No Place Like Home

This year was our first Christmas away from family (apart from our respective missions). Although it was much more low-key than our Christmases in Utah, we really enjoyed it. We feel so blessed to have so many great friends in Iowa and we loved spending the holidays with them. While there's no place like home for Christmas, Iowa comes pretty close. We spent Christmas Eve at the Taylor home along with the Frost family. The kids put on a nativity program. Maddie was the angel.

Cumorah played the part of Mary and her baby brother was Jesus. Isaac was Joesph and the Frost kids were shepherds.

Isaac kept his costume on for about 3 minutes-just long enough for Ryan to read from Luke 2.

I know I'm biased, but she made a darling little angel--wings, halo, and all.

Isaac spent a good chunk of Christmas morning playing with his new train and track. I spent a good chunk of the morning keeping Maddie from destroying said track.

She was pretty excited about her Dora doll and stroller.

We were also able to have Christmas brunch at the Somers' house and Christmas dinner at the Pluids'. It was a great day.

Here is a clip of Maddie opening her Dora doll.

Isaac opening his matchbox cars. The trailer wasn't as big of a hit as we hoped. He immediately re-gifted it to Maddie.

When Joseph went to Bethlehem

As I mentioned in a previous post, our Grandpa Reed wrote the music for the primary song, When Joesph went to Bethlehem. During this holiday season, and especially since Grandpa's passing, I have been working with Isaac on the words to his song in Spanish. Just this Christmas Eve morning he was able to call his Great Grandma Ruth and sing it to her. Here is a clip of Isaac singing Al Irse a Belen Jose.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Isaac's New Favorite Book

Here's a video clip for the grandparents of Isaac "reading" his new favorite book, David Goes to School.

He reads it so often that Maddie has even picked up on the phrases, except that the only words you can understand when she recites it are "No David!" and "Shhhhhhhhh!"

Maybe Next Year

In our 4 1/2 years of marriage, I have never been organized enough around Christmas to send out a Christmas card. Hats off to all of you who do it each year. Maybe next year I'll figure out how all of you do it. For now, this is as close as I could get.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our Picky Eater Update

First of all, thanks so much to all of you who commented on my last post--I really appreciate your advice and I've been implementing it the past few days. Expect me to ask for advice on the blog more often, because it has really helped!

Here are a few things that I have tried that have been working:

• No snacks before dinner. This was an easy one to drop because my kids rarely tell me that they are hungry (they must get that trait from their father).
• No more sippy cups. Here's why: Maddie is old enough to drink from a toddler-sized cup, so it's time for her to learn. We've been doing this for about a week now and it has worked well. Plus, she is also old enough that she doesn't need to have milk at her every disposal. With no more sippy cups, the only place she is allowed to drink milk is at her high chair at meal time. Do we have spills? Sure, but not nearly what I thought we would. Plus, I don't have to accidentally find a sippy cup in the toy box that was left there three days ago--nasty. This has helped her to have more of an appetite at meals because she isn't grazing on her milk all day long. I do let them drink water from a water bottle whenever they want, and I try to take one with me when we are out and about. I promise I'm not trying to dehydrate my children. And I haven't thrown the sippy cups away--they will come in handy when we go on long trips in the car or over to a friend's house and I don't want to risk having spills there. Maddie's doctor actually recommended this one. I'm still trying to convince Ryan that this is the way to go.
• The past few nights, I haven't given her anything to drink at mealtime until after she eats. Our little girl was filling up on milk alone and therefore had no need to try anything new. A couple of nights ago, when I didn't offer her milk, she ate all of the cooked carrots in her meal, then she threw a little "I'm almost two" fit. After she was done with the drama, she picked up her spoon and ate 4 or 5 bites of her baked potato (which for her, is a lot), complete with chili, broccoli, cheese, and sour cream. That was a huge step for us. Last night we had homemade pizza. Again, I didn't offer her anything to drink until after she ate. She downed a big piece of pizza that had various veggies that she had either never tried, or hadn't eaten in months, including spinach, olives, mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, and tomatoes. I was thrilled. Isaac, on the other hand, picked off most of his toppings and ate 3 or 4 bites of the empty crust. Sigh. You can't win 'em all, huh?

I realize that we still have a long way to go before conquering her poor eating habits, but these few things have helped us have some success. Wish me luck that it keeps working!