Christmas was not just one day this year; it was a whole season for us. We had the joy of celebrating THREE weekends in a row! This year, Grampa Dave's family celebrated early. There was a nasty blizzard over Christmas, but we celebrated as a family at home. And then we celebrated Christmas with my family on New Year's Day. Mattaya's pretty sure she's a HUGE fan of Christmas. ;)
Mattaya and I were playing at the Lego table, and she pointed out that one of the pieces looked like a slide. Well, at the playground where we play, there are slides AND swings...so she requested a swing. This is what I came up with.
But, really, what's a swing without a boy to sit on it?
She played with that little paper man for over a week. It's the simple things.
"It's like communion on a stick," said Matt in joyous wonder.
Mattaya is a popsicle-lover, and popsicles can heal any problem. I don't especially like the idea of feeding her sugar and dye in the absence of nutrition, so we experimented with making our own grape juice popsicles. Still lots of sugar and dye, but there were a few vitamins and such to help even the score in my mind.
No, really, that's a smile. That's the "smile" she gives when someone tells her to smile for the camera.
Why the look of fear and abject horror?
Sister looming overhead. That's enough to scare the diaper off anyone.
Matt got artsy with his hair over the Christmas break. He really did a nice job (I think, anyway).
The Evolution of Chocolate
Chocolate has gone from being called "hock" to "hockit" to "cocklit" to..."closet". Why? I have no idea. Maybe because we talk about hanging our winter clothes in the closet before we can have hot chocolate. Maybe not. But this monicker has stuck, and I hear it at least 100 times each day. "Hot closet" is frequently requested. And if it's not an appropriate time to drink hot chocolate, she requests "hot closet Taya movie" (a home video of Mattaya making hot chocolate). Mercy.
Hot chocolate aftermath.
Her redeeming factor.
Makenna has been somewhat of a challenge with her tummy issues and sleep difficulties. We've heard plenty of crying...enough to last me FOREVER. But I just can't hold it against her because she is just so SWEET and SMILEY! Don't you just want to squeeze those pudgy cheeks?!
When the weather outside is frightful, Mattaya requests a snacking stroller ride inside. Daddy is so nice to humor her.
He also humors her when she asks that Bobby sit in the front seat.
Daddy and Mattaya led the kickoff for Christmas decorating by dragging out the Christmas tree one Saturday morning.
Tummy time
"Just call me 'Ziggy'."
Mattaya helped Daddy put Christmas lights on the tree.
"Faces."
Don't know where she learned it, but this is Mattaya's funny face.
Seems like Makenna burps all day long...
"Oohhhhhh!"
Introducing Mattaya to the ornaments...which she most often referred to as "animals". Not sure why. Maybe because many of our ornaments are teddy bears, courtesy of Auntie Cindy. But there really are plenty of other types of ornaments on our tree....
Makenna didn't so much participate as supervise this year.
Aren't apples meant to be eaten?
Helping.
"Hmmm..."
Again with the "faces".
This girl loves her "fwedders".
Our girl Makenna...just swinging and smiling!
"See, Miss Joy? It fits just right!"
Bundled up. We've had some pretty treacherous weather up here, but any time it's warm enough to breathe, we head out to get the mail. What adventures we have!
Helping Mommy give Makenna a bath in the kitchen sink.
Waiting for some snuggly pajamas.
Christmas jammies, Christmas tree.
This is the yellow hard hat I received at this year's small group White Elephant exchange. I was actually excited about it, because I knew Mattaya would enjoy it.
Makenna, I love you and enjoy you, but Mommy really savors these precious moments. :)
Muscles!
Tears.
Ask me what these tears are actually about. Seriously. Mattaya doesn't mind having her picture taken, but she's so anxious to see the picture appear on the other side of the camera that she won't stay seated long enough to GET the picture taken! So she's crying because I'm telling her to stay on the chair and not letting her see the camera.
So after MUCH explanation and demonstration, she agrees to stand still for a picture. But, as you can plainly see, she's just barely holding it together because she's so anxious to see the picture.
Pitiful. Just pitiful.
zzzzzzzzzz
Now tell me THAT doesn't look like Matt's child!
I'm so enjoying pulling out all the baby clothes! I even remember who most of them came from! Oddly enough, I can't seem to remember who gave us the new ones. But we'll not talk about that. This outfit came from Grampa Gary and Gramma Pam when Mattaya was little.
(Gotta love what snot does for her hair, right?)
Helping Mom play some Christmas tunes.
Daddy and Mommy's after-bedtime cookie project.
Rosy cheeks. Just up from nap. Ready to celebrate some Christmas!
Mattaya took a shine to this Christmas tin that was housing a Christmas gift. Unfortunately, the gift was NOT for her. Very hard for her to understand that OTHER people receive gifts as well.
Watching the elves with Uncle Luke and Auntie Becca. Gramma Julie "elved" us all. (You can scroll down a few posts--the link is there if you want to watch it.)
An Elmo remote!
Makenna meets Auntie Marlys.
Gotta love having extra hands!
Stupid paci.
This thing is supposed to be helpful, right? And I suppose I can't really blame my child's lack of coordination on the device itself. It took Mattaya a while to get the hang of it, too, but 3 MONTHS?!
Quick take the picture!
(When Mattaya is done holding Makenna, she typically just drops/dumps/pushes her away...so getting a picture like this is actually a pretty dangerous endeavor.)
Mattaya handled gift bags much the same way she did last year: tossing the tissue paper up in the air. But with this particular gift, after it floated to the floor, it appeared to her to be a rather inviting pillow...
I just have no idea what goes through her mind sometimes. She didn't even take the gift out of the bag!
"Helmet."
Remember that hard hat? After a day, she decided that she did NOT like wearing it with the brace inside it. So I took the brace out and set it aside, planning to get rid of it later. Well, no, of course not. We cannot throw any junk away, because junk makes the best toys. Before she rides any of her riding toys, she goes hunting for her "helmet" and wears it backwards. Always.
YAY new books!
Clothes. Normally not something terribly exciting to Mattaya, but this shirt had texture. ;)
The classic reaction to clothes.
Rocking the puppy and feeding him his bone.
You just never can tell what the family White Elephant exchange will unearth. Luke landed some lovely mascara and was anxious to try it out.
Lynette wasn't as shocked or horrified by the samurai-type sword as we would have thought.
Marlys, however, was thoroughly disgusted by the book she received: The Gas We Pass.
Matt received a tool box filled with fun presents.
(This was AFTER the white elephant exchange.)
One of the gifts inside was an expired prescription for Motrin...and some of the new $1 coins.
Matt was very excited about his steal in the White Elephant exchange.
So this is a jacket that Luke received at his previous job. Gramma Mabel "won" it in the White Elephant exchange. She tried it on, and it fit decently well. I don't remember why, but Dad decided he wanted to try it on. When it fit him, we all had to try it on. Remarkably enough, it fit all of us. You've heard of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, right? Same pair of jeans fits 4 friends of different heights and body types. Well, here we have the Familyhood of the Untraveling Jean Jacket:
Grampa Dave
"This has a slimming effect, right?"
Luke
Yep--he had to take the sword home. Lynette didn't get to keep it, because Becca stole it. Becca was pretty sure her little sister would LOVE it.
Matt
Wearing the other half of "helmet".
Gramma Julie
Mabel
The one who got to take this lovely garment home.
(She really was excited about it.)
Lynette
Becca
She's due March 28...so that makes her about 6 months pregnant in this picture, right?
Marlys
Karisa
Daddy's gas book came with a pumpkin-headed dinosaur (which Becca had won at the Annual Pumpkin Autopsies...scroll down to the post about October). Daddy kindly removed the pumpkin, and Mattaya had a new best friend.
Mattaya actually was excited about wearing this dress, I promise. She didn't feel as tortured as she looks. When I brought it out, she ooh-ed and ah-ed. When I pulled it over her head, she yelled and cried a little bit. When all was said and done, she walked around admiring it and feeling it and telling me about her "pretty shirt".
Makenna seemed REALLY excited about her Christmas dress.
There were attempts to get a picture of them TOGETHER wearing their Christmas dresses...but, well, you know....
Now that's one tired little sister.
Little sister and Big sister
Mattaya is still waking up from nap but is trying to cooperate (as she's trying to eat her snack and watch Clifford).
A couple days before Chrismas, Matt turned 28. This year he requested Better-Than-Anything Cake.
Uncle Luke and Auntie Becca gave Mattaya a Cars Lego set!
Um, yeah, she wasn't so much a fan of the sunglasses.
But you should see her shake a rattle!
One of the meanings of her name is "happiness", and she is indeed in so many ways.
I don't even remember what was going on here....
Going to get the mail. I reallly need to get some winter clothes of my own. I was having to decide between one of Mattaya's hats and one of Matt's hats. Mattaya's fit me better, but I figured people would laugh less if I wore Matt's.
Apparently boredom has driven Mattaya to learn stunt-cycling! She seriously does this ALL THE TIME. I don't know why it occurs to her. As far as I know, no one has shown her how (and not Matt either, because he was surprised to see her do this). Previously, I had been removing her from the bike and telling her she needed to be more careful so she wouldn't fall and get hurt. But then Matt made such a big deal of it and told her how awesome she was for doing it. Now I can't make it stop.
Somewhere between a laugh and a cry.
Sooooo tired.
She looks guilty, but she's allowed to do this.
She has been very into coloring this month.
Christmas Day
Some stackable Sesame Street friends were her first gift. What we learned this year is that it would have been profitable to let her open one gift each day. When she opened this gift, she just wanted to play with it forever. Opening the NEXT gift wasn't on her agenda. So we had to keep pushing her to the next gift and the next gift. Next year we may do that differently.
Mack
And McQueen fits inside!
More books!
Opening the doll house
Knock knock
Mattaya is sweet, but she has little regard for ANYONE'S personal space.
Happy 1st Christmas, Makenna!
Showing you her personalized bag for going to Gramma's House. Makenna got one, too! Thanks Uncle Larry and Auntie Cindy!
There was a little reindeer inside the bag. She's sure it's a puppy.
New favorite snack: Nutella on a graham cracker.
Helping Makenna unwrap her gifts
Makenna...not really knowing what's going on...not really caring.
But she enjoyed the musical giraffe!
"Really--what is going on here?"
"Awwww, isn't that sweet."
Makenna with some of her loot.
A blizzard dumped 24 inches of snow on us. This was the view from our basement window.
She's got style in "spades".
Coloring with Daddy
"Here go fweetie."
Apparently we must all say, "Here you go, Sweetie" A LOT. She is now saying it every time she gives anyone anything. This time she was sharing a crayon with Daddy.
Step One: Put on your cute little apron.
Step Two: Help Gramma Julie stir the frosting.
Step Three: Spread the frosting on the cookie.
Step Four: Squirt a little more frosting on there.
Step Five (must have forgotten the picture--oops!): Sprinkles, which Mattaya refers to as "knuckles"
Step 6: Taste
(Actually, "taste" was Step 1b, 2b, 3b, and 4b...)
Mmmm. Let's start again at Step 1...
Matt eventually went out and got some snow pictures. This is our house straight on. That drift near our neighbor's garage is as tall as Matt (6 feet).
Matt pulled the car up onto the front walkway because it was causing so much drifting in the driveway.
This is our backyard.
Looking at the back of our house.
Our front yard
Blessing from heaven
Early morning chat with Daddy
She has so much to say, and she loves to sing!
Sweet, sweet, smiley girl!
Mattaya gets very excited about her dinner plate.
She's not so much a fan of being told it is not yet time to eat supper.
She tries to wait patiently. After half a minute, she'll ask to "niff it" (sniff it)...which will inevitably lead to touching it...which leads to eating it. Very slippery slope.
She has found her fingers and loves to suck them. Unfortunately, she doesn't find them as satisfying as the pacifier.
Classic I'm-yanking-my-own-hair pose.
So pretty
Propped up...can you tell?
Trying to mimic Makenna
The girls
And we thought Mattaya loved books. Makenna gets VERY excited about books. I know you think I'm ridiculous, but she gets very animated and LOVES to have books read to her. Her eyes light up. Her hands and feet get going. She tries to interact. It's too cute!
She's less excited about tummy time, but she gives it a try before she complains.
Getting ready to celebrate Christmas on New Year's Day at Gramma Julie's.
Rinsing and spitting is essential to our routine now.
Change me.
I kind of laughed when she did this....
And then we really laughed when she brought us the wipes like this!
Ready to celebrate!
Ooh--a new Cars book!
I think we read it 3 times right then.
And MORE books!
She got this all set up by herself!
Tea time with Mrs. Bear
Just ducky!
