A very special Christmas Ornament - PART II

Many of you have commented on the post, listed 12/7/08, titled "A Very Special Christmas Ornament". I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading our blog. It is heart warming to know so many of you care and want to share in our day-to-day endeavors.
If you read "A very special Christmas Ornament" you'll all be happy to know I made good on my promise...Carly and I have made a new snowman ornament. As you can see from the picture, she is very proud of it. You'll also be happy to know (picture two) the ornament has found it rightful place at the top of our Christmas tree. I look forward to reliving this story in the years to come as we decorate our Christmas tree each Holiday season.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Happy 1st Birthday Alayna Rose

Those of you who frequent my blog or know me well know I have many nephews and nieces. Today Leah's daughter (Leah is my sister) turns 1. Last weekend we had her birthday party which was fantastic. In our family it's tradition for my mom to make an extra special birthday cake for the grandkids first birthdays. Alayna, obviously born in Dec, had a ice castle cake - it was magnificant. Alayna had a good time at her party and most important dug right into her cake - Good girl! So today I wish Alayna a very happy 1st Birthday!

PS- I have no idea why my text is underlined and honestly, I'm not awake enough to figure it out so I'm posting this as is. sorry. Stacey -help!

Quick Update

A quick update on what's going on with the Douglas'...
A few of you have asked how my Dad is doing. He is still in the St. Cloud hospital. While he's making progress it seems to be, as his wife puts it, "one step forward and two steps back." Right now he's fighting an infection. He's been walking a bit but as of yesterday he was running a very high temp which made him weak. We're not yet sure when he'll get out of the hospital. It's been three weeks since he's gone in.
On a lighter note - I added the above picture of Carly and Nolan. We so enjoy watching them play together. Carly is a very good big sister and Nolan adores her (as you can see from this picture).
That's all for now. Hope everyone is staying warm.

Second Annual Graham Cracker House Decorating Party

Last Friday we hosted our second annual Graham Cracker house decorating party. A house full of kids and kids full of sugar made for a great time. Each kid (the ones who were old enough anyway) decorated their own graham cracker house with frosting and candy...each house as individual as the child. Thank you everyone for coming! We are blessed to have such great friends.
PICTURES:
Top Left:
1) Angela (Colt) Hultgren and her daughter MaKenna (not shown, Peyton Hultgren) 2) Evie Montgomery (not shown Stacey and Eli Montgomery) 3) Jenni and Abby Ryan 4) Ashley Ryan
Bottom Left:
1) Carly decorating her house 2) Nolan enjoying his frosting 3) Katie (Milne) Rackiewicz with her daughters Sylvia and Hattie

Partners In Crime

Alright, I admit I'm a little "blog happy" today. But it's hard not to be when there are so many cute photo opportunities. Plus, I know my sister, Leah, is checking the blog to see if I write anything about Alayna. I know she misses her daughter so I thought she would like to see this picture.
As I'm getting dinner ready in the kitchen the two little ones are roaming around and playing together. They found the cabinet with the pretzels in it and decided to stop and have a snack. I thought it was cute so I snapped a picture.

Alayna Rose Windom

For those of you who don't know Alayna Rose, she is my niece. Alayna is the 12 mo old daughter of my sister, Leah. Leah is away on business and her fiance, Dale, works early and long hours so Leah was kind enough to let us have Alayna while she's traveling. There's just one problem...I don't think I can give Alayna back.
Alayna Rose...you are the most well behaved easy going little girl. Everything and everyone gets a smile. If you fall down trying to walk, you laugh. If I hand you a new toy, you laugh. If the cat walks by, you laugh. If I look at you I get a huge toothy smile that melts my heart. I am so enjoying having time with you. As I write this you're sitting next to me laughing because the keys on my computer make a funny noise.
My kids love Alayna. Carly loves to "babysit" and nurture/mother Alayna. I thought Nolan would have a hard time with Alayna but I couldn't have been more wrong. He adores her. When Alayna woke up this morning Nolan got all his toys out and showed her how they all work. While Alayna ate breakfast Nolan stood next to the highchair holding her hand. Yes, I'm not joking here. Unfortunately when I got out the camera he ran towards it (he always does, trying to see what his picture looks like). Nolan is, however, starting to realize Alayna is a no nonsense type of lady and she'll take what she wants (GOOD FOR HER!). She has taken a few of Nolan's toys right out of his hands and he's not sure how to handle that. He has yet to take it back from her. I'm trying to stay back and let him figure out how to deal with it on his own. All in all, they are so far the best of friends.
Okay, Nolan is now up from nap so I'll list this post. La, if you're reading this please prepare yourself for a fight when you come to pick up your daughter.

A very special Christmas Ornament

Last Friday Carly brought home a very special gift for Justin and me. Justin was still at work but Carly was too excited to wait so we opened the gift a little early. Out of the reindeer decorated brown paper bag Carly pulled out a beautiful red snowman ball ornament. The snowmen were made out of her sweet little finger prints. I squealed in delight which made Carly beam with pride. She very carefully walked the ornament over to our tree where it was to take it's place at the top, where everyone could see it. On her way over she dropped the ornament on the wood floor. It shattered into hundreds of small pieces. I'll admit, I was devastated but could tell Carly was too so I tried not to make a big deal of it. "I'm sorry Mom." Carly repeated over and over as I cleaned it up. Poor little lady felt so badly. I gave her a hug. We decided to make a new ornament to replace the one she had made at preschool. She seemed content with that idea.
A few hours later Justin came home excited to see the gift Carly had made for him. When he asked her about it she started crying saying, "No Daddy, I don't want you to see it!" He looked over to see the broken ornament on the counter and realized she felt badly about what had happened. Justin picked her up and told Carly, "Honey, even if it's broken I still love it because YOU made it for me." A huge smile came over Carly's face and she squeezed her Dad tight. I could see the relief and pride come over her.
In the car and on our way to Target that night Carly tells me, out of the blue, "Mom, my Dad loves broken presents." I giggled and then she said, "and he really love me."
I hope our kids always know no matter what mistakes they make we will love them unconditionally. Even if they break a teacup (that's for you, Janie).

In other ornament news...our Christmas tree is becoming top heavy. The kids keep sneaking ornaments off the tree. Swiping of the ornament is usually followed by three minutes of me chasing Nolan (yes, it's usually Nolan) around the house trying to get the breakable item back. I pry the ornament from is chubby little fingers and place it back on the top of the tree so the kids can't reach it. The top 1/3 of our tree is now packed with ornaments. I'm sure you're asking yourself "why doesn't Dana just move all the ornaments to the top of the tree then Nolan won't get them?" Good question, I ask myself that as well...my answer...wishful thinking. Maybe one of these days he'll listen to Mama and not touch the ornaments. Hey, a mom can hope, right? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!