The One About the Christmas Proposal

  I didn't share this news right away, but Nate & Jess told me I could put it on the blog.  :)  Nate proposed on Christmas morning, and Jess said, "Yes!!"  Here is her ring:

 
      When we told Gavin that Nate and Jess were getting married, he just said responded with a "whatever" sound.  Asher said he wasn't going to the wedding because "boys don't go to weddings."  I told him that they do and he said "then I am wearing my jeans."  I told him he should wear a suit and said, "Fine.  A cowboy suit."

The One About the Christmas Rollover

   Callum gave me a wonderful Christmas present this year.  He rolled over!!  Over the weekend, I found him on his tummy in his crib after nap.  So I knew he COULD roll over, but no one had seen him do it.  Gavin worked with him on it, explaing how to do it step-by-step.  ha ha

On Christmas Eve afternoon, he rolled over in front of Ernie.  He yelled at me, but it was over by the time I got there.  Then on Christmas Eve when the Funks were all at our house, he rolled over for Cassie and her husband, Travis.  Finally on Christmas Day, I was lying on the floor with him and he did it!  Now today he has rolled over several times, but then gets really mad when he realizes that he is now on his tummy.  :) 

The One About the 3-Day Christmas Extravaganza

    I always said that when we got into the new house, I was going to host Christmas.  We have the room, the nice big open kitchen, etc..  It really does work well for parties.  Hosting 3 days in a row is a bit too much.  We survived.  We had a good time.  It all worked out well, but it was a lot of work. 
    On Sunday, we had my family over for our immediate Funk family Christmas.  So it's a small group, but those of you who know my mother know that she goes way overboard on presents...so it was a ton of gifts. 

Nate's comment, "I like kids when they are little like this."

 

 

   On Christmas Eve, we just cleaned up the mess from the day before and got ready for the big Funk family Christmas that night.  Callum was exhausted from the day before:

 

Asher was not...big surprise.

 

If everyone comes to Christmas Eve, we have 43 people.  Which actually isn't many considering there were 12 kids in my Dad's family.  Many of them never married and had their own kids, so that really takes the number down.  Anyway, not everyone could make it so there were 30-something.  It is our tradition to do soups, and then everyone brings food.  So it really is less cooking than my other two Christmas meals that I hosted.  The boys LOVE these get-togethers, because there are so many teenage-early 20's counsins to play with them.  There was a huge Nerf gun war in the basement. We had a giant Catch Phrase game.  I didn't get my camera out that night, because there was just too much going on. 

     We were all in bed by around 12:30, I think.  The next morning, the boys even slept till 7:00 a.m. Callum slept even later, so we opened gifts without him. 

 

 

   Later that morning, the Whitings all came for Chrismas dinner.  The boys were excited to have Thatcher at their house again.  It was a short Christmas, because everyone had to travel back that afternoon. 

 



    Today, we are just relaxing at home and cleaning up the house.  I love getting out my Christmas decorations, but I am always ready to take them down as soon as Christmas is over.  Ernie took the boys out for a little sledding.



The One About Santa Visit 2012

    Last Thursday, Santa Clause came to the Ewing Elementary School.  He comes every year on the last day of school before Christmas vacation.  Preschoolers can come in at 9:30 to see him, and then they start bringing the grade school down to visit him afterwards.  So we bundled Asher and Callum up, and luckily Ernie was able to go with us to town.  The roads were still not great after the snow the night day before.  Asher was worried that Callum was going to pull on Santa's beard.  Asher refused to sit on Santa's lap, but agreed to stand beside him. 
   When we got there, Lisa was there with the daycare kiddos.  Jett and Callum were in the exact same outift, so we had to get pictures.

Belle and Asher wanted to jump in a picture with Lisa.

Asher stayed true to his agreement and stood beside Santa.  He told him he wanted a Spiderman castle. 

I had taken some pictures of all 3 boys with Santa, but Asher had been touching my camera right before that and must have switched the camera setting.  So all the pictures turned out black.  Darn!

    For those of you who do not get the Ewing newspaper, here are the Santa letters for this year.  And yes, almost all of Asher's letters is from his own mouth.  You will know the part I added when you read it.  :)

Dear Santa,
     How are the reindeer and elves doing?  How is Rudolph doing?  How are your trees doing?  I have been silly this year.  I would like a Spiderman castle, Batman castle, and a Jake and the NeverLand Pirates pirate ship.  I really want a markerboard and a book.  My Mom says she just wants me to get an "inside voice" for Christmas.  My little brother, Callum, is nice and smiles at me.  Can you please bring Callum a baby toy?  Can you also bring my Uncle Nate a black cowboy hat and black cowboy boots so we can play cowboy together?  I will leave you a sugar cookie on Christmas Eve if you leave me a chocolate chip cookie, because I like those better.  Thank you, Santa.

Asher Whiting


Dear Santa,
   I want a scope for m BB gun.  I also want a Nerf gun with 100 holes and bullets to go with it. 

Gavin
   

The One About the Christmas Program

   Gavin had his Christmas program last Thursday.  The Kindergartners had a little thing they did to start the program.  They held ornaments with letters on them, spelling out "Happy Holidays"  Gavin had the letter "Y" with the line, "Y is for our wish for you."  We practiced it all week, and of course I had to work with him on the correct /sh/ production at the end of "wish."  Here are some before pictures:

He said his line perfectly.  I let out a sigh of relief.  :)

      Now when the singing started, that was a different story.  I think Gavin was singing, but you could barely see his mouth moving.  And forget doing the actions with the songs.  He would have none of it.  He kept glancing at me with eye rolls and that look that said, "I would rather be anywhere in the world but here." 

    It's been kind of a crazy week leading up to the program.  The flu has been going around Ewing and daycare.  Last Friday, Lisa's daughter was sick, so I kept both of the boys home from daycare, praying that Callum would not be exposed.  Then Saturday, Asher started having symptoms and ended up puking all over the kitchen floor.  Then he seemed to be fine.  On Tuesday evening, he started running a fever, but then it went away.  On Wednesday, he puked again, and then started running a fever through the night.  So Ernie took him the doctor on Thursday, and yes...double ear infection.  I should have known.  His tubes were both out of the eardrums and in the canal in July when we saw Dr. Gebhardt.  This time one of the tubes had worked itself almost out and the dotor was able to grab it.  So Asher got to bring it home in a jar.  :)  Those darn tubes just haven't helped Asher at all.  He still has had one ear infection after another.  The poor boy is cursed. 

The One About Old Pictures

    Ernie was home today, and the weather was too cold to do anything fun.  So what could I do that was indoor fun?  ORGANIZE!!!   I love sorting through and organizing cupboards, closets, etc..  I found some old photo boxes that I hadn't looked at in awhile.  I thought I would share some pictures I found. 
    1.  This is me in Kindergarten.  Ernie thinks Gavin looks just like me, but with blue eyes and obviously shorter hair.  I showed this to Gavin and he just laughed.  :)

2.  This is a picture of my Grandma Joline.  I miss her so much.  It's been almost 20 years now that she has been gone, and I can still hear the sound of her voice in my head...the way she said, "Hello" when she called on the telephone.  I have always loved this picture, and I don't even know where I got it.  There are so many things I wish I could ask her, things I am curious about.  Now that I am in education, we could have some interesting talks about that too.  She was a teacher.  I remember that I would go to her room afterschool some days and write on her chalkboard. 

 

3.  This is a picture of my Great-Grandma Jessie, Grandma Joline's mother.  She died when I was 7 years old, but I remember her and my Great-Grandpa very clearly.  I have a very vivid memory of looking through her costume jewelry with her and thinking it was so beautiful.  She and my Grandpa died just a few months apart.   

 

 

The One About the Inside Snowball Fight

     Uncle Mike and Thatcher came to spend the night with us on Saturday.  The boys were so excited to have a sleepover with Thatcher.  They had a great time.  On Sunday morning while Daddy and Uncle Mike went hunting, the boys decided to go downstairs to have an indoor snowball fight.  So I snuck down to take some pictures.

And then I was spotted.  ha ha 

 



 

    Here are Gavin and Asher after their busy weekend:

 

I don't know how they ended up in the same bed, but it was adorable!  "There is no Buddy like a brother."