New Years Eve Countdown 'till Noon.

Today at our Science Museum they had a New Years Eve party. There were crafts for the kids to make, cookies, Sprite in toasting glasses, and at 12:00 noon, a huge balloon drop. 

It was pretty crazy busy, but still fun. 

The best part is that now I have zero guilt about not letting the kiddos stay up until midnight. To be fair, I had almost zero guilt before this. We tried to let Connor stay up last year and he made it until 10:15 and then fell asleep on his dad's lap. 

Here are a few pictures from the event. 

 Waiting for noon. 

 Connor thinking about 1000 balloons dropping from the sky. 

 10, 9, 8 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

 The dropping of the balloons. 

 Then the popping of the balloons commenced, at which point we had to leave. Sophia wasn't a big fan of that. Connor and Sophia each rescued a balloon to take home. 

Motor City

Last Friday we took a little road trip with the kids to Detroit to visit the Henry Ford museum. I'm not sure what I expected Detroit to be like, although I did think there was a very small chance we could run into Eminem (based on those Chrysler commercials), but it turns out that it kind of feels like every other biggish city.

I did find myself saying to Ben the same thing that I say every time we drive through Michigan and I see all the trees and the lakes: "I would be okay with you getting a call here."

The Henry Ford museum was really neat. Ben and I think it is one of those places that you can go to with young kids and have one experience and then go back to without any kids and have a totally different experience. It is a museum that appeals to a broad range of ages and that is the best kind of museum in my book.

 Connor really enjoyed the train exhibits that were open for Christmas. They had both a Lionel display and a Lego display. After looking at the trains we were able to do some playing in a train playing area.

 Sophia was less sure about playing in the train area. She liked the concept of playing on the train toys, but not really the execution of it. She wanted out, she wanted in, she wanted back out...you get the general idea.

The museum had a number of really neat exhibits. Other than the trains, we probably spent the most time looking at the airplanes. Connor really liked to pretend to fly them and he also thought it was really cool to read about the different types of planes they used to make. 

 The Rosa Parks bus was on display at the museum. We tried to explain to Connor the significance of what happened on the bus, but he seemed a little confused that there ever could have been a time where people didn't just sit where ever they wanted to on the bus. The idea that people were treated so differently based on their race seemed completely nonsensical to him.

 My favorite part of the whole museum was a 1941 house design that never took off. It was a two bedroom round house that didn't sit on the ground and was suspended in the air by cables. (I know what you are thinking...How do we not live in these now?) The best part to me was the advertising campaign about how great the house was. As you can see, I especially liked this advertisement.

Here is a picture of the house. It had such fancy things as a rotating closet to make getting to your items so much easier to get to. The amazing advancements in the house also included round corners in the bathroom, making cleaning a breeze! This is the only model that exists today.

 They also had a Wizard of Oz exhibit that was very hands on and the kids could play different areas. By the time I snapped this photo, the little ones were pretty exhausted. Also, they were pretty much over me taking pictures of them.

 Lastly, we visited the section of the museum that had the thing that Connor had been looking forward to the whole trip. That's right, the highlight of the trip for Connor was the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. I have to admit, a giant traveling hot dog is pretty cool.

It was a great trip and we all had a wonderful time. The highlight for me was stopping on the way home at IKEA to get some goodies. This was probably the low spot for my wallet, but we grabbed some pretty cool things. We also kept telling ourselves that we may move to a part of the country this summer where an IKEA is much further than just a couple of hours. The horror.

Merry Christmas to All.

The kids were being pretty cooperative at last night's Christmas Eve service. I snapped some good pictures of them.

 Connor and Sophia

 Our sweet girl. 

 One handsome boy. 

 A pregnant Mama.  24 weeks and counting. 

Me and the kids. 

Things that go bump in the night.

I've been having trouble lately with some night time waking. I'll wake up every morning around 3:00 am and cannot get back to sleep for an hour or so.

It turns out that there are a number of things that go bump in the middle of the night in our house.

1. Connor kicking his wall in his room. Seriously. This kid sleeps right up along the wall and evidently attempts to kick his way through the wall all night long. 
2. Sophia throwing animals out of her bed. Every night before bed time, Sophia demands that a series of babies, stuffed animals, and blankets be put in her bed. Then she proceeds to throw them out of her bed at random points in the night. 
3. Elinore. I was thinking that she is a really calm and kind of lazy baby because I don't feel her move a lot during the day. It turns out that she is just saving her acrobatics for the night time. (Coincidentally, this may be way I keep waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep).
4. Our screen door. Even though I make sure every night that it is latched, at some point in the middle of my awake time I will hear the screen door slam shut after the wind has ripped it open. Also, every night, without fail, this scares me half to death. 

It doesn't really amaze me that there is so much noise and activity during the wee morning hours at our house, but I am kind of amazed that I can ever sleep through all this activity. 

My handsome boy.

I realize that all parents think that there children are good looking, but mine seriously are. No really.

I think that if this kid could follow two rules in a row that our future would be bright. Surely he could be in a commercial or two. As it stands, he can't really follow even one rule at a time - so there goes our big shot at fame, fortune, and the like.

I guess I'll settle for his mischievous smile and adorable freckles.

Little Miss Attitude.

Do you remember back when Sophia was born and I said rude and crass things like "she was the most agreeable and sweetest child to ever walk this planet"? Remember that? Also, remember how you all said things like "just wait for it"? Well, I guess that all of you get the last laugh because my sweet and agreeable little girl has turned into a temper wielding monster of a child.

She can still be sweet when the fancy strikes her. Lately, however, she has been all about proving to us the amount of will power she possess.

To prove that the infantile bliss is dead and gone she now does the following on a regular basis:

1. Refuses to eat dinner and instead routinely dumps it on the floor. 
2. Will not, except on extreme duress (the kind only Daddy can provide) say I'm sorry to anyone about anything. That is unless she accidentally bumps into the wall in which case she will very promptly apologize to said wall. 
3. Screams "No thank you Mommy" when I try to subject her to such harsh and cruel punishment as eating a snack...in church. And by screams, I mean screams in a way that makes it sound like she is fearful of me beating her. Again...this happens very loudly in church.  
4. Pulls my hair if she is not getting the amount of attention she feels like she deserves. 
5. Has on more than one occasion thrown herself on the floor for a good old fashioned tantrum. 

Yes, you all did warn me that even if a child is calm and docile, I can't expect that to last forever. You warned me, but was it wrong of me to hope that after raising Connor, God would take it a little bit easier on us? It turns out that was mostly just our practice round. 

Ben and I hope that this is just that stage called the terrible twos, but also remember that it took us four years to get out of that stage with Connor. Honestly, who are we kidding? Depending on the day we are still very much in that stage with Connor. 

We are certain however that this too shall pass. In the meantime, I try to take cute adorable pictures of her that I can look at on those days...you know the ones. 

New to us furniture.

Here are some photos of the furniture that I snagged a month or so ago at the Clothing Coop on seminary.

Sophia felt the need to model the chair for you. We got two chairs like this, one in the family room and one in Ben's office.

 Full size couch. We can fit our whole family on it!

This means that if we invite you over for dinner now or if you come for a visit, you will actually be able to sit down. Pretty impressive, no?