Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's Eve!

As the new year approaches I find myself in Colorado on a snowy afternoon. EJ is asleep next to me for his afternoon nap. Thankfully, he is still napping every day and somedays, like today, I get this precious snuggle time with him. My love for EJ continues to grow and expand every day. I love his innocent and sweet spirit. I love his hugs and kisses. EJ is very loving and tells me every day that he loves me...music to my ears. Lately he’s also been saying that I’m his "favorite." He hasn’t indicated what favorite I am (lunch maker, candy giver, fashion advisor, etc.) but I am his “favorite” something nonetheless. I know this time is fleeting and someday I'll be his least favorite so for now I will lavish in the affection.

As his language developed this year I was constantly amazed at how he sees the world. This has also reminded how powerful our words can be. I have written tens of thousands of words this fall on my dissertation and nothing has been as humbling as EJ putting me in time out for saying the naughty word…”stupid.” I sure must think a lot of things are stupid because I go to time out on a daily basis for saying it.

It’s quite humbling to be put in time out for language use, after all, I am a communication professional. I have learned to be careful with what I say because EJ is always listening…and then repeating. It’s not just about EJ listening, though. The truth is that I should always be careful how I use my words. Proverbs 16:24 says, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” While I always want to use gracious words, I find that often fall short of that goal. I’m working hard on it though because Proverbs also says that gracious words promote instruction (16:2). As EJ’s primary educator right now I need to communicate with grace, wisdom and intelligence. That’s my goal in the coming year—to be a better communicator and thus a better educator—in my home and at work. Whatever goals or ideas you have in mind for 2011, I wish you the best as you journey towards completing them.

Happy New Year!

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Colorado this year. We started with a couple days with the Sorensons. The guys did some great hunting. Eric worked hard to master his duck call and he earned his stripes.



Here the kids are by the Sorenson tree.



Next we headed to the "big" city. We met up with the Knabenshue's in downtown Denver. We had dinner at one of our special spots and then enjoyed the lights on the 16th Street Mall.





It meant a lot to me to take EJ down to the City & County Building as I have memories of doing that as a child and Eric and I went there the night we got engaged--10 years ago! How fun to share that with EJ. He loved the lights and ran up and down the blue stairs with other kids.





We had so much fun downtown that EJ and I took grandma and grandpa back downtown but this time we took the "train" (light rail), rode the bus up and down 16th Street Mall, and took a horse and carriage ride with Mr. Sox, a beautiful black clydesdale with white hooves. Here's EJ on the light rail. His favorite part was looking at the tracks and passing other "trains."



Grandma got this shot of us next to our carriage and Mr. Sox.



Here's Grandma and EJ ready to ride.



EJ was sufficiently worn out from our adventure and had to "rest" on the ride home.



One night we headed to the mall to see Santa in the Narnia globe. The wait was three hours so thankfully we had already seen Santa in Lincoln and we could simply enjoy seeing the globes.



We took EJ to Christmas Eve service and had a nice dinner when we got home. Then we tracked Santa on the Norad website. EJ got quite a kick out it.



Thankfully, Santa made it to our house and left EJ the rocketship he had asked for. Christmas was a fun day of playing and relaxing. I can say that because Eric made breakfast and my parents made dinner. Somehow I got out of cooking duties this year!



Eric made vanilla custard french toast. It was wonderful!


It's was grandma's goal to have a "sparkly" Christmas and it was accomplished. Christmas with a 3 year-old was magical and fun. We all enjoyed it greatly.

Yoga Boys

Eric has been working through the P90X dvds and the night he did yoga EJ just had to take part. The strength training part must be working for Eric because he was able to do the yoga poses with an extra 35 lbs on him! Needless to say, EJ had a blast and even joined in on downward dog!

Merry Christmas!

EJ loved meeting Santa this year! He asked for a rocketship and I'm sure Santa won't disappoint! We are tracking Santa on Google Earth today and EJ is anticipating his arrival tonight! EJ made reindeer food for Rudolf and the other reindeer and we will be sure to put out cookies and milk for Santa before bed tonight.

Rudolf Cakes

Tomorrow is EJ's day to bring treats to preschool so we make Rudolf Cupcakes tonight. I saw the idea in Family Fun Magazine and thought it was a good idea since EJ is so into Rudolf right now. He helped make the cupcakes and we decorated them together. It was so fun to do the project with him!



Here's the "good" batch for school. I didn't put any in the box that got "tested" or licked along the way. EJ was proud of his work and thinks his friends will really like them.



We had to make sure to test out our Rudolf cakes but not before examining them first.


Couldn't resist getting a picture of his frosting mustache once the taste test was complete.

Dancer, Prancer, or maybe Blitzen?

We braved the freezing cold morning to meet a couple of santa's reindeer. The timing was perfect because EJ is obsessed with Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer right now. He calls him "Roo-doff the Nose Deer"!! The hospital EJ was born at had an event with Santa, crafts and live reindeer. While we froze meeting Santa's furry helpers, the reindeer didn't seem to mind the cold. That put our minds at ease since they have a lot of work to do on the cold Christmas Eve coming in a few short weeks!