My Sweet Grandfather.

We wish time spent with those we love could last forever...

...in our hearts it will.

Grandpa Frank

1/11/1923 - 12/23/2011

My Grandpa (last living) passed away late last Friday night, December 23. It was a whirlwind of events that started early in the week with him not feeling well and driving himself to his doctor. It seemed as though it was just going to be something rather small, but it turned out to be something rather big that snowballed into something bigger with each passing day. By the end of the week, he was placed on Comfort Care (hospice) with a short amount of time to live. I made it just in time to spend a few hours with him, hold his hand, tell him how much I love him and say my good-bye. My brothers and I went home to get some sleep and within a half hour after leaving, my mom called to say that he had passed away. I truly could have never been ready for him to go and I am terribly sad that he gone. I am going to miss the regular, everydayish moments with him, for example, picking up the phone to call him and hearing him say on the other end, "Hey Nikki-Sweet Pie...how ya doing?".  However, as a family friend read in his eulogy at my Grandpa's funeral, this is his first Christmas in about 8 years that he was able to spend with my Grandma. Knowing that they are finally together, something my Grandpa has wanted for a long time, warms my heart and makes me feel a little less sad. 

My grandpa and his four daughters (and he has five sons!)...yep 9 kids! And he was the baby of a family of 13 children!

Owen shares his birthday with my Grandpa along with his middle name Xavier.

This was the last time I spent time with my Grandpa. We went out to lunch with my mom and the boys. My Grandpa and I shared a whopping piece of chocolate dessert...it was wonderful!

I have such amazing memories of my Grandpa. My heart just overflows with love and admiration for him as not only my Grandfather, but as my mother's father. He was truly a one-in-a-million type of grandpa. I love him so much and will miss him so very, very deeply!

Five.

Jack is FIVE! 

It's hard to believe, but oh so true that my first born baby is now a whopping 5 years old! 

Jack had a great day that started off with Pajama Day/Polar Express Day/eat chocolate cupcakes in celebration of Jack's birthday day at school. His friends at school shouted "Happy Birthday Jack" and gave him a big group hug as he walked into school this morning. This made him feel so special as I heard him tell the story a few times throughout the day. He opened his presents after nap-time because he just couldn't handle it anymore. Star Wars has finally been introduced into our home. For dinner we had his requested meal of homemade pizza and cake with ice cream. The day came to an end with the four of us snuggling on the couch in our jammies watching a Christmas movie. Wonderful!

The night before I went into labor. 

I must have known he was coming soon because Pat and I finished nesting his room that night.

Minutes old.

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

I love you very much Bub! 

I love you more than all the Christmas lights on all the houses all over the world!

Photo Op

Christmas argyle,

styled hair (or "crunchy" hair as Jack refers to it) and sunlight through my windows

made for a two second photo op.

(yes, Owen just woke up from his nap)

Santa Claus Over The Past Few Years.

2007

2008

Never made it to see Santa.

2009

2010

2011

I know I do this every year, but I can't help myself. I love the tradition of my boys seeing Santa and then reminiscing about each experience of the previous years. Gosh, they are just growing up right before my eyes! 

We went to see Santa today and while we waited for him to arrive, all the kids sang Christmas carols. My kids however, looked out the window the entire time, trying to be the first to spy Santa, his sleigh and reindeer. Upon his arrival, they were both a bit nervous, but then went up to Mr. and Mrs. Claus willingly. Jack told Santa he wants the Batcave and a drum set (check and check..phew!), while Owen told him he wants a squishy. He's still going strong with the squishy...Captain America squishy, Dinosaur squishy, Blue squishy, etc. I think a big box of squishies will definitely be under the tree on Christmas morning. Most importantly, they both have been great little boys this year.

On a side note, it's crazy to think that next year this picture will have a third bambino in it. 

Smile.

7 Days!

Only 7 more days until Christmas Day and only 4 more days until Jack turns 5 years old! 

How can this be possible? I feel like I am making progress on my to-do list while at the same time making no progress at all. Holiday (and birthday) shopping, preparations, cooking, baking, decorating, etc. are fun and sorta crazy all at the same time! Do you ever feel like this? I guess I just have to breath, take it one list item at a time and enjoy myself (and try to get as much done during the week when there are actual parking spots and no long lines!). I want this time to be about my boys and our family and creating traditions and making memories and living up that Christmas Magic and reveling in this precious time. For example, today, our little family of four made Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments (recipe here). It went fantastic. I could not have cared less about the flour sprinkled all over my kitchen because this Bub and his brother were two very happy little boys!

Enjoy these last few days before Christmas!

I will leave you with my favorite Christmas Commercial this season.....

This one is slightly different than the one I have seen on television, but it's still so cute and soooo true!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I have been reading The Hunger Games for about two weeks. I stayed up Saturday night way past my bedtime only to wake up extra early Sunday morning to finish it. Oh my goodness, it is such a great book!! Pat read The Hunger Games Trilogy this past Spring in about one month and describes this trilogy as the best he has ever read. We have the second book, Catching Fire, somewhere in this house, but we must have misplaced it during our move and we have yet to find it. Its killing me as I want so badly to read about what happens next. It's checked out at the library as well. Gah!


2. Being pregnant has brought my love to bake up a notch. I plan what I will be cooking for dinner and in the back of my mind I am thinking, "but what do I have dessert or what should I bake for dessert?". I made this Creamy Strawberry Jello Pie last week randomly because it looked so good I could not resist making it and then eating a whopping big piece. It was delicious! I really need to kick this before it becomes a habit that is hard to break post pregnancy. But not before I try a few of my Sweets Pins.


3. I decided this is the year to create an Advent calendar. Jack and Owen are at a great age this year to understand what an Advent calendar is as well as take an active and excited role in the countdown to Christmas. There are just a ton of Advent calendar ideas out there, but when I saw this idea for a Christmas Book Advent, I was inspired and therefore I got to work. I searched Barnes and Noble and Target for Christmas themed books (preferably in soft cover) and then wrapped them in white drawing paper (what we had lying around), decorated them with scrapbook paper and attached number stickers.

This is such a HUGE hit with the boys! After bath when the boys are all jammied up they come downstairs and unwrap a book which we read at bedtime. They take turns on who opens the book every other night (without this well established rule, a big ruckus breaks out causing a fight and tears...so not the point!) and so far this has worked out great.

4. In case you were wondering, I bought Jack the Taylor Swift Christmas CD at Target due his love for her voice especially in the song, Last Christmas. We have now listened to it 52,000 times. Double Gah!

5. Our elf, Henry Gordon, is still being quite mischievous although I may be losing some steam on my creativeness. I have been thinking that if we had a whole slew of Barbie accessories laying around our house it might help me in my elf creativeness. Barbie accessories...what are those?

6. Have you ever seen the show Food(ography) on the Cooking Channel? It's a fun and interesting show about cultural food themes such as Winter Holidays (one of my favs), Winter Food, Mexican Food, Breakfast Food (my other fav), etc. If your looking for something to watch, you should check it out, especially the Winter Holidays episode. You can learn all about the history behind the fruit cake!

7. If you would like a good chuckle while gazing at the beautiful creature known as Ryan Gosling, then go HERE stat!

8. One of my favorite Christmas decorations in my house this year is this pot. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

Poinsettias make me smile too!

 9. I'm working on a couple Christmas Wish Lists for this year, one for me and one for Pat. This was last year's list!


10. My sister-in-law Kady's youngest sister Hayley has recently been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. You can check out her CaringBridge page HERE. This holiday season, please say a little prayer for her, add her to your prayer chain or simply send positive vibes her way. Thank you!

My Big News!

I'm pregnant! 

Our Myers Four will soon become Myers Five. He/She will make his/her debut in early May to be exact. However, both boys came just about ten days early, so it could be late April to be even more exact. Who really knows though! More importantly, we are all just thrilled about this new baby. The boys are both very excited about this whole new experience (Jack doesn't remember a thing about Owen, he was just so little then) as they ask a lot of questions and touch my growing belly quite often.

Three bambinos is what we have always wanted and so it feels good that this is really happening. After this though, we will be closing up shop for good on our baby making machine. For reals..morning sickness or entire day sickness is for the birds.

 I am just about 20 weeks pregnant and I had my big ultrasound last week. To commemorate this exciting event, I had Pat take the above picture (it was the best we could get with two little boys and snow melting off our roof, hence the drops of water). The ultrasound showed that the baby looks great, which gave me the confidence that it was time to start sharing/documenting this experience on my blog. We decided not to find out the sex of our baby until the big day when she/he arrives! 

Truly we didn't (to those who don't believe me...you know who you are!).

20 more weeks to go!

What We've Been Up To Lately...

One...Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with Pat's family this year, which was held at my in-law's cabin in Northeastern Wisconsin. It was relaxing, quiet(ish), and just a wonderful couple of days in the Northwoods. The boys favorites of the weekend were stomping on/breaking the ice on the lake and playing with their cousins. Pat's favorite part of the weekend was probably making fires down by the lake while watching/encouraging/helping the boys stomp on the ice. As for me, I'm not gonna lie, eating was my favorite part! And I only took three pictures the entire three days...sheesh!

Two...We were able to see some of my family over the weekend as well. And this is the only picture I have to show for it, my niece Tauli. The other four kiddos were too hopped up on root beer to attempt any pictures for me. Oh well! Babies are so fun to photograph!

Three...We picked out our Christmas Tree at a local tree farm just as we have every year (2009, 2010). It's up, decorated and thankfully hasn't fallen down yet this year (just as it did last year...see #3).

Four...Our elf made his appearance to our home the morning of December 1st. The night before, while Pat and I were at a holiday work party, my mom read the boys the story of The Elf On The Shelf to prepare them for his arrival. The past few years, Jack always names him George, but this year we changed his name due to the fact that Owen can now have his opinion. He wanted to name our Elf, Henry Gordon, after some of his favorite toys (Thomas and Friends Trains) and Jack agreed! So, Henry Gordon it is! Both boys are totally into the whole experience this year. They just love the magic that Henry Gordon brings along with his funny/sneaky/mischievous ways! Thanks to Pinterest, I have been staying quite creative with where the boys find him every morning! This is where we found him this morning (I cannot remember exactly where I came across this idea..somewhere on Pinterest).

Five...We checked out the Macy's 8th Floor Auditorium, A Day in the Life of an Elf and Holidazzle this past weekend. The Elf exhibit was just okay, but the Holidazzle was awesome! We bundled up, grabbed some hot chocolate and found us some great seats on the sidewalk right out front of Pat's office. The last time I went to this parade, I was pregnant with Jack. Pat and I were on a little Babymoon for the weekend in Minneapolis and we leisurely walked by the parade as is was strolling down the street. I'm not sure I even really watched it. Well, now here we were 5 years later (which is just crazy in itself) and I was snuggling up with Jack and Owen actually watching and really enjoying the parade! I'm sure this will become a tradition for our family!

Six...I turned 33 years old on Saturday and it feels....Meh (with a slight shoulder shrug)! We spent the day as a family. I slept in and let me tell you 8:00 am is sleeping in these days! It was blissful. We ended up checking out The Twinkle Parade in Stillwater that night. It was snowing and there were truly twinkling lights everywhere...on people, kids, strollers, etc. Owen absolutely loved The Teddy Bear Band (this was our first experience hearing them..how fun are they?) while Jack just wanted to slide down the hill and make snowballs. Santa Claus (the real deal Santa!) rode in on a fire truck for his grand appearance and he and Mrs. Claus walked right past us. Surprisingly, Jack was scared and hid behind me while Owen chatted away with Santa! The night ended with fireworks and dinner at Nacho Mama's. There were to very precious things I overheard Jack say during the night...

1. While at The Twinkle Parade, Jack saw one of his classmates and he told her this..."Sophie! Guess what? Today is a very special day for me because it's my mom's birthday and I get to be here to see Santa."

2. Late on, while at dinner, the boys were very excited in telling our server all about the parade, the band, and Santa Claus. Jack told the server, "You can't believe this, but Santa just waved his hand and the Christmas tree lights turned on just like that...like magic..it was magic!"

We came home and enjoyed my birthday cake! It ended up being a great birthday for me spent with Pat and the boys. The magic and wonder that Christmas brings to small children is full blown this year with Jack and Owen. It's these moments that I want to last a little longer and then bottle up and save forever. That being said, my birthday was over the top special for me as their momma!

Seven...In between all of this, I have been trying to decorate my house for Christmas. I have tried to include Jack and Owen (simply because they really want to be involved) in the process along with making/creating child-friendly Holiday projects! More on this later!

Be Back Soon...

We have been busy around here spending time with family, playing and getting ready mentally and physically for Christmas (me that is!). I need to get back here soon with a recap of our Thanksgiving, our Elf making his appearance, our entry into the Christmas season and what it feels like to turn a rip-roaring 33 years-old!

Be back soon...

Our Thankful Tree and a Funny.

We put together our Thankful Tree late last week. We did it just in time for Thanksgiving, which means just in time to take it down a day later to decorate our house for Christmas! Ahh, this is my life! However, the boys enjoyed this project and they happily continue to add leaves (on their own!) everyday. That being said, next year my procrastination will go out the window and I will strive to put this together in early November. I talked about making a Thankful Tree similar to this one and I was all set out to make my own leaves with scrapbook paper until I found these cute and free printable leaves.  

So, the boys and I went for it and created our very first Thankful Tree!

Jackers has added three Owen leaves over the last week. In related news, at school, Jack and his classmates made a Thankful Book in which each child created a page by drawing/writing/coloring what they are thankful for. Jack drew a picture of his brother and wrote Owen real big at the top. What a sweetie he is!!

Now O-Bubs can't write yet and he can't really draw, but that doesn't stop him from adding leaves describing what he's thankful for.

I'm pretty sure this leaf says "Mommy" (wink, wink!).

I'm loving this idea and it definitely will be a tradition in the Myers home. Making this Thankful Tree and talking about what being thankful means with my little boys sure puts life into perspective. Life gets busy and stressful while there are also moments sprinkled in when we each are reminded of how precious life can be. Creating this tree helped put us in the holiday spirit while giving us a small moment (with each added leaf) to remind ourselves of what really matters.

And now for a small funny...

Jack was playing/coloring in a Christmas coloring/activity book this afternoon. One page in the book was dedicated to making a list or writing a letter to Santa Claus. Jack decided he would rather write all of our names on this list and he did so in scribble cursive (you know, how we wrote cursive as children before we knew what cursive really was). He then showed me his work and said, "See Mommy, I wrote all of our names". I then responded with, "Jaaaack, you know how to write all of our names correctly and that is not it". Well then Jack fired back with, "But Mommy, that is how you sign your name on that thing at Target". True Jack...true!

I'm a sucker...

for adorable winter hats

and my boys wearing these adorable winter hats!

That's all!