The Great Checkers Match

Ryan loves to play games, and he gets frustrated when we tell him he's not quite ready to play some of Mommy and Daddy's games (like Empire Builder, Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, etc.). However, Daddy is teaching Ryan to play checkers, and he's learning quickly and doing very well! Next Daddy will have to teach him chess, I guess...

Electricity!

This morning Ryan told me, "Either there's a light burned out on the Christmas tree or there's an open loop!" I smiled to myself because he thinks we took a break from homeschooling this week, but in fact he's been learning a lot and begging for more!


Playing with the motor and pinwheel attachment.
My dad gave Ryan an electricity kit, and the last several days we've been learning about open loops and switches and loads. Along with the leads, conductors, and things, it came with a small motor, a light bulb, an LED, and a buzzer. He read the whole book himself before we even opened the kit, and now we've done all the "experiments" in the book. So now we're on to the chemistry set...


Making the light bulb light up.
Another electrical side note: Last month I gave Ryan the exalted privilege of plugging and unplugging the vaccuum all by himself! He loves to vaccuum for me, and he's so responsible (as well as terrified of anything I say may hurt him) that I decided it was time to teach him how to correctly connect and disconnect plugs to outlets. He is thrilled and thinks he's so big!

Five Whole Months

Last week Ryan had his follow-up appointment with his eye surgeon. We expected a long appointment with drops to dilate his eyes (always a treat to watch Ryan freak while she puts the drops in) and testing for a new prescription, etc. However, we were pleasantly surprised to be in and out of there in about ten minutes' time! Dr. Goodman was tremendously pleased with how great his eyes look! She had originally planned to put him in a bifocal to help with upclose crossing, but after examining him she said it wasn't necessary because they look so great.

I had been looking at them myself and thinking they look almost "normal," but she usually sees things I don't. We were very happy to leave there with such a good report, and we don't have to patch or do anything until our next visit five months from now!

Also, Ed's work began providing vision coverage with their insurance beginning December 1st, so we bought Ryan a new pair of frames this month. He's grown out of his current ones, and his lenses are so scratched that it will be nice to get new ones next month when his benefits start all over for the new year. That worked out well for us having one month of coverage this year!

Pirate!

Ryan got one of his favorite books, How I Became a Pirate, and a pirate costume for Christmas from out-of-state family. He was too preoccupied by all his building things to want to put his costume on the first couple of days, but today as Abby was dressing up, he put his costume on too. There's just something so cute seeing kids dressed up!

I suggested that while they were playing, Ryan the Pirate could rescue Princess Belle from some danger, but he said all pirates are bad so he couldn't do that. Ha!

Busy Builder

Daddy helped Ryan put together his Lego truck on Christmas Eve because Ryan was so excited by it that he could hardly stand it! Daddy also put together Abby's easel, though it really wasn't too big of an ordeal.


Since then Daddy has had to go back to work, so I've been the builder. My "free" time has been spent helping build this kind of thing...



and this kind of thing...


Erector set swingset...very cute!
Actually, of all the things Ryan likes me to play with with him, building things are among my favorite. I don't do very well pretending to play with cars that talk or trains that crash, but following a plan and building things is pretty fun!

Ryan is getting better at following instructions, and he helped me tighten the screws and nuts on the Erector set as well as getting me the parts I needed, but it will be a year or so before he can put together something by himself with the Erector set, I think.

Christmas Day

We had a relaxing Christmas morning. We had opened most of the gifts the day before, so we all stayed in pajamas, played with new toys and enjoyed being together as a family. We ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then read the Christmas story from the Bible.


We surprised both kids by setting out their gifts from us after they went to bed Christmas Eve. They were excited to find out they had a few more presents to open along with their stockings Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

Erector set from Granpa Fraser.
This year was by far the most excited I've seen Ryan about the tree, lights, and of course presents. We decided to open gifts on Christmas Eve this year since Daddy had to go back to work the day after Christmas. We don't have any family to spend the holiday with so we wanted to spend as much time enjoying our kids and playing with them as we could.


Lego truck from Cousin Alisha.
Ryan got lots of building type things this year, including a Lego long-haul truck from Cousin Alisha and an Erector set from Granpa Fraser. We could hardly get Ryan back to opening other presents after he opened the Lego truck! He was dying to put it together and play with it.


Books from Grandma and Granpa Garner.
Ryan had to adjust to Abigail being capable of opening her own presents this year! He had a hard time sitting back and watching her open them without jumping in to help.


Gramie gave Ryan this game, which was one
of several games we got this year.

Poor Baby

Daddy met us as McDonald's after work Wednesday. We were going to have one of our "date nights," and let the kids run and play at the PlayPlace. Just as we were setting our food on the table Ryan vomitted on the floor. Daddy tried to rush him to the bathroom only to have him empty the entire contents of his stomach all over the door, wall, and floor of the PlayPlace. Date night was over, and poor Ryan spent the next eight hours throwing up!



I think this is the first time we've had a sick child that required us to stay up all night. They've been sick and we've had to get up a time or two, but Ryan was getting sick every 45 minutes and needed us there to change sheets and jammies, etc. I finally went to bed at 2:30 which turned out to be the last time Ryan vomitted, but Daddy just stayed in bed with Ryan until almost 5:00am when Ryan finally told Daddy he could go back to his own bed.

He's feeling much better today though he's not eating much. I am hoping and praying no one else will get sick, especially for Christmas!

Sharing

Ryan and Abby were coloring today for a while, and I heard them talking about Tonka trucks. I went over to investigate, and Abby was upset because she didn't have a Tonka coloring book, so Ryan offered to share his. So side by side they colored several pictures.

Cinnamon Ornaments

The kids and I made some fun and fragrant Cinnamon Ornaments last week. The kids had fun rolling out the dough and picking out which cookie cutter they wanted to use. They were a little impatient waiting for the ornaments to dry, but they finally did and we hung them on the tree.

Feeding the Birds

Well, our bird friends apparently only feed off the ground and have been completely ignoring our wonderful pine cone feeders we made for them. So I took them off the tree, put one on a fence post and one on the ground in hopes that the birds would eat them there, and I was pleased to see them eating from them not long afterward. I hadn't told the kids I had done it, and when Ryan saw them on the ground, he came running to me all upset that someone had ruined our pine cone feeders! Fortunately, he was consoled when I explained that I was the culprit and why I had done it.

Christmas Ships

Since we live a few blocks from the Columbia River, we have some fun opportunities to see unusual things. For instance, tonight was the annual Christmas Ships parade. Every Christmas two fleets of ships decorate their ships and follow a parade route along the Oregon side of the river and then come back along the Washington side of the river.


We bundled the kids up, made some hot chocolate, threw blankets and chairs in the van and headed for Pixie Park. There were plenty of people there with us, but we got good seats. We sipped our hot drinks and waited for the ships to arrive. We had to wait almost an hour, but at last they arrived. Some of the ships went all out!


I know these pictures aren't the best, but it will give you an idea of what they looked like. Ryan's favorite was the fire engine...it was complete with siren and flashing lights!

Nativity Sets

We have five nativity sets that we get out at Christmas (sadly, I had to throw away a sixth one that was handmade and had seen better days) and scatter throughout the house. Two of the sets are toys that the kids can play with, a Little People set and a Playmobil set with lots of cute extras. I gave the kids the Little People set last week to play with, and this week I let them play with the Playmobil set. After playing with them for a short time I left them alone, and I was stunned and thrilled that they ended up playing with it for almost four hours today! It's rare for a toy to hold their attention that long and for them to play together so well for so long. Needless to say, I got a few extra things done today, such as these blog posts!

Santa Hat

I was snapping pictures of the kids in their Santa hats (although we don't do Santa around our house), and this was a cute one of Ryan, so I thought I'd share it. It's a rare picture of him without a glare on his glasses!

Trimming the Tree

The tree before

We said goodbye to our dinner guests, cleaned up the kitchen and then turned on the fireplace and Christmas music and started decorating the tree Sunday evening. Ryan did a very good job (I was surprised), and he was so excited about it all.


I wasn't sure we had enough ornaments for such a big tree, but it was no problem. We used up just about every ornament, and the tree looks great. Our tree topper is kind of tall and won't fit though, so we're looking for one we like better anyway. Hopefully we'll find one before Christmas, but if not, it looks beautiful anyway.


The tree after

Gingerbread

To say that Ryan is a picky eater is an understatement. Though he has some grown-up tastes (salmon, steak, green olives, for example), he will fuss over eating the most simple of things sometimes (cookie dough, cheese, watermelon, raisins, etc.). So when I baked a batch of gingerbread this evening, I expected him to resist even taking a bite. But when he saw that it looked like chocolate cake, he tried it and to my utter shock...loved it! He even had two pieces. He never ceases to surprise me.


He was upset when I took the picture over some infraction of his sister's, so that's why the big tears on his cheeks.

Cutting the Tree

We usually get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but Daddy was very sick that weekend. The next weekend Mommy got what Daddy had the week before. So this weekend we were blessed with no rain, no sickness, and a beautiful day for a family outing. We like to cut our own tree, so we headed up the road to a U-Cut farm up in the hills a few miles away. It was a nice drive, and once we got there, the kids had a blast running up and down the hills and hiding behind the trees.

It was Friday and we were the only customers on the farm, so we took our time and walked all the hills trying to find the perfect tree. At last we decided and Daddy cut it down. Daddy has always wanted a great big tree, but until this year we haven't had a ceiling tall enough or a living room big enough. This year he got to pick a large Noble Fir...almost nine feet tall! It is huge and really gorgeous. It makes our house smell so wonderful!

Oh, and for my family in California who are probably thinking we spent a small fortune on the tree...it was $20!

Have I mentioned how much we love Oregon?

Merry Christmas from The Garners!

For the Birds

We have several different species of birds who stay around all year long, including some really cute tiny chickadees that I especially like. Since we don't have a bird feeder or bird house yet, the kids and I made this fun pinecone feeders for the birds to enjoy during the sparse winter months. We just smeared peanut butter on the pincones and then rolled them in bird seed. It was so easy, the kids enjoyed it, and hopefully the birds will too!

Larry Boy!

Ryan loves to draw, but he pretty much only draws trucks and cars and all things with wheels. So whenever he draws something besides trucks and cars, I'm always thrilled. I thought this picture of Larry Boy from VeggieTales was cute, although Larry Boy was an afterthought after he drew the Larry Mobile.

He drew a cute picture of Jesus in the manger a couple days ago, but I couldn't scan it because it was on a box that was to be sent to his cousins. I think I'll see if he will draw another because it was pretty cute!