I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Gilbert and I thoroughly enjoyed another Christmas as parents. Matthew was so much fun to watch and even Elise got in on the fun with the wrapping paper. It ended up being a Transformers Christmas for Matthew and he loved it. Elise got a lot of cute clothes from her Grammy and Auntie Val. I got a new phone from Gilbert, which was great because my phone was about to die and I was getting pretty frustrated. I'm just happy to have a fully functioning phone again =).

Matthew got to enjoy one of his Christmas gifts a few days early. This pillow is as big as he is and he loves it.



My beautiful girl



I made 2 batches of cake balls to give to our friends for Christmas. They're not particularly hard to make, they're just time consuming so no one else ever makes them. I think we passed out about 90 cake balls on Christmas Eve.



Matthew's gifts were set out the night before. We decided not to set out Elise's gifts until she got up so Matthew wouldn't freak out when we told him to stay away from them.



Our tree



We took video of Matthew opening his gifts and I think Gilbert's still editing it together, so no pictures of him opening his gifts. Sorry.



Elise's bilirubin levels were pretty high in the first couple of weeks of her life, in other words she was jaundiced, so she was put in what's called a biliblanket to help break down the bilirubin. She had to wear the blanket at all times so Gilbert started calling her "Gloworm". We gave her a gloworm for Christmas =)











Cute peacoat form Uncle Jason







Jason gave me potstickers and Ovaltine for Christmas because I was craving potstickers and I drink Ovaltine when I want something sweet.









Then we decided to go to Ihop for breakfast



And Matthew had to take all of his Transformer cars out of his backpack while he was waiting for his pancake







We had some friends come over for dinner last night and Elijah was among the people who came over. Matthew was thrilled to have Elijah here last night and even spent some time chasing him around while wearing a big gift bag over his head.



Then they chased each other with tissue paper again



Elijah showing off his present from Matthew and Elise



Our friend Josh was nice enough to post these videos. I have some other I'd like to post but for some reason they didn't upload earlier.

Busy and tired. Elise is now completely weaned, which means I'm regaining some of my energy. In addition to that, I am just about done with the 1st trimester. Just another couple of days or so. Everyone has been doing well and we're just looking forward to having Gilbert home for a 4 day weekend.















Gilbert's mom sent the kids gifts to open for the 12 days of Christmas and they've gotten some really good stuff. Here's Elise in her puffy jacket from Grammy.



A failed attempt at a family photo





Penguin pj's from Grammy



Playing "Fanformers" together





Then Matthew wanted to take a picture with each of his cars...

Ratchet



Bumblebee



Ironhide



Optimus Prime



Megatron



I had my monthly appointment last week and Baby #3 sounds good. I know people are already wondering if we've found out the sex of the baby. No, we haven't. We'll probably find out some time in February.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Holy cow. Being pregnant and chasing after a 2 year old and a now mobile 8 month old is exhausting. This also means I don't get to turn my back for more than a few seconds before one of the kids gets into something they're not supposed to.

We've had a fairly uneventful week around here. Sunday was fairly warm. I think it was in the high 70's and then we had a cold front come in early in the week and temperatures dropped down into the 50's and they just got lower and lower until we hit a low of 26 last night. We stayed inside most of the week because of the cold weather. Nap time is also from about 10am-5pm now that the kids are trading off. It's insane. We did get snow yesterday! It snowed from about 9am to the late afternoon. It was fun.

It was warm enough on Sunday for Matthew to wear shorts and spend some time in the front yard with Daddy learning how to catch a football.







And then this happened...

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

This is what Gilbert's work of art looks like this year

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

I think Matthew thought that if he grabbed both of our phones he could talk to both grandmas at the same time.



Our Batgirl



She likes Matthew's Batcave as much as he does



I think Matthew is getting ready for his big boy bed. We often find him like this now.



I would also like to note that although his pajamas have construction vehicles on them he insists that they're Devastator pajamas. I can see where he gets that, but I don't think that's what Carters had in mind when they picked the fabric for those pajamas. That boy is obsessed with his "Fanformers".



Now for the snow!

Unfortunately, we did have to go out in it. We managed to stay home all week, and then I had to take the kids to the pediatrician in the snow. Elise broke out in a rash and had diarrhea and I thought it might be a reaction to a new formula we're trying out so the doctor wanted to see her. It turns out it was all the result of a virus. I'm a little relieved it wasn't the formula.

Anyway, we went to the doctor in the snow and I think Matthew was a little freaked out by it. He liked looking at it but as soon as it hit his skin he wanted nothing to do with it. Elise just didn't like being cold. Kudos to our friends who have small children and live in places where snow is a normal occurrence. It was not fun taking the kids out in that. I did let Matthew walk around in it for a while when we got back, though.











From what I hear, it didn't stick in some of our friends' neighborhoods so we lucked out that it stuck for a couple of hours at our house.

Gilbert took Matthew out again when he got home from work and I think Matthew was a little more excited the second time around

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Then we were all sitting around enjoying our warm living room the power went out for about a half hour. Gilbert went and got some of his work equipment to give us some light and he and Matthew ended up playing with it more than anything. I love my boys.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Hopefully we'll get out of the house for a little while today.