Silent Night... maybe...

Today we bought Molly her big girl bed. It's still a toddler bed, but it seems huge with her laying in it. We took her to Ikea and let her climb around on various beds to see what she liked. She didn't really care which bed we got, she just loved climbing in them and laying under the covers. It was so cute! We found one that we all loved and it was even 40% off! Score!

When we got home, Jason and I got straight to work on taking down the crib and putting up the new bed. As soon as it was done, we brought Molly up to see. She loved climbing up and down on it and laying in it (as you can see in the photo's).

Next came bedtime. We did our usual story time, singing, prayers, and hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, this was followed with clinging and crying. She wanted nothing to do with the new bed. So I turned off her light, turned on the noise maker......... and put her in bed. She screamed and cried for a little bit, but I was still nice. I rubbed her back and sang for a bit and (since she hadn't had a nap that day) she fell asleep quickly.

Then, it came time to leave the room. Normally, we leave the hall light on for a little while for Jackson to fall asleep. Unfortunately, as I left the room, the light cast right onto Molly's face and woke her. I quickly turned the light off and returned to settle Molly one more time. We shall see what the night brings.

Sunglasses in December

Both of my kids absolutely hate to have the sun in their eyes. The minivan has sunshades, but sometimes that just doesn't suffice. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I decided to get them sunglasses. They each got to pick out their own. Molly picked an adorable pair with yellow daisies all over them. Jackson selected a pair of Spiderman glasses. To my amazement, they both wore them for the entire ride home. Soon the sun was right in their eyes but, thanks to their sunglasses, not a complaint was to be had. It was wonderful!

We seemed to have a little bit of springtime in December as well. (I like to think of it as God giving me a mini vacation from the tortures of small children with cabin fever.) So we spent an afternoon playing outside and truly putting our sunglasses to the test. Both kids rode their bikes, ran around, and slid down slides.

I'll miss you, sunshine. But we're prepared for your return.

Christmas Plaid

We seem to be developing a tradition of plaid in Jason's family. We often teased Jason's dad for all the plaid he and Jason's grandpa seem to wear. (I've asked Jason when he'll join in.) A couple Christmas's ago, Papa McGinthy bought Jackson his first plaid flannel shirt. The two of them looked adorable together! The following Christmas, both Jason and I received wonderfully warm plaid flannel shirts.

For this reason, I was thrilled when Baby Gap came out with a new line of plaid clothes. Included in this was an adorable dress! And so, in honor of family, I had to get the dress. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be quite that easy. First, I went into our nearest Baby Gap only to discover they were out of the dress. They checked near by stores and all were sold out. I was told that the online store had over 100 of them, so I went home to order it. Not being able to find it online, I decided to call the phone order line and was soon told that they were completely sold out. The wonderful woman on the phone informed me that, if I found it at any other Baby Gap store, I could have it shipped to me. I did just that!!! Three days later, I had this adorable dress!!!

Cooking Fun

I realize that there are zero November posts. We've been busy having fun!

Recently, Jackson and I had our first cooking adventure together. We

made pizza! Yeah, I know there isn't much to it, but Jackson loved it! If you asked him, he would say that HE made

the pizza and "Mommy helped." It was a very yummy dinner. One of our next tasks will be making cookies for Santa!

Jackson now asks if he can help me make dinner every night!

Jackson has also turned into quite the helper in other ways. He's newest "chore" is helping Mommy move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I'm not sure what exactly he sees in it, but he seems to think it is hilarious! I just get a kic

k out of listening to him laugh every time he throws laundry in the dryer. And it sure helps in getting some laundry done. Now, if only he could hang up his own clothes.

To recap November, since I didn't post anything, it was a very, very busy month. The first weekend of November, my mother come up and then drove with me and the kids to Madison, and then on to Milwaukee for a wedding. We got home Monday and then left, again, Thursday to go over to Jason's dad's for yet another wedding. Again, we got home Monday and the following weekend, we had a birthday party for Jackson! Some how, twenty-seven people (twelve of which were children) fit in my home. To this day, I don't have any idea where everyone fit. (None the less, it was a very successful party and thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Jackson's 3rd birthday!)

Next came Thanksgiving! After all of our earlier travel, we chose to stay here for Thanksgiving. We went over to a friends house and had a wonderful, almost quiet, dinner. Nothing is ever really quiet with Jackson around. :)

The next thing I knew, it was December and I had not blogged for the entire month of November. I will try to do better, but I'm not making any promises! :)

Rainy Day Fun!!!!

Since we don't really have a lot of living space (playing space), rainy days can get a little cramped. Yesterday morning was proof of that as my living room floor is completely covered with toys and Jackson still whined cause he couldn't find anything to do. So, I had to turn on super mommy rainy day mode!

First step, water and bubbles! Jackson has done this several times, but this was the first time Molly got to play with the water tub on the kitchen floor. Needless to say, both kids were very happy and stayed entertained for about an hour. But the morning isn't one hour long, so what do we do next?

We color on the front and back doors!!! Yes, that's right! It really was incredibly fun! Sure, Molly colored mostly on herself, and Jackson managed to get blue in his nose, but they're happy, so I'm happy!

Golfing fun!!!

So, yesterday afternoon (Oct 25th) we took the kids miniature golfing for the very first time. Molly pretty much just followed us around, but Jackson really got into it! I did keep up a score card. Initially, I didn't know if I would but, when Jackson got an honest 3 on the first hole, I decided I needed to. The second hole didn't go so well, but then he got an honest 2 on the third hole!!! We started calling him "Tiger"!!!! Of course, that was the end of his amazing putts (he came very close to getting a hole in one), but all of it was SOOOOOO much fun!

Backing up briefly, our initial plan was to go to Young's Jersey Dairy to go through the corn maze, pet the animals, and get some ice cream. We ended up going mini golfing and eating at the Golden Jersey restaurant.

Many of you know that I have been working at losing weight. Let me just send out this warning. If you are trying to lose weight, do NOT eat at the Golden Jersey. We got the craziest amount of food! Most restaurants give you some bread before a meal, right? Well, we got applesauce, coleslaw, and sweet potato bread (<---- delicious!!!!)! I did notice they didn't have an appetizer menu and now I think I know why! The photo below of Jackson was taken just after we told him he was going to get ice cream after dinner. He was a little excited. :)

Fun Filled October

At the beginning of this month, we went to Windmill Farm to get pumpkins and go on a hayride. I must say, I think it was the best hayride I've ever been on. It lasted between 30 and 45 minutes. They made their own huge mud puddles and had several large hills to go up and down. It was as close to a roller coaster that I think a hayride could ever get to. In the middle of the ride, we stopped off to pick our pumpkins. Jackson told me he wanted a little pumpkin. But, by the end, he still made sure his pumpkin was bigger than Molly's. Both kids sat so well for the entire ride. Afterwards, they had several Amish made play structures for the kids. Both enjoyed the castle.

The following weekend, we decided to get Jackson his birthday present a little early. I realize it's a month away, but we really wanted to get him a new tricycle. He had just started riding the one he had and his knees came within an inch of the handle bars. So we headed over to Performace Bikes and got him what I believe to be the coolest tricycle ever. It's a somewhat retro looking blue tricycle! And Jackson loves it! He spent most for the weekend riding in circles around the playground behind our home.

Go to www.picasaweb.google.com/themcginthys for more photo's from our family fun October!

Cabin Fever

So, this past week has been very, very long. I and both kids were sick all week. And it didn't help that the weather was horrible. It actually all started off in O'fallon, IL. Last weekend we went to visit Jason's dad and his wife for the weekend. We fully intended to go to a hot air balloon race. The weather didn't cooperate and I and Molly were sick. So we didn't get to go, but to make it up to Jackson, we took him to a fun playground. He's easily amused. While we were there, a wedding party was having their photo's taken at a near by pond. Shortly after they finished, we decided it was a great backdrop for photo's and took a few ourselves. We still managed to have loads of fun over the weekend. By the time we came home on Monday, however, Jackson had joined me and Molly in our illness. And so our long week began.

So, what do you do when you can't leave the house, and you don't have the energy to entertain your kids all day? You break out the finger paint! (I voted against letting Molly finger paint this time). As you can see, it was a fun and wonderful mess! Jackson loved it and I managed to keep my sanity despite the mess I had to clean up. He has finger painted before, but never quite like this. It was EVERYWHERE! In the end, Jason got me a big towel and I wrapped Jackson up and carried him upstairs to the bathtub. Would I do this again? Most definitely!

So, now it's Monday afternoon. The sun is almost shining and it finally isn't raining! Jackson has his voice back (he had lost it for about three whole days!), our coughs are beginning to lessen, but we're all still a little worn out. Especially Molly. :)

Popcorn Fesitval!!!

I finally managed to get everyone out to one of our local festivals. It took some nagging, but, in the end, Jason admitted that it was well worth it. I don't think we were fully prepared for how crazy a popcorn festival could be. One of the main streets in Beavercreek, OH was completely shut down for this festival. There were stands for various foods, churches, crafts, and more! They even had a fantastic kids play area which I will show photo's of shortly.

As Jackson continually pointed out, as we passes stand after stand, that we were there for popcorn and that is all he really cared about.

Finally, we settled on a stand which was selling smaller bags of various flavored popcorn. We picked three bags. Caramel, white cheddar, and s'mores!

Before stopping to snack on some of our popcorn, we came across a tent which had personalized foot stools, coat racks, puzzles, and more. I loved the foot stools because the names were inset in the bench as a puzzle. Much to my delight, they had a "Jackson" and a "Molly" bench. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared to spend the money and stood there for what felt like an hour trying to decide if we were going to get the step-stools or not. So, we moved on to give ourselves more time to think. In the end, we settled on two delightful coat racks for the k

ids.

Jackson got a baseball and Molly got a butterfly. These weren't as expensive so that was our compromise.

It was going to take about 45 min. for the man to make them so went to explore more.

We found some shade and tested out some of our popcorn. We started with the caramel popcorn. It was delicious! The kids enjoyed it as well. Then, Jason took Jackson into the kids area and bought some tickets so Jackson could play games. It was only $1 for 8 tickets and most of the games were only 1 ticket to play. It was great! Jackson even got to jump in a bouncy house and Molly got in on some of the action. Kids were guaranteed a prize at every game. Both kids did great at throwing beanbags through a hole in a board! (Do I smell a future baseball player???) When we finally finished up with the games, we headed back to get our beautiful coat racks for the kids!

To see more photo's, go to www.picasaweb.google.com/themcginthys

Pre-op & Post-op

I took Molly in to Children's Hospital, Dayton, this morning, to have tubes put in both of her ears. I had the pleasure of getting up at 5:30am so I could have her there by 6:15am!!! I honestly don't remember the last time I had to wake up at that time (without being able to go right back to sleep).

So, we got in to the hospital at 6:15am and were shown to room #1 out of 60 rooms. Molly was the first patient of the day! Right off the bat, Molly wasn't too sure of the place. She has always been able to sense doctor's offices or clinics. The nurses were wonderful! They asked their standard questions (Molly is now 22lbs 8oz.) and then Molly and I got to take a walk through the halls while we waited for the doctor. What was great about our walk? Well, the hospital has little cars for the kids to ride around in. Molly loved it (not so much when they had to take it away). We had brought along her teddy bear and glow worm, so she had a blast putting them in the trunk (it was actually in front) of the little car.

After a few walks, we had to go back to our room so Molly could be given some Tylenol and another medication to help her relax. Boy did she relax! I had her sitting on the bed playing and talking when, suddenly, she just flopped down and her eye's got droopy. It was pretty funny. She sure tried to fight it, though. I had to keep her on the bed or hold her because she couldn't really walk under the influence, but that didn't keep her from trying. I think that must have been a little bit of what it's like to argue with a drunk person. Here are some photos of her just after the drugs kicked in!

I had been told the procedure would be quick, but I don't think I was prepared for it being that fast. As soon as they took Molly from our room, I went to get something to drink and a snack from the lobby. By the time I had finished them, the doctor had come back to say everything went great! About 15 minutes later, a nurse carried Molly back to me. Molly spent the next 30 minutes screaming (that would be why there aren't any post-op photos) and trying to get me to put her down and then we got to go home!

She had a great morning nap and seems to be back to her normal, adorable, self. Thank you for all the prayers and concerns.

Happy Moments

Jackson was in a time out. Of course, you wouldn't know it by the above photo. Every time we put Jackson in a time out, Molly runs over to sit next to him. Even if he's sitting there for having hurt her. She just loves her big brother so much!

Did someone order a Pebbles look alike??? She use to hate having her hair done, but after a few times, she seems to be getting use to it. She'll have to get use to it with a mom like me! :)

This is what happens when a little girl decides she needs to feed herself mac & cheese. The next day, I could have taken the same photo only with applesauce that time.

We got a little bed from Ikea for Molly's baby dolls. She loves it! Our biggest challenge is keeping Molly and Jackson from climbing into it.

Jackson still LOVES his airplanes!

This is my new FAVORITE photo of Jackson. He enjoyed putting on Daddy's hat! Go Cardinals!!!

Tidbits

This past weekend has been full of fun and firsts!

Jackson and Molly took their first of many bathes together. I had been putting this off since Jackson tends to splash around and likes to swim in the tub a lot. But, I was on my own with the two of them on bath night, so I decided to venture into a joint bath time. It was a great success! They both seemed so excited to be playing in the tub together. Initially, I had put Molly at one end and Jackson at the other end of the tub. Jackson insisted he wanted to sit next to Moo-moo. He even shared his tub crayons with her.

Jackson seems to be learning more and more from Mommy and Daddy, whether we plan on it or not. The other day I asked Jackson if he wanted to watch something on TV. I like to give him options, but, as all parents know, sometimes you just can't. His response was, "watch Mickey!" I had had enough of Mickey and was thinking more along the lines of watching a movie. So I said, "how about 'Cars'?" Jackson's response, "how about Mickey?" Me- "Umm....how about Cars?" Jackson- "Umm....how about Mickey?" We went back and forth a couple times like this. Each time, Jackson would respond with the exact same inflection in his voice as I had just used. I got a good laugh AND we watched Cars.

On Saturday, Jason took Jackson to the Dayton Air Show! Jason and I were very excited for Jackson to go since we all know how much he loves airplanes. The first fly over was to be at 10:00 am. So the boys left just after 9:00 am to catch a shuttle from the Air Force Museum. Much to their dismay, they didn't get on to a shuttle until just AFTER 10:00 and didn't get to the show until just after 11:00 am. Thankfully, Jackson was great the entire time. He enjoyed riding on the bus and even got his daddy to sing "the wheels on the bus" with him a few times. They did get to see much of the air show and even got to go inside of some of the planes. Unfortunately, Jackson didn't seem nearly as interested as his daddy. Jason did buy Jackson another die-cast plane for his collection and Jackson loved it. He would fly it in the air while Jason pushed him around in the stroller. Over all, I was told is was still a fun trip.

Saturday evening we all went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert after dinner. Jason and I shared our ice cream with the kids and, while giving Molly a spoonful, Jason suddenly stated, "Molly has a molar!" I was shocked! This girl has had only five teeth for about the last six months. There were a couple times we thought she was teething and kept watching for another tooth in front only to have nothing show. Little did we know, she really was teething, but it wasn't for a front tooth. And she didn't have one molar, she had TWO! What an odd little mouth she has now. Three teeth in front on top. Two teeth on the bottom. And now two molars both on her left side. I feel like I missed out on a milestone in her life.

Date night!

So, a few nights ago, Jason got to take Molly our for their first of many father-daughter dates! (Earlier in the day, he took Jackson out for lunch!) Jason took Molly out for dinner at Panera and then hopped over to the mall for some bonding time. They visited the puppy's at the pet store and then Jason took Molly up to the Build-a-Bear factory, intending to get her one. Once in the store, Jason started to show Molly various stuffed animals and, one by one, Molly pushed each one away. Finally deciding the Molly just wasn't interested in getting a stuffed animal, they moved on. Jason, being the wonderful father that he is, took her in to Baby Gap!!! If only I could have been there to see it. Molly was truly like a kid in a candy store. She got excited each time Jason pulled a dress off a rack. That's my girl! So he used his best judgement, and a little motivation from Molly, and bought her a dress. Molly couldn't have been happier! I think Daddy did a pretty good job. :)

Jason and I have decided that once a month, we get to go on a date or outing with each of the kids individually!

I've already had my date with Jackson. It was so much fun! We walked around the mall. Had our pictures taken in a photo booth (photos coming soon) and then went out for pizza together. We even did a little cuddling in the restaurant booth. :)