little sickies

We've been pretty sick here. Maddie and Caleb have had a long-running virus with fevers and coughs. Early on Caleb woke up from a nap with croup. Two days ago Maddie's fever spiked briefly to 104.8! A bath brought it right down, fortunately. Braden's been mostly fine, aside from feeling crummy and tired for several days. We're not sure if he's coming down with this or if it's just from being up with the kids multiple times every night for the past 6 nights. I'm feeling better now, but I have had a low-grade version of what the kids have had. However, I think we are finally on the mend--last night everyone slept through the night for the first time in a week! I think Mommy and Daddy woke up more refreshed than the kids. :)

You know your kids are sick when:
-Your child is watching a movie, it ends, and you walk in sometime later only to find her still laying on the couch and staring blankly at an empty tv screen.
-Your chubby boy starts looking skinny.
-Your little cracker-lover takes one bite of a cracker and then hands you the rest saying, "I'm all done."
-Your toddler starts asking "temp-chur?" because he wants to have his temperature taken.
-Your son is wearing his sister's jeans because you can't find a clean pair of his from among the mounds of laundry.

We're glad to be getting better!

some bobe-isms

fingerpainting

dog: Co-Co
horse: neigh-neigh
bread, bread & butter, pbj: bebuh
bottle: bahble
may I?: beeaye beeaye
salt, pepper, parmesan cheese (anything you sprinkle): sot
computer game: game-uh or soccuhs (it's a soccer game)
favorite word: whoa!

'WHOA!!!' comes out of Caleb all the time. Caleb's new favorite song is 'soopah' (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). After he listens to it and dances and the song ends, he always says, 'Whoa!!!' He'll also say 'whoa' if there's a loud noise, something drops, we stop the car a little too suddenly, or he's really excited about something.

qotd

I asked Maddie if she had gone potty and she replied,
Twinkle twinkle, there it went...in the potty. Yep, I did it.

li'l bobe speech

Caleb is really talking these days--full sentences now. This morning he said,
'Mommy, I see a big truck!'
and
'I want to sit on the couch with the pillow.'

Of course it sounded more like,
'Mommy, Ah see ah bee chuk.'
and
'Ahwahsih ah cosh wih piwohwoh.'

Yes, he needs his mommy to translate. Li'l Bobe is also using descriptive words like 'cold' and 'heavy'.

Caleb is still learning that 'no' is not the answer to everything. I must have a conversation like this with Caleb 20 times a day:
'Mommy, ah done. I wan mo uuummmm...'
'Would you like some more bebuh?' (bread w/ pbj)
'Nooo.'
'If you want more bebuh you say YES. Say YES if you want more bebuh.'
'Esss.'

Or a better example might be:
Screeching and grunting.
'Caleb, are you all done?'
'Noooo.'
'Do you want more food?'
'Noooo.'
'Do you want to get out of your highchair?'
'Noooo.'
And so on it goes until you tell him to say YES if he wants such and such and you finally hit upon the right thing!

bobe's first joke

Caleb told his first joke this morning. I wonder if this is telling of his personality to come. :)

I was changing his diaper and getting him dressed and ready to go to Nonna's house. I said, "Caleb, what are you going to do at Nonna's house?"
"Uuuuuumm, Co-Co!"
"Co-Co's not at Nonna's house. Co-Co is at Bubbie's house. What are you going to do at Nonna's house?"
"Uuuuuumm, Co-co!" (silly laughing)
"Are you being silly?"
Silly laughing.
"What are you going to do at Nonna's house?"
"Uuuuuumm, Co-co!" (silly laughing)
And so it went on about 10 times, back and forth. Caleb thought that 'joke' was just about the funniest thing.

new years day

We started our day with gingerbread pancakes, made by Daddy.

We went to my parents' for the New Years meal. My uncle Pat and Marissa and the kids were there with us, along with my grandparents. We had a great southern meal of ham, black-eyed peas (homegrown from Marissa's parents' garden), cornbread, sweet potatoes, grits casserole, cabbage, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting. It was good!

I like this picture--Marissa's giving Maddie a big tickle.

And FINALLY, way late in the season, we made our Yamilies. We normally do this every Thanksgiving, but we kept forgetting/running out of time. This year they were the New Years Yamilies.
Every year there's a theme that emerges--this year it was western/country.
Hot Tamale Braden

Christy, the country bumpkin artist

Cowboy Caleb
(he's very into 'neigh-neighs' right now)
Down-home cookin' Maddie
(Maddie primarily did this herself this year)And here we are together, one happy Yamily Family.

and catchin' up again

Christmas Day:
At my parents' for breakfast...

This was Maddie's favorite gift--her own little Co-Co. The doggy's leash has a remote on it so Maddie can make it bark or walk. Maddie promptly named her doggy 'Statch.'

This was a fun gift. Both my dad and Dave are Civil War buffs. For Dave's birthday (the day before) we had given him these Civil War books. Once Dave had opened his gift, you could tell my dad was really hoping we had remembered him on Christmas--of course we did!

On to Braden's family...

Pop-Pop reading from Luke 2

Gair playing with MaddieGranny being 'Granny' with her Christmas bows

Caleb taking after her

Caleb's big truck. Braden was so excited to get this big old truck for his son.

Favorite gifts--Maddie got a set of watercolors. She sat down and painted for an hour, painting half the pictures in her book.
Granny gave Caleb this Noah's ark set. When Caleb was tearing off the paper, something on the box caught his eye and he started jumping up and down and squealing. It was hilarious! He could not contain himself.

After Christmas dinner, back to my family for dessert...

The guys...hmmm, not the best, and where's Uncle Pat?
(Caleb was asleep)

This one's a little better--all the girls.

and still more catchin' up

Dave's Birthday...

We had a lot of fun with Jess & Dave in town. We celebrated Dave's birthday with some good German food, which he enjoys.

Here's his cake--the top layer of their wedding cake from last November.

While we girls were cooking upstairs, Dave & Braden played Go Fish with Maddie downstairs, and Caleb was his busy little self.

As you can see it made Dave's birthday to win at Go Fish.

Some of the yummy food we had...
brats

stuffed mushrooms

potato pancakes

Braden's traditional rendition of Happy Birthday.

Blow, Dave, blow!

This picture cracks me up.

sleepy boy

Jess, you look gorgeous.

Time to make ambrosia for Christmas Morning! (Amy, I was thinking about you and wondering if you had made ambrosia yet this season.)

still catchin' up

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! ...

So, here's our Christmas tree... the second one. The first one we bought turned out to be a dud. We returned it and got a new one. It was quite a story and quite a hassle, but we ended up paying less for the second tree because it was mis-marked. So when all was said and done we got $15 back for all the hassle. But our new tree proved to be somewhat crooked and bumpy. But it was a full 10-footer, which was fun to have in the house.

And here are our annual ornaments...

2001- just barely dating, from a Christmas party

2002- just married, a wedding gift

2003- just home from Ireland

2004- newborn Maddie, a gift (it's hard to tell but 'Maddie' is in my arms)

2005- Bray put this in my stocking

2006- living with my parents while renovating our new home
(we still need to put in a photo!)

2007- we bought this while Christmas shopping
oops! I just realized I don't have a pic--I'll have to fix that later.

the gingerbread house Maddie and I made at a party

lanterns and greenery on the mantle
the gorgeous nativity my grandmother gave us when we got married

Christmas catch-up!

Well here I am playing catch-up! It's the new year but I need to finish the old...quickly. Here we go! Somewhere in there before Christmas we had our first snow, one of those nice pretty ones that don't really mess up the roads but cover everything in soft pretty white. Here are the kiddos stuffed into my cousins' old snowsuits and ready to go.

There they go! It was Caleb's first time playing in the snow and he loved it.

And of course he had to taste the snow.

And then here's a sweet picture I caught one day, Caleb giving Maddie a smooch.

More to come! ...