The Ikner's Christmas

My story begins on Christmas Eve. As my kids get older I am finding that I need some of our own Christmas traditions. I am horrible at rolling out dough, whether it's cookies or pizza or pie, anything that needs to be rolled out, I have no talent for it. But I love the idea of making Christmas cookies and decorating them. So this year I prepared and started to make the dough ahead of time so I can find the most managable dough recipe that even I could master. Thanks to my friend, Karen, who gave me a great recipe I was able to adequately prepare Christmas cookies for my children to decorate to their little hearts content.
Miriam is my little cake decorator in training. She was so focused and did such a great job!

Tobie looks really professional here, but I actually had to make him pose for a picture. Ha Ha! He would make a great actor, huh?!

That's some good looking cookies. Notice the Gingerbread Man, Miriam did that the face all by herself with a piping bag with a tip and everything! The picture really doesn't do it justice since you are looking at it upside down, but it really was a good job. I even had to ask Theo if she really did that by herself even though she just told me that she did. I was so impressed! That girl really has a talent.I carry on the tradition of getting new pj's on Christmas Eve. The kids just had baths, that's why their hair is so crazy looking.

I just thought this picture was funny! The girls are totally loving it. Tobie looking like the tough guy, when his sisters usually make him cry when they get in a wrestling match!

Here's our tree. It's fake, but it sure is majestic in this photo.

Me getting my new Garmin 305. Now to get running again. I've been chickening out with all the rainy weather and just going to the gym. This new "toy" should be motivation enough to get out there!

As much as I tried not to let Emma see "Yo Gabba Gabba", she some day got a glimpse before I could turn off the television and she was hooked! Now she asks for it daily, "Abba, Abba". Which is a good group, but I know what she really wants. This is one of the characters from the show, Brobee.

Mimi and Pawpaw sent Hannah this neat playmat. She really does enjoy it, she just wasn't in the mood for tummy time in this picture. Actually I don't know who gets more pleasure out of it, Hannah or the older kids. I think they just like playing with her and that's all that really matters.

Santa left some recorders in their stockings. I haven't decided if I think that was a good idea or not. The negative side is pretty obvious, they have learned how to make the loudest sound that recorder can possibly make, but the positive is that I actually like walking around the house playing on it to acting just like one of my kids. It's a fun little toy.

I can't imagine why I didn't get any pictures of Tobie on Christmas day, probably because he got WarCraft The Frozen Throne from Santa and he was on the computer pretty much all day. Like Daddy like son!

I really hope you all had a great Christmas as well! And I hope you have a great New Year's also!!!

Love, the Ikner's

Random 7

Okay Melinda, here goes...

1.) I'm a wannabe. I wanna be a singer, writer, reader, traveller, better mom, runner, healthier, better at decorating, speak several languages, craftier, more spiritual and more knowledgeable in the scriptures.

2.) I'm a jinx. Look up Murphy's Law in the dictionary and you'll see my picture! I used to use this to my advantage. As a girl my parents would tell me to go wait in the car before going somewhere, I would sit there for what felt like forever and then as soon as I got out of the car to see what was taking them so long they would walk out of the house. Pretty soon I just started to get out of the car just to jinx them out the door. Whenever Theo is sent out of town I just expect the worst, one time when he left all the kids, including me, got this nasty stomach virus. I was up at 3 a.m. with the carpet cleaner cleaning up kid vomit while feeling like I had just got hit by a MAC truck.

2.) Sometimes I don't seperate the lights from the darks.

3.) I'm a talker, if you can't tell.

4.) I'm lazy, which is probably why I am a "wannabe" and not a "be".

5.) I'm anal, but I'm not anal about being anal. I'm anal if I feel like it. I'm too lazy to be anal all the time.

6.) I'm borderline agoraphobic. I have tiny panic attacks when leaving the house without my family. But then my girls let out a bloodcurdling banshee-esque scream and I don't feel so bad about it as I run out the door nursing my bleeding ears.

7.) I have a sleep routine that if I don't do it I can't fall asleep. I start off on my right side and then turn over onto my left. If I start out on my left side it messes everything up and it takes me a really long time to fall asleep.

I tag...um....Sarah, Rochelle, Maureen and anyone else who wants to do it!

The Ikner Elves

Toothless Grin

Tobie lost his first tooth last Tuesday. We were having dinner and his loose tooth started to bleed. At first I wasn't very concerned. I just told him to wash his mouth out and come back to the table. But then he started freaking out in the bathroom that it would stop bleeding. I went and checked on him and I could immediately tell that this was the pulling moment. I was really nervous to pull on it, afraid that it may not come out. Has anyone else had teeth pulling anxiety? Of course I didn't let on to Tobie that I was worried, I didn't even tell him I was about to pull it. I kept thinking about my Dad's technique and how he always seemed to convince us that he was just going to look at it and not pull it, and then once he got a clear shot, *YANK* and it was out. I got a washcloth and acted like I was going to just add some pressure to stop the bleeding, but then I yanked. I didn't have to pull very hard, it was really ready to come out. He just made a surprised, "OH!" sound and then his eyes got really big. He then started laughing and cheering that he finally lost his first tooth. We cleaned it up and got it ready for the Tooth Fairy.

So later that night Mr. & Mrs. Tooth Fairy were talking about how much to put under Tobie's pillow when they realized they didn't have any cash on them. Mr. Tooth Fairy just wanted to leave a DVD that Santa Claus was planning on leaving them. Mrs. Tooth Fairy was totally against that idea and told Mr. Tooth Fairy that he needed to go to the store and get some money out. Mr. Tooth Fairy really really didn't want to go out even though Mrs. Tooth Fairy told him it is their Tooth Fairy duty to have money under the pillow. Well Mr. Tooth Fairy rummaged through his wallet and just happened to find a $2. They both agreed that a $2 bill would be a pretty awesome amount for his very first tooth. Disaster averted and Mr. Tooth Fairy didn't have to go out into the cold dark night. Tobie was extremely thrilled with his $2 and all was right in the Ikner house.

Emma = pandemonium

This is the face of a disaster mastermind! This little person is capable of making messes equivalent to an entourage of 2 year olds, and yet she makes it look so easy. Just to give you an idea lets review a few of her messes from today alone.

The first incident happened during her nap, or should I say her napless adventure in her pants. Apparently sleeping wasn't on her agenda, but she did manage to pencil in a major explosion in her diaper. With Mommy unawares of her situation she took full advantage. She striped off her pants and diaper and commenced with what appeared to me, stamping her nasty slimy buttcheeks all over her bed. It was on her pillow, blankets, shirt, wood slats of the crib and yes, even under her fingernails. EEEEWWWW! She must have been thrilled to have made her own brand of play-doh because I never heard a peep from her. I discovered this monstrosity when I went in to get her right before we had to leave to get Tobie. The poo must have been there for awhile because it had caked on her butt and when I tried to wipe it just started flaking on the carpet. I threw her in the unplugged tub and left her there to soak while I took her sheets off the bed and put them in the washing machine. Thankfully Theo was able to leave work and go pick up Tobie. I quickly cleaned her up and disinfected her entire bed.

The second incident happened while I was making dinner. A friend called me and I had Hannah strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn. (Don't worry, I wasn't using the stove burners. Hannah was perfectly safe.) When dinner was ready and I got off the phone with my friend I started to notice that Emma was being awfully quiet. Then I heard the water faucet in the bathroom running. I knew that noise meant trouble for me. I ran to the bathroom and Emma's mouth was dyed blue along with her hands. The toothpaste was smeared on the counter, but I had a feeling that the blue dye wasn't from the toothpaste. I saw that Tobie's mouthwash that is suppose to stain the plaque on his teeth was missing, and it is blue. I asked her where it was and she took off exactly knowing what I was talking about. She brought it back, minus the top seeming pretty proud of herself that she was able to be a good helper. I started to clean her up by wiping her down, but then I noticed that she apparently was using it as shampoo because her hair was all sticky. So that meant bath #dos. I thought that was the end of the mess, come on...she's done worse, refer to incident 1. But that wasn't the end of it. Theo went walking by our playroom and saw her artistic expressions of blue mouthwash all over the floor in several different places. I scrubbed the floor by the entrance, by the princess table and on top of it, and the kitchen set.

These were just two of the major messes that Emma has orchestrated. I have not mentioned the constant trail of toys she leaves behind her, the sticky fingerprints she leaves on EVERYTHING, the throwing all the letters and animal magnets off of the refrigerator and the constant aversions made by me to keep her out of the dogs food and water and the cat's litter box (her personal sandbox). I have had two other 2 year olds and she by far takes the cake for causing the most chaos.

That's my Emma!

Christmas Pack Meeting

Last night was Tobie's Christmas pack meeting. The pictures and video are a little out of order, but you get the idea. Thay made little ornaments, parents brought cookies to munch on, we all sang carols, and then Santa came for a visit. (Please excuse the quality of the pictures. We are in desperate need of a new camera!)
Tobie and Miriam had no problem taking their gifts, but poor Miss Emma was literally shaking! Theo had to take the gift and give it to her.

Here is when they first approached Santa. You can tell Theo is giving it some effort to get Emma up to Santa. I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but Santa was having a beard issue. It was hard selling the whole "This is the real Santa." when he was wearing the mustache over his nose. His nose is sticking out where his mouth was supposed to be. Even Miriam knew it wasn't real. I tried to patch it up for them telling them that Santa was so busy in the North Pole making their presents that he sent one of his workers down instead. It must have seemed convincing enough because they bought it.

Here is a video of Theo and the pack, Tobie and girls included, singing "Jingle Bells".