Winter Wonderland

So far this year we've had two play days in the snow. The 2nd was much more successful than the first... Here are a few pics from our adventures:
The first time we went out (December 6, after our first big snow) it was VERY cold--I mean frozen noses the second you step outside. (I was probably too optimistic, but the kids were really excited... okay I was too!) Sadie and I built this snowman after I got Kinnick wrapped in a blanket and turned on Mickey Mouse Club House for him to watch! This snow was very fluffy and did not pack well--our snowman was very hard to make!


Kinnick pulled his glove off after being outside for about 5 minutes. He wanted to touch the snow, but immediately started crying. He didn't want me to put his glove back on. Finally I asked him if he wanted to go inside and watch Mickey--that seemed to do the trick.

Sadie was so excited to make snow angels--she does them every time she gets a chance!

Our 2nd snow day was much more successful (and much warmer!) After snowing ALL day Monday we went out Tuesday (12/21) right before lunch--we had so much fun.

The kids had fun tasting some snow...

and we "re-made" our first snowman. We made him much taller. This time around the snow packed really well, so we could actually roll balls--it was fun.

I showed the kids how to make snowballs and Kinnick loved throwing them at the house (and at his sister.)

I had a much happier little boy this time around--he didn't even want to go inside!

Okay--to all my mommy friends... I know it's much easier to let Dad play in the snow with the kids, but you really have to take them out--I promise you'll have a blast. Here are my tips:

• Fun things to try: Fill spray bottles with colored water and make "paintings" in the snow; pack a bag of treats to make your snowman--cookie eyes, licorice mouth, etc.; If you have a water table (or a shallow Rubbermaid tub) bring the snow inside to let your kids play
• Dressing Tips (for Mommy)--I'm sure most of you don't have snow pants lying around, no need to worry--layer some leggings, sweat pants and top with a pair of your husbands wind suit pants (they aren't water proof, but really help!) No need to buy special boots, gloves, etc. If you don't have something that will work, steal from your husband--it's not too hard to play outside for 30 minutes in over sized stuff! Don't forget your sunglasses and put your camera in your coat pocket.
• Dressing Tips (for Kids)--This is a no-brainer, but have your potty trained kids go pee BEFORE you start getting dressed; Put gloves on before coats so the gloves are tucked in. Tuck their pants into their boots and snow pants over boots; Footie pajamas work great as a bottom layer; Dad's stocking hats work good for girls with lots of hair; layer on some chap stick and Vaseline for little cheeks and noses!
• If you have someone you can get hand-me-down snow clothes from, GREAT! Another option--if you have a friend with kids that are ages in between your kids, trade snow stuff back and forth each winter. Look at resale shops and garage sales--snow pants/boots don't get used a lot especially when kids are real little. If you are going to buy, look for end of season deals and buy big and buy neutral (ex--black snow pants, boots, gloves) your kids can use them for a couple years and you can keep passing them down!
• Minimize the mess--strip your kids as soon as they walk in the door. If you have a basement or someplace you can hang stuff up, this work great for drying (and storing).
• Get your hot chocolate ready before you go out, all you have to do is heat it back up and you're ready for a warm treat!

Santa Sisters

Macey--10 Months

My doctor told me at Macey's first appointment, "There's a 3rd baby gene--ALL 3rd babies get it. They're sweet and easy-going as a rule." Well--I'm not sure if this is true for ALL 3rd babies, but it's true with Macey. I have no doubt that God hand-picked this little girl for our family. We continue to get comments everywhere we go about how sweet, content, and well-behaved she is. When we say no to her, 9 out of 10 times she smiles and complies. She's a good sleeper, a good car-rider, entertains herself when needed, and showers us with smiles. Here are a few of her new tricks from the past month:
Standing on her own--she is getting very brave and can stand for 20-30 seconds. She has tried a few steps, but goes diving.

She loves cruising around furniture and puling up on EVERYTHING!

She started signing "more"--she is not always consistent, but will usually sign it after I say and show her the sign and sometimes after I say it. She also says "mamamama" while she signs more. This was unexpected b/c the other two didn't sign until after a year of age. We've started working on a few more signs.

She loves to be where the action is. She will follow any of us around and try to see what we're doing.

Macey is still taking two naps a day, but is very flexible with her nap times. She almost always sleeps 10 or more hours at night and quietly entertains herself when she wakes up (sometimes I don't even know she's awake until I peek in to check on her!) She would have weened herself by now except that I am making her nurse until a year when she can have cow's milk. She likes the idea of nursing and always gets excited but only wants to nurse for a minute or two b/c she doesn't want to miss anything. I have to make sure to nurse her in a dark quiet place with no distractions! She loves table food and is a BIG eater! We can often not keep her food coming fast enough. She eats anything and everything but some of her favorites are fruit, macaroni, and crackers.

Birthday Party #2

We started the tradition (with Sadie) of alternating our kids' birthday parties between grandparents' houses each year (starting with #2). This year we had Kinnick's party at my parents' house. We had lunch, opened presents, let the cousins play, and had cake. It was a fun time of celebrating Kinnick! Macey had lunch with us, but slept through his party... (BTW--Sadie is wearing something from the dress-up box. She has on a very big tank top repurposed as a dress.)

Kinnick was ready for the presents this time!

Looking at his new tractor book with Grandpa Chuck... He once again got some cool new books and some truck related items!

Sadie of course had to get in on the opening action. (She had several outfit changes--this one is a one-piece spandex gem from the 80's... yes, mine.)

The kids were very excited to open Elefun and try it out. We've been enjoying it at our house on an almost daily basis! Kinnick also got a moon-doh barn that the kids were excited to open and play with. It's very fun (and very messy)--I highly recommend it, just be sure you're ready to run the vacuum when you're done!

Kinnick, Daddy, & Jaren

Sadie & Jadyn

Blowing out the candles... I made the truck cake again (my third one including the practice) but this time I did a scaled down version--no digger or loader.

Kinnick was one tired little birthday boy. He kept playing hiding games with us on the way home, next thing I knew--he was asleep like this!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

We got started with our Christmas festivities early this year (see the post below!) We kept them going the first week of December--starting with :

Picking out a Tree:
Our goal (one of these years) is to go to a tree farm and cut down a tree. We debated about going for it this year, and then decided two blocks down the street (to our favorite garden center) would work out better. The Saturday after Thanksgiving Marc was off so we loaded up the kids and went to find a tree. Kinnick had fun running through the trees and touching the needles--he kept saying "ouch!" He and Sadie also liked hiding around the trees.

Daddy and Kinnick are posing in front of "the one".

I took the stroller to put Macey in, but in the 1 1/2 minutes it took us to get there, she was asleep. She snoozed peacefully in the car while we chose a tree.

Sadie was excited to check out the tree as soon as we got home. After lunch we put the kids down for a nap so we could get it set up.

Light Up Streator:

Every year our town has an event on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. They have music, etc. in the town square and the turn all the lights on. We've always talked about going, so this year we did! We invited the Shinkeys to go with us. We had fun walking around and looking at all the lighted displays. They had a few metal trashcans with fires in them--the kids thought those were pretty cool. They also had a table serving hot chocolate. Santa was there in his little house, but the line to see him was HUGE (so we will be waiting for a different opportunity--Sadie was pretty bummed).

Sadie & Carson checking out the big tree in the middle of the park...

Macey and Kinnick enjoyed a bundled up stroller ride to see the lights.

Decorating the Tree:

On Sunday night we decorated our tree. Marc and I got the lights up and the kids helped me put on all the ornaments (mostly Sadie!) Sadie and Kinnick loved looking through their boxes of ornaments. Sadie kept asking me who different ornaments were from and Kinnick was super excited to find his Herkey ornament--he ran around the house with it and dropped it. Herkey is now held together with a bit of super glue (as are many things in the Gorsch house!) I couldn't believe how much Sadie enjoyed putting on ornaments--she helped me until we were completely done!

Sadie is showing Kinnick his ornaments.

Sadie took this picture of our tree :)

Last year our tree was too tall for a topper. This is the first year Sadie has got to help Daddy put on the topper. She was very excited to take part in this job! She was also quick to point out to us that she could touch the ceiling!

Our completed Tree!

Crafts, Presents, and Miscellaneous:

The kids were excited to get out Christmas jammies (Macey wins with the most pairs!) and were excited to find this little Santa hat.

Last year, Aunt Cori helped the kids make "Christmas Countdown Chains" when she was here at Thanksgiving. Sadie loved it, so I helped her make another one. We used stickers, glitter, markers, and crayons to decorate the strips and Sadie helped me staple them together in a pattern. She loves taking one off each night and seeing the chain get shorter and shorter.

In the past, we've had the tradition of letting the kids open a present on Christmas Eve--their Christmas jammies and a book. This year I thought, "Why not get more wear out of the Christmas jammies?" so we started a new tradition. They each had a present under the tree on December 1st. They were excited to open their new jammies.

Bethlehem Walk:

Bethlehem Walk is an event that our church does (every other year) the first week of December. Marc and I have gone twice in the past and two years ago we were involved in it (as one of the Joseph & Mary couples). Bethlehem Walk is a walk through the events that led up to Jesus' birth... it starts with a "time travel" tunnel and we become part of a family that is traveling to Bethlehem for the census. We go through: Old Testament prophesies, Mary's visit from the Angel, Mary's visit to Elizabeth, Joseph's visit from the Angel, Mary & Joseph's visit to the inn, walk through a market place (with lots of yummy treats!), see a story teller (who tells an old testament story with props), see the angels proclaim Jesus' birth, and finally visit the stable. I'm amazed each time I go how it gives me a fresh perspective of the "Christmas Story". It allows me to truly see Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as REAL, ordinary people who played out an amazing role in God's redemption story. It is also amazing how many volunteers and how much time it takes to put this on as a gift for the community. This year there were over 2,000 visitors! We also get new members/attenders each time we have Bethlehem Walk!

This year we decided to take Kinnick and Sadie. As we sat in the waiting room, waiting for our turn, we told the kids a little about what to expect. Kinnick was beyond thrilled to see goats, sheep, and a donkey! He kept saying "See Goats!" I warned Sadie about the "mean" soldiers and she spent the whole time worrying about that. The Roman Soldiers can be very loud and scary, but they steered clear with us because of our two little kids (which was good, because I could tell there were a couple of the guys who really wanted to give Marc a hard time!) They both loved petting the donkey, and seeing everything in the market place. They also loved the cookies and hot chocolate at the end! I asked Sadie what here favorite part was and she said "I liked the cute little baby Jesus"--which was actually a baby doll! Kinnick's favorite part--"See Goats!" It was such a neat experience--one I hope to have again when they're older. As we've been talking about the Christmas story this year, I've been able to reference Bethlehem Walk to help them understand parts.

Cousins' Visit/Thanksgiving

Nathan (Marc's brother), Cori, Jaren, & Emery came to stay with us for the week of Thanksgiving. They arrived the Friday before and left the day after. We had SO much fun! We tried to cram in as many fun activities as we could while still leaving plenty of time for the kids to simply play (and for us adults to recover from the meltdowns and outbursts--mostly coming from two little girls!) Marc's parents and his sister joined for Wed-Fri. It was a full house, but we wouldn't change a thing! The week went fast... too fast!

Saturday was a lazy day... Emery remembered having a tea party this summer and couldn't wait for another one! (Sadie was also excited b/c we hadn't had the tea set out for awhile.) This summer we had the tea party in the tent--so we had to improvise. This picture shows the girls enjoying their treat in Sadie's princess tent. In case you were wondering what you would eat at a "Gorsch Teaparty" here's the menu: Tea (w/ cream (almond milk), sugar, and lemon slices), marshmallows, fruit snacks, grapes, dried cranberries, cereal pieces, and crumbled bacon. (That's right, we did have bacon at our tea party!)

Jaren was such a good sport to be the official waiter!

Kinnick also joined in the fun although he wasn't allowed in the tent.

Sunday after church we packed shoeboxes. Sadie was very excited for this because we buy and store things throughout the year and still she remembers doing them last year. She took her packing job very seriously!

Jaren, Aunt Cori, & Sadie--fixing "treat" bags for the shoeboxes... Sunday afternoon Nathan & Cori kept the kids while Marc and I dropped off the shoeboxes and went to see Harry Potter!

Cori helped the kids work on this craft project while we were gone. They painted pieces of a ceramic nativity scene to give to Chuck and Janet for Christmas. They each worked on one piece (including Macey!)

Kinnick was SO proud of his donkey--he kept sayig "Bubba's donkey!"

The girls spent a lot of their time in pajamas--specifically these (not so weather appropriate) nightgowns. Emmy left this night gown here this summer and was so excited to be reunited with it. Sadie wanted to match, so I had to dig her nightgown out of a tub in the basement.

We spent lots of time reading!

Hawkeye Ballerinas!

On Wednesday afternoon I got out one of our little trees and the kids helped me decorate it so we could have our family Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Wed. night.

After dinner we let the kids make some Christmas cookies to have after gifts... Here's what we ended up with :

The kids were so excited to open some Christmas presents (early!)

After gifts, we enjoyed our cookies and some hot chocolate:

Kinnick's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year. We started our day with "birthday" cinnamon rolls. (We have a tradition of waking the kids up by going into their room to sing Happy Birthday. This year, Marc and I were actually sleeping in Kinnick's room--when we heard him waking up, we got to sing and spend some snuggle time with him!)

He enjoyed opening some birthday presents--including this spider man riding toy from Grandpa & Grandma!

Earlier in the week, the kids helped make little pace cards for everyone for our Thanksgiving dinner. Inside the place cards everyone got to write reasons they are thankful for that person--Macey helped Cori write hers!

The girls helped me make some sweet potato chips--they got a little over-seasoned and a little over-baked, but I think I will try them again. They were yummy (crunchier than the fries we usually make).

Emmy helped make her very own (dairy free) pumpkin pie!

For Thanksgiving night we made all appetizers (the kids were so excited to eat only "snacks" for dinner--they kept talking about it all day!) and watched the Santa Clause 2.