five days of christmas

It's good to be home. But it was great to visit with family; the time passed too quickly.

This trip, Mom came prepared. If you were faced with approximately twenty four hours on the road with a 23-month-old and a dad who has .46 seconds of tolerance (which rounds down to zero tolerance) with any whimper from said 23-month-old, what would you do? I was desperate. I packed a diaper box full of new books from Target's dollar section and old favorites; stuffed her lap desk (the best two dollars spent at Goodwill yet) with stickers, small bits of scrapbook paper, a tablet of construction paper, colored pencils, lined paper, and glue sticks; I further stuffed the diaper box with sticky foam project letters, tin foil, her purse, and a baby. We just about made it through the trip whine free. I think we went through a total of ninety minutes of fussing the entire drive.

Thank you to http://www.momsminivan.com/ for the suggestions. This site gave me a lot of ideas and saved me a lot of money since I had half of the materials she recommends and the other half I'll be wanting to use anyway. The mom breaks down ideas for different age groups, so I'll be back to the site next year and the year after...

Mark was so thrilled with his first Christmas gift, a portable DVD player, that he actually let me drive through northern Oklahoma for a part of the trip back. I saw some pretty areas I never knew existed, and it sure beat driving through southern Kansas.

But the best part of the past five days, of course, was spending time with the family. Miah wore herself out running, singing, socializing, and taking care of babies. We've all tried to explain how cute Miah is when she plays Mommy, but this is the first time we've tried capturing it on film. Her attention to detail was startling; she would hold her finger over the milk bottle and shake it before giving it to her doll. Later in the afternoon she ran to the kitchen to get more milk out of the refrigerator for the bottle.

Kellen was also enamored with the doll that he gave Miah for Christmas, so we all had to steer him toward his new tool bench once Big T got it assembled. We're looking forward to seeing the projects he makes from his bench when he gets older! I'm sure that Kellen's appreciation for the doll is a sign that he'll make a good brother.

Little S made pajamas and matching pillows for the kids. What a great gift. The pillow is the perfect size for Miah's new camping bed, but she found another use for it as well: sun blocker.

While the men packed up all our stuff into all three cars, Grandma helped keep the kids busy with "Ring Around the Rosy" and somersaults. As soon as Miah was flat on the floor, Kellen was already prepared to go.

And sometimes he couldn't even wait that long.
We can't wait to you all again.