A post about...presents.

For anyone who's reading this post that isn't Rob's parents, be forewarned: this is a Christmas post, and it's all about presents.

You see, Rob's parents sent us their money this year and WE got the amazingly fun privilege of shopping for the kids gifts on their behalf. 

But they never saw the presents.

And they weren't here for the opening.

So this post is just about completely for you, Mom and Dad!

Disclaimer: we did our best to teach our kids about the true meaning of the season. :) In fact, we had a pretty great time doing an Advent calendar for the first time. Here's a glimpse of my favourite peeps giving God the praise He's due!:

So each year when we put up our tree mid-November I buy each kid the most accurate ornament I can find to describe who they are that year. This is tough, as I usually don't have enough foresight to shop in the city nearby, and have limited selection where we live. However, the kids were all pretty pumped about this year's selections:

For Ellie, a little violin player. Ellie started piano this year (and loves it) but really yearns to learn violin once she gets her theory down:

 For Josh, a superhero moose. Josh has a red cape, and loves to jump off stairs. He also delights in saving little crying kids who get stuck in the McDonald's play structure.

 And for Micah, a mischievous kitten....

 ...because that's precisely what Micah is:

 One second he's sweet smiles...

 ....the next second he's eating the crayon and daring you to do something about it.

Christmas eve after our church service we let the kids open one gift (as we do each year) and it was their new bible for the year. Most have you have probably heard of this one, but if you haven't IT'S GOOD! We got the one with the cds included, so they can listen anytime they want. We are so enjoying this book!

Christmas morning dawned dark and early with 3 sleepy and extremely excited campers sitting in extremely poor lighting! Well, 2 were extremely excited:

 Because we had church in the middle of the morning, we decided to open one gift (from me and Rob) before church just to make the wait bearable. This game is called, "Richard Scarry's Busytown EyeSpy" and it is amazingly fun...even for me. :) I totally recommend it, especially for those children who have yet to learn to lose well , because you either win as a team or lose as a team. (Some genius parent designed this game!)

After Micah got up and we were all ready to go to church, the kids bouncing and pleading won us over and they opened their presents to each other.

Micah learning to open presents, this one from Josh.

 See that anticipation?

 See that uncertainty? Josh picked the gift he wanted for himself for Micah. He also stole it from Micah's hands as soon as he could and ended up ripping the poor little caterpillars head off. Micah loves flicking the rubber legs now...and doesn't care that it's headless. :)

Ellie's gift for Josh: a Batman lunchkit. He'll realize the full extent of how cool it is on Tuesday when we go to preschool and he doesn't have a paper bag. :)

Josh's gift to Ellie: A mermaid Polly Pocket set. As you can see, he really nailed it on the head. Josh actually has a pretty neat knack for picking out cool gifts.

Totally enamoured!

Ellie's gift to Micah: ELMO! He is in that Elmo obsession phase that all our kids have gone through. In fact, he has an internal clock that goes off at around 6 pm every evening...when he'll come to me and repeat,  "Elmo? Elmo? Elmo?"...until we put an Elmo movie on for him. It's as though Micah knows it's his cranky/naughty hour, and only Elmo will suffice. :)

After church Rob quickly put on his pyjamas to make it feel more like Christmas :) and the kids gave him his present: a gift card for skates! ...which he's already bought and broken in much to the kids delight! They wiped out more times than we could count, but loved every minute of it. (pictures to come, I'm sure)

Ellie and Josh opening their 'big gift' from Grandma and Grandpa: puppets....

 ...and a puppet theatre!

....which is way too much fun!

Micah actually puts on some of the best puppet shows. :)

 (and Josh now hides behind the puppet theatre instead of the couch when he has a guilty conscience. :)

This gift from Grandma and Grandpa to Micah was the biggest hit out of all the gifts (literally)! ALL of them love it. It took Micah about one second to figure out how hard to whack those things, and whack 'em he did! Over and over and over, with this hugely satisfied look on his face.

 ....making all of us giggle!

 Ellie with one of her gifts from the Balfours - a set of twistable crayons. Probably the most-used gift thus far! This girl is a craft-a-holic.

 Micah's other gift from Grandma and Grandpa - a guitar! Again, loved by all. :)

 Rob took a picture of me to prove I was there.
I had just opened up my present from Ellie and Josh: four little snow globes. FOUR. Ellie DREAMS of owning a snow globe...so obviously I needed some. :) They were super cute, and yes, I gave one to Ellie to keep. :)

 Micah thought they were for licking:

 Josh and his gift from Grandma and Grandpa: LEGO! TONS of it!

 Micah unpacked the box for him and declared, "WOW!" after pulling out each little bag and tossing it on the floor.

 Ellie's other gift from Grandpa and Grandma: a felt sandwich making kit. Super fun!
(p.s. we love Melissa and Doug toys, in case you hadn't noticed. :)

 A gift from us: scrapbooking SCISSORS in all cutting designs...

 ...and our kitchen table was COVERED in bits of paper for three days. (Note for any parents of new toddlers out there, we were pumped when Ellie was small and we realized that scrapbooking scissors don't cut fingers but are easy to use!)

 Micah giving his gift to Daddy: hot sauce!

Micah playing with some Playmobil Grandma and Grandpa sent in the mail just as a little add on. :) They love loving the kids with gifts...and we are all blessed.

On a side note,

 a couple in our church wanted to bless our kids anonymously with some gifts. So each of the kids got one gift that was labelled, "from Jesus". I only got a picture of Ellie with hers. It's funny, she's not really into dolls, but when I asked her what her favourite gift was at the end of the day, it was this one! It totally warmed her heart. Josh got a bulldozer, and that was his favourite gift, too!

Anybody else's living room look like this after all is said and done? Sure makes me think about how much stuff we really have. It also sent me deep into purge and give-away mode!

 

Totally random photo: Our neighbours brought us a bunch of their leftover turkey, much to this meat-lover's delight:

Oh yes, and lastly (whew. finally!) Rob bought me SNOW PANTS! I totally didn't realize what a blessing it would be to own some! We had a super mild week and I got to really enjoy sledding and shovelling and sleigh riding outside with the kids for the first time ever! Hopefully they'll fit my bulging belly for at least one more month. :) And hopefully we get some decent snow around here. It's been CRAZILY wonderfully mild so far this year!

Another random photo that just makes me happy: Micah's favourite way to warm his toes - on the vent! He's so his dad's kid.

Thanks Mom and Dad, for loving our kids with gifts.

They were and are super blessed by all of them!

We love you!

Learning to talk, learning to read, and learning to eat avocado...

Well, I woke up this morning at 5:30 to see if I couldn't help soothe Josh's dry cough (didn't work) and then realized if I stayed up, I could, you know, get something done! My my mind wandered over to my poor neglected blog and figured I could scrounge up enough ammo for a new picture update on the family.

So here are some (100% random) tidbits of the goings-on at the Balfour home:

1. Ellie has turned from an emerging reader into a bit of a reading MACHINE, and will often read entire books before we have the chance to sit down and read them to her. What a delight for two nerdy book lovers to see this develop in our girl! Up sides: She can read her own homework instructions or read her brothers a book when I don't have time. AND Joshy is starting to sound out words because of Ellie's example. Down side: I can't spell out secret messages to Rob anymore. Time to learn a new language!

(Oh yes, one more up side: She writes me notes. One day I asked her to stop tattling on Josh, who wasn't cleaning his share of the toy room. Five minutes later she snuck me a note which read, "He s not cleneng uip." :) I told her to go finish her own job, please. Five minutes later I got another note: "i'm dun mom". I told her to go check one more time. Five minutes later, my last note: "I LOVE MOM PS IM DUN" Hehe!!)

2. These days, I never vacuum alone. Ever. My little 'helper' is either on top of the vacuum, under it, or pushing it for me (into my heels) the second it comes out. I personally consider vacuuming my weekly workout. Did I mention I live in a four level split? That has to count as exercise.

3. Apparently praise and worship music in the background along with some nourishing (not) Kraft mac 'n cheese was enough to cause this little Cowboy to eat with one hand so he could worship Jesus with the other. Highlight of the day. Absolutely.

4. Micah would live outside if he could. Snow has only intensified the desire. The soother was an (unsuccessful) attempt to keep his drool from freezing to his chin. They should make some sort of chin warming drool catchers for us frozen tundra folk with kazillions of kids under the age of five.

5. Ellie asked me to take a picture of how excited she is to get another baby in the house.

A few days before we told her the news, I was tucking her in and she said, "I need a baby sister." And I said, "What if I had a baby and it was another brother?" And she said, "Oh, that would be alright. I just need a baby." Surprisingly, she's determined that she's going to be a helper for Micah and Josh (!) when the baby comes, and has started practicing. She's amazing. She pours them drinks and keeps them out of trouble, helps them with difficult tasks and reads to them. What a sweet blessing she is. She was especially excited when she saw my stomach muscles begin to go on their nine month holiday (a little early if you ask me...). Ellie FOUR times in one afternoon says: 'I'm just so glad you're getting, you know, FATTER, mommy."

The last time she said this, my self-control and fake smile LOST and my hormones WON and I sternly asked her not to keep mentioning it. And then I apologized. And now she just kisses my tummy. And my hormones like that just fine. :)

6. See that face? That depicts me and pregnancy cravings right now (I didn't need to take a self-portrait. Josh's face says it perfectly.) It started with feta cheese and Greek dressing. Though feta is expensive so I substituted it with (don't barf!) cottage cheese. That's right. Cottage cheese and greek dressing. Don't try it unless you're pregnant! Suddenly baked potatoes with butter and salt began calling my name last week. And as of today, AVOCADO is thing I dream of. Which I have never really eaten. Thankfully a mom in Ellie's piano class gave me instructions how to eat one today. And Rob (awesome man that he is) just bought me one!...mmm....mouth is watering...time for a small break... (no small wonder Ellie is noticing my belly bulge!)

Insert happy quote from Josh here: "I'm so happy I feel like CRY JOYING!!" (crying tears of joy)

....and then five minutes later,

"I'm so happy, I feel like eating more HONEY NUT CHEERIOS!"

(he's his mother's son!)

7. Micah just hit word explosion stage!! Totally one of my favourite stages of all time, every time a kid hits it. You say something to him, and he says it back and you're like WHA? Did you just say that!?? And it's just a little bit like a miracle each time. :) He is passionate about this little four-page book version of "Humpty Dumpty" ('Uppy Dee' to Micah) and I keep catching him 'reading' it by himself which gives me perma-smile from ear to ear. Next up: I'm trying to teach him to say 'Oba Yo' (Meaning is 'oh but yes'...I think...in low German. My fellow mennonites can correct my spelling. Anyhow, all good menno children should be able to say 'Oba Yo'.) We all agree - don't we? - that the very best part of word explosion stage is teaching them words no one expects them to know. :)

7. Board games! The kids can now play board games without adult intervention and SELDOM cry when they loose (though it was SUPER funny to me when they did...which always made the crying louder. :) The "looser tickles the winner" rule helped. I don't have much patience for Candy Land, but UNO is our current family favourite. And I'm extremely pumped about the new game we bought the family for Christmas!!

8. Joshy celebrated Movember. :) Just kidding! He wanted to be a pretend waiter that day. And all waiters have moustaches, of course!

9. Micah eats with a spoon. My kitchen is always sticky. Thankfully, he also sweeps. He's not very good though. But he DOES shake the (empty) dust pan in the garbage can, good man!

10. The kids wanted to surprise me with another decorated tree in the house. I was surprised!:

11. Did I mention Micah can now say "chs"? That's short for "cheese". And then he pokes the camera.

12. Suddenly, out of the blue, Ellie figured out how to smile a real (fake) smile for the camera! GO FIGURE! That took about three and a half years (since she learned to say 'chs'.) She set up this photo opportunity with all her favourite stuffed animals, so she can take it for show 'n tell on Tuesday...since she can't fit them all in her backpack.

And that's all the randomness I have for now. I never REALLY took that avocado break I mentioned earlier.

I think I'll do that now.

I'll let you know how that turns out.