Polar Express and My Birthday

A holiday tradition has developed in the last few years in the Mihelich Family. Grandma and Grandpa take the boys on a ride on the Polar Express. The Fox River Trolley Museum has an excellent program where the family boards the train and as the book "The Polar Express" is read, the children are transported up to the North Pole. Once the train arrives at the North Pole, Santa climbs aboard and chats with the children. The kids, all decked in their holiday pajamas, drink hot chocolate and eat cookies while singing Christmas carols. It sounds like a great time and the kids always seem to enjoy it. Reed LOVES the bell that Santa gave him on the train. He alternates between sleeping with it and hanging it on the Christmas tree.

Mason, Porter, and Reed aboard the Polar Express

The boys with Santa and their new bells.

After the big trip to the North Pole and back, they were very hungry so afterward we had everyone over to our house for pizza, cake, and ice cream to celebrate my birthday. It was a nice family night and Bob built a great fire in the fireplace. It was a great night to enjoy the many wonderful things in my life.

Celebrating the big 3-3 with my family

Cora must have needed a little attention after the boys got to have all the fun. She drug her rocking horse over by the Christmas tree and rocked and rocked until she had everyone's attention. It was too cute not to photograph.

Fantasy Kingdom

Last Wednesday, we headed down to Chicago with some friends, Vanessa and Rachel, and their children to a kid's play place called Fantasy Kingdom. Vanessa had been given some free vouchers and shared her good fortune with us.

The kids had a great time. Reed always loves playing with his buddy Josiah and Cora befriended the slide. It was a tiring, but fun, rainy day spent inside playing.

This slide is fast!

I can go head-first too! I am fearless!

Rachel has a great picture of Cora, where she is captured flying mid-air out the end of the slide. I think it really shows how fast she would come shooting out of the slide. If you look at the above photo, when she would go down feet-first, she would land near the end of the yellow mat. I will post that photo when I get it.

Locked in Jail. Poor boys!

Looks like they escaped jail, but not from sleep on the car ride home.

Update: Additional photo compliments of Rachel-

Santa Visit

What child doesn't need to visit Santa to make known their Christmas requests in person? Well, one of our children was thrilled and the other was horrified.

Bob's grandmother's assisted living facility does a really nice lunch with Santa every year. It is a great stress-free way to visit with Santa. Oma, his grandmother, our family, and Bob's brother's family had a tasty lunch and then Santa rolled in. There were only a few other kids there so there was plenty of opportunity to chat with Santa without feeling rushed.

Reed was very excited, but it certainly didn't show on his face when he was sitting on Santa's lap. He seemed to stare at Santa in awe the whole time. His somber demeanor seemed to express the significance that he placed on this important occasion. When Santa asked if he had been a good boy this year, there a pause and the thoughtful response of "Sometime." Reed seemed to be negotiating a proper answer in his head without needing to lie to the omnipotent Santa Claus. Reed got to put his request in for the Playmobil Red Dragon Castle that he has been pining over for months. On top of it all, he got a goodie bag.

Reed masking his excitement quite well.

I think you will see in the following photo Cora's response to Santa, her body language says it all. Cora, in general, likes things from afar. She LOVES kitty cats...unless they come right up to her and want to be petted. She waves at strangers in the grocery store, but watch out if they come up and try to touch her. Santa was kind of the same thing.

You want me to sit on who's lap?!!

We were fine for the family picture as long as Daddy held Cora and Santa held his distance.

Big family picture of the whole crew.

(Mason:8, Bekki, Porter:6, Brian, Oma, Bob, Cora:1.5, Reed:3.5, and Erin)

18 Months

Reed's pirate rain boots don't go with my Christmas dress?

About a week and a half ago, on the first snowy day of the season, Cora had her 18 month checkup. She sailed through with flying colors, besides the fact that she cried frantically when the nurse tried to weigh her. I'm telling you, she hardly whimpered when they gave her a shot, but the wails when they put her on the scale...strange.

Maybe she knew I was going blog about it. Anyway, this is for my records only, but here are her new stats.

Height: 33-1/2" (she's moved up to 75-90%)
Weight: 23 pounds (following her curve at 25-50%)
Head: 19" (steady)

Cora's vocabulary is really taking off. I am surprised by the little phrases she says. Over there. I want my juice. I got poop. Sorry for that last one, but you get the point. She is getting increasing opinionated and decreasingly patient. We need to work on that bad combination.

Overall, she is enjoying the holiday season. The decorated Christmas trees, lawn decorations, Christmas lights, and Santa Claus (images of or plush Santas... a later post will show you her reaction to the real Santa Claus.)

Tree Farm Photos

I found the camera this weekend! Hooray! So on that note, I will share some of the photos from our big day at the Christmas Tree Farm.

Looking back on the photos, I had forgotten how much Cora was disinterested in the pomp and circumstance of the whole event. She cared very little about the hunt, the staking of claim, and the final triumphant attainment of the chosen tree. She did, however, love running up and down every aisle and getting chased.

Tree #1- Granny and P-pa's Tree
(Cora's not happy to be contained for the photo)

Reed spotting P-pa while he cuts

Tree #2- Our family tree
(Cora's still not happy to be contained for the longevity of the photo)

Reed giving pointers to his Dad

We took a huge wagon ride afterward around the whole place, which both kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Another great year for us at Daniken's. Bob always loves to hear the same stories of my summers working there in high school, a poor young field worker :)

Note: Cora did have a really good time. The photos did her no justice. They were the one part of the day that she could have done without.

Thanksgiving, Moving on to Christmas

Well, I haven't posted any pictures from our Thanksgiving adventures. I won't delay any longer, so I'll just write about it. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we had a beautiful meal with Bob's parents and Grandma. It was a relaxing day, which we all needed. Bob's work schedule this semester has been INSANE.

Friday morning we packed up and headed south for Greenville. Friday night was the lighting of the Bond County Courthouse in Greenville with Christmas lights. The photo below is taken from the WGEL website, but you can see Reed in the background with Granny and P-pa.

Our first Santa sighting of the season

The next day we headed out to Daniken Tree Farm, our annual tradition, to cut our own Christmas tree. If I ever find the camera, I will upload some photos of the event. It was fun and the weather was really pleasant. Some people wait for snow to go search for their tree. I, on the other hand, was perfectly content in the 60 degree weather.

Sunday was my mom's Thanksgiving feast, where they host both sides of the family, the Reeds and the Mahers. We had a great time catching up with the extended family and we surprised them all with the news that I am expecting our third child in May. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long, and Sunday afternoon made the long trek home.

Monday morning we dropped Bob at the airport for a computer software conference in Las Vegas. I didn't really look for the missing camera all week because I thought he packed it for his trip. Oops. He had a great, but busy week. He passed 4 certification exams and met a lot of people in the industry. My non-gambler even won some money the last evening he was there. We'll probably use it to help finance Christmas.

Reed's solitary request for Christmas costs about $150. The good thing is he only wants one thing, the bad thing is he only wants that one thing. Nothing else will do. There's been a big change from Christmas at age 2-1/2 and Christmas at age 3-1/2. There were no expectations last year. This year, he knows exactly how things are supposed to operate. If he is good, Santa will arrive on his sleigh on Christmas Eve to give him anything he wants. Let's hope the price tag on his gift requests don't continue to increase. I keep telling myself that he has no concept of money. Besides, Santa makes the gifts anyway, he doesn't buy them!

Anyway, we retrieved Bob from the airport on Friday and had a nice weekend that included celebrating Grandpa Mihelich's birthday. We had a great time for that on Saturday and we all tried to recover from the busy week prior by having a relaxing Sunday.

This week it's back to the grind. Bob has two more weeks until he finishes up the semester. December, as always, is shaping up to be a very busy month. I hope to have lots to post here. Now, I just need to locate that camera....