Christmas Week Snapshots

From Christmas Eve on, we were a busy family! Somewhat ironic considering the rest of December was pretty mild mannered. Each day was booked from morning 'til evening. Christmas morning at our place, Christmas evening with my parents.Walks. Making forts. Shopping for our van. A mini-Swenson gathering {Eleven people is mini for the Swenson clan}. Swedish pancake bfast with some Swensons who stayed the night. Cleaning the house and putting decorations away. Attacking 12 loads of laundry. And attempting once again to organize our garage. That only brings us to Friday.

This is some of what I caught...

To The Dark Side

I'm a minivan Mama and proud of it.

{Holy Cow! Did that just come out of my mouth?!}

We spent all stinking day at the dealerships {honda, kia, and toyota} on Monday and walked away with the sweetest ride. I won't lie: it was one of the more painful and stressful times {perhaps because we ALL went}, but the reward was HUGE. I just don't want to repeat that for many many many more years. A big big BIG thanks to my parents. They did A TON of leg work to help us get the right fit at a fair price AND helped with an extremely exhausted/hyper two-year-old.

We decided on the Toyota Sienna which was slightly unexpected. I thought for sure I'd love the Odyssey. But the dealership has this demo and it was perfect...even a great charcoal color. My favorite parts so far? The automatic doors, seat warmers, and sun roof. I still have a lot to learn with all these buttons. I never thought I'd be so happy to own a minivan. Figured hell would have to freeze over before I drove one. But these last 4 months with two little ones and a two door car pushed me way over the edge. I didn't even want to see the Pilot.

Good-bye, Little Red Devil. {W's nickname that he gave to my cabrio when we were dating}. You have served me well these past eleven years! But it's now time to move on to a bigger and better vehicle....

 

Four Years of Us

FOUR years

{taken just four years ago...right before our wedding}

THREE jobs

{black tie, t & d, and now ssf}

TWO boys

ONE full life

Happy anniversary to my hot hubby! I'm so thankful you made me your wife four years ago. On to the next 46.... :)

{anybody else notice that W changes his hair style as much as I do?? ;)}

Christmas Through The Years

Yet another year next to our tree!! This time we're all sporting our footed pjs from Gma!

Did you know you can actually get adult footed-pjs? And yes, this will be W's second pair. 

Just last year...

And the year before that...

Who knows who will be added in the years to come! :)

And don't worry, it's not just you...we both look quite tired come Christmas morning.

Tree Art

I was playing with my settings on Christmas Eve while W was assembling one of E's toys...

From Ours to Yours

xoxo,

W + J

plus our two

{and in case you are wondering...we didn't get a chance to send out cards this year!}

In Lieu

In lieu of my mom and I's tradition of heading into the city, we headed out to Blackhawk Plaza with Gpa and the boys this year. I was more than a little bummed. I love the city but especially during Christmas time. There wasn't anything I wanted to buy, but I love seeing the window fronts and the people hustling about. SF just wasn't going to happen during this busy season with little ones. 

We grabbed some warm drinks, brought our duck food, and walked around the plaza. It was quite chilly that afternoon. 

E loved throwing the food at 'em. And T, in his customary formed, missed all the action.

Gpa came too and played with E while Gma and I sneaked into my favorite store. Walking back to the car after the fun, I leaned over and told my mom, "Yeah, there was no way we could have done the city joyfully." Her reply, "I know. I'm a good mother and good mothers know these things."

Maybe next year.

Happy Boy

Love him!

Our Christmas Must-Reads

Last year, I posted some books that we were reading during the Christmas/winter season. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I just love a good theme then finding books to fit accordingly. We have a special basket set aside for our library books {in the hopes to avoid late fines} and for this month, I added our Christmas-y ones too. Here's E's favorite from this year...

Snowmen at Christmas

I bought this cute little board book last year and Ezra loves it. It's an adorable, rhyming tale sharing how snowmen celebrate Christmas.

The Little Drummer Boy

Another one of his total favorites. I know Gma and Gpa have read this to him many many times throughout this past year, which may have fostered his love for it now. He requests this book while he rides his horse {the big Swenson chair} and will 'sing' some of the words with me. And, of course, I love that it's by an Ezra too.

Silent Night

 This was an awesome but surprising find at our library. It's another song book, but the illustrations are amazing. I wasn't too keen on the cover, but after going through the whole book, I loved it! It depicts the Nativity story in beautiful blues, grays, and whites. And there's one scene with Mary nursing baby Jesus with angels, Joseph, and the sheep that just so precious. Something about it just hit close to home and brought the story to life. I think I know the whole "he came to earth as a helpless baby", but to see that simple scene of nursing him made it that much more real. Oh, yeah, he was a baby and had to be fed. Plus, it's a great way to share a Christmas Carol's meaning through its pictures. I think I may have to add this one to our personal collection.

Polar Express

This one is like a "duh!" book this year. He totally getting into the train-loving stage. Ezra first saw the movie with his cousins down in Orange County and has since requested it many times. I picked this one up at the library too just to make sure he'd like it before buying it. It was an instant hit. And Chris Van Allsburg is one of my favorite favorite children's authors. He packs in SO much into his books! My 5th graders did a ton of literary analysis with his books and could easily write a response to literature essay too. So good for developing higher levels of thinking!

Song of the Stars

Ezra just got this one for his birthday and already we love it. It's by the same author as the Jesus Storybook Bible. A beautiful story about how all the animals are awaiting the Prince of Peace!

Santa Mouse

This is one of my books from childhood that my mom gave me. It's a completely silly story and sometimes it feels like the rhyme is forced, but he likes it. And I do too, but just for sentimental reasons. ;)

Any other good books we should know about??

His Birthday

It was really nice to have E's birthday fall on a Saturday this year. We started it out with our regular Saturday morning banana pancakes, with a special candle and song twist.

Then we bundled up for a walk downtown.

We checked out all the sights down and back. {Proof that I was there too ;)}

Back at home for naps & to finish the remaining details of his party. E must have been too excited for napping because he had a running dialogue with himself instead.

Then it was party time at the gparent's house. 

We decided to do another low-key, family and long time friends party. I still haven't mustered up the guts to take on a kids' party. And with this season of stress and too-much, I'm totally okay keeping it low-key until he gets a bit older. I decided to play it up just a little more compared to last year. I actually got a theme and color scheme. Major steps, I know. I went with "Cupcakes + Cocktails" for our theme and with his "Born TWO ride" shirt, red and white for colors. It also happen to tie into the season too! Both actually simplified my planning a ton. 

Guess what we served? Yup, cupcakes and cocktails. Simple as that. 

W was in charge of making icing & topping the cupcakes a friend & I had made earlier in the week {and froze}. The menu called for two different types of cream cheese frosting: Peppermint and Vanilla. Thanks to pinterest, I found a fabulous yummy blog called Glorious Treats, where I also used her cupcake recipes.

My mom put out Ezra's three baby albums that she has so far. So fun to see all that we've done together these last two years. 

We ate, drank, and filled the kitchen and living room up.

E totally loved opening gifts. The only thing he didn't get was why he had to keep opening them, instead of stopping to play with each item. And he completely devoured his cupcake!

Can't believe we have a TWO year old!!

{can you just see the zombie eye-glaze that's in that boy's eyes?! completely and utterly exhausted!}

You Are TWO!

Dearest Buki Buk,

You are now TWO years old! Which mean that you have been alive for almost three years or roughly 1,000 days. Your mother and I have welcomed you into our household and family and we are so glad you are our son!. And now your baby brother Theo, has also been richly blessed by having you as an older brother. 

Since before you were born you have been prayed over. Before anyone but God (and a few med techs) knew you were going to be our firstborn son we read and sang to you so that you would know our voices when we met you in the flesh. We are raising you to be a child who will grow into a man of God, and as such we have both high expectations of you and lots of grace and patience to teach you. You will make many mistakes, as will Mama & Papa, but we can get through them by God's grace and lots of continual forgiveness and love. As Mama & Papa follow God, you can follow Papa & Mama in learning how to be obedient and grateful.

Ezra David Swenson

Born December 17, 2009 at 9:53 am

--You are talking so much! And you're getting very good at asking, "Please?" and saying, "Thank you." ("tantoo")

--You love to jump from the stairs into our arms (just make sure to TELL us you're jumping FIRST!)

--You're riding your own bike now! And you've learned that you must always wear your helmet--thank you!

--You finally got your *official* first haircut--and it made you look so much older!

--You absolutely, unequivocally love your baby brother Theo! 

--You call Eggnog "Egg milk"...and can easily down two servings a day

--You're ability to remember little details is astounding: the Christmas Tree lights in the morning, your stream sound at night, hanging up your potty (like your cousins in Fountain Valley do)

--You eat the middle out of your toast/bread

--You love being read to, and you're starting to look through books by yourself

--You enjoy singing. And by, "singing" I mean, "screaming the lyrics you know at the top of your lungs." 8o)

--"Mo mo" {motorcycle} is still a very active part of your vocabulary

--Papa gets to throw you up and down and you LOVE it! Much to the chagrin of every mother who sees you flying through the air. 

We love you, BIG boy!