12/31 - Christmas 2014

So we learned some very valuable lessons this Christmas. Let's backtrack a little and I'll take you through our past 2 weeks. While waiting for Grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave to get here on Dec. 18 (Wed), Aiden and Eli decided to play their Tell Tale Story game and they made some very interesting stories for me to listen to. The boys were very excited to have Brad's parents here. On Thur, Eli had a dr appointment because his belly had been hurting him quite a bit and it was starting to effect his eating and his behavior. X-rays revealed he is really constipated and needs some help to move things along. Eli was also fighting a cold that Aiden and I already had when he woke up on Friday morning, he blew some blood out of his nose. While it was odd, he was acting fine. I then noticed lots of dried blood in his ear that still has the tube and that was a red flag for me. Needless to say we went to the dr on Friday afternoon and had Eli checked out. Thankfully Dave and Betty Jo (Brad's parents) went out grocery shopping for me because Eli and I were at the dr so long on Thursday (appt, x-ray, prescription, and driving = 3.5 hrs) and then unexpectedly on Friday. I was a ball of stress and I kept busy in the late afternoon trying to find hotels for Brad as he headed East towards us.

On Saturday morning, I decided to take the boys to Jump Zone (a local bounce house place) on Saturday morning. They had mixed feelings about this place which was funny. They ran around and bounced for a while and then Eli kept sneaking into the toddler's area and playing in there. Aiden snuck in the area as well and they played with blocks in there for a while. After I forced them out, they bounced a bit more and then wanted to wonder over to the video games. Thankfully they had a free air hockey game that was really cool because it was shaped like a u and the boys loved playing it.



Brad finally made it home on Saturday night. It was so good to see him and know he was home to stay for a bit. It was a busy mess from Sunday to Christmas Day. I've been so stressed with Brad being gone for so long and trying to keep up with everything and failing at that. I didn't even send cards out this year. I took care of presents for the boys but didn't have the time or brain power to do anything other than that. I bought enough stockings for everyone but didn't buy stuff to put in the stockings. I spent 5 hours trying to make Christmas presents snacks for teachers and ended up with nothing since I burnt the chocolate both times because I thought our microwave was under 1000 watts (according to the GE website) and it's actually over 1100. I didn't have a single present wrapped until company came to help me do it.

This year I really wanted to focus on giving to others and making the kids see the true meaning of Christmas and emphasizing Christ. However, I only partially succeeded. I had planned to do an Advent Calendar that I was working on but that never got finished and I was lucky the kids were getting fed and bathed during the month of december. Here is a picture of what the boys woke up to on Christmas Day. I will not lie to my boys about Christmas and Santa. Brad and I did not bring up the word Santa or say that Santa was even coming but we answered the boys' questions with other questions usually. I was barely hanging on this year to the idea of Santa and I think next year we might approach Christmas differently. The one thing my boys are sure of is that Jesus was born on Christmas Day and that is the purpose of Christmas. We did a minimal Christmas. Having all these crazy presents takes away the true meaning of Christmas in my world. The boys received a few presents from us, 1 or two from the grandparents and then Aunt Pat sent a bunch of stuff which we will ration out to them through the year for various holidays.


Below is a collage from Christmas day. Upper left: boys playing with a Hex Bug toy; Upper middle: Aiden looking at his cool new dinosaur book; Upper right: Daddy showing Aiden how his new toy that Santa brought works (which he couldn't play with because I didn't get D batteries); middle left: the boys opening up a box with hex bug which they were excited about; middle left below: Eli being super excited about the fake food he received as a present from Aiden; Center: Family picture on Christmas; middle right: Eli watching the hex bug crawl upside down in a tunnel; middle right below: Aiden being super excited that Eli also got a stars projector; bottom left: us opening up a family present which was the game of Twister; bottom right: Brad just built Aiden his new hot wheels track that Eli picked out as his present for Aiden yet both boys are playing with their transformers (which cracks me up for some reason)

We are thankfully in a position that if we really need something at some point in the year then we get it. Maybe because that is possible for us, I (and Brad) view Christmas and Christmas presents a little differently. Brad and I don't do presents for each other really.

Aunt Pat bought both the boys this star projector thing which is really cool. Here is a picture from Eli's room. It shines these green stars onto the ceiling that float/move around. You can then add this hint of blue in to the scene if you want.



Below is another collage from Christmas day and the days leading up to Christmas. Upper left: The boys playing Don't Break the Ice and Eli pointing to Grandpa Dave since he just broke the ice. You can see Aiden in the background all excited that the ice just broke; Upper right: Nana and the boys while they were on a walk; middle left top: Aiden and Eli walking outside looking at ducks while with Nana and Grandma Jo; middle center: Eli getting a ride in Grandpa Dave's truck and enjoying the view; middle right top: Eli sneaking in to a picture of Grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave with Bronco; left lower middle: Grandma Jo with the boys on a walk; right lower middle: Nana opening her present from Eli which was a craft she has to do; lower left: Grandma Jo and Aiden coloring a Christmas picture; lower right: Aiden giving Grandpa Dave his present of a sudoku puzzle book.

The boys have had a blast playing with the grandparents over the past week. Aiden was able to play the game of Sorry at least once a day I think (that's his favorite game). They were also able to play lightsabers quite a bit which has probably been a highlight of the holidays for them.









We kept ourselves so busy that we didn't get around to finally making our ginger bread house until after Christmas. Here are the boys decorating their house. Aiden was really in to it and telling me where he wanted the icing and carefully deciding where to put his candy decorations. Eli wanted to eat the candy and had a hard time putting the candy balls on the house (they would fall out of his hand and onto the floor). They worked hard on it and made a beautiful house. I've even let them eat some of it!!

I've been a bear for the past few works because of being so stressed and tired of Brad being gone. I've been short with people (my mom and Brad's parents) so we have definitely learned that we need a bit of a buffer period after Brad has been gone for a while for us to gather ourselves and then be social as a family. My friend had a good analogy for all of this. I'm this little wind-up toy and everyday I get wind-up more and more with everything that needs to be done. By the time Brad comes home I'm about to break from being wound-up so much; my little eyes are about to pop out and my feet are sprinting. Adding family and Christmas onto that wasn't a great formula because rather than starting to un-wind (not even sure how to do that at this point), I was still continuing to wind-up. We did have a good Christmas and enjoyed seeing Brad's parents but we also continue to learn about Brad being gone and how it affects me and the rest of the family and how we can deal with it better in the future.

Brad's parents left on Friday and then Brad headed in to work to check-in to the squadron and see what was going on. Here is a quick picture I snapped before Brad left. My little boys have missed their daddy so much and Eli kept asking if Brad was going to come back this same day. It is heartbreaking to hear him ask those questions but so cute at the same time. 

On Saturday, Brad took the boys and Bronco out for walk in the morning. Nana found a really cool path the other day when she took Bronco for a walk so the boys went to find the same path. They explored back there and had lots of fun running around and being Ninjas, which is their newest obsession. Brad took pictures of both boys doing their Ninja poses. Eli's picture cracks me up. He's the not-so-secret Ninja waving hi and wearing yellow and red. Aiden, serious as always, had no problem showing his ninja moves.

So a few days after Christmas we gathered the boys and told them we are re-doing the way we do electronics in our house. On Black Friday, Brad and I waited outside Best Buy in the freezing cold and it totally paid off getting $99 Kindle's for the boys. So now I have my original iPad back and we have 2 kindles in the house. This is great because it reduces setting the timer and taking turns with the iPad. Aiden is reading a lot more and we can check books out of our public library (electronic versions) and then he can read them on the kindle as well. I love the FreeTime App because we give the boys a limit to using the kindle and then it just turns off. They are learning to manage their time better and by now are not even using all of their allotted time. It does crack me up that while they have apps that are different, they also have a few that are the same. I don't even remember what Toca game they are playing in this picture but it was so cute to see them playing right next to each other and talking to each other about what to do next and where to go. 

On Monday late afternoon, I took the boys down the clubhouse area and we played around for a while. They were being Ninjas and deciding who could see them and who could not. I was having fun watching and listening to them and then I jumped in on the action as well and became a ninja for a bit. In the upper right, the boys were seeing if these 2 older boys (ages 9-10 playing putt putt golf) could see them. In the upper right, Eli was telling Aiden the coast was clear and they could run and hide behind something else. The middle circle is what happened when I said, "boys, give me your ninja poses." Lower right you see the boys hiding behind the bushes so they wouldn't be seen and the bottom right cracks me up because it's Eli hiding by just laying on the ground. In his defense, he was low enough not to be seen by the group of people they were hiding from. Unfortunately the group of people had no idea that there were 2 little ninja's around because they did a relatively good job hiding from them minus the one or two screaming streaks from Eli.

We celebrated the last day of the year with Brad doing errands, Eli at daycare, Aiden and I at home taking down Christmas stuff in the morning. Early afternoon we had a visit from our friends Mike and Grace and a long playdate. We ended the evening with trying to get this blog done in time to put in the book for 2013 and watching HGTV and watching people buy houses.

2013 was a challenging health year for me but thankfully we are figuring things out. I'm so thankful for a supportive family, traditional and modern medicine, and God continuing to show His hand in our lives.

6/17 - The Hoyt Family visits

The boys were so very excited for grandma Jo and grandpa Dave to come visit. Aiden would have played games with them 24 hrs a day if we let him. Grandma and grandpa were great sports and played quite a few games with him. Here is grandpa playing Spot It! with Aiden.

Eli wanted to play Sneaky Squirrel so we did play that and I was excited Eli actually wanted to play a game. I guess I don't have to include that Eli quit playing after a game but at least he played a whole game. 

Here are grandma, Brad, and Aiden playing the Very Hungry Caterpillar game. He actually doesn't play that game very often and I was surprised he asked to play it.

We put up the tent in the living room sitting area and the boys enjoyed playing in that. They even got grandma to come and sit under the tent for a while.  The boys were awfully quite at one point so I checked on them and this is what I found (picture to the left). The little stinkers climbed up on the cat gym. Good thing grandma Jo and I built that so strong that it could withstand 2 toddlers on top of it.

Grandma and grandpa let open his birthday present and he was pretty excited about it. He loves the Mag-X magnet toys but was getting frustrated because he didn't have enough 'Xs' to build more stable structures. He got really frustrated though when we tried to help build something. He had an idea of what he wants to do and gets very frustrated if he can't do it just the way he wants on the first try.

Aiden had his true first friend move away. DJ moved to Missouri last week. It was sad because Aiden didn't really get a chance to play with him before he left. We tried to play with him on Tuesday afternoon but his grandma wouldn't let him play. We then tried to play on Wednesday afternoon but his mom wasn't home and his grandma wouldn't let him come over. He finally came over at 5:15pm and we were leaving for dinner. I was so sad for him but told DJ we would come by his house as soon as we finished dinner. Needless to say, when we came by less than an hr later, his grandma wouldn't let him come over again. DJ was sad and had been crying. I felt so bad for him and Aiden. They just wanted to play. You would think DJ's grandma wouldn't mind because she had been watching 3 kids all day long and DJ's mom had already given her permission to let DJ come over whenever. At 7:30pm we realized that DJ wouldn't be coming over again so we walked down to his house and dropped off a good-bye present and bag we had for him. We made him a mini scrapbook and put our new address in it. To the left is what Aiden drew in the book: I love you DJ. So sweet. We put snacks and a few fun things to play with in the bag to help with the long 12 hr drive he was going to have. It was a horrible way to say bye since he wasn't allowed to come over for 2 days to play because his grandma said no. Anyway, we are praying for him and hoping we can stay in contact with him.

To the right is a picture from our dinner at Chick-fil-a. They only have 1 6 person table there and the rest are 2 or 4 person tables. Brad and I got sent to the 2-person table because the boys wanted to sit by grandma and grandpa.

Here is Eli with a helmet on. This has to make the blog book. He is wearing a helmet voluntarily and without crying. That is a first. Although you can't call is a helmet; it's his motorcycle hat :)

Here is Aiden getting ready to open a second birthday present from grandma and grandpa. I didn't take any picture of him playing with it so I'll have to get on that. Below you can see Aiden opening his card. Grandma Jo made it and it was a colorful dragon. 

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The picture on the right is priceless. That look of Eli's ... TROUBLE!! He's so stinkin cute which is good because I think we will see this look from him quite often over the next 20 years.  

Brad's parents like to stay busy so we saved up some projects for them :) Actually we didn't originally plan on help but it was great to have help. My mission for Brad when we got to Jacksonville was to build Aiden a loft bed. We were going to have the boys share a room again but we have decided to put them in their own rooms instead. Aiden is reaching a point where when he breaks down and will not/cannot communicate, he needs his own space and we have a hard time telling Eli he either can't go in his bedroom or the toy room (depending on where Aiden is at) because his brother is having a complete breakdown and is being ridiculous. I wanted to do a loft bed so that he still has space in his room for toys and such. After much searching on the internet, I gathered a few pictures and showed Brad what I wanted. Essentially, I wanted a loft bed with lots of storage space on the ends. I originally wanted a desk built in but after he got the bed framed, I realized it was a tight fit to have a desk area and cubbies. I decided we'll just get a desk/table for Aiden's room instead. The key to this loft bed though is that I need it to be in three sections. With as much as we move, it wouldn't survive too many moves if we had to keep unscrewing things and putting it back together. I wanted two end pieces and the bed part. Brad and his dad sketched out some ideas, decided on what they needed and went off the the hardware store. They came back 2 hrs later with a ton of lumber and ready to build. Over the course of three days, Brad and his dad built the bed. Brad got a new drill and an impact wrench/drill too from his parents for graduation. That helped quite a bit to speed things up since they really needed 3 drills: one to make holes using a drill bit, one to use as a countersink, and one to use with screws. Brad learned about notches for the first time to make the shelves. He's got it down now I think. One of the really cool things they built is a little special tissue box compartment (3rd row, far left). The poor kid is always blowing his nose and sneezing at night so he has a tissue box with clean tissues and one for yucky tissues, and then he has a small box for his stuffed animals or toys. This compartment will make a huge difference when I change the bed because I don't have to take all that stuff off the bed. One end of the bed has 9 large cubbies and the other side has 6 small cubbies (that fit the standard fabric squares) and 3 large ones for some bigger toys. 

Of the boys wanted to help so this is their contribution. Aiden really did help move some boards. Eli tried out what the space would be like once the bed was lofted. It was very hot out the first two days the boys worked on it and the little boys were just sweating sitting in chairs watching the big boys work.  

I took the boys to the store to pick out paint for Aiden's new bed. The boys had fun picking out paint. The only problem is that I was just planning on painting Aiden's bed. I was going to stain it but then thought that since we can only rent right now (which means no painting walls), adding some color to the bed. Aiden picked out blue and green and said he wanted strips. Yikes. Eli then said he wanted his bed painted so I let him pick out a color. He chose orange and blue (no I didn't influence that choice). I will start painting Aiden's bed this week. The boys had a blast watching how the colors were made and the woman at the store was so nice to them.

On Friday night, we all went to Sweet Frogs for dessert. Aiden can't eat anything there because it's frozen yogurt and made with cow's milk so we take something for him to eat. The rest of us had some yummy dessert. Aiden got all done with his and then was doing this (see picture to the left) for a while. He finally put his arm down and told me he was still hungry. His lack of ability to tell me his needs and/or fear of telling me drives me nuts sometimes. This is an important skill he needs to figure out or he will allow himself to be in some miserable situations. I pray a lot for this little sweet boy. 

Eli's yogurt was melting because he had a hard time staying in his seat because he wanted to dance to the music. 

 On Saturday late morning, we went to IHOP for a good-bye breakfast/lunch with grandma and grandpa. After we ate, grandma and Aiden played  'go fish.' He just learned the game last week and loves it. I went to Wal-Mart and got him one of those card holder things and it's totally awesome.

Eli was playing puzzle games on the iPad next to me while Brad and grandpa talked about Brad and I's retirement career jobs. Haha. We have a cool idea and just need to find the perfect air strip (yes, for planes) to make it all happen. Let me know if you see anything for sale :)














It was time to say bye. We all hugged and then parted ways.

The boys were sad to see grandma and grandpa leave. It was a great visit with them.

On Saturday evening, we had family pictures. I can't wait to see the sneak peeks which should be out
in the next day or so. I even made super hero capes and masks for the boys. It was our first time doing photos not in a studio with multiple wardrobe changes and stuff. The location was pretty neat. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

1/5 - A visit from the Hoyts & Brad's LT CMDR promotion

Grandma and Grandpa Hoyt drove down from Iowa to join us for a couple of days. We forgot to bring a toy with us for Aiden so he got it when we got back to Jacksonville. It's a truck that he can take apart and put back together with an electric drill (made for kids) using different bits. He's already really good at it.

The boys got to open some presents that grandma and grandpa brought with them. Aiden said he looked "pretty" with bows on him from the presents.

Grandma and grandpa bought the boys an add-on set for the marble run and the boys love it. It goes really high and there are four towers to put marbles in.

Aiden had fun getting a little rough with grandpa and climbing all over him.

Eli had fun opening a magnet set and playing with all the magnet trucks.

You'd think this is Eli's toy by how he is holding it. Grandma and grandpa brought the bean bag down that Eli is sitting on.

Eli was pretty excited about this bank that Ms. Jen and Mr. Ryan gave him. Both of the boys got one and it is great because they are plastic. Our boys spend hours putting money in the banks and taking it back out.

Our neighbors also got Eli a Mr. Potatoe Head and got Aiden the Hi Ho Cherry-O game.

On Jan 5, we got to see Brad get promoted. He's always been on a ship or deployment when it was time for him to promote. He just went from LT to LT CMDR! Go Brad. Here he is taking his oath.

Here I am pinning his gold leaf onto his uniform.

His mom pinned him on the other side.

I am so happy and proud for Brad. He is an awesome man.

Here is Brad with his parents. They were so proud of him.

And finally, Brad had some support that showed up to surprise him. The Payne family and Randy (all from church) came to see this big moment. It was so nice of them to come and show support for Brad. We have such great friends.

Also, Brad had a flag flown over Afghanistan when he was on deployment last time and he presented it to his dad. Dad got a little teary-eyed and was very thankful.

By the time we got over to the cake table with the camera, some of the cake was gone. It was pretty yummy.

It was a great day. We are proud of Brad. Brad leaves in a couple days for a detachment for a month. We'll miss him but hopefully it will go fast and the boys will continue to play and behave better.