Happy New Year!!!

I'm back! It has been a crazy couple months, huh? So many stories to tell! Rodgers and Kylie had a blast over the holidays seeing all of the family! It was so good to have some family time and just hang out and sing Away In A Manger a MILLION times while doing candles at night, and dance and sing Jingle Bells while running and screaming around the house in circles shaking little ornament jingle bells, and redecorating the tree every day with all the ornaments that somehow kept getting "unhung," and eating candy canes or maybe just leaving candy cane pieces everywhere around the house to stick to the bottom of Mama's feet...all the fun things you missed out on at our house in the time leading up to Jesus' birthday!! Oh, and Rodgers learned about nutcrackers one day at the mall with Nana. He was riding the escalators with his sister and Nana and they saw a big nutcracker, so Nana explained how he worked and showed him the handle in the back and everything. When they came back down Nana told him to tell Mama what he saw, and he proudly exclaimed, "A NUTCOOKIE!" Close enough! I will say that Kylie came away from Christmas with some bad theology, though. In all the books we read about baby Jesus and in all the nativity scenes, he is sleeping in the manger, so she would put her finger up to her mouth and say, "shhh! jesus sleep." Cute, yes, but now every time I talk about Jesus she says...."shhh! jesus sleep." So instead of God NEVER sleeping...we have Jesus ALWAYS sleeping. I guess we'll have to work on that. Since Christmas, Kylie has learned to cook in her new kitchen, vacuum, take multiple babies for a walk at the same time, sing, pray all by herself for her food before meals and her family and friends at bedtime, identify some of her colors, work on her Barney laptop, sleep in her big girl bed, and last, but not least...sometimes sleep without her pacifier!! She's been busy. Rodgers has mostly just been playing a lot of games, because that is his new thing and he got a bunch of fun ones for Christmas, and playing with trains (of course). He still finds time to pick on his sister, too. He is doing much better with the potty, though, and that makes everyone happy! He went to Connecticut after New Year's with Nana and Papa. He got to fly in the airplane "up with the clouds" to "Tonetitut" where it was "raining snow" or "snowing snowdrops" or "snowing snowflakes." While he was there he got some snow boots which he likes to wear here in Charlotte even when it is 62 degrees...that's right, it was 62 degrees this week!
Yesterday, he came downstairs when he woke up and said, "Mama, I am gonna be SO sweet to Kylie today!" And he was sweet all day. It was such a nice break for me! And Kylie really enjoyed it, too. It gave me great hope for the future and all the years when I know they will be close friends.
Kylie now calls the houses where we pick Daddy up for lunch "Dada's house" which is a little scary, but fortunately she doesn't know what she is saying! She definitely got used to having Daddy around all day long during his week off for the holidays, and has had a rough adjustment period. She, just this week, has stopped crying when he leaves again or when we leave after lunch.
Both of them missed their friends Tyler and Bryce like crazy over the holidays and have enjoyed playing with them again this week since they finally returned from their trip to Ohio.
I was just putting away my Christmas decorations this morning (yes, I know it is the 11th) and explaining to Rodgers that we had to put all the candles away and the ornaments until next year (he kept taking everything back out that I was packing up). We talked about how these were all the things to remind us that it is time for Jesus' birthday, so we have to put them away and we'll get them back out when it is time for Jesus' birthday again. He said that maybe next year Jesus can be 3 years old just like him!
Sorry I don't have any pictures attached today, but I will try to get some on here by tomorrow. I did miss a great photo opportunity the other day, though. The kids got a big chalkboard/magnetic board for their playroom for Christmas, and they have all their letters and numbers up on it. I walked by the door and Rodgers and Kylie were both sitting on their knees in front of the board and Rodgers was lining up letters and saying, "Do you know what that says, Kylie? That says Dada. Can you say Dada?" And Kylie would say, "Dada." "That's right!" said Rodgers, and then he went on to another word. It was the cutest thing ever!! Wish I could share it with you, but...you'll just have to imagine it!
Okay, well, that is the update for now. I'll try to be more consistant with it now that the holidays are over. Hope you are all having a great start to the new year! We would love to hear comments and updates from you as well! We love you all!