Santa at our House

I think I've had the "Do you do Santa?" conversation 5 or 6 times with friends in the past few weeks. As parents who are primarily concerned with raising children for the Lord, the Santa experience can be a dilemma. Does it take away from the real celebration of Jesus? Does it make our children materialistic? Is it right to teach them a myth about some invisible man who gives them gifts only if they're good, and then they later find out he's not real? Is this how they'll also think of God?

While I understand all of these reasons, I personally don't think that it's "wrong" to do Santa. We try to always keep the focus on Jesus, so we discuss Santa in light of this too. We have conversations about how God loved us so much that He gave us the best gift ever--His son Jesus--so we celebrate with gifts at Christmas too. Today Catherine actually said that really the best gift we have is the Bible, because without it, how we would even know about Jesus? I thought that was a pretty wise observation.

We don't ask the kids to make lists of what they want for Christmas (this may change as they get older). We try to think about the giving and sharing more than the receiving. And I think there's something fun and magical about the Santa myth for a child. As kids they play pretend about something every day in their life, so I'm okay with us playing pretend about Santa. So yes, we do Santa at our house.

We have some Santa decorations on the mantel that the kids really like.

We went for a quick visit to see Santa at Chick-fil-A the other night. Catherine and Anna were much more interested in this than Will. Santa did ask the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Catherine's answer: "a mini-van to put her babies in" and Will's response: "a red motorcycle with doors." Yeah, I don't think they understand the whole asking-for-a-list-of-toys concept.
Will is a little shy with Santa, so he wanted Jay to hold him while he talked to Santa. He did shake his hand and was very interested in his gloves. He also wanted Santa to tell him "Ho, ho, ho". Unfortunately, I think he still associates Santa with our visit last year, when he then went home and busted his head open on the hearth and we spent the evening in the ER, with Catherine vomiting while we were there. I might not like Santa either if that's what I remembered about seeing him last year.
I think the Santa thing is one of those tricky lines between being in the world, but not of the world. And I think that as long as our children don't believe that the reason we have Christmas is so that Santa brings them gifts, then we're headed in the right direction. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong...but that's what we're doing at our house right now.

The Light of the World

One of our favorite Christmas things is this magnetic Advent Nativity set. The kids take turns each day opening the little door and putting part of the nativity scene on the board. They love it, especially when they get what they think is a really important part like the Wise Men or Mary. It has also given us a chance to discuss the "not-so-important" ones, like the donkey who had the very important job of taking Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and the sheep, who are like us and tend to wander around and get lost on their own.

The one part that Catherine and I have spent the most time talking about this year though is the star. I can't remember why she was initially so interested in it; I'm thinking maybe because it was the first magnet we put up. But it has given me a chance to reflect on the star too. I guess I'd always thought "God sent them a star....what a nice GPS system." And then all of the sudden one day, I realized why God used the star. Jesus is the Light of the World! So he had to be born in the dark at night so that His light could shine brightly, to show the world how different He is. The whole world is full of sin and darkness, and this sweet little baby came to bring light and to be light. This sounds like a pretty simple thing that may have been obvious to everyone else but me for a long time, but I guess I had just never applied the "light of the world" idea to the Christmas story. I'm thankful that God can use something simple like a magnetic Advent calendar and conversations with my children to reveal His truth to me. And I'll never think about the star in quite the same way.

Yep, he's still dressing himself.

But I think he's cute enough to pull it off--even the socks with the sandals!

Happy 5th Birthday!

Catherine turned 5 years old on Monday! I feel like she's at a stage where sometimes she still seems little but most of the time, she is growing up and maturing before my eyes every day. She is such a precious part of our family---a great big sister to Will and Anna, such a good helper and encouragement to Mommy and Daddy. She is loving and compassionate, responsible, thoughtful, sometimes silly, sometimes serious. She is fantastic!!

Catherine loves art and art projects, so this year we decided to have a "big" birthday party (ie-not at home) at the CAT studio (CAT=creating artists for tomorrow). She and her friends each painted their own canvas, and then each person helped paint on a large 4 piece canvas with a huge C for Catherine to take home. Catherine was in heaven! She has literally been talking about this birthday party for 4+ months. We had a great time seeing everyone's artistic expressions and celebrating with our sweet girl.

Happy Birthday, Catherine! We love you and are so proud of the little lady you already are and the young woman you are becoming.

Roommate Christmas Celebration

Every Christmas, my Furman roommates and I get together. We've done a variety of things over the years to enjoy spending time and catching up with each other. This year we headed to the Grove Park Inn for the day. We enjoyed the beautiful setting, seeing all the Christmas trees and gingerbread houses, and ate a fabulous lunch. It was perfect and leisurely. These are some of my favorite people in the whole world and I'm so glad we still make the time to get together.

(And yes, Jay survived at home all day with the kids by himself!! He won some extra "daddy points" that day.)

Oh to be Three....

Will is very much in full swing of the Three Year Old "Testing of the Limits" and "I Want to Be Independent but I can't Do It Myself" stage. He can do many more things than I sometimes give him credit for and he gets frustrated that I try to help him. But then when I don't try to help him with something, he gets frustrated that he can't do it himself. Either way, he usually ends up angry, screaming, crying, and/or having a tantrum. Add to the mix that we still have a hard time understanding some of his speech and that only multiplies his frustration. Poor kid...I reassure him daily that we really are doing the best job that we can. I'm not sure if he believes me!

He can be one of the most tender and loving little boys I've ever known. He can be so gentle to Catherine and Anna, will hold the door open for all of us and anyone within a 1/4 mile radius, will share licks of his lollipop if you ask. And he's a great Dad to his baby that he totes around so that he and Catherine can pretend they're married and have kids together. (People keep reassuring me this is normal and good.)
He loves fire trucks, sports, and tractors. He loves to be outside, even in the cold or rain. He frequently falls down outside (hence the huge scab above his lip) because he wants to run and jump and climb on everything. He only wants to wear polo shirts and those crazy camo pants. He loves orange juice and blueberry oatmeal.
He is a little man and a big boy all at the same time. He's learning. We're trying to be patient.

Today when I picked him from preschool, his teacher told me he had a hard time following some of the rules today. (Last week he had a hard time keeping his hands to himself and hit a few kids.) I asked him tonight if he got put in time-out today. He said, "yeah, actually two times" (well, at least he's being honest here.) I asked him why he got put in time out. He said, "I threw the hammer. And I not remember why else the other time." "Will, did you disobey the rules?" "Oh yeah, I stand on the Lego table and jump off." They're seemingly "little" things, but he knows when he does these things that he's testing his limits. He turns to see if you're watching and what you're going to do about it. So we're trying to be consistent and enforce the limits--lovingly yet firmly. Perseverance and Patience are my friends.

8 Months Old

Anna turned 8 months old this past weekend. Where is the time going? She is growing so fast and it is so much fun, but (as I've mentioned before) part of me feels sad that the baby stage goes by so quickly. I LOVE the stage she is now--still my snuggly baby, but starting to show some signs of independence too. I love watching her interact with other people, especially Catherine and Will. I love seeing her expressions when she sees or hears something for the first time. I love her baby babbles. And oh my, her smiles still melt my heart every day. I am so thankful for this sweet baby girl.

In the past month, Anna has learned to crawl, now has 3 bottom teeth, sometimes sleeps all night but usually gets up once around 4 or 5 am to eat, sucks her fingers almost all day and night, has eaten some of Eli's dog food and loves to eat baby food, sits in the big bathtub all by herself (with very little water in it), and loves to pull hair (especially Will's when he tries to love on her while she's nursing).

She is a pretty easy going baby for the most part, although her separation anxiety can make her less easy-going for people other than mommy. As long as she's with me, she's happy (most of the time). For example, today I had a dentist appointment. Catherine and Will were at preschool, and I took Anna with me. She sat on my lap the entire time I had my teeth cleaned and saw the dentist while she ate cheerios, one by one. She never fussed and or even tried to squirm away--which I think is unusual for a baby who has recently learned to crawl and wants to explore everything. I'm not saying she's always peachy perfect--she did literally scream and cry and refuse to be put down for 2 or 3 straight days last week (teething pains and a fever were the culprit), but on the whole she is such a lovable baby.
We're excited to celebrate your first Christmas with you, Anna! (Although according to Catherine, it's her 2nd Christmas. She just couldn't see what was going on last year because she was still inside.)

I Love Her!

My friend Jill came over the day after Catherine's surgery to bring us dinner and entertainment (it's never dull when we're all together). We sat Charlie (who is 5 weeks younger than Anna) and Anna in the kitchen while we were getting dinner together and snapped these pics of them.

I think this one is hilarious! He's definitely checking her out.

"Man, she is beautiful. I think I love her!"

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving has always been one of our favorite holidays, especially Jay's. It's a little more laid-back and relaxed (if you can avoid the Christmas season being pushed into Thanksgiving) and usually gives us a chance to enjoy fun times with our family.

This year we went to the beach with Jay's parents from Weds until Sunday. We usually try to make it to my family's on Thanksgiving Day and then head down to the beach with his parents for the rest of the weekend, but this year we just felt a little too drained to drag all 3 kids around that much.

This was the first year we had been at Wild Dunes for Thanksgiving Day and we got to go to their annual Thanksgiving parade. It's started by the firetruck (Will was so excited that he wore his fireman costume and the fireman waved right to him!). Then everyone decorates golf carts and bicycles to ride in the parade. They also throw out candy to the kids. Some of the golf carts were quite elaborate, like this turkey. Our other favorites were Prince William's Royal Wedding, the Griswold's, and a couple's 50th wedding anniversary. We all had lots of fun seeing everyone's creativity. Maybe if we're there for Thanksgiving Day another year we'll decorate our own. (And for the record, it was a warm 76+ degrees on Thanksgiving Day. We should have taken our bathing suits and beach toys.)

On Friday it cooled down and rained some that afternoon, so Catherine and Will put one of her birthday presents to use--an umbrella that you color and decorate the pictures. Her birthday is in 2 weeks, but since Jay's parents can't be here then we celebrated her birthday with them this weekend.
On Friday evening, Wild Dunes kicked off their Christmas season with a tree lighting and kids activities. Our favorite was the huge gingerbread house that the kids could decorate. They gave them cups of icing to stick various candies onto the house and they had so much fun. Will kept wanting to just lick the icing, of course, and would turn around to see if we were watching him. Then he'd just give us this sneaky little smile :)
The 3 kiddos love hanging out and having extra attention from mommy, daddy, Mimi, and PopPop. When the adults out-number the kids, we usually can keep everyone pretty happy!
And since I forgot to post it before we left town, Catherine's class had a Thanksgiving feast last Monday. They all dressed up like Indians and sang us a few songs and even had a special blessing. Their teachers had given each of them special Indian names that they thought fit their personalities. Some of them were Setting Sun, Brave Bear, Peaceful Lily, Mighty Turtle. Catherine's name was Great Spirit, which I think fits her perfectly. She does have such a sweet sweet spirit and seems to think of spiritual issues more than most four or five year olds. For example, she came home from school the other day and told me they sang "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart" and while they were singing it she was thinking about meeting God and him introducing her to all the people in heaven. She said she kept seeing what that would look like in her head. I love her Great Spirit!
We have so many things to be thankful for--too many to list. But I am so thankful for Jay and his tender and loving care of all of us, for each of our children and how their personalities fit together so well in our family, and for God's merciful love to me. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving celebration too.

So Brave!

This morning Catherine had surgery to repair the 2 hernias in and around her belly button. These have been there since birth and we kept waiting to see if they would ever heal on their own, but they didn't. So we finally went ahead and had them fixed today. She was so brave and courageous! She even said yesterday that she was thankful about getting her belly button fixed when we were listing our Thanksgiving Thankfuls.

Here's our brave girl in the pre-op room. She was so thoughtful that she cut out some Fancy Nancy pictures to take the doctors and nurses.

Off she goes! What a way to ride into the surgery room. She was waving to people like it was a parade.
All done and in the recovery room. Catherine didn't want to ever leave, and who could blame her? They give you popsicles and Mommy holds you and you gets lots of attention. We finally had to convince her that it was time to go home.
She's been watching movies and eating a lollipop on the couch. She has been a little scared to move because she thinks it will hurt, but we have finally convinced her to get up and start walking around some. Overall she has done great! We're so proud of her.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

Busy Days of Fall

Fall is in full swing at our house, with busy days of playing, cleaning, preschool, errands, church, playdates, and lots of laughter, crying, tantrums, and fun! Here are a few random pics to share:

The preferred method of transportation at our these days is Will's new front-loader that he got for his birthday. He and Catherine love to scoop up dirt and leaves and ride all through the millions of acorns that are in our driveway. (and please notice that Will is of course wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. I cannot convince our children to wear pants or long sleeves unless it's below 40 degrees.)

Catherine finished her dance class for the fall. They had a day when the parents could come watch. It's always fun to see that beautiful little girls and their ballerina dance moves. Catherine's social calendar is in full swing with playdates, birthday parties, dance, choir, and preschool. She also spent 5 days at Mimi and PopPop's all by herself. When she came back home she seemed so grown up. I can't believe she's almost 5 and so independent. My eyes sometimes still get teary just from dropping her off in the car line at school and watching her walk inside by herself.
Anna is also on the move. She started crawling a few days ago! Sometimes she forgets that she knows how and will just sit there (which I like) and she gets frustrated if she tries to crawl a long distance, but it's all starting to click. Catherine asked when they would need to watch out so that Anna wouldn't get into all their stuff. Soon...very soon. And with three teeth now (all on bottom) she could chew up lots of toys.
Ahh, the perils of preschool. While putting on Will's pjs last night I found this on his back. I asked him what happened and he said another little boy bit him on the playground when Will tried to play with his car. He had a pretty good bite! I guess it's not that much different than the hitting and kicking I had disciplined Will for earlier in the day though. And oh yes, I almost forgot. His name isn't Will anymore either. It's Rob, after the fireman in a book we checked out the library weeks ago. Will wanted us to call him Rob one day so we did. It has now been weeks and he's still insisting that we call him Rob. He cries and yells if we call him Will. Even his teachers at school call him Rob now. He did finally negotiate a little bit the other day and tell me I could call him Mr. Hatten. Gotta love that 3 yr old determination.
Okay, this one is totally random, but I like it. My car had 111,111 miles on it. You people know I have weird things with numbers and even though these are odd numbers I still like it. Keep on hanging in there Pilot, so that I can keep resisting the minivan!

27 Hours Away

Jay and I got 27 hours away together this past weekend, from Friday at 10am until Saturday at 1pm. Yes, I counted the hours. The time for just the two of us to be together seems so precious and rare these days that I wanted to enjoy every minute. For our time "away" we went to downtown Greenville. We hardly ever get to enjoy all the fun things in our own city and we didn't want to be too far away in case things went downhill quickly with the kids :) (And for the record, yes Anna refused to drink her bottle for the entire 27 hours. But she survived.)

Jay scheduled a couples massage for us on Friday morning and then we ate at Jamaica Twist for lunch. We stayed at the new Courtyard Marriott (gotta love Marriott points) and they let us check in early at 1pm, so we were able to enjoy a long 2 hour nap on Friday afternoon. We ate at Rick Erwin's for dinner that night and enjoyed walking downtown and browsing through art galleries. After sleeping all night (no one woke us up to eat or fix blankets or go to the bathroom!!!) we enjoyed brunch at Mary's Restaurant at Falls Cottage. It was a beautiful fall morning and we loved sitting outside overlooking the park. We enjoyed some time just strolling through the park and then went back to the hotel to watch football before our late check-out at 1pm. We had a great time together. I really love spending time with Jay. He's my favorite person in the whole world. I'm so glad I'm his wife.

Our time together seems to be captured by one of our new favorite songs "Dancing in the Minefields" by Andrew Peterson. Part of the lyrics:

"I do" are the two most famous last words

The beginning of the end

But to lose your life for another I've heard

Is a good place to begin

'Cause the only way to find your life

Is to lay your own life down

And I believe it's an easy price

For the life that we have found

And we're dancing in the minefields

We're sailing in the storms

This is harder than we dreamed

But I believe that's what the promise is for

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man

So there's noting left to fear

So I'll walk with you in the shadowlands

Til the shadows disappear

'Cause he promised not to leave us

And his promises are true

So in the face of all this chaos, baby

I can dance with you

And we're dancing in the minefields

We're sailing in the storms

This is harder than we dreamed

But I believe that's what the promise is for

Trick or Treat!

We had lots of fun trick-or-treating this year. With the confusion of whether people were trick-or-treating on Saturday or Sunday, we ended up going twice. We had planned to go on Sunday night with our friends at their neighborhood. Mimi and PopPop were still here on Saturday and wanted to see the kids trick or treat too, so when we saw that the neighborhood besides ours was officially trick-or-treating on Saturday, we decided to go there for a few minutes too.

Catherine especially decided that trick-or-treating is her gig. She became little Miss Independent and wanted to go up to the doors all by herself, with Will tagging along of course. Jay tried to walk up with her to help ring a doorbell and she yelled "No, Daddy. Stay in the street. I can do this by myself!" Well, okay then.... A little bit of attitude from the angel :)

They are the cutest angel, pumpkin, and fireman though. Will was very excited to help rescue people. Anna did not appreciate her pumpkin head.
This is the best way to enjoy the festivities--just hanging out in the stroller.
Our friend's neighborhood has some houses that get very excited about Halloween decorating, like this one. The people here live across the street from our friends and made personalized gift bags of Halloween candy and surprises for the kids, including ours and we don't even live there!
I really enjoy watching the kids get dressed up and go trick-or-treating. Prior to having children, Halloween was my least favorite holiday of all. I guess it's because I only went trick-or-treating once or twice as a child. So now I'm enjoying taking our little people (and eating their candy when they're not looking).

They Just Keep Growing....

....and growing and growing!

This morning I took Will for his 3 yr checkup and Anna for her 6 month checkup (although she's 7 months already--we had some scheduling difficulties).

Will weighs 31 lbs (43%) and is 37 1/2 inches tall (53%). Will did great for his checkup. He even cooperated for the hearing test and read the shapes on the eye chart. His asthma and allergies have been very good for the last 6 to 9 months, so we're not going to start him back on the Pulimicort nebulizer as a preventative treatment. If he starts having any problems this fall or winter we'll have to, but hopefully he's outgrowing some of it and the Zyrtec and Nasonex seem to be keeping it manageable.

Anna weighs 16 lbs (30%) and is 27 1/4 inches long (80%). Her weight percentile dropped again (how is this the same baby who weighed 9lbs 5 oz when she was born 9 days early??) but our doctor is not worried about it at this point. She is eating well and everything else seems great, so we'll just watch to see where her body weight naturally ends up. She may be small and petite like her sister (who is usually in the 5% for weight). We're still avoiding dairy products since we don't know about the milk allergy and will wait until she's a year old to really find out what's going on there. I'm still trying to convince her to drink some of the formula that she's not allergic to, so I think I'm going to just offer her a bottle of it every afternoon in hopes that she'll become familiar enough with the taste to drink it. These things (as are so many decisions of parenting) are always trial and error.

So with our combined total of 7 vaccinations, we're ready to go! We're thankful for healthy children. I know there are so many people who wish they could have simple and easy checkups like this. Sometimes I forget how blessed we are to have these 3 healthy children.

7 Months Old

Anna is 7 months old today!! That is both exciting and makes me a little nostalgic--we're on the other side of 6 months which means soon she'll have a birthday which means she's growing too fast!! But oh she's so much fun. Her little smile just melts my heart every time I see it.

This past week sitting up "clicked" and she's suddenly a pro! Every now and then she'll still tumble over (especially with some help from her big brother) but she's pretty sturdy.
She is also starting to crawl (really scoot) a little bit--backwards! And now that she can sit up, she's figured out how to push herself from her hands and knees to a sitting position. I think she'll figure this crawling movement out pretty soon.
Since she can sit up by herself, it has made running errands a little easier. I had been still putting her in the Ergo carrier or taking a stroller in each store, but we're now able to use shopping carts and high chairs.
She also is eating lots of baby food--carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, apples, pears, bananas, oatmeal, rice cereal--and can use her fingers to pick up cheerios and puffs. She's keeping her two teeth very busy. We're still working on drinking a bottle and occasionally taking formula. And we're introducing the sippy cup with water too. Maybe she'll catch onto those this month. All of that eating and growing is hard work!

We love you, sweet Anna. I'm excited to see what you'll learn in the next month and to keep watching you grow.

Hatten Family Day at the Cradle of Forestry

Yesterday was our 3rd annual Hatten Family Day! Jay and I pick a special activity each year and totally set aside the day just for our family to do something fun together. For weeks, we build up the anticipation with the kids and they get so excited about our family day. (They're going to think we're big dorks for this in about 10 more years, but who cares?)

We went up to Hendersonville to the Cradle of Forestry. A friend had recommended this as a great place to go hiking and enjoy being outdoors with little ones. It was a lot of fun!

They have a small indoor museum that you can do a scavenger hunt throughout. Catherine thought that was great--just like a hidden picture challenge, only in real life! And Will's favorite part was the helicopter. It's an old helicopter that served in Vietnam and was then used to put out forest fires. It is now retired and you can sit in it while it simulates putting out forest fires. Will was a little nervous at first, but then he found this rafting helmet and he was suddenly no longer scared. I guess he thought it protected him!

We spent probably 3 or 4 hours outside on their trails. It was a beautiful fall day and the kids had so much fun just picking up colorful leaves and "walking" sticks. One of the trails has kid activities spaced throughout it, so every little bit we'd stop to do an activity: ride a tractor, pretend to ride a horse, climb on tree stumps, investigate with the magnifying glasses, etc.
The favorite activity on the trail was the train! You could climb on it and ring the bell, and Will thought that the 3 on the front was just for him since he's 3 now. We spent a good bit of time playing on the train.
Anna was very excited about her first Hatten Family Day. She rode along in the stroller and took a little nap when she was tired. She really loves being outside and is happy to watch Catherine and Will run around.
The second trail is more historical-based, with old buildings and houses that were used when the forestry service began on this land in the 1800's. The kids favorite was the old school building. They also liked the houses, general store, and how they washed their clothes outside in a pot of boiling water.

Each trail was 1 mile long, so by the end of the day the kids were tired, especially considering that we did most of our hiking during nap time. By the very end, little Will was lagging way behind the rest of us and Catherine was worried that we were going to leave him in the forest! Sweet big sister always watching out for the rest of them. We finally did convince her that we would not lose Will in the forest and that if we kept walking he would catch up with us. I think Will was asleep in the car within 2 minutes of leaving the parking lot.

We had a great day and I loved spending it with my family! The kids already want to do know what we're doing next year for Hatten Family Day.