Packages!

We came home to a pile of packages on the porch yesterday!

It was a lovely sight!

Today, there were two more delivered!

They are all storage bins that I ordered for the boys' closets.

It's all really exciting stuff!  Seriously!

I've got one of the boys' rooms redone top to bottom and I'm getting ready to move on to the next!  

The most exciting part of the revamp is the closets!  I'm finally getting all the shelves painted white and making sure that everything has a proper home/bin.   Plus, I've added a couple of shelves to Ben's to-do list.  Once he gets those put up, I"m really going to be in love!

Goodbye messy, hodge-podge closets.....Hello sanity!

Ringing in the New Year

It snowed on New Years Eve!

We thought we would have snow on Christmas, but New Years is the next best thing!

Since the streets were bound to be slippery, we decided to stay home for the night.  We played a couple of different games, gambled away some of our quarters, and then introduced the kids to Napoleon Dynamite!

By 10:30, Luke and Ben were out.  Party Poopers!  Henry, Josh, and I stayed up and watched the activities in Times Square.

By the time it was midnight, Josh was too tired to get proper shoes on, so he stayed inside crying, and I was just plain to cold to go outside longer than it took to watch a couple of fireworks and bang my pot a time or two.

Henry was the only really festive one!  

He banged his pot and celebrated in the front yard with the neighbors.  They rewarded him with a New Years hat and some black eyed peas!

 

By New Years morning there was enough snow to shovel AND to go sledding!

After Mass, we all bundled up in our warmest clothes, aired up the snow tubes and headed out!  

We went sledding first.  It was the best sledding we've ever had!

The snow wasn't deep enough that we had to tromp thorough it, but it was iced over a bit so our sleds would speed down!  It was perfect!!

There weren't even any tears from anyone--a first for us--despite the fact that we were all trying to run each other over on our way down the hill!

It was just blissful family fun!

After  sledding we headed to Great Grandmas and then to Gigi's to shovel their drives and sidewalks.

Everyone wanted to help shovel.  Unfortunately we have one really great shovel and one really crummy one.  We need to buy a couple more good ones, so there won't be sad boys after the next snow.

Everyone got a turn, though, and we were even rewarded with hot cocoa at Gigis!

We also decided to reward ourselves with lunch out at a pizza joint!  Delish!

Usually that would be enough fun for one day, but once we got home Josh, Henry and I met some up with some friends at the skating rink--Luke and Ben were too cool to join us!

It was probably against my better judgment to take a broken armed boy roller skating, but we'd already gone sledding, which is just as bad.  Plus, we weren't going to let a broken arm stand in the way of fun!  

(Let's all just say a prayer that it's healed correctly when it finally comes off!)

Once we got home, Ben swept the boys off to a movie to round out our day!  They even got to eat dinner there--quite a treat!  

We kicked the year off right--a jam packed day of fun!  Hopefully it will set the tone for the rest of our year!

"Be Kind" and "Have Fun"--that's the focus for us this year!

Christmas 2012

We made it through another Christmas!

I continually felt behind--more so than usual.  

My Christmas cards got out late, I never managed to get my mantle decorated, and I did the majority of my shopping the week before Christmas, but I wasn't stressed and nothing seemed chaotic, so I'm chalking it up as a successful one!

Henry got the camo compound bow that he had been dreaming about!  He was ecstatic!  He needs to build up some muscle, but he's slowly getting it!  Santa also brought him a pair of chest waders.  He's desperate to  walk into the lake! 

Sadly Josh Oliver did not get the new puppy that he was dreaming of.  Santa agreed with me and told him that we already have two dogs that really need all of our love and attention right now, but he left Josh a bunch of dog treats so that he could try to convince either Maggie or Cooper to be only his dog.  He hasn't had much luck so far!  Maybe if he was more willing to pick up there poop......!  Santa also left him a bunch of art supplies which he totally loves!  

We also gave him a dream light puppy.  I had the worst time trying to track that thing down, but I knew he probably wasn't getting the one thing he really wanted so I had to make sure he got #2 on his list.  He was happy!  He wasn't even too upset about not getting a real puppy!

Other than the whole Santa debacle, this was my very favorite Christmas for Luke.  

This year he decided to buy everyone presents with his own money.  He put so much thought into the things he bought and asked to look over his brothers lists.  He even spent a day just shopping with me--that really was a huge sacrifice for him!

In the end he bought Ben a fancy bluetooth for one of his playstation games, a pretty scarf for me, monster trucks for Josh, and binoculars for Henry.  Out of the $65 he started, he spent all but $5 of it.  

I absolutely love that kid!

Taking all that into account, Santa brought him a Kindle Fire.  He was ecstatic and beyond surprised!  

I'm a big believer in making kids work and save for things like that, but sometimes those kinds of gifts are justifiable--plus I had to easy my guilt about the whole Santa thing!

*     *     *     *     *

Church was really central for us this year, more so than usual, I think.

Luke served a Christmas Eve Mass, Christmas Day Mass, the day after Christmas, and New Years Day Mass.  Plus there was another Sunday Mass in the mix.

It was a lot for Luke, but I loved that it helped us, as a family, keep the focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

That's Not What I Paid For....Is It?

I like my boys' hair short.

Summer is my favorite when they get it buzzed super short!

Unfortunately, we let them go a little to long between hair cuts and they all discovered how fun it is to have hair long enough to spike.

The desperately needed haircuts, but they all refused.

In the spirit of compromise, I offered to let them go to someone other than the Jonker Boy Barber--aka Ben.

Forty five dollars later--that's why it's a special treat!--they all had nice haircuts that they could still spike and style how they wanted.

Three hours later, I was chatting with Ollie and noticed this:

He was super, super mad when he ended the day with a short summer buzz cut.

It will be awhile before he gets anything but a Daddy Special!

The Year I Ruined Christmas

Last year Luke was on the fence about all the Christmas fibs--Santa, the elf....

He would make little comments about how we are the ones that move the elf around the house and other little bits about Santa.

Usually those sorts of things came out when he was feeling a little rotten.  Plus it seemed like his way of getting under his brothers skin while testing the water at the same time--not actually asking the BIG question.

I dealt with it by pointing out that there were other people in the house who actually did believe in all the magic and, although he was welcome to believe or not believe, I would appreciate if he didn't try to ruin the fun for the rest of us.

It worked.  

He stopped making comments, I didn't lie to him, and he seemed to believe more than he didn't by the time Christmas was through.

About two weeks ago, Luke started in on it again.  

I'd already told myself that this was probably going to be the year that he stopped believing.  He was already on the fence, plus a lot of the other moms said that their 4th graders already knew.  I was prepared to have a sit-down with him.

As soon as we dropped the other two off at school, I laid it all out for him.  The elf, Santa, everything.  

He said that he already kind of knew.  I felt good about our chat--a little sad but excited to have a helper and someone to scheme with! 

Later that day, I went to check the mantle where Henry left notes for elf to take to Santa.  What I found were two notes from Henry and one from Lucas.

My heart immediately broke.

I realized that I completely jumped the gun. 

I worried all day.  I went to work before he got out of school so the first chance I had to talk to him was in the middle of the night when I got home.  

I woke him up and told him how sorry I was that I spoiled everything for him.  He told me that he was a little sad about it, but excited to help.  It was a dagger straight through my heart.

I cried--a lot.

I probably could have gotten away with just telling him that we move the elf.  Anytime that he questioned Santa it was just thrown in at the end of his "Mom and Dad move the elf" bit.  I don't think that he made it far enough into really questioning Santa.

I should have never doubted his belief in Santa.  I do an excellent job at it!  

I never give anything, not even candy, that can be directly linked to a store.  Everything is generic or gets reworked and repackaged so it looks generic.  If anything's ever questioned I say that the stores must have gotten the idea from Santa!   

Luckily Henry and Josh believe in all of it with every fiber of their being--especially Henry.  

After what happened with Luke, I may never tell them.  They are going to have to learn it the hard way, and even then, I'll deny that it's true!

Henry's Wishlist

Our elf, Elmer Sam, showed up at our house yesterday.

The kids have been anxiously waiting for him since Thanksgiving.  (Well not Luke because he thinks he's "creepy"!)

The other two, though, love to search him out!

Their favorite was when they found him in the fridge!

One time when Henry was about 3 or 4, Elmer Sam was hiding on the shelf in his closet and Henry shot him with a nerf gun and he fell to the ground.  I don't really know if it was on accident or on purpose, but Henry came tearing out of his room screaming bloody murder.  He was terrified!

I had to go in and talk to the elf, make sure he was okay, and tell him how sorry Henry was.  Luckily, he flew back up to his place on the shelf and there were no hard feelings.

The boys love to talk about the time that "Henry shot the elf"!

Anyway, last night, Henry left him a note to take back to Santa.  (Elmer Sam forgot it last night, but he's taking it with him tonight.)

All Henry wants is a camo bow.

It may not be from the North Pole, but he's going to be over the moon when he opens his present from Gigi, and Grandpa John!!

The Jester

Gigi took an unconventional route with Josh Oliver’s Halloween costume this year—she made it first and  then convinced him wear it.

It was exactly the best strategy!

He really wanted to be a puppy, but I got to her before he did.  After two years of full fleece turtle costumes, I have forbid her from making anything that involves the dreaded material—it’s a nightmare in a house of dogs!

She instead made him a Jester costume.

He wasn’t the least bit excited when he first saw it.  It took a lot of convincing, plus a matching outfit for his stuffed dinosaur, before he would even consider wearing it.  Even then, he was really on the fence.

If anyone asked him what he was going to be, he would tell them that his Grandma and Grandpa were making him be a Jester.  (How sad that he has such bullies for Grandparents!)

When we actually got to Halloween, though, he was really happy with his costume.  He got so many compliments on it—way more than he would have as a puppy!  

Even Henry noticed how people gushed over it.  I told him that apparently next year he needed to let Grandpa and Gigi pick out his costume for him if he wanted to be a crowd favorite! 

As for the other boys….

Henry went as a vampire.  Gigi made his costume, too.  It was really cute, but it’s hard to stand out as a vampire.  Plus, he ditched part of his outfit which would have probably gotten him a few more compliments.

Luke made his own again this year—a zombie.  I’m pretty sure he picked it because it was a good excuse to rip up some clothes!  He looked good, though, and as a bonus, he fit in perfect to work an impromptu spot in the haunted playground at church!