A Christmas Postponed!

Tim and I realized this morning, as we were cleaning up Beniah's vomit, that we were continuing an unhappy tradition. Christmas celebrations with my family are now postponed (hopefully, for only one day).  The plan was to do our own family celebrations and then drive down to Roseburg and have a weekend filled with family and fun. 

We still ate our traditional Christmas breakfast of Hungarian Coffee cake.

But instead of gift opening, we are watching Thomas.

Here's hoping that tomorrow will look brighter (and cleaner)!

Happy 28th Birthday, My Dear!

To celebrate one's 28th birthday, you must have a custom cake decorated by some young bakers who would rather eat the decorations then actually help the master baker.

A darling baby niece should be invited and loved on by everyone in attendance.

When receiving gifts make sure the gift giver dances and flaps his arms while you open the gift.

 Be forewarned, now that you are 28, your cake is now becoming a ball of flame. It is fine to use your cake to warm your hands.

Although, you may need help blowing out all of your candles.

Enjoy your piecaken. 

I love you my Tim Dear! I am glad you enjoyed your day.

A 24 Hour San Diego Trip!

   A couple weeks ago, Tim received a phone call from his company's HR manager asking if we would like to have an all expense paid trip to San Diego for the company's Christmas party. 
Um.. yes please! 
So after sending some excited boys down to Grandpa and Grandma's house for the weekend, Tim and I hopped onto an airplane and flew down to San Diego. 

About thirty minutes into our trip, Tim was all ready massively annoyed with my photo obsession.

 

We arrived in San Diego and went to check in at our hotel. The hotel lobby had a beautiful waterfall that connected to the outside ponds.

 

The room we received was massive. The kitchenette was stocked with $3.50 bottled water and sub-par coffee. Best of all, the floors were lego free!

 After a refreshing walk to the grocery store to purchase food that wouldn't deplete our savings, we got ready for the Christmas party. My purse (read: Tim's pockets) couldn't hold the camera very well, so I had to be satisfied with one photo of us taken before the Christmas party.

 

 The party was very entertaining. I really enjoyed meeting Tim's IT department co-workers (and their wives). Even losing all of my fake money at the black jack table was fun.  

Mental note to self: Never gamble with real money. You are not good at it!

 The next morning, we decided to see the resort sights before we set off for home.

 We meandered through the walking paths...

 

 

...watched the parrots in the aviary...

 

 

... and then found a Christmas tree on the beach.

 After a quick tour of the TekWorks facilities, we drove to the airport and boarded our plane home to our boys.

 

 It was a fun, albeit, busy weekend.

Happy 4th Birthday Beniah!

 Four years ago today, Tim and I welcomed our first child,Beniah Mark, into the world.

 Beniah, I love your precious laughter,

I love your creativity,

 

(he was trying to make himself look like a cat)  

 I love your childlike belief and the songs you make up about Jesus.

 (This was a drawing of what God created. Beniah also took the photo.
Day 1: Sunlight. Day 2: Space between water & sky & a ball that Beniah insisted was there
Day 3: Bush, tree, and flower. Day 4: Icky, icky Sun, moon, & stars.
Day 5: Bird for the air & fish for the sea. 

Day 6: Eve riding a lion, a giraffe, and Adam riding an elephant.)

I love how much you want to hug and love on your family and how you say, "Family hug! I love all my family!"

 

 Happy birthday Beniah! We love you very, very much!

Happy Voting Day!

 Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.   ~  Franklin D. Roosevelt


Today is election day.  It has been a much anticipated event in the Whittaker household.  Beniah's favorite show (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) has an episode dedicated to voting which has now caused Beniah to decide that he gets a vote on everything from which team I choose in the family football pool (his guess is as good as mine) to whether or not he obeys me (definitely not ok).  Beniah watched me vote and then watched as Tim read through the voter's guide and decided on how he is voting.  He really wanted in on the action and told Tim that he needed to vote no on a certain ballot measure.

Tim wasn't thrilled with voting no, much to the disappointment of our eldest.

Beniah was finally consoled once he realized that even though Daddy voted "Yes", he wasn't going to be forced to go to a charter school.

Four Generations

About two weeks after Elijah was born, Tim's grandma moved in and expanded our household to a four generation house.

It's been crazy at times having this many generations living under one roof, but I am so glad that I and my boys have had the opportunity to get to know their Great Grandma.

    

A couple of weeks ago, the decision was made to move Great Grandma to a care center that was closer to the rest of her family and would provide better medical care for her. I realized that I had been putting off getting a four generation photo way too long.  So, we bundled the boys up and took them over to the rehab center that she was temporarily staying at for the coveted photo.

  

 After a little bit of coaxing, Elijah got onto Great Grandma's walker and rode down the hallway to her room. 

Of course, Beniah had to get a ride too.

 

 We had to leave after that, so Great Grandma went with us to the front doors.  Elijah held her hand the whole way.

 Great Grandma is now settling in her new home, but the boys are missing their buddy.  I think a visit on the way home from Thanksgiving is going to be a must.

Learning with Science

   Beniah loves lists, especially when he gets to choose what to put on it.  A few months ago, I made him a magnetic To Do List that has chore and learning activity choices.  I've become lackadaisical in enforcing the list over the summer and decided to reintroduce it this morning.  This time around, I am choosing the chore, so bedroom toys actually get picked up.

  One of the new learning activities is science and since Sid the Science Kid is a favorite of Beniah's, we went to study nature.  The boys each got a plastic bag and wondered around the yard collecting leaves.

 

Once we got enough leaves gathered, we went inside and began placing them onto the sticky side of contact paper.

It is very important to wear a hood during this process.  Should a mother remove said hood, the world will suddenly implode.

The boys were very excited about the finished product.  I ended up having to iron the leaf pages after they were in bed because the contact paper started to pull away from the leaves.

 

C is for....

Changing the car oil, eating lunch, and watching cars get washed.

 Car washing with happiness!

Car washing with fear.

 

Cookies from the mall (and not letting Mama take a group shot)

Cooling off inside and outside the pool.

Catching a breeze.

Cool evening walk with Grandpa and Grandma.

(but R is for running)

Cuddling with brother before going to bed.