December 2013 – Our Family Adventure

Attempted holiday pictures

On Christmas Noomi refused to cooperate for a decent photo, so today I put both kids back into their Christmas outfits in an attempt to capture at least one memorable picture (Noomi’s dress was sent from my aunt Lynda in Washington, which was once Anya’s holiday outfit, and is so adorable, thank you so much aunt Lynda). I even brought up a little tree that I picked up at Kohls after Christmas, hoping it would hold Noomi’s attention. Ajax did wonderful for the pictures, but Noomi just wanted nothing to do with it. The only thing Noomi seemed to find joy in was the laundry basket. So yes, that is where her holiday photo was taken.

After our impromptu photo shoot we bummed around a bit and then went outside. It was colder today than it was yesterday, so Noomi and I weren’t out very long, but the guys started work on cutting up the large limbs that fell during the great ice storm.

On a side note- Noomi is quite a spirited child and certainly in her hitting phase. At the moment whenever she gets mad she marches over and hits me! If Dave tells her no, or makes her mad, she heads right to me and hits me. I have no idea why, I didn’t tell her no, lol. Sometimes she’ll whoop Ajax on the head while he’s watching TV and so far he has been extremely patient with her. Noomi watches everything Ajax does and immediately tries to copy him. Lately Ajax has been jumping from the coffee table onto the couch, well of course this means that Noomi wants to jump from the coffee table onto the couch. Unfortunately, she’s not that good and ends up walking off the coffee table with blind faith that you will catch her. We haven’t dropped her… yet.

Snow days and baking traditions

Before Christmas we had our traditional cookie baking day, but this year to spice things up we also added in pork and chicken tamales. They were so wonderfully delicious I cannot believe we’ve never made them before. Well, actually they were horribly time consuming so I understand why we’ve never made them before. I ended up meeting my mom in Dearborn, visiting my grandpa Nader and then she came home with me and stayed the night, as Mr. Dave had his work Christmas party in the evening and didn’t get home till almost 1 am.

On Saturday, my sister came over and together we made a double batch of Russian tea cookies, peanut butter and sugar cookies, which the kids decorated for Santa. I cooked the tamale meat in crock pots and then Dave ended up rolling almost 80 tamales in corn husks. My sister and I then watched a sappy Nicolas Sparks movie, which I think we both secretly loved, and steamed tamales till 10 pm. That night we were also hit with a mega ice storm, which left thousands without power and the roads nearly impassible (we still have several large limbs that came down in the storm that Dave needs to cut up).

We served the tamales Christmas eve as a pre-dinner snack and they were a huge hit! I think we will official institute them as a holiday tradition. Oh and Noomi also loved them, though Ajax refused to try them.

Fun at the Farm

Today we headed down to Brooklyn to visit the family. We headed out fairly early, about 10 am or so, and got to my parents’ at lunch, perfect timing. The drive down went very well and Noomi did not get sick, which was a relief as our last 2 trips over an hour ended up with her getting very very ill. After lunch, we all headed out side for some sledding. Luckily there was still snow on the ground, as the Michigan weather hit near 50 degrees, which was just incredible as we’ve been stuck in a bitter cold spell this past week.

Ajax insisted on sledding down the big hill himself and did wonderful. There was a bit of a bump at the bottom, which sent him into the air, but he loved it. Noomi refused to go down the hill, but did help grandma Mary feed the horses by carrying around a grain bucket. She also enjoyed being riding in the sled and having aunt Emily pull her around. When Ajax was tired out from sledding, they headed into the barn where he helped sweep and pick up poop. Then grandpa Gordy set him up on the tractor and they drove all over the farm with Ajax steering. Noomi insisted on seeing her favorite horse Frannie and giving her a good pat. Frannie is the best horse with small children and stood perfectly still so that Noomi could pet her (which turned into wild swings with her big winter coat and gloves and large hat).

Afterwards Noomi went down for a 2 hour nap and that let my mom and I sit around drinking tea and talking, while Dave napped. Grandpa and Ajax hung out in the basement doing “guy things.” At one point they busted out the keyboard and microphone and we could hear them singing. Ajax actually knows quite a few words to songs. Grandma Flo was still a bit under the weather so we hung out and watched HGTV and criticized people’s tile choices.

We stayed for dinner and did baths there before loading the kids into the car and heading home. Ajax was asleep before we hit the expressway, but Noomi stayed up chatting most of the way home. Her word of the day was of course- horsie and Frannie.

Christmas 2013

Here are pictures from Christmas day.

Noomi received some sparkly shoes which she loved. She also got some baby dolls, one of which is a certified Cabbage Patch doll with her own red sparkly shoes. Noomi keeps taking the shoes off and on, off and on. She is also dragging it around the house, but it’s almost as big as she is. She also recieved two other baby dolls which she keeps pushing around in her new shopping cart and giving them bottles. The kids also received a kitchen play set and steel pots and pans, dishes and food. Noomi loves the kitchen stuff and has now been leaving my own pots and pans alone, since her appear look so real.

Ajax received some pretty awesome things as well. Some cool play dough trucks, some John Deere gear, Legos. Specifically, Ninjago Legos which he and Dave put together. Ajax has really been enjoying all his games and art stuffs. He received Connect 4, which was a childhood favorite for both Dave and myself. He’s also maxed out on Matchbox cars, he has to have 100 or so, and keeps lining them up in his room and racing them along his new dinosaur track. Since he’s also getting into dinosaurs, he also received a bunch of cool dino books and puzzles.

Christmas Eve – 2013

Christmas 2013! I think I must start this post by saying that both kids slept in until 8 am on Christmas morning. Let me repeat – 8 am! They never sleep in that late, never. All us adults kept waking up at 6 am, 6:30 am, we couldn’t believe they were still sleeping.

On Christmas Eve we had the family over to our house. My parents, aunt Emily, Dave’s parents, and my aunt Liz’s family. My grandma Flo couldn’t make it as she was feeling under the weather. Everyone had an excellent time, there was great food, including a 14 lb prime rib which was incredible, and family. The kids were blown away by everyone’s kindness and Ajax helped Noomi open more than one present. She was pretty overwhelmed. I tried to get good pictures of the kids all dressed up, but Noomi wasn’t very cooperative.

Ajax made reindeer food, he actually made up his own recipe, straying a bit from the traditional – oats and magic recipe. This year he also included glitter, sugar, and crushed up crackers. He said the crackers were for Rudolph. He also put out cookies for Santa that he and Noomi decorated. The kids were ridiculously cute in the Christmas jammies and of course slept beautifully. I didn’t get pictures of the kids in the PJs unfortunately.

Grandma Dara and Grandpa Rod stayed the night with their little dog Mabel (or as Ajax says – Mee-bel). It was so wonderful having them over and Christmas morning was excellent. The rest of the day was spent bumming around, eating, and playing with the kids.

Random this and that

Kids love snow. I don’t mind snow so much as long as I don’t have to drive in it. This past weekend we got quite a bit of snow and the kids were very excited to play in it. On Sunday the whole family suited up and headed outside. Noomi was a little too suited up and had a hard time walking and Ajax just rolled and rolled in the snow drifts. Noomi and I weren’t out very long as it was pretty cold, but Dave and Ajax had a very good time goofing around. Ajax helped Dave shovel a good portion of the driveway and was a very hard worker. He wanted to shovel the neighbors driveway as well, but ended up losing steam as there was a little too much snow for him. It was a nice thought though, as I’m sure our neighbor would have been happy.

Once inside Noomi still enjoyed watching the guys in the front yard and kept yelling – Ajax! Ajax! She is using more and more words and loves carrying around books. She is certainly a second child and has gotten away with not using her words as much. She is pretty cute though, so we all let it slide.

One of the worst days … ever

On Saturday morning we all got up and were surprised by how much snow had fallen overnight. Grandma Dara had stayed the night as her nephew had graduated from MSU the night before. All three of us adults looked at the snow and then at 10 am we loaded into our vehicle to head to Kalamazoo to visit friends (a date we’d sent up in October!) and Dara headed home to Mikado.

The roads were of course worse than any of us had predicted and after spending 1.5 hours in the car going what should have taken us 20-30 minutes we conceded defeat and called our friends to cancel. The roads were very slick and we saw multiple cars in the ditch. On the slow track back home (which took us over an hour, so yea about 2.5 hours in the car going nowhere) the kids complained that they were hungry and then out of nowhere Noomi projectile vomited her entire breakfast all over herself, the car, and even on me as I had been turned around trying to console her. Dave immediately pulled over on the slushy dangerous highway and I jumped out of the car to get to her. I won’t go into details but it was totally gross and horribly smelly. It smelled so bad that Dave was ill the rest of the night. When we got home everything in the backseat of the car had to be washed, Noomi and I each got baths, and her car seat was stripped and washed. Dave spent a good deal of time cleaning the car as there was throwup everywhere; even on the outside of the car.

Dara also had terrible roads on the way home, but eventually made it home safe. We all should have stayed home in our PJs! lol.

Thanksgiving 2013

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving Ajax and I stayed home to bake pies and cookies and Noomi went to school for a half day, as we probably wouldn’t have accomplished much cooking with the nina. Ajax was a great help and declared that his apple pie was the best (it was darn good).

On Thanksgiving we headed to Brooklyn as dinner was at my parents’ house this year. My aunt Liz and her family were over, as well grandma Flo, and Jill even came in from Colorado. It was a was a wonderful meal and on top of that the Lions even won the game this year, so horray! Ajax and grandpa spent a good deal of time in the basement, playing pool, watching movies, and eating junk. Noomi had an excellent time running around the house nonstop, playing with the dogs, and demanding to be picked up by everyone. This was also the Thanksgiving that David challenged Emily to a game of Wizard’s Staff and totally lost.

After dinner, Dave and I headed back to Lansing, while my parents kept the kiddos. On Friday, my parents took Ajax into Dearborn to the Henry Ford Museum, while Emily, Jill, and Grandma Flo babysat Noomi. Both kids had an excellent time. Ajax loved all the old cars, planes, and trains.

I actually headed out on Black Friday and did a bit of shopping with a friend, while Dave enjoyed a quiet house. Emily brought the kiddos home on Saturday, which was nice as the house seemed a bit too quiet without them.

On Sunday, Noomi and I went grocery shopping and then when we got home we put up the Christmas tree. Ajax was so excited, he’s been asking us to put it up for a while now and loves the house decorated for the holidays. After putting up the tree, our Elf on the Shelf showed up and is named – Guillermo. Ajax is excited and a little concerned that the Elf is now watching his actions and reporting to the North Pole at night.