bloggers ate my babies: 2009

christmas is over which means it's now time for the craziness of birthdays. we celebrated jessica's birthday the day after christmas since they won't be here on the 9th. and then today we all drove out to grand rapids to help rainah celebrate her 3rd birthday.
her theme this year was an owl theme and jenn did a great job! rainah got some new games for her leapster, a doll house and a new kitchen set. after the presents were all opened, everyone headed to the kitchen to sing happy birthday and eat cake.
the kids headed downstairs to play for a bit before we had to head home. jessica and justin had to get back for a hair cut and more packing as they are leaving tomorrow morning for 3 months and i had to get back to get some things done for hayden's party.
we had a great time and were glad we could be there to help rainah celebrate. i can't believe she's 3 already!
happy birthday, rainah! we love you!!

the whole family (minus justica...they were in florida but flying home christmas eve nite) spent christmas eve over at mom and dad's house as usual. we had our traditional christmas eve dinner of lasagna, bread and salad and we had our typical fight with hayden about eating it.
after hanging out for awhile we eventually made our way home so the boys could get to bed at a decent hour and to allow santa to come and fill our stockings.
the next morning, hayden woke up bright and early and opened up all of the goods from his stocking. dave eventually had to go in and wake talan up, which is what usually happens on a day that we need to get moving.
talan was just as excited as hayden was to open up everything from his stocking and hayden was sitting right there to help talk him through it.
even though we explained to hayden that grandma would have LOTS of yummy breakfast foods, hayden insisted on eating a bowl of cereal before we headed over. finally, after getting everyone dressed, hayden fed, and a few things loaded into the car, we headed over to mom and dad's to get the festivities started.
rainah, jenn and don were up, dressed and ready to go. jessica and justin walked in the door shortly after we arrived. talan ate some banana bread while hayden checked out all of the presents and tried finding tags that had his name on them.
soon enough it was time for the present opening to begin. even with the 3 kids, it was still controlled chaos.
dad's big gift was a new dell netbook, mom was way too excited about her new dust buster, jenn got a trip to st. john's or somewhere like that for her and don's anniversary in april, i got a facial and massage, dave got plenty of u of m wear, justin got his very own reusable starbucks cup (which talan LOVED to pretend to drink out of), jessica got lots of movies, and the kids got lots of toys....so many we had to go out and buy a new toy storage/organizer for the basement!
hayden and talan both got 2 zhu zhu pets plus 2 zhu zhu pet accessories.....zhu zhu pets are the new dumb, hot toy of the year that you can't find anywhere. santa has connections though. hayden was pretty excited, but not nearly as excited as when they both opened their toy story woody and buzz lightyear toys. they were given woody first and were told it was for both of them. talan started opening it and when hayden jumped in to help, the fighting began. we eventually found the other present for the 2 of them so that they both could open one at the same time. they were so excited as toy story as recently become their most favorite movie. i figured buzz would be the favorite and figured fighting would happen over him, but hayden immediately fell in love with woody and carried him around the rest of the day. he even had him help open the rest of his presents and sit with him for dinner. hayden got lots of new wii games which the boys ended up playing for hours later that day.
we had a big talk with hayden about the eating situation, especially after the disaster of meal time the nite before AND all last year during the holidays. so he was fully prepared to eat ham...which he did pretty quickly and without complaining. a christmas miracle. talan didn't eat much but we saved his ham knowing that once all the "good" food came out he'd want some. and of course, when all the snacks and desserts came out, he quickly shoved the ham in his mouth so he could get some too!
we tried putting talan down to bed in the pack and play in mom and dad's room, but he would immediately climb out as he was screaming to not have to go to bed. i knew he was exhausted and asked if he just wanted to sleep in the bed. he said he did and he laid right down and let me leave the room. he fell asleep pretty quickly and a bunch of us played bunco which is a new favorite of hayden's. awhile later, jenn went upstairs for bed and she came down to tell us that talan was up and crying. i went in and tried to lay with him and get him to fall back asleep but it just wasn't happening. i eventually brought him downstairs telling him he had to stay laying down or sitting. that lasted for about 5 minutes and then he was up and trying to play with toys.
not long after we loaded up the car and headed home so that talan would actually get some rest!
both talan and hayden fell asleep pretty much as soon as they got into their beds.
i believe i can say it was a wonderful christmas for everyone.

santa even left a reindeer for the baby: