Another wonderful Christmas! And my baby boy is 2!

We had another busy but wonderful Christmas:). We did our own little family Christmas the night of the 23rd and morning of the 24th. We took the kids to the Airdrie Festival of Lights on Friday night, and although the wind was pretty cold, they did not complain (Brian and I were wimpier than they were!). We came back home and the kids opened up their new jammies and one other gift (some trains). Saturday morning they got to open the rest of their gifts. Adam was completely indifferent - Brian had to open his presents for him. Lynsey got pretty excited which was fun:). They weren't able to play with their toys for very long before we had to leave for Edmonton, but they didn't seem to mind too much!

Our time in Edmonton was a lot of fun! We had our family Christmas dinner on Saturday night and then just rested for a couple of days until the Penner Christmas on the 27th. It was very relaxing. We left for Calgary on the 28th but stopped in to see Mary and Dave, and then Gert for a bit in Three Hills on the way home. Saturday (New Year's Eve) was our last Christmas gathering day - we went to the church for a lunch potluck with my mom's group friends, and then off we went to Three Hills to have Christmas with my southern Alberta family AND to celebrate Adam's second birthday. Another great day!

Now the gatherings are done and it's time to get back to normal life. Brian has started wiring the basement, and we bought a bed for Lynsey this weekend as well. Adam had a few naps in beds over the holidays so I think he's ready to move on over to her toddler bed. Her bed won't be here for a few weeks so we have some time to figure out how to transition him - here's hoping it's as smooth as Lynsey's transition was!

A lot of family commented over Christmas how much Adam has come out of his shell and become a lot more engaged with the people around him. I knew it was happening as well, but it was nice to hear other people commenting on it, since he is often very withdrawn in crowds. He definitely has turned a bit of a corner in the last month or so, even at home with Lynsey - she plays Ring Around the Rosie with him and he loves it! So cute! I guess her persistence has paid off and she finally has at least a part time play mate:). I'm hoping that this play just continues to increase as baby time draws close - I can't believe I'm 32 weeks tomorrow. Change is coming!

30.5 weeks in and just a few sleeps until Christmas!

It seems like just yesterday I was peeing on a stick, and now we are just two months away from a huge life change. Crazy! I feel pretty pregnant these days - hello back pain, heart burn, constant peeing and more braxton hicks contractions. Why is the third trimester such a drastic change from the second one?? Anyone, it's still not terrible, but I am feeling a bit more fatigued these days. There's a lot going on with Christmas coming, and our contractor just got started on framing the basement today - happy that part will be done before Christmas! Now Brian has some "free" time to get going on the electrical:). I feel pretty overwhelmed a lot of days, feeling like I can never keep my house clean and I never have the right groceries in the house and I just have no motivation to do anything. I see all these facebook statuses about people getting right on top of the cleaning and the Christmas baking and I just can't even remotely get myself there! Oh, well - I know that I always get to doing what I have to do, it's just those things that I usually LIKE to keep on top of that are suffering somewhat.

Lynsey had her preschool concert yesterday - very cute:). She was singing away and completely into the actions to the songs. I love that she just throws herself into these things! She was supposed to be in a Sunday School "concert" as well last Sunday, but we were three minutes late for church and the little kids' part was half over. I'm over it now, but I was pretty disappointed. The preschool one was a lot better anyway (in my opinion) - they actually sang songs that they had learned the words to and got bells to ring for one song, whereas the Sunday School one was just a cd playing a song where some of the kids tried to do some hand gestures to the music. Anyway, it's so great to see her entering this phase of life where she's in organized activities:).

We are heading up to Edmonton Saturday morning to have Christmas with Brian's family. I'm excited to have Friday night and Saturday morning to have our own little Christmas, and I'm hoping to try and start some traditions this year - thinking of going to the Airdrie festival of lights on Friday night (Lynsey loved it last year and has been asking to go back!) and I'm trying to think of some other traditions to start. I think we'll let them open a present or two in the evening.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Busy busy busy!

The last week and a half have been pretty hectic, but a lot of fun! I've managed to finish almost all of my Christmas shopping, which is a huge relief since I don't particularly enjoy it. We had some family over on Saturday night for a turkey dinner which was really fun as well.

Adam continues to talk more and more. One thing I forgot to mention in the last blog post is how he keeps referring himself in the third person: "Ad-o want more milk", or he walks into a room and looks at us and says, "Hi Ad-o" - that one we're working on:). He has become quite the little night owl, getting a second wind around 7:30 or 8 and talking to himself often until 9:30 (Lynsey usually falls asleep long before him). I do like sleeping in until 8, but that also has it's drawbacks when I'm trying to get ready to go somewhere in the morning. He used to be so docile in the evenings, he could barely stay awake until bedtime. That is definitely no longer the case. We have started telling him, "No screaming" when he screams, and while it doesn't stop him completely, he has on some occasions started screaming and then stopped himself saying, "no skeeming". He says that a lot, but unfortunately still screams quite often. He is generally a pretty easy toddler so far so I'm not stressing about this little issue too much.