Monday, December 20, 2010

Bell Choir

At church yesterday the children's bell choir performed a few Christmas songs. Because of the layout in the room where we have Connection (the service we attend), the kids had to stand in the very front with their backs to the audience. Because of that I was unable to get any pictures of Malachi. So I stole the following pictures off a friend's Facebook page to show you how Malachi did while performing in the main sanctuary!
Malachi is not in this first picture, but I absolutely love the looks on Lucas' and Isaac's faces!
As you can see, Malachi is pretty serious about playing his bell. When GranMols complimented him on doing such a good job he told her that he "actually made two mistakes!" Perfectionist?
Because of where I was sitting, I was unable to see Malachi playing at all. Erik, being the wonderful husband he is, knew how disappointing this would be for me and decided to sneak up to the stage and try to catch a little video for me. It isn't great (Erik had to squeeze behind the drum set and video from there!) but you can see Malachi playing a little!
The bell choir will be performing one more time at the 5:00 service on Christmas Eve. Malachi would love for you to join us!

Introducing...

Walker Edward Throne, who entered the world yesterday, December 19th at 5:32 PM, weighing 9 pounds and measuring 21.75 inches. Congrats to Kelsey, Mike, Grace and Liza!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Advent Calendar Notes

As it turns out, Malachi likes the days on the Advent calendar that have notes in them more than those that have small gifts. That makes me pretty happy for at least a couple of reasons. #1 - Notes are (usually) cheaper than little gifts, even though the gifts are mostly things I would get for him anyways, i.e. glue sticks, pencils, gum, etc. #2 - Notes mean that we will do something special together.

The pictures from our snow day are one example of a note he received. It said that he was to call GranMols and Papaw and invite them to have breakfast with him. He thought that was one of the best things ever! He chose the menu - cinnamon toast, scrambled eggs, grapefruit and fresh squeezed orange juice - and helped me prepare everything. While I was teaching him to crack eggs (I was the one who dropped an egg on the floor, not Malachi!) he even thanked me for "teaching him how to do all this fun stuff." Ahh, I live for those moments!
This week Malachi had a note that told him we were going to build a gingerbread house together. I must admit that I was a little excited about this one. Mom, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this was my first gingerbread house too! I wasn't brave enough to bake the whole thing, so I cheated and bought a kit which turned out to be a good idea. His attention span was barely long enough to finish it as it was! Here are some pictures of our creation:

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Snow, Snow and More Snow!

That's what the weather around here has been like for the past couple weeks. Malachi is loving all the snow. In fact, every night he's prayed that God will make it snow more! Hmm...
Well, we finally spent a half hour bundling up the other day so he could play outside. GranMols was nice enough to come over to play with him while I stayed in with Elliott.
But this is what Elliott did the whole time:Along with whining, of course. He wanted to play too! So...
As soon as Elliott was outside, Malachi decided he was cold and wanted to go in. Elliott didn't care though. He didn't even mind that he can't walk yet! He had a blast crawling all over the deck and yard and cried when I finally made him come back inside!

This morning it's snowing again. Our road is completely covered and I doubt the other roads are much better, at least right now. I think I'd better get creative and think up a new note to slip in the Advent calendar before Malachi gets up because our trip to see Santa may get cancelled for today!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Break Dancing and Other Moves

I was trying to get a better video of Elliott's newest trick - break dancing - but decided to go ahead and put this one up per Kelsey's request. Since she is now ONE WEEK overdue I figured she needed something to brighten her day. And, who knows? Maybe she'll laugh enough that the little booger will decide to come out and play with his/her cousins!!

Here's another short video of him. It's funniest when he really gets going fast, but unfortunately I haven't caught that on film yet!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

AHA!

This Tuesday the boys and I went to the AHA! children's museum in Lancaster with friends from our Mommy and Me life group. I've been wanting to take the boys for a while now and hadn't gotten around to it yet. As soon as we entered all five kids scattered excitedly and I think it's safe to say that everyone had a great time.

Here's the whole group. This trip was the finale to our semester of life group meetings and I am already excited about getting together again soon!
Although Elliott liked the baby area, I think he preferred the other activities.
For example, the sand table. He was really excited here!
Or the water area. Don't let that smock fool you - he was soaked after playing here for just a few minutes!
Elliott and Ally played together for a minute or so...then Elliott decided he was hungry and tried to eat the wooden beads.
Malachi liked climbing in the honeycomb. He also found a pet snake to twist through all the openings.
He also liked the water area. Luckily he didn't end up quite as wet as his brother!
Malachi and Rinne both liked the Ball Mountain.
Ahh, this picture melts my heart. What happened to my little boy?
Near the end of our visit all five kids happened to be in the same area at once. I'm pretty sure this is the only time it happened and it lasted less than a minute!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Poor Elliott!

Jessica commented on my earlier post about Austin and Whitney that they don't always treat each other as well as they treat their cousins. SIBLINGS! Well, here's my evidence that the same goes for our boys.

Poor Elliott. He'd better learn to walk. Soon!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Family Week - Picture Time!

While we were together I tried to take a couple pictures of the cousins together:

Take 1: Malachi, LOOK HERE!

Take 2: My favorite. Whitney's mouth is open, but cute.
Take 3: Not bad, so let's quit while we're ahead (and before tears!).

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Family Week - Silly String War

When we were getting all of our groceries to prepare for everyone being here Malachi discovered Silly String. At that point he didn't understand what it was but something about it enticed him and he talked me into buying some for him, Austin and Whitney. He couldn't wait to try it out and I think all three of them enjoyed their Silly String war!
Austin and Whitney - are you ready for round 2 at Christmas? Malachi's already excited!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Family Week - Austin and Whitney

One of my absolute favorite parts of having everyone together at our house over Thanksgiving was watching the cousins play together. Austin is 12 1/2 and Whitney is 10, so it would be very easy for them to be annoyed by their little cousins (Malachi is 4 1/2 and Elliott is 1). But, let me just brag on my nephew and niece a little - they are amazing with little kids!

Austin really liked playing with Elliott...even when Elliott was trying to body slam him and wrestle!
He also made a new buddy on Thursday, Adeline, who played with him almost the entire evening!
Whitney was a big helper with Elliott. She would get him up from naps, change his clothes (I can't remember if she tackled any dirty diapers or not!), play with him and feed him as often as she was able.
And Malachi was practically attached to her hip the entire time!

Austin and Whitney - thank you for being such awesome big cousins! The boys can't wait to see you again in a few weeks!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Family Week - Birthday Celebrations

For some reason I've had too much going on lately (surprised?) and I got ahead of myself with my posts. So, to correct things a bit, this week's posts will go back a couple weeks to Thanksgiving week. Erik's parents (Yaya and 'Buelo to the boys), sister (Aunt Jessica) and her family (Uncle Mike, Austin and Whitney) all made the trip to Ohio to celebrate with us. This was our 2nd annual Thanksgiving in Ohio together - and we all had a wonderful time.

To kick the celebrations off, we had a late birthday celebration for Elliott (November 4th) and Whitney (November 8th) when they all arrived on Wednesday evening. I think Whitney enjoyed her special decorations and Elliott enjoyed the extra attention!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

My Latest Project

I've always loved Advent calendars and have been looking for one for our family for the past few years but hadn't found one that I really liked. Then I saw this one in my Pottery Barn Kids catalogue this year. I really liked it but was not about to spend $69 to get it!
So, I made my own version of it!
It only cost about $14 and 4 hours to make, and I loved every minute of it - especially those when the boys were either asleep or playing with their daddy!

As if the satisfaction of being creative and crafty wasn't already enough, you should have seen Malachi's excitement when I explained to him how it all works! Now I just have to fill in the rest of the empty pockets!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Our Christmas Tree

We are all decorated for Christmas! Malachi really wanted to take a picture of our tree, so here's his picture:The lights are my job - gotta have as many as possible!Malachi was excited about the "new" toys.Erik and Malachi hung most of the ornaments. It's safe to safe the tree is a bit bottom-heavy!
New pajamas is one of my favorite traditions.
The boys are already so excited for this Christmas, which makes me that much more so!