Makai turns 2

We can't believe that our baby is growing up, but it's offical...Makai is now 2!  I love the second birthday because I feel like by 2 kids have some interests and you are more aware of who they are.  Makai is a blessing to our family.  He LOVES matchbox cars.  He usually has a matchbox car of some sort in his hand or pocket at all times.  We've had a rule at our house that there are 'No toys at the table'.  Well, Makai has changed that rule.  Not toys at the table--except Matchbox cars.  He gets them taken away if they enter his plate, but we let him leave them by his plate.  More recently he's becoming attached to planes too. ( None of us like them as much a cars because when he carries a plane around it more of a weapon with all it's sharp edges..we all have bruises to prove that statement.) 
He doesn't know my name.  If he wants me he usually calls me, Tyler, Trey or Dad.  If fact, a few days ago I was putting a movie in for him to watch while I made dinner and he said, "Trey,(pushed me)MOVE IT!"  No respect, this boy!  :)
He loves to stick out his bottom lip when he is sad.  I think he realizes it makes it more dramatic.  Lately I've said to him, "Stick that lip back in..." and he starts laughing, so I know he's just acting.
 His birthday was kind of funny.  Makai loves ICE CREAM CONES, so I baked the cake inside the cone just for something new.  We just put the candles on the cone...however, one thing Makai hates is fire.(who knew)  He was petrified of the fire on his cone!  He refused to blow out his candles and hid his face in Tyler's shoulder until Tyler blew them out. 

Makai scared to death of the fire.

He was much happier once the candles were out and he could get down to business.

However, he was upset when he got to the cone and realized it was cake and not ice cream.  So, he ended up with a small bowl of ice cream instead of his cone.  (I should have listened to Monty...he told me not even to bother with the cake.)

Monty and I actually took Makai to the store the night before to pick out his gift.  He was still excited to open it on his birthday.  For some reason he became instantly attached to this black car from 'Cars'.  He has hardly put it down since.

He played at the table for quite a while after he'd opened his gift..  He is our fifth boy, but our first to LOVE cars.  I love it about him because they are light in my diaper bag.

We love you Makai.  Still can't believe you are 2, but we are thankful for the past 2 years you have blessed our lives.  You make us smile everyday!  Oh, one other thing about Makai.  He is very polite and always has been when it comes to the dinner table. When he is thirsty he always says, "More Water Please."  He loves water.  He loves food, some of his favorites are corn, broccoli(more broccoli please), noodles, gold fish, bananas, grapes, and of course anything and everything with sugar.  He also loves eating food from the top down.  Like pizza for example. He'll eat all the cheese and then eat the bread.  We are just thankful he is so healthy and happy.

Gingerbread Houses

We can always count on Tyler to keep some fun going in our house.  He loves to build and loves a project and this week was no exception.  He came up with the idea on Saturday, and Friday after school we finally had some time.  I had to take pictures of each of the boys gingerbread houses because they each  just say so much about them at this stage of their lives. 

We'll start with Trey.  I had to get the full body shot of Trey because notice it is the middle of winter and he is in shorts.  I can't get the kid to keep clothes on.  He has started to stop fighting me when we leave the house.  He'll get clothes on because I told him if he doesn't dress warm people might think I don't love him and I DO!  Anyway, Trey also LOVES candy!  We used Halloween candy for this project and Trey thought he'd died and gone to heaven.  I'm not sure how many he ate, and how many made it on his house, but he had a blast!  (Notice he pleasant face.)  He didn't care so much about his structure, he was just excited to be able to put candy on it!  The finished product was pretty cute.

Next is Kory.  He made a witches house.  And laughed the whole time.  He wanted to use the eyeball and was really particular about the door being open.  Kory works on projects very quietly, but dutifully.  He knows when he's done and enjoys his work.  He really wanted a slanted roof, but I couldn't get it to stay and at that point Makai had woken up so it was hard to help.  I asked him if he'd mind having a flat roof to which he said, "Well, I don't really want a flat roof, but it's fine."  He is a go with the flow kind of guy most of the time and I appreciate that about him.  

 

I didn't get Kyle in his picture, but this is Kyle's.  He didn't build a house, but rather a fortress to protect his snowman.  Heck a chocolate snowman is worth protecting in my opinion!  He wanted toothpicks to be swords.  (Notice the sword sticking all the way through the tootsie roll.)  He is very focused and patient.  Whenever I helped him he'd always say thank you and hugged me about 20 times throughout the night saying I was the best mom ever.  Oh, thankfully all those purple nerds with white under them are suppose to be flowers.  He does have a sensitive side.  Not just barbaric!

Tyler our perfectionist and slow worker.  I finally had to tell him to stop because I needed the project to be over so we could have dinner.  If I hadn't stopped him I think he'd still be working on his trying to make it just right.  He is very focused.  I love that when he strives to do something he wants to do it perfect.  I liked his bush in the front.  Now Tyler was a little upset because he couldn't get the back of his gingerbread house just perfect.  Then Kyle came up with a creative idea and Tyler ran with it. 

He told him to make it look as if a flying saucer had crashed into the house and landed inside.  This solved the problem(another one of Kyle's strengths).  I thought it was cute and was super glad Kyle had that idea so Tyler would finish up. 

All in all the project was fun.  A few crazy things went on while we were doing it.  The Carbon Monoxide detector started going off.  This left me with a troubling problem make the boys stop what they were doing or try and reset the detector and see if it went off again.  I choose the second since no one was feeling any signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.  The other crazy thing was MAKAI!!  He was asleep when we began, but once he work up it was horrible.  I locked him in his high chair and gave him a lollypop thinking that would make him happy, but no...he was still screaming.  So I gave him a beater from the frosting he still wasn't happy.  He wanted to be ON the table.  Finally after he threw down the lollypop and beater, neither eaten very much, I thought I'd just try a movie.  Thankfully he was in a movie mood.  That saved the day.  Just as Monty got home the CO detector went off again, but I was so hungry I decided we would eat before doing anything(still no one was feeling funny).  When it went off a third time we called the maintenance guy and he came and took a look.  It was just a faulty detector because he put in a new one and it haven't gone off again.  He did put some tape on a few things just in case, but all is well.  Fun, crazy, night.

Reading time...

Our boys love to read.  They each have a light by their beds and they read before going to bed.  Often we have to tell them to STOP reading and go to bed if they are particularly into a book.  To which we'll hear something like, "just 5 more minutes."  or "But I just have 2 chapters left."  Tyler and Kyle enjoy the same books,  and often have to take turns alternating nights if they are reading the same book.  I've decided to start reading their books so I have something to talk to them about.  I started with a book Tyler read called, 'The Mysterious Benedict Society' and he would often check on me to see where I was or tell me, "I can't wait till you get to the end.  The end is so good."  Next I'm going to read, 'The Prisoner of Cell 25' the Kyle just finished.  He was so into it at one point I found him standing on the couch with the book on an end table.  He was so into it he couldn't even sit down.  Kory is lucky in that he is a few years younger so no one is fighting to read his books and he already has a supply.  He usually has about three books under his pillow at a time.  I'm working with Trey on his 'hooked on phonics'.   He's doing really well and I hope to have him through level one by the time he starts Kindergarten next year.  I need to read to him more.  I think some of our stories I am sick of just because I feel like I've read them a billion times, but he just absorbs stories that are read to him.  We got a story call, "Transformers:  Meet the Autobots" at the library.  He asked for me to read it to him several times each day.  Just as I thought I was about to go crazy we sat down and he started reciting the story.  I told him to go until he couldn't do it anymore.  Word for word he recited the book, occasionally exchanging a word like 'huge' with 'big', but for the most part he had the entire book memorized.  I was totally shocked and realized he really IS listening and understanding what is read.  When Monty got home I told him about it and had Trey sit on his lap and show him.  Monty just laughed the whole time and was as shocked as me. 
I had to laugh when I found Makai asleep like this during his nap.  He too is like his brothers and loves to fall asleep to a book.  I had to get a picture before I made him more cozy. 

A Christ Centered Christmas

I was totally turned off Christmas this year when I read a story about a lady who pepper sprayed several people in a store on black Friday so she could get the good deal.  I couldn't help but think...seriously?!  It's CHRISTmas!!  It was then that I decided I definitely wanted to do something different this year for Christmas and make the season focus more on Christ.  I remembered a book a friend sent me last year and got super excited to re-read it.  It's titled:  A Christ Centered Christmas by Emily Freeman.  The book suggests taking time to focus on the specific individuals from the Nativity scene during the holiday season and on what they teach us about our relationship with Christ. 

So, I put white paper over the fireplace and had the boys draw a Stable and for the next few weeks we are going to talk about the nativity story and add the characters as we talk about them.

First we are going to talk about are the wise men. I love the phase, "Wise Men Still Seek Him".  The Wise Men did SEEK out the Christ child.  It took them a while, but using the scriptures and signs they found the Child and brought him gifts.  Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.  We decided our kids will get three gifts from us this year, just as Christ received three gifts.  One that is joyful, one that is useful, and one that is thoughtful.  The Wise Men also taught us that we must PROTECT OUR RELATIONSHIP with Christ in this world.  When they left the child and returned home they returned a way they hadn't planned.  They did this to PROTECT the Child.  Likewise, we too must try our best to protect our relationship with Christ sometimes taking a path we don't plan on taking.
We hope that when our kids open their gifts this year they will enjoy hearing why we chose the gifts we did and how each is joyful, useful or thoughtful.  

Thanksgiving--ups and downs

 We were happy to spend this Thanksgiving with Nana.  She came out on Tuesday night and we enjoyed her visit.  For Thanksgiving we had plans to go to Colorado Springs to spend with the family who sponsored Monty while he was at the Academy.  We woke up to a wonderful breakfast, made my Nana, but just as we were getting ready to leave Kory got sick.  I was going to stay home with him, but Monty said that was not an option.  Kory was being a total trooper, and said he'd go.  He slept in the car the whole way down.  When we got there he just took up a spot on the couch and watched movies.  Amazingly enough he was better by dinner and even had 2 plates!  Annette, had this cute craft for the boys to do. 

You know Tyler and Kyle think birds are amazing so they thought the Turkeys were the best thing ever.

Trey likes anything that is 100% sugar so he was in heaven.  I think he did more eating than making though.

Annette helped Kory. 

We did the craft while the men finished the dishes.

We enjoyed the rest of the night just relaxing.  Friday morning Makai woke up sick, but was a total trooper as we toured the Academy and headed back home.  Saturday Nana woke up sick poor.   She said it was horrible, but had enough energy to make it onto her plane later that day.  Sunday, Tyler, Monty and I all woke up sick.  It was a killer bug.  Kyle was a total trooper Sunday getting food for Makai and Trey.  He even tried to make some Top O'Ramen for everyone that night, but needed a little help after he'd started.  He's such a sweetheart. 
We did feel very blessed this Thanksgiving Holiday.  We know the Lord has blessed us with so much.  I told the boys there is only one good thing about being sick and that is you become more grateful for your health and actually appreciate it rather than take it for granted.  We are thankful for all we have and we are thankful to be feeling better!!