We got these from Santa about a week or so ago. The kids were very excited to watch them! Do you think they both made the naughty or nice list? The kids LOVE these videos SO much and get SO excited about them it’s worth the $12 I pay to make them. 🙂
Owen – Secret Places
Katie – Tour the Post Office
And surprise! Tonight we got these two new videos! Uncle Rob and daddy were able to watch along with us!
Owen – Movie Star
Katie – Elf House
So I look over and Katie had the Messages app open on their iPad and she was enjoying looking at and touching all the emojis.
I heard stuff like “Cupcake…heart…pumpkin…flower giggle giggle cat…dog…bunny!”
I couldn’t figure out how she managed to find and open that app since I’ve buried it inside a folder. Then I realized that Tom had texted me and I obviously have the settings configured badly so that my texts appear on their iPad as well…so when he texted me, it popped up on the screen while she was playing her game, she touched it, and it opened the app. Of course, it was all her own curiosity that figured out how to then open the keyboard and emoji screens. 🙂
Anyway, I just sat and watched her…and then watched as she managed to hit send. 🙂
Owen’s pediatrician wanted to revisit his genetics results to see if any new information has been discovered in the past 2.5 years…so it was off to Bethesda to see a specialist.
In the waiting room, Owen made a beeline for the one kid he saw who was also using a tablet. 🙂
The short story is that there is nothing new regarding his previous test results and we don’t have to worry about revisiting them for another two years unless something changes drastically with his health or behavior. We also don’t have to worry about getting Katie tested.
I fully believe it’s something that could’ve been handled over the phone without actually seeing Owen in person but I obviously that would make things too easy. (Fortunately the drive there did not give me an anxiety attack as it has in the past—the traffic was fairly light and I left plenty of time.)
Katie found a pair of her shoes in our room so of course she had to put them on…and then her and Owen watch the iPad on the floor waiting for me to get out of bed (Tom is usually up with them on the weekends but he had duty last night).
…this is what it would look like 24/7.
But I make them do things like this (yes, make—they often give me grief until they’re out there and then they love it):
Katie was amazing at the dentist today during my appointment! Terribly cute, too. 🙂
Katie loves her some Emily. 🙂
Tom outlined the letters and the kids colored it!
I was holding my phone up to take our picture, so she was holding up her phone, too. 🙂
I ordered pizza for dinner and the kids love to watch the progress meter (ordered, baking, out for delivery, etc.). They didn’t move an inch for a good 15 minutes. 🙂
Okay, a bit of randomness that I didn’t feel like composing separate posts about… 🙂
We decided to give Owen a haircut. We had asked him before we left if he wanted it cut or if he wanted to try and grow it out (with the condition that if he wanted to grow it out, he had to let me put gel in it for school) and he said yes, he wanted to grow it out. Okay, fine. Fast forward a few days and he decided yes, he wanted it short. That was fine by me, so Tom cut it. I didn’t get an actual after picture, but stay tuned until later in this post.
More cool color-changing silverware from Grannie Lin!
And notice the haircut!
And notice Katie in her ballet shoes that she HAD to put on after her bath. 🙂
tecjh
Trying to get Katie to smile for a picture…
Tom is away for work so we try to send lots of pics. 🙂

I walked by the couch and saw this. And this is missing my and Tom’s phones. And the actual computer contingent of desktops and laptops.
Even though we went to Red Robin this past weekend to celebrate Owen’s birthday… AND I took him a Five Guys burger on his birthday at school… We still went out to eat for his birthday dinner! 🙂 (Yeah, we like going out to eat.) 🙂 We tried a new pizza place that’s close to us and it wasn’t too bad. I’m actually getting sick of pizza so I had a Stromboli which was pretty good. And Katie was introduced to the Parmesan shaker. 🙂
When we got home we Skyped with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob, sang happy birthday, ate cake, and opened presents.
Then I gave Owen his gift certificate for the Magic School Bus monthly experiments. Before he opened it I explained it was from mom and dad, Gramma Jean and Grandpa David, and Papa and Grannie—and I was sure he’d be over the moon!! And of course he couldn’t have cared less, LOL. He just couldn’t understand that it meant 12 new experiments (like the volcano he just did) and kept looking at the paper like Aaaand?! I kept trying to explain it and I think he finally started to get an idea…but he probably won’t fully get it until the packages start arriving (it should be mid-month).
Things never turn out as you expect when kids are involved. 🙂
This REALLY confused me for a moment. I mean, how does the prez being on TV affect roads? Ohhhh yeah. We live near DC now. I keep forgetting.
WordPress keeps stats on just about everything and sends a year-end summary. Here are a few interesting facts:
A friend posted a link on Facebook to create your own personalized snowflake. I thought it was so cool I did all of our names. You can actually watch the snowflake change shape as you enter letters!
The order:
Santa emailed the kids! 🙂
Tonight was presents with Gramma Jean and Grandpa David!
The kids loved everything, but Katie really loved her Olaf hat and tea set (they’re having a tea party in the picture) and Owen picked the Magformers as his favorite! We ALL loved Owen’s MSU PJs and he was thrilled with his Lego Movie PJs, too!
Today we opened presents from Grauntie Marge!
They got to see Katie dance around with her dolly in their new matching outfits (I didn’t get a picture of it because they were watching live and I can’t take pictures at the same time!).
And Katie loved her new Frozen sheets!
And Owen LOVED his Robot Turtles game. We watched some videos online about how to play, then we played, and after we put it away he kept running around the house playing a full-sized version. 🙂
It’s at times like this that I love technology!
This is what can happen if you are hurrying in the bathroom and aren’t paying attention.
He has been wanting a new phone but didn’t want to spend the money on the newest upgrade…so we headed directly to the Apple store to see about getting the glass fixed. Unfortunately the fix was almost half the price of upgrading to the newest phone so he just upgraded.
Merry Christmas to him!
Owen has two days off for teacher prep/conferences.
