On to 2015!

2014 is over which means we will no longer be updating this blog. We will be moving here:
http://thousandwords2015.blogspot.com/. We are a little bit undecided about the format we will have next year. I am not sure we will still be doing daily posts, and may be doing more of weekly highlights done in a few posts per week. We may also decide to stick with the daily format. Either way, we hope you will join us there for 2015.

Jason's Awards and Stats for 2014 In Pictures

In 2012, 2011 and 2010, I did a post about some awards that I made up and some stats about the daily posts.  Last year I was just way too busy (three very little kids will do that, apparently), so I had to skip it.  This year, I'm still really busy, but not quite as much as last year, so I squeezed it in.  So without further ado, here are my awards and stats for 2014 in Pictures! 

Best Write-Up:

Pants Are Useful (2/10/14)

Top 5 Titles (in chronological order): 

1. Johnson County Choppers (1/18/14) - We don't do custom motorcycles in our family, but we do do cooking. 
2. Bugs, Barbers, Burgers, and Bears (6/7/14) - I like alliteration, but it's hard to make it work for four words that are all applicable to a post.  I lucked into this one, but I'll take it.  
3. Rub a Dub Dub Only Two Kids in a Tub (8/14/14) - I'm not sure if Hannah is the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker.
4. A Family Connection in Connecticut (8/20/14) - Connection and Connecticut should not have the same first eight letters, but they do, so I made a post title based on it. 
5. Hooty and the Unselfish (11/16/14) - Darius Rucker approves.

Top 5 Best Photography (in chronological order):

1. Pi(e) Day (3/14/14) - Even though the four pictures are too wide for the format of the blog, I had to include them, as they captured the series of Hannah's facial expressions.
2. Parks and Parties (5/2/14) - As the unofficial photographer of the main event of the party, I knew I had to make sure I captured Barb's face as she first walked into the room and realized what was happening and that Mark had pulled of an amazing surprise.
3. Date Day in the Park (6/20/14) - This one isn't about the photography itself, but instead is about the resulting picture and the subjects in it.  That final picture of the post is a great picture showing Clara and Meghan.
4. You and Me and Baby Makes Three (8/2/14) - I wanted to get a picture of Hannah walking along holding my hand, but I was the only one available to take it, which resulted in me somewhat awkwardly holding the camera down low out in front of me at a weird angle to take a picture of Hannah when I couldn't see what was on the screen.
5. Springing Forward into Fall (11/2/14) - We successfully capture the time-lapse of Joshua jumping into the leaf pile. 

Worst Photography:
The picture of me from Rocking Out '90s Style (8/1/14) - I only needed to get one decent picture of me at this concert, and that was the best I could do?


Top 5 Coolest Visuals (in chronological order):

1. Good Friday (4/18/14) - This might be more specific to me personally, but though Meghan always looks good, she looks amazing in this picture.
2. The pool picture(s) from A Day at the Beach, Plus Some Pool Time (5/5/14) - The pictures of the pool are almost psychedelic.  The lighting was cool at the time in the pool, but it looked way better from up above from where we took these pictures.
3. The last picture from Dads and Kids Playdate (6/14/14) - I love the view of Joshua climbing against the backdrop of the setting sun and the clouds.
4. The drone picture from Fun, Family, and Fireworks (7/4/14) - Going into this year, I did not expect our blog would have a picture taken by a drone.  It gives a perspective that you'd never otherwise see.
5. A Beautiful Cold (11/13/14) - I love the effect the giant snowflakes create as they fall all around me.

Best Facial Expression (in chronological order): 
The bear-hugging picture from Bugs, Barbers, Burgers, and Bears (6/7/14) -This makes me laugh every time I see it.

Worst Facial Expression: 
It's World Cup Time! (6/22/14) - Yeah, not flattering.

Most Informative Post: 
A Family Connection in Connecticut (8/20/14) - This blog is educational!

Saddest Post: 

Saying Goodbye to Terrence (7/6/14) - This was pretty devastating to us.

Best Alternative Ways to Obtain a Picture for the Blog (in chronological order):

1. The weather forecast picture from Prepping for the Cold (1/4/14) - I took a screenshot from my phone to use as this picture.
2. The drone picture from Fun, Family, and Fireworks (7/4/14) - David took a couple of screenshots from the video the drone took, and this was one of them.
3. The dumping water picture from Ice Bucket Challenge (8/24/14) - Meghan was recording the video of the event, so she couldn't also take a picture at the moment the water splashed over me, so I played the video on my phone, paused it, and took a screenshot of that, which became this picture.

Best Unexpected Innovation: 
My Little Dare Devil (9/8/14) - Go back and look at this post.  Meghan took these series of photos, and Google noticed they were a time-lapse and automatically created the animated GIF for her, so we included it in the post.  Fun!

Biggest Blog Blunder

Check out the post from March 31st.  Oh wait.  You can't.  That's because when going through the blog at the end of the year we realized we somehow missed a day.  We're not sure how that happened, because normally we're so on top of it, but it did.  That's literally the only day out of the last 1,826 days for which we do not have a post.  

Best Blog Trend:
This is not new to this year, but over the past couple years we've continued to have longer and longer posts with more and more pictures.  We still have plenty with only one picture, and there are a few with only a few lines of description, but it's a sharp contrast from how the blog looked in 2010.

Speaking of that...

Most Words:

Making the Most of Our Final Day (5/9/14) - 931 words

Fewest Words:

Superstar! (4/24/14) - 34 words

Most Pictures:

A Pumpkin Patch Fourth Birthday for Joshua (10/12/14) - 24 pictures
Joshua and Clara's VeggieStuffins Birthday Party (11/15/14) - 24 pictures

Most People As the Subjects of the Picture:

Bringing Even More of the World to Kansas City (2/8/14) - 30 people

Some Nerdy Stats:

Posts by Meghan:	211
Posts by Jason:	153

The last time we had a disparity this big, it was the other way around and it was because Meghan was pregnant.  I was not pregnant this year, so I have no excuse other than laziness.  Okay, I take that back.  I just now checked last year, when no one was pregnant, and she blogged a lot more than I did, so I guess it's now just a general trend.


In each post we tag the people in it, as well as our own pets. Here’s the breakdown on the number of posts in which each person or furry friend appeared, among those who made at least two appearances. Ties are broken by the alphabet, not by how much we love you.

Joshua	248
Clara	220
Hannah	205
Jason	135
Meghan	86
Terrence	20
Benjamin	19
Natalie	18
Ron	18
Peg	15
Julie	14
Bob	13
Jean	13
Andrew	11
Barb	9
Mark	8
Halie	8
Joanna	7
Brent	5
Matt	5
Michelle	5
Christine	4
Hadley	4
Jason K.	4
Jim	4
Abby	3
David	3
Dylan	3
Elle	3
Hudson	3
Sam	3
Tucker	3
Callie	2
Deb	2
Jason H.	2
Kirk	2
Oliver	2

Sadly, Alex only had 1, so he didn't even make the cut.  We see him at night, but he tends to make himself scarce when the kids are around.

And as we did last year, this year we tagged each post with the state where the picture was taken if it was somewhere other than Kansas, solely so I could do this exact list, because I’m curious about dumb things like this. Here’s the breakdown:

Kansas	306
Missouri	21
Utah	4
Alabama	3
Minnesota	3
Nevada	3
Colorado	2
Michigan	2
Texas	2
Connecticut	1
Arizona	1
Arkansas	1
Illinois	1
Kentucky	2
Oregon	1
Ohio	1

There you have it!  

Our Top 10 Posts: The Year in Review

From Meghan:

It was hard to narrow it down to just a few top posts, as it is every year. Because I always love our trips so much, I had to kind of exclude trip posts or every single top post from me would just be a travelogue.

I loved our Florida trip in May. It was a long trip and we did a lot. We drove down to Birmingham and spent some fun time with Michelle and Sam (and some worrying time. I had tornado warnings). Then we drove down to Florida in what remains the most harrowing drive of my life. But after that, we had a great time and it was special to be at my mom's 60th birthday. Then  we moved to the beach and spent a week with Jason's family and that was a fun time. I love the beach so much, I could probably spend the whole summer there and we just had a great time.

I also loved our Great American Road Trip in November. We had so much fun on this trip. We drove to Denver and saw Garden of the Gods. We drove to Vegas (including a not-so-great drive through a Blizzard in the Rockies, but not as bad as the drive from Birmingham to Florida earlier this year) to spend Thanksgiving at my sister's house. That was super special because my whole family has never been together all at once. We got to spend time on the strip and at Valley of Fire, which is our favorite place in Vegas. After Vegas, we drove into Utah and saw Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon, which were awesome. And then we drove home. This was an awesome trip and we had so much fun.

Beyond that there were a few key posts that really stood out to me, in chronological order:

1) Hannah's Boot Scootin Boogie (1/22/14) - It really seemed like Hannah would never walk. And then she just did and now it seems weird that she ever was reluctant. I love this post because it captures a very specific phase in her life and also a part of her personality that is very Hannah.

2) Bad Dog (3/12/14) - This year is the first year in a long time that I wouldn't say is better than the last and that's mainly because Terrence died. He was really special to me and I feel like, though I doubt we will ever not have a dog, I am not sure I will ever have a dog like him again. I love this post because in many ways he was such a trouble-making jerk and this really captures that very well, which also showing how lovable he was.

3) A Day at the Park with my Future Tailgaters (8/8/14) - Though I do love all seasons except winter, I love our summers the best. The kids aren't in school and the days are long and it just feels so relaxing and fun. We went to the park (actually we went to many parks) and Deanna Rose so many times and had such fun that this post just reminds me of that and I love it.

4) Date Day in Topeka (8/23/14) - I love this post because I had a super fun day with Joshua and also the Children's museum was such a nice surprise. I really don't expect anything that fun to be in Topeka, or Kansas at all really. So we had a great day, but also it turned in to multiple great days because then I knew about that place. It's always fun to make an unexpected discovery like that.

5) My Little Dare Devil Part II (9/11/14) - This post is just so Joshua. Generally three was not a very fun year for us. This isn't uncommon, especially for boys, and I am not sad to leave that behind. He had mostly gotten over his major attitude by the time of this post, but some things that can be frustrating about Joshua aren't a phase. They are just him and breaking things is kind of like that. He'll always break things because he likes testing and seeing what will happen and he climbs and jumps and hangs. Even though I would prefer my light fixtures to stay intact, that's part of what makes him Joshua, so I kind of love that about him.

6) A Pumpkin Patch Fourth Birthday for Joshua (10/12/14) - I love the fall and we had such a fun time as a family going to the Pumpkin Patch and it was also Joshua's birthday so it was just a super fun day that makes me happy to remember it.

7) A Super Halloween (10/31/14) - I love Halloween. Though I would have liked to dress up every year, in previous years I have just felt too tired to figure out a costume. In many ways I have less free time than ever now, but in other ways my life has calmed down a lot now that we don't have babies. This year, I felt like I could do it and I am glad I did. We had a super fun Halloween dressing up as a family and it makes me happy to remember it.

8) Bike Day (10/2/14) - I love this post not necessarily because of that specific day, but because it shows what huge progress Clara made in bike-riding this year. She is really my most enthusiastic and accomplished rider at this point and she just loves riding up and down the street with her big wheel and she goes really fast. At the beginning of the year, she couldn't even pedal and now she just goes and is so proud of it. It's been great to watch her build that skill.

9) Thanksgiving Tree (11/11/14) - Holiday traditions are important to me and I really love Thanksgiving, which is a holiday that often gets short shrift, being between Halloween and Thanksgiving. But gratitude is very important and something I want to cultivate in my own life and that of my children. So I love this tradition we have of doing the Thanksgiving tree and it got even better this year since the kids are a little bit older.

10) Merry Christmas (12/25/14) - Though this year was not the best ever because of Terrence, this Christmas season was perhaps the best Christmas ever and I like this post because it reminds me of that. I am really happy with the way Advent went and we did everything I had hoped to do except I didn't watch It's A Wonderful Life, which would have been nice, but is a small thing. Also, Christmas Day was a really fun day and very slow and relaxing. We don't get very many days where we don't have to go somewhere or do something and this was just a nice day where we stayed at home and the kids played with their new toys happily and it was just super enjoyable.


From Jason:

I followed the same rule as Meghan: no posts from either of our vacations.  So here are my top ten, in chronological order:

1) Davids and Goliath (4/15/14) - While this specific time and game was fun and funny, it represents something that’s really become much more common in the past year: imagination-based playing with the kids.  Joshua’s old enough to really want to do it, Clara’s old enough to be excited to play along, and Hannah is old enough to take part at least to some extent.  It’s really fun to me as well to work with them to come up with a random game with random rules and then to play it out.

2) G&G’s Arrival and a Culver’s/Park DateDay (4/19/14) - This post could have made my Top 10 even without the date day component, as it represents one of the biggest events of the year for me, which was my grandparents completing their move to the Kansas City area by moving into their new house in Olathe.  On top of that, the post also had a really fun date day with Clara, making it an easy choice to make my list.

3) Fun, Family, and Fireworks (7/4/14) - This post reminds me so much of the fun summer that we had, and how great this particular day was.  The 4^th of July is always a fun and relaxing day, and this particular one was better than most.  From the kids’ cute outfits, to the party/celebrations we had at Mom and Ron’s, to meeting Elle, to the drone, to the fireworks, and everything else in between, it was one of my favorite days of the year.

4) You and Me and Baby Makes Three (8/2/14) - This year is the first year that we've integrated Hannah into the date day schedule, as we decided at the beginning of the year that she was old enough to really enjoy them.  This post reminds me of the date days I've had with her as well as her general development.  A year ago she seemed like such a baby, and now she’s a little girl.  It’s been really fun this year to watch her grown and develop so rapidly.

5)  Family Dinner with Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb (8/3/14) - Similar to the Fourth of July post, this was just an all-around great day that was fun, relaxing, and involved a lot of my family.  One of my favorite pictures of the year is the one of Hannah with the dirt all over her (Thanks, Joshua).  We don’t get to see Dad and Deb all that often, so it was also a special day for that reason.

6) Take Her Out to the Ballgame (8/30/14) - I had a few date days with Clara this year, but this one was the best.  Clara and I had such a great time.  It was extra fun for me that it involved baseball, and she did so well, and pretty much every part of the date was really fun.  On top of that, we got some great pictures from it, and I’m not sure Clara has ever looked cuter.

7) Oki: Clara’s First Boyfriend (10/7/14) - This post doesn't have any deeper meaning, but it really just cracks me up every time.  Clara’s unexpected enthusiasm and unbridled glee about her Oki was great.  I also like it because it reminds me of the month of childlike fun and excitement that was the Royals run to the World Series.

8) Going to Game 6 (10/28/14) - Attending a World Series game is really something I never thought would never happen, so in some ways it was beyond a dream come true, because it didn't really even make it to dream status.  But it’s something I’ll never forget, both because of the day itself, and also because it was the culmination of the surreal October that the Royals and all their fans, including me, experienced.

9) A Smash-Free Date Day at the Zoo (11/1/14) - This was a really fun date day I had with Joshua.  He’s such a big boy now.  Going places with him is so fun because he asks so many questions (some people are annoyed by kids’ incessant questions, but I enjoy trying to answer them all), so I get to explain so many things to him and help him learn.  He understands logic, for the most part, so we can have reasonable conversations, and if I need to explain about why we can’t do something, for example, he’s generally very accepting.  We had a super fun day, despite the misleading marketing campaign.

10) Sibling Reading Time (11/18/14) - A part of parenting that I didn't really expect to be so great (I guess because I never really thought about it) is the interaction between the kids, probably especially at such young ages.  They are hilarious in their interactions with each other, both in their discussions and how they play sometimes.  But the sweet things that they do for each other is such a heart-warming aspect of being a parent.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Going out on New Year's isn't really realistic for us at this point. We would have to find a babysitter, pay her, pay the inflated holiday prices to go out, and then figure out safe transportation home when we don't live near any place that has New Year's festivities. So we stayed home. This year I did activities in the form of "New Year's Crackers". They had times to be opened on them. I made them from a kit and they went really well except I taped the poppers and they didn't always stick to the cracker. Next time I would glue them with super glue. All the kids loved the pop and it was fun.

We started out getting glow sticks. Joshua got a glowing sword that he really liked and the girls got necklaces and everyone got bracelets.

Then we moved on to dinner. As we normally do, we had appetizers and fondue for dinner and the kids got sparkling cider all night.

Then we decorated our "New Year's Tree". In preparation for this, Jason had taken the Christmas ornaments off already and I made photo ornaments of many of the things that happened this year. We then hung them on the tree. The kids don't necessarily enjoy reminiscing as much as I do, but I like this activity a lot and I think we'll do it again in the future. I made about 100 ornaments so it did take awhile to find the photos, order them, and then cut them, but I found it worth it.

Next we played a game. We have a few the kids like at this point, but we went with the cube game. The kids throw the cube (taking turns) and then we read a card of the corresponding color and they do whatever it says. They think the cards are fun. They say things like "clap 10 times" or "make a sad face" or "quack like a duck", so things they are excited to do. After the game, we ate dessert and watched The Jungle Book. Disney is kind of hit or miss because some of their movies are really pretty scary, especially the older ones. Like I can't imagine showing my kids Snow White and they made me turn off Peter Pan within ten minutes because the dad is so mean and then Captain Hook almost immediately shoots (!!) a guy. But The Jungle Book went well and has catchy music. It isn't my favorite Disney movie by a long shot, but it was enjoyable.

After the movie, it was time to celebrate the new year. We had a mini dance party, which Clara especially loved, but they all loved the music Jason had bought one year and the mini disco ball.

After the dancing, it was time to count down and say "Happy New Year!". The kids had a fun night and stayed up a little bit late. We put them to bed and then stayed up to ring in the new year.

NOTE: We will soon be posting our Top 10 posts of the year as well as the Awards and Stats post.  Following that, we'll post the invite to next year's blog.  Stay tuned to this blog for now!

Dragon Game

Though I do not officially celebrate 'Boxing Day', I think most moms at least kind of do because you have all this new stuff. Our playroom is already full from three birthdays by the time Christmas comes and then it gets fuller so I spent the day after Christmas reorganizing and purging. This involved switching toys out from the basement and the dragon puppet came back out. The kids have been really loving playing this game with Jason where he controls the puppet and the kids irritate the dragon by poking him with various toys and then the dragon gets mad at them and gets them. It's not the best game, but they love it so much that it makes it fun. It's really their favorite thing to do at the moment despite all the new toys.

Christmas Shopping With Aunt Josie

For Christmas, because Joanna is in town, we thought it would be fun if she went shopping with the kids to let them pick out what they wanted for their gifts from her and Kirk.  I had time today, and she doesn't leave until tomorrow, so it worked out great.  We went to Toys 'R Us in separate trips. We first took Hannah and Clara, and they are both not really yet aware that you can ask for things in stores and your parents can potentially get them for you.  So they didn't really get it, and we had to hold up things for them to gauge their response.  Clara, though, spotted a little Care Bear (Share Bear, who is purple) and decided that she loved it, so that settled that.  Hannah (riding in the cart, of course), showed at most moderate interest in most things, but we were looking for more of a reaction than that.  We then showed her Crocky (a baby version of Peter Pan's Tick Tock the Croc), and she beamed and immediately reached out to get it and give it a hug, so we knew that was the one.  When we took Joshua, he wanted everything it the store ("That's my favorite [whatever toy he's looking at]!").  We had to focus him on toys that were in his age range.  He was excited when he saw the section of Home Depot toys, and we settled on a landscaper set with a wheelbarrow, rake, shovel and lawnmower.  We then went back to pick up the girls and then went to lunch.  It was a fun time, and the kids really liked spending time with Aunt Josie.

I've had to replace a few of the pickets on the fence between us and our neighbor to the west, but yesterday I noticed that three more were broken.  We suspect that Joshua is responsible for this, as we saw him shaking one of the broken pickets.  They are old, so it wouldn't take much abuse to crack one.  Either way, I had bought some extra pickets last time anticipating this would happen, so I got three of them, and asked Joshua if he wanted to help knowing it's the type of thing he would love.  I had him put on his safety goggles from his construction worker outfit (and I put on mine out of solidarity) and get his toy saw and toy hammer.  Together we worked to cut the pickets to the right height and to pull off the old ones and hammer on the new ones.  I also had a talk with Joshua about being gentle with the fence, so hopefully I don't have to do this too often.

A Sunny Leafy Winter Day

Our church wasn't holding services today, which left me with a larger block of time than I normally get with the kids on Sunday (it's usually pretty much Hannah's nap time by the time we finish lunch after we get home from church).  Our trees drop their leaves late, so since I last mowed there have been quite a few that have fallen in the back yard.  The weather was chilly but sunny today, so I decided to rake all the leaves in the back yard.  I attempted to enlist three little helpers, but of course Hannah wasn't interested in going out in the cold, so I started with just Joshua and Clara.  But later Hannah decided she wanted in on the party and joined us.  We don't have a toy rake, and they wanted to help, so we just gave them whatever implements we thought might satisfy them.  Joshua used his broom, Clara used her plastic sand shovel, and Hannah had an orange trowel with a frog on it ("her froggy shovel").  They went right to work on my piles of leaves, which of course caused me to have to re-rake them, but I was more than happy to do so, as they were having lots of fun helping me.  Joshua several times excitedly declared, "Dad, three guys are helping you rake!"  The weather is supposed to turn cold this coming week, so I was glad we were able to get in a day of some outside fun while we still can.

A Fantastic Final Christmas

Today we had Christmas with Dad, Deb, and my siblings and our spouses and children.  We all met up at Julie and Andrew's house and started with a great brunch.

Dad had fun with the kids disassembling a bow and then using it as a rope.

Benjamin continued to hone his skills as a photographer.

Among the gifts, I was most amazed by the Ocean book that Dad and Deb gave to our kids.  It's really amazing and is something you can't appreciate until you see it, as it uses a technique called photicular to make the pictures look like videos embedded in the pages.  But the most special gift to me was a bottle of Crown Royal with my name embroidered on the bag.  I don't drink very often, but when I do I want to drink something I like, and ever since college (uh, I mean ever since I turned 21), Crown has been my liquor of choice.  Dad knows that, and so he and Deb came up with that as a personalized gift, which I thought was very cool.

In the afternoon we played some games, and then because we're a bunch of board game fiends, I came back in the evening after the kids went to bed so we could all play for a few more hours.  It was a great day, and I think we all enjoyed having essentially the full day at our disposal, so we didn't feel rushed.  It was also really special to have the three siblings in one place with all of our spouses and children, similar to what Meghan had with her sisters when we were in Las Vegas.  Sadly, though, this ends the Christmas season, at least in terms of activities, events, and Christmases (and a bonus wedding!), but we've been able to see so much of our families over the past couple months, and for that we are very thankful.

It's Time for a Checkup

Today I took Joshua and Clara to the pediatrician for the four-year and three-year checkups, respectively. Both kids are doing great, and Dr. Stuppy had no significant concerns. Clara continues to be on the bottom of the charts for weight at 24 lbs putting her in the first percentile, though she is up to 35.5 inches for the 13th percentile in height.  We are going to keep her on whole milk, which typically is not done for kids over 2, but since she needs all the fat and calories she can get, it's better for her to keep drinking whole milk (though it's actually Lactaid or the generic equivalent because of her dairy issues).

Joshua is 34 lbs for 26% and 40 inches for 38%, pretty much in line with what he's been.  Kids get four major shots after they turn 4 but before they go to kindergarten (chicken pox, tetanus, MMR, and one other one I can't remember), so we decided to the them done now.  He was pretty apprehensive about it, asking everyone he met along the way (the check-in lady, each of the two nurses, and finally Dr. Stuppy herself) if he was going to get shots.  When it came time to get them, he had to be held down and he screamed and cried the entire time.  I felt really bad for him.  But they said he won't need any more shots until he's 11, so he's good to go for awhile now.

Dr. Stuppy let them use them stethoscope and the otoscope, so they gave each other checkups and also gave Dr. Stuppy a checkup, which they thought was really fun.  We are blessed to have three healthy children.

Merry Christmas!

So Christmas got off to a rather weird start. As normal, Joshua and Clara woke up first, so we went downstairs. This was what our living room looked like. They had no reaction. So I was like, "Oh why do you think there are presents?" And they looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Because it's Christmas. Can we have breakfast?" Uhm okay. 

Jason took quite some time to get up and get ready, so they actually had a long time to build anticipation. After they had their granola bars, they did get really excited and rode the rocking horse (Sorry, Hannah. You snooze, you lose. Literally.) and Clara's new bike since those things weren't wrapped. I didn't really plan on getting her a bike for Christmas, but I found this one of Craigslist for cheap and it had been ridden only a handful of times, so it just worked out. Finally Jason and Hannah came down and we did stockings. They were super excited about the musical instruments they got.

Next we took a break and ate our breakfast. But then it was time to open presents. I never really know if the kids will like what I choose or not, but this year they really did. Clara got a Calico Critters dollhouse and some of the actual Critters (bunnies, in her case).

Hannah got a new cash register and also some panda Calico Critters. The cash register is already a favorite item though it has yet to have batteries. Most toys come with batteries nowadays, but this one did not and it takes C Batteries. I literally didn't even know C batteries existed, so we don't have any, but she still really likes it so far and I predict her enjoyment will greatly increase once we get those weird batteries for it.

I got a few different things for Joshua. He is by far the easiest kid to shop for right now because he is a great age for toys. The girls I really struggle to think of things to buy and I never have gift ideas when people ask, but Joshua I could think of a ton more things to get him if I needed to. His big gift is an Imaginext castle. He has been kind of into soldiers and knights lately, so I thought he would enjoy it, and so far he loves it. It combines things that shoot, buttons, noise, and warfare. Seriously, what boy would not love this?

One other thing that Joshua loves right now is dressing up. So I got him a police uniform and also a tiny notebook and a marker. If there's one thing that kid-cop loves, it's writing "driving tickets". You can see several of the approximately 100 he wrote today on the floor.

Books aren't a very glamorous Christmas gift for a kid compared to a shiny new toy. However, they probably get more use than any of the toys because they generally last a long time and are used daily. After all the gifts were open, Clara got a little bit tired and wanted to read some of her new books. Michelle and Sam got the kids personalized story books. Clara's was about Clara the Fairy and she seemed to really like it and asked Jason to read it twice before declaring, "I think I'm tired". Of course this in no way means she wants to take a nap, but we did require her to take one, as well as the other two.

Jason took advantage of the momentary quiet and tried out his new coffee-maker. We had talked about maybe getting a Keurig for Christmas, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money because Jason travels a great deal and he also sleeps until the last possible second a great deal of the time he isn't traveling so I wasn't sure he would use it all that much and I do not like hot drinks unless it is snowing or I am sick so I doubt I would use it more than five times a year. However, he found a really great deal on this one, so it made it a little more reasonable for the occasional use it is likely to get. It seems to work well and Jason was happy with the coffee he made.

After the kids woke up, we had a nice dinner of saeurbraten and watched Elf. It was a super slow and luxurious day that was a lot of fun.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Today was Christmas Eve and we had a busy but nice day. In the morning, we went to City Union Mission to deliver gifts and turkey dinners to two families. We hadn't done that service opportunity before, but we enjoyed it. The second family wasn't home, but we got to meet the first family. I think we will probably do this again in future years. It's not my favorite service opportunity because it's super popular so there is not exactly a high need for volunteers, but with our kids being young there aren't so many things we can do as a family so this is something we can do. Someday we can serve as a group in more high-need areas, but for now this is a positive thing we can do that actually lets our kids see that there is need right here in Kansas City.

After that, we came home and ate lunch and then had the kids take naps. Then we got them up early for Christmas Eve service at COR. We went to the 5pm service this year, which we have not been to before. I thought it might be the most popular service since there are three concurrent services at that time, but we were not prepared for how ridiculously crowded it was. We got there 15 min early and there were only a few groups of two seats left in the sanctuary, certainly nothing for five people. We ended up sitting in folding chairs in the narthex with several hundred other people. It actually ended up being fine for this year. This the first year we have kept all three kids with us during the service and they are only marginally ready for that, so it was nice to have the larger seating area that the narthex provided with a little bit less of a quiet atmosphere. And there were enough people out there that it really did feel like a church service. And they brought everyone into the sanctuary for the candle-lighting part and we had a great view of it, so it really worked out just fine. However, for next year we probably will try to get there a bit earlier if we go to 5pm again since I think next year we will be in a much better place for the kids sitting nicely in church.

After church, we came home and ate a spaghetti dinner. I love traditions and so most holidays we have the same thing every year, but I haven't settled on anything for Christmas Eve. For awhile we did seafood and we alternated between crab bisque and ciopinno, but my kids will not eat those things. In fact, the girls will also not eat pasta of any sort, but they do really enjoy the accompanying bread and I really am not open to chicken nuggets on Christmas eve, so it's not realistic for everyone to love what we are having. I am not sure if we will stick with pasta. I will have to think about it some more.

After dinner, it was pretty much time for bed. We've talked a lot about how tomorrow is Christmas, but my kids are not remotely excited about it. I am curious if they will be surprised about the presents since I kind of think they think every day is Christmas in December because we have spent the entire month doing something Christmas-related every day because of our Advent calendar.

Polar Express Day and Christmas Lights Night

Today Halie had a Polar Express-themed day for the kids.  She made her own hot chocolate at home and brought in a crock pot of it for everyone to share.  She also made train tickets for the kids just like the ones in the movie.  We own a copy of the movie, and they then watched it together.  Meghan and I are appreciative of the effort she puts into her job by coming up with creative ideas such as these for her days here with the kids, and the kids certainly like it too.

They had breakfast for lunch, and she had the kids help her make the pancakes.

She also brought her and Tyler's presents for the kids.  Joshua got a Buzz Lightyear and a Woody, Clara got a plush Lambie (from Doc McStuffins), and Hannah got a plush Minnie Mouse (she really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).  

After dinner, we went out to look at lights.  In previous years we always tried to see Christmas Card Lane, and then we pretty much randomly drove around hoping to see good lights.  But this year I wanted to have more of a concrete plan to make better use of our time, so I found some information online of good places in Olathe, and we drove to seven or eight specific places, including Christmas Card Lane, of course.  It went well, so we will probably do that again in future years.