December Nolanisms

• At our church service they have a "children's moment" after the first song and after that the kids go to a special children's service. But the kids have to be 4, so we always naturally took Nolan to nursery when we got there. Then we saw some other parents of 2 and 3 year olds who kept their kids with them so they could hear the children's moment and then they took them to nursery. We agreed it would be a great thing to start doing. So, Nolan has been pretty excited, but apparently thought during church we would physically see Jesus and God. One Sunday he kept asking, "is that God? Where's God? Where's Jesus?" Then the song was over and the church got queit. It was that moment that Nolan pointed at Paul, the music minister, the one with the guitar, and said, "IS THAT JESUS?" I'm so relieved God has a sense of humor (and that those around us did, too).
• A few days after we returned from Disney Nolan and I were eating lunch together. He was munching on an apple and asked, "Will this make me bigger?" And I said, "Yes, it will make you big and strong." He paused. "Then I can be big and ride the big brown roller coaster?"
• Nolan was very concerned that the cookies and milk we left for Santa would be eaten by the dogs. This is mostly due to the fact that in his "Olivia" Christmas book the dog does eat the cookies and drink Santa's milk. We had to reassure him that the dogs would be asleep too and the cookies and milk were for Santa only!
• Nolan told Brian he had to cut his hair off so it could grow back red.
• This morning Nolan asked me if he could have some snacks. I told him, "No, we're going to have lunch in a little bit." Pause. Then he said to me, "If you don't give me snacks, I'll poop my pants." After I pooped my pants with surprise I had quite the stern talking to with little mister. There were no snacks and no pooping of the pants, just in case you were wondering. I even got an unforced apology!

Christmas Fa la la

Christmas Eve we went to church and then came home to crock pot chili and corn bread. We're fancy in these parts. It actually was perfect and tasted soooo good. After dinner we decorated our sugar cookies for Santa and put out his plate of cookies, carrots for those busy reindeer and a glass of milk. Nolan was tough to get to sleep that night, but he finally crashed. He slept later than I would have thought and woke about 7:30 asking, "Is Santa here?" We told him no, but he HAD paid a visit last night. Nolan rushed out to the living room and gasped! "HE ATE THE COOKIES!" Another gasp. "HE DRANK HIS MILK!" I wish we had that on film. The rest of the morning was fantastic, opening gifts, playing, taking pictures, and laughing. After playing all morning Nolan was hard pressed to wake up from his nap. We finally got him awake and headed to Cheyna and Andrew's, where Gramma Susan made a delicious Christmas dinner for us, the Vrabecs and the Malones. It was awesome and we were totally spoiled! The night ended with some Wii Guitar Hero. I have yet to try my hand at it, but it's so fun to watch people play it. Brian was really good, but I'm sure Andrew will have more practice by the next go-round!

Nolan decorating cookies:

Setting out the goodies for Santa and his reindeer:

Opening his stocking Christmas morning. He REALLY is the only kid I've ever heard of that got excited about getting underwear (they are Thomas the Train, so it's pretty exciting):A gift from Santa, a Hot Wheels car track:Daddy, Nolan and the dogs opening gifts:The Vrabec's got the twins a gift. It made me tear up, it's still so surreal and awesome and it was so sweet of them:The kiddos digging into presents:

Our Christmas Miracle

Nolan has something very exciting he would like to share with you all!

Nolan will be a big brother and we couldn't be more thrilled!!! It's truly a miracle and we feel so blessed. We're so excited that our family is growing and that soon we'll be a family of five! That's right, a family of FIVE. It still hasn't sunk in, but I'm carrying twin miracles! I am 12 weeks pregnant and we've had 5 ultrasounds. We are still in a bit of shock and yet we are walking on cloud 9. Our due date is technically July 6th, but anything after 35 weeks with twins is considered full term, so most likely we're looking at sometime in June. Nolan sort of understands, since his best pal Abby has a new baby sister, and he kisses my belly twice, one for each baby. Other times he asks us when he'll get to have a baby in his belly. And last night he asked Brian if the babies would take his Christmas presents. Sibling rivalry starts early, I suppose! So, we still have lots of blogging to catch up on as far as our recent Disney trip, but I wanted to share our good news. Here's a picture of the little peanuts, from an ultrasound yesterday. Baby "A" is on the left, Baby "B" is on the right. Merry Christmas!

Wing Christmas Party

Last Saturday Brian's wing threw a family Christmas party (by family I mean totally geared towards kids). Nolan had a blast doing crafts, playing games, decorating cookies, dancing and meeting Santa. It is so magical and amazing to see Christmas through his eyes. It's truly a miracle! Anyway, here are some pictures.

Pin the nose on Santa:

Cookie decorating. It's an art form:

Abby, Nolan & Brian. Nolan's wearing the Santa hat they got to decorate:

The kiddos dancing the chicken dance!

Nolan sitting on Santa's lap. Santa brought all the kids a book!

The three of us:

Nolan holding Olivia

Nolan has been absolutely enthralled with "Baby Olivia." He would put himself into her car seat if he could. For the most part, he's VERY gentle (he scares me when he gets excited to see her). He also seems to relate babies with dogs, because he pets her like one, but at least he's gentle and we remind him to pat her belly, not her head and face. Last week Cheyna was kind enough to let Nolan hold her and he was so thrilled. I am probably biased, but I thought he did great. He sat VERY still, was very sweet, and even talked quietly. I was very proud and touched. And Olivia was very sweet, too, she didn't fuss and was an angel.

In this second picture he was attempting giving her the pacifer.