A Gleason Family Christmas

(From Matt Gleason)
It's almost February, but here's a recap of our Christmas that went by much too quickly.

Presents are a great diversion the week leading up to Christmas, so we give the kids one present a night for several days. After all, it's discouraging to watch them tear into one gift after another on Christmas day and never really take time to appreciate each gift. I think the kids like the tradition too. The gifts from aunts, uncles and cousins from each of our tribes gets a designated night. Then us parent-folk get our night. Christmas Eve is reserved for Nanue's grand pajama tradition that dates back to my youth. I have more pajama pants than I could ever wear, but I love them. I'm actually wearing a pair of jalapeno-themed PJs as I write this. Anyway, Santa delivered his gifts to the girls on Christmas morning. Georgia got a wonderful doll house (much hitting and scratching has come from that dang thing). Darby got a wooden toy train. I always tell people D's the closest thing I'm going to get to a son. I think she probably would have liked a doll house, too. Oh well. As for MJ, she was oblivious to all the gifts but I can't wait until next year when my three precious girls wake us up eager to see what Santa delivered. My parents came into town the day after Christmas, so we had Christmas Part II pretty much as soon as they arrived. I'm so glad they came. Them coming to Tulsa was the best gift they could give us.

We are blessed.
(Virginia's picture update)
This picture is from one of the pre-Christmas gift opening in which the girls gave gifts to each other.



I found these matching Snoopy dresses at a consignment store and thought they were hilarious. Both are size 5T but since they were dresses I got them and figured Darby could wear it a little long. When I got home I got in to one of my boxes of clothes and found a perfect little polka dot outfit for MJ. They look on Mera's face says, "Why would you leave me here with these two?"









My sister had a great idea to get my mom a tree lit up in the valley for Christmas. It took some team work and a generator but we pulled it off and it was the hit of the party X-mas Eve. We figure the tree was about 500 feet from the house.

My husband wanted to get me a pink tool box but he couldn't find one so instead he got me a black one and haad the girls cover it in 1,000 princess stickers.

Here is Kiki before she popped.

MJ taking it all in.

G and Darby seeing their Santa gifts.



Monkey bread and cheese balls for breakfast.

Christmas morning with the Tulsa family.



Darby got a Dora dress up set adn the shoes alone make it worth whatever it cost.



Darby putting Uncle Billy in a bucket.

Princess Uncle Billy.

Christmas is about special treats like TV and cheese balls.

My Sweet G

I just wanted to take a minute to express how much I enjoy my oldest child. I know it has to be a little hard for her right now because we have the baby, who is super-cute, but takes up a lot of my time and attention. Then we also have Darby, who is also super-cute, but also demanding and sometimes a bit hateful to her big sister.
Here are some of the things I love about Georgia:
1. She is always happy. She rarely has a bad mood or fit and instead chooses to spend her days helping and smiling.
2. Which brings me to what a big helper she is. She loves to help cook and clean and run errands around the house for me. A special thing for her to get to do is go to my mom's alone and help her cook dinner.
3. She is very affectionate. She always has hugs and kisses to give out, especially to her sisters and her best friend from school. Recently her little friend was having a hard time and Georgia said she spent part of the day just sitting with her friend at school so she wouldn't be sad instead of going to "centers."
4. She is a wonderful big sister. She is working so hard on learning how to deal and handle all of Darby's various moods. It is a lot of work for me, I can only imagine how hard it is for G to stay on an even keel with Darby all day. But she does it and they play together wonderfully. She is so maternal towards Mera and would sit and hold her all day if I let her. Mera, in return, lights up when she sees G and laughs harder at the things she does than anyone else.
5. She is so smart and has such a desire to learn. This speaks for itself, but everyday she surprises me with the things she says like, "who is the author of this book?"

Mera is up now so I better publish before I loose my chance. I could go on and on...

...So I will pick up where Virginia left off:

(Matt Gleason)
First off, all of the amazing things found in our precious Georgia are found in her mama. So here's a few other things to love about G.
1. She's an artist. Paper's lucky to have her painting it.
2. She loves to learn. Lately, one of my favorite things is helping her do her homework (she actually digs it). And she never fails to surprise me when she's working one-on-one with Petra, the kind lady who comes by the house on Wednesday nights to teach G. I suspect Petra also gets a kick about how G is such a smart and ever-curious student.
3. Georgia falls asleep on the couch to let her baby sister go to bed easier in their shared room. G doesn't much like the couch, but she's a sweet girl to take a hit for the team. She'll soon have a room of her own. Until then, I love carrying a sleeping Georgia to her bed once D's asleep.
4. She holds my hand when I walk her to class and she lights up when I pick her up from school. That always makes my day.
5. She gives as much hell (and love) as she takes from Darby.
Like Virginia said, I could go on and on...

One More Thing

My brother and Sister-in-law had their twin girls last Thursday. They weighed in at 4lbs 6ozs and 4lbs 10ozs. Being born at a little over 34 weeks means they will be spending a few weeks in the NICU but they are both breathing on their own and eating well. Mom is doing awesome and is out of the hospital as of today. Names are Analiese Jane and Genevieve Alice. I am sure I will have some pictures of them up soon.

See, I knew there was another reason I had gotten behind on my blogging.

Current MJ Picture

I will come back and post all of our Christmas Pictures but the baby is growing so fast. Here is a picture of her from the other night. Check out the two teeth she got at five months.

Mera and Biggest Sis

Stackerific

That Darby loves to stack!

Night-Time Visitor

This little guys showed up on our porch one night and both kids were still up to see it.

Class Party

G had class holiday party and we made cookies to take. I should say I made them because I was to nervous the kids would mess them up to let them help.



And the only picture I can find is of Georgia and her best friend's dad.

(taken 12/17)

Presents for Teachers

We always try to make something special around the holidays for the kids teachers and other mentor types. This year we made picture frame ornaments and packaged them with some edible goodies. The kids loved it and were great helps.



(Pictures taken Dec. 13th)

Bubble Faces

These were taken December 12th.

Explanation for my Absence

Well I have be neglectful to the blog too long. This post may be short or it may be long but it is up to a sleeping baby. First I would like to explain why I have not blogged. The reason, besides busy holidays, is a life-sucking force named "Mera." She refuses to let anyone but me hold her without crying inconsolably. I hold her, she is happy. You hold her, she cries. I hold her, she is happy. Daddy holds her, she cries. I hold her, she is happy. My mom holds her, she cries. So you get the picture. This leads to me neglecting two very important things; my other children and my house. So on the weekends when I do have free-time I spend it with my other two kids or cleaning house, not blogging. Can you blame me?

Now you may wonder why I don't have time in the evenings. Well Mera can't make up her mind if she wants to sleep for 20 minutes or 40 minutes or two hours for the first part of her night sleep. So I try to spend a few kid-free moments with my husband discussing our days and issues with the other kids before having to go nurse my sweet baby back to sleep (while playing on my iPhone so not all that bad).

So there it is. She is still asleep so I will try to throw some pictures up for those who just come for that.

Princess Party

One of the girls friends had a princess party adn both the kids were so excited. Darby went dressed as Snow White adn G waited to pick out a costume when we got there. The both got hair, make-up and nails done. Here is G's final product.

Darby getting sparkle eyes.

The finished look.

Mera didn't get her hair done:(

Then they all danced with Belle.

And did a fashion show for everyone.

G's fashion show was so fast she was a blur.

Bath Time with Mera

There has been an absence of Mera bath pictures on the blog because she and I take a shower together every night. Every now and then I drop in the sink for fun and here she is. It is never too early to start practicing good oral hygiene.

No Mo Dy-dee-do

From Matt Gleason: Georgia, god love her, will be five in April. Still, she's slept with a pacifier since babyhood. It's a part of her. We tried to coax it away from her a few times, but eventually gave up. Last night, though, an opportunity to free Georgia from the crackpipe that is her pacifier presented itself. Somehow, the pacifier went missing. I swear I didn't take it. For quite a while, Georgia's had a standing offer that if she gave up the pacifier, we'd buy her Cinderella on DVD. So in the absence of the pacifier yesterday, we offered to take Georgia to see "Tangled" at the theater. She's been talking about the movie since it came out. It was an exciting possibility for Georgia, because she's never been to a movie theater before ... and she's a sucker for candy. Amazingly, Georgia went to bed without a fight. Of course, she woke around 5:15 a.m. wondering where in the Dora the Explorer her pacifier went. Then she came looking for me in bed at 5:30. I was none too happy, but sacrifices had to be made for Georgia to be dy-dee free.

Later, at the movie theater, me, Virginia, M.J. and Georgia had an arsenal of smuggled candy to eat during the flick, which turned out to be an outstanding movie. Georgia, however, seemed like she wanted to bolt every few minutes. For a kid who once ran screaming from an Elmo movie, it probably wasn't smart to take her to a movie that included: A kidnapping, fatal stabbing, countless scary guys with swords, a near-drowning and an evil witch. Towards the end of the movie, we left the theater altogether. Just before we walked into the parking lot, Virginia asked Georgia if she wanted to go back to the movie. Georgia, surprisingly, did. We got back in the theater just in time for the handsome rogue to get stabbed by the witch. Not cool. But we waited long enough for Georgia to see the princess get her happy ending. Afterward, Georgia said the movie made her, in no particular order: "Happy," "sad" and "scared." I, for one, loved it. So did Virginia. A great date movie, even if the date involved calming a nervous 4-year-old in my lap while my amazing wife nursed a baby for the better part of 90 minutes.

So, in all, it was a very historic day for the Gleason family. Now it's time to bribe Darby to poop on the big girl potty.

Thanksgiving 2010

Captions by Matt Gleason:
A Daddy's dream come true. My girls do love their football, especially baby M.J.

Georgia is such a great helper in the kitchen. She's wrapping potatoes in foil for Virginia's amazing Thanksgiving twice-baked potato casserole. Yum. My favorite.

A little science lesson about turkey innards from Mary Byrne.

I think I was the only one who thought this was gross. The girls loved it.

A family picture sans Darby, who we weren't about to interrupt eating. She's "spirited," as we like to say, when she gets hungry. Man, that Virginia sure is a beauty just like her baby girls.

The Cousins. Blake looks so nice here, but he's a ruthless Blackjack player. And Michelle, well, she's a mean drunk. Just kidding. We always love when Blake and Michelle come to town. Come back soon, guys.

No, that's not a turkey in Kiki's shirt.

The first of many pictures Bob probably wishes didn't end up on the blog.

Baby: The other, other white meat.

Am I the only one unsettled by this?

Put that thing away, Bob! You're scaring the baby.

We were glad when Bob took her tongue out of Billy's ear for this picture.

The return of Rock Star Darby.

Please, no pictures.