Christmas 2012

We didn't have any huge plans for Christmas Eve this year. Every year since we've been married we've had some sort of family near on Christmas accept this year. We were planning on just laying low and spending it on our own. Then at our ward party as soon as I saw Nadine and invited her over with her boys (her husband is in Korea for a year) and when they accepted I was thrilled. We did our usual Christmas Eve dinner and then the Nativity. We've done this every Christmas Eve and love it. My Nativity dress up clothes bag is getting a little bigger each year and I've got some improvements to make as the kids get bigger they wont fit in pillow cases forever... The Albrecht boys were such great sports as I dressed them all up. Without further ado here is this year. (thank goodness for Nadine and her camera!!)

Mallie as the angel.

 Hannah as Mary.

 Ashton as a wiseman. Note the pillows are his camel.

 Michael as Joseph

 I love this picture. David reads Luke 2 every year while the kids act it out. I'm so glad she caught him doing this. I love that the kids will always have this memory of their Dad reading the story of Christ's birth every year.

 The cast. With Daniel and Neil as shepherds.

We put on a show for the kids for an hour so we could play Taboo with Nadine and her boys before they left. It was hilarious and so much fun to play with all those teenage boys. Then we opened new Christmas jammies (or in Mallie's case Hannah's old jammies because we have a bazillion 3T jammies). David always laughs at the things I try to skimp and save with.

 

Christmas Morning! We were woken up at 5am with Hannah saying her stomach hurt. Then she threw up all over her new Christmas jammies.

She opened some presents and then laid like this until noon.

 Meanwhile everyone else had a blast. Yes, we got the kids a skateboard. We live on a slight hill and the kids found an old skateboard in our lawn one day and would sit and ride tandem down the hill everyday. Until some kid finally realized it was his and took it back home. Now we officially own one.

We ate Christmas morning cinnamon rolls.

 Ashton has played with his castle all day every day since Christmas.

Lucy had Ashton help her open her presents. This one was a matching blankie with her siblings.

Here was the Sunday morning before Christmas.

Once again my attempt at a photo-op before church made us late. As you can see it wasn't worth it. David was devastated because we missed his favorite Christmas song ever "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day". All for this picture. Maybe 1 o'clock church in 2013 will at least be good for Holidays and my poor timing!

 

It was a magical Christmas. I chose to videotape Christmas morning this year. So I forfeited the pictures of  them coming down the stairs. I love Christmas as a parent. These kids kept saying "thank you" over and over and then Ashton a couple days ago told me he thought it was about time to write Santa a thank you letter. Sweet kids.

Merry Christmas 2012!

 

'Tis the Season

Before we get into the actual Christmas Eve/Day blog I wanted to document our Christmas season so far. We've been doing fun things left and right. Ashton wakes up every morning and asks me what's in the Christmas mailbox. Usually it's something easy like watch a Christmas movie or read a new Christmas book. But once in awhile we throw in something really fun.

 

Like going to the USO to meet Santa!!

They let all the kids pick out a donated gift. It was really awesome.

 I asked Ashton what in the world he was doing... he said, "I was just a little nervous." Mallie kept yelling, "I don't like that Santa." So she didn't even go near Santa's sleigh.

One day they got new Santa hats so Mom could try and get a picture.

Or going to SANTA'S MAGICAL KINGDOM in St. Louis. There is a small mountain right outside of St. Louis that is normally a campsite. Over the holidays they decorate it with thousands of lights and you drive through for ten minutes at 5 miles an hour. We unbuckled the kids and let them enjoy. Thank you Toyota for finally making a van with windows that roll down in the back!

This picture doesn't do it justice.

It was crazy awesome. David stuck his arm out the window to get this shot. Did I mention that David go sick on this trip to St Louis and threw up literally 5 minutes before we drove through? We promised the kids so he was a trooper and still let us go even though he was sick.

We've decorated Sugar Cookies!

With lots of sugar and sprinkles.

I love this time of year. Christmas with kids is magical! 5 more days!

What's working...

I've learned the first rule of parenting is trial and error. It doesn't matter how many people tell you do this or that you still have to figure out what works best for your kids and you as a parent. Some things work. Lots of things don't. So when something works I get giddy with excitement. Here are some things that have worked for us recently.

 

Behavior Charts.

 

I am a big fan of the Super Nanny. I love how she handles time out (or the naughty chair - 1 minute per year). But ever since cold weather has come upon us I've found that with the 3 kids (not in real school) aged so close together results in my entire day setting the timer. Super Nanny says it's one warning and then time out. We try not to be softies about this (David does way better than I do). We want them to understand it's one warning and we're not a broken record telling them over and again "no". That being said... 2,3 or 5 minutes in time out just because they got down from their chair at dinner was getting excessive for all of us. So I found a system that works for us. We've bee using it for just over 2 weeks and it's awesome. Here is the site I got it from.  In short, when they misbehave and it's something small on the 2nd warning they go flip over a coin (one of the circle pictures). To earn the coin back they have to help me (do an extra chore) or I catch them being nice. If they have all 5 coins flipped over when it's time for bed they get a sticker. After ten stickers they get a reward of their choice. Hannah and Mallie's are all food. Donut, Ice Cream Cone etc. Ashton has moved on to staying up late or a small Marvel Pack (he's going to have to use 20 stickers for that).

I used to think I wanted my kids to behave for the sake of being good without a reward. Couldn't they just be good to be good? There are rewards in life. And I would reward them all the time for being good with extra treats just not in such a structured way. This system has worked so well for us. It's visual for them AND so productive for me. Instead of wasting 3 minutes sitting in time out they get to do something extra to help out. We're loving it. Mallie is still a little young for it but we're still trying to help her understand. I'd say by age 3 they're old enough to get it. We wont need this system forever but for now it's changed our lives.

 

 

Next up - reading. I bought the classic Teach Your Kid to read in 100 Lessons off Amazon a year ago that everyone says works. It was horrible. You had to read prompts word for word and make flash cards. Ashton hated it and I did too. So a few months ago I bought this beauty.

This has changed how we both feel about teaching him to read. This book is so well laid out and in the perfect combination of sight words and sounding out on his own.

 

You get to open the book and read with your child instead of teaching at them. Here is what a page from the book looks like.

We started a little over a month ago and Ashton can read that whole page by himself. We do 1 page a day and it takes less than 5 minutes. I can't say enough good things about this book!!

So we've figured out some things. Ask me about how getting my kids to eat their vegetables or try new foods is going and you'll realize I'm still very humble in the parenting department. Although I still am a picky eater so I know I'm exuding a little too much sympathy in that aspect. We're learning as we go and I've accepted the fact that parenting is not to be figured out in one lump sum. Just mostly enjoyed as you get it step by step!

Surprise Party

So I hosted a surprise part for the very first time. My neighbor/dear friend/Relief Society President turned 40 last week. I got in touch with Nadine (one of her best buds) and we started planning. I've decided trying to plan a surprise party for someone who can barely keep track of their own schedule is near impossible. We changed dates a few times and then ended up switching a Relief Society activity to my house a different time just so we knew she couldn't plan anything else. Here are some of the text messages she showed us all later from her phone of us trying to convince her of the change. Then I accidentally ended up not making the FB invite set to private. So for three hours her invite was all over FB. Thank goodness she didn't see it.

 

Here is our little ODE to Kristi on her over the hill Birthday.

I keep wondering what we did before FB and an unlimited supply of pictures of everyone we know.

 

 Kristi is the one in pink. We told everyone else to wear black in her honor. We had a great turn out.

I've finally learned after hosting things over and over that all I need to do is to provide water bottles. Everyone so willingly covers the rest! I've said it again and again but we love it here. This picture just proves what a great ward I'm in. Phenomenal women and such great friends!!

Proud

Being thrown into the army life is a funny thing. David and I say we're fake army. Not because we don't want to be considered army but because as a dentist he has it easy. Compared to these incredible soldiers we're surrounded by on a daily basis we don't feel worthy to be thrown in their league. I'm grateful to see the army with new fresh eyes as an almost outsider because I still stand in awe of everything. Today we went to Ben's deployment ceremony for his company. I looked at my big brother standing in front of over a hundred soldiers and felt so much pride. Not just for Ben and what a great man he is but for the soldiers behind them who are heading to Afghanistan (the majority for their first time).

 That's Ben to the left of the flag.

In Church on Sunday a member of the Stake Presidency was explaining to the ward that Ben will be gone for a few months but will stay Bishop. He then said he knew he was going to be okay. As he talked about Ben and what a great guy he is I started to cry. I'm pretty sure I was subbing in for I'm sure what would be my mom's emotions had she been there. I was just so darn proud to be his little sister. I've always been proud of my brothers serving in the Army and their deployments but seeing it first hand makes it real. My Dad always calls us "The A team" and I was proud to represent 1/10  of the A team and the pride I know we all feel for Ben and his service.

Then while the National Anthem played I looked around at the women and felt so proud to be an Army wife. I shoudn't be associated with these women. Not by a long shot but I'm grateful none the less. I'm surrounded by so many women who accept this as part of their lives. Who have been without their husbands on multiple occassions for really long periods of time. It's not the norm for me to hear about it. I hope it never becomes normal. I want to always be as amazed as I now am at these families.

It's just what I needed after the election. I don't need to watch the news. This morning I knew our country was just as grand as it's always been. Hooah!!

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year. I was so excited these two little cousins born just a month apart could finally meet. Here are Lucy and Molly. 

Ashton LOVES Jeffrey and Debbie's boys.

I found Knightley and Ashton wrestling each other over and over again. Ashton loved that their was a boy cousin his age to play with.

Nana and Poppy with all the grandkids. The kids crawled all over Poppy constantly. Every time I turned around there was someone climbing up his legs or onto his lap. And Nana put the baby girls to sleep for us over and over again. I have 10 pictures of this pose... Too many kids to look one direction!

Awesome Aunts who helped take such good care of the kids the entire week!

I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to snap a group picture early in the morning before I had showered but here it is before everyone headed home.

Shout out to Debbie who never let me be in the kitchen alone. She was so awesome and helpful and even carved her first Turkey. I made gravy for the first time with the drippings and it was a success! I feel like I need to go re thank anyone and everyone who has ever hosted Thanksgiving and guests the same week again. It is a lot of work. AND a lot of fun!