A Wonderful Christmas

Our house was filled with laughter, awe, excitment, and fun this holiday season. I can't imagine that we will ever have a year this fun. The kids all loved everything about Christmas this year. The Christmas tree was so inviting that McKenzy and Keyan just could not keep their hands off of it. The lights on the tree matched the sparkle in their eyes everytime they got near it. Jamahl was in charge of helping the girls make cookies with Grammie. He did all of the important jobs, but did share licking the spoons and beaters. They made several differnt kids of cookies, a batch of everyones favorites, and the kids loved sampling ALL of them! Our lives have been filled with new songs to learn, Christmas movies and books, the anticipation of Santa, learning about baby Jesus, an endless supply of goodies, giving and receiving gifts, and spending time with family and friends. A house with a 6 year old and four 3 years olds can be awfully chaotic, noisy, and stressful. However, it is times like these where we are reminded of how lucky we are to have a houseful of eager children just waiting for the next adventure. We hope you had a wonderful holiday. Here is to a great 2008!

Kindergarten Christmas program

So, a week and half before christmas, Jamahl had his school Christmas program. It was very exciting around here because everyone loves going up to the school. We all got dressed up in our christmas best and the whole troop went to see Jamahl. We make quite a spectacle but at least it is a cute one!!
Jamahl with his soldier hat on standing in his place. He did so well, for about 45 minutes he did not move from where he was suppossed to be and never once was distracted by the endless dancing, swaying, climbing, talking, ect by the other five and six year olds!
Jamahl and his buddy Landon had a special speaking part. Luckily Landon didn't really want to speak into the mic because Jamahl was loving every minute of it.
When did he become such a big boy? He was by far the most handsome boy there! We had a great evening up at school, and then went for dessert afterwards with Grammie and Poppie. We are very lucky to be in a school district where we can celebrate Christmas and sing songs like "Away in the Manger". Jamahl is truley blessed with a wonderful teacher and classmates. How fast the year is going!

Toddler bed nightmare!

Well, we had a great run with our cribs but I am very sad to say that it is over. It came to a quick end when the three girls who share a room all learned how to climb out on the same evening. Our week went something like this...

Monday-Paul had the girls by himself for the evening. He saw them looking at the wipes and talking about the pictures that were on the front...he continued to make their dinner...it wasn't long before he heard them all laughing hysterically. He looked into the living room to find BOTH full containers of wipes completely emptied and strewn all over the living room. He proceeded to put them all in their beds in a time out so that he could clean it all up. He once again begins to hear hysterical laughing so he enters their room to find Abagayle and McKenzy out of their cribs. (This is the first time they have gotten out). He put them back in with a good "daddy" lecture and again left the room. Well, just to make sure they had perfected their move, they tried again and succedded to get out once more. So, as only a very frustrated and tired Dad of five can do, he calmly moved those two to a time out. Well, that didn;t go so well either since they just kept clapping their hands, saying"yeah Daddy!" the entire time. Paul couldn ot wait to get to bed time, which actually went quite smoothly because they were so tired.

Tuesday-I took Keyan to therapy so Grammie had the other three. At nap time she laid down the law and told them all to stay in their beds. As soon as she left Sidney yelled. "Let's get out!" to which Abby replied, "No!!! Grammie is watching!" Well, the fear of Grammie worked and they took a very nice nap.

Wednesday-Here is where everything went to heck. Our dear neighbor Sherry had offered to stay with the girls while I went for ONE hour to help in Jamahls classroom. I was thrilled and since it was nap time felt pretty confident that the Hogan girls would not give her too much trouble. During that hour, Keyan had explosive poop...Sherry changed it, but while doing so heard a lot of noise coming from the girls bedroom. She quick finished with Keyan and went to check on the others only to find them all out of their cribs running around. They had pulled EVERYTHING out of their dresser, and Abby had runny poop leaking out of her diaper onto the floor. Sherry shooed them out into the living room and tried to just blot up some of the mess only to come back to the living room to find the girls into the wipes and wipes all over!!! SHe gathered them and started changing nasty diapers. While she was up to her elbows in poop, Abby decided to balance on the ledge between the living room and kitchen and Keyan decided to go head first over the back of the couch. That was about the time that I came back home. Sherry said said she felt like she was in a movie and could not beleive how fast they were. I felt terrible and can only pray that I haven't lost a great friend due to the terrible threes!!!! That evening, the sides came off the cribs. The girls thought this was very fun and enjoyed playing and bouncing in the new beds. However, when bedtime came around they all wanted "the gates" back on the beds. They were finally asleep by 11:30pm!

Thursday-During nap time they broke one of the drawers to the dresser...needless to say nap time is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Friday- I decide that they needed to go to sleep before 11:30 so I would lay on the floor and make them stay in their beds. Well, that would have been fine if I were a spider mommy with eight hands! I was constantly running from one bed to the other putting them back. It was useless.....let them wear themselves out even if it is midnight!

Currently- Two weeks later, their room has a gate in the doorway, NO DOOR, the closet has tension rods to lock it (althought the have figured out if they all run and crash into the door at the same time, the tension rod will fall), the CD player and sound machine are in the hallway, and the beds no longer have wheels because they were playing bumper beds! The good news....the are going to sleep between 10 and 10:30! Thank God for baby steps.

Things are starting to look up even if they wind up sleeping at the gate!!!

Birthday number 6

We really did have a birthday party on November 27th for Jamahl. I feel just awful that it has taken so long to update the blog but the good news is....my wonderful, brilliant husband got my computer up and runnning so that I can once again keep everyone abreast of the fun here at the Hogan house.




So, a few Tuesdays ago our house was transformed into a pirate/barakai, boys paradise. We had a pirate cake, pin the flag on the pirate ship, barakai table settings, balloons, streamers, his own throne, and much more. Jamahl choose the menu for the evening which consisted of pigs in a blanket, chips and dip, carrots, and a salad. We had Uncle Jeremy and Auntie Roo and good friends of ours Dave and Laurie over and we all played crazy games, ate kid food, and of course Jamahl opened his presents.

He recieved LOTS of Bionicles and Barakais, books, cars, large roll of paper to write stories and illustrations on, a three foot remote control dinosaur, a football, and lots of other things. We all kept telling him that we were just getting him underwear but he was glad to everything but the neccesseties! Paul and are are both amazed at the wonderful son he is. He is so gracious, patient, smart, kind, funny, and loving. We are so proud of him and can't wait to see what the next six years bring. We are so lucky to be his parents!

On the Fritz

I know that some of you are anxiously awaiting Jamahl's birthday post but my computer is on the fritz at the moment so we will all have to be patient!!! As soon as I get a chance I will let you know how the huge 6 year celebration went. Stay tuned...and pray that the computer gets repaired quickly!