Our Fabulous Four-Year-Old

Happy Birthday, Claire Abigail!

We love you!

 

 

{ Birthday Interview }

 

How old are you?  "Four"

How would you like to celebrate your birthday? "Hang balloons up."

What is your favorite:

Food? "Bread"

Toy? "Stars"

Color? "Blue"

Thing to Wear? "Dresses" 

Song? "Jesus Loves Me"

Game? "Chutes and Ladders"

Book? "The Berenstein Bears"

Animal? "Zebra"

What do you love about Daddy? "He shovels the snow." About Mommy? "She vaccums." About Henry? "He smiles at me."

What do you like to do with our family? "Talk to them."

What makes you happy? "My birthday."

What makes you sad? "When my friends are sad.  And I am sad when my friends aren't playing very nice."

Where do you like to go? "To the store." Which store? "The pumpkin store." (I have no idea what this means :) )

What do you love to learn about? "I love to learn about coloring."

What do you think about before you fall asleep? "Waking up."

What do you want to be when you grow up? "A mommy because I'm not a mommy right now.  I'm still a girl."

 

Omphalocele Awareness Day

Happy Omphalocele Awareness Day everyone!

Today we wear black and white for two reasons: to remember all the little ones born with omphaloceles and to educate others about the rare condition.

I'm sure most people close to us are now fully aware of what an omphalocele is, so I won't take the time to explain it here, but if you're curious you can check out This Website for more information, or of course, you can check out our story Beginning Here.

 

Henry sporting his black and white, and a sticker wishing his family

 and friends a "Happy Omphalocele Awareness Day".

Got the Giggles?

 

Sorry if you're squeemish!  This is Henry shortly after he was born,

with a very good look at his omphalocele. 

Henry about a week after his first surgery.

And here's our good looking guy today. 

He loves showing off his tummy to anyone who will tickle it!

Let it Snow

********************************************************************

******************************************************

*********************************************

A fun morning sledding with friends

 

 

Claire and Lily Hart

"Ring Around the Rosie" on the ice skating rink

********************************************************************

******************************************************

*********************************************

The Latest

Some recent pictures of what we've been up to...

 

Claire with her puzzles. 

She's been busy with these every day and is even

 able to do the 60 piece puzzles by herself. 

I'll let you guess.

Was Henry crying over Notre Dame's crushing defeat or

because he was in time out for hitting his sister?

Well, whatever it was, surely a big bag of pretzels all to himself would cheer him up!

   

Saying good-bye to a good friend is sad.

Kelsey is moving to New Mexico.

But moving to be with the man she loves is exciting!

He's a lucky man!

 

Kelsey and Henry say good-bye.

Claire's not ready to see her go. 

Someday you'll understand, Sweetie!

 

Well, that's it.  Not much to report. 

Someday soon, I should post some pictures of Claire's pre-school projects

from the year - but we'll leave that for another day...

 

No Pictures for Paul and Claire Quotes

Today we received an email from our good friend Paul Wagner that simply said:

"I demand more blog pictures... you need to talk to Jen. :-)".

Admittedly, it's been a bit since I last posted pictures, not for lack of cute kid moments.  I suppose I just go in spurts. So in an effort to appease the masses, and by "the masses" I mean Paul, I tried posting a few pictures of the kids... but unfortunately I couldn't get the program to work.  So, sorry Paul, you're out of luck for today.  I did, however, manage to upload a short video of the kids once again dancing in the kitchen:

 



 So hopefully, that will hold Paul over until I figure out why our pictures aren't loading properly!

Also, I don't want to forget some of the funny things Claire's been saying lately, so I posted some of our favorite "Claire Quotes" from the last couple months:

 

I was recently in the kitchen and overheard Claire in the living room trying to give Henry a time out for some unknown reason.  I called to her, "Claire, what are you doing?" She pranced into the kitchen and ever so sweetly said, "Nothing...I'm just smiling!" Yeah, right!

Leaving for church Sunday morning, she yelled out, "Has anyone seen my car keys?" She must have heard that a time or two!

Claire sings A LOT.  Sometimes they're songs she's learned.  Other times they're songs she's made up, like the one I overheard her singing a while back: "Daddy knows how to do anything.  We love him so much.  We need him to come home.  We trust him."  She really loves her daddy.  Can you tell?

Joe had his hammer and nails out to hang a picture for me.  Claire walked in and asked, "Dad, what did you ham?"  So update your dictionary: the new verb form for using a hammer is "to ham".

Joe was telling me at dinner about an email we had received detailing some of my sister Kelsey's adventures in Israel.  Claire looked up and casually said, "Daddy, that's a boring story."  While a cute comment that made us chuckle, I was a bit concerned where she heard such a phrase.  When I asked her, she said, "D.W. said it to Arthur, and then Arthur said, 'Mom, D.W.'s being a pest.'"  I knew exactly which storybook she was quoting from.  The older Claire gets, the more she amazes me with her ability to quote movies and books, a skill she gets from her father.  Joe quotes movies he saw one time ten years ago! 

I was explaining to her that after she leaves her bedroom she needs to turn off her lights.  She said, "Weelll, I'm not sure about that.  I'll just ask Dad when he gets home."  Apparently I don't have much authority in terms of conserving energy.

And, for those who may be interested, some bonus material from our dance party:

Puzzled

I think 2013 might be the year of the puzzles. 

Both kids love doing puzzles lately!

 

Family Christmas Parties

Another year of Christmas parties has come and gone, and while it's always a bit sad for me to pack away the holiday decor and finish up the seasonal activities, it's always good to look back on all the festive fun we had with our families. 

 

This year our first family party was with Joe's mom's side of the family. 

 

Grandpa and Grandma with their four grand kids.

And what's a party without the great grand kids?

Joe with his mom, step dad and sister, Melissa.

And, of course, the first gifts of the season! 

Claire's been awaiting this moment for weeks.

Grandma Rosen lends Henry a hand with his gift from Aunt Melissa.

Grandma shows Henry the Sesame Street blanket she

made for him.  Henry loves Elmo lately.

Claire gives Grandma a thank you hug for her new doll,

who she has since named "Franny".

 

Our next family gathering was with my side of the family.  Actually, it was more of a fiesta than a party.  My sister, Kelsey, was home after studying in Spain for a semester.  She'll be leaving this weekend to study in Israel for a month, so it was good to visit with her briefly and hear a bit about her travels.

 

 She even prepared some traditional Spanish dishes for us.  Ole!

And perhaps one of the cutest sights of the season:

Claire in her Spanish flamenco dress,

and Henry in his matador outfit, ready to fight some bulls. 

  

Mom had prepared a game for the kids, which they enjoyed. 

And we got a stash of "new" books and movies, which the kids love.

Claire with Sylvia and Kelsey (and kind of Henry), with the birthday

cake for Jesus, an annual Sternberg family tradition.

Claire and her cake.

 

Our family Christmas celebration is usually pretty simple.  On Christmas Eve, the kids opened a few gifts from us.  And this year my parents had taken the kids shopping to pick out gifts for us, so it was fun to open those.  Henry had picked out a snow brush for Joe and some potpourri for me.  Claire had picked out animal crackers for Joe and a colander for me. 

 

Our annual family photo before opening gifts.

Henry opening a gift from a neighbor. 

We have the best neighbors in the world!

 

After a nice service at our church on Christmas morning, the kids took naps, and then we headed over to celebrate Christmas day with Joe's dad's side of the family. 

 

Here we are, deeply entrenched in our puzzle ball tournament. 

I thought I was unstoppable...

But nope, Melissa came from behind to claim the final victory!

That's ok - I have ample opportunity to practice for next year's tournament!

It was also good to visit with extended family at the party.

Here Henry plays cars with cousin Zach, while Great Grandma watches.

 

Homemade Oh Henry! bars, one of the many delicious goodies

made for us as a Christmas gift.  These won't last long!