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!