Merry Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! We trust everyone is having a fantastical day opening gifts and generally being merry. We attended the children's program at church last night, which Quinny thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun to see all the little kids performing. We could envision Quinny and Gavin up there causing all kinds of trouble while teachers were trying their best to corral them. Maybe next year.

After church we headed home for some gift opening and dining. We had a spread of shrimp, a nice plate of delicious Wisco cheese, various dips and an assortment of candies and cookies. We were still munching at midnight. The boys opened some gifts and the fam was given Rose Bowl T-shirts. Not every team can play in the Prestigious Insight Bowl. Check out our championship pic posted.

This morning we're heading out to the Reiter's to continue our 12 days of Christmas literally.  The boys have opened gifts now for four different days and we woke up saying Merry Christmas! again because there will be more celebrating tonight.  Here are a few pics of the last few days.

'Twas the Night before Christmas....

Santa's little helper

It's Christmas Eve and we have officially arrived in the cold north leaving 78 degree Florida yesterday and landing in 28 degree Wisconsin. Ironically my sister and her family arrived in sunny Florida to spend Christmas at Disney World. She was raving about the weather once she arrived. It's been a really warm winter for everyone this year. People were talking about how great the 28 degrees has been. "It's not even cold!" It's too bad we won't have a white Christmas to enjoy but it will be nice to see all our friends and family.

Leaf blower goggles

After getting picked up at the airport we hit the road to drive to Lake Geneva and it started snowing. Not enough to accumulate but it was nice to see. The boys were good on the plane considering we're traveling over the holidays with a 1 and 3 year old.  How many people are doing that this year? The first leg went really well and we had good seats on a big plane. We had a short layover in Cincinnati before boarding a tiny little tin can to Milwaukee. These small planes are a killer.  There are only 2 seats to a row so we're separated and both boys and Carrie need to be in the same row because the plane only has 2 seats with more than 2 masks that drop down if the cabin were to depressurize.  Strangely there were few people traveling. We didn't wait in line at all; not to check in, not at security and the airport was no more crowded than usual. Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty were at our gate wishing us a Merry Christmas and handing out candy canes to send us off.

We celebrated our family Christmas before leaving and Quentin was so excited we got zero sleep. He had a tough time going to sleep. The 7 cookies before bed may have contributed. I will take full credit for that one. "Come on Care it's Christmas! I paid the price being on Quinny duty all night. He was up at 10:30, 12:00, 4, and at 4:30 I threw in the towel and he climbed into bed with us. Gavin was already in there so it was a 4:30 am family Christmas in bed. Not sure what we would do if we had 3 or 4 kids. Do they make bigger beds than a king? At 6, giving up on sleeping, we headed out to the tree to see if Santa was able to sneak in the house for the 20 minutes the whole family was sleeping. Q couldn't understand why he couldn't see Santa. I think he wanted to wait for him, which is why he didn't get much sleep. Jimmy the Elf took off with Santa and is back at the North Pole until next year.  We'll all miss Jimmy.  He was such a nice addition to the family.  The last night he was hanging upside down from the fan so he pulled out all the stops for his last 48 hours with the Spiegelhoff's.

Quinny enjoyed opening as many presents as possible more so than what was inside. He tore through all of his, most of Gavin's, most of mine and wanted "More! More! More!" all day long. It was nice but a little strange being in shorts, no fire place and no other family to share the day with. Quinny and Gavin got a new sandbox to play with, a school bus and Q received a leaf blower which he loves and won't put down. They had a nice little haul and we had an enjoyable family day eating and playing all day.  We're looking forward to spending the next few days celebrating the holidays with our extended family.  Merry Christmas!

I'm growing up

I'm not sure if Quinny is hanging out with some older boys or what but he's really tearing through the potty mouth vocabulary. Let's put this in perspective. The word fart is funny until you're what? (male perspective here) 23 years old? Does he really need to start throwing it around six seconds after turning 3? I'm positive he'll get tons and tons of mileage out of it through the years.  I was thinking that sort of thing wasn't funny until they were 7.  It's not a word we use in the house so he has to be picking it up from school.  We prefer fluff or toot. Much tamer wouldn't you agree?  Maybe he gets beat up at school for saying he just fluffed a little.  Ha! 

He told me he was going to kill me the other day.  Um, no sweet, sweet boy of mine.  You're going to need me around for a little why to keep buying you fruit snacks.  We have no idea where he got that.  Is he growing up or is it the rough and tough landscape of the urban city environment he's now part of?  What's next?  I'm going to pick up him from school and he'll let me know he joined the Hell's Angels?  Isn't that an oxymoron anyway?

It's been unseasonably warm here like in the 80s and I think normally this time of year it should be in the frigid 60s.  We hear there is no snow on the ground up north and wonder if we'll have a dead grass Christmas instead of a white one.  You know we could host Christmas if you wanted the kind where you put your toes in the sand and say nasty things about the poor people up north having to warm up their cars just to drive them.  Anyone game?  The weather has been great and I think I'm going to play golf tomorrow.  I look forward to shooting in the 120s and losing as many balls that want to get away.  Jimmy the elf told me it would be cool if I took a little time to hack away.  Golf in December.  Sounds great.

Jimmy has been using his mighty elf magic flying back and forth to the north pole each night landing in various spots like the plant on top of the kitchen cabinets (AKA the jungle), on top of every picture frame we own, in the blinds, the doorbell, alarm system, Christmas tree and so on.  Poor Jimmy is running out of places to perch. One day he found himself inside the aquarium.  Turns out Jimmy can hold his breath for a really long time!  Christmas will be coming early down here.  Santa is set to arrive on Thursday morning.  Wednesday night we'll lay out the cookies and milk to help entice him down from the North Pole a little early.  I'm sure he would like a reprieve from all that cold.  We hit the road on Friday to head up north so the boys will get 3 Christmases. Living far away has its perks too.

We're loving the Christmas cards.  It's great to see the pictures and hear how everyone is doing.  Keep them coming.  Ours went out with a website stamped on the back that reads www.babyannouncements.com.  We just wanted to clear up any confusion.  As far as I know we're still having twins.  No, no we're not.  We're looking for a 2012 filled with nights of long uninterrupted blissful dream filled hours so no announcements happening here. 

Tis the Season....

Everyone slept last night - hurray!  I literally went to bed before Quinny did around 7:30 pm and slept the whole night.  Quinny and Gavin did too.  You should see how joyful our household is this morning.  Everyone is rested, happy and enjoying each other's company.  Who knew what a little sleep could do for a family?

Carrie and I took the day off and did some Christmas shopping yesterday.  There are multiple malls down here so we went our separate ways and ended up at different ones.  Just to give you an idea of the differences between the mall down here and the mall in Cedar Rapids I parked in the normal jammed mall lot next to a black Ferrari 458 spider.  As in this guy isn't concerned about door dings.  (I drive the same car I bought when I graduated college - black beauty-it's not a Ferrari).  On the way out I can see through the glass doors of the department store and I believe I see a Lamborghini parked outside.  Yup, there it was.  Also a convertible just parked right outside the front door.  If you care you can view it here.  It's the white convertible in the corner.  The point is I need to make more friends.  Oh and there are a lot less pick up trucks in the mall parking lot in comparison to Cedar Rapids.  And there is a Gap.  A Gap!

It's fun, actually fun shopping for your kids.  I used to just dread going to the mall.  I hated it.  I think for the past decade I've done 95% of all my shopping online, but now that I have a three-year old, a kid that loves opening up gifts, hangs with Jimmy the she-elf (more on that in a minute) and let's us know what he told Santa he wants for Christmas a few times a day makes this whole shopping, pushing people out of your way to get the last spider man toy while waiting in line for 45 minutes to pay for something that's ridiculously overpriced it may give the average human a coronary is fun.  Legitimate enjoyment!  We get to play with all the toys to try them out and we know how much he will love X when we stumble upon it.  This regular Scrooge might have turned the corner.  I might be a Rudolph this year.  I'm sure it helps it's 78 degrees outside and I'm trying to get to my car to blast the A/C to cool off instead of scraping the snow off.

Quinny definitely thinks Jimmy is a she.  I'm sure our little elf has no issues being a semi-transsexual at which point Carrie chimed in that they sell skirts and we could get him one.  Now, I'm just looking out for Jimmy but if I was an elf, one that can't talk to us mind you, hearing all this and only being able to talk to Santa at night I would be freaking out.  So, being the only adult male I'm just trying to do Jimmy right and vetoed the skirt idea.  Don't forget the golf clubs this year Jimmy when you talk to Santa tonight - wink, wink.

Here is a link to our family photographer's blog that took hosted a holiday party and tooks some pics of the boys.  Click this link to get there.

PS  I did get a permanent link posted in the upper left corner to Mindy and Cory's blog so you can come here to link to theirs if you wish.  They have a tough holiday season coming up so I know they will appreciate your well wishes.

Jimmy the Elf

Some of you may be familiar with Jimmy the Greek the gambling guru but the Spiegelhoff's now have Jimmy the Elf.  I was told last year about this Elf on the Shelf book that would keep your children semi-in line for the holiday season.  You buy the book, which comes with an elf.  You let your kids name him.  Quinny originally wanted Cocky.  Not sure where that came from but we didn't think it real appropriate.  Every morning I was going to have my children running around asking, "Where is Cocky?  Is Cocky going to tell Santa I was good?" You get the picture.  We settled on a timeless holiday favorite, Jimmy. 

Jimmy sitting on a pitcure frame

Jimmy the Elf is a skinny little dude with a nice Florida tan. Check out the picture.  Jimmy secretly told me he loved the assignment because spending so much time at the north pole is very cold so it was nice to be able to get a tan in the middle of winter.  The kids can talk to Jimmy providing their Christmas list or anything they want Santa to know. Jimmy just takes it all in.  He doesn't speak back.  He saves his words for Santa.  He makes sure to tell Santa everything that goes on whether the boys have been naughty or nice throughout the holiday season including what they do at school.  Then Santa will decide what they get for Christmas.  Jimmy can't be touched because we wouldn't want to jinx any of his elf magic so the boys cannot touch them.  Jimmy has helped out the boys in this arena by only "hiding" in high places.  Every night after the boys go to bed Jimmy uses his elf magic to whisk himself back to the north pole to fill Santa in on the day's events.  When he comes back in the wee hours of the morning he's in a different spot the so boys have to find him each morning.  It's an entertaining hoot!  "DADDY! DADDY! I FOUND JIMMY!!!"

So far it's worked pretty well.  Anytime we're on the verge of a three year old tantrum we just say Quinny, do you see Jimmy over there?  He's watching buddy.  It causes great confusion and reflection on Q's part.  He really wants to throw the tantrum but he really wants Santa to be happy with him too.  We usually settle on a happy medium, a shortened tantrum.  It definitely helps.  The book isn't cheap and can be found everywhere like Target if you're interested.  I suppose they imagine you are only going to buy one in a lifetime.  I was told to look for it after the holiday season for next year as it will be on sale. 

It worked out really well for us because we saw Santa at the Christmas party and we told him that Jimmy hitched a ride home with us.  That's gold, Jimmy, gold!  This parenting thing is too easy.  You just have to spend some time getting out of the box and enlisting a little holiday help from Jimmy the Elf.  On a side note we have some good friends that are going through a tough spot this holiday season and have started their own blog to keep their friends and family posted. I'm creating a link here for Cory and Mindy's blog.  If I can figure out how to use this technology I will post a permanent link somewhere on this site. 

Birthday Bash

Getting the new train set up

Q had so much fun at his birthday bash.  We went with a Cars theme.  Not sure how he is so in to that as he's never seen the movies but he loves Lightning McQueen and was stoked to get an RC McQueen car.  The reaction was priceless. We wish we had it on video but we just couldn't get it set up as fast as he opened up.  He was screaming with joy.  Cousin Rachel and Risa were there along with Aunt Peggy and Nana and Poppa so we had a full house.  He started realizing that every time someone walked in the door he got another present which prompted to start asking, "Who else is coming?"  Yup, that's it little buddy.  End of the line. 

So stoked to get an RC Lightning McQueen!

He's been on a three week birthday binge.  My parents were down for two weeks showering him with gifts.  And let's not forget we took him to Disney World.  Kids, they forget so soon.  What's next, what's next, what's next?  He received a buzz Lightyear talking action figure, which he also loved.  To infinity and beyooooond!  We gave him a wooden brio starter train set and some puzzles.  The kid loves puzzles and is really good at them.  He got his first video, Beauty and the Beast (the man version mostly about the beast) and some new dinosaur PJs.  All in all he had a great time. He received a card with a $20 in it - high rolling! And he wanted to take the bill to show and tell at school. Hilarious!  This is what money looks like people. Hard to find these days.  Everyone was so generous.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes he really loved and I mean loved the never ending celebrations.  It's a great age for him and he so enjoyed every moment I'm smiling ear to ear right now just thinking about the little turkey. 

The cake

I have so much to write.  We finally got all our computer equipment up and downloaded all these pictures.  I'll try to post a few of each in the coming days to catch everyone up from the last few months of Halloween, moving, Disney, Thanksgiving and his birthday. 

 Gavin is finally showing some interest in walking.  We can't tell if it's our fault or his laziness.  Carrie and I agree that we haven't spent nearly as much time with him trying to get him to practice as we did with Quinny so we'll make that more of a priority.  Maybe by Christmas.  I don't think so but we'll see.  Enjoy the pics!