That's A Wrap

The last day of 2011...and we are about to head to bed. We're exciting people. We've had a great year though. A few highlights:

• Jon's promotion





• Quitting our second jobs





• Our trip to Cancun - sans children





• Uncle Tom came home





• the Gin Blossoms concert (Jon made me say that)

God truly has blessed us this year....and I don't care how cliche that sounds because it's true.

Sleeping Bags

Our very sweet neighbor (whom we just love) brought the kids over a little gift this afternoon. She got them each a little pillow pet type sleeping bag. Charley got a dog, Justus a bear, and Matthias a monkey. They loved them!! They each laid out on the floor with them this evening to watch Toy Story.

Dinner

This evening my sweet husband brought home pizza...well he actually had it delivered. I guess he didn't realize I was starting my diet today : ).

Who's That Girl?

Today I decided I wanted to straighten Charley's hair...and she actually let me. It didn't take that long...and she sat still almost the whole time. It's funny to me how she looks like a completely different girl when I straighten her hair. She loses her spunk.

Ick

Today has been spent mostly sleeping. I haven't felt the greatest the past couple of days. I couldn't sleep last night because I was up coughing. At around 1230 I finally moved out to the living room because I felt bad coughing so much and didn't want to keep Jonathan up. I took some cough medicine but it didn't really do much. I finally fell asleep around 130ish, but kept waking up either coughing or sweating. The kids finally woke me up at 7...I was almost relieved. Jon got up at 730 and let me go lay in our room. I slept until 10. I got up, ate lunch and then laid back down until 2. I then moved out to the living room where I dozed off on the couch around 4. I'm pretty wiped out still and looking forward to bedtime.

Leapster

For Christmas one of the boys' gifts was a Leapster 2. They each got one. Justus loves his! He loves playing it. We love the fact that the games are educational, so it's a win/win.

Christmas

Today has been pretty eventful. The kids were up by 630...after having gotten to bed pretty late for them (930/10). I was kind of surprised they were up so early. They were ready to open gifts though. We got up and opened presents, let the kids play, and then ate some breakfast. We put the kids down for nap a little early and then when Jon's dad and sister arrived we opened more presents and then headed to lunch at TGI Friday's. I just wasn't in the mood to cook. We got home and let the kids play. They are now in bed....which is a good thing. They all had little to no nap and were very tired. Hope everyone had a great day celebrating Jesus' birth with family and friends!!

Christmas Eve

Today we headed to Mt. Vernon...our Christmas Eve tradition. We got to my parents and almost immediately Thi wanted to know if we could open presents. He was pretty excited about it. Note that he is the only one staring at the presents in the picture. I'm sure he was trying to figure out which ones were his.

Done!

I am done Christmas shopping!! With two days to spare : )

Dinner and a Movie

Tonight I let the kids eat pizza and watch Tangled. This is Justus' favorite movie right now...although he rarely sits all the way through it.

Make-Ups

I really need to move my "make-ups"(as Charley calls them).

Recovery

Today was spent catching up on all the housework I have been neglecting all weekend. I swept, picked up all the bedrooms, did dishes, and got caught up on laundry. These were all the ornaments I found on the ground....I'm surprised there were any left on the tree.

**Update - Charley has only had one accident in the past five days. And today she started actually telling me she had to go potty. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to venture back to the gym.

Happy Birthday

It's hard to believe that our big boy is 5 years old. He is getting so big. The other day I was shocked at how tall he is getting. Time definitely flies.

Celebrate

Today was a pretty crazy day. Our plan was to go to church and then head to Springfield to celebrate Justus' birthday day. Things didn't go as planned in the morning and we underestimated how long things would take before church, so we ended up not making it to church and headed to Springfield early. We had a really good time celebrating Justus' birthday day. He had a pretty awesome Thomas cake, and he got a ton of Legos, which he was really excited about. We ended up staying pretty late so that we could hang out with everyone and play games, but I'm glad we did.

Favorites

Today I got to photograph one of my favorite families. They have 5 little girls...five! Their house will forver be filled with dresses and pigtails....I love it!

Christmas Program

This afternoon we got to go to the boys Christmas program. They sang Christmas songs and then we went to each of their classes and did different activities. Justus made a couple of ornaments and Thi made some sugar cookies. It was a lot of fun and Jon and I both loved it!

Holiday

Tonight Jon and I got to attend his work Christmas party. It has been a pretty rough week for both of us, so this was a nice way to relax for a little while. It was nice to be out of the house for awhile.

Day 3

So today was day 3 of potty training. I'm not really sure how it is going. She goes more in the potty than not, but she doesn't seem to be understanding when she had to go...nor does she stop once she starts. I'm really not sure what to do since the boys were practically potty trained the second we took their diapers off. That's probably because we waited until they were a little older. So I just don't know what normal potty training is like. I'm going to give it a few more days and see where we are at.

Pop Tarts

We had a very nutritional dinner here at the Klestinski household...pop tarts, popcorn and milk. All enjoyed while watching Tangled.

Potty Training

The time has come to potty train Charley. Today has gone pretty well. She had three accidents, but went on the potty 5 times...so I think that's a win. Hopefully tomorrow will go a little better. She seems to understand, but I don't know if she is emptying her bladder because two of the accidents were within a few minutes of each other. I even had her sit on the potty after the first of the two...oh well. I have to remind myself that accidents are bound to happen during this process. She's just learning.

Enjoyment

Jon claims to be playing Lego games for Justus' entertainment....I'm not so sure.

Wind Down

We had a pretty eventful afternoon. We went to the mall (I got a new necklace). Then we went to Target...I wanted to look at clothes, but it was too busy for me to think, so we all came home. It was getting close to bedtime, so we let the kids watch the Grinch to wind down. They are now all in bed and being nice and quiet.

Storytime

This evening Justus was telling me scary stories. I'm not really sure what the story was about...but he added special effects by turning the lamp on and off. He then said...Mom, you love my stories, don't you? How could I not.

The Grinch

I love this time of year! I love being able to watch all the Christmas cartoons that I enjoyed when I was younger. This evening the kids got to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They really enjoyed it.

Baby Hannah

Our good friends just had a baby girl a few weeks ago, and Matthias is in love with her. He gets so excited when we say we are going to their house. Well, tonight he got to hold Baby Hannah, and from the way he reacted you would not know he was in love with her. He was scared to move and finally said she was heavy. He still loves her though.

Baby It's Cold Outside

It has been so cold the past couple of days. It's the first taste of winter we have really had. Our heater seemed to be on the fritz, but turns out our air filter was just really dirty. I guess you're supposed to change that every now and then? We took it out and the heater was magically fixed. I guess Thi was still a little cold though...or maybe he just thought he looked cute...because he wore his hat around most of the day after he got home from school.

Lights

I am loving the colored lights on our house. Normally I am a white light girl, but there is something fun about these big colored bulbs. I'm so glad we decorated the house this year!

O, Christmas Tree

This afternoon we decorated our Christmas tree. We had two casualties, but other than that it was a lot of fun. We drank egg nog, ate cookies, and listened to Christmas music. I think our tree turned out pretty good.

It's Beginnig to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today was a pretty eventful day. We hung lights up outside. We got to go to a cookie decorating party, and then we stopped at Target so the kids could each pick out an ornament for the tree. Our last stop of the evening was to get our first REAL tree. We are pretty excited to decorate it tomorrow after nap time. We wanted to do it tonight, but the kids were beginning to melt down, so we decided it would be best to wait. This way Jon and I can string the lights on it during naptime, which will help speed up the process.

SIlly String

Today while at Wal-Mart Charley slipped in a can of silly string...I thought...why not? I had fun spraying the kids with it this evening and they thought it was hilarious.

Thi Guy

I love this little man. He is usually the one that is somewhat tame. I always love those moments when at least one child is easy to manage because at the end of the day they are all beginning to melt down because they are ready for bed.

Tantrum

The boys have been on level 10 lately. It can get pretty crazy at our house...and very loud. I was pretty excited when Justus sat at the table and was playing with his legos. After I took this picture it wasn't 30 seconds before he had a tantrum because one of his men fell over.

Thomas

This afternoon Justus and I went to the library to pick up a book I had reserved. Justus loves going to the library because they have movies. I usually will let him pick one out when he's with me. He decided to go with a Thomas movie. I think he was happy with his choice.

It's That Time

Time to get my Christmas cards in order. I love sending out Christmas cards!

Candyland

This evening the kids and Jonathan played a rousing game of Candyland before bed. Thi won!

Date Night

My parent's offered to take our children for the evening so that Jon and I could go out to celebrate our anniversary. We were super excited to have a child-free date night. We decided to celebrate with Breaking Dawn (which was a.mazing!), dinner at La Parilla (our fave mexican place), and a concert (Led Zepplin...not my fave). All in all it was a pretty good date though!

Recovering

I'm still recovering from yesterday. I haven't gotten around to putting all the dishes away. I pretty sure almost all our silverware is in the sink. I guess the good news is that it's all clean.

Feast

My first time making Thanksgiving dinner and I forgot to take a picture of the turkey before Jonathan carved it. The good news is that it turned out great! My first Thanksgiving was a success. We celebrated with friends and family...which are kind of the same thing sometimes. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving also!

Love

Charley is always my little helper in the kitchen. Today she sat on the counter and helped me make waffles.

My Little Indian

I know that "Indian" might not be PC...but that's what they learn at school...so anyways. Justus came home wearing this little headdress. Matthias ended up wearing it around for a bit too.

Messy

Justus is by far our messiest child. I cleaned his room and within minutes it was a mess again. I'm really not looking forward to him being a teenager.

Turkey Lurkey

I bought my first turkey. Yikes....I'm a little freaked out.

Monkey Joe's

Today we had a little party for the boys. We invited a few friends over for pizza and cupcakes and then treated the kids to a trip to Monkey Joe's. I think all the kids had a good time, and now the kids are nice and worn out for bedtime. It was a win-win.

Tangled

After a rough trip to Wal-Mart, which included a total meltdown from Justus, we made it home to eat a snack and watch a movie.

Glass

So Justus broke a glass a couple of days ago. I have swept numerous times since then as yet I have still managed to step on glass...twice.

Baby

At around 2:30 this morning I got a call from a good friend that she was in labor and heading to the hospital. I got the honor of taking pictures of her birth. It was really quite exciting and I really did feel honored to be apart of such a special event. I took over 400 pictures! It was fun and I was glad that I could take some pictures that they will enjoy looking at and sharing with their friends and family of their sweet baby's birthstory.

Thankful

It's that time of year when the boys are learning about Thanksgiving and what they are thankful for. Tonight we worked on Thi's thankful turkey for school. His list of things he's thankful for: food, his family, Mrs. Spencer (his teacher), and rainbows.

Friends

I really love when all three of the kids play together. More often than not the boys seclude Charley...more accurately Justus excludes Charley. It really makes my heart smile when they include her and when they have fun.

Mimi and Papa's

Last night the kids got to stay at Mimi and Papa's house. They love staying at Mimi and Papa's house...not just to spend time with their grandparents, but they have a fenced in yard which means they can run wild. I think they had a good time. They were certainly exhausted by the time we got home.

First

This afternoon Jon and I met my parents to drop the kids off for the evening. We then headed over to Eureka. I asked our good friends if I could take some family photos so I could practice. I'm hoping to possibly start a little side business...but right now I'm just getting a little more experience. I think my first family photo shoot went pretty well.

Peace & Quiet

The nice thing about feeding the kids dinner is they are nice and quiet and sit in the same spot for longer than 10 seconds. Ahhh....

My Little Helper

Charley can be a feisty little girl at times. She definitely has an independent/type A streak in her, but she is also very thoughtful and loving. She loves helping me distribute drinks, snacks...she loves hugs and kisses. She's pretty awesome.

Bouncy Ball

Tonight all three of the kids decided to put bouncy balls in their jammies. They had fun bouncing off each other. I love watching them have fun!