Christmas 2008

Whew- isn't it too bad that vacations have to pass by so quickly?  We haven't even had a chance to have a nap during the break.  We had a very Merry Christmas.  Patrick's parents and brother arrived earlier in the week and it was nice having a few days with them.  One of the days we went to the Allen Fieldhouse exhibit with all of the sports memor-

abilia.  The curator came out and offered to let Elle try on a football helmet, but she was a little nervous to do so.  She did enjoy carrying it around, though.

 

On Christmas Eve Elle helped make cookies for Santa.  We also put out some carrots for the reindeer.  Santa and the reindeer must have enjoyed their snack because most of it was gone in the morning.

  

Christmas was a nice and restful day.  Elle enjoyed helping everyone try to open their presents.  Jay just liked being in the midst of everything.  He took a nap halfway through the present opening festivities, so we had to save the rest of his gifts until he woke up.  The kids received lots of presents, including puzzles, games, clothes, dress-up costumes, cars, and a train table set.  Everyone was much too generous!  

We had an extremely yummy Christmas dinner of center-cut beef tenderloin.  It was quite a treat and was prepared perfectly by Patrick.  Sarah's mom and step-dad arrived in town yesterday so we had Christmas Part II.  Jay received lots of dinosaurs and Elle now has a plethora of play food.

I forgot to write last week about our recent outing to McDonalds.  It was the first time we have taken Elle to a McDonalds with a playplace.  She had a 4 piece chicken nugget happy meal, which happened to take her 3 sittings over the course of a few hours to completely finish (no wonder she's so little)!  She really enjoyed checking out the playplace, but was a little apprehensive of climbing way high up in the toys.  Has anyone noticed how small the McDonalds portions seem to be now a days?  Sarah ordered a chicken sandwich, which was just teeny weeny.  

One other thing worth mentioning from this past week is that Elle had her first eye exam.  Due to a family history of eye problems on each side of the family, it was recommended that we have Elle's eyes checked out.  She did really well and was very cooperative.  She had to wear glasses at one point and find items that popped out of the page.  When she took the glasses off she said, "like Sponge Bob!"  Elle did an excellent job identifying the motorcycle, telephone, and other objects.  The doctor said her eyes were good and that she didn't need another check up for 2 years.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and best of luck sticking with those resolutions!

Sprite the Elf

It is hard to believe yet another week has passed.  The time goes so quickly.  I can safely say that all the members of the Norman household are well.  We all had some type of the bug and we are very happy that it has moved on.  This week a little elf started paying a visit to our house.  His name is Sprite.  At night he reports to Santa as to if Elle and Jay have been naughty or nice.  When he returns in the morning you never know where his perch will be.  He's a sneaky little guy....

This past week was Sarah's last week at her practicum.  It was a great experience providing case management to older adults in their homes.  Now, she has two weeks almost completely free from anything.  She is working 5 hours this coming Monday and around an hour the following Monday.  Other than that, Sarah's plan is to do as little as possible over the break!  Lots of R&R are in order.  Sarah decided that the break would be a good time to do some very low key activities, such as knitting.  She bought some yarn and has already started her first scarf.

On Saturday, Patrick had morning practice.  He came home and surprised the rest of the family with a treat of donuts.  Yum!  We had tickets to the basketball game.  Patrick, Mike (the head Aquahawk coach), Heidi (Sarah's former roommate), and Josh (Heidi's husband) went to the game.  Sarah stayed home with the kids and also watched Heidi's little girl, Addie, as well.  The kids had a blast playing together and chasing each other around the house.  

Saturday evening we had a small get-together with some of Sarah's former roommates.  During college Sarah lived with 5 other swimmers and divers for 2 years in "the farm house," a house on the edge of Lawrence.  Heidi, Rebecca, and Kristi all came over for the get-together.  It was nice catching up and hearing what everyone has been up to.  Rebecca and her husband have recently returned from spending a year working in Korea.  It was interesting to hear about some of the cultural differences.  It's nice that we are still able to get-together every now and then!

Now we're gearing up for the holidays.  Patrick's family is coming to Lawrence for Christmas and Sarah's mom and step-dad are driving out for the week of New Year's.  So, we'll be nice and busy with company.  We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

The Bug Got Us

First, I just want to say in this first picture we are not driving with the kids in our laps!  The picture is from last weekend when we were eating our Cold Stone ice cream in the car because there wasn't room in the restaurant!

Well, this week has been pretty uneventful, so there's not much to write about.  Sarah's last class was Monday, so she has a break from writing papers for about a month.  After next week she will be finished with her practicum and will then have a two week break!  On Friday there was an MSW student social, so Sarah and the kids went.  They were only there for about an hour because it was quite evident that they were each very tired.  Sure enough, both of the kids fell asleep on the car ride home.

Patrick is spending this weekend coaching.  There is a three day meet in Topeka, where he has spent most of his time.  There was also a meet in Lawrence on Saturday, so he had to split his day driving back and forth between Topeka and Lawrence.  

Apparently there is a nasty bug going around town, and we were unfortunate enough to get it.  Elle woke up during the middle of the night on Wednesday and threw up twice.  Each time we had to give her a bath and change her pajamas.  She was fine the rest of the night, but then threw up again Thursday morning.  Sarah came home early from her practicum to watch the kids so Patrick could go into the office.  After that, we thought we were fine and dandy until Sarah woke up around 1:30am on Saturday not feeling so hot.  It is the worst she's felt in a very, very long time.  Jay didn't miss the bug, either, poor little guy.  He threw up all over Sarah on Saturday morning.  He apparently didn't feel well all day Saturday, but didn't throw up again until that evening.  He actually had great aim as he was standing at the tub!  Patrick hasn't been feeling great, but he's hanging in there!

Jay continues to be on the move and he'll probably be walking before too long.  When we are downstairs, he can now crawl up the stairs, so we really have to keep a close eye on him!  Guinness is the other member of the house who has been keeping busy.  I swear he acts like we don't feed him! He has gotten into the trash a couple of times this week.  Last week he ate a pan of brownies (which were covered) off of the counter-- luckily he was okay.  He also snacked on a cardboard box that was on the counter to be taken down to the recycle bin.  For real!  What is his deal?

Last Class of the Semester

Sarah's last class of the semester was today, so she's been working hard on her final paper.  She still has two weeks of her practicum before there is an official break, but at least there is a break from writing papers for a little while.  The semester went by very quickly!  Next semester will essentially be the same- 3 hours of social work practice class and 20 hours per week of practicum.  Sarah will switch practicum placements and will be at the Douglas County Senior Center.

This past Saturday we had a busy day.  After Patrick finished his practice that morning we headed downtown for the annual horse and buggy parade.  There were lots of beautiful horses.  They were all different sizes, as well.  Elle had a lot of fun looking at the horsies.  Unfortunately one of the buggies broke and dropped to the ground while people were inside.  An ambulance had to come, so there was a small break during the parade.  We used the break to shop in some of the stores on Mass St.  

After the parade we headed home 

and hung up Christmas lights outside.  We also took the dogs for a walk, complete with kids in tow in the wagon.  Jay fell asleep during the 

walk, which was funny to see him.  We came home and Jay took a little nap before we headed to the Kansas City plaza.  We wanted to take the kids to see the plaza decorated with Christmas lights.  For a bite to eat we went to the Cheesecake Factory.  Unfortunately thee was a 2 hour wait, so we went to Tomfooleries where there wasn't a wait.  The dinner was yummy.  Patrick and Sarah split a burger and a buffalo chicken sandwich.  Elle had chicken tenders, which were served in a little Red Ryder wagon.  Tom-

fooleries also has a train that goes around the restaurant.  Each time it went by Elle pointed out the "chugger choo choo."  After dinner we went around and looked at a few shops.  We then went to get an ice cream cone at McDonalds, but they had just closed, so we had to wait in a really long line for ice cream at Cold Stone.  The place was packed, so we decided to share our ice cream in the car.

   

Elle's First Haircut

We had a four day weekend and didn't manage to post to the blog during that time!  We actually had a busy four days as the time seemed to pass very quickly.  On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday we (or shall I say mainly Sarah) did a lot of yardwork.  We raked the front and backyard and mowed, as well.  I don't remember the final count, but we had between 15 and 20 bags of yard refuse!  Unfortunately we didn't have time to clean out our gutters.  We also did the yard work just in time for the rain/freezing rain/and snow that we received during the rest of the weekend.

Thanksgiving was nice and low key with just the four of us.  We enjoyed doing some cleaning as well as the yard work prior to making dinner.  We didn't make an entire turkey as we knew we would be eating leftovers forever.  Instead, we made stuffed turkey breasts, leek stuffing, parsley mashed potatoes, sweet potato and carrot puree, baked apples, pear/walnut/blue cheese salad, and pumpkin dessert bread.  Everything was yummy.  Many of the foods were soft so Jay could eat them, as well.

Speaking of Jay, he is pulling himself on lots of the furniture and seems to enjoy standing to get a different view on things.  Elle had an exciting weekend because she had her first haircut!  She didn't have a lot of hair cut off, but it was evened out so she no longer has a curl in the back that is longer than the rest of her hair.  She was very good while getting her hair cut.  She sat extremely still on Patrick's lap and didn't wiggle a bit.  She was so good that we took her out for an ice cream treat afterwards.  She is continuing to do a good job using her potty and has gone on eat at least once each day.  On Wednesday she went three times on the potty, including once at the babysitter's house.  

We enjoyed watching the border war between KU and MU on Saturday.  We missed part of the game as that is when Elle's haircut was, but we were able to watch the end, which was the best part.  What an exciting game it was- and even more so since KU won!

We are also very busy this weekend because we finally painted the downstairs bathroom and re-installed the toilet.  Still work to be done down there....  Sarah's last class for the semester is December 8th, so she's be trying to take advantage of every free moment to work on her final paper.

On Sunday evening we put up our Christmas tree.  It sees like it is up very early, but with how quickly time passes, Christmas will be here before we know it!  We had most of our ornaments individually wrapped in newspaper and Elle enjoyed unwrapping each one saying, "what do we have here?"  She also decorated the bottom rung of the Christmas tree, so Patrick and Sarah had to even it out by moving up many of the ornaments.