Opening stockings

Christmas eve after lunch we let the boys open their stockings. Matthew was clueless as to what it was all about, but Joshua on the other hand couldn't contain his excitement. He literally dumped all the contents of his stocking on the floor after getting that stocking in his hand! Matthew just looked on with curiosity as Joshua oohhed and ahhhed over the cars, candy and other little items in his stocking. We eventually got Matthew to pull a few things out of his stocking, but he wasn't nearly as his brother was. I'm sure next Christmas will be a different story. Funny little side note: we don't do anything with Santa, but being in the public school this year it seems as if Joshua was bombarded with ideas about Santa. He thought that Santa brought him the things in his stocking and we didn't say a thing either way, just kind of left it alone (I honestly just didn't feel like diving into the whole subject). Either way Joshua was excited!

Matthew looks on as Joshua demonstrates the perfect way to empty a stocking, FAST!

Matthew decides to see what is in his stocking (with a little coaxing).

Joshua really liked his new cars! What a surprise.

Matthew with his new sippy cup, book, yogart melts,bib, puffs and his first ornament.

Friends and Neighbors

Over the last several months that we have lived at our new house we have gotten to know some of our neighbors pretty well and Joshua now has three good friends! It's so nice to have neighbors who are also friends! It's something we didn't experience a lot of in our old neighborhood. Joshua plays with his neighborhood friends several times a week (and one of them every day as I watch her when she gets off the bus after school). Last week our friend/neighbor Christy (whose daughter I watch everyday) invited us over to make and decorate cookies together. The kids enjoyed cutting the cookies out, but really enjoyed decorating them! The kids also exchanged presents which was fun.

Sickness Hits

Joshua got hit with the stomach flu (our best guess) on Sunday afternoon. He had been running around and playing all morning, but around noon complained that he didn't feel well. Just 15 min. later he hurled on the way to the bathroom - thankfully it was on the wood floor. He spent the rest of the day on the couch sleeping off and on. He did puke a few more times, two of those times being in the middle of the night so we got to experience changing the sheets in the middle of the night. Thankfully by Monday afternoon all symptoms of sickness were gone and he ate a full dinner without any repercussions. So far the sickness hasn't spread to the rest of us. I'm not exactly thrilled that Joshua was sick, but at least he got it done and over with before Christmas.

Hager Family Christmas 2009

This year we celebrated with Cory's family at his brother's house due to the size the family has grown to - 8 kids under the age of 8 need some room to move and play without making the adults crazy! It was decided that instead of doing the traditional dinner were we all had to dress up we would do a Christmas morning theme for the night. Joshua was thrilled to wear his PJ's to the family party as was I! We had a delicious buffet of breakfast foods to indulge in for dinner and then it was time for gifts from Cory's parents. The kids were beyond excited! Joshua got a Trio building set, a Lego motor home and some new PJ's. Matthew got a laptop toy, a mailbox toy, new PJ's and a new bath towel. All the cousins got new PJ's from Grandpa and Grandma that they had to open at the same time and almost immediately upon receiving them they all just had to don their new jammies. It was such a fun night! Below is a video of the Hager family celebration.

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Preschool Christmas Party

Last week was Joshua's Christmas party at school. The teachers had requested that only one guest come per student (smart teachers). So Phil kindly watched Matthew while I went to Joshua's party. He had a great time eating all the treats, making a beaded bracelet, creating a snowman magnet, making a foam ornament and making a special package of hot cocoa complete with chocolate chips, marshmallows and peppermint candy. It was so nice to spend some one on one time with Joshua in his classroom! We had a great time together at his party!

Putting stickers on his hot cocoa bag.

Concentrating on creating his beaded bracelet.

Yum, lots of treats to enjoy!

Preschool Christmas Program

Last week Joshua was in his first Christmas program at school. I was during his regular time at school and it was just his class "performing". Grandpa, Grandma, Papa and Uncle Phil as well as Matthew and I all went to watch. Joshua mostly stood there smiling, occasionally belting out the song and/or doing the motions. He certainly flashed his cheesy grin enough though! The program lasted for all of 15 minutes, if that (they had two snow days the week before which made for very little practice so I'm wondering if that contributed to the shortness of the program). There were some cute little songs and finger plays, all secular of course. I really missed the focus being on Jesus' birth and the real meaning of Christmas though, so glad that we are making that our focus at home every night when we do our advent wreath and stories!

Joshua's First Concert Experience

Monday night was a date night for Joshua and I! We were joined by Owen and Erin for dinner and then it was off to see Go Fish in concert. One of Joshua's preschool teachers from last year told me that Go Fish was going to be in concert at Christian High so I immediately bought tickets. If you haven't hear of Go Fish they are an amazing Christian group that sings kids music that won't drive parents bonkers (http://www.gofishguys.com/cms/). Let me tell you their music doesn't drive me crazy and in fact I even find myself listening to it when Joshua isn't in the car! So Monday Joshua was more than excited for the concert and couldn't wait! We went out to dinner first and since the service was very slow we only had a few minutes to eat; Joshua ate his dinner in record time, which for those of you who know him you know this is really a feat, so the concert was obvious motivation. We raced to the concert and checked out the table of concert souvenirs and of course were suckers for buying the boys T-shirts (it's their first concert after all) and glow sticks. Both Joshua and Owen LOVED the concert! They danced and sang for the nearly 2 hours it lasted! Afterwards they even got to meet the Go Fish guys and have their shirts signed. Joshua can't stop talking about it! It was so much fun!!!

What a year will do . . .

Last week I was going back through some of my old blog posts and this one caught my eye. One year ago the thoughts running through my mind were so different than they are today. I was agonizing over the fact that we were having another boy and let me tell you I didn't reveal to everyone just how devastating this was to me at the time. As I re-read that post I had to laugh at how filtered I was in my writing considering the way I was feeling. Tears flowed freely for weeks as I literally grieved the thought of never having a little girl. Fast forward to today as I watch my boys interact and I see the love and the bond that is already there between them (would it have been the same or different if Matthew had been a girl?!?). I love the differences between them and find the similarities, which there are few, funny. Watching Matthew's little personality develop and be revealed is priceless. I wouldn't change having my two boys for the world. People ask me if we are going to have a third in hopes for a girl and my reply is simple, "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Our family is complete and we are very happy with our two boys. Took me a while to see it, but I'm thankful that God gave us the gift of another boy. He obviously knows much better than I do!

Saint Nicholas Day

Sunday was Saint Nicholas Day so in preparation Saturday night we read a story about the real Saint Nicholas. Then I had Joshua put his shoes by the door so Saint Nicholas could leave him treats in his shoes (we thought Matthew should be part of the tradition too, so we put his shoes out as well). Of course all this preparation makes for one excited kid who ended up waking up early just to find what treats were left in his shoes. This year Joshua was thrilled to find that Saint Nicholas left him a Playmobil nativity set and some chocolate coins! Matthew received a Twilight Turtle for his room. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Twilight Turtle, it is a plush turtle with a hard plastic shell that displays all the stars on the ceiling and stays on for 45 min. acting like a night light of sorts when a child goes to bed. Joshua got one for his first Christmas and when I went to buy Matthew one when he was first born Joshua ended up taking it for his own because they had improved on it and the new one had LED lights in it making it much brighter than the original.

Joshua found the chocolate coins in his shoes.

Setting up his new nativity set.

Thrilled with his new playmobil nativity set!

Matthew thought it was more fun to play with his shoes than see what Saint Nicholas had brought him!

A chocolate coin (maybe next year he can actually eat it)!

Matthew's own Twilight Turtle!

Joshua shows Matthew how Twilight Turtle works.

Christmas Tree Tradition

Saturday was our annual trip to Lenderink's Tree Farm to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree and cut it down. We met Shawn, Erin, Owen and Aiden there to continue our many years of traditional tree cutting. After trekking through the foot of snow (yes, the first snow fall 36 hours later had dumped that much snow in this area) we found "the" tree. We headed back to get our trees shaken and tied. Then it was time for sledding and this year Joshua and Owen could sled on their own! Joshua tuckered out carrying/pulling the sled back up the hill after a bit, but Owen kept on going. Matthew and Aiden enjoyed just hanging out and watching everything that was going on - they both did very well considering they were bundled up to the point they couldn't move and it was snowing, cold and windy! We ended our morning with hot chocolate and marshmallows. On Sunday we actually decorated the tree. Joshua did quite a bit of decorating while Matthew looked on and played with a few ornaments. The video below captures the fun and memories of this great family tradition that begins our Christmas season.

Click To Play

First Snow of the Season

When the snow flakes were starting to fly Thursday night as we were eating dinner I just knew Joshua would be begging to go outside. He practically shoveled his dinner down his throat (highly unusual) and was dancing around and pleading to go out in the snow. We all bundled up and headed out to see how much snow had fallen and to our surprise there was enough that it was actually sticking to the ground! This was Matthew's first time in the snow and the poor kid was not thrilled about being bundled up in a snowsuit, but once he got outside and saw the blanket of snow and more flakes falling all around him he was very excited! Joshua loved every minute in the snow and once unbundled was asking when he could go back out! (Excuse the poor pictures - our camera of 5 years seems to be finicky lately so a new one has been ordered.)

Driving along

Matthew thinks he is quite something when he sits in the cozy coupe, but the other day he actually figured out how to move it! Mind you he was "driving" in reverse. I couldn't believe he could push himself backwards already. What a difference between parenting the first and second child; I would never have dared to put Joshua in a cozy coupe at 7 months old, but yet here sits Matthew by himself moving around on his own! Cory thinks that maybe we can start training Matthew to be a race car driver.

Bubbles!

I forgot what fun blowing bubbles for an infant could be! Matthew was just mesmerized by the bubbles at first and wasn't sure what to think of them, but after a few minutes he began to reach for the bubbles. By the end he was reaching and squealing with delight. Notice our cat, Logan, in the background of every picture, he loves bubbles too and couldn't let Matthew have all the fun!
Oh the simple things in life!

An Early Christmas Gift Exchange

Saturday my long-time friend Kim (we've been friends since 6th grade) and her daughter Ally were in town from Ohio - her hubby had to stay home because he had to work. They came over for a visit and for the kids to do their Christmas gift exchange. Yes, it's a tad bit early, but the holidays get so busy with activities that it's hard to find a time to get together so we figured we could celebrate early. It just so happens that Ally's birthday is at the end of November so she got both birthday and Christmas presents during our exchange! Both kids enjoyed giving and receiving gifts and played well together. Kim and I also got some quality time to catch up too! What a blessing to have such good friends!

Matthew liked Ally's stuffed animal she had brought over.


Ally loved holding Matthew (he's still trying to get her stuffed animal).

Joshua got a really cool Magnext set!

Ally got a cheerleader outfit to dress up in!

Bath Time!

Okay, so the second child really does get the shaft in pictures, even in this age of digital! We haven't taken many pictures lately, but these were too cute and I don't think we have many of Matthew in the bath tub. The boys LOVE bath time - Matthew gets so excited when he hears the bath water being run and he starts to get undressed! If these boys could stay in the bath tub for hours they'd be thrilled! This was the first time Matthew had experienced bubbles and he wasn't so sure about them at first, but after some exploration he enjoyed them.