Our Family Christmas

Brody inspects the drill for his airplane.

Brody helps Maverick open one of his gifts.  I knew that Brody wanted this tractor because it is just like Papa's real Farmall 300 tractor, but it was for Maverick.  I was pleasantly surprised that Brody did not get upset that he could not take it out of the box to play it since it was Maverick's toy.

I took Brody shopping so that he could buy Maverick a Christmas present.  This airplane toy is one of them.

Excited by the airplane that he gets to put together!

Maverick was just excited by all of the commotion!

...and wrapping paper, of course!

This is the other toy that Brody bought for Maverick, he likes it:)

Family photos, a work in progress.

Maybe next year.

A bit better....

And, not quite.  Oh well, we tried.

Friday, December 21 we opened up presents for our little Christmas before heading up to Ely. Maverick enjoyed the paper, Brody enjoyed the toys. Brody was a little bit frustrated that I forgot to bring any of the toys with us up to Ely...little did he know that he would be getting plenty of other toys to play with up in Ely!

Blitz the Elf

Blitz was working on a puzzle and left a candy cane for Brody with his name spelled out in cereal letters.

Blitz making friends with an angel.

Hanging out!  That little note rolled up is a letter/drawing that Brody wanted Blitz to bring back to Santa.

Blitz made snowflakes and even brought a little present back from Santa.

Blitz left a snowangel in powdered sugar.  He even had out all of the ingredients to make pancakes that morning!

Blitz is our newly arrived Elf on the Shelf this year! He had a lot of fun in December with our family and we look forward to his return next year! Brody misses him already.

Mieska Christmas, December 16

GG & Mav

Ethan & Maverick, Ethan is just 2 months older than Maverick.

Auntie Whitney with Mara

It kind of looks like I cut out a picture of them and photoshopped it into a tree background, funny!

The crew end their concert with The Little Drummer Boy

There was not a perfect picture of all 9 little faces showing, so I posted 2 to make sure to get everyone.

Max & Claire loving Mav

Mav is excited about his present.  Brody was even more excited about it when he got to put it together and make a penguin with Audrey!

Brody gets his little present...stickers!

The oldest six work on a project making stockings.

Nice work!

On December 16 we gathered at Bonnie & Greg's to celebrate Christmas with the Mieska crew. The 9 little kids age 3 and under had a little Christmas concert. They sang Away in a Manger, Jingle Bells, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, and they drummed to The Little Drummer Boy. The little kids got little presents and the older 6 of them got to do a little stocking project. All of us enjoyed eating a great variety of food too! As Sue commented, we used to sit around and talk movies, now we sit around and talk about poopy diapers and nursing!

Baking Christmas Cookies

GG helping Brody and Everleigh

Brody, Everleigh and Andrew decorate while Ethan enjoys a mum mum (sorry, no cookies yet buddy) in the background.

Bakers hard at work.

Ben samples the fudge.

Sue helping monitor sugar loading too.

Bonnie, in charge of the oven timing.

Intense concentration.

And a moment for kisses for GG

GG flew back to MN on December 15th and we jumped right into making cookies!  The kids had fun overdecorating the sprtiz!  Thanks to Jesse for making the dough and sending it with Ben!

Christmas

We're in the middle of Christmas time, with one more gift opening extravaganza and family day left to come this Saturday.  Brody (& Maverick) have been very lucky in the gift department this year.  I have many pictures to post later, but I just wanted to remember a moment when I was tucking Brody into bed Christmas Day.  I tucked him in and he turned to me and said, "thank you for all of the presents mommy."  Melt my heart!  We had opened presents just our little family of 4 on the previous Friday, he opened presents from the Parks on Sunday, and got 2 small Santa presents that morning and a couple small Santa presents from my parents.  It was an unprompted thank you a long time (in toddler time) removed from the present opening and for that reason, I knew it was genuine!
And just to even out the sweetness, the very next morning Brody got up and wondered if Santa had visited in the night again.....nice try buddy!

Maverick & baby mush (I mean "solid" food)

After every bite Maverick starts sucking his thumb.  EVERY BITE.  Sure makes for messy sleeves.  Oh, his left thumb too, only ever his left thumb.

Smiles:)

"I got this people."

Snow Day

It's still snowing!

Brody's in love with all of the snow on the deck!

"Darn, I've been caught on the chair!"

And now on the table!  Parenting moment of the day...I let him climb up on the table from the wobbly chairs.  You only live once.

St. Nicholas Day: December 6

Brody & Maverick are ready for St. Nicholas to come.

Brody was giving Maverick that look because Maverick kept touching the shoes that were lined up!

Maverick at 6 months

Omi tells me back in the day they used to fill this bucket with popcorn.

"Popcorn?!"

"You're joking right?"

Little smirk:)

Getting serious.

And back to his normal look of concern.

Maverick had his 6 month check up last Friday and was 26.5" (50%), 15# 13.5oz (25%), and his head was 17.5". He has had his bottom two teeth for awhile now and the doctor said it seemed like his top two teeth were working their way down too. He rolls over like a champ and is now sitting up (with many tumbles of course)! He's had rice cereal and banana oatmeal a handful of times and seems to like it almost as much as he likes chewing on the spoon. He wears 6-9mo clothes or 6-12mo clothes and a bit of 9-12mo clothes. He talks a lot once he gets going. I call it his zombie talk because that's exactly what it sounds like. He still has that frequent look of concern. His eyes are also still blue for the time being. He was finally moved into the crib in Brody's room and it's hit or miss on how well that goes. He has nights he's up a lot, but a good night usually consists of bed at 7:30pm, up to eat at 11:30pm and 4:30am, then up for good at 6am or so. Those nights I can handle, it's the other ones that get to me! Big brother, Brody loves him a lot and Maverick loves Brody just as much! Maverick's eyes light up and he gets a huge grin when Brody talks to him.