Week Family Night

Jesse's mom came down last week with his twin sister and her two kids. Jesse's sister, Patricia, is moving from Oceanside to downtown San Diego and their mom is in town helping her move. Well, their mom decided that she would rather stay with us and have Patricia drop her kids off here each morning when she goes to work. So we've had a houseful this week.

On Monday for family night, I promised Savannah and Andrew that we could make and decorate gingerbread men. It was cute, the kids loved it, and surprisingly they tasted good. I've never really liked gingerbread men, but I guess I just hadn't tried the right recipe. (we made this one: Gingerbread men)



After Patricia picked her kids up for the night, we loaded the kids in the car and went to look at Christmas lights. Thanks to San Diego Family Magazine, we found this amazing display less than two miles from our house.
http://belardolights.com/

Fancy

As is tradition, my kids got new church clothes to wear the Sunday before Christmas. As usual, I spent way too much time looking for the perfect outfits, and I was thrilled with them. Sunday morning I went to put them on them, and while Savannah was thrilled, Lincoln didn't share that sentiment.

Eventually I decided that since it was like 85 degrees I would let him wear just the shirt (with the sleeves rolled) and skip the sweater vest. Then came the funnest part; trying to get a decent picture of both kids. At first they wanted nothing to do with picture taking.

So I told them to just stand there and hold hands. One child was overly willing, the other wanted nothing to do with it. Surprisingly, Lincoln was the willing one.

After about 30 outtakes we decided that it was time to give up and go to church. This is the best we ended up with. Merry Christmas!

Sea World Christmas Party

Jesse's work Christmas party was at Sea World this weekend. I was scheduled to work that night, but I asked literally every single person at my work and finally found someone to cover my shift, only to find out at midnight the night before that the girl who said that she would work for me was already scheduled to work that day. So we headed to Sea World at 10:30 am knowing that I had to be at work at 3.

So we got there and rushed to see the Sea Lion show. This is everyone in our family's favorite and they were doing a special "Night Before Christmas" show. Well when we got there we found out that they only do the Christmas show at night, and since we've seen the other one many times and we were on limited time we decided to see the sharks and manatees before lunch instead. The sharks are one of Lincoln's favorites. He gets so excited every time!

we headed over to the pavilion. Wow, there were TONS of people there! They did a free lunch and Shamu was there to greet the kids. Lincoln for some reason wanted two hotdogs on one bun, and it was so funny that I had to get a picture.

Then Santa came. He gave every kid there a stuffed animal, and then they got to pick a toy out of the box. They had tons of cool toys, but of course Lincoln had to pick a bow and arrow/knife set and Savannah picked a recorder. Seriously, the two most obnoxious toys they had. Oh well, they were happy. Lincoln was pretty hesitant about sitting on Santa's lap though. While the kids were doing that the 3rd MAW band played. They were great! They played and sang and danced, and they were funny! Oh, and while we were at the lunch it was pouring rain, but as soon as the kids were done seeing Santa it stopped. But because of the rain Sea World was not crowded at all!

after that we headed to the Elmo's playground area at Sea World, but it was closed because everything was wet, so Savannah picked to go see the polar bears. She loves to go on the "helicopter ride" there, but Lincoln is too short, so we split up. Lincoln loves seeing the baluga whales, walruses and polar bears, and I got a ton of cool pictures since it was pretty much empty in there.

, after that we saw the Polar Express 4-D movie, which was awesome but too short (20 minutes). On our way out we noticed that the Sesame Street area was back open, and since we had a few minutes and there were no lines we went on two rides there. Seriously, I was shocked how much we were able to do and see in just three hours! This was probably the best work Christmas party ever!

What a Good Day!

Lincoln has been sick all week and well, at our house if Lincoln aint happy aint nobody happy... especially Mama. Its been a rough week of whining, holding him all day and night, and very little sleep. In fact Tuesday and Wednesday night combined I got a grand total of 6 hours of sleep, half of which was on the couch with Lincoln. Seriously, its almost like having a newborn again, but a newborn that weighs 30 lbs and can run away from you.

Last night I came home from work to find him sound asleep. I was actually in bed by 1:30, and slept until 7 completely uninterrupted! When it was time to take Savannah to school Lincoln actually willingly left the house. Granted he was just wearing underpants and wouldn't get out of the car at the bus stop, but still I didn't have to carry him to the car kicking and screaming. When we got home we laid on the couch together to watch some cartoons, and by 10:30 we were both sleeping. I actually had to wake him up almost 3 hours later to go to his speech therapy! He is now at home playing happily. He has been chatty and fun all afternoon. Its days like today that remind me how much I love him, even if he is a screamy, aggressive, maniac child most of the time.

If You Don't Get A Christmas Card from Me This Year...

Its because nobody wants to cooperate with me. Plan A was to do a family picture. Jesse said not to schedule an appointment with a crappy studio, that he would talk to someone from work about taking them for us. Well its been a month, and he still hasn't even talked to them, so that plan was out.

Plan B was to take the kids to the beach and do a picture with them building a snowman out of snow. But since Savannah gets out of school at 4, and its dark by 4:30 that only leaves this plan open on weekends and I've worked every Saturday and Sunday for the past 2 months.

Plan C was to get a cute picture of the kids in matching Christmas jammies in front of the Christmas tree. I went out this week, and after calling every Gymboree in San Diego finally decided that I was just going to have to squeeze Savannah into a size small, picked them up, go the kids all ready this morning and they were horrible. This is the only shot I got with Lincoln even it it.

So I made a plan D. We were going to see Santa today, so I figured I could stick that picture on a card. Well I didn't get a cute picture of my kids sitting on Santa's lap. I didn't even get a funny "My kids are scared of Santa," picture. I got the "So what, who cares," version of the Santa picture. In fact, I took 3 pictures and this is the most enthusiastic of the group.

So if you don't get a card from me this year, trust me it wasn't for lack of trying.

An Inspiration Mom Needs Our Help with an Inspirational Goal

I have a friend named Bianca. She is an amazing person, and an amazing mom. She has three beautiful daughters, the youngest, Linden, was born last year with Down Syndrome and a heart defect. Bianca is an inspiration to me because she is one of the strongest moms I know, and she is about my age. About a week ago, I was reading her blog, and she posted that she wanted to raise twenty thousand dollars by Christmas to donate to Reece's Rainbow, an orphanage for special needs children.

I was instantly touched by her goal. She is, in my opinion, someone who would be justified in thinking that she has enough on her plate just focusing her time and efforts on her family but she is taking the time and asking her friends to help her help others. I was inspired by her, and immediately sent her what I could, but she needs lots of help if she is going to raise $20,000. That's a lot of money! So I challenge all of my friends to at least read her blog, then if you are willing to help, give what you can. Give $1. Give $5. Every little bit helps these children.

This is her blog:

http://joeandbianca.blogspot.com/