Merry Christmas!

It is amazing that we are halfway through the day. The kids have enjoyed Christmas this year, Nettie fully understanding what Santa Claus is all about. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful Holiday!

Holiday Card Delimma

So, I ordered our Xmas card this year, same as always, and as I completed them last night, I realized that I had a problem. I had not ordered enough cards. I was about 10 short where in years past, I have always had too many. So now I have to decide what to do, do I go get more cards, or do I just apologize to those loving friends and family that will not be seeing a card from us this year. I have decided to take the later, as it is already 12/19. Christmas has snuck up on me this year, Thanksgiving was late and I am not sure where the time went. So if you are reading this, and you have not received a card this year, we are thinking of you and wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season.

We are starting our celebrations this weekend, and are looking forward to lots of time with family and friends.

Babies are great

When John was born, cousin Paige, who was 4 at the time, thought he was the greatest thing. He was a real doll. She would help hold him, feed him and was a terrific helper when anything needed to be done. As John got a little older, and could move on his own, he would voice his opinion, and still does (where does he get that from?) whenever Paige helped him too much. When Paul and Kathleen annouced that in the fall a new Cribari would be joining the family, we knew that Nettie would now be the guardian over the newest baby. It started right away that she wanted to hold the baby. She loves seeing her new cousin, and playing with all the new toys at Uncle Paul's and Aunt Kathleen's. On Thanksgiving, she decided that she wanted to hold the baby, and did it several times. I am sure that in a few short months Lily will be letting Nettie know that she doesn't need as much assistance as Nettie would like to give, but for now, it is just fun to see another baby join the crowd, and her older cousin loving her.

Getting ready for Christmas

We have a neighbor who has one of those annoying signs that actually counts down how many days there are until Christmas. As we drive by every night we look and it and I cringe. Ben and I took a vacation day to shop, and have most of the shopping done. We have a few more gifts to get, but I still have decorating to do and baking to do. We made cookies last weekend at Mom and Dad's which was fun. and now at least those are done.
The kids are LOVING the holiday season. They are enjoying the advent calendars that they open each night after dinner. The lights on houses and on the tree. They play all the musical animals we have in the house ALL day long. It is so fun to watch the excitement in their eyes. Nettie has her Christmas program next week, so video will soon follow. Nettie sat on Santa's lap at school this week, and was excited to do so, what a change a year makes. We will be taking them to sit on Santa's lap soon, special torture for John! We hope that everyone is enjoying the season. IT has finally started to snow in Colorado, so we are getting more in the mood everyday, so if I can just finish the decorations we will be ready.

The World Through John's Eyes

So I have spent the last couple of days observing my son. He is now much closer to 2 than 1, and you can really see a difference. He is talking more and more every day. He repeats words constantly. He calls everything with 4 legs a dog - and gets equally excited for all 4 legged creatures. He is following Nettie around everywhere and tries to keep up with her. She of course likes to remind him that she is 4 and he is still little, so he can't always do everything she does. The other morning he spilled milk and when he noticed it (right away) he went to the drawer, got a rag a cleaned it up. While we have been working with him, I am attributing most of this phenomenon to school always making him clean up after himself. He is getting into the order of things and stacking. Here are a couple of picture of his handy work.....

After taking all the hot pads out of the drawer and being asked to put them all away:
This morning after he played with the Tupperware:

IT has been a busy fall for the Wismer family. Ben and I went to Italy for 2 weeks, and thank you to my Mom and Aunt, we were able to go kid free! The kids enjoyed having 2 weeks with Nanna and Aunt Pam, even letting us know that they were more fun sometimes. We spent a week by ourselves in Rome and Venice and then joined the Stein clan for a week in Londa, a small village outside of Florence. The time was very fun and relaxing, we can't thank all those that helped with the kids enough!

October started with Nettie's 4th birthday which was of course a week long - if not a little more celebration. Unfortunately for Nettie, she caught a stomach bug for her birthday, so we had a quiet day, but she was feeling better by the following day. Nettie enjoyed her birthday this year, a little more than other years. She has started to understand that this was all about her! She has turned into a great kid overall. She loves her brother, which is always great to see. She has a great time a school and loves her teacher Ms. Ruth (the feeling is mutual). Nettie is Ms. Ruth's shadow during the day, even during nap time when all the other kids are sleeping. Tiffany's college friends came into town for our 10 year reunion. I wasn't able to go to the game, but it was fun to see everyone for a brunch on Sunday.

We were also able to spend some time with cousins during the month, Paige and Luke, Ollie and Noah. We missed Abbie and Mia!

Right before Halloween we welcomed the newest cousin, Lily Cribari to the world. She is a beautiful little girl who is a great addition to the family. Nettie is VERY excited to have a new baby cousin and I have a feeling will love to watch over Lily in the future.

Halloween was full of parties, 4 nights of events and the finally Nettie was able to wear the Dorothy costume every day. For those people who have had us over with the Dorothy costume, I apologize for all the sparkles all over the house!

John is doing well. He is definitely close to 2. He has started to communicate more, using both words and signs. He loves to read, play with cars and trucks. His favorite time of day is anytime he can play outside, so there are definite times that we bundle up and head out even when it is cold outside. He is still a bit of a Momma's boy, and that is an understatement. We are working on trying to break him of that habit, but that will take time.

So far, November has been a great month. WE spent last weekend jumping in the leaves at Geema's and Geepa's house to celebrate Geepa's birthday. The kids had a blast and can't wait until next year.

We are getting ready for the holidays, it is hard to believe that we have another year almost over.

A Princess Cowgirl

Ben has been in San Antonio for work all week, and returned just in time to celebrate Nettie's birthday. In th mean time, Nettie stopped throwing up later in the afternoon in time for Daddy to help her celebrate! When he got back he had brought her a little bit of Texas. This may be her new favorite crown!