How We Wiing in the New Year

Three guesses as to what we joyfully added to our household Christmas morning! Jeremy has been pining away for a Wii ever since playing with our brother-in-law way back when. Some of his rational as to why we could not survive without owning one: "It is good, clean family fun." "If we have one, people will want to hang out at our house." "It's great exercise (from the exercise guru himself!)." "The kids will want to have all their friends over to play." (I am sure Noah is forming a guest list as I write!) And so I caved. I really wanted to surprise Jeremy Christmas morning with something wonderful.

He was shocked all right...and elated! Just look at that grin from ear to ear! He was especially surprised since there has been such a Wii shortage in North Texas. Little did he know when he thought crazy Rachel was at Kohl's at 3:30am on Black Friday, I was shivering outside of Sam's hoping for one of the 40 they had in stock.

We threw a New Year's Eve Bash with a twist. Bring the kids! Come for pizza, a few games of Wii bowling and be home in your beds to ring in the New Year! We had a great time...although a few had sore arms the next day!

O, Jeremy, Matt, Stephanie and Baby Carleigh watch the festivities

Clayton and Owen are great bowlers! It has been deduced that one gets a much higher score in bowling when he does not actually understand too much about the game nor care about the score. These two leave me in the dust every game!

Michelle and Sweet Caroline

The Gift of Giving

So this is what we have told Owen about gift giving:

God gave us the greatest gift EVER on Christmas Day just because he loves us so much: His Son Jesus. We celebrate the gift God gave us by sharing gifts with the people we love on Jesus' Birthday.

To help Owen grasp the selfless art of gift giving, we allowed each Boy to choose a gift for his Brother. This gift must be something they would think the other would like, rather than something they themselves might want. (Of course, we "helped" Noah with the task this year!) And so, Owen and I ventured to Walmart, the wonderful world of toys, to pick something very special for tiny Noah. Let's just say that it was no easy task. Owen took his job very seriously and proceeded to play with almost every toy Walmart carries. "Would Noah like this puzzle, Mommy. It's fun!" "What about some Play Do?" After several conversations, O finally grasped the concept of selflessly choosing a gift just for No-nos. He carefully selected a quirky, bobble-headed green dinosaur. "Nosy will love this!" exclaimed sweet Owen. After the sale was complete, we brought the treasured green guy home, and O and I ever-so-carefully wrapped it very specially just for Noah. We put it in a bag, colored by Owen, so Noah could open it all by himself. And Owie chose a gaudy, gold, sparkly bow to adorn the package. What a precious time it was with my O, teaching him about how blessed it is to give to loved ones.

We allowed the kids to open their gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, just to make it a little more special and appreciated. Here is how the gift-giving unfolded:

Owie helping Noah open the gift. He looks so surprised to see what it is!

I think Scooter likes it!

Noah gave O, the budding musician, a piano keyboard. O was super-excited about that! Great choice, No-nos!

Exchanging thank you hugs.

What a blessing these Boys are, to each other and to us, as their parents!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Tiny Men in a Tub

What goes on in a man's bath really should not leave the bathroom...

...but it's really too cute not to share!

Evidently, No-nos missed a spot. Thanks for helping him out with that, O!

Bath time hugs. So sweet!

Noah's face expresses his thoughts so well! "Enough hugging, already!"

When O saw this picture he said, "Oh! I am trying to push Noah over!"

Great.

The bath tub is a very smiley place to be.

It appears they are now attempting to poke each other's eyes out.

At least they are good natured about it!

So much splashing!

Fun times!

Drinking Buddy

No one in my home enjoys egg nog, except for me. I am a huge fan of egg nog! It tastes just like melted ice cream, all cold and thick and...noggy. I reserve these special little glasses just for egg nog consumption, because egg nog deserves a special glass. It excites me when the holidays roll around because I know that egg nog will soon be readily available. Unfortunately, because I am a lone egg nog drinker, several of my holiday pounds can be attributed to the delicious beverage. I have to drink up the entire carton, and those expiration dates aren't just for looks! The jug must be gone prior to the sell by date, and I am always up to the challenge!

This year, something has changed for the positive! I enlisted a drinking buddy. I enticed Owen into sampling some nog with me. His comment after just one teensy sip? A single word that says it all:

"TERRISIC!"

My sentiments exactly, O Man!

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby

I can't believe an entire year has flown by and my Baby is so big. Here is a sampling of how we celebrated Noah:

Opening gifts from my Grandparents got the day off to a special start! This book is a big hit!

Hmmm. I wonder what else there is to open?

Scooter had a fabulous time with this great shiny paper!

(How does he make his mouth into an exactly perfect "o"? As you can see, he does it often!)

After naps, Owie and I took Noah to Chick Fillet for his very own bowl of ice cream. He quickly lost patience with slow-feeding Mama and took over for himself. That Boy is super-talented with a spoon, especially if a sweet treat is involved!

Owen is also a big fan of Birthday celebrations! Not too long until it's your turn, Buddy!

After a bit, Nosy decided upon a much more efficient feeding method: diving right in to the bowl!

After both Boys finished off their entire servings of ice cream, we had to play off some of that sugar. Indoor playground, here we come!!

What a wonderful day to celebrate such a wonderful Boy!

You Are So Beautiful to Me

12 month stats:

32 1/2 inches (100%)

23 pounds (60%)

Nosy-Posy,

Puddin' and pie.

Where has the year gone? It does not seem fathomable that you are one year old already!

You can not possibly have even an inkling of how much joy and delight you bring to my day. Your Dad and I constantly wonder where you got such a huge personality. You come from very quiet, reserved parents, but you are the opposite: bubbly, outgoing, gregarious, full of enthusiasm, engaging. It is so much fun to get to know you more each day as you grow and learn new things.

You love your Mommy...and the feeling is mutual! I have never met such a Mama's Boy, not that I mind in the least! So sweetly you shadow me around the house, crawling as fast as you can to keep up with busy Mommy. Whenever I pause, you pull up on my legs and talk to me while I work. And when I stop to snuggle with you or play a bit, you light up and giggle and so enjoy our play time. It is often difficult to leave you places because you tend to miss me...a lot...and you express this loss loudly and shrilly and without ceasing. You have yet to remain in the church nursery for the entire church service, unless Mommy is working in the baby area.

You have frustratingly been on a hunger strike for awhile now, although your weight does not seem to have suffered for it. The pureed baby food I have so lovingly homemade for you all these months is no longer palatable. It comes squirting back at me as fast as I shovel it in. Alas, you like very few big boy foods. Most things go in, are sucked on for a little bit and then pop back out of your mouth. And so you are being sustained by breast milk, bananas (you could seriously eat three a day if I let you!), animal crackers and yogurt. You will sometimes eat a piece of toast or a few bites of a grilled cheese sandwich. I really am surprised you have not lost weight! The screaming that is happening in the photo is because your yogurt is all gone. You had been nibbling on Cheerios, but once you spied the yogurt, the Cheerios were ejected. It seems that they stuck to your cute chin. You do relish your yogurt!

Your adoration of Big Brother continues. You strive to be right by him (if not on top of him!) all day. You get so excited when Owie takes the time to play with you. You put up with quite a few questionable games (sit on top of Noah, push Noah over, feed Noah random inedible objects, pat Noah on the head...with a baseball bat) just to be by O. Don't get me wrong, O loves you right back and often pauses in his play to smack a big, juicy kiss on your cheek. Sometimes he just gets worn out by your constant desire to play with him and his special things.

You are a speed crawler and cruise really well. Every so often, you will pull up and then let go, leaving you standing alone for a few seconds. Hooray, No-nos! You will be walking before we know it. I, for one, love the crawling stage and am glad you are still in it!

Your fit throwing is becoming more frequent, a sign of your determination, strong will and adamant opinions. I am excited to learn about these aspects of your personality which differ so drastically from your Brother and me, traits that give you such individuality. I continue to pray that the Lord will grant me great wisdom as to how to mold these wonderful characteristics of yours into the godly man God desires you to be. (I also pray for patience and understanding, as I restrain you from banging your head agaisnt the hard wood floor!)

Love, love you, Scooter. I am so very thankful that the Lord has seen fit to place you in our family. You are my sunshine!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Every year, all the Halpin cousins venture to Willow Bend Mall to have their picture made with old St. Nick. The progression (and especially the growth in numbers!) is remarkable! Take a peek.

2005

2006

2007

2005

2006

2007

The issue of Santa Clause raises an interesting point in The House of Halpin. I was raised knowing Santa was a hoax, a fun game we play at Christmas time. My sweet husband, on the other hand, believed in Santa until a reasonable age, at which point he just accepted that Santa was not an actual jolly old man who deposited presents after plummeting down his chimney. No harm done. We, as parents, can not seem to reach a happy compromise about what to tell our impressionable Boys about Santa. We each desire to do what was done for us. It is especially difficult because of all the Santa hype, particularly among our beloved nieces and nephews. Never would we want to spoil any of the magic for them! I struggle with convincing my precious kids that the Santa story is reality only to have to dash their beliefs in a few years when I come clean and tell them Santa is pretend. Why put them through all that and at the same time take a little bit more of the focus away from the true and only reason for the season? And so, as mature adults, we decided to post-pone the decision for one more year and explain nothing to O. He thinks Santa is a guy who sits at the mall and wears a red suit. When asked on Christmas Day if Santa visited his house and brought him gifts, he responded with an inquisitive stare and a definite "No." When all his cousins adamantly claimed that they heard Santa's sleigh bells and signature "Ho, ho, ho!" Christmas Eve, Owen just stared at them without comprehension. Have we done the wrong thing? Is he missing out on some of the wonder and joy of the season? I think not, especially when I hear his precious voice raised in song Christmas morning before even glancing at his gifts:

"Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus,

Happy Birthday to you!"

Chugga-chugga

I felt Owen was finally old enough to appreciate the electric trains at Northpark. So to continue with our Christmas festivities, Gramps, Yaya, the Boys and I headed to the mall. Now I had never see the trains before, and I must admit I was amazed!

The trains were really, really cool, switching tracks constantly, winding all throughout the display. But what really impressed me was all the animated "sets" the trains passed through. Take this carnival scene for example. It was completely animated, with teeny tiny people riding teeny tiny rides. There were dozens of scenes like this one: ice skating, playing at the park, drilling for oil, on and on. Amazing!

Owen was completely engrossed! He was mesmerized by the trains and all the tiny scenes.

Nosy got a pretty big kick out of it as well! Unfortunately, he really wanted to eat all the teeny tiny people. Keeping his hands away from them proved to be quite a challenge!

We had a great time! Has another tradition been born? Quite possibly!

Ending it all up with yummy snuggles from Yaya.

First Annual Cousin Cookie Decorating Party

I started a new tradition this year: The Cousin Cookie Decorating Party.

There are eight grandchildren under five on the Halpin side, and they all arrived at our home giggling and excited to decorate gingerbread and sugar cookies. We had a blast...a sprinkle-y, icing-y, sugar-high blast!

Some of the gang artistically decorating

My Guys are not shy about digging in

Oliver was such a good boy, playing in the play room while the bigger cousins decorated

We discovered you can tell a lot about a kid by the way they decorate a cookie. Take Ally for example: She meticulously placed each individual sprinkle on her cookies, making them works of art.

The goal of Clayton and Mia? To pile as many sprinkles as possible on each cookie!

Is Will going to start crawling on Cookie Party Day? No, but he sure has the stance down! Practice makes perfect!

After cookie decorating, I made breakfast for lunch...not that anyone had any appetite after cookie eating! We had waffles, pancakes, bacon, little smokies and fruit salad. Yum!

It all ended with an Owen sandwich!

This is already one of my very favorite traditions. Can't wait for next year!