Christmas in Edwardsville

On New Year's Day we traveled to Edwardsville to celebrate the holidays with Grammy (Kim) and Grandpa Brett. Here is Ethan helping Grandpa Brett open the present that Ethan picked out for him. It was a small basketball to hold change. Ethan was once again so proud of this gift!

Grammy holding "Catty-Cat" that Olivia selected (and named) for her from the holiday store. Olivia picked this just for Grammy to go in her room of stuffed animals (for the grandkids).

One of Ethan's presents was literally taller than him! (an art desk)

Olivia holding her mosaic tile art project.

A guitar from Uncle Brennan - very appropriate!

Uncle Matt (visiting from California), Joe, Olivia, and (when he felt like it) Ethan playing Wii after lunch. The kids highly recommend Toy Story Mania!

Ethan and Grammy.

Olivia and Grandpa Brett.

Uncle Matt with Ethan and Olivia. I know that Ethan's face is a bit blurry, but this was the only picture of the three of them with Ethan's face actually in it. After this picture, he buried his head in the chair and only wanted me to take a picture of his bottom, not his face. Isn't he too young for this type of humor??

New Year's Eve Fun

We spent a fun New Year's Eve morning sledding with good friends Dominic and Michael and mom Kara. As shocking as it may seem, my kids had never actually been sledding! We have just pulled them on the sled, but never down a hill (of any significant size). Time to fix that! Olivia absolutely loved sledding, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise since she loves water slides and the concept is the same. Ethan was a good sport and went down the hill two times before deciding that sledding was not his thing.

Here is Olivia after her first time down. We went to a hill in Washington Park, and had the entire place to ourselves for the majority of our time.

Ethan (with Kara keeping him steady) ready for his first trip down.

Olivia, Dominic, and Ethan all did great jobs pulling the sleds to the top themselves.

Ethan decided that snowball fights are more fun than sledding.

Snowball fight! Being the good mom that I am, I accidentally got Ethan right in the face with a snowball. That was a bit traumatic for him, but he recovered nicely.

Olivia at the end of sledding time. Quite the pink cheeks!

Our New Year's Eve was very low key. Some silly hats and noise makers. Homemade risotto and chocolate souffle. Sparkling cider. Watching one last Christmas movie. The main excitement was when I burned my hand on the souffle pan. I had just taken it out of a 400* oven, and without thinking I grabbed the handle with my bare hand. I have four blisters on my right hand (one of which is the size of a quarter!) and I continue to wrap it due to the raw skin. So, instead of sipping champagne in front of a fire, Joe had to wash all of the dishes and make a run to Walgreens for some cream. My resolution is to make smarter decisions in the future!

Cheers!

Winter Break Fun

We are trying to keep the kids from going stir-crazy during the holiday break. Here are a few of the activities we have done:

The day after Christmas we received a nice 3" of snow. Here we are playing in the early stages of the snowfall. The kids loved that the sled was extra fast when wet with snow and while wearing snowpants!

Driving Santa's sleigh!

Snow Angels!

This week we went with a large group of friends to the Decatur Children's Museum. Here are Olivia and Ethan with friend Marina in the bubble room.

Marina, Ethan, Olivia, Ava, and Kaleb in the water area. Sleeves were definitely wet after this!

Olivia and Marina (a friend from her school) LOVED this area. They were very proud of the faces they created, and later moved on to making full body sculptures!

Marina, Ava, and Olivia in the climbing tower.

Ethan, Kaleb, and friend Jack (in red) really loved the car area.

Olivia, Ethan, and friends reporting the news.

Julia, Olivia, Marina, and Sydney waiting for the Polar Express show to begin.

Sydney, Julia, and Ethan playing Post Office.

Christmas 2009

Ahh, another Christmas has come, wrecked havoc upon my house, and gone. We are left with an entire toy store of new toys to find places for in the house and lots of leftover Christmas candy. This year we celebrated Christmas at our house with my side of the family. We had 10 people total, which made for a very loud, fun, crazy holiday!

On Christmas Eve, the first event was cookie decorating. Ethan had a great time decorating (only with the blue frosting as that is his favorite color) and then promptly eating the end result. The sugar high started early in the day for him!

Olivia decorating her cookies. Aunt Rachel made her pink and purple frosting as those are Olivia's favorite colors. I'll explain her outfit later!

Mmmm, frosting!

Merry Christmas from the Baimas! Yep, this is the best family picture we were able to take this year. Not too eager to frame this one. And, yep, that is a mountain of presents in the background. Not all are for the kids, though. Remember we had 10 people!

Cheese!

OK, the outfit. After our traditional candle light and champagne Christmas Eve dinner, Olivia and Ethan put on a play that they had worked on through the afternoon. It is titled "Sacagawea (Olivia) Fights Captain Hook (Ethan) to Save the Christmas Animal Friends". This is Olivia lining up her animal friends now, and narrating the story. Ethan was more eager to participate during practice, and seemed to lose interest once it was show time. Olivia's imagination impresses me everyday.

We allowed each kid to open one present on Christmas Eve. Here is Olivia's reaction to her Three Muskateers Barbie. She loves that the Barbie has a mask/crown and a sword.

Preparing the milk and pop tart for Santa. I guess he is tired of cookies this year. Ethan was in charge of the carrot for Rudolph.

Christmas morning. The kids must have been good this year as Santa made a stop at our house. Here are the gifts this year - a very elaborate Disney castle for Olivia (found during our Disney vacation in October and shipped back home) and a Woody and Buzz doll set for Ethan.

Ethan with his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from Santa.

Did I mention that there were a lot of presents to open on Christmas Day? This year, however, Olivia did not become overwhelmed. Two years ago Olivia completely shut down halfway through opening presents, said "Santa brought me too many presents" and refused to open any more until later in the day. That was certainly not an issue for her now!

Each kid went to the Mini O'Bierne Crisis Nursery Holiday Store this year to select presents for various people. Ethan was SO proud that not only did he select presents for us by himself, but he was able to keep Joe's present a secret (he told me my gift in less than a minute). However, as you can see, he gave Joe a CUBS coffee mug. As we all laughed at the humor of it, Ethan became very upset and told us to all stop laughing since it was not funny. So, Joe is now the "proud" owner of a Cubs coffee mug, as Ethan knows that Joe likes to drink coffee in the mornings.

Joe with his gifts from Olivia - a basketball figurine (since he collects figures and bobbleheads) and a transparent flashlight since she thought he needed one.

My picture with the kiddos. Ethan gave me CUBS sunglasses (on my head) since I always wear sunglasses in the car. I had to wear them all day and he was so proud of them. He kept pointing to them and telling me that he bought them just for me. Olivia gave me a "beautiful purple feathery" Princess plaque which is hanging in the kitchen.

My parents' dog, Marigold, had to come for Christmas this year as she just had surgery and was confined to her crate. She is such a nice dog and allowed Olivia to dress her up like a princess with a crown and cape and take pictures of her all day.

Olivia and her castle.

It was a long two days, OK? Mmmm, homemade peppermint trifle with white chocolate mousse!

Ethan loves this guitar, even if Santa did bring it for Olivia. He claims he "rocks out" on it.

Drumroll Please...The Study is Done!

THE STUDY...BEFORE

This is what Joe's study looked like for the first 18 months of living in our house. A single desk, chair, file cabinet, and more boxes than you want to know about. All of the boxes are filled with books. We knew exactly what we wanted to do with the room, and we knew that we wanted it to be one of the first rooms redesigned. So, we intentionally left the room like this to constantly remind us to not procrastinate on getting the room done!

THE STUDY....AFTER

Ahhh, now this is a study. We hired Woodhaven Woodworks, and they did a FANTASTIC job. We handed Todd a piece of paper with a rough design scribbled on it, and he turned it into a reality. The walls are painted a burnt orange in honor of the Illini, and the granite we found is blue and orange! Who knew that that was a naturally occurring granite color? Other than those two nods to the Illini, however, the remainder of the room belongs to Joe's true obsession....Star Wars. We actually had the wall unit built around Joe's two helmets - Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Then we had the corner hutch added to house Joe's FIVE light sabers, and the unit above the desk has the thermal detonator and Jedi training remote. And, as Joe has pointed out, there is room to add more memorabilia. The only loose ends to tie up with this room is for Joe's leather chair to arrive and to install a TV on the wall above the computer.

More Christmas Fun

Olivia's last day of kindergarten before winter break was on Friday. As room parent, I helped chaperone her winter party. Here her class receives an unexpected visit from Santa!

Olivia and friends Abbey and Audrey waiting in the gym for games to begin.

Olivia playing "Santa's Helper" and attempting to fill the stocking with presents.

Yesterday was Olivia's Sunday School Christmas program. We are now members of St. John's Lutheran Church (an ELCA synod). We made the change from Catholic to Lutheran in October. Here are some pre-program pictures in their Christmas finest! And, to clarify, not all of the presents you see are for the kids, and not all of the presents were bought by me! I know it is a lot of gifts!

This picture was taken by Olivia. She is becoming quite the photographer!

Grandma and Ethan waiting for Olivia's program to begin.

Olivia waving to Joe before the kindergarten's piece (there are more kids in her class, I just couldn't angle the camera to fit them all in!). Olivia had to memorize 3 lines and sing the song "Away in a Manger". She did an excellent job!

After Olivia's program, we then jumped in the car and raced the 2 1/2 hours to Pinckneyville for a family Christmas party. After eating lunch, the family plays a present exchange game. Each person brings a $10 gag gift, puts them into a pile, draws a number, and then either selects a present or steals one from someone else. This continues until the last gift is taken from the pile. Here is one gift that Ethan selected before it was "stolen" from him.

Thomas "won" the gift that Joe brought - a Snuggie!

More present opening. Renee won an Elvis guitar filled with very stale popcorn! Olivia immediately took over that gift and it is now sitting in our basement. I'm sure mom is heartbroken about it.

Olivia helping great grandma Mildred open her gifts.

Olivia, Ethan, and great grandma.

Christmas Festivities

Christmas holidays are always a blur of activities - especially with young kids! Here are some of those activities that have kept us so busy lately.

During the week of Thanksgiving, we always make a point of stopping in at the Festival of Trees. This is a wonderful event with dozens of beautifully decorated trees, a train, yummy gingerbread cookies, Santa, and crafts for the kids. Ethan insisted that this was his favorite tree of the entire exhibit and insisted on having his picture taken with it. We have no idea why this one is his favorite as there were so many little kid friendly trees decorated with games or in a movie theme!

Olivia posing by the Grinch exhibit. Both kids LOVE that movie and will routinely sing the songs from the show (although their version is a bit funnier!).

The black Star Wars Christmas tree has again been decorated. For those of you who do not know the story, Joe has been collecting Star Wars ornaments for about 15 years now. In the past, he would only be able to select a few to display so that there would be room for the rest of the ornaments. Now that we have more living space, we dedicate an entire (black!) tree to his collection. This year the showpiece is the Yoda tree-topper complete with a lighted lightsaber.

Did I mention that Joe loves Star Wars?

Now on to decorating the real tree. This one is in our front room and has the rest of the ornaments on display. Here are the kids hanging the first ornaments. We have observed that Ethan certainly had a favorite hanging spot on the tree as there are about 15 ornaments hanging from 3 branches.

The Santa hat tree topper. Joe and I started that tradition when we were first married (11 years ago!) as we did not have a star/angel/other topper. We always said the hat would be temporary, but I think I now need to realize that it is a tradition.

More ornaments!

After all decorating is done, the gingerbread house becomes a priority. We learned this year to assemble the house earlier in the day so that it has a chance to harden in time for the kids to decorate. Last year the house did not hold together so well!

Olivia took this picture. Her skills are definitely improving, as long as she aims first, and THEN you position yourself within the frame.

The two gingerbread artists.

What to do on a very very cold, snowy, icy, windy night? Go to the mall! No lines! Here are the kids visiting Santa. Olivia had quite a few items to tell him about from her list, and Ethan was able to remember some toys, too (even if Santa couldn't quite understand him!). I wonder how much longer Olivia will believe in Santa? I am thinking that the end is near for this belief. She asked Joe earlier in December if Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Great Pumpkin are in fact real. She was satisfied with the answer of the first 2 being real, but the last was made up for a television show!

The Christmas train at the mall. Since there were no lines, the kids were able to take a much longer than usual turn on this!

This past Saturday we also hosted a Christmas party for 60+ friends. The house was a complete mess of toys, but that is a small price to pay for the great time we had! Here is Olivia and some of her closest friends making crafts.

Just a small glimpse of the chaos. This was after starting some holiday shows for the kids, so they had begun to settle down some.

Catch Up Post

So much happens in the weeks after Halloween, so updating the blog took a backseat to the festivities! This will be an attempt to catch up on some little things we have been doing.

Olivia and Ethan being very snuggly with each other one morning. Those two really do complement each other...Ethan is such a boy and very opinionated and Olivia is a very accommodating, go with the flow big sister to him.

I loved Lite Brite as a child. It is so nice to see Olivia playing with hers!

We attended a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stage event in early November. The kids had a great time, even though the show was not the best Disney production we have seen. This is a pretty neat shot of Olivia through her souvenir that she selected at the show.

Ethan and Olivia posing on stage after the show had finished. After the show, a swarm of kids started climbing onto the stage to get their pictures taken with the props. I guess we didn't think anything of it until security guards came rushing down (after 10 minutes!) to tell people to get down.

Ethan finger painting with Cool Whip.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Olivia's class held a Thanksgiving lunchtime show. They recited a poem and sang a song while dressed in costumes that they had designed. Olivia selected a Native American outfit, while her girlfriends in this picture had dressed as a Pilgrim. The girl on the right side of the picture is Olivia's best friend Abby.

Thanksgiving at my parent's house. The pre-feast ritual...eat food.

The anytime ritual...be silly with Uncle Thomas. Ethan adores Uncle Thomas. Basically, if you are willing to run around like crazy and be silly, Ethan will stay by your side all day!

Thanksgiving with Joe's entire family. Here the kids are playing Holiday Bingo that great aunt Kelli printed off of the computer. The only problem was that each kid had the same card! So, there was a large simultaneous shout of "bingo!"

Olivia, the girl of many talents.

All kids love boxes of any type!

Halloween 2009

Halloween has come and gone and now Christmas is right around the corner. With kids, Halloween is much more than just one day. The entire month seems to be full of Halloween activities for the kids, which is great since then they are able to show off their costume more than once!

First up for us on Halloween weekend was carving the pumpkins. Olivia and Ethan were quite the helpers this year, although neither kid enjoyed scooping out the pumpkin "guts".

Ethan designed his pumpkin all by himself, including drawing the eyes on the pumpkin and instructing Joe on how to carve the nose/mouth/ears. For those of you who do not know Ethan very well, he is, let's say, opinionated. Joe did a good job carving a "happy scary mouth" according to Ethan's specifications.

Olivia drew her pumpkin face completely by herself and LOVED the result once Joe carved it. I think she took a cue from Picasso.

The kids and their finished results.

I volunteered to be a room parent for Olivia's kindergarten class this year, so I assisted with their fall party. Here is Olivia and friends sitting at their assigned table eating treats.

The kids then moved into the gym to play many fun games. Here is Olivia attempting to ring a pumpkin. Ethan loved being a part of the "big kid party" and did a very good job waiting for his turn at all of the games.

Olivia and friends playing the "waiter game" by walking with a balloon on a plate.

On the morning of Halloween we went to the Farmer's Market Halloween event (I am so going to miss my biweekly trips to the Farmer's Market!). The kids met Clifford and made many fun crafts.

Both kids also participated in the Halloween "parade" at the Farmer's Market. The kids are put into age groups and show off their costume to the crowd and to a panel of judges. The homemade costumes are always wonderful.

Halloween night! Ethan/Spiderman is ready to go trick or treating! I will miss him shouting "WEBS!" and then attempting to hold his hand in the correct Spiderman web shooting position every time he wore this costume. It was so cute to watch him work on getting his hand just right.

Olivia/Medusa showing off her costume. What 5 year old selects Medusa? She picked this costume by herself. I even waited one week to order it since I thought for sure she would change her mind. Olivia was even able to explain just who Medusa was, who killed her and how. She claims that she learned it from both Disney's Hercules movie and from a Backyardigan's episode. It was a great costume! I can't wait to see what she selects next year!

Silly faces!

Lighting the pumpkins before the kids and Joe set off for candy. I am the one who stays at home to answer the door. Someone needs to hand out the candy!

The kids and their loot. The rule is on Halloween night they can each eat as much as they want (which actually was not as much as one would think). Then they get 4 pieces per day until it is gone. Worked last year and seems to be a happy compromise thus far this year.

Aren't You a Little Short for a Storm Trooper?

Well, I guess I get to do this one (Joe). While Olivia, Kate, and Renee had their Princess Tea Party Day, Ethan, Jerome, and Joe went back to Hollywood Studios to watch the Jedi Training Academy show and spend some time. Thanks to our awesome connection, they got to have a personal meet and greet with some characters. While Ethan was pretty excited, the big kid got had a dream day and got to meet Darth Vader for a second time...the first being his fourth or fifth birthday party.

The Dark Side

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

All too easy. You will notice that the lightsaber Joe is holding is autographed. A gift from Lord Vader.

The Jedi and Sith put aside their differences for a picture.

Ethan battles the Empire.

Hollywood Studios is also home to Pixar. Here is Ethan meeting Buzz and Woody. He was pretty excited about this.

Ethan and Lightning McQueen.

Ethan really wanted to see what Mater had in his mouth. Guess Joe was equally curious.

The Green Army Man. Ethan was scared of these guys the first day through Hollywood Studios, but he couldn't wait to meet him the next time we saw him.

Of course what trip to Tatooine Traders would be complete without the family Star Wars photo. For the non-Star Wars inclined, Joe is Anakin, Kate is Padme (the parents), Ethan is Luke, and Olivia is Leia (their children). Luke pretty much whined throughout Episode IV and V, so we thought this pic appropriate. We just figured Ethan wanted to go into Tosche Station (is it wrong that I know the correct spelling) to pick up some power converters.