Christmas in Upland

Samantha: 67 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 31 Months, Week 4

It seems like the week or so before a holiday are always pretty busy, but this week was even busier than usual. I subbed in Samantha's class as a paraprofessional Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, making our days much more difficult and hectic. Ben stayed home with Aedan, ran errands, did laundry, and tried to get things ready for our Christmas trip out of town. In fact, in my last blog post, I didn't even mention something that we did after school on Monday. With the possibility of me going back to work, we contacted a lady who runs an in-home daycare. She has an opening for Aedan, so we decided it would be good to go check our her home, ask her questions, and see what we thought. After Ben picked Samantha and I up from school, we went straight to her house. She gave us an information packet and registration form before showing us around her house. She only has up to six kids at a time since it just her, and two of those kids are her own. She had a living room area with a couch and a smaller toy area. In the kitchen there was a table for all the kids to sit at to eat snacks and lunch. In fact, she applied for a grant to get a kidney shaped table to better help the children sit at the table. She had two different rooms for kids to sleep in various sleeping arrangements from cribs to pack and plays to toddler beds to mats on the floor. They have a bigger dog in their house, but she is really nice and friendly, which may be good for Aedan to be around a dog to get over his irrational fear of dogs. She also provides breakfast, lunch, and a snack for the kids, which would be nice. In addition, she was willing to use cloth diapers for Aedan, even though she's never really dealt with them before. We could see him enjoying playing there with other kids, especially other boys his age, and getting out of the house and not just being stuck with Mommy all day. She charges $30 a day, and we would be able to set our own hours during the week, meaning Ben could keep him on Fridays if we wanted to save some money on days when he doesn't teach. It was definitely an interesting option, and it makes me feel better to know that she goes to our church and she also is going through the foster care process and may even be able to take our foster child, if/when we get one, if she still has another opening. So now it was just waiting to see how the interview went on Wednesday and whether I would be offered the job.

Aedan had another fun day with Daddy, and here he is being silly while eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. It definitely was strange being at work all day and not hanging out with this little guy.

I had a lot of fun being able to help out in Samantha's class, to help Ms. Cornwell in leading small groups and assisting kids that needed extra help, and to watch how Samantha interacted in her classroom and with her classmates. That afternoon it was time for a little Christmas celebration, so the kindergarten classes got to decorate the gingerbread houses that Ms. Corbiere and I glued together the afternoon before. It was fun watching all the kids smear frosting all over their gingerbread houses and then stick candy all over them. A few kids probably ate more of the candy than they put on their houses, but it was a fun process for the kids, and they were all very proud of their finished products. Here is Samantha working on her house.

Tuesday after school we had another meeting to get to, so we tried to leave school as quickly as possible. Lauri from DHHS had plans to meet us at our house at 4:15 to do our home visit. Ben did a really good job picking up the house and having everything ready for when she arrived. We first sat down at the kitchen table to go over our data packets and answer questions of clarification based on the answers we gave. After that, we walked around the house so she could check that the crib was set up, our smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector were in place and worked properly, that we had safety latches on our medicine cabinets and on the the door to get to our laundry room, and that our gate was properly installed around the pellet stove in the basement. Then, Lauri took Samantha and Aedan aside one at a time in their bedrooms. We don't know exactly what they talked about, but probably some about how they would feel having another kid come and live with them for awhile and how their home life is with us. She stayed at our house for about an hour, and after that we only had a few more steps to complete before she could officially send our application off to Lansing. We had to complete an online first aid training since mine was going to expire soon, register for the payment program online in order to be reimbursed for the gates and eventually get our payments from the state, and then get a license for Roscoe once we returned in the new year. It was exciting that we were finally getting to the end of this long process. Lauri said that she would get everything finished up as soon as she gets back to the office on January 3rd and get it sent out to Lansing to be processed. She said she fully expected them to take the 30 days allowed, so we could probably expect to be officially licensed as foster parents by the middle of February. From there we just have to wait and see how long it will take before we get a call for our first foster child.

The rest of our Tuesday night was pretty busy as we had a quick dinner and then got busy packing the kids for our trip so that Ben would have an easier time getting everything done on Wednesday on his own with Aedan. Since I was subbing again, our plan was for Ben to have everything packed up and ready when he came to pick up Samantha and me from school.

Wednesday was a busy day at school, especially because it started off with my job interview at 8:00 in the morning. It was difficult getting everyone up and ready so that I could be at Bahweting on time, as I didn't want to be late for my interview. I dropped off my stuff at the classroom and then went to the office to wait. My interview probably didn't start until about 8:15 and lasted about half an hour. There were four people there: Carolyn Dale, a curriculum specialist, Ms. Cornwell, Mr. McBride, and another paraprofessional. They each had the same list of questions to ask me and took turns going around the circle. Interviews are always very intimidating and not very personal. I found myself to be very nervous because I have not participated in an interview in a very long time, since interviewing at LCA in 2010. I always second guess my answers and feel like I don't express myself very well. However, they seemed to be very interested in me. I tried to be as honest as possible in my intentions, saying that I would have to see how this semester would go before committing to continuing into the following school year. I really am only interested in this position as a temporary job, to help Ms. Cornwell out, which in turn will help Samantha get a better education. I will have plenty of years to work full time once Aedan becomes school age, so I don't really want to rush into working full time on a permanent basis. It would just be a way to help out for the rest of the school year, get some experience in the classroom, and make some extra money for our family.

The rest of the day went by quickly, and I really enjoyed my time in Samantha's class. I was able to help facilitate instruction, file papers, lead reading and math groups, and just help the day go much more smoothly. Since their holiday activities already happened on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was more of a normal day schedule-wise, which was nice to see. I really enjoyed seeing Samantha in action. In fact, they were reviewing sight words by playing Around the World. Ms. Cornwell would show a word projected on the board, and the two students whose turn it was would try to say the word correctly first in order to progress around the class. Samantha was one of the best readers in the class. She knew pretty much every word, and the few words she missed were simply because she didn't say it quite as fast as the other person. I was so proud of her and how much she knew. All her classmates kept saying, "Wow, Samantha! How do you know how to read so well!" Ms. Cornwell commented that Samantha was on fire and was tricky to beat, making Samantha beam from ear to ear. The only kid that really gave Samantha a run for her money was Luke, and they both took it as a challenge to try and beat each other. It was great to watch. Even later in the day, the class was participating in a memory number matching game, and Samantha did a great job with that as well. It seems unlikely that they will allow me to be a paraprofessional in Samantha's classroom, just because it is school policy not to put children with their parents to be fair to everyone, and that would make me a little sad because that was part of the appeal of the job, that I would still be able to be with Samantha, so we will see whether I get offered the job and where they would see me working.

Ben and Aedan picked Samantha and I up from school, and our plan was to hit the road right away. However, I realized that I hadn't packed my tennis shoes since I was wearing dress shoes to work, so we had to stop by home really quick to grab those and just used that chance for Samantha and me to go to the bathroom. Because of that, we got on the road about half an hour later than usual. Our plan was to drive straight through to Upland, arriving just before midnight like we did at Thanksgiving. However, there was some snow in northern Michigan that impacted our travel. I was driving, and the roads weren't terrible since it had just started snowing, but I didn't feel comfortable going much over 50 at certain points, and it was hard for me to see the road when I was traveling with no cars in front of me. So with all of these setbacks, we were about an hour later than usual in our trip, meaning that we wouldn't get to Upland until 1:00 a.m. Ben would be the one driving that late, and we were both pretty tired from having a busy week and staying up too late. Plus, we weren't sure if we would encounter any more snow or slippery roads. We didn't want to risk it, so we decided to stop for the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Lansing. However, the kids were also very tired and fell right to sleep in the car. Ben and I had to laugh because the last two times we took this trip, Aedan was awake for a long time before finally falling asleep, whereas Samantha has always done a good job of going right to sleep. We thought it was ironic that Aedan fell right asleep on a night that we were planning on stopping at a hotel. Both kids stayed asleep until we pulled up in front of the hotel. We got them out quickly and brought them in while we checked in and made sure there was a crib for Aedan to sleep in since our pack and play was still in Upland. The kids decided to go sit down while they were waiting, and Aedan decided to snuggle up on Sissy's lap. He was so cute and sleepy, and Samantha loved the nice cuddles from her little brother. She was smiling and happy to be taking care of him, letting him snuggle on her lap while cuddled under her Frozen blanket. This was just the beginning of a great trip away with my family. :)

I took the kids upstairs to the room while Ben went out to the car to get the things we needed for the night. Both kids got in one of the hotel beds and laid down while they waited. Samantha got to sleep on a nice queen bed, and Aedan got a special white metal crib that he was excited about sleeping in. The kids both slept in that room together, and Ben and I had our own king bed in a small attached room. We were all very glad to be in bed and everyone went right to sleep.

The next morning we woke up refreshed and ready to continue the trip. We got dressed, ate our yummy Holiday Inn Express breakfast, and got on the road to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Upland. The roads were clear, the sky was sunny, and it was a much easier trip in the day time when everyone was well-rested. It was definitely a good decision for us to stay the night.

The kids were super excited to get to Upland, see Ema and Papa, and play at the house. We were the first family to arrive, so it was kind of nice to have the house and Ema and Papa to ourselves for a day.

Later that afternoon, after nap time and after I wrapped all the presents, we decided to let the kids open their presents early with just us, so that way those presents didn't just get lost in the shuffle of everything else when we opened presents from the rest of the family. Samantha was super excited to give Aedan his present and picked this out specially for him. It was a soft, tan, fuzzy teddy bear, and he immediately began throwing it up in the air and playing with it. In fact, from that night on, he wanted to sleep with his "tebby bear" from Sissy every night.

Samantha got Daddy a blue travel coffee mug because she knows that Daddy takes coffee to campus with him every day and that his blue Kentucky mug is wearing off and fading.

They had a Santa Store at Samantha's school, and we were allowed to send her with $5 to spend on getting $1 items for up to five people. She was allowed to buy something for Brielle, Alaina, Aedan, Mommy, and Daddy, and she was so thoughtful in the presents she picked for each of us. She really thought about what each person would like and chose something that she knew they would appreciate and use. I just love this picture of Daddy and his little girl. She is so proud and so happy.

Samantha got me a pair of warm socks because she knew I was always talking about my feet being cold at home.

The kids were then super excited to move on to opening the presents that we got for them. We were excited for them to open them because we felt like we really chose things they would enjoy this year. The first presents we gave them were books that we ordered a while back from Samantha's book order through her class at school. I had her circle books that looked interesting to her, and then I ordered them without her knowing and they were sent home secretly with us so she wouldn't see them. We also picked out a few books that we thought Aedan would like as well.

The next present Samantha opened was a precursor to her major present from us. Ever since visiting the Children's Museum over Thanksgiving and seeing the space exhibit, she kept saying how she would love a book about space so that she could learn more about it. We found a pretty cool one on Amazon that had lots of pictures and explanations that would be easier for Samantha to understand. (I also love how Aedan is in the background of the picture watching her open her present, and then he launches his teddy bear from Samantha into the air. I love my children and how different their personalities are.)

Then, it was Aedan's turn to open a present. I think Samantha was just as excited to open it as he was. He didn't understand what it was at first, since it was just a bag with a picture on the front. Aedan has been obsessed with Super Why lately, so when I saw that there was a Super Why costume, I knew he would love it, especially since he loves to dress up in Sissy's dresses. Now he has a different costume to wear that is just for him.

Then, it was back to Samantha again. We were really stuck for a long time on what to get for Samantha. We wanted something fun for her to play with, but didn't want to just get her more Barbies or something that wouldn't challenge her. So when she expressed so much interest in space, I searched Amazon and found this Playmobil rocket ship. I thought it would be perfect for her because she would be able to help us put it together, and it was an interactive, educational toy, and it was something totally different from any toy she had at home. She was really excited about it, even though she said something about it being a "boy toy," but it still was a present for her. She was really excited about getting it out of the box and putting it together, exploring how it works.

Aedan couldn't wait to get his Super Why costume out of the package and put it on, so we took a little break in opening presents to get him dressed. I love Samantha's little commentary in the background and how she's trying so hard to help him out and be excited with him.

As soon as he was dressed, he walked around the house saying, "Super Why, the power to read!" I'm okay with him pretending to be a super hero like that. :)

Aedan had one more present to open as well, and this present would be joined by a friend once we got to Chicago. Ever since reading a Toy Story book at home and then getting hand-me-down Woody and Buzz pajamas, all he can talk about are Woody and Buzz. The first line from the book is, "Woody and Buzz are the best of pals. They belong to Andy." Aedan knows this line by heart and repeats it frequently throughout the day. We figured he would love Woody and Buzz toys for Christmas, and we were right, he was pretty thrilled when he opened Woody and it was super hard to be patient while waiting for me to get him out of the box.

And here's our cute little guy with his Christmas presents from us. We were so glad he liked his presents, and from then on, he wanted to constantly wear his Super Why costume and he always had to know exactly where Woody was. Even though he's not looking at the camera, I love this picture of Aedan. His smile is contagious, and he is such a happy little boy. :)

Before and after dinner that evening, Ben and Samantha got out all the pieces to her rocket toy and worked together to put it together. I helped a little too, but mostly with assisting in putting all the stickers on the different parts. Playmobil toys are always really good quality and give opportunities for imaginative play. We were excited to give Samantha a toy to encourage and support her interest in space. It began a whole conversation about how rockets take off, and Papa even explained to her that the force is so strong that the ground shakes underneath, so now Samantha will shake the rocket back and forth as she pretends that it is lifting off. We also really liked that the toy came with people that are both boys and girls. Samantha talked about how she wouldn't want to be an astronaut because it would be too dangerous, so we discussed all the different jobs you could have where you would know a lot about space and rockets and astronauts, without actually having to go into space yourself. I think she thought that was an interesting idea.

And here's the (almost) finished product. Samantha got right to playing with the workers, the rocket, and even the little robot that came with it.

We had a fun first day in Upland, relaxing, opening presents, playing together, and enjoying time with Ema and Papa. Even though we live farther away now, I am so glad we can still come for these extended trips.

Since we convinced Ema and Papa to get the grandparent membership to the Children's Museum, we decided to take the opportunity to visit again while in Upland. Aunt Jeni and Alaina were going to arrive in Upland mid-afternoon, but we decided to take our chance to go to the museum. We put Aedan's car seat and a booster seat in the back of Papa's car for the kids. I sat in the middle, and Ben rode in the front so that we could all take just one car to get there. We knew it would be a busy day, but we figured even if we stayed for a few hours, it would be worth the trip, since we don't have the opportunity to do stuff like this very often.

Since we had come over Thanksgiving as well, we decided to start in the areas where we didn't spend much time on the last visit. Our first stop was the room with the carousel, so the kids rode on that and then played in the tree house area, served us some ice cream from the ice cream shop, and we walked through the maze of mirrors. Then, we headed up to Science Works where the kids played with water, pretended to drive a tractor, and explored a cave.

From there we decided to take a break for lunch. It seemed like our kids were fading slightly, especially Aedan, so we hoped getting some food would help. We decided to just buy food from the food court that day. Samantha ate really well, as she has been lately, but Aedan was just not interested in eating much of anything. We were sitting by the window, and he complained about feeling cold, and then he just wanted to sit on my lap and Papa's lap, very unusual behavior for him.

Aedan really likes Doc McStuffins right now, so we decided to go to that room next, but eating food did not help him. He grew lethargic and just stood by the grown-ups most of the time. I felt bad that he wasn't feeling well and wasn't enjoying the museum as much as he would have normally. We decided to go down to the space exhibit next because Samantha really wanted to watch the show about the Liberty Bell 7 again. We all went in this time, and Aedan just wanted to cuddle, so Daddy took him and laid his head against his shoulder and Aedan almost immediately fell asleep. Even throughout the loud show, Aedan didn't move a muscle. He only slightly woke up after we came out of the room and then fell right back asleep, as you can see in these pictures. This is totally unlike him. Aedan doesn't usually fall asleep in public places, especially when there are fun things to do all around him. His forehead was feeling pretty warm, and you could see in his eyes that he had a fever. Poor little guy.

We didn't want to stay too much longer with how Aedan was feeling, and also because Jeni and Alaina were back at the house and would be excited to see us, so we decided to go to one more place before heading home. We went to the Playscape room because Samantha wanted to climb around on the leaves of the pond. Daddy continued to hold Aedan while he slept, while I kept my eye on Samantha. She was getting tired as well, but still had fun playing in the sand and the water. Finally, I took over holding Aedan after a diaper change, and Ben was able to convince Samantha to leave the museum by reminding her that Alaina would be at the house waiting for her. Samantha LOVES Alaina and playing with her is always the highlight of a trip to Upland, so it didn't take long to convince her that it was time to go. Aedan cuddled in my arms all the way out to the car.

Since we were all sitting in close quarters in the car, Aedan didn't fall asleep on the way back to Upland like I had hoped, so the only nap he got that day was sleeping on us at the museum. However, that just meant that it would be an early bedtime for him that night, especially with him having a fever.

When we got back to the house, we took Aedan's temperature and it was above 102, just like Samantha's temperature was back when she was sick for almost a week with a fever. We hoped that the same would not be true for Aedan. That would stink if he was sick for most or all of our Christmas break. We gave him medicine and tried to make him as comfortable as possible. Then, we had a more restful evening at the house with Ema, Papa, Jeni, and Alaina. Here are the kids watching Super Why that afternoon, taking turns acting things out, singing, and pretending to be the characters.

That evening after dinner, the kids were able to work on the Christmas project that Papa planned for them to do. He cut out Christmas trees for them to paint, so the first step was painting them green. Aedan really enjoyed painting his tree and was careful to cover the whole thing evenly with green paint. It's been cool to see Aedan enjoying arts and crafts more lately. The girls both really enjoyed painting as well. It's really neat that Papa takes the time to think about a fun craft for the kids to do, pumpkins at Halloween and now trees for Christmas. These are things that we will keep for years and put up every year as decorations for the holidays. 

Most nights when we are in Upland, Aedan chooses Ema to put him to bed at night. He just loves her, and she is often his number one pick. On Friday night, the girls both picked Ben to read them a story. (Do you notice the awesome sweatshirt he has on? That was his Christmas present from me. Not too exciting, but something I knew he would like. He got me some warm sweaters and warm pajamas, along with two Christmas movies that he gave me before Christmas.) Samantha and Alaina both decided to wear their matching pajamas and asked Ben to read a story to them. It was just too great of a picture not to take.

That night, after all the kids were in bed, Ben, Jeni, and I headed out to pick up Tim from the Indianapolis airport. It was good to be able to talk in the car on the way there and to have some adult conversation about our lives away from the kids. Tim offered to buy all of us coffee, even though it was well past the time I should have been drinking coffee. I took this great picture of the three siblings before leaving the airport that night. It's not very often that they all get together, so these are special sibling times.

Since we were all up way too late on Friday night picking up Tim from the airport, Christmas Eve morning came way too soon. However, we can't complain too much because most of the time our kids sleep really well in Upland. Samantha has finally gotten past her inability to sleep when in a different environment, and I think we have finally turned a new leaf in her being able to handle herself without napping. She slept well in the same room as us, and even slept in more than she even does at home sometimes, probably because of how hard she plays when we are in Upland. Aedan had a little bit of a harder time sleeping this time than usual because of his fever. In fact, that night Aedan woke up a couple of times throughout the night. We try to catch it right away so that his crying on the monitor doesn't wake up Samantha. I went down to check on him the first time, and he was warm again, meaning his fever had come back, so I gave him some medicine and tucked him back into bed again. Well, an hour or so later, he woke up crying again, and Ben was giving him a few minutes before going down to check on him, but by the time he got down there, Papa had already gone in to be with Aedan. The next morning we found out that Papa stayed in with Aedan for quite awhile, rocking him until he fell asleep. We are always so grateful that we have family like this that will step in and help us out, even in the middle of the night, and be there for their grandchildren when they need them.

After Christmas tree cinnamon rolls for breakfast, the kids anxiously awaited time for opening presents. We just had a few last minute gifts to wrap before everyone was ready. Then, mid-morning we all gathered downstairs for our family Christmas. Ema gathered the kids around the read them a Christmas story about the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

We always pick numbers to determine the order of opening presents, but this time we made sure the kids had the first numbers because they just couldn't wait to start opening them.  The first presents Samantha and Aedan opened were their special costumes from Uncle Timmy. Samantha got a blue flying horse, and Aedan got a green dragon. They couldn't wait to try them on, and Samantha wanted to wear hers as much as she could the rest of the day.

We didn't take pictures of everything they got that day, just a few of the special ones. Ema and Papa got Samantha and Aedan both Leap Pads. At first we thought about just getting one for Samantha, but then we figured Aedan would be pretty jealous of her, and he can grow into it. Ben had already set them up so that they were ready for the kids to use. Samantha couldn't wait to get hers out and starting playing with it. It was difficult to get her to put it down in order to open her other presents.

Samantha got these magna-tiles from Uncle Timmy as well, which she thought was a really cool present. She has always enjoyed playing with these, and I had thought about asking for them in the past, but they were just a little too expensive for me to justify. However, I knew these would get played with a lot, not just by Samantha, but by Aedan as well. It's nice when family gets the kids gifts that they will really like, without us having to specifically ask for them.

Aedan had a really hard time being patient while other family members opened presents. He still was not feeling very well and had a rough night's sleep the night before, so that didn't help either. So, once he opened this alphabet puzzle from Ema and Papa, I decided to let him open it and play with it so he had something to occupy him between his turns for opening presents.

Samantha got some cool new clothes from Jeni and Alaina, along with these fun princess masks.

And Aedan got this awesome Larry t-shirt from Jeni and Alaina. It says, "Keep Calm and Sing a Silly Song." He had to put it on right away. He thought it was pretty awesome. It is definitely a perfect shirt for our little Veggie Tales lover.

We got so many nice presents from family. We were truly blessed. From Ben's parents, Ben and I both got snow pants and some money to put towards other gifts that we did not get that we asked for. I got warm socks, a cook book, and we got coffee and a Walmart gift card from Jeni. Tim got me a Singer sewing machine and storage case, which was really nice of him. Ben got dress socks, and also a winter coat and new pillow from Tim. Uncle Timmy also got Aedan a digger Lego Duplo truck and a book about diggers. The digger truck quickly became one of Aedan's favorite toys to play with. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that I'm forgetting as I write this two weeks later, but as I said earlier, we always feel truly blessed at Christmas time by a family that loves us and cares to give us nice gifts, making Christmas special, something to look forward to.

That afternoon everyone was tired and ready for a nap. Ben laid down with Samantha to get her to nap, and he fell asleep, too. Alaina took a nap upstairs. Tim took a nap in his room. Jeni took a nap on the couch. Aedan had some trouble falling asleep that afternoon with me. He would fall fast asleep in my arms as I rocked him, but then he would wake up and cry as soon as I tried to lay him down. He did this a couple of times, then one time I went in his room he had pooped, so I had to go up into the bedroom where Ben and Samantha were sleeping to get more diapers to change him. Finally, after that, he fell asleep, but it wasn't as good of a sleep for him.

We had our Christmas dinner that evening, and it was delicious: ham, potato casserole, broccoli salad, corn casserole, and lots of yummy dessert, including a birthday cake for Jesus. Here's a little video I took at the table between dinner and dessert time. This family is so silly and so loud, but I love being a part of it. We have such a fun time together. When Ema brought the birthday cake out for Jesus and lit the candles, we sung "Happy Birthday" to Him before we let the kids blow out the candles. Since Aedan was sick, we tried to cover his mouth as he blew so that he wasn't getting any germs on the cake, but he kept moving his head to get around Ben's hand; it was kind of funny. They all loved singing and blowing out the candles on the cake.

After dinner Samantha, Aedan, and Alaina were dancing to music in the basement. Samantha and Aedan had their costumes on, which made it even better. Even though Aedan had a fever still that we were treating with medicine, it didn't seem to impact his ability to have enough energy to play. His little stomping, kicking, and bouncing dance moves are pretty cute. I love how Samantha was trying to dance around on all fours like a horse when it was her turn to dance. No wonder our kids love coming to Upland! They all have so much fun together.

We had already had such a fun, full day, but we squeezed in a couple more family activities before it was bedtime for the kiddos. Their green Christmas trees were dry and ready for ornaments to be painted on. The kids got to choose their colors and used brushed with little tips to make dots or lines for ornaments or decorations. Samantha was very careful and particular with hers, and Aedan started off with dots but then just started smearing paint all over the tree. In fact, he covered over all the green with his colored paint. The girls ended up calling his the ketchup and mustard tree since his was more red and yellow rather than green. We didn't care though because Aedan was having a great time painting. He really enjoyed it and was very particular about painting the entire thing. He even kept asking us if we thought his tree was beautiful, too. What a fun project for the kiddos! And now the next step will be to let these dry and then stick LED light-bulbs through the drilled holes so it looks like lights shining on a Christmas tree.

Then, we decided to play the game, Pie Face, which Uncle Timmy got for everyone to enjoy together. We did several turns with different people teaming up together. However, I think the adults got much more whipped cream in their face than the girls did. Aedan didn't even put his face inside the oval, which definitely was not fair. It was a fun game, and I loved just watching everyone laugh and have a good time. We will have to bust this game out at every family get together from now on. There are a lot of videos, and some of them are just snippets because of how it was recorded, but they were just all too great not to include. :)

 

And here are the girls making silly faces with Ben after playing Pie Face.

Christmas morning was pretty low-key with morning snuggles in bed with Samantha, followed by some play time and singing with Bob and Larry and Aedan. I got a video of him singing the Veggie Tales song, which is pretty cute. Aedan had a better night the night before, and still had a slight temperature on Sunday morning. Especially since his temperature was still pretty high on Saturday, we decided it would be best for him to just stay home from church. We didn't want him to be with other kids and possibly get them sick, and it would be silly to take him and then just walk around the church with him during the entire church service (because he would be way too loud to keep in the sanctuary during the preaching). Ema graciously offered to stay home with Aedan, which was just fine with him. We hoped that Aedan was going to start feeling better that day since we were heading to Chicago on Monday, and we would not allow Aedan to be at Aunt Christy's house around Oliver if he was still running a fever. He still had a pretty stuffy nose, but it seemed like his fever was starting to drop.

The rest of us headed to church, and Samantha and Alaina planned on going to the kindergarten room, but they actually just had a family service since it was Christmas Day. So the girls stayed in the sanctuary with us, and it was kind of fun having Samantha with us again, this time not because she was sick like the previous Sunday. Samantha did a good job trying to sing the songs with the grown-ups, and she drew pictures on some paper and cuddled on Daddy's lap during the sermon.

Since we did our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, the rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We had a really yummy meatloaf for lunch, which everyone but Aedan really enjoyed. Ever since he had his fever and wasn't feeling well, he had little appetite. We would give him a sampling of everything on his plate and were just happy if he ate some of it. However, at lunch time I think he was just overtired and wanted to take a nap. We decided to just let Samantha have quiet time that afternoon, so she had a stack of books in her room to look at. Aedan went to sleep much easier that day, which was nice. Then, the rest of us were just sitting around down in the basement so I suggested that we put on a Christmas movie. It's kind of a tradition with my family to watch A Christmas Story on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and apparently it's also one of Papa's favorite Christmas movies, too, so we decided to watch that together that afternoon. We even decided to include Samantha and Alaina in on the movie, since they weren't napping that day. They spread a blanket out on the floor and were pretty interested in the movie. Alaina asked quite a few questions, and Samantha just sat there quietly taking it all in. They thought it was pretty funny and followed the story line pretty well.

Aedan woke up crying after not napping for very long, and I got up to go in the room to see what was wrong, but Ema volunteered to go in my place, since I was the one that brought up watching the Christmas movie. She didn't want me to miss any of it. I told her that she didn't have to, but once again, they do things like this because they care, not just about Ben and me, but also about our kids. It meant so much to me that she was willing to do this. Just like Papa did the other night, Ema sat in the room with Aedan for quite awhile that afternoon, probably over an hour, just rocking him and letting him sleep in her arms. She just wanted him to get some good sleep and get feeling better.

It's always sad when our time together comes to an end. We had a fun few days, and we planned on heading out the next morning after getting ourselves ready and our car packed up. Ben and I did our best to get things organized and somewhat packed on that Sunday night after bedtime to make the morning go more smoothly. It was going to be interesting fitting everything into the car to make it to Chicago, but I had confidence in Ben's packing ability. Here is everyone playing with balloons after dinner that evening, except for Aedan who is having fun playing with the Little People.

We used to play games together a lot more before kids were in the picture, and now I feel like we are all too tired sometimes to want to play games after the kids go to bed. But on Sunday night, Ben's mom grabbed a stack of games out of the play room so that we could play a game together that night. We ended up playing Scattegories, and it was so fun. Discussing everyone's silly answers made everyone crack up. In fact, I think Ben's dad was in tears at one point because he switched to a different letter halfway through his list. We had a great time, a lot of laughs, and it was a great way to spend our last night together.

December 26th was our day to head to Chicago. We hung out for awhile that morning, got the car packed up, and headed out mid-morning. We drove to Lafayette and stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch so the kids could play in the play place for awhile. Our trip was pretty good, as the weather was fairly warm so we were lucky to have rain and not snow while we drove. The kids enjoyed playing with their Leap Pads in the car, especially since we allowed each of them to choose one game to download. Samantha picked a Frozen game, and Aedan picked a Doc McStuffins game, but they can share the games between their devices, so they both had the games to play. It will be nice to have these Leap Pads for these long trips to and from the U.P.

After eating lunch and getting back in the car, it was nap time. Samantha was pretty resistant to closing her eyes, but we wanted her to try, and she had her Frozen blanket to snuggle up under, so I think that helps her fall asleep easier. Both kids were asleep fairly quickly, and Samantha slept for almost an hour while Aedan slept for over an hour and a half.

We arrived at our hotel in Aurora mid-afternoon and were able to check into our hotel around 3:00. We had a hotel room with a small room off the the side with bunk beds for the kids, and Samantha was super excited to check out the bunk beds. We just let the kids play on the bunk beds and with a few of the toys we brought while we got things unpacked and situated in our hotel room.

Then, we headed over to Aunt Christy and Uncle Matthew's house to see them, Brielle, and their new little boy, Oliver. He was born Christmas Eve at 3:26 a.m. and was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. I couldn't wait to hold my new nephew, and Samantha was close behind. Just like she was with Aedan, she loves babies and did a great job holding him carefully. She thought he was adorable. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, playing, and eating some Portillo's for dinner before heading back the hotel to get our kids tucked into bed. It had been a long day, and we had even more family time coming up throughout the rest of the week.

(Blog about December 20-26, 2016)