This week (A Team Week 63) was the first week of December, which meant it was the start of the Christmas Season. Although it was a very busy week, it was one full of wonderful memory-making family moments.
On Monday night, I worked hard to get the Christmas lights up in the evening so that we could decorate the tree the next day. Then on Tuesday night we skipped our bible study to have a family Christmas decorating night at home. The boys loved helping me put the ornaments on the tree and Eric was thrilled that he had to put in very little help for us to finish the task. Asher did a great job helping and this was the first year that he could really do it on his own (although that does mean we had a lot of ornaments near the bottom of the tree). Avery wasn't quite as interested in helping. He was more interested in playing with the boxes that the ornaments are stored in and trying to play with the ornaments (or small toys in his mind) whenever I wasn't looking.
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| Eric and the boys admiring the final result of our work. |
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| My peanut sleeping on Wednesday morning. |
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| Asher sporting some new socks on Wednesday night. |
On Thursday morning, my mom headed down to Kenosha to spend the weekend with us. She arrived while I was at work late that morning and ran a few errands for us. Then in the early afternoon (after they had woken from their naps) Eric got the boys and brought them home so that they could spend the rest of the day with Grandma.
On Friday it was Cookie Day! Once all three of my boys were off to work and daycare, Mom and I worked hard all day to make the cookies for this holiday season. We had a great day of visiting with each other, working side-by-side and taste testing our creations. Everything went really well, except for the fact that I had some serious butter fingers and ended up dropping three separate sheets of cookies/candies on the floor (don't worry those all went in the trash!). Although this was a bit frustrating, the good part was that two of the treats were easy-to-make candies that were no problem to duplicate and the third was my favorite holiday cookie...which meant that after making more I ended up with about 50% more cookies than I normally would have had and am still enjoying them at this time (3 days AFTER Christmas). :)
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| Mom, helping to clean up the first fallen cookie batch. |
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| Me working hard on Christmas candies...a time-consuming treat, but so simple and delicious! |
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| When Avery got home from daycare, he was not convinced that he should stay away from the cookies on the table as I asked. Every time I turned around, he was trying to find a way up to the yummy treats. At one point, I turned around and caught him up on the chair just a grasp from the cookies. If I had only caught him a few seconds later he would have gotten himself a tasty treat! |
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| I caught you silly boy! |
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| We saved the Spritz Cookies for last, since I thought Asher would enjoy helping me decorate them. I tried to show him how to lightly sprinkle the cookies with colored sugar, but he just couldn't do it. He would start light and then decide enough wasn't coming out and hold the container upside-down over the cookie until the dough was completely covered and only a pile of sugar remained. |
On Saturday, we had another very busy day. We spent the morning finishing the Christmas cookies and putting more decorations up around the house. Then around lunch time we headed down to Illinois to meet up the rest of the Klingenmaier clan along with the Thomson clan to celebrate the recently past and up-coming birthdays of our nephews Hudson and Micah.
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| Asher posing in his carseat...a photo to send to Graco as we continue the on-going saga of carseat frustration. |
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| My boys sharing a loving chocolate-covered morning "hug". |
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| Avery found some extra ornaments lying around and was convinced they needed to go on the tree. |
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| While I was putting some cookies in the fridge Saturday morning to cool, Avery snuck in and stole a snack for himself: A small bowl of leftover green beans! He happily walked around the house with his beans and ate the whole bowlful! |
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| Mom and I showing off the finished product of our Cookie Weekend. |
For the birthday party, we headed down to
2Toots Train Whistle Grill in Bartlett, Illinois. It was a cute little hamburger joint with a toy train that travels all around the restaurant to deliver your food. The boys both thought it was pretty awesome, but a bigger hit than the train was a rideable horse that resembled Sandy at Meijer. It was a big hit!
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| Avery watching the train go around the track. |
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| Avery getting a pony ride from Grandma. |
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| Aaron with his birthday boys (Micah: Almost 6, Hudson: 2) |
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| The grandparents catching up. |
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| My happy guy. |
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| Birthday boy #1. |
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| Birthday boy #2. |
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| Hudson enjoying his gift opening. |
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| More rides before it's time to head home. |
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| Avery with his due-date buddy (September 19, 2014) Christopher (Micah & Hudson's cousin). |
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| They were so cute while we tried to get them to stand still for a photo together. Avery put his hands on the wall behind him and tried to smile very big, totally hamming it up for the camera! He has also started to say "chhh" (aka "Cheese") when the camera is out. |
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| The Cuties (born 9 days apart...Christopher 4 days early, Avery 5 days late). |
When the birthday party was over, the fun didn't stop. We headed North with the Klingenmaier clan to Bass Pro Shop to try and get a picture with Santa. When we arrived (around 5pm) we found that all of the Santa passes for the day were already gone, even though Santa would still be around for three more hours! We were disappointed, but since we were already there we decided to walk around for a bit to let the kids explore.
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| Asher practicing his pontoon boat driving to work up to driving Gramps and Grammy's boat someday! :) |
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| Avery checking out the BPS fish. |
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| Kissing themselves? |
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| Hudson and Avery checking out the fish together. |
After walking around the store for a bit, Eric decided to see if there was anyway that we could see Santa after all. Once again, he showed me that all you have to do is ask. He went to one of the back counters and saw a pass sitting on the counter. He told the employee there that our whole family had driven a ways to go there and see Santa together for a family photo. He then asked if they had any passes left that we could have and the employee ended up giving him the pass that was on the counter. Thus we spent a little more time walking around the store, along with a quick jaunt to the Lego Store, and then we were able to go see Santa.
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| Asher driving the remote control trucks. |
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| Avery and Asher enjoying the Lego Store. When we walked into the store we were surprised by a childhood first: Asher's first leg cramp. We walked into the store and he immediately started screaming and saying his leg hurt. It was so bad that an employee came up to us and asked if he was alright. We took them back out of the store and I massaged Asher's leg until he calmed down and the cramp went away. Then we went back inside to oogle at the blocks and play for a bit. |
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| Micah and Asher racing the cars as we wait for Santa. |
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| Eric and Avery enjoying a snack as we wait for Santa. |
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| Avery found what he wanted to ask Santa for for Christmas. |
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| Asher coloring a Christmas picture. |
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| Our 2015 Klingenmaier photo with Santa. |
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| We wanted to get a picture of all the boys with Santa, but Avery and Hudson were not keen on sitting on Santa's lap, so Aaron and I joined the picture. |
Side Note: When we were waiting to see Santa I asked Asher if he was going to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He said he just wanted to say hi. When it came time to see Santa, Micah and Caleb excitedly told Santa what they wanted (Micah asked for a rocket!). Then Santa looked at Asher and asked him what he wanted. We all stood there waiting for him to respond for a while and when he finally decided to speak he just looked at Santa and shyly said, "hi."
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| Family Photo! <3 |
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| Klingenmaier family of 5 for just a few more days. |
On Sunday, we finished our first week of the Christmas Season by playing with the babies in the church nursery, taking part in the Christmas photo booth at church, enjoying some naps and a craft project at home and then catching up with our good friends for dinner after their return from a temporary move to Texas. It was another great day and a great way to end another great week.
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| Our first attempt at the church Christmas photo booth: my eyes are closed and Asher is grumpy :( |
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| 2nd attempt. Better, but still can't see much of Asher. I guess it just wasn't our day. Oh well, we tried. :) |
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| Asher decorating the felt Christmas tree we made. |
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| Avery got in the on the fun. |
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| Every time Avery put an ornament on the felt tree he would be so excited that it stuck for him. I would say "yay Avery!" and he would turn around proudly smiling hide and cheering for himself! :) |
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| Asher and best-bud Theo together again! Love these guys! |
Final Side Note: This week Asher was extremely affectionate. All week he told us hundreds of times a day (literally, I think it averaged about every couple of minutes) that he loved us. It was so sweet, but I have to admit that after you hear it a few hundred times (in such a short period) it does tend to lose a bit of its meaning. By the time the week was done my responses were not quite as enthusiastic as they had been earlier in the week, but they still warmed my heart! <3
