where the wild things are

merry christmas eve!

things are getting a little wild in this neck of the woods. the kids are so excited about santa claus and a little sister that they are a little out of control! have i mentioned that if this baby girl isn't here on her own next week, then january 2nd we will be heading to the hospital bright and early! we can't wait!

i hope your christmas is as merry and wonderful as ours!

xx

courtney

are you ready for santa?

we are getting there!

we've sent our letters to the north pole.

from ada:

"dear santa

for christmas i would like a beautiful doll.

adalove"
we're opening our advent calendars.
we've made cut out cookies (which i do NOT recommend doing with a two year old!)

and decorated them too!

then we ate them all, so we will have to make more! yummy!

for your listening pleasure!

ho ho ho, merry christmas everybody!

getting ready.

we have a lot to get ready for around here! holiday parties, christmas shopping, and not to mention the little baby who will hopefully enter our lives before the new year! needless to say, we are excitedly busy around here. the kids are extra excited. for one, we have a little elf who is hiding out in our digs, keeping his eye on them. they love it, but i can't say i have noticed a change in their behavior! secondly, they have advent calendars filled with chocolate that they get to open every morning. yummy! they can't wait to open the new door every morning and the chocolates are usually eaten before 7am. ada insists that the advent calendar is a countdown until the day her sister is born. i think she thinks i am giving birth to baby jesus (she has stated over and over again that jesus has NOT been born yet.) it is all very confusing to her, but i pray that this baby is NOT born christmas day nor received the name jesus! i love love love christmas morning and can't wait to spend it with everyone!

elias is even starting to accept the fact that we are going to have a new baby around the house. at first he was carrying a little motorcycle wrapped up in a blanket around everywhere. he fed it (read: smooshed clementines which he peeled himself all over it), patted it when it was crying, and threw it across the room when it was happy. nowadays he has progressed to carrying a little baby doll which he calls "pirate" underneath his shirt all day. he makes it milk or coffee depending on the time of day and takes very sweet care of it. it still makes me terrified for the new "real" little one coming, but at least he is making an attempt to be nurturing!

our week and weekend we filled with special events and cold weather. all fun and festive of course. we have made enough peppermint bark to feed a small army (or ONE pregnant woman!) as ada has her christmas performance and cookie exchange at school this thursday. keep your eyes peeled for a video of her singing. she has been practicing incessantly (but NOT sleeping so we will see how her mood is the day of her performance!) ah, sleep. i miss you so much... i will not dwell on this, i am well aware that it will only get worse before it gets better.

on a totally separate note, we took the kids out to dinner tonight at a little restaurant that is made out old train cars. a really neat place although the food was nothing too impressive. elias was so excited that he couldn't eat even one bite. he thought we were going to ride the choo choo train as we ate. then he just became confused as to why it wasn't moving. then, he decided to morph in to buzz lightyear and the rest of the meal yelled "i'm buzz lightyear, space ranger" holding his hands up above his head like superman. we couldn't stop laughing at him. i'm not sure the other patrons were that impressed, but i couldn't bring myself to tell him to be quiet.

ok- i should go. i really should eat dessert before i go to bed. peppermint bark, anyone?

at the christmas tree lighting in our neighborhood.

riding the carousel at a mall we will never return to! i wouldn't share this picture except for that fact that the store behind ada is called MANTRAP. once i get my figure back i might just head there. reza is sure to be impressed!

riding the choo choo train. once the ride was over elias refused to get off (even when the worker tried to pull him out of the train car!) "i wanna ride choo choo train again!" he yelled over and over.

watching the chapel hill/carrboro christmas parade yesterday. snow was flurrying and trader joe's was passing out peppermint sandwich cookies. i didn't even question whether or not my children could eat unwrapped sandwich cookies out of a strangers hand! like i said, no mother of the year awards happening over here!

elias ate so much candy!

ada and auntie shannon making the second gingerbread house of the season! HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY AUNTIE SHANNON! We love you so much. This year is going to be the most amazing year of your life (she's having a baby boy- due April 8th!)

our weekend, in pictures.

whoa baby--literally!

36 weeks! need i say more?

too much sugar.

i was looking at my pictures on my camera and noticed a theme. energy release. there has been little sleep happening here lately (and god knows, i NEED it!) but the kiddos are no worse for wear. they are WILD. like, uncontrollably wild. like, lets see how many stores we can get kicked out of in one week wild. like, lets see how quickly li get get undressed after i just dressed him for the fourth time in one morning wild. uh-huh, that's us, and i'm tired.

the upside of all this outlandish behavior is that my lovely children have hit that turning point. they PLAY together. alot! they wrestle and race and ride bikes and talk (mostly about poop and more poop) but they have full conversations. and li constantly says "i love my sister!" they hug and wrestle (and bite and punch too) but they love it all. and secretly, through the teeth gritting and huffing and puffing, i like it too. i spend so much of my day laughing at them, at their secrets (ada always puts elias up to something!), their conversations, and their WWF matches. i fear for the safety of our pending newborn, but know she is the luckiest girl in the world to be able to be entertained by her two personal clowns. i am!

this weekend we are heading out christmas tree hunting! we all can't wait! we are getting more and more into the christmas spirit. oh, and have i mentioned that we have a little elf named "elfie" how has moved in with us? very exciting, in fact it is so exciting that ada is getting up extra early to see where he is hiding each morning! lucky me, right?

sugar!

i thought we would make this house a little closer to christmas, but ada insisted that we make it now. she is definitely in the christmas spirit!

lias is our own engine driver! he takes us, and all of his friends on rides up and down the driveway shouting "ALL ABOARD!"

wrestle-mania!

our thanksgiving week

i can't believe that thanksgiving has come and gone and we are now in the christmas season! we had a wonderful thanksgiving, so many friends and family with us to celebrate. the kids were so excited to have a houseful of people. elias was so excited that he couldn't sleep- that is until thanksgiving dinner was on the table and proceeded to fall asleep while eating his supper. did i mention that both of my children had frosted mini wheats for thanksgiving dinner after yelling "yucky, yucky, yucky" at everything on their plate? i think next year thanksgiving dinner will be much easier to prepare though (and much cheaper!)

on saturday we had a second thanksgiving feast in richmond, virginia with reza's family. we all had a lot of fun and are so glad that baba jon is back in the country! the kids did a great job with all the travel, that is, until the last fifteen minutes. elias woke up from a very deep sleep and started screaming so loud that ada felt she should compete. back and forth they screamed and cried until we got out of the car and into the house. ah, home sweet home.

ada at her thanksgiving performance at school. can you read her banner? yep, you read it right "i am thankful for MOM", not my family, not god, not cookies, just ME. no pressure, really.

li is still slightly obsessed with his power tools, esp. his chainsaw. here is is going after auntie m. no, he doesn't want to cut down trees. he wants to cut off body parts. speaking of chainsaws, reza got out his chainsaw to cut up a log this weekend for a bonfire. upon starting it he quickly realized that one of our tikes had diligently taken a screwdriver and loosened every screw on it! are they talented or what? i am not sure who did it, but upon hearing reza yelling outside, ada said "i think baba is upset that someone was messing with his chainsaw. i think it was elias". hmm, suspicious. and she has her own slight obsession with tinkerbelle, the tinkering fairy that is very good at fixing things.

li worked hard to entertain everyone on thanksgiving day.

the thanksgiving spread. and if you look closely, check out the artwork on my fridge. i love it. land of mermaids and princesses with curly-cue hair.

eating.

li with baba jon.

li, amelia, auntie laila and baba jon

we visited a toy store in richmond and santa just happened to be there checking on the children. ada walked right up to him and told him her name. she proceeded to sit on his lap, and then, terror struck. by the time he asked her what she wanted all she could say was "nothing". then she refused to take her treat from him and walked away. i think it was just a dress rehearsal for us. we are going to try it again when we are a little bit more prepared.

terror.

a nice walk on campus sunday. after starbucks gingerbread lattes and pumpkin scones. yum.

she caught a ladybug.

and shared it with her brother.

my family. soon to be one person larger. can't wait!