December 31

Our family is preparing to ring in the new year in our new house!

As I type this, Caleb and Daisy are sound asleep. Chris is figuring out the thermostat and new washing machine. We're all adjusting to the new noises and smells and arrangement of our things. I have to admit: I'm terrified. Apparently it's not just the kids who thrive on routine; I need it, too. I know that we'll find our new normal, and I know everything will be ok. But we lived in that old house for six and a half years. I brought one baby home from the hospital to that house; I brought another baby into the world in that house. I worked there and slept there and played there. This move has left my world a little bit shaken.

The kids are a little shaken, too. All evening, Caleb kept asking, "Can we go home?" At one point I went to retrieve some items from Chris' car, and Caleb raced to the door, shouting, "NOW we can go home!" We tried and tried to prepare him, but he just doesn't understand yet that this IS home now.

Amazingly, things are mostly in their spots now. Yes, there are boxes to be unpacked, but we had a gabillion more friends and family helping us today than we did yesterday. It took them less than an hour to unpack the truck. It went so quickly that I didn't even have time to think about photographing the process.

Instead, here's what I have:

Caleb, playing a little guitar before bedtime.

Daisy was eager to celebrate the new year!

(That's orange and chicken pot pie smeared all over her face. And hands. And shirt. And pants. Oh boy. Better figure out this new washing machine soon!)

"Is this how we celebrate, brother?"

Caleb's a pro at celebrating the new year! Remember last year?

And the year before?

We had glow sticks and champagne and festive hats. Now, Chris and I are stumbling to bed. 2011 was an amazing year for us: a trip to Mexico, a beautiful baby girl (born at home!), a new home... maybe 2012 will be a little bit less eventful! Eventful or not, we are thanking God for His many blessings. What a good year it was! I know this next one will be even better.

December 30

Well. We started the big move today. Got the big truck, prepared to load it up.

And only one person showed up to help us. (Well, two if you count her toddler, too.)

I'm torn between feeling like the biggest loser ever (Seriously? No one can help us move? Really? Are we such jerks/dorks/lame-os that none of the people we've ever helped could take an afternoon to help us?) and the luckiest person ever because I have a friend like Sara (who showed up  before we needed her, and immediately dove into the packing and sorting and labelling and loading and lifting and never once acted like what she was doing was a big deal).

I was worried about having Cooper here. After all, we already had a toddler and a baby underfoot. Adding another toddler would be a recipe for disaster, right?

Wrong. Cooper kept Caleb and Daisy way more entertained than any adult could have.

The kids were stoked when Chris arrived with the big truck. They ran to the front window to watch him pull into the driveway, then all ran to climb up into the cab.

See Daisy clapping her hands in delight?

Yay for trucks!

Love this cutie pie!

To keep Caleb and Cooper out of the way while we loaded the big things, we put them on the stairs.

Two two-year-olds attempting to high five. Love it!

They loved stomping their feet together. What silly boys!

We're driving the truck over bright and early to unload. Hopefully a few more people will be able to help us then. If not, my pride may never recover.

December 29

What a long day!

Caleb and Daisy have finally gotten the Daylight Savings Time memo, and are now sleeping until around 7:30 each morning. When they woke up today, I popped them into clothes and threw them into the car. We hit the McDonald's drive-thru and then headed to the new house. My mom and Ryan met us there to do some last-minute things before we move...tomorrow.

What?!?! Tomorrow? We're not even packed!

We have a frantic evening/morning of packing ahead of us; we're picking up a big truck at 3 tomorrow to begin loading. It's been a long road to get to this point, but somehow I'm surprised that this day is already here. It's terrifying to think about leaving our home of six and a half years. It's the only home Caleb has ever known, it's where Daisy was born. Starting all over is scary, and it's even weirder because we're not fully leaving the old house. The fact that we still own it and are renting it out makes hard to make a clean break. I'm sure it will be fine, and I'm worrying about nothing. Right?

Caleb eating his pancakes and sausage. Nothing but the highest quality nutrition for my boy!

Daisy, checking out the new dining room.

Those window sills are perfect for pulling up! Go for it, Daisy!

Also, a few of you asked for info about Daisy's board book.

At the recommendation of my friend Amber, I used Pint Size Productions.

http://www.pintsizeproductions.com/

I think Amber and I both did the Simple Board Book I. She was happy with a book she made for her nephew, and I've been happy with Daisy's book - with a few disclaimers:

1. It's not cheap. If you find a coupon, you can make a book for $25, including shipping.

2. Their software is not user-friendly. It's kind of slow, doesn't make it easy to save your work and come back to it later, and it doesn't allow for any kind of customization. You are limited to a certain format, font, and number of pages.

3. My pictures came out looking a little bit faded, and the print was textured. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.

4. You need high-resolution photos to get best results.

(Amber, feel free to comment with your feedback, too!)

But, it's the only company I've found that allows you to create high-quality board books, instead of hard-cover books with paper pages. Daisy has definitely chewed on and slobbered upon her book, and it's still in great shape. In fact, her book is the only book that keeps her interest for longer than thirty seconds! If you're in the market for a custom board book, I'd give Pint Size Productions a shot!

Now, off to pack some more boxes!

December 28

It's official: Daisy is a scooter.

I'm blaming it on the slick, carpet-less floors in our house. They make it way easier to scoot instead of crawling.

She's also working mightily to pull up, but isn't quite there yet.

(By the way, don't you love the little socks with bows on the toes? They were a Christmas gift from Chris' mom. Love them!)

Peek-a-boo!

The scooting only happens when Daisy wants something that's just out of reach. She lunges for it, falls short, and drags her little body forward.

See?

(She really loves her "Who Loves Daisy?" book. It was her main Christmas gift from us this year, and I'm grateful to Amber D for telling me about the company that could help me make it a board book. I feel much better about letting her chew and slobber on a board book than on a paper book.)

Most of the time she bends her little body so far that she ends up doing the splits. It kills me how bendy babies are! Want to see her in action?

Isn't she funny?

She's quite proud of herself.

Yay, Daisy!

(She's not actually smiling at me. She's smiling at an old McDonald's 3-and-under toy that is her new favorite. It's a little blue plastic camera that has a squeaking shutter button. She loves it.)

That squeak is really captivating!

The end justfies the means, though, and I'm really happy to have these sweet, smiley photos of my girl!

(Caleb got the shaft today - no photos. But you can imagine him running around in his Lightning McQueen slippers. I even let him wear them instead of shoes on a trip to the hardware store. At the store I let him - in his slippers - sit on one of the "tractors". Kid was in heaven.)



December 27

We woke up this morning to find...

SNOW!

Caleb was so excited to introduce his sister to the beauty of snow.

"See, Daisy? It's snow!"

It was somewhere around an inch of quickly-melting snow, but it was snow nonetheless.

And it was -*sigh* - our last snow in this house.

But it was also Daisy's first snow!

She didn't mind it, but she also wasn't particularly impressed.

(Psst... do you remember Caleb's first snow? He wore the same bear suit!)

Caleb, meanwhile, was itching to get out and stomp around in it. Thank goodness I bought snow boots a size up at the end-of-season clearance in the spring!

After we played in the snow a bit, we hopped in the car and headed out to the new house. It's been nice that we've had this overlap time with the two houses, because Caleb is gradually getting used to the idea that we will soon live in the new house.

I intended to paint the master bedroom today, but only managed to wash the walls (the previous owners weren't very keen on things like cleaning...) and tape off  the trim. Caleb and Daisy took their first naps at the new house, but they were pretty paltry: a mere 90 minutes for Caleb, and 30 for Daisy. I plan to head out there again on Thursday with my Mom. Hopefully I can accomplish more then!

December 26

Chris and I have often lamented that Sunday holidays are the worst, because you have to go right back to work the next day. Thankfully, they got it right this Christmas: today was a bank holiday! We spent the day packing up Christmas and beginning to pack up the house. Now that Christmas is over with, our new focus is getting moved into the new house. I can have a whole house packed by Saturday, right? I just need some boxes...

The kids were especially cheerful and cooperative today; they took nice long naps and played happily with their new toys.

Daisy loved the Santa balloon from Grandmother.

"Watch this, ma!"

I love that impish grin.

She was so proud of herself when she finally got Santa down to her level!

Rain boots and a guitar.

Caleb kept busy pretending to be James Taylor. I got the guitar to the point of being almost-tuned, so he sounded much more like James Taylor today than he did yesterday.

Also, Jesus arrived at our house a day late. 

I finally finished my nativity advent calendar. Buying a house + Christmas chaos + burning my thumb, index, and middle fingers on a hot pan Christmas morning meant that I wasn't able to finish making Baby Jesus in time for his Christmas arrival. But He came today, and something tells me that Caleb will never remember that He was late. It was a lot of work to make this felt advent calendar, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. My favorite part is the wise men. One is holding real gold beads, and the other two have little boxes I crafted out of foil. Inside one box is real frankincense, and the other box has a cotton ball scented with myrrh essential oil.

(The calendar totally wasn't my idea; Amber told me about this blog featuring the original idea, and then I found this blog with handy printable templates. Nice. But the dove on the stable was my own design - I was short one piece, and figured the Holy Spirit should be present, too.)

And now I am listening to Caleb on the monitor as he sings himself to sleep: "Jericho, Jericho, JERICHOOOOO!" Love it.

December 25

Merry Christmas!

Because this was Daisy's first Christmas, and because we celebrated two Christmases today (one by ourselves in the morning, and one with Chris' parents in the evening), I have tons of pictures.

Caleb and Daisy in their Christmas jammies in front of the tree. I made a concerted effort to keep things low-key and simple this year, and didn't spend much money on them at all. But somehow, we still ended up with tons of presents under the tree!

They didn't even want to tear into the presents. They were content just to look at the tree and the ornaments and the shiny paper and ribbons.

Love, love, love.

We are blessed beyond measure:

healthy babies

happy family

Christ's redemption

With all those, who needs gifts?

But gifts we had.

(Next Christmas we'll have a mantel to hang these stockings upon! And how come Daisy's stocking is the biggest?)

When I spotted this guitar for $16 at Aldi, I knew Caleb had to have it.

I was right.

We also got him this balance bike - a great find from Costco. We later adjusted it so that his feet could touch the ground. He's so excited to try it out!

(Oh, and I couldn't resist the Lightning McQueen slippers for him. I'm pretty sure I got Caleb the best gifts ever this Christmas!)

I'm pretty sure Caleb opened/used/played with every gift he got today, including these paints. This is his first painting ever. He informed me that he was painting two angels. At first he said they were sad, but I asked him to use his paint to make them look happy. Then he said they were happy. When I asked him why, he explained, "The angels are in the sky. They are happy because they are flying!"

Everything's cleaned up.

Daisy's asleep.

Back to the guitar.

Singing and playing - can you guess? - "You Can Close Your Eyes".

Several times he looked up at me and said, "I am James Taylor! I bein' James Taylor!"

After naps, Christmas #3! 

Knowing our affinity for festive headgear, Chris' mom found this funny little angel halo.

Two silly little angels!

Love her!

Happy first Christmas, Daisy!

And happy birthday, Jesus!

(Yep. We baked Jesus some birthday cupcakes, lit a candle, and sang. Caleb LOVED it.)

Caleb sang his favorite Christmas song, "The Little Drummer Boy", and beat the box like a drum.

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday, Jesus!

December 24

This post is a bit late - we got home from celebrating Christmas with my family around 10:00, and then Caleb had a meltdown of epic proportions. Who can blame him, though? He was great all day, and then he'd had enough. By the time both kiddos were in bed, Chris and I were exhausted.

It was a great Christmas Eve, though. Different, but great. Jenny had to work, so we split our celebrating to accomodate her schedule. Gift-opening, then church, then dinner. And it worked!

Poor Max was really sick, but he tried his best to join in the festivities.

Jenny was able to fit in some celebration before she headed off to work.

Caleb loves presents!

Then we went to church. Daisy was due for a nap, so I chose to wear her in the wrap instead of putting her in childcare. When the music started up, though, I started questioning my logic. It was definitely a rockin' Christmas Eve at our church. But Daisy's response to the loud, booming music was awesome. She started waving her arms and kicking her legs - hard. She loved it! Daisy was kicking her legs so hard that it shook my whole body. Everyone around us couldn't help but notice, and they all laughed and laughed. During "O Come Emmanuel", Daisy started cooing along. It was pretty much the most amazing thing ever.

That is, until Chris fetched Caleb from childcare. He brought him back before the service was over, so he got to sing a few songs with us. Caleb brought with him the craft he had made in church - a star on a stick. The star said "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" As we started singing, Caleb held his little star in the air and waved it back and forth to the music while Daisy kicked her legs in joy. And then my heart melted.

Then we headed back to my parents' house to open presents.

It's hard to believe that this was Daisy's first Christmas - it feels like she's been with us forever! Plus, she was an old pro at the gift-opening.

She loved the shiny bows!

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an activity table, which was a big win. She loved it!

Ryan got an Xbox 360. Also a win.

Mom figured out that the key to a great Christmas Eve is playing with the babies while her children do the work. It worked out pretty well for all of us!

Dad was tickled by his new wrenches. Fun!

All the boys gathered around the TV as Ryan tried out his new game.

Also, there were watermelon sticks. Caleb ate all of them. He was in heaven.

Happy first Christmas, Daisy!