Stinker...

 
 
 

This is Eli's "stinker face" I have been seeing it a lot lately. He is into EVERYTHING! When he is caught, this is the look I get. He has been pretty difficult lately....he has an idea of exactly what he wants to be doing and gets pretty mad when you try to redirect him. He has been a crab lately, partly because he wants whatever the boys have and because he is getting four top teeth and one bottom tooth all at the same time. He has been pretty uncomfortable lately with all of his teeth coming in. You can see them all in these pictures.

The last picture was right before his bath. He climbed up into the warm clothes that I had just taken out of the dryer and was snuggling with them. It was pretty cute!

He loves bathtime too....He is constantly in the bathroom. He usually wants to play in the toilet (nice, huh?) When you go in there to get him, he points to the tub and says "baf" I think it is his way of distracting you from being mad at him!

Christmas break....

 
 
 
 

We have all been enjoying our Christmas break. The boys have been playing the wii and doing other activities around the house. It is fun to spend some time with them and not feel so rushed to get everything else done. Isaac has been helping Ben build his workbench. It is so cute to see him out there. Ben is so patient with them...he lets them hammer nails in and lets them help him "hold" things for him. He is way more patient than I am, but that is no surprise. Eli has been enjoying playing with the big boys. They get so frustrated with him because he just wants to be in the middle of all the action. In the one picture where the boys are playing the wii, you can see Eli sitting in his rocking chair watching. He sat there for probably 20 minutes drinking his milk and watching them bowl.

Dancing

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

On the fifth day of Christmas....

 
 
 
 

Today was our final Christmas. This was spent at Ben's grandma's house. There are LOTS of little kids, as Ben's cousins all have kids. It was fun to see everyone since we don't get together too often. The special part of today was that Ben's grandma wrote a short letter to each of us. To Ben, she shared a memory that she had of him while growing up. It is so neat to hear it from her perspective. It is such a small thing, but to us, it was the most special gift she could give us.

On the fourth day of Christmas...

 
 
 
 

On Saturday night, we went to Grundy again to have Christmas with my family. I always look forward to this Christmas because after the kids go to bed, we play games. This is a very entertaining (and sometimes) brutal occasion! This year was no different. We have so much fun and laugh so hard...mostly at each other! It is so much fun! This year, we were relieved that we got to spend it together after Brent's week long stay in the hospital in Iowa City. He has been sick for quite some time, and we are feeling some relief that there have been some answers to what was going on with him (and his Lupus).

The third day of Christmas....

 
 
 
 

On the third day of Christmas, we traveled to Clarksville for Ben's family Christmas. It is always so fun to watch the cousins play together, of course this year, we were missing Sarah and Jacob. Both Evan and Isaac mentioned missing them on a couple different occasions. The highlight this year was meeting baby Keegan. He is a sweet, sweet baby! He will learn quick that he has to be tough around all these Kalainoff boys! It is special to spend this Christmas with Ben's Grandma Litterer and his Grandpa Kalainoff....there aren't too many kids that get to know their great-grandparents as well as ours. We are lucky to live close enough to both of them for them to be a big part of our boys' lives. Every time Grandpa (John) Kalainoff refers to Eli, he says Eli John. He is so proud that Eli has his name. And Nanny just beams everytime she thinks about Eli being born on her birthday. She calls him her "birthday buddy".

Mess

 

I always dread finding places for all the new toys...the mess of the gift opening aftermath is often overwhelming!

On the second day of Christmas...

 
 
 
 

We enjoyed our Christmas together. Santa visited the boys and our family gift this year was a wii. After our Christmas together, we headed to Grundy Center to have a nice Christmas dinner. Brent and David were spending Christmas with their girlfriend's/fiancee's family so things felt a bit different this year. We also didn't have an extended family Christmas on my side, so that felt very strange as well.

On the first day of Christmas....

 
 
 
 


Our normal tradition in to go to church in Grundy with my folks. We traveled to Grundy on Christmas Eve and then opened a few presents with Grandma and Grandpa.

5 days of Christmas....

Our Christmas adventure started on Christmas Eve and was over today. It is sad that it is over, but a relief that we can finally relax a bit before going back to school. The kids did fairly well over the last five days. Of course, they were wild and loud and had entirely too much sugar! It is hard to remember sometimes that they are kids, they are loud and Christmas is very exciting! We had a great time this year and made some wonderful memories.

Merry Christmas!

 
 
 
 

There is nothing sweeter than the sound of little footsteps running to my room on Christmas morning. It was quite a relief to see that Santa had indeed come to our house! Isaac was pretty nervous last night that maybe he hadn't been all that good! But as he stated, "Santa probably knows I just fogetted to be good sometimes!"

It has been a very fun morning!

Army boy

 
 
 

Aunt Melinda has done it again. Not only does Evan own his very own army fatigues...Aunt Melinda sent him a real "rucksack"...one that was hers and she doesn't use anymore. If you recall, Evan wore his army fatigues for days in a row....this seems to be the case again. He really hasn't taken the rucksack or his army fatigues off since last night. I looked in the rucksack today and he had packed a map and his sleeping bag! Not sure where he is headed!

Uncle Jason is his real life hero. He will be missed this Christmas as he spends his time in Iraq.