Post Christmas Fun

Holidays are fun, but it's the days after when you get to try out all your new stuff that is the most fun! 

Playing "Kids on Stage" (charades for kids)...Can you guess what Arjen is acting out?

...pretty sure he was a pencil

And then there's Gus.  He started out looking like a pencil... 

...but if memory serves, he was either a fish or an alligator.

Then there's always the epic Jedi battle between Yoda and Captain America... 

...somehow they couldn't figure out how to put those Jedi powers to work on cleaning up that hurricane aftermath of a bedroom though.

And then there's this guy.  "I'm playing Twister, Mom!" 

Busy at work on this month's Kiwi Crate craft...claw grabbers!

It's SNOW fun!

We finally got a real snow storm after Christmas.  We all had a lot of fun playing in the snow and enjoying the white winter.

Watching the white stuff fall from the sky

Enjoying the novelty of shoveling, and impressed with accumulation!

Andrew playing with the snow blower

Meet Aotis, the Abominable Snowman!

I definitely won't miss how long getting ready to go outside takes!

Love!

My boys 

This guy didn't seem to mind the cold so much

It's snowing! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas festivities started on the eve of Christmas Eve this year!  Thanks to all the grandparents for watching babies this night so the big kids could enjoy a dinner out together.  

We had a very nice Christmas Eve at Grandma Cherie and Grandpa Wayne's house.  As is tradition, we had an early dinner, then went to church for the Christmas Eve service, before returning back to the house for presents!  

Arjen and Gus have been attending Sunday School this fall/winter.  The Christmas Eve service at church is a children's service, with all of the Sunday School kids singing songs and reciting parts of the story of Jesus.  I wish I could have video taped the whole thing, but this picture will have to do.  They did great, and each time they were up there I was wiping back tears of pride in my boys.  Then Gus started to give me tears of laughter as he turned into that kid.  The one, the only one, who was making faces, sitting down when everyone is supposed to be standing, turning around, walking up to the microphone, you name it.  It was too funny.  I felt bad for the Sunday School teacher who was trying to keep them all in line!  

Family photo op - Christmas Eve 2015

Somehow this is the only pic I have of kids opening gifts…trust me, it was a lot more exciting than this picture seems to depict! 

Grandma Cherie gave "Elf on the Shelf" jammies to all the grandkids this year.  We missed Alex for this pic since the poor guy was sick on Christmas.  :(

You can see the elves a little better in this one...

Christmas morning, as always, came very quickly with Arjen being the first to wake us up and announce that there were presents under the tree!  He was extremely patient, waiting at least a half hour before Gus - and ultimately everyone else - was awake.  We had to work on patience a bit this year, and taking turns with gift opening, but all three boys seemed to have quite the Christmas spirit.

Gus was working on reading who his gifts were from!

Aotis had no trouble figuring out what to do with the goodies he found in a box of musical toys he got

 The rest of Christmas Day was spent mostly in our jammies, playing with all the fun new toys and games, napping, then heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner…still in our jammies!  This guy decided he'd had enough, before he even finished his dinner!

Wrapping up our Christmas adventures, was the Treptow family gathering the Sunday after.  We finally had all six grandkids together, so we snapped a few more Elf jammie photos.  Oh the spectacle we were in the back of the restaurant trying to get six kids smiling and looking at the camera together!

RIP Grandpa John

Aotis and I took an unexpected trip out to Los Angeles the Friday before Christmas, to say "Hi" to my Grandpa John who was in the ICU with organ failure and not expected to make it through the day.  He held on long enough for most of us to get there to see him, then early on Saturday, December 19 - interestingly enough it was the anniversary of his first date with Grandma - he said enough is enough with this hospital and passed on through to the other side.  I was grateful for the chance to see him one last time, and the visit with my family that weekend was a great way to remember Grandpa.  

Grandpa, Dad and me, circa early 1979?

My travel buddy was amazing.  He rocked his first airplane travel experience like a champ.  He maintained his sunny disposition, took naps, entertained our neighbors, and only needed to roam free on the airplane one of the four legs of our roundtrip excursion.  He even tolerated being awoken to get out of the car at the hospital, then having to wait in the hospital lobby while the adults took turns going up to the ICU, falling asleep again, then being woken yet again to go get a bite to eat after midnight and ultimately staying up waaaay past his bedtime our first night there. 

Posing for a selfie on our flight out west

Both of these guys were ecstatic to see one another :)

GGma Margie was happy that Aotis wanted to sit with her too

A very unusual-these-days moment of just the three sisters! (picking Shannon up from the airport)

Paying close attention to Grandpa Dave on the computer

Enjoying the view

Airplane! 

As always, my cousin Travis couldn't get enough of baby-time!  He and Aotis were entertained for a long time with the peep hole in GGma's front door.

Rockin' with GGma in his Great-Great-Great Grandpa's chair

I was glad to have Aotis with me on this trip.  Our last night in LA I think was my first night ever(!) in a hotel alone…sort of…since I had Aotis with me I wasn't technically alone.  I was mostly worried about not waking up in time for our 6:30 am flight out of LAX, but we made it!  Gotta love traveling with little people…getting through the security line goes so much faster!

Close up of the airplane

I typically pick an aisle seat, but I thought he might enjoy looking out the window since it was daylight during this flight back to WI.

While the purpose of the trip was a sad one, we had a nice visit with family.  It's strange to think that I no longer have any living Grandpa's, and my kids won't likely remember the only Great-Grandpa who was alive during their lifetimes.  But to find the silver lining, my cousin Kristen and her husband Morgan welcomed their first born on Christmas Day!  Quite the circle of life.

My last visit with Grandpa prior to this trip - March 2015

Rest in Peace Grandpa.
John Stonewall Miller
May 5, 1926 - Dec 19, 2015

He's 10 months old!

I know I sound like a broken record by this point, but I honestly don't know where the time goes!  As I write this, Aotis is closer to 11 months old, which is only a month away from 1 year!  Aack! At this point too, he's suffering from 3rd child syndrome (or I am I guess!).  I at least have pictures for him, but beyond that, I can't even think of what new things he's doing to share here!  He is definitely becoming more opinionated, and more communicative and more expressive.  He's begun using more baby signs…at this point clapping his hands together is universal for "more", "please", "eat", and "milk" (although he usually just bangs on my chest for that one).  

Physical development is not too much different this month…he is starting to stand unsupported more now - he'll let go of whatever he's holding onto and stay upright for 5 or so seconds, but he still doesn't seem too interested in holding onto your hands to take any steps, but will cruise along any and all furniture, walls, chairs, adult legs....  He continues to try and get after any big brother toys he can get his mitts on, and at times, I'm positive I've heard him say "Gus" and "Arjen." 

He definitely likes testing his boundaries as well.  Particularly with the Christmas tree and trying to sneak off to rooms that are supposed to be off limits.  He's lightening fast on all fours, but his giggle gives him away when he's headed somewhere he knows he shouldn't.  It's like he's taunting you to chase him down.  Impossible to not laugh with him!  

How old am I now?

Remember when I could lay across this chair and barely touch the edges?

Getting bolder with discovering new dimensions of movement

He recently discovered my dresser…I had to laugh when he was trying to put my shirts on! 

He finally chilled out about chasing after the tree and it's water (he was loving dipping his hands in there!).  But he still likes to very carefully see if he'll be allowed to touch any of the ornaments his brothers so conveniently hung low for him!

Breakfast with Santa

Breakfast with Santa at the Osthoff, will definitely remain one of our Christmas-in-Wisconsin traditions.  Almost better than getting to see Santa, was the "knee-high buffet"…sized just right for the little people! Arjen had a blast getting to go get his own food from the buffet line.  He was impressively skilled with carrying his plate, and even managed to have good manners waiting his turn in line and using the serving utensils appropriately, without needing much (if any!) supervision!  I enjoyed watching him too.  :)  

He was a big fan of the pancake table with whipped cream, berries, and all the fixings!

He even figured out he could set his plate down to better access what was in the food warmers

Waiting in line for Santa after breakfast was an exhausting task.  These two couldn't even remain vertical!

Aotis was less than thrilled to be dumped onto the big guy's lap.  He looked around to everyone for help, yet we all just left the poor kid there.   

And somehow, the other two managed to give some of their best posed smiles to date!  Go figure.

After removing the screaming Aotis, Gus got a chance to ask Santa where he parked the reindeer.  (They had flown back to the North Pole of course!  Valet service for Santa!)