Christmas In July

We did have Christmas in December 2009. You wouldn't know it from reading our blog.

So...

I decided to celebrate Christmas in July on our blog so that I will have it documented before I forget too much more of it!

This is my favorite picture from Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at our home. We made Christmas chili with my side of the family. After dinner, we did what we always do...read the Christmas story from the Bible and sang Christmas hymns. For as long as I remember, my family has always done this. My Mom has a binder that she must have made at some Homemaking activity back in the day that has the Bible story along with pictures and songs.

After the last song was sung, we had the kids open their 1 Christmas Eve gift...

yes, pajamas.

After everyone left, Jon and I put the kids to bed and the real work began!

We stayed up until the early hours of the morning putting bikes together, wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings.

Christmas morning was so much fun. This year was the first year that we had Christmas with just our little family.

The kids were kind to us and slept in until 8.

Jon and I ran downstairs ahead of the kids so that we could record their faces.

I L.O.V.E. Christmas morning faces.

They were so cute. They seemed to be more excited about what the other had gotten.

Beckham yelled, "Chloe! Look! A new stroller for your baby!"

Chloe yelled, "Look, Beck! An orange bike for you! Orange is your color!"

After all of that work, it took them about 12 1/2 minutes to open everything.

I now realize why my parents seemed kind of sad after all of the gifts were opened when I was growing up.

(When we were older, my Mom even tried dragging Christmas morning present opening by: color coding gifts OR each kid opening 1 gift at a time OR forcing each kid to not only acknowledge a sibling's new gift but also forcing each kid to make a comment about the new gift...although these strategies worked, it also put a damper on the whole ripping into your stash idea...)

Where's Jasper???

Uncle Oscar and Auntie Meghan gave us the Elf on the Shelf book and doll. We named our elf Jasper. He was hiding in a new place every morning of December and watched over us and took note of who was naughty and who was nice. The kid's were so aware of Jasper all month. They would look right at him as they passed by and would put the biggest smiles on their faces. They didn't want to risk Jasper telling Santa Claus that they were bad! They were so well behaved with him around that I considered inviting Jasper to stick around all year...

The kids gathered their favorite gifts and we went over to my parent's house for breakfast.

We played Rock Band, watched movies, called all of our long-distance relatives and ate.

New Years Eve

With a big family, conflicts of scheduling happen regularly. My brother, Weston, entered Basic Training for the Air Force in October. He was able to come home for a couple of weeks and New Years Eve was the only time that all of my siblings could get together...and we only had a 3-hour window. So, we decided to meet up to go bowling.

We brought all of our secret Santa gifts and did the exchange while we bowled, ate and talked. It was so much fun.

After bowling, my Mom went to work and everyone else came to our home for some more Rock Band and food. We had some friends come over and we just hung out until midnight.

Family pictures

When I was about 33 weeks pregnant with Ava, I asked my sister-in-law, Meghan, to do a maternity/family shoot before I got much bigger.

She was sweet enough to agree and I love how they turned out.

Once again...I am so grateful for the gift of photography and that our family of 4 1/2 was captured before Miss Ava decided to show up a month early!

Thank you so much Meghan!

Here are a few of my favorites...

Here Comes Santa Claus

Our Christmas season would not be complete without a visit with Santa Claus. Chloe was a little bit nervous of him this year. Beckham was so excited to meet him. As soon as they approached him, Santa called them both by their names. They were both so impressed that he knew their names!

Whew!

I feel much better!

Now I have less than 6 months before I do this all over again!

Happy New Year!

5 - 4 - 3!!!

Ava just turned 5 months old.

Chloe is 4 years old.

Beckham is 3 years old.

I thought it was fun enough to blog about.

I know. Corny.

Here is what we have been up to...

Miss Ava

She is the sweetest little baby and even though she is just 5 months old, she makes me baby hungry to have another one. She LOVES her thumb...

Here's the proof:

She is so laid back and sweet...or bi-polar...I'm not sure yet...because when she is hungry, she goes from 0 to 60 in about .3 seconds. So...we try to avoid hunger when at all possible.

Speaking of food...

She is now eating solids!!! (If you consider runny rice cereal and pureed veggis "solids"...)

Here's the proof:

She has discovered her toes. She grabs and sucks on any object in sight. She laughs straight from the gut. She loves the water (tub or pool). She still has the bluest eyes I have ever seen. She will sit and tell me the longest, most dramatic stories I have ever heard. I wish I could understand them.

Here are some more of my recent favorites of her...

Oh...

And I found one of my most favorite outfits of Chloe's and it finally fits Ava...

chloe at 4 months

ava at 4 months

I tried to get Ava to grab her hat like Chloe did...apparently that was asking too much...

They are sisters, but not twins...

Mr. Beckham

He reminds us daily that he is "big boy 3"...

He doesn't even cave when I pretend to cry that he isn't my baby boy anymore. He basically tells me to get over it because he isn't a baby anymore.

He had a fun birthday week. Nana took him out on his special birthday date. They skipped going to Build a Bear like Chloe and Sadie did for their birthdays because, quite frankly, it would have been a big waste of time and money. He is so easy to please and so Nana took him to Target to get whatever he wanted and they lunched at the Target Cafe...blue Icee and all.

We had a little family get together the night of his birthday, took him to Toy Story 3 the day after his birthday and then had some family and friends over for a water party the next day.

Life is good at 3.

Beck was mad that the wind blew out the candles...oh, and that his Mom dropped the cake on one of his friends...

Beck just finished his first soccer season. He had such a fun time. I think with the 24/7 World Cup coverage at our house, his excitement has grown even more. He is also convinced that when Jon goes to soccer on Wednesdays, that he is playing in the soccer games on t.v.

Jon wishes. Beckham also finished his first session of swimming lessons of the season. He can totally swim on his own. Thank goodness. When he runs out of breath, he rolls over onto his back and then rolls back onto his tummy to finish. It is really cute...AND safe.

Oh, and his favorite colors are orange and green.

That's all.

Naomi's Kindergarten Graduation

Miss Chloe

Chloe has had an eventful couple of months. She graduated from her 3 year old preschool class. She has LOVED her preschool and loves her teacher, Miss Julene, even more. Summer may be a little bit rough because she asks all of the time when preschool is going to start again. The graduation was so cute. The kids all held hands and walked into the room singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. They said the pledge of allegiance, recited a poem, had an awards ceremony and then we watched a cute video of pictures from the year. Chloe looked so much younger just a few months ago. We ate cake and then went to McDonalds to celebrate.

Chloe also started swim lessons again. She is jumping in from the side of the pool and swimming to the wall all by herself. She also just discovered that swimming in the shallow end is the same as swimming in the deep end. Exciting stuff.

I also asked her if she wanted to play soccer or take dance class in the fall. She asked me if she took dance class, if she could dance on the big stage while lots of people watched. I said yes and she said, "well then dance, of course!"

I feel like my laundry only consists of towels and swimming suits lately. We all love it and I am spending so much play time with them. Jon has required that they swim in the pool at least once a day...he thinks its abusive otherwise. He brought home a news article that talked about kids being obese because they didn't have enough physical activity. Oh brother.

Chicago

At the beginning of May, my Mom, Ava and I went to Chicago! I had a workshop that I was attending and so we decided to go a few days beforehand to hang out and shop. We were kind of celebrating.

I turned 30 this year and my Mom turned 40 this year...don't try to do the math...

We had so much fun! I can't even remember the last time I was able to pick out clothes and actually try them on in a dressing room. My shopping usually consists of me grabbing a bunch of stuff in various sizes, trying them on at home and then returning the ones that don't fit. We laughed and stayed up late and ordered room service. It was awesome. Thank you to my amazing inlaws for watching Chloe and Beckham while I was gone. I knew that my kids were being well taken care of and that is why I could relax and have a good time. You are the best!

We were so busy relaxing that we didn't take many pictures...

My good friend, Heather, took some pictures of me and Ava while at the workshop. I am so grateful for the gift of photography. Thank you, Heather!

We Love Daddy Yes Sirree

Happy Father's Day

The Twos Are Over

Mr. Poort turned 3 yesterday.

When he woke up, I grabbed him and hugged him and said, "Happy Birthday, Beck!"

He said, "Mom, is it really my birthday today?"

(he has been anticipating it for the past couple of months and wanted to ensure that this time it was really the day...)

I told him that it was.

His eyes lit up and he said,

"The twos are over!"

He is so excited to be 3...

My favorites about him right now...

He L.O.V.E.S superheros...ANY and ALL of them. He even likes to wear his underwear backwards because all of the characters are on the "bum" of the underwear and he can't see them back there!

Whenever he asks a question, it is ALWAYS followed by "right?" i.e. "We are going to the store, right?" or "It is time for lunch, right?"

He loves to race up the stairs. He used to thrive on winning at the top of the stairs but now he prefers holding hands with his opponent so that they both win.

He is a really nice sharer (most of the time). If he has something that Chloe wants, he usually gives it to her, even if he really wants it.

He gives the best hugs...seriously. He has to have a running start to hug someone. He will back up and run, full-force, into your arms and squeeze.

He is probably the funniest person I know. And what is funniest, is that he knows that he is being funny. I imagine that is what Jon was like at Beckham's age. He loves to make people laugh and smile.

When people ask him how old he is, he holds up 3 fingers and tells them in one breath, "I am 3 and now I can go to preschool and Fun Friday just like Chloe!"

Anytime he is hungry or thirsty, he will approach me and act like he is on the brink of death and as soon as he eats or drinks something, he turns into Popeye and his muscles miraculously enlarge and he is "as strong as Daddy."

He is THE CUTEST little guy that I know and I love him to pieces!

Laughter

Today at church, one of the speakers said that on average, children laugh 400 times a day and adults laugh only 15 times a day.

Here's to not being average.

This is something that I found that made me laugh ALOT today.

Laugh it up.

(Oh, and Beckham fell asleep on my Mom's lap today at church and peed ALL over her!...Let the laughing begin...)

Sisters

Chloe was going through a huge pile of old pictures I have laying around the floor in my office and found a picture of my sister, Amber, and me. It wasn't just any old picture. It was cut into the shape of a heart. My Mom used to be a big time scrapbooker and would cut EVERY PICTURE into some sort of shape.

Chloe thought it was "dorable"...

AND

she thought that she and Ava should have one just like it.

So yesterday she laid out a blanket in the backyard, got herself dressed and picked up her little sister...

AND

SMILED!

I love sisters.