First Painting!

Today was a FULL day! With the schools still out for the winter break, two of Melody's girls were able to come with her today, and they kept Malynn and Jack busy!

It really turned into a marathon day of arts & crafts!
Julianna helped Malynn put her art smock on.
(It's their first art smocks!)

Mattie helped Jack.

The new art easel from Samma & Papa was set up and ready for Jack & Malynn's first REAL painting experience! They got paint in little cups and paint brushes and everything!

They did such a nice job sharing the same side, so Julianna and Mattie got to use the other side to create some of their own art. (Thanks for modeling for Malynn & Jack!)

How cool is this shot!?!

Next, a change of medium -on to chalk.

Then the paper from under the easel looked like it needed some color -on to crayons.

Good job keeping the crayons in the box!

The paper on the floor inspired another idea...body tracing!

After watching Jack get traced, Malynn laid down clearly saying, "My turn."

Malynn has been working on tracing her own hand ever since I traced her hand several weeks ago to make a Christmas ornament. Melody caught this great picture of her working on it. Adorable! (I know you'll get it soon my sweet girl!)

Finished products!

And, if that wasn't enough, they also tried some popcorn art. Glue sticks didn't quite do the job. Maybe they'll try again with Elmer's some time. But, the popcorn did make a great snack for the afternoon!

We LOVE Our Trikes

We had so much fun today playing with our new trikes at home! I don't know what Malynn was telling me about in this picture, but I really like it for some reason.

Jack was into getting on and off.

Malynn really wanted to be able to reach the pedals. (Soon my dear, soon.)

Another random picture, but again it's one I just like.

Christmas 2011 -Round 3

The morning of our first day home was when we had a little mini Christmas for our family. Santa had left a couple presents under the tree for Malynn and Jack, but some cuddle time with Ember was the first order of business. :)

We do love our "woo-woo-wooh" doggie!

Sitting with Ember on her bed with blankets is a favorite activity lately, so it was no surprise that it was an important thing to do our first morning home.

How about that smile!?!

"Where's Jack?"
We still love playing peek-a-boo!
In fact, often nap time is significantly delayed because we hear Malynn & Jack playing peek-a-boo with each other in their cribs!

Once the kids discovered the gifts from Santa they knew what to do.
But even unwrapping gifts can be eclipsed by a glistening ornament on the Christmas tree...

...Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas 2011 -Round 2

Round 2 of Christmas started when we arrived at Grand & Ottar's house on Monday. It was pretty hard to hold off on opening presents since there was something BIG covered with a blanket by the tree!!!

Malynn & Jack made short work of finding out what was under the blanket....TRIKES!!

Just revealing the handlebars was worth an "Ooooooh!"

The pure joy on a child's face as they reveal a wonderful treasure is one of those things you wish you could just bottle up.

Our beautiful Christmas lady!

Our cool Christmas guy!

Malynn was a focused opener. She knew that the folded edges and special flaps on packages were the key to getting inside.

Jack had some more cool guy posing to do.

Malynn got these fantastic Crocs, which she was excited to put on right away.

In fact, if you look closely, you'll notice that Malynn wanted to wear all of her wearable items right away: sparkly bow, bangle bracelets, and, of course, the Crocs.

Jack became the instant expert with the toy vacuum!
(Mommy and Daddy are thinking, "Hmmm, if only it wasn't a toy.")

Then the special toy that every parent wants to give their child, the toy that sparks a life-long fascination with the real thing, the toy that brings out the little boy in big boys...a train set!

This picture warms my heart. Son and father assembling a first train set on Christmas...(sigh).

Chuga, chuga, chuga, chuga, choo -choo!

Our afternoon was filled with train fun.

It was just irresistible!
(Thanks for such a special gift Grand & Ottar.)

Before the afternoon nap, Malynn snuck in some story time with Grand.

And Grand never gets away without sharing some special time talking about jewelry.

And Jack snuck in a couple more cool guy poses.

That day we got the news that Daddy's uncle (Grand's brother), John's memorial service would be on Thursday. We were challenged with securing spur of the moment airline tickets for Grand, Ottar, Amita, and Daddy. Daddy was asked to speak at the service, which was a special honor. So, we had to cut our Christmas Round 2 short to head home that night. We were sad to miss spending more Holiday time with Grand, Ottar, and Janelle (especially to miss out on more of the always delectable food Grand had kept busy preparing), but sometimes life pushes us in different directions than we plan for, and in this case it was for a very good and important reason.

Christmas 2011 -Round 1

Christmas had the special magic again for our family this year thanks to Malynn & Jack. Though they are still too young to grasp the full notion of Christmas they weren't too young to:

• Learn to recognize Santa and know that he says, "Ho, ho, ho!" (There was a Santa figure in the window coming down our steps and some how we ended up with the routine of picking up Santa and all giving him a kiss every time we came down the stairs. So sweet!)
  
• Sing and dance to Christmas music. (They love climbing on the first step of the shelf at home to start the CD player on their own!)
• Fall in love with Christmas trees. (Each morning we would turn on the tree lights. Malynn would start saying "tree" or "lights" before we got down the stairs. Jack would pat the chair by the plug if we didn't turn the lights on first thing. And when the lights would come on their little faces would glisten with wonder and sometimes we'd even get a "ooooooh" or a "ta-da.")
• Figure out that presents show up under the tree, get really good at unwrapping them, and realize that some of the presents were for other people. :)

Jack and Malynn were important in another big way this Christmas. They were the best medicine as we coped with the loss of Mike's uncle John.

John lost his long-term battle with cancer on Christmas Eve. It was absolutely amazing that Mike and his mom (Grand) were able to get to Texas to have final cherished moments with him and a chance to say good-bye just a couple days before he died. John was simply an incredible man. His life was full to the brim with all things good: exciting childhood stories, a whirlwind courtship with the love of his life (who, by the way, is an equally incredible woman), a great home in a great city, a career that he thrived in, and best of all a beautiful, joyful, loving family (including two children and three grandchildren). All who knew him had a little more joy in their lives thanks to his humor, a little more wisdom thanks to his no nonsense perspective, and a little more peace thanks to his strength and love. He offered those things unconditionally, and those are the things that will bring happiness to our hearts as he is remembered.

Needless to say, Jack and Malynn's smiling, eager, loving faces have been a happy focus to help lighten the weight of the grief and remind us of all the wonders there are to find and enjoy in every day.

Our Christmas travels started a little early because I headed to Samma and Papa's house ahead of schedule since Mike was going to be away for a couple days. We got into the fun with all the cousins together right away!

The iPads are a favorite for everyone, big and small alike. Malynn & Jack learned fast watching Teigen. At one point Jack picked up a closed iPad, opened the cover, turned it on, (at this point I did have to help with the passcode), swiped the screen to find the icon for the balloons game, opened the game, enlarged the screen, and pressed play! What!!!???!!! Can 19 month olds really do that?

Our Little Cindy Lou Who

Uncle Nate and Rourke on Christmas Eve morning

The chunky wooden puzzles are a favorite at Samma & Papa's house.
(I think we still can't find the square for the shape puzzle though.)

We were all glad Daddy was home for Christmas Eve!

Rourke getting some fun Uncle Mike time!

Malynn got these cute new clips for her hair. (Thanks Samma.)
Could she be any cuter?

A favorite spot that day was sitting in Papa's chair, with Gus, cuddled up with a blanket. By the way, hearing Malynn say "cozy" elicits an "awwww" every time!

So many sweet moments...like this one!

Jack is an "equal opportunity" guy about getting story time with everyone. :)

And willing to share Papa's lap with Malynn and Teigen.

We opened just a couple gifts on Christmas Eve. The cousins all gave each other books, and Papa even knew the sign for "thank you" to help Jack and Malynn say thank you to Teigen and Rourke. Good job Papa!

Jack and Malynn got a special together gift from Samma and Papa...

...their first baby dolls! It was a set with a boy and a girl! They immediately latched on to those babies. It was ridiculously cute when they were feeding them together! (So serious about it, too.) Malynn wouldn't put her's down! Daddy asked, "What's your baby's name?" and she replied, "May-May." And after being reunited with May-May after a rough separation for bath time Daddy said, "Malynn, have you been waiting to have a baby doll for your whole life?" and got an emphatic nod "yes!" Too hilarious!

Bad news: Jack broke a sudden high fever that night.
Good news: After a good night's sleep and a BIG nap Christmas morning the fever was gone.

Teigen took care of the cookies for Santa and snack for the reindeer. I love that he decided Santa would probably like to have some orange juice, and he did a great job with his note to Santa, too.

Christmas morning brought some special Santa gifts and another full day!

Teigen and Rourke got a mini blow-up bounce house! Cool!

Malynn and Jack got a fantastic two-sided easel! (Visions of art projects are dancing in my head!)

Jack and Malynn also got this classic set of wooden blocks. When Teigen and Rourke were checking them out I got this super cute picture of them in their matching Christmas pjs.

Later we had more presents to open from each other.

Teigen was the elf who passed out all the gifts.

Thank you to all our family who were so very generous with great books, toys, and clothes for the kids.

Malynn is really getting good at unwrapping at this point!

Teigen, we think Malynn is pretty irresistible in her sweet little Christmas dress too!

Rourke got a personalized name puzzle to match the one his big brother got from us last year, and at 12 months old he's already fascinated by puzzles.

After gifts we somehow managed to get everyone (and by that I specifically mean 4 toddlers) together for a picture. It wasn't flawless. Teigen had a little melt down and Jack was really ready for another nap, but we did it.

This was the best we got of the cousin's together, which actually is pretty cute in it's own right.

Malynn could have done a photo shoot all afternoon. She loved the adults being silly and the cameras flashing!

Even Jack mustered up enough energy to flash a couple great smiles.

We weren't done yet though!

After the afternoon naps we had cookies to decorate! Papa always makes homemade sugar cookies and frosting, and the kids always help frost and decorate. The one year that Papa was in Korea and the kids tried to make the cookies and frosting is a story that is riddled with folley and continues to leave us all in stitches when it's retold. We are convinced that the sugar cookie tradition will have to skip a generation as it is passed down. The grandkids started their take-over as they handled the decorating this year. :)

This picture is a perfect last word.