6 Christmases: Act 3

Christmas morning at The House of Halpin.

I think Jeremy and I were just as excited as the Boys! They were getting bikes this year, and we could not wait to see their thrilled little faces.

Nosy atop his Radio Flyer Strider, a two-wheeler without pedals that teaches the art of keeping one's balance. But he wouldn't let go of his beloved "hard football" for even a second!

O's new two-wheeler. I would have opted for a less ornate, solid-colored bicycle, but Jeremy was absolutely right in choosing this bright green Hot Wheels motifed bike with all the bells and whistles. O loved it!

Remember that every year we have the kids choose a gift for their brother, starting to instill the joy of giving? This year, O picked out such a perfect gift for Noah: a football tee. The Boy had been using a plastic sippy cup as a tee for weeks, so when O found a real tee at Dick's Sporting Goods, he knew Nosy needed it.

Noah loves it and has slept with it every night. After Noah opened the gift from him O said, "My very favorite part of Christmas was giving presents. Oh...and getting presents." I am so glad he is at least enjoying the giving as much as the getting.

Nosy gave O an easy reader all about the adventures of a puppy named Biscuit, another perfect gift because O has a favorite stuffed pup he named Biscuit.

Opening gifts was so much fun as we took it slowly and enjoyed each thoughtful present.

6 Christmases: Act 2

Christmas Eve at the Cody's

Who woulda thunk it? Christmas Eve arrived with gale force winds and...drum roll...SNOW!! Real, white, soft, huge flakes of snow. We braved the frigid weather to participate in a reverent candlelight service at Gramps and Yaya's church. The Boys, needless to say, were in awe of all the tiny flames and did remarkably well when entrusted with their own candle to hold. Definitely a highlight of the evening was holding sweet O while bathed in only candlelight and raising our voices together in "Silent Night." Brought tears to my eyes. Christmas Eve is a worshipful time like no other.

After church, we headed to the Cody house to fill our bellies with warm, delicious comfort food.

Yaya stirring up my favorite gravy. She honestly makes the best gravy in the world!

Nosy discovered the true joys of Redi Whip for the first time. I'm surprised he was willing to share this taste with me!

The traditional reading of the account of Christ's birth.

A special gift for Grampsy

A different kind of "bow head." Silly Yaya!

Mom and Dad opening their annual photo book. I think I out did myself this year, if I may say so myself.

We had such a comfortable, low key, slow paced evening spending time together, opening gifts, and enjoying each other's company. It was perfect!

Boy oh Boy oh Boy

All signs at my sono point to another Boy!! Jeremy and I could not be more thrilled. I was worried I'd experience a twinge of disappointment, but I only felt JOY! A BOY! It's what I wanted all along. I can not wait to fall in love with another perfect tiny blue bundle.

Now we just have to come up with the perfect name...

Noah at 3

**I can't believe that in just a few weeks, Nosy will actually be 3 1/2. I am way back-blogging this, but I couldn't leave the post undone.**

Three.

Such a big, big Boy! You have sprung up so tall and look so grown up. Somewhere, I have your three year old stats, and I will add them when I stumble across them. I do know this though, you out-weigh O by a pound and are tall, tall! 100% in height and 95% in weight! Nothing about you looks baby-ish at all anymore. That makes me a little sad.

You are such a joy, Nosy-Posy. There is just no other way to describe you. You giggle and bounce and crack jokes and do silly dances. Your eyes sparkle with happiness and your smile brightens my days. You are my sunshine.

You have a will of iron and a stubborn streak that runs deep. Your face is so transparent that I can visibly see you struggle with what you want to do and what you know is right to do. You are making choices that honor God more and more lately. Every once in awhile, you make a poor choice, and then we all suffer through the resulting fit, but I am so proud of how you are letting God shape your little heart.

You have a zeal for life that is contagious. You can make even the most mundane tasks fun. You are creative and bright and witty. You love to snuggle with me and plant wet kisses all over my face. You are strong and and brave. You amaze me daily.

You love your brother more than anyone. Mostly you play very well together, although the wrestling can get out of hand. You guys are the very best of friends most of the time. When you fight or are hurtful towards each other, we remind you what a wonderful gift God has given you in a brother. I am so thankful you have each other.

You can not wait for "Gonah" (Jonah) to arrive. You ask about him all the time and sit with your hand on my tummy, hoping to feel him kick. I can't wait to watch you love him. You will be a great big brother!

Oh, how I love you Nosy. I thank God for the privilege of living life alongside you. You are one of His greatest blessings to me. As sad as I am to see you growing up so quickly, I can't wait to see the kind of man God shapes you into. I am so proud of you, Son.

Noah is THREE!

Where did my tiny Nosy-Posy go? In his place is a big, wonderful three year old. We had a great time celebrating his life today!

Daddy took off work today so we could all have some quality family time. Noah chose for us to head to Chuck E Cheese, where a kid can be a kid. When we got there, we realized they had exchanged almost all of the rides and games for brand new ones! Yippee! We had so much fun playing all the new games. Noah's favorites, without question, were the football and baseball games.

After a long nap (That Boy was worn out from Chuck E Cheese!), we baked and decorated the cake Nosy had selected: funfetti cake with vanilla frosting and a red football drawn on top. Oh! And a zillion multi-colored sprinkles. Delish!

Enjoying a huge hunk of cake! That is a lot of carbs, sweet Boy, but after all, it is your day!

Loving on Brother. They have been playing so well together lately!

The picture quality is awful, but I wanted to capture Nosy's face when he first saw his gift: a UT tackle buddy. It was love at first sight!

Noah dubbed him "Football Guy" (so creative) and he is already a part of the family.

What a great day spent with my three favorite people. Happy Birthday Dear Nosy. Happy Birthday to you!

Santa Sighting

The annual Halpin Family picture with Santa

Astute Observation

After tasting his very first peanut butter cup, O thought quite hard for a minute. Then he declared, "It tastes a lot better than plain ol' peanut butter."

Yes, my Son. It does. That's part of the problem.

6 Christmases: Act 1

Christmas at Auntie LouLou's

Since Lou and Kyle chose to jet off to Santa Fe to celebrate Christmas in the snow, we got together a week early to celebrate the holiday.

Even though these were the Boys' first gifts of the season, they needed no instruction about what to do!

Caroline picked out some fun, fun games and great craft supplies for the Boys. They LOVE LouLou!

Lou was so surprised when she opened the cast iron pot she has been wanting!

Goofing around with Grampsy

Getting love from Yaya

Lou has a magnificent dining room table with huge royal looking leather chairs. Owie felt like a king eating his lunch!

Playing one of our new games with Gramps

Caroline with my parents

We had such a great time kicking off Christmas with my sister!

Precious

I had the great opportunity to take pictures of these three darling girls again. Out of the 200 plus pictures I took, here are my two faves.

Let the Christmas Baking Begin!

What fun we had baking up a storm together while listening to Christmas carols on the radio. This, my Friends, is the stuff my most treasured, take to the nursing home, pull out on really bad days memories are made of.

We baked the most delicious lemon shortbread, chocolate dipped shortbread, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, McMama's pumpkin bars, and, of course, gazillions of sugar cookies. Let it be noted that Mommy gained 5 pounds in the process!

All Aboard!

Every year we can't wait to go check out the Trains at Northpark Mall. It's tradition. Gramps and Yaya were eager to join in the fun!

Two very loved little Boys!

As always, the trains were unbelievably intriguing. We spent longer than ever this year examining every minute detail...and there are A LOT of minute details!

This preggos favorite part of the outing? The food court! And Pacuigo! Turtle Cheesecake and Salty Caramel hit the spot!

Noah is always thrilled and amazed when he gets a whole dish of ice cream all to himself. "Can I eat it? Me? All of it? All the bites?!" Yes, Sweetie. Every single delicious bite is just for you. Thankfully Paguigo has thorough carb information readily available. Poor Guy. It's amazing how much his world has changed this year.

And just for posterity I would like to record:

Owen always goes for the deepest, darkest chocolate flavor there is, eats it super fast and then begs samples off of everyone else. He is also known to lick the dish of anyone who will let him, smearing his entire face with Pacuigo.

Nosy is very attracted to the brightest color Pacuigo, blue or hot pink. But if you order it for him, he will not even take a taste. He only likes straight forward, plain jane vanilla. And he refuses any offers of samples, preferring to stick with his own, safe, tried and true flavor.

Until next year,
All aboard!

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Owen's version of the night of our Savior's birth. Everyone was there, from penguin to polar bear to giraffe, climbing on top of each other even to catch a glimpse of baby Jesus. May we be more like that now, focused only on Christ and His birth, unable to tear our eyes away from Him.

Pudzies

Nosy Posy has a new favorite pastime:

Picking "pudzies" out from between his delightfully chubby toes.

Multiple times a day he strips off his socks and goes on a pudzy hunt, which is more often than not successful. He rejoices over each and every sock pudzy he finds.

It's the little things in life that make us happy...

Let It Snow?

Just look at the amazing sight we woke up to!! What a gift from God! O could hardly contain his excitement at seeing real live snow. Noah was a little wary of it all.

Right after breakfast, we bundled up over our pajamies and headed out to enjoy the spectacular sight.
Owie did a little jig, he was so thrilled with the snow. I don't think we had any snow that actually "stuck" last year, so it has been a long time since he has seen something so amazing.

He really wanted to zoom down our snow-covered slide. I tried to warn him that although it would be super fun on the way down, his bum would end up freezing cold. Sure enough, he was none too happy with the aftermath of his decision.

Silly Nosy. The Boy would not step one toe out the door. He chose to watch from the warmth of the living room while O and I gallivanted around the backyard. I finally coaxed him into touching some of the miraculous white powder. He was pretty impressed...but not enough to come join us.

He did give his cup of snow a whole lot of tender loving care...until it let him down by melting.

LOVE that sweet face!

Inspiration finally struck me. Noah will do anything that involves balls!

O and I rolled up some snowballs and began to have a little fun with them. Before we knew it, look who showed up! He stayed out just long enough to peg his brother in the head before jetting back inside.

Thank You, God, for such an amazing start to the winter season. We do not take snow for granted! What fun memories we stored up in our hearts today.

To Find Out Or Not to Find Out?

The gender of the baby that is.

That is the question flying around the House of Halpin these days.

I was really hoping to be surprised this time around...well as surprised as I could be, seeing as how I am pretty convinced it is another wonderful Boy. I just thought it would be fun to keep the mystery alive and save the big reveal for Li'l Bit's birthday.

I thought Jeremy and I were on the same page...however, lately he has been dropping hints about being more in the know. The one thing he said that really got my attention was that he thinks he can bond better with the baby if he knows the gender and can pray specifically for him/her. He said it also helps him to prepare the room with our specific, named, baby in mind.

I can see that. It's tough for Daddies, especially when the baby just nurses and sleeps for the first few weeks. It's hard for Daddies to feel a part of the whole thing. And far be it from me to hinder Jeremy's baby bonding!

So there it is folks. We're finding out. And now that we've decided, I can. not. wait! Funny, when I was set to wait 9 months. I have a 12 week sono 12/22, which is when the docs knew both O and Nosy were sporting boy parts. So we'll see...I really don't expect to know anything until Feb. or so.

We'll keep y'all posted too!