January Misc

Here are a few random pics from the rest of our January...

Balloon Bellies

After our Noon Year's Eve party, Jaden and Cody got a thrill out of playing with all of the leftover balloons in our home. One morning, both of them stuffed balloons up their shirts and said, "We look just like Mommy!"

 

And they truly did! :)

New Furniture

In order to prepare a nursery for our new baby, we had to shuffle around some of our upstairs furniture. Jaden and Cody's cube organizer shelf was relocated to the new baby room. It didn't really fit their clothes too well anymore anyway, so we were happy to purchase a new dresser for them from IKEA. Both boys (but especially Jaden, pictured more often towards the end) enjoyed helping with the process of assembling the dresser.

One of their favorite tasks was looking at the direction pictures and finding the right hardware for each step. It almost felt like they were doing Legos! :)

Because he stuck with the assembly process for so long, by the end, Jaden was doing quite a few steps completely independently. He was very proud.

Here is the look of their room now with the "big boy" dresser. We love it!

King Cake

At one of our family dinners in January, Papa and Grammy brought a King Cake for dessert. Since none of our boys knew anything about this tradition, Papa and Grammy read them a library book that taught about the wise men, Epiphany, and Mardi Gras. The boys were all great listeners (which was somewhat surprising considering they were all eyeing the yummy looking dessert!).

Grammy and Papa told the boys about the tradition of hiding a small baby inside the King Cake. Cody was very bothered by this-- "But it's not FAIR if only one of us finds a baby!" Grammy sure knows her grandsons! :) She had already planned ahead and made individual "King cupcakes" decorated in Mardi Gras colors for the boys. Each one of the cupcakes contained a small plastic baby. What a fun experience it was for the boys to find this hidden toy inside their dessert! 

All of the adults got to enjoy the actual King Cake pictured below. It was delicious! Kim was the lucky baby-finder in this dessert-eating experience. Apparently that means she has to provide the King Cake next year. Thanks for the fun idea, Grammy and Papa!

Playtime

Jaden and Cody have been very into coloring this past month. They were particularly into coloring pages from their coloring books we had given them for Christmas. Both boys amaze us with their attention to detail and their extreme focus when they are coloring. They spend a LONG time on each picture! Jaden colored all the Ninja Turtle pics below while Cody was the Minion artist. :)

One day while we were playing outside, Jaden and Cody told me that they were "Cone Monsters" and tried to chase after me. It was a little hard for them to run with cones on their feet!

Cody and Jaden's all-time favorite pastime continues to be building Lego sets. Last month, they decided that they wanted to build every single set that they own. Unfortunately, most of the pieces in these sets were all mixed up. It was a little frustrating (for all of us) searching our tubs for each small individual piece. So, we spent some time sorting the Legos into color piles which made the task of piece-finding so much easier!

Once the boys finished building all of their sets, they pretended that the dining room table was their Lego city. In fact, our table is still covered with these Lego sets (although the pieces are now all assembled or put away thankfully). Jaden and Cody will spend much of their time each day in the dining room, naming their Lego guys and engaging in imaginary play within their Lego city.

Baby Showers

Last month, our family was so blessed to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our new little girl with not just one but two thoughtful baby showers! First, the church and school staff at Salem planned a shower that was a surprise to Jason. The fellowship hall was beautifully decorated-- of course with girly pink decor (flowers, frill, and tulle).

Even the table centerpieces were elegant. So beautiful!  

After I picked the boys up from preK, we headed over to the church fellowship hall and waited expectantly for Jason to arrive. We were happy that Mom and Dad were able to be in on the surprise and celebration too.

Jason thought he was coming to the fellowship hall to help a co-worker fold tablecloths. Nope! He was quite surprised.

After Jason's arrival, we were allowed to go through line and sample some of the food that we had been eyeing. The ladies thought of everything from bacon wrapped meat for the guys and cute swaddled hot dogs to a wide assortment of treats dipped in pink chocolate. Everything was not only delicious, it also looked fancy too.

Jaden and Cody, of course, loved their much-larger-than-normal after school snack. :)

One of our friends had planned a variety of activities to keep Cody and Jaden happy and occupied during the shower. Unfortunately, the boys weren't in the best of moods after their long day of preK (as typically is the case), so they didn't spend too long on any one activity. It was still a very thoughtful touch, though! Our friend Lauren had bought white bibs and white onesies for the boys to decorate using fabric markers and stencils. The process was a little frustrating for Jaden and Cody, so they didn't finish either one.

Lauren's daughter Mila, however, had a hand-designed onesie that turned out quite beautiful!

Jaden and Cody had a little more interest in the playdough and the playdough stamps.

Lauren even planned a game for the boys to practice tossing diapers into a basket. So cute!

The biggest hit was when Lauren gave Cody and Jaden a couple of matchbox cars in their favorite colors. What a sweet friend!

Also in the gift bag were sparkly personalized photo books that the boys can use to show off pictures of their new baby sister someday soon.

For the rest of the shower attendees, our friend Kim had planned a Baby Jeopardy game. The categories included nursery rhyme fill in the blank, baby things, baby facts, Disney moms, and my personal favorite-- who said it? In this final category, Kim read off answers that Jaden and Cody had given her when she interviewed them with a variety of baby questions. Our job was to guess if the quote was from Cody, Jaden, or both boys.

The room was divided into 3 teams-- our family table, the Girls and the Guys.

The guys team actually did surprisingly well-- a knowledgeable father of 4 (including a baby just born in November) pretty much swept most of the categories. In the end, though, Kim rigged the final jeopardy procedures so that our family table would win. :)

The ladies' table: Betsy, Robin, Jill, Luanne, Lisa, Catherine

The guys' table -- Marty, Joey, Joe, Pastor Tim, Kevin, and Alden with his mommy Lauren

The last portion of the shower included a gift opening. We were so humbled by the generosity shown by the staff! We received quite a few precious baby outfits, boxes of diapers & wipes, blankets, a baptismal dress, hair bows, and more. 

Jaden and Cody's preschool class (which is called the Butterfly class) assembled this butterfly using baby receiving blankets and diapers. How adorable! Every kiddo in their class signed the accompanying card.

What a blessing it is to be a part of such a thoughtful staff! We loved the celebration!

That same weekend, a different group of people threw us another baby shower. It was held in the same fellowship hall, so the scenery will look familiar. :) This time the shower was not a surprise for Jason. The kids from his 5th and 6th grade Sunday leadership team (SHAPE) and their parents organized this event. This shower was held right after church, so the first item of business was lunch. The yummy assortment of food was delicious... and kid-friendly too. Cody and Jaden were especially excited about the dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.

This is probably the group of kids and parents whom Jason is most heavily involved with in his ministry, and he is well-loved by them. There was quite a large showing of people!

The games at this shower were geared for the middle school age group, so it had a little different feel to it than the previous shower. First, one parent led a "How Well Do You Know the Schleichers?" game with a variety of trivia about our family.

Then, Jason had to smell melted candy bars on a group of diapers and determine which candy bar was which. Jason's youth (and our boys!) thought this was quite amusing.

Next, both Jason and I had to sample tastes of baby food and identify which kind was which. I made my own baby food for Jaden and Cody, so Jason and I were horrible at identifying the processed foods! Some of them tasted just awful! We probably accurately guessed 3 out of the 10 kinds of food.

One of the next games was called Diaper Dash. I never really heard the rules of this game and ended up talking to some parents while this was played, so I'm not exactly sure what they did. It looked like a type of relay where the teams ran diapers back and forth down the hallway.

At the end, we opened the generous pile of presents for our little girl. You can't tell in any of the below pictures, but a group of 8 to 10 girls sat on the floor in a line right in front of us, so eager to see all the gifts. Meanwhile, many of the boys in attendance played chasing games with Jaden and Cody in the back of the room. Not surprisingly, our boys loved the attention and had a grand time at this shower!

In this picture, Cody and Jaden are holding toy vehicles that one of the families gifted to them. How sweet! We were again humbled by the kindness and thoughtfulness that was shown to us at this shower. What a memorable afternoon, celebrating our sweet little girl!