Christmas 2013

We spent Christmas 2013 right here in Colorado. It was nice not to travel with our crew of kiddos, and to wake up Christmas morning with our family of five this first year in our new home. We are lucky to have my parents close by and to have had Siri, Jay, and Raum in town for a whole week over the holiday.

After church Christmas Eve we went over to my parent's for family time, dinner, and present opening.

 

 

* Top right - My mom found this dance/gymnastics outfit for Sydney that is soooo her. She wanted to put it on right away and couldn't stop rubbing the velour fabric. It was too funny.

* Middle right - Ryker proudly sitting in his new chair bought to match his brother's and sister's for the art table. It must have ignited a climbing phase in him because he is now constantly climbing up on it unassisted and has fallen a time or two!

Christmas morning we headed downstairs to see if Santa had come. The older kids are starting to get into Santa this year, but it's still a little abstract. Myles understands who Santa is as a person, and will label "Tanta" if we see a him in real life or a movie (mostly saying, "No Tanta." - he's not such a fan yet), but that's about the extent of what he understands. Sydney has been asking more about Santa this year and has been hoping he will leave "a goody" in her "big sock" (stocking). When I asked her Christmas morning if she thought Santa had come, she said, "I don't think so, I don't hear him." Nonetheless, we had fun leaving cookies, filling their stockings, and assembling their new marble tower. (To their credit, we acknowledge Santa around here, but don't put too much emphasis on him, so I don't think they knew what to expect.)

Ryker, not yet interested in presents, was intent on getting every last cookie crumb off of Santa's plate.

After Santa gifts, we went upstairs for even more present opening and waffles, our Christmas morning breakfast tradition.

Grandma and Grandpa Gilbert sent this inflatable jumping pit, the kids love it and spent all Christmas day jumping!

Later in the day my family came over for more celebrating, cousin playtime, and yummy eating.

*Top left - Skyping with my mom's family back in Cedar Falls.

*Bottom middle - I was excited to use my Grandma Schaefer's china dishes for the first time, passed down to her from generations before.

I'm equally a bit sad that Christmas is over, our decorations are down, and family has left, and okay that the busyness that comes with the holiday season has slowed. They say that the only thing better than Christmas as a child is experiencing Christmas through your own children's eyes, and that felt true this year. We had a good month culminated by a fun couple days of celebrating with family. We are blessed.

'Tis the Season

Now that the kids are getting older and are more excited about the holidays, we celebrated and prepared in various ways throughout December. Some of our holiday fun...

**Rocky Mountain Down Syndrome Association Holiday Party

We went to our third annual RMDSA holiday party, and my parents were thankfully once again able to join us as Gilby was busy hosting the party for the adults with Down syndrome at the same time. We had a yummy breakfast, a visit from Santa (our kids still won't sit on his lap - perfectly fine by me), and fun seeing lots of friends.

**Tree Hunting

We went to a Christmas "Tree Town" this year to pick out our tree. Although it was during a cold snap and the temperature was probably 7 degrees, the kids still had fun running around and helping get the tree loaded. It was set up on a miniature golf course with an impressive light display and hot cocoa and treats inside. Gilby and I both grew up with real trees and love carrying on the tradition with our own family.

**Decorating the Tree

Although crazy with kids grabbing at ornaments left and right, decorating the tree was actually really fun this year. The kids were so excited at each new ornament they pulled out of the boxes and loved finding the perfect spot for each. I loved our tree this year and so enjoyed sitting in a quiet house after the kids were in bed with just the glow of our tree and decorations.

We were gathering the kids to get a photo in front of the tree when Myles said, "Pidey," and ran upstairs to his room. I thought he was getting a Spider Man toy to be in the picture, but he came down five minutes later like this, ready for pictures. Funny kid.

**Christmas Cookies

Grandma came over one day and we had a cookie baking marathon. The kids helped Grandma and Daddy decorate sugar cookies while I made lots and lots of cookies for teachers, therapists, etc.

Bottom right - I burned out our mixer making the cookies, but my ingenious husband found a solution!

** Christmas Countdowns

We counted down the days until Christmas on a chalkboard and also with a new Christmas book every night. A couple years ago, a friend of mine counted down the days until Christmas with a new book every night. I loved the idea and that same year bought a bunch of books at an after Christmas sale. It didn't work out last year, but we had fun with it this year.

**Light Gazing

We took the kids out for dinner one evening and drove around to look at lights afterward. We live near some beautiful neighborhoods with impressive light displays - I think Gilby and I probably enjoyed it more than the kids!

I've always loved the Christmas season and excitement around the holidays, but love it even more watching it through my kids' eyes.

From the mouths of babes.

I love to watch my kiddos as they are working through new things. Sweet Sydney has been doing some thinking this Christmas season. She's trying to get it all figured out.

On the way home from church this weekend --

Sydney: Mom, I'm so excited to see Jesus.
Me: Oh, when are you going to see him?
Sydney: At Christmastime.
Me: Where?
Sydney: Probably with Santa. I think he'll be with Santa. I don't know if I'll see him with Santa.
Me: Okay.
Sydney: Jesus is a real guy, but he is in our bodies. Jesus is a baby like Ryker!

And that was that.

Like Father, Like Son

It's mini-Gilby hanging out with Daddy! Two pretty handsome fellas.

Thanksgiving in Iowa

Now that we've been home for two weeks, and Christmas is a week away, it seems like just the right time to share about our week in Iowa over Thanksgiving! We came home to our normal busy schedule with all of the holiday season extras thrown in, and I'm just now taking the time to write this!

We left for Iowa in the wee early morning hours the Sunday before Thanksgiving and arrived at my grandparent's house in Cedar Falls just in time for dinner.

Twelve hours in the car with these crazies, what more could I ask for?

We spent the first half of the week in Cedar Falls visiting with my grandparents and uncle, with a short visit from my aunt. My grandparents are preparing to move to a retirement community soon, so my parents came into town as well, and we were all able to get some work done in anticipation of the move. The kids stayed busy in the swim area of our hotel and spent a morning with Gilby at the rec center, with lunch to follow. They had a great time with the old toys at my grandparent's house and even got a signature tattoo from Uncle David, something my siblings and I had fun with growing up.

We are always missing our families back in the Midwest, so to be able to spend a few days with them was so great. I love, respect, and admire my grandparents so much, and wish we could be closer to help as they transition to this new stage in life. You are doing a great job, Grandma and Grandpa!

Midweek we traveled to Fort Dodge to be with Gilby's family for Thanksgiving. We stopped in Webster City on the way for a visit with Grandma Gilbert. We had a nice chat with her, and she enjoyed watching the kids run around. It was hard to say goodbye, but we headed out after her afternoon ice cream snack as we were anxious to see everybody in Fort Dodge.

We spent the next few days catching up and playing with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Joe and Aunt Jen, Joely, Kallista, Morgan, and Uncle Shawn and Layla. Although it's been awhile since our last visit, the kids were quick to warm up and loved the time with family. The cousins kept each other busy (and mostly got along!), and we had a relaxing and yummy Thanksgiving dinner at Uncle Joe's. We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Steck before making the trip home on Saturday. 

Again, it's hard not to be able to see family more often, but we made some fun memories and had quality time while we were there! Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

A conversation with Sydney

While in the van on our way to my parent's this past week...

Sydney: Mom, are we lost?
Me: No, Sydney, we're not lost.
Sydney: Probably I think we are lost.
Me: No, Sydney, we're not.
Sydney: Sometimes you get lost on the way to Daddy's work.
Me: I don't remember that, but okay. (apparently she's caught on to my horrible sense of direction) 
Sydney: I think we are going the wrong way.
Me: (with a little more persistence) No, Sydney, we are going the right way.
Sydney: Are we going the left way too?

First Steps Camp

A few weekends ago, Gilby and I took the big kids to a weekend camp. First Steps Camp was held at Rocky Mountain Village, a fully disability accessible, Easter Seals camp in Empire, CO. It was put on by Children's Hospital, and only for kids who are new to using an augmentative communication device, and their families.

The gap between Myles' receptive language (what he understands and wants to say) and his expressive language (what he can say) is widening, so we knew he needed a more sophisticated way to communicate until his speech can take over. Last spring, we started on the journey of getting Myles his own "talker," which he has now had for a couple of months. The weekend camp was an immersion sort of experience to help everyone get more comfortable with using the talker and figuring out how to incorporate it into our daily lives. Gilby and I spent a large part of the weekend in training sessions while the kids were kept busy with camp activities. It was extremely helpful for Gilby and I, and the kids had so much fun (we all did actually)!! (Baby Ryker was missed, but he spent the weekend in the very capable hands of Grandma and Grandpa.)

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and joined the rest of the families and staff for dinner in the dining hall before our first evening of activities. Friday and Saturday were jammed packed with learning sessions, camp activities, and practice sessions with the talker, before leaving late Sunday morning. On Saturday afternoon, the kids had a chance to go horseback riding, climb the climbing wall, zip-line, and fish. Our kiddos opted out of many of the activities (Sydney's too reserved still and Myles was just not up for it), but it didn't dampen their experience.

 The kiddos loved the cabin we stayed in!

Myles climbing.

Daddy climbing while Myles looks on.

Gilby zip-lining.

Fishing with Daddy.

The weekend theme was Birthday Party, so Saturday evening the families and staff gathered for a group party.

 Cupcakes!

Taking a crack at the pinata and hiding candy in their shirts.

Myles and his sweet speech therapist, Meghan.

 

 Using his talker.

Although not very restful, it was nice to have a weekend away in the mountains where we were able to focus on our big kids. They both did great (minus Myles constantly running away from the table to go to the playroom almost every single meal!), met some new friends, and didn't want to leave on Sunday!

Halloween

Myles as Spiderman (again), Sydney as Tinkerbell (or "sparkly Tinkerbell" as I heard her tell someone the other day), and Ryker as a pirate by day and monkey by night. The big kids had parties at school during the day, and our nanny, Anne Marie, went to Sydney's with Ryker in tow, while Gilby was able to make it to Myles'. Sydney, Ryker, Gilby, and I trick-or-treated around our neighborhood while Myles decided to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa. He was so tired, and although we were trying to convince him to come, I'm glad he made this decision for himself. He needed the rest. Sydney loved trick-or-treating and got braver and braver the longer we were out. By the end she was walking up to doors while we hung back and actually saying "trick-or-treat" in a voice that could be heard. It was a fun day and night!