Our Christmas Season...

So you have already seen our Santa picture. Now come look at the rest of our Christmas activities.

Christmas this year was really a blast because Lorelei was really into it. Despite her reaction to sitting on Santa's lap she was REALLY excited about him coming and that made it so much fun for all of us.

We made a gingerbrcead house. As you can see by her face she ate as much as she decorated.

Sagen didn't help with the house, but he was still having a good time!

They showed off their Christmas outfits before going to Grandma and Grandpa's to hand out presentson Christmas eve.

Here are picture of Lorelei will her haul! She LOVED LOVED LOVED everything she got and spent almost the whole day playing with her kitchen.

A few days after Christmas Sagen got ahold of a cookie and he knew EXACTLY what to do with it! It will be the last one he has for a while (his tummy hurt after), but we did by him some teething cookies.

Lorelei has decided to take advantage of Christmas vacation to ride her bike.

There are pictures missing. I think they are on the video camera. We decorated cookies for Santa and talked about how we were leaving them out for Santa. We also talked about what to leave for the reindeer. Lorelei was sure that they ate poop (lol) so we decided not to leave anything for them.

We also had a visit from Grammie (Brian's mom). When I asked Lorelei if her Grandma from Maine was here she told me "Her name is Grammie, Mama". Lorelei had a fun time getting to know her and play with her.

It was a GREAT Christmas.

12/24/2006

My cell phone rang and I saw that it was Sarah. I figured she was calling to wish us a "Merry Christmas" so I answered with a cheery "Hello!". I will NEVER, EVER forget the sound of the "hello" I got back. It chilled me to the bone and brought my stomach to my throat. She told me to sit down and although I didn't know what was up I already had tears in my eyes. She told me that her little sister Laura, who was only 25, and Laura's fiancee Steve had been in a car accident early that morning. They were on there way home after doing some Christmas shopping after Laura got off work. She had been really excited cause she was able to buy presents for her whole family that year. It was also her nephew Isaac's (Sarah's son) first Christmas so it was going to be a good one. Another car had crossed the center line and hit them head on, neither one of them survived (nor had the 4 boys in the other car). I was at a loss for words never in my life had I felt like I did at the moment. I was mourning the loss of a friend/little sister AND feeling so much pain FOR Sarah. You see, I feel like Sarah is my sister even if we don't share blood. I love her as much as I love everyone else in my family. I knew she was in unbelievable emotional pain. I didn't know how to help ( I still don't) all I knew is that I wanted to fix it and fix it NOW! I also knew that her mom and sister Amanda would be hurting. I knew that Sarah would want to be strong for them, and I wanted to make sure I was strong for Sarah and that she had someone there to be strong for her. Lucky for me she has good taste in husbands, because I knew that although I couldn't be there, Bob would be strong for her.


As the next days past I got all my news from 3000 miles away. The more news I got the more angry I got. The boy who was driving was driving on a suspended license. He should not have been on the road. Then it was confirmed that his blood alcohol level was WAY over the limit for a person of legal drinking age (which he was not). This whole tragic, terrible thing could have been prevented.


So it has almost been a year. I am still mad, I am still sad and my best friend is about to face her second Christmas without her little sister. I am afraid that this one will hurt even more because last year they were all so numb from the newness of it all.


I asked myself today what can I do? I cannot fix this. I know that. No one can, but there are things I can do. I will NEVER drink and drive. I NEVER, EVER, EVER, had anyway. I have always been ULTRA careful about that. I am the type that doesn't get behind the wheel with even ONE drink in her system, I can talk to my students (even though they are very young) about not drinking and driving, I can talk to my children about it as the years go on, I can also write this blog and get it out there. Tell Laura and Steve's story so EVERYONE who reads this can see how many lives drinking and driving can effect.


So I write this for her:
Laura
and for them:

Sarah and Isaac
beacause I love them and I think that MAYBE if someone reads this and remembers they will think twice before getting into a car after they have been drinking.

Ho!Ho! OH NO!!!!

We went to see Santa on Saturday. Lorelei was SOOOO excited the whole time we were in the LOOOONGGG line. Brian would hold her up so she could see and she was laughing and saying, "Hi Santa!" and tell us she was going to ask for a new kitchen. The line was long and by the time we got up there it was nap time. That could have had something to do with her sudden change, but I am not sure. Here is the pic:I think it is DEFINATLY worth a thousand words. The funny thing is if you ask her why she cried she says "I didn't" and when you show her the picture she talks about how baby Sagen is crying, but will NOT disscuss herself! If you clcik on the picture it will become larger.

Christmas is comming....

We have had our tree up since BEFORE Thanksgiving and we out the ornaments on it the day after Thanksgiving. Brian has the light on the house and we are fully in the Christmas mood.
We are REALLY playing up Santa in hopes of a picture this year (it was a no go last year). So far we have TALKED to him, but not sat on his lap. I DO think we will get there though. She is not as afraid of Santa (or strangers in general) as she use to be.
She ask Santa for a new Kitchen which is good cause that is what we bought her!

( I wil add pictures, but it is not letting me right now!)

Sitting and spitting!

Sagen is getting SOOOO close to sitting up! He can balance for a realy long time, but still leans more forward then he should. I am proud of him. He is only 4.5 months. He can also stand for a few seconds if you let him hold onto a table. He is very strong.
He is also blowing rasberries ALL the time. Lorelei thinks that is REALLY funny.

Pulling My Leg aka uncles are funny guys...

I read a book to my students today called "Pulling My Leg". It is one I inherited when I inherited my room so I have no idea who it is by or when it was published. It was great though. It is about a little girl who has a loose tooth. Her unlce tells her to bring him all these funny things so she can pull it. She does it, but the whole time she is trying to figure out if he is going to pull her tooth or if he is just pulling her leg. It is well written and you can feel (or at least I could) her feeling of knowing her uncle is joking and being silly and her thinking maybe he is not. You can tell she is thrilled and that her uncle REALLY cracks her up...
It reminded me SO much of a certian uncle or two of mine and "TICKLE TIME!!!!!" I was smiling so big by the end of the story and laughing. My kids musta though I was nuts!!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Lorelei got to play with her cousins, we all got to talk , and we had great food. It is nice cause Nick and Lorelei actually play and talk to each other now (Nick is about 10 months older). Brian walked up to them in the middle of a deep conversation about "boo boos".
Sagen was a pretty good boy too. He of course started screaming as soon as we sat down to eat, but I was able to eat and bounce him at the same time (I figure the calories I was eating at that point don't count) and he was asleep after a few minutes. I put him in the pack and play and he slept until dinner was over (a big accomplishment for my little non-sleeper).
Now we are moving onto Christmas! We are playing up Santa REAL big in hopes of getting a picture of him and Lorelei together this year. So far she has talked to him at the mall and told him she wants a "new kitchen" (which he IS bringing her), but has not ventured onto his lap yet. We are hoping she will do it for Sagen (she will do AMYTHING for her baby Sagen).
Pics to follow as soon as I resuce them from moms computer.

Just my boy...

I realized that this blog is rather Lorelei heavy, but she is doing more things so she is easier to post about!

Sagen is 4 months now. He is rolling, cooing (he "talks" almost as much as his sister!), laughing, and smiling! He is also very strong and good with his hands. He can almost get the paci BACK into his mouth already. When he is happy he is very, very good natured and sweet. He isn't always happy though. He has time where he just screams and screams. I think it is colic. He also is not a sleeper like his sister. We had him down to only waking 2x a night to eat and going right back to sleep, however that had not been the case lately. I think it is tummy or perhaps (dun dun dun) Too!EETH!!!

Regardless of his fussy times we think he is the best! We love him so much! Lorelei loves him too! He is "my baby Sagen" to her. The other days she couldn't see him and went into a slight panic. She is such a good big sister!

Potty Training

Potty training is mostly done with Lorelei (during the day at least)! YAY! YAY! YAY! She can't always get her pants down, she can't get on the big potty by herself, and sometimes we have to ask her, but mostly she is trained. She is dry 99.999999% of the time (like one accident in a month).She will tell us if she has to go and on days where she is dress in easy clothes she can pull down her own pants and sit one her little potty. We sometimes have to go to extreme measures to make sure a potty is available.

Lorelei pottying atop Mt. Lemmon!

Who they look like.

I found this cool think as myheritage.com...

She doesn't want me to get big headed....

Today I was sitting next to Lorelei drawing for her on her board. Here is our conversation:

Lorelei: "Draw baby Sagen, Mama"

Me: "Okay, here is his head, and his little body, his eyes, and his nose.

Lorelei (with a look of utter disgust): "No, Mama baby Sagen is cute!"

LOL I guess she doesn't think I can do him justice.

---

First Cereal

Sagen had cereal for the first time today. He LOVED it!!!! He actually took the spoon away from me and started feeding himself. He got the spoon to his mouth quite a few times! He was all smiles after.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

M-O-U-S-E....

Today Lorelei found the Mickey ears that Brian wore when we went to Disneywold for our honeymoon.

He's the new boy in town.....

Our baby boy is here! He was born July 12th, 2007 at 9:41 a.m. He was 7lbs6oz and 18.5in. He has blue eyes and blonde hair. He is beautiful and we love him! Lorelei loves him too! She took to him right away!

Lorelei had a GREAT 2nd birthday party. She got a lot of toys and had fun. She had her cousins, her friend Gabby, her gramma, papa (she has decided that is his name), and some of mommy and daddy's friends here. She LOVED blowing out the candles and putting the cake in her hair ( I noticed a red tint to one of her pigtails yesterday). The cake even tasted good so I was happy( I made it AND decorated it). She actually opend most of her presents this year even with everyone watching. It was a great night!

What is she up to at two!

In 6 days my baby girl will be 2! I can't believe it. I sill remember balling at the sight of her heartbeat on the u/s and holding her for the first time. She has grown so much in the last two years. She went from a 6lb14oz 20in baby to a 23lb8oz 31on (on our scale not the Dr...s) toddler. Here are some of the things she is doing:
-Talking in FULL sentences. Not just little two word things, but looooong sentences. She uses these sentences in the "right" way to get the things she needs or wants. She also copies a lot of words that are new to her. She is interested in what they mean.
-She is now running. When she does this she tells us "Mama I running".
-She is using the potty and stays dry about 95% of the time. Of course, this is only when we are being really diligent and taking her potty a lot. It will be a while before she is really potty trained but we are on the track.
-She thinks things are really funny and will tell you so "That's funny mama".
-She is in LOVE with the cartoon character Calliou. She asks to watch him a million times a day.
-She loves to swim She will kick her feet and blows bubbles.
-She can repeat the some of the ABC and sometimes says random letters on her own in the right place.
-She can fully navigate our house. She can open and close all the doors. Even the one to garage which we now have to keep locked.
-She lets the dog in and out. She even unlocks the slider to do so.
-She gets herself out of bed every morning and wakes us up. So far it has always been at about the "right" time which is good. If it starts to be at 4 a.m. or something then we will have to redecide if this is cute or not.
-She is starting to understand counting. Right now it is usually "2,3,4,5,7,10...." but we still think that is pretty good.
-She can call people on the phone. This we just discovered and will have to make sure our phones are locked. If you get a call and an hang up from us it was prob her....sorry.
-She is very polite. She says "please", "thank-you", "you're welcome" and "excuse me" Sometimes she has to be reminded, but she is pretty good at it.
She of course is doing other things, but that is a pretty good list for now.
The last two years have flown by! I am so proud of her and love her so much. I think she is the best baby (toddler) girl in the world!
now onto the next chapter of her life........being a big sister!

Surprise!!

I am part of a mommies meetup (there is a link on my page if you are a Tucson mommy) and tonight I went to what I thought was a "Family Potluck"....IT WAS A BABY SHOWER!!! How cool is that? I was totally surprised! I got a bunch of cute things that I needed and had yummy cake, it was GREAT!
I love my mommy friends! It is so nice to have friends :) (I have not had a lot since I moved down here that didn't live millions of miles aways!)