Day #25

Sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus!

Merry Christmas Everyone! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Tyler blew out a candle on a cupcake that his preschool had sent home for this very occasion. We are doing our best and hoping that we are raising our sons to know the real reason for celebration at Christmas: Jesus.

After opening our stockings and unwrapping gifts, we loaded up the car and headed to Peoria to be with family.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about our daily activities as much as we enjoyed doing them together as a family! We'll definitely be repeating this next year!

Day #24

Open one gift after the Christmas Eve service

We went to Christmas Eve service at 6 PM. Tyler got to hold a candle for a bit which was exciting (but not necessarily the good kind of exciting). I escaped with only a bit of wax on my pants.

The church bulletin had said the KQ kids were going to sing Away in a Manger again so Tyler was excited to redeem himself after his first performance earlier in the month when he stood on stage and just stared out at the crowd. He was very excited to have a second chance and was grinning from ear to ear standing on the stage. As the music started, his smile slowly faded and was replaced with a worried look when he realized that this wasn't the right song and he didn't know the one playing. I rescued my worried little guy from the stage and we walked back to our seats. The bulletin was incorrect, but I'm really glad that he was going to give it a try.

Here is a picture from his first "peformance" on December 7th...notice no clapping or singing:

Day #23

Watch a Christmas movie together as a family

Postponed due to packing. :o(

Day #22

Play with all the gifts from the previous year

Tyler played with Red (the Cars firetruck) and put together his fire truck puzzle from last Christmas.

Day #21

Make a snowman

The snow wasn't cooperating on the 21st but I made a snowman with Tyler another day. Daddy had to help us lift the torso ball up because the snow was packing so well that it got a little too big for us. The snowman survived a long time because of the cold weather we have been having.

Day #20

Go sledding

Brian and Tyler went sledding in our backyard today. Brian pulled Tyler on the sled and then sent him flying over and over. He promises that he is being careful but I get nervous watching them.

Day #19

Go to Jolly Holiday Lights

The boys and I picked up Daddy from work with hot chocolate in tow and we drove through the great light display. Daddy's admin had also baked goodies and we munched on those as we enjoyed all the lights. Drew was pretty upset for most of the ride (probably working on some teeth) so we hope he is able to enjoy everything a bit more next year.

Day #18

Sing and dance to Christmas music

We missed this one today but Tyler has been singing his Away in a Manger song from church and doing the actions a lot this month.

Day #17

Take Daddy out for a birthday dinner

We all went to eat at Panera Bread and then went glow golfing in the mall for Daddy's birthday. We came home and ate an ice cream cake that Mommy made for him. Yum!

Day #16

Drink egg nog and hot chocolate

This one was an easy one! Tyler tried egg nog for the first time and liked it. We also tried the hot chocolate that Tyler made at school but decided Swiss Miss was much better. :o)

Day #15

Ride the Christmas train at Valley West Mall

Tyler rode the train a couple of times this season, but the weather wasn't favorable for a trip to the mall today. We made an indoor train out of chairs instead (thanks to Grandma Linda for that idea).

Day #14

Decorate Christmas cookies

We decorated a few of our gingerbread cookies and dipped some chocolate pretzels today. Tyler made some goodie tins for his preschool teachers.

Day #13

Watch for Santa on a firetruck

It was a great day to go outside and wait for Santa with our neighbors. Santa passed out candy canes. Another fun Clive tradition.

Day #12

Bake Christmas cookies

We baked some yummy kid-friendly gingerbread cookies and some soft sugar cookies this year for Christmas. You can click on the links to see the recipes we used.

Day #11

Deliver gifts & food for Adopt-A-Family

Still need to go shopping and then deliver the gifts.

Day #10

Visit Santa at the mall

We were actually a day early on this one. We went to the mall with friends yesterday and Tyler talked to Santa a bit and even gave him a hug. We may try to go again before Christmas to get a picture of the boys with Santa.

Day #9

Assemble Christmas cards and bring to the post office

We are running a bit behind this year, so the Christmas cards aren't quite ready.

We found out that Brian was not directly impacted by Principal's layoffs today. However, several people we care about were affected and our hearts go out to them.

Day #8

Go shopping for Adopt-A-Family

This shopping trip has been postponed due to inclement weather. Instead of adopting a family through our church, we will be buying gifts for my new refugee friends. Tyler has gotten to meet most of the children and had a great time playing with them on Friday as we went to various appointments.

Day #7

Play "Find Baby Jesus" game

This was a fun adaptation of an Easter egg hunt. Tyler had made a clothespin Baby Jesus in preschool last year and we had fun taking turns hiding and seeking Baby Jesus. Tyler is getting much better at this type of game and doesn't immediately tell you where he hid the item.

We also had our Thompson Christmas Party today and a bowling holiday party for the company where I work.

Day #6

Make Christmas cards for grandparents using craft supplies

Well, this didnt happen. Brian and Tyler watched Over The Hedge together instead while I babysat for a friend. I think Brian's exact excuse was "that would take all day". Sorry grandparents...maybe next year?

Day #5

Decorate a gingerbread house

We cheated and bought a Wilton gingerbread kit. The biggest challenge was trying to get the candy on the house faster than Tyler could eat it. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to let them eat the house.

Day #4

Sing Jingle Bells while jingling bells

This was Drew's favorite activity so far. His eyes lit up as we started the music and the bell jingling. We started with an instrumental version of Jingle Bells and then found a neat Christian adaptation of the song called Jingle Bell Jesus.

Day #3

Pick out a Christmas gift for Riley from the pet store

No pics today...wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for Riley. We went to Petco tonight as this is one of Tyler's favorite places to shop. They have mini shopping carts which he loves to push around and look at all the animals. We always have to find Nemo in the fish tanks.

Day #2

Make paper snowflakes and decorate the windows


I had to teach Tyler AND Brian to make paper snowflakes. I must not be a great teacher because Brian's first snowflake ended up in four pieces. :o) We had fun making different designs and everyone still has 10 fingers, so a definite success! The snowflakes look pretty from outside our house.

Day #1

Read the Christmas story in the Bible & set up nativity set.


Tyler really loves hearing Bible stories so he sat right down next to Brian to hear the Christmas story. We all had fun using the nativity set pieces to reenact the story, though Tyler pointed out that our limited set didn't contain an angel or wisemen. Drew was just sure that this nativity set must be an edible version.

Advent Activities

I found a neat idea for an Advent activity calendar online and thought it would be a fun way to celebrate the birth of Jesus all month long! Hopefully it will help our family find some time to have a little fun together each day during this busy holiday season! Check back often to see how we're doing.

Happy Halloween!

The boys and I are enjoying a quiet Halloween at home. We are recovering from a fun night of trick-or-treating. It was a great no-coats-necessary temperature outside so we were able to spend time visiting with neighbors.

Tyler has had two indoor soccer games so far this season. He scored three goals in the first game and one in the second game. He seems to have a lot of fun running up and down the gym floor.

Drew is 9 months old today. He is crawling all around and pulling up on furniture now. He spends his free time trying to play with Tyler's toys. Tyler spends much of his time rescuing his belongings and muttering "Stop it, Drew!" Oh what fun!

Drew is starting to eat table food along with his baby food now. He is a pretty happy baby unless he is hungry...then, watch out!

I take Drew to a music class at Tyler's preschool once a week where I sing songs and he gnaws on the shaky eggs & rhythm sticks. We start baby laptime at Clive Library next week.

Brian and I signed up to teach Tyler's Kingdom Quest Sunday School class at church. We take turns teaching every other week. It is fun being involved in the faith journey of these little people.

Click on the "Video Clips" link in the upper right corner to see some recent video of the boys. It is fun to peek at the old videos, too, and see how much Tyler has changed.

Pumpkin Kissin'

The boys and I visited a pumpkin patch with Grandma Linda while we were in Eastern Iowa this past weekend. Tyler had fun running around checking out all the fun things to do and especially liked the tire horse swing and picking out mini pumpkins to put in the wagon. Drew seemed to really like the pumpkins, too! Every chance he got he would try to give them kisses.

March Madness Comes To An End

I am watching the NCAA championship game out of the corner of my eye as I post tonight. Tyler was sleeping by 8:30 PM tonight (an amazing feat for us!) Brian and Drew are "watching" the game. More accurately, Brian is trying to watch the game while dodging Drew's spit up...actually more exciting to watch than any basketball game. :o)

As most of you know, Brian loves NCAA March Madness! So, a lot of the past month has been spent following college basketball. We went to the Knapp Center to watch the Selection Show with the Drake Bulldogs and then watched their first round game on television. This photo was obviously taken before their disappointing last-second loss to Western Kentucky.

Our family took an impromptu mini-vacation to Michigan for the third and fourth rounds of the NCAA tournament with my friend Laura. Laura had Davidson connections and was able to get our family some seats in the Davidson section for the game against Kansas. Despite all of Tyler's cheering, Davidson wasn't able to get past Kansas. It was a very fun game to watch and Drew cooperated by sleeping in his sling from the national anthem until the final buzzer. We also visited the science center and zoo while we were in Detroit.

We attended a few Easter egg hunts earlier in March. Tyler is a pretty big fan of any activity that ends with eating chocolate! The boys posed with the Easter Bunny at the preschool egg hunt.


Grandma & Grandpa Carlson attended Easter service with us at Hope on Saturday night. Brian wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so I took the boys to Stratford to spend the day with G&G and great grandma Alice.

Tyler was excited to find a pair of red Lightning McQueen shoes in his Easter basket. He is quite enthralled with anything related to the Cars movie right now.

Drew is growing, growing, growing. He was 24 1/4 inches long and just shy of 14 lbs at his 2 month appointment. He smiled for the first time on March 2nd and flashes us several big smiles each day. He is sleeping 8 hours straight each night...lucky us!


Well, Kansas won...time to go to bed.

One Month and Hundreds of Diapers Later...

It has been a fun first month with two little boys at home. We came home from the hospital on Saturday, February 2. My parents, Alan & Linda, stayed with us for a week and were a big help with Tyler while Brian and I were getting adjusted to life with a baby again. Brian's parents, Joe & Barbara, came for a weekend visit to meet their newest grandson. Barbara gave Drew a beautiful quilt which we hope to take monthly pictures on to track Drew's growth. Here is the the Month 1 picture:



So far, Drew seems to be an easy-going baby. He is sleeping for 6+ hours stretches at night and is pretty content during the day. After a lot of effort and thanks to some great advice from friends, breastfeeding is now going really well. Drew was back up to his birth weight by two weeks and has been steadily gaining weight each week.

Tyler is a very proud big brother and adjusting well to sharing Mom & Dad with his little brother. He was excited to show Drew off to his preschool teachers and class. He likes to be a helper and frequently asks, "How's the baby going?" and "Where's my baby?" Brian and I both attended Tyler's Friendship Luncheon at his preschool.

I am feeling great and keeping up with the pre-Drew routine fairly well. It definitely takes a bit longer to get out of the house in the morning, though. Brian even let me go to a scrapbooking night with friends.

Brian is doing a great job being a Daddy to both Tyler and Drew even though he often complains of sleep deprivation and too many diaper changes.

The four of us had fun at a recent visit to the Des Moines Botanical Center.







Thanks so much to all the people who have visited us, brought gifts and meals, and helped us out during the first month. You have helped to make the transition from three to four go very smoothly.

Drew Joseph Is Here!

Drew Joseph arrived at 4:20 PM this afternoon at Methodist Hospital. He is 9 lb 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. Alicia enjoyed pushing 3 times instead of 3 hours this time around and is feeling great. Brian is still amazed at how relatively quick & easy today was compared to the last time.

Big Brother Tyler has already come to meet Drew and has had the following comments:

"That's cool!" -- when first told he had a baby brother over the phone
"That's a tiny little baby" -- at the first sight of Drew
"Does he have arms?" -- when trying to give a swaddled Drew a stuffed giraffe
"He has a big butt." --when looking at Drew all wrapped up in blankets

Feel free to give us a call at 515-371-5081 or send us an email: emanuelab15@yahoo.com