Corban is definitely getting the idea of possession. Everything he picks up or sees is usually "mines" as he says. Sometimes he'll say it's Mommy's or Daddy's though. And he likes to point to where we sit at the dinner table and say who goes where. One day while Mom and Dad were here I came downstairs and he rubbed the couch beside him and said, "Mommy sit down." Who could resist that? I sat. He also seems to be listening a little better sometimes, which is a big plus.

Caden is rolling all over the place and trying so hard to sit up. He will be lying on his back and grab his pants legs, trying to sit straight up. Won't be long until he's crawling around. I don't know how we're going to keep Corban's toys away from him. Caden had slept with Nana and Poppy pretty much the whole time they were here, so I was afraid of what last night would bring, but he did pretty well. I'm still having to feed him once a night, which the doctor said I needed to be working away from, but honestly, that boy was HUNGRY last night. I think we're going to start him on some cereal pretty soon at night to see if that helps any.

Tonight we're going over to Diana's. Her 5 yr. old cousin is there, Nadine and Luke, and maybe Christina. Tomorrow we're having everyone over here for a late lunch, pork loin and sour kraut. Can't say I'm much of a fan, but I can eat it. Plus we're having a huge pile of mashed potatoes, strawberry/cranberry salad, and that pudding dessert that Salem makes. I think they call it Tag's dessert, because it was orginally her recipe, but that doesn't really tell you much about it. Saturday we're probably going to be doing Dart Ball over at church and Friday Johnny's going to be out of the house catching up on visiting. The boys and I might have to get out and go to the mall or something, we'll see.

Christmas was good. Johnny and I were both so excited for it this year. Corban definitely got the idea of presents and he is getting there with Santa. We got him a kitchen for Christmas and he really loves it. I think his other favorite Christmas toy is the huge stuffed horse that my Mom and Dad got him. They also brough up my old slide, which is sitting in the middle of our living rood getting lots of use. We left for the Shirey's last Monday. Corban got to go sledding and have a haircut while we were there. We came home Saturday and Nana and Poppy got here a few hours after we did. Nana was excited to give Corban his Christmas, but he was in a foul mood so we waited for Sunday after naps. Nana and Poppy just left his morning. So we had a full week of visits with family, but it was wonderful. I can't imagine how fun next Christmas will be. It will be our year with the Wilsons so we'll have Grace, Corban, Caden, and baby Wilson. While I'm on the subject of Baby Wilson, we have a major praise. Laura had another ultrasound Monday and they said the blood clot is almost gone and she doesn't even need to see her high risk doctor until 20-something weeks. I'm going to try to get some pictures posted while I have some free time. Johnny took Corban out for a while and the baby has been asleep for almost 2 hours.

Wehad a while night. I was asleep by 10:30 I think. At 11:30 I woke up because Diana had left her cell phone here and Craig was calling on his way home from work. At 12:30 our phone rang because a member's father was being taken to the ER. They think he had a heart attack, he's OK, not great, now. So Johnny got up then to go be witht he family and came home at 2:30. It was probably 3 before I got back to sleep and Caden woke up at 3:30. I fed him and got back in bed by 4. Corban woke up at 6:45 and just wasn't going back to sleep. We finally came down and I've been letting him watch TV while I slept on the couch a bit until Caden woke up at 8:30. Such is the life of a young ministry family, but dang, why'd it all have to happen in one night? Oh well. I'm up now and getting some more work done on the bulletin. I've got to run that today and Johnny will have to go back to the hospital and we were planning to make a run to Sam's for diapers, but I'm not sure if that will happen now. We'll see. I'm excited that the boys get to wear their Christmas outfits tomorrow! I'll probably put them in them again for Christmas Eve service and next Sunday since my Mom and Dad will be here. It's weird for me to go to a Christmas Eve service. We never had one at Salem and we were always with family anyway.

Lately Corban has been falling or bonking his head and before he even gets up he says, "OK." I guess he's just letting us know he's a tough guy! He was also saying, "dang it" this morning when something wasn't going his way. I think I'm Ok with that, at least he hasn't picked up "crap" from us. Caden is rolling both ways now finally. Yesterday I had him in his bouncy in the kitchen while I was making banana bread and he would scream so loud and when I turned around to look at him he would have the sweetest smile on his face. He's such an attention hog.

Last night was nice. It was the area minister's Christmas dinner. We went to Dave & Buster's. If you haven't heard of it, it's one of those "Chuck E. Cheese" for adults. We had a nice dinner and then went in to play games. I basically spent my time at those machines where you drop the token in and the blade pushes them out and they just hang on the edge forever before they fall. I got the boys a bubble machine with my "winnings." Our babysitters were overworked for the evening, but I think it went a lot better than it could have been. Our boys were both here as well as Greg and Melanie's two little ones. Their youngest, Ada, has NEVER stayed with a sitter that she didn't scream for most of the time. In fact, she's just now staying in the nursery at church some without her parents. I think it ended up being Caden who caused the most problem though because he didn't sleep for long and I'm not sure how well he ate. Oh well, they were all alive and the babysitters were still able to smile as they left, so I have to figure that things went OK at least.

Today I don't have much on the agenda except for keeping Nina and getting her to dance. Tomorrow Johnny and Luke are planning to go fishing - those days are rough on me because he's gone from about 4 am until about 10 pm. Friday is my last day with Nina until after New Year and if Johnny is done with the sermon by Saturday I might get to go shopping a little.

Yesterday was nice. After church we came home and ate leftovers and EVERYONE took a nap for a good two hours. I haven't had a nap like that in a long time. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get stuff to make brownies for the fellowship after the cantata and Johnny gave both boys a bath while I was gone. We headed over to the cantata, and I was able to pass the baby off and Nadine kept Corban in the back because Johnny and I were narrators. I was thrilled with how well Corban behaved. Now we'll have to see how he does at the Christmas Eve service at Johnny's parent's.

I'm finished with my Christmas shopping, so I'm thrilled about that. I have to wrap still, but that won't be a big deal during naps. I'm hoping to head out sometime this week though to look for some shoes for me. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes for about 3 years and I've been pregnant twice in that time. Oh, and I didn't tell you guys about the deal I got. I was sent a coupon for New York & Co. that if you spend $40, you get $20 off. When I went in all the sweaters were 50% off, so I picked up two that wer originally $39.95. Since there's no sales tax on clothes here, I had to buy a bottle of shower gel to get it up to $40, but the shower gel was one sale for $1.05. My final bill was $22 even and I got two sweaters and a bottle of shower gel. I think Kerry should be proud.

Caden had his 4 month check-up and shots last week. He is 50% for weight and length, and still 20% for head. He's still my "pea head." I looked up Corban's weight at 4 months to compare. Caden was 14 lbs 13 oz, Corban was 16 lbs 5 oz. A pound and a half makes a big difference at 4 months! Both boys are back to sleeping through the night at this point, so that makes life better for me. I'm hoping that Christmas doesn't screw them up too much.

Goodbye to an old friend

OK KCC girls, I have some sad news. It's official, the red sweater, the one that was worn 4 or more times a week at school, it's dead. I grabbed it to wear for our family Christmas picture and saw what I thought was lint on the front. When I looked in the mirror and tried to pick it off I realized that it was holes in the thing. I've hardly worn it at all the last few years, and since I bought it my junior year of high school, I guess it's had a good run - the thing is at least 11 years old. Anyway, just thought you should know. It was a good friend to many of us in it's hay-day.

We've had a good few days so far. Thursday Diana and Christina came to babysit the boys and Johnny and I got our Christmas shopping done. Caden took a bottle of formula really well, so that made me happy. Johnny and I also got to eat at Olive Garden all alone! It was so nice not to have to be constantly watching out for the little ones. Yesterday I don't remember much, but Nina came after school and Johnny and Corban made a run to Wal-Mart. Today we've got choir practice, Carolyn Fitzroy is coming to watch the boys for us. After that I think we're going to order pizza and watch the new Batman movie, don't remember the real title. When Johnny comes back from running some errands he's going to take Corban outside to build his first snowman. I'm anxious to see how this turns out.

Oh, when you get my Christmas card, I know that a few of you will notice the mistake. I just thought I would let you know that I do know about the extra comma and I'm sick about it. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Corban has said "Thank you" twice now on his own, without being asked to! He pretty much knows that when he's asking for something he needs to say, "please" but the thank you on it's own is pretty cool.

Caden slept through the night again finally last night. I think our trip to KY had gotten him all out of whack. Now watch, we'll have two goods weeks then head to Williamsport for Christmas and screw it all up again.

Oh Kim, gas here is $0.40 more per gallon here than what you got it for! I guess I can't complain about $1.79 too much, but I wonder what's making the difference when we're usually pretty close to what Mom and Dad are paying. Oh well.

We've had a wonderful weekend! I did get my tree up yesterday, I've still got a few decorations to find a home for, but the tree is the big deal. Johnny did some outside decorating yesterday while I took care of the tree. I watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and drank a glass of eggnog while I did it. Corban tried to play outside in the snow yesterday, but he wouldn't keep his gloves on, so he had to come back in b/c his hands were bright red. We had a good time though, just the 4 of us hanging out. We put on Christmas music and enjoyed being together.

Today we did church and took family pictures in front of the tree at church and then came back over here to try to get pictures of the kids in front of the tree. I'm hoping to use these as my cards, so I need to get a move on. I got a great one of Caden, but Corban would not cooperate. After Corban's nap, Diana offered to take the kids during the football game, so we took her up on that. I made caramel and Johnny took a nap. Now he's gone to finish watching the game with them, and I cleaned the kitchen. I'm sure this is the first time I've been alone in the house since sometime before Caden was born.

We had a nice day yesterday and today is shaping up to be pretty decent too. Not much happened in the morning and I had Nina yesterday afternoon. Corban really had fun playing with her since we didn't have to go to dance. After Nina left we had Chinese and then bundled the kids up and went to "Light Up Night" in Turtle Creek. Basically, there was hot chocolate and cookies, a balloon artist, and Santa. This is the first time Corban got to sit on Santa's lap b/c we just didn't do it last year. Corban got a balloon duckie and absolutely loves it. He carried it around with him for a bit this morning. Already today (I'm just realizing that it's 1 so it's not so impressive), but Johnny and Corban went to get our Christmas tree, I've folded 4 loads of laundry and we've had lunch and Corban is down for a nap. I'm hoping to get the tree up and decorated before Corban wakes up. I also have to do the bulletin for church, so I'll head over there at some point this afternoon. I'm hoping to make caramel sometime, but I'm not sure when that can happen.

A couple of cute Corban stories. A few nights ago we had all gone to get groceries and when we got back, I was putting away, Corban was standing at the door, and Johnny was carrying in the bags. At one point, Corban looked at Johnny as he was coming up the walk, stuck his thumbs up in the air, and said, "Good Job." He learned that in KY over Thanksgiving.

Last night we were sitting in the living room watching TV and Corban dropped his sippy between the couch and the ottoman. Johnny picked it up and gave it to him, and he dropped it back down there. After that, Johnny just let him work at getting it himself. He was trying not to get off the couch and just reach his hand down there. Eventually, he suceeded and said, "i got it." First time for three words together!

Today I think I'm going to take the boys to the mall. It's nasty here and Corban really needs to get out. I can do a little window shopping and then let him play in the play area. That place is kind of gross, but at least it's someplace for him to play that's not home. I need to get to work on Christmas shopping, but I think we're going to have to get a babysitter before we can do any good. We did a little browsing in Wal-Mart the other day, but that was just horrible with both kids.

I just read Tammy Nischan's blog written the day that Nick died. I can't dwell too much on it, or I'll start crying again.

Everyone seems to be feeling better today. Johnny stayed in bed most of the day yesterday and is still not back to 100%, but he's better. Corban never acted sick, so he's doing fine too. I've gotten some laundry done an put a few things away, but I've not hit it hard today either.

Corban is saying his own name now! Seriously, he's 20 months and just now saying it. It was cute though b/c when we were pulling off the exit ramp Saturday night, we were still about 10 minutes away from home and he said, "Corban's house." It comes out more like Cobean, but it works. After church yesterday Anna told me that he was picking up toys in the nursery. He loves to pull things out and then put them back. Yesterday he pulled every sock out of their bag and then put them all back where he got them. He did that several times. And Tim and Laura got him this big potato head that is the container for 2 regular and 2 small potato heads and lots of parts for them. All he does with it now is dump all of the parts and then put them back. I hope that putting his toys away is a trend that keeps up! Caden is awake - gotta go fix lunch anyway.