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.