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! 

Happy Birthday Quentin!

Bringing cookies for my friends at school!

I cannot believe it but we have a three year old on our hands.  It was around 9:30 in the morning that we headed off to the hospital on a Thanksgiving Saturday to have our first born.  We can't believe it's been 3 years already.  He can talk, run, jump, skip, ride a bike, he's lived in two states, taken more plane trips in 3 years than half the population does in a life time and still, I mean still he doesn't sleep through the night.  He hasn't made it one night yet since moving back to the sunshine state.  He's Quinny, baby!  He didn't sleep all that great last night because he was so excited to wake up and have a special birthday breakfast of pancakes, muffins and COOKIES!  We told him he could take the cookies to school. Here is a picture of how excited he was to do that.  He's so cute and can't wait to come home to his Lightning McQueen cake with Tow Mater as his trusty side kick.  And PRESENTS!

A quick side bar to tell you how much he enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner.  He has his plate full of food and mom asks him what he likes best.  His reply, "I like that, I like that, I like that, I like that, I like that and I like that."  He officially pointed to everything on this plate and deemed it his favorite.  So easy to please!



2nd Birthday!



Carrie's parents, Poppa and Nana, flew in last night much delayed due to mechanical issues. They needed a new cockpit seat.  I suppose that's important.  We didn't get back to the house until after 12:30 am so no one got any sleep.  Of course this is our house, so that's par for the course.  We should have more family coming over to help celebrate with cousin Rachel and Aunt Peg with possibly a few more cousins in tow.  Last time Q saw Aunt Peg he would snort like a pig every time someone said her name.  He has a much better grasp of his venacular today from that stage.

 

We're very proud of him.  I am going to post some pictures here of the last year of Q and then I'll add another post with some pictures of the celebration. 



X-mas 2010






Havin' some morning joe






Easter 2011






Halloween 2011

 


Practicing those hops!






At the river, fishing July 2011

  

I will get back to blogging!  I promise.  We moved and then the renters sort of trashed the place.  It wasn't physically damaged with holes and such but they smoked and I mean chiefed em' down like it was an Olympic event.  That has caused us to do an enormous amount of cleaning and painting.  Add children of ages 1 and 3 and you get very little free time.  We painted the master bedroom Sunday and finished around 10:30 pm and then realized we couldn't sleep in the room.  Ha!  Not really thinking things through.  At any rate we'll get back to blogging.  Since being back we've installed an attic floor (storage - hurray!), painted Gavin's room, the master bedroom, the master bath, got the Christmas lights decorated outside, the tree up, done some much needed yard work, went to Disney World (kids are free until age 3 so we snuck that one in by about 10 days) and hung curtains like a real house!  I'll get more posts I promise so check back.  I am committing to a minimum of 2 posts a week for the foreseeable future.  I'll get another one out tomorrow with birthday pics!

hanging with lil' bro



July in Door County, WI 2011