Max was really excited when I turned on the Christma tree lights this morning. Every morning he acts so excited about the lights that you would think it was the first time he saw them. He gets such a suprised look on his face. He's been really good with the tree the last couple of days. He doesn't even try to pull the beads off anymore. He'll point to the different ornaments, but he's really gentle with them now. After breakfast this morning, I helped the kids make paper chains to count down the days till Christmas. We used to love making them when we were kids. Hailey and Max had alot of fun making them. Max would hold the chain while Hailey added the next one on. They worked really well together. They both liked it so much that we ended up making two of them, one for Hailey and one for Max. When we were done, Hailey went and started decorating the snowman hanging on the door. She one of the chains on top, and weaved some of the extra papers through the wire on the snowmans hat. When she was done she told me to come look and then asked me to take a picture of it for my blog. Vikki came over after lunch to give Max his birthday present. He loved the tractor she got him. And he looks so cute in the robe she got him. While Max took his nap, I helped Hailey wrap her present for Max. She didn't need much of my help though. She mostly wrapped the whole thing herself. She also made a card for him. She asked me to cut out some circles to glue on for ballooons. Then she started glueing them on in a row and decided to make a catipillar instead. She put eyes and a mouth on it and then I showed her how to make the antennae. It turned out really cute. Hailey had dance class today. She did really good and was dancing the whole time. We can hear some of the music out where we wait, and Max started doing one of the dances when he heard one of the songs that he likes to do with Hailey at home. It's funny that he knows some of the dances without the video playing. He wasn't watching through the window either so he couldn't see what they were doing. He just knows it from practicing at home with Hailey. All the other parents thought it was funny too when he started doing the same dance they were doing in the class. Everytime we passed Christmas lights on the way home, Max would get all excited and say "Wow". He really liked seeing all the lights. I gave the kids a shower when we got home, and Max was so happy to have a robe just like his sister when he got out. He kept saying "I gotta wobe too". After getting Max in bed, Hailey and I made his birthday cake. She sure loved helping me measure all the ingredients and dumping them in.

Here is a picture of the snowman after Hailey decorated it.

I had set up Max's new playmat and cars last night after putting him to bed, so when he saw it this morning he got so excited and sat down right away to play with it. He kept pointing to everything naming what he saw "dat tree, dat dirt, dat water, dat rock, dat racecar, dat window, dat door." He would put the bulldozer in the dirt and say "Tractor ride dirt", and then he would pick it up and show me it saying "Tractor dirty" moving the tractor into the water saying "Tractor in the water a bath" pretending to clean it off. He loved having the wrecker pull the cars and putting all the signs, trees, and cones everywhere. He played with it for at least a couple hours straight and kept going back to it all day. This afternoon, we took the kids over to my mom's and she watched them while Bruce and I went shopping. We got alot of Christmas shopping done and got groceries too. When we got back, Hailey and Kenzie were practicing singing "Happy Birthday Jesus", a song that Kenzie sang at the church Christmas play a couple years ago. Hailey and Kenzie sing it so cute together. They've been singing it together for the last couple years. It's hard to believe Hailey could sing it and knew most of the words when she was Max's age. It's a pretty long song with a few different verses. She has always loved singing. She goes around the house singing all the time. My mom had put pink pajamas on Max, some of Kenzie's when she was little. It was past his bedtime, and I forgot to send some. It was funny to see him in pink. When we got home, Max went around giving all his stuffed animals and some of Hailey's dolls and the rocking horse a kiss goodnight.

Max - Before and After Haircut

I've been having alot of morning sickness the last couple of days. I feel sick pretty much all day even at night making it hard to sleep. I've been feeling so good up until now, I was hoping I wasn't going to have it much this time. Hopefully it won't last too long though. Max asked to sit on the potty when he woke up while I was changing his diaper. I got him down from the changing table and he ran over to his potty and went pee right away. Lately he has been asking to sit on the potty every time I change his diaper. Usually doesn't really go, he just sits there for a minute. But today when he got up he said "I pee potty mama". I looked and he did. This is the third time he's actually peed on the potty. I think he was really trying to go this time instead of just accidently going while sitting on the potty like the other times. He was very proud of himself this time he went. This morning, Max and Hailey dumped out all the Little People out of the toybox and crawled in it pretending it was a boat and the push toy was the paddle (in first picture above). They had a bunch of stuffed animals and dolls in it with them. They played together in their pretend boat for quite a while. Bruce came home from work and went straight to bed. Whenever Bruce comes in the door, Max runs up to him saying "Daddy here" and gives him a big hug. Then he pulls on daddy's coat saying "coat off" and keeps repeating it until he gets it off. I guess he wants to make sure he's going to stay. After Bruce got some sleep and Max took his nap, we went to Kimmy and Jared's house. When we got there, Hailey saw Kate outside and said "I want to see Kate. Kate is my favorite dog. She just loves Kate ever since she spent the night when I was having surgery. And Kate really likes her too. Hailey saw Uncle Jared and ran out to the barn to see him and Kate. The kids had so much fun together. They were so excited to see each other. They always get along so good. They had fun running up and down the hallway and riding on the cars. Max loved all Jacob's big tractors. Jacob was really excited to give Max his present. Hailey and Jacob sat on the floor with the present waiting for Max to open it. Max didn't want to stop playing at first, but was happy once he started opening it. Jacob and Hailey both helped, and they were all excited to get it out of the box. It was a big playmat for his Playschool cars and also came with some cars, road construction cones, and traffic signs. Right away they all sat down on the mat to play with it. Then Kimmy gave Max a haircut. I wanted him to have it cut before his birthday party Saturday. He cried most of the time while she was cutting it, but he was very good about staying still. He really didn't like the pieces of hair dropping in front of him. He kept saying "I dirty". Then he would say "A bum, Mama" everytime a piece of hair fell on his hand. Lately everytime he gets a piece of hair or fuzz on him he starts crying cause he thinks they are bugs. I don't know why he's so scared of them if he thinks they are bugs. He always picks up and plays with real bugs. He looked so cute afterwards. I was glad to get it done cause his hair was getting pretty long. He liked looking at himself in the mirror, and when he saw it he kept feeling his head. Hailey fell asleep on the way home. Max was awake but begging to go to bed. I gave him a quick shower before putting him to bed though so he wouldn't itch from all the hair. Since it was an hour and a half past his bedtime, he was very happy to get in his crib.

Bruce got up with the kids and let me sleep in this morning. When I got up, he started working on the kitchen. He got alot done today. He got some more cupboards hung and he also hung the microwave. Max was very excited to see the tree lights this morning. He was a little better about touching the tree today. Every once in a while, he would try to pull the beads, but as soon as we would tell him no he would stop. Bruce had to run to the store for some parts, so he took Hailey with him this morning. When they got back, we ate lunch, and then I gave Max some of my Grandma's famous orange jello, leftover from Thanksgiving. While he was eating it, he said "Mmmm that good jello." He kept asking for more. After we ate, I put both kids down for a nap. Hailey didn't go to bed good last night, so she had to take a nap too. I was tired so I layed on the couch and fell asleep. Max didn't sleep very long though cause Bruce was drilling on the wall next to his bedroom and it woke him up. Later this evening, Bruce had to run back to the store again, so he took Max with him. Hailey and I played the "Pretty Pretty Princess" game. It was cute how she would put on the earings on by herself and then run to the mirror to look. Then she would come back saying "Don't I look pretty?" She got really excited when she got the crown and won the game. Then she played with all the jewlry until Daddy and Max got back. When she heard them coming, she said "We got to put this away so Max don't choke" and started picking up all the pieces. She is so good about that and is always carefull about giving Max anything small. She'll come up to me before giving him anything she doesn't know about and ask me if he'll coke on it. Even when she feeds him bites of her food, she asks me if it's small enough for him so he won't choke. She has been doing this since Jacob was a baby when she was younger than Max. Bruce brought back a pizza and some breadsticks for dinner. After I got Max in bed, Hailey and I set up the nativity. She had to give baby Jesus and the sheep a kiss goodnight before going to bed tonight.

We got up and went to church this morning. Hailey did really good going to her class by herself again. When we got home, we had chili for lunch and then got the kids down for a nap. Bruce put the outside lights up while they were sleeping, and I got the house ready for putting the tree up. When the kids woke up, I got them in their snowsuits so they could go out and watch the big inflateable snowman blow up. They really liked seeing the snowman and all the lights. We let them run around outside and play on the swings for awhile. When we came in, Hailey wanted some hot chocolate with marshmellows. Then my mom and dad came over to see the kitchen. They had some chili and visited for a while. We put our Christmas tree up tonight, and Hailey and Max had fun helping put the ornaments on. Hailey especially enjoyed it. She loved looking at the ones that she had made. She also liked looking at all the ones that she got when she was a baby. Hailey was such a good helper too. She would hand us the bows and she was really careful with all the glass ornaments. We had to put Max to bed before we finished though cause he kept pulling everything off the tree and out of the boxes tangling up all the beads and stuff. He wasn't quite gentle enough and he was making us a little nervous. It was almost his bedtime anyway, and he was happy to get in his crib. I can tell we are going to have fun trying to keep him from knocking the whole tree down for the next few weeks. Hopefully, though, he'll get used to it being there and won't touch it so much. Hailey stayed up pretty late helping with the tree. She was acting so tired when I got her in bed. Bruce and I watched a Christmas movie after getting her to bed. She heard the song "Jingle Bells" and came running out with a big smile on her face. When I went to walk her back to her room she started crying. She had been begging to hear that song for the last couple days. We decided to let her come out and listen to that one song. After I put her back to bed though she kept coming out. It took her a long time to fall asleep tonight.

Well, here is a picture of what our kitchen looks like right now. One wall of cupboards is almost finished. Hailey and Max set up their Little People Nativity today. Hailey was so excited to get it out. They both loved playing with it. They pretty much played with it all day. This evening we went to the candle walk (they have candles lit along the sidewalks of the town). My Mom and Dad and Vikki, Rody, and Mykenzie also went. It was very cold out, but we still had a nice time. We had the kids dressed really warm in their snowsuits, and there were fires to warm up by all over the place. They had alot of fun activities for the kids. They got to see Santa, and they even got to pet some real reindeer. They also had some games for the kids to play and prizes when they finished. They gave the kids each a bag of goodies to take home. They also had hot chocolate and donuts for everybody. We walked through the town, and stopped in some of the shops along the way. We stopped at the candy shop and got some yummy chocolate treats and some fudge. Some people were singing along the way, so we stopped and listened to them. Hailey and Max really liked listening to them. We also stopped and listened to a man playing his guitar and singing. Hailey was very interested in watching him play. The kids also loved seeing the big nativity. Before we left, we all got hotdogs. Then on the way home, Max fell asleep and Hailey was starting to nod off just as we were getting close to home. We were listening to Christmas music, and a slow song was playing when I looked back and noticed Hailey was falling asleep and Max was already asleep. I was so happy. Then a fast song came on, and Hailey's head popped up and she started bobbing her head to the music. I was hoping they would both be asleep when we got home, so we didn't have to do any bedtime routines. I asked Bruce if he wanted to keep driving and take me to the store so Hailey would fall back asleep. I thought it was a great idea. While Bruce sat out in the car with two sleeping kids, I would get some shopping done. Then we would come home and lay our sleeping kids in their beds. Bruce agreed it sounded like a good idea. But when I came back to the van from the store, both kids were wide awake and acting very silly. Bruce said that Hailey asked for a snack and Max heard her and woke up asking for one too. So they were both awake the whole time I was shopping. And, of course, they didn't fall asleep on the way home. So since we still had to do bedtime routines, we ended up getting to bed alot later than we would have if we just would have come home in the first place. At least then one of the kids would have been asleep. Big Mistake!