Christmas

Whew!  What a crazy couple of weeks!  Due to being VERY pregnant, we invited both of our families to come our way for Christmas.  My family came over Christmas, and Keith's family came just this past weekend.  With so many visitors, it would be fair to say that Kase received A LOT of attention.  Poor buddy was so distraught when each family left...how does one explain things like this to a toddler?

 I got my double stroller for Christmas, and Kase insisted on going for a walk around the house.  I think he's going to enjoy this stroller as much as I will!  He's pretty excited about "baby" sitting next to him in the stroller.  We'll see how excited he is when baby is actually here :) 

One of our nightly traditions for December 1-25 is our Jesse Tree.  It's something I read about on a blog and found some homemade ornaments online, one for each day.  Each ornament has a few Bible passages to go with it, and then a brief description of how it relates to Jesus and/or Christmas.  Kase usually lost interest after the first Bible verse or so, but we're hoping it'll be a fun tradition we can continue for years to come.

We opened gifts with our little family on Christmas night.  I think both Kase & Molly enjoyed their gifts!

"If you're excited about your presents, raise your hand!"

We got some new kicks,

new blankies

a new bed for Molls

 and a new tunnel/tent/ball pit which now takes over the majority of our living room.

Keith got an acoustic guitar and Kase got a blow-up guitar in his stocking.  Kase wanted to play his guitar just like his daddy, but wanted to only wear his diaper and new tennis shoes.  

 Like I mentioned, this past weekend was Sietstra Christmas.  Kase LOVED having his cousin Callie come to play at his house.  Callie was less thrilled with the photo attempt :)  But, it was late and both kiddos were ready for bed, so no one blames her for not wanting to take a picture.

Kase got a play guitar which he's in love with!

enjoying Auntie Karen's peanut butter balls!

So, we've survived a busy Christmas season.  Keith and I start work again on Wednesday (P.S. we LOVE Christmas break), so baby is welcome to come anyday now.  Tomorrow (Monday 31st) we're officially 38 weeks so it's fair to say that I'm large and ready to meet this baby!  Kase has been pretty consistent in thinking it's a baby sister, so we'll just have to wait and see.  Maybe we'll have the New Year's Baby!  Sounds like a good idea to me :)

poor dog, but what a good sport!

 

Christmas with a toddler

It's time for Christmas cookie decorating

and, of course, Christmas cookie eating.

 I asked him to put his chair where it belongs (in the corner) and this is where it ended up.

Hmm...I can tell that those conversations about "not touching the Christmas tree" are really sinking in!

And apparently Buzz Lightyear was present at the birth of Jesus.  Who knew? :)

little update

Hello readers!  I apologize for the lack of blogging these days.  I was trying to decide what I should do with my blog since I now have to pay (BOOO!).  But, I kind of decided it was worth it to not have to figure out a whole new blog website.  So, I'm back!

Nothing too exciting in the Sietstra household, just life as usual.  

Kase is SUPER pumped about Christmas, probably because there are now presents under the tree.  Yesterday I wrapped one for Molly and he asked if we could "celebrate Molls today."  I also think that he thinks Christmas is a store or an event like a parade.  We're attempting to bring Jesus into Christmas this year.  We talk about making Jesus a birthday cake (to which Kase thinks it's his own birthday) and we have a Jesse Tree which has a different ornament for each day of December with Bible verses. 

Keith's staying busy with basketball coaching but enjoys having his weekends free to have some super fun family time.  Last week he braved the crazies in Des Moines and went Christmas shopping with me!  He was even brave enough to wander into Toys R Us on a Saturday...that place is beyond crazy.  Thankfully I'm not a "browser" when it comes to Christmas shopping, so we did a lot of shopping in a few short hours.

On a pregnancy note, I'm now 34.5 weeks pregnant...and this is how I feel:

I'm down to weekly doctor visits and am growing by the minute.  I'm constantly uncomfortable, sleeping doesn't really happen very easily, it's difficult to breathe, and I had to buy a bigger ring because my wedding ring doesn't fit anymore.  However, as uncomfortable as I am, I'm EXTREMELY thankful for this baby and can't wait to meet him/her!  Now if we could only come up with a name for a baby girl...hmm...any suggestions?

"I'm not tired momma"

said the sleepy toddler who fell asleep in his chair while we stepped into the kitchen for two minutes

fun filled friday

give a toddler a ball of yarn...

...and Mommy will have a few minutes where above-mentioned toddler is not clinging to her leg!

day at the muse-UM

Yesterday Mommy had the day off of work so we met up with Kase's buddy Walker, and Mommy's buddy Nichole at the Children's Museum (or muse-UM) as Kase says.

Kase's highlight of the trip was playing in the ambulance.  He could have played in that thing for HOURS. 

His other favorite part was the music room.  It was filled with pianos and drums...an active toddler's favorite things...and a mother with a headache's worst nightmare.

  Not sure if I've ever blogged about Kase's fear of cows.  It all started this past summer at the Boyden Bash where a baby cow...MOOed at him.  FREAKED OUT.  So imagine how well it went when this baby cow was around the corner...yeah...it was not good.

practicing his big brother skills

future pilot?

After a few hours of playing we had some lunch and headed home.  This sleepy boy was asleep by the time we left Iowa City!  Thanks Walker & Nichole for meeting us and for a great day a the muse-UM!

Halloween!

Honestly, I'm not a huge Halloween fan.  I don't like the freaky costumes, I don't like it that it's suddenly "OK" for my child to take candy from strangers, and I think it's just a strange holiday.  However, I'm not a fuddy-fud Momma, and Kase LOVES to dress-up so...

Last fall when Halloween costumes were 70% off I scored these two costumes:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

and Firefighter

 What's a firefighter without his red fire truck?

This picture has nothing to do with Halloween other than the fact that it was taken on Halloween.

It's a rare glimpse at Momma on the blog.

Moving on...

Kase ultimately decided on the Firefighter for his costume this year.

Even the truck came with us trick or treating.

We have 2 firefighter hats, so Daddy got to wear the red one while pulling the wagon.

Trick or Treat!

Overall it was a successful evening.  We hit just a few houses, scored some great candy (which will mostly benefit Mommy & Daddy), and had fun playing dress-up!

fall

Last weekend we took Kase to a fellow co-worker's farm where they have a pumpkin patch.  He was thrilled to be able to walk around and see all of the pumpkins.  He was not, however, thrilled that I made him wear his hat & gloves.

In their front yard there was a small tractor which instantly became his favorite part of the trip.  Nevermind the pumpkins we had just picked, he was in love with this tractor!

After pumpkins we went to our friend's field where he was combining his beans.  Since Kase loves watching all of the combines in the field we thought maybe he'd like to ride in the combine...but...

apparently we were wrong...

...screaming...

...still crying...

...OK, maybe this isn't so bad.

In fact, this might be pretty fun! He thought the big window in the front of the combine was pretty great.

And then it was totally cool to watch the beans go into the wagon.

He survived!

Then, because I'm NOT handing my 2-year old a knife to carve his pumpkin, we painted!

This is the look of SERIOUS concentration.

not sure what this face is though...

Keith and I intend to carve our big pumpkins closer to Halloween, maybe then I'll post an after picture of the pumpkins.  We painted one for Molly, one for the baby (half pink, half blue, with a question mark in the middle), and then Kase's masterpiece.  He thought it was pretty great!