Christmas Break Family Days

We were lucky over Christmas break to have Josh home for 12 days in a row!  Then he went back to work for 2 days, and then due to snow, he was home for another 4 days!  It was great!  We got a lot done, and we had lots of relaxing time as well!

On the 27th, we decided to have a family day out.  We went to the Tuscola outlet malls because we had some gift cards and some things to exchange, and we had just found out that we were having a girl, and I wanted to go to the Carter's outlet store!  We got baby girl several fun things on super sale, and Josh and I got to spend some gift cards.  Then, we all went to see Frozen, the new Disney movie that we had all been wanting to see.  Our whole family loved it.  Hannah already wants to go back!  The kids are now at a great age to take to the movies, which is really fun!  It went so well that we decided it would be fun to go out for a nice dinner afterwards, so we went to Biaggi's--one of my favorites!  With all of the heartburn I've been having, bread and pasta (no red sauce) sounded perfect!

A few days later, for New Year's Eve, we had another fun, family day!  Illinois played Indiana at home that afternoon, so it was a perfect chance for us all to go to a game.  Basketball is a little harder than football for us to get to because of Josh's work schedule and late nights with the kids.  But a non-work day, afternoon was perfect!  The four of us actually had not been to a basketball game all together yet; this was Jacob's first game!  Hannah did great and sat still and watched everything.  Afterwards, Jacob kept saying, "that was fun at the Illini game," but he did not like it when it got too loud, and he didn't sit very still!  But what can you expect from a 3 year old?  After him being restless for the first half, I went and got him popcorn, Skittles, and a lemonade to keep him occupied for the second half.  I called it our $11 babysitter.  And it worked like a charm.  Except that I rationed the Skittles to last until the end of the game, and we then went into overtime!  But, there are no complaints here because Illinois beat Indiana in overtime, and you can't ask for a better day than that!!!

The rest of the day was pretty laid back.  We came home from the game, put our pj's on, cooked a Gino's pizza, had some sparkling grape juice, set up Jacob's new twin bed, and watched Mary Poppins (the pregnant lady fell asleep before 10).  Jacob loves his new bed!  Happy New Year's!!!!

Christmas Fun

Here are a few snapshots of our Christmas activities:

The kids and I made our annual trip to The Festival of Trees with mom.  We had to stop and see Santa first!  Hannah asked for a Jasmine costume, and Jacob decided he wanted a toy frog.  He didn't understand why he didn't get it right then though.  He thought we were "at Christmas."

One of my friends did a Disney World tree, so she put pictures of Hannah and Jacob on it.  That was fun!!

Jacob was pouting in the background because he wanted his toy frog....

Josh hung lights on our house, and Hannah helped a bit.  It turned into a bigger ordeal than we thought it would.  We ended up having to go to Target to get all new lights.

We attended "A Catlin Christmas" for the first time this year.  Santa comes to downtown Catlin, and they light the city Christmas tree.  We had a a lot of fun!  The Georgetown Fair Queen was also there, and my kids were just as excited about her as they were Santa Claus!  She told Hannah that she's going to wear a red gown to the Queen Luncheon this spring, so now Hannah thinks she needs a red gown.  She actually went home and made one out of paper!

Hannah got to put the star on top of the tree!

Grandma Teresa came over to make gingerbread houses with us.  We used graham crackers and hot glue to build the frames.  It made them much easier to do!!!

Hannah and I made "Grinch kabobs" for her preschool snack.  We also took red and green goldfish, and Hannah thought it was "the best snack ever!"

The kids sang in the church Christmas program this year.  They were really cute!  During the 2nd service, Jacob's ear started bothering him, and we found out the next day that he had his 2nd ever ear infection.  Poor guy!

I brought home matching Disney Christmas pajamas from the Disney Store in Chicago.  The kids loved them!

The picture above is Jacob and Hannah dressed up for their Thursday school Christmas party!

This is Hannah's preschool class, all in their pj's for a fun Christmas party, watching The Polar Express!

Hannah and Jacob had fun helping me make some Christmas goodies, and we went with Grandma Teresa to deliver tins to several of the elderly people in our church.  The kids thought this was really fun, except maybe when one of the older ladies got out her broom and swept them off while they were standing on her doormat.

We got to go to the Christmas party at the library again!  Mrs. Claus was there and took their letters to Santa Claus, who sent them a letter back in the mail!!

Christmas Sunday at church was fun!  We had a birthday party for Jesus in the 4s/5s class.  We got a new train table on Black Friday for the classroom, which Josh put together for us.  It was a big hit!  We also had birthday hats and cake for Jesus!

This is proof of all of our fun.  Jacob rarely crashes in the living room!

Downing Family Christmas

Our final family Christmas was with the Downing side on Christmas Day.  As soon as we opened our gifts at home and had breakfast, we headed over to Champaign.  We announced our big news as soon as we got there.  When I walked in the door, everyone said, "We already know it's a boy."  We gave Papa Steve a bag of pink truffles to open.  Everyone was surprised!  But this side of the family was due for another girl.  Since Hannah, we have had four boys: Jacob, Landon, Dash, and Liam.  So another girl is pretty exciting!  That is the exact opposite of the Sudlow side, where Jacob is the only boy among four girls in the last five years!  We'll see if Paul and Alisa can break that streak!

Jacob and Landon don't sit still long enough for a picture, but they looked cute in their matching shirts!

Hannah got lots of fun gifts, including a Kindle Fire and a new Lalaloopsy doll!

Jacob's favorite gift was his Rody; all of the kids wanted one after they saw it!  

He also got a sled and several other fun things!

Christmas at the Downing house is always a lot of fun.  I have spent every Christmas Day with them since before Josh and I were married.  They always play "the brown bag game" with dice, have the same (yummy!) banana split dessert, and open presents in a completely unorderly, everyone at once fashion (this is the only part that stresses me out!).  Josh has really fun aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Christmas is still weird without Grandma Downing.  But we had two new babies there this year, and that was fun!  It's just a long, laid back kind of day, and it's always lots of fun!  I hope we're able to continue this tradition for many years to come!

Our Family Christmas

Christmas morning at our house was much anticipated this year, as our gender results had been sitting in my stocking for three weeks waiting to be opened.  I tossed and turned all night the night before, but I'm not really sure why.  I didn't really care one way or the other, but I kept dreaming about whether I was having a boy or girl and then waking up, wondering how much more time we had to go.  I was just ready to know!

Before we got to my most exciting part though, we let the kids find their gifts and stockings.  Santa left a Jasmine costume on the tree for Hannah, which she has been wanting for several months.  There was a Mickey mat with cars under the tree for Jacob, but what he really wanted from Santa was on the top of his stocking-a toy frog!  That is all that boy really wanted for Christmas this year, just a little toy frog!  The kids had lots of goodies in their stockings like new socks, underwear, special ornaments, toothbrushes, etc.

Each of the kids had one gift to unwrap.  Jacob got a book about dinosaurs, and Hannah got a framed picture from our Disney World trip for her room.

Santa left a note with his empty plate and glass!

Then came the BIG news of the day!!!  We finally got to open our envelope!!  I was nervous to open it!  With Hannah and Jacob, the ultrasound tech kind of casually mentioned the gender during the ultrasound; I had no control or anticipation of the moment we would find out, so this was different!  But I was ready to just know!  I opened the card that our tech had filled out to find that we were having a GIRL!!!  Everyone was happy except poor Jacob.  He kept crying and saying that he wanted a boy.  It was so funny!  We got it on tape, so I'm sure that will be a treasured family keepsake forever!  

After we found out the results, I pulled out a sleeper that I had bought for the baby.  I had a feeling that it was a girl for quite awhile.  But, I did have a dream that it was a boy, which confused me because my dreams with Hannah and Jacob had both been right.  In my dream, I kept saying, "I thought it was a girl; I thought it was a girl."  And it seemed like EVERYONE thought I was having a boy, for some reason.  So by the end, I was feeling pretty confused but still would have put my money on "girl."    

We got to have fun telling all of our family that day.  Hannah called Grandma Jody and told her.  She was excited to get to tell her.  After we made our traditional, homemade doughnuts for breakfast, we ran by my parents house and gave them a bag of pink truffles on our way to Josh's family, where we got to announce it to everyone!  It was fun to wait and to do something different, but I'm so glad I know now.  I feel more connected, being able to picture life with another girl, thinking more specifically about her name, and getting all of her stuff ready.  It was a fun Christmas surprise that I will never forget!