Cleaning out the Closets

We've been trying to clean out our closets and get rid of anything we haven't used in a while or that we plain old don't need anymore. It's hard to part with material items. Part of it is that I'm a pack rat and always want to save for a rainy day. Who knows when we'll need this or that? Another part of me is relieved to get rid of all the clutter in our apartment. It'll make it a lot easier when the time comes to move into a house. Although... once we have a house, we'll have more room for our treasures  junk. I think the hardest part of declutterizing (I just made up that word if it's not one already) is that I'm stuck on the monetary value of what we're "losing." I have a difficult time knowing that we spent x amount of dollars on something and now we're going to give it to St. Vincent DePaul or sell it for significantly less than we spent. I guess it's God's way of humbling me and making me realize that the things I truly need are not of this world.

When I was living in Costa Rica for a semester during college, I pretty much lived out of my suitcase. If it didn't fit in my luggage, I really didn't need it. It was so liberating to live in such a simple manner. When I did my rural stay for two weeks, I went without a computer/access to Internet for the entire time. I didn't even miss it! Now, I feel like I'm glued to my computer just to stay in touch with people. Maybe I should clean out more than the closets in my apartment and reevaluate what it is that is truly important.... and maybe humble myself once again.

Christmas / New Year's (Round 2)

This year, Tim's family was able to come up to Wisconsin and help celebrate Christmas. We all drove up to Grandma and Grandpa Wagner's house on December 30th and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the north woods. There were more gifts to open and fun games to play!

Playing 'Sorry' -- Caleb's new favorite!

Caleb is playing Santa and handing out gifts

Unwrapping a gift...

Caleb was so stoked that he finally got a Piggy Bank!

Tackling Grandpa Nikolai

Sonya and Uncle Peter

Caleb and Aunt Kelly

Taking a nap with Grandma Nikolai

Playing 'Apples to Apples'

Sonya and Papa Nikolai

Aunt Kelly with Caleb and Sonya

Sonya with Great-Grandma Wagner and Grandma Nikolai

We all stayed up late on New Year's Eve -- the neighbors were shooting off fireworks which we could see through the skylights. It was kind of cool. I don't think very many of us made it 'til midnight though. Overall, it was a great time with family. We ate lots of chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, and fudge and of course the kids were spoiled with their great gifts.

Sonya's First Christmas!!! (Round 1)

Isn't she cute in her little Christmas dress?

It was exciting to see what Sonya would do by the Christmas trees and if she would be interested in opening the gifts at all. Plus, Caleb was finally old enough to understand what Christmas is all about. 

Waving at the Camera

 Pretty girls

 Mommy and the kids

We went to the Christmas Eve service at Open Door. Sonya just learned how to clap before we left for church so she was practicing that during the songs. It was so sweet how she lifted her hands in the air like she was really praising God. 

After that, we drove to my parent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. Everyone stayed up late -- eating cookies, sipping eggnog, and talking. Sonya didn't want to go to bed at her normal time. I can't blame her. She was in a new environment and over-stimulated by all the excitement. Plus, she's too darn curious and wants to always know what is going on. The next morning, my mom made a big breakfast since we had to wait for my brother to get home from church before we could open gifts anyway. I was very surprised that Caleb didn't beg to open his gifts like some kids would. He was completely content just leaving the presents under the tree and keeping busy with the other toys at grandma and grandpa's house.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Sonya and Caleb sitting with Grandpa Pauly

The Nikolai Family

The Pauly Family Inc.

Caleb got a remote control car from G&G Nikolai

 and he and Sonya got an Adventure Play tent with a tunnel!

Sonya was intrigued by the wrapping paper...

Now I have two dollies! One from G&G Pauly and one from "Santa"

Christmas Dinner (and two goofballs!)

Sonya cuddling with her dolly in Grandma Pauly's lap

There were so many other photos from that day, but I figured I'd choose from a few of my favorites. Hope you enjoyed them!

Struggles with Caleb

Lately, I've just been struggling so much with Caleb. There are times when he frustrates me so much that I want to just go in my room and cry. I feel like a failure when he talks back and doesn't listen. I've praying for strength and wisdom in this area.... and a lot of patience. I'm trying not to have the expectation for him to be the "perfect" sweet little boy all the time, but it's hard. Today, I'm going to post about all the things that I love about Caleb to try and put me in a better mood for when I go pick him up in a little bit.

1. He has the sweetest smile!
2. He's helpful with Sonya and reassures her when she is crying.
3. He's a great cook! (with mommy's help of course)
4. He is the funniest kid I've ever met -- so witty!
5. He tells me that I'm beautiful.
6. He can sense when I'm feeling sad and gives me the biggest hugs!
7. He has a big heart -- wanted to give friends and neighbors some of his toys.
8. He loves Jesus and we have good spiritual conversations.
9. He memorizes the words to lots of songs and is constantly singing at home.
10. He is super creative with his cars, play dough, and just has a great imagination.

I guess that list wasn't as hard to make as I thought it might be. :-) There are so many more reasons... but I figured I'd limit it to 10 -- otherwise I wouldn't get done in time to go get him. *grin*

Dear Caleb Andrew,
You're growing up too fast and it's hard to believe that this will be your 5th Christmas already! Please try to be a good boy for me at home so that we can have more fun together. Next year, you'll be in kindergarten and I won't see you nearly as much. I want to enjoy you while I can since that was one of the main reasons I decided to be a stay-at-home mom. I love you SOOO much and can't imagine my life without you (or your sister).
Love,
Mommy

My little girl is growing up!

Sonya is getting too big already! I can't believe all the things she has mastered. She's been crawling and sitting up on her own for a while now. Although she only crawls when she's trying to chase us down the hall or something. Otherwise, she'll walk along the furniture or play with stuffed animals. She learned how to climb things and won't even stay in her walker anymore -- she steps on the seat and pretty much jumps out as she reaches for toys on the ground. So we haven't really put her in it for the past two months now. As of about a week ago, Sonya has been able to stand in place without holding onto anything. If we hold her hands, she walks really fast. I'm sure she'll be walking before we know it. I just can't wait until Christmas and watching her open gifts. I know she'll prefer the boxes and wrapping paper --- maybe I should just wrap an empty box for her this year?

Climbing the walker...  (She fell off right after I snapped this photo)

Walking along the closet

Managed to capture her standing without assistance 

Fun in the Snow!

After it snowed the first time, there wasn't a whole lot of snow, but enough on the hill by our apartments so we could go sledding. So I took both kids outside. I set Sonya down for a second while I adjusted my mittens and since she had no hand control to catch herself (because of her mittens), she fell face first into the snow. Oops! She seemed to enjoy sledding though. Luckily, the kids are both small enough that all three of us could fit on the sled. It was so much fun!  

On the Saturday before the "blizzard" hit, the weather was warm and the snow was perfect for building a snowman. Caleb helped daddy (or maybe it was the other way around) make one! Then we had some freezing cold temperatures where we didn't go outside for a few days. Thank goodness that let up because Caleb really wanted to play in the snow. So we enjoyed the great outdoors again and let Sonya try crawling around in the snow. She's still not quite sure what to think about it, but she loved watching the cars drive by!

Daddy and the kids with their snowman

The snowman had HAIR!!

Sledding

Sonya wasn't too sure of the snow

Here she is checking it out some more...

Big brother with his sister :-)

And a partridge in a pear tree...

With a busy little girl and an active 4 year old, it's been getting harder to find some time to sit down and actually write a blog post. Usually I end up doing it one-handed like I am now so that I can contain my squirming baby. Otherwise she just gets into trouble if I let her roam. Either that or she follows me, climbs my leg, and whines until I pick her up anyway.

Christmas day is quickly approaching as my list of things to do grows. I keep seeing shows where they make these cute homemade gifts and baked goods. Spiced pecans and caramels... yum! We'll see how ambitious I get. We do have our tree up already and it will probably stay up through mid-January if not the whole month. I still have to get the Nativity out though. Hopefully I can do that this afternoon with Caleb. There's still some shopping to do and gifts to wrap. The holidays are so fun and exciting, but stressful too. We're going to be doing a bit of traveling this year -- not too far away, still in Wisconsin. We'll spend Christmas with my side of the family and then the end of December into the new year with Tim's side. I can't wait for Sonya to experience her first Christmas!! I broke down and bought her the cutest, little dress. It was on sale and I figured that she could wear it a few times at least, right?

Side note: I just got a box of diapers in the mail! hehe... Tim found that you could get a box of Luv's diapers through Amazon for cheaper than the Parent's Choice at Walmart. Plus, they delivered! Woohoo!! I'm loving all these packages I'm getting in the mail. Yesterday, I got my Goodbyn lunchboxes -- originally $25 a piece plus $7.95 shipping for each... only paid $2.95 for each one!! Now, I'm looking forward to getting my pictures and Christmas cards through Shutterfly. We'll see what else the mail carrier has in store for us in the upcoming weeks. :-)

Another side note: I haven't been taking as many pictures lately since our camera runs through batteries really quickly. For some reason, it doesn't like the rechargeable batteries either now. We charge them and they show that my camera has a quarter of a battery left, but they don't even turn Tim's camera on at all. *sigh* I'm not sure if it's the chargers or the batteries.