Faces

I threw together this collage of my son. They are all from an "all three kids portrait" we tried to do. You would think with me pulling the camera out so often that the little nut might have a clue how to smile nicely.

Thanksgiving and Decorating

We spent a fun Thanksgiving at my parents. My brother was home from college and my brother-in-law got over his stomach virus in time so that the entire clan could be there. My boys spent the morning watching the parades and the evening scarfing down Grammy's delicious food. We were also sure to get a walk in the schedule since the temperature was hanging out in the 60's.

The next day was a first for us as Steven, my mom, and I headed out for some Black Friday shopping. The deal of the day was the jacket I bought myself at Macy's for $2.49!

Today, we stuck to our little family's Saturday-after-Thanksgiving tradition of getting our home decorated for Christmas. Isaiah woke up early this morning, and Steven went down to tell him that he needed to sleep some more.

"Dad, I'm so excited to decorate the Christmas tree," was his sweet explanation.

Later (as in- 6:40 a.m.) I went down to begin the day (their decision, not mine). I greeted Adriana with a playful, "Good morning...why do you like to get up so early?"

Isaiah gently corrected me, "Mom, have you forgotten that it's a holiday; and people can get up whenever they like?"

The boys were enthusiastic helpers as we put up the ornaments. Their Grandpa and Grandma Sieb give them their own ornaments every year, and they are proud to be in charge of making sure each one get a nice spot on the tree.

Adriana spent the time in awe of the tree, repeatedly saying, "Pretty! Pretty!" When we first plugged in the lights she went up to them and tried to blow them out (somebody has been to one to many birthday parties...).

As we admired and talked about the nativity at the end of the day, Isaiah posed a question, "I was just wondering, why was Jesus born on Christmas instead of Thanksgiving?"

Still No Photos

We are still photo-less at the SiebFam blog, but this time for a slightly more interesting reason. The Photoshop package was stolen off of our front porch. After we saw that the tracking posted its arrival yesterday, Steven played detective to try to get to the bottom of what had happened. We had had another package stolen off our porch a month ago but didn't realize it until almost two weeks after the incident. This time we were determined to take it more seriously. Steven talked to the post office and neighbors and even had a home visit from a post office manager. The postman confirmed that the package truly had been left on our doorstep, and a neighbor told us that they had seen the package but noticed it was gone a little while later. We ended up filing a police report.
It feels strange to have something stolen from you. Beside having some yard-salers pilfer a few trinkets from my table, it's something I've never experienced. It is such a wonderful opportunity for me to step back and realize just how amazing God's grace truly is to a sinner like me.
I was able to download a free trial of Adobe Lightroom so I'll be posting our Thanksgiving pic. But I still have the photos piling up...I guess it's back to ebay for me...gotta' get that Photoshop...

Where Are The Photos?

It was noted that photos have been absent from the postings this week. There is a reason. When I did my sister's senior photos and a family portrait for a friend of mine, I decided to do the free month trial of Adobe Photoshop CS3 (a dangerous idea). The effect of the trial was exactly the one Adobe intended for it have. Now I can't photographically live without it and can't bear to post-process with my trial up. Since I have a photography job coming up this weekend and hope to get more, I decided to invest the money I earned from photographing to buy Photoshop CS2 (almost the same). I was able to go on ebay and get it for less than half it's original price, but now I'm just waiting for it to arrive in the mail. When it comes, I'll share some photos of Steven's 30th birthday and other ones from our visit to Burke Lake. Until then, here's one last photo (from my CS3 month) of my adorable second born.

Thanks for all the encouragement I've received about my photos. You guys have been so kind, and it means a lot.

Re-experiencing

One of the many beauties of parenting is that you get to re-experience childhood. Before you become a parent, you've forgotten what a thrill going down the slide can bring, just how silly the hippopotamus at the zoo is, what fun Legos are, or how many different imaginary things a stick can be. Parenting brings those things back to life.
Recently I've been introducing my boys to many of the books and movies that were favorites of mine as a child. I teared up again when we read about the Ingall's dog Jack dying, and fell in love once more with the Anne of Green Gables movie. (Julie, that made me miss you.)
Beyond the sentiment, do you know how absolutely hilarious it is to watch, "Sound of Music" with a 4 and 5 year old boy!? It was their first time. Elijah called it the "Captain Movie"; and while Maria wandered around the Von Trapp grounds at night, asked why she was not in bed at "dark time".
When the children are let in the abbey gate to see Maria, Isaiah asked if the nuns were going to "lock the children inside." Later, when Georg was about to confess his love, he clapped his hands over his ears. When asked why, he told me, "I don't want to hear him say, 'will you marry me!'" Those same hands went over the eyes when the inevitable kiss arrived.

Sentences

I can't get over the vocabulary differences between my boys and girl. I was reading an animal book to Adriana the other day and was remembering how much better the boys, by her age, could imitate the sounds. While Isaiah could clearly tell you everything "gobble-gobble" to "hee-haw," Adriana will tell you that a cat says "Ow" and just defaults to "woof-woof" for most of the other animals.
Now words, on the other hand, are a completely different story. Adriana vocabulary at 16 months is better than Elijah's on his second birthday. To my surprise, the girl has already moved on to short sentences. After carrying the remote around for a little while the other day, she said, "I put back now;" and walked over the drawer to fulfill her promise. Later, she was looking for her father and called out, "Daddy, Daddy, Where ah you?" She seems to have some innate need to communicate....a definite female.

The Big 3-0

Happy Birthday, my love!!

Crazy

The other afternoon, I asked Isaiah to calm down.
"Mom," he explained, "boys are crazy!"
And, oh, don't I know that to be a fact!

Harvest Carnival

Every year on Halloween, our church does a great job of transforming two levels of their building into a carnival. There are about 20 different games, a moon bounce, an enormous blow-up slide, judges awarding prizes for the best costumes, and lots of candy. My boys get so excited about the event and about dressing up. This year Grandpa and Grandma Sieb gave the boys some exciting costumes to wear. They were James and Thomas the tank engines- two favorite characters at our house. Adriana received an adorable bunny outfit and was quite pleased when she saw herself in the mirror.

Now the costumes are in our "dress-up" basket to be enjoyed for many a cold afternoon. The candy sits in a grocery bag in our cupboard, and I've set two important ground rules to prevent past problems.

1.Only one piece per boy after lunch and dinner.

2.Mommy is not allowed to steal any of it.