Phoebe the Christmas Elf

Having a little girl is like having your very own paper doll to dress everyday. I always loved paper dolls when I was a little girl and I would spend hours dressing them and undressing them, changing their clothes forty times in an hour. Phoebe is now like a real live paper doll..only better. (Although, in defense of the paper dolls, they did not spit up or drool or wipe baby food all over their clothes.) After getting Phoebe dressed this morning, I was inspired to take a few pictures of her around the Christmas tree. Well, more than a few, but I'll only post the very best ones, and I just thought she looked just a like a Christmas elf. I think it was the boots.








How's that for a little holiday cheer?

Bedtime

Here was the conversation that Brad and Eli had last night at bedtime. You know, after a bedtime story, a Bible story, prayers, hugs, kisses...

Eli: Dad, I need you to get me a drink of water.
Brad: No, it's bedtime.
Eli: Dad, I really need a drink of water.
Brad: No.
Eli: Dad, you are not following my directions.

Cuddle Bugs and Thanksgiving

Brad had a meeting last night so it was just me and the kids. Usually I really try to keep on a schedule and do the things we normally do as family, but last night it didn't happen. The Gleevec has been really hitting me hard the last few days and I have been bone tired (not really a great thing when there is so much to do during the holidays). We just snacked for dinner...I think Eli got into the chocolate donuts and had about five. After dinner, I noticed that The Charlie Brown Christmas was on TV. We don't watch TV with our kids much (except Brad who watches sports) because we just think there are better ways to spend the time we have as a family. I gave in and we all watched the movie on my bed. At one point, I looked over and Phoebe had fallen over onto Eli and they were cuddling. I cannot tell you how precious it was! The picture doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

I meant to blog about Thanksgiving, but I was so tired and now I feel like it's too late. Here are the highlights:

* Brad and Eli both got a nasty virus. The cousins were passing it around so it was bound to happen. Phoebe and I did not get it.

* We had prime rib. Brad and I are not huge fans of turkey and this was awesome!

* We got to see the very first "McCall Miraculous Talent Show" put on the grandkids. Morgan was the ringleader (she liked to be called the director) and everybody had a talent except Phoebe. Even Eli did some gymnastics.

* Eli almost won the Annual McCall Family Bowling Tournament. His first two throws were a strike and a spare. Unfortunately, his game went downhill from there and at one point his ball actually stopped in the middle of the of the lane. That was after he accidentally rolled it down the lane next to us...the little girl was not very happy.

* Eli smashed his finger in the RV door so hard I thought it might be broken. It's not, but he'll lose his finger nail and it is nasty looking now. Brad has to clean it because I am disgusted by the whole thing.

* Thanksgiving Dinner was delicious! I always mean to get some really great pictures of all the sisters-in-law and Sue baking and visiting, but I always seem to be snapping green beans, mashing potatoes, or making salad.

* It snowed! Eli asked when were going to open gifts and when I told him it was Thanksgiving and not Christmas, he said, "But it snowed."

* The sisters-in-law had a nice morning of shopping after Thanksgiving. We did not get up at 4am to go anywhere, but we did hit the new Uptown Shopping Center in Alb. later that morning. It was so "Christmasy" to drink our hot cider from William-Sonoma and walk around (it's an outdoor shopping center) with the light snow falling. Very festive.

* I spend most of my Thanksgiving (as I do most holidays at Brad's parents' house) in front of the fireplace because it just might be the coldest place on the planet.

Hope you enjoyed that brief recap.

Pajama Day

Two days in a row...it might be a new record! We had Pajama Day at KU today. It's basically exactly what it sounds like: everybody wears their pajamas. The Pre-K classes ate chocolate chip pancakes and had a pillow fight. Eli and I really got into it.

All in our pajamas...yes, Phoebe is wearing a bow with her pajamas.



PILLOW FIGHT!



Taking a break with a few friends.

The Week (Maybe A Little More) In Review

It really is my goal to update this blog every other day. So far, I am failing. Not that there is really all that much going on at our house, but I have a lot of thoughts I would just love to share with you. (I am sure that you would just love to read them.) We'll see how I do. Here is what we have done in last week and a little bit.

My husband thinks I'm crazy. Well, he thinks I'm crazy most of the time, but last weekend it was because I wanted to get out the Christmas decorations. I have a perfectly good reason for this: Usually I like to put up Christmas the weekend before Thanksgiving so that it is already up when we come back from visiting family. This year, the High School Huddle Retreat is that weekend, so we needed to get up the weekend before. See, perfectly reasonable. We set up the Christmas tree on Friday night. It went pretty fast since I had Batman to help!



Brad and I in front of the decorated tree. (Eli took our pic...isn't he talented. We only had to delete about 30 pictures because we forgot to get it back from him immediately.)



Phoebe helped by adding a little bit of holiday flair.



This is Eli's Dallas Cowboys Christmas tree. He is very proud of it.



In the midst of the storm. (My house does not look like this anymore.)



I spent the rest of the weekend finding my house again. Eli asked why we put up Christmas decorations anyway. I told him it was because they make the house look festive. I don't think he was convinced. Wednesday was Brad's birthday...#31. I got my hair cut pretty short that morning. There are no pics, yet, but I really like it. Brad says he is still getting used to it. I'll try to find a good one so everyone else can weigh in. Oh wait, I really don't want anyone else's opinion on my hair because I really like it and I'm not sure I could take the criticism. He had a meeting that night, so we celebrated at lunch. He had a meeting on Tuesday night, as well, so it was a pretty low key birthday. Looks pretty good for 31, don't you think?



This weekend we went on the Huddle Retreat. Eli and Phoebe went to Lubbock to stay with Brad's brother and sister-in-law. They had so much fun with their cousins, Brayden and Tanner. I'm not sure what they did, but I know it didn't involve sleeping...at least for Eli. He fell asleep eating chicken nuggets in the car on the way home and slept the entire two hours. Today he took another two hour nap! I'll have to post pictures of the retreat later because there are so many to look through. (Sorry, Jimmy, your throwing up picture is probably not going to make it on the blog.) We got back yesterday and today I played catch up. Brad wondered at lunch why in a short week, the days that are normal seem so incredibly busy. Why, indeed?

Eli-isms

Just a few of the funny things that Eli has said the last week or so. Hope you enjoy them like we did.

Eli and Brad had this conversation right before Brad went to work:
Eli: Dad, are you going to work?
Brad: Yes.
Eli: Where's your work purse?
Brad: My "work purse"?
Eli: Your purse that you carry your computer in.

While driving in the car sometime last week:
Eli: Mom, I want to go "snoogle."
Me: What's "snoogling?"
Eli: You know, where you hold that pole in your mouth in the water and bubbles come out.

On Saturday, I was watching the Food Network and this is what he said to Brad:
Eli: Dad, do like to watch this girl show? We should watch a boy show.
Brad: What's a boy show?
Eli: One that's about hunting.

Yesterday on the way home from Small Group, Eli and I had a conversation about prayer:
Eli: Did you pray at small group?
Me: Yes.
Eli: Did you pray for wisdom?
Me: I'm sure we did.
Eli: Did you get it?
Me: Um...I'll let you know.

In other news...Phoebe has her first tooth! I would take a picture, but you can't really see it so there would be no point. It's just barely poking through, but you can feel it with your finger. Very exciting! I'm a little worried that she is going to bite Eli one day because he tends to pester her. I know, it's hard to believe.

Funny Girl

Phoebe is a funny, funny girl. Her little personality is just starting to show through more and more every day. How is it possible that the days fly by so much more quickly with your second child than they did with your first?! All of a sudden she is already 8 1/2 months old and every day goes by even faster. I don't like those lillypad counters that some people put at the top of their blogs telling how many years, months, and days their children are. (The pregnancy counters are okay because every pregnant woman is waiting for the pregnancy to end!) It is a daily reminder that your child one more day away from growing up and leaving home. Personally, I can't take the stress. I like to live in ignorance. Here are a couple of pictures of my sweet girl from this week.

This is Phoebe and her friend, Dacie. My friend Missy, is holding both girls, and neither one of them belong to her. (She has her own absolutely precious 5 year old girl, but likes to play with our babies sometimes to remember.) We missed Phoebe and Dacie really "playing" together. Phoebe was putting her fingers in Dacie's mouth where Dacie would suck on them and make both girls smile. You'll just have to imagine it because by the time I got my camera out, they had stopped.



I thought at the time I took this picture that Phoebe's applesauce was a little tart. Then I realized that she has started making this face every time she eats. We don't know why.



Playing "Ride A Little Horsey" with Daddy and Eli. She laughed harder when Eli would start laughing.



(Oh, I think that I should mention that Phoebe only has a bow on in one of these pictures. The other two were taken at dinner and after dinner and I have to take her bow off because she puts her hands in her mouth and then all over her bow. It makes a huge mess!)

We are off to do some Christmas shopping this morning! Great fun. I know my kids are thrilled. Happy Friday!

We have not, in fact, fallen off the face of the planet. I'd like to tell you that I have the excuse that we were out of town, or we were freakishly busy, or somebody was sick, but I can't because none of it is true. I was just so intimidated by this "grandparent post" (one that contains a lot of pictures) that I kept putting it off. I have not mastered the slideshow stuff so I have to post them individually and it really takes a long time. Oh well, no time like the present!

We had a pretty good Halloween, although it seemed to last for days! Sunday we had our Funavil at church, then Tuesday the kids went Trick-or-Treating at Kid U, and then Wednesday Eli went Trick-or-Treating with Brad around the neighborhood. We really got our money's worth out of those costumes.

Brad and Phoebe at our church's Funavil.



Eli and "Army Guy" Landon.


Eli and "Fireman" Sandler.


Eli and "Hobo" Sophie.


By the way, Eli is making his "pirate" face in all these pictures. He's usually a very cute kid!

Eli, "Woody" Dayton, "PowerRanger" Brock, and "Dallas Cowboy" Corbin. This picture was actually taken at Kid University on Tuesday.


Phoebe and her friend, Chloe.



Halloween Night!





Oh, I should also mention that I made Eli's and Phoebe's Halloween costumes. I just felt the need to pat myself on the back because they turned out pretty cute!

This is not a Halloween picture, but it's a pretty cool picture of Eli and a snake. We went to the Discovery Center last week on Wednesday where we know one of the girls who works there. She brought out the snake for the kids to touch. They were completely unafraid, unlike the mommies who stood a bit back to take pictures!