Christmas day

It was the year of the doll for the girls this year, and they spent the day playing with them and changing outfits. The older boys spent most of their time driving their new remote controlled cars in the garage. G&G bought an X-box and Kinect, so that is what Greg and Eric are doing in those two funny photos-playing a video game. It's pretty entertaining to watch. :) It was great to be with everyone again (Ryan and Michelle moved to Sisters,OR in August), and we all were marveling at how each year our gatherings get more relaxed and more fun as the kids grow older.  This may have been the best yet.

Christmas Eve

I only had the camera out for a little while, so I don't feel like the photos represent the good time we had on Christmas Eve with the Arnold side. I didn't even get Grandma or Grandpa in any of them! Just terrible. The kids were super excited and full of energy, as it was the start of Christmas and present opening for them. We had a delicious dinner and did birthday cake for Jesus that night.

When we got home the kids set out the cookies for Santa, along with the picture Joel drew of Santa (on the front) and his reindeer (on the back). They left a note to tell him the milk was in the frig, even though they figured he probably knew where to find the milk since he goes to so many houses every year. Our kids know the real reason we celebrate Christmas, and they know Santa is not real, but they sure had fun pretending. Joel was the driving force behind all the Santa imagining. He really wanted Santa to be real. Greg did his duty and ate the cookies and milk, leaving notes behind for the kids to find in the morning.
 

Christmas photo warm-up

Christmas was really fun this year, and I have a lot of photos to post, but I thought I'd start with a few favorites of the kids. They make Christmas so much fun. I love shopping for them (good thing we stick to a budget because I could have kept going!), and they didn't disappoint me with their reactions to what they were given.

Merry Christmas!

Silly kids

Kari was at school during this funny little photo session. It all started when Aubrey asked me to take her picture with Grant. She and Joel came up with the rest together.

Kari's 7th Birthday--Snowflake theme

Kari had a very busy day on Friday, her real birthday. Birthday breakfast with Grandpa A., a little friend party full of little girl crafts in the morning , and a big family party that night. How much fun can you cram in one day? 

One of my favorite moments was seeing Kari's face when she opened her present from us, Kit Kittredge, the American girl doll she has been asking for and talking about for quite some time. She is absolutely thrilled to have Kit, and I know she will take good care of this special doll. We just have to keep Kit away from Aubrey. :)

Sweet baby feet

In my obsessive efforts to make this...

...in order to complete our set of these...

...I almost missed out on all of this!

(Grant just recently discovered his feet--so cute!)

Birthday season is upon us (Kari's 7th b-day tomorrow), along with the Christmas season, which makes for some stress around here, most of it self-imposed. Even though we will be putting almost nothing in Grant's stocking, and he couldn't care less about a stocking, I really wanted him to have one, and I really wanted to have it done before Kari's birthday so our mantle would be complete for when people come for her parties (yes, more than one). As you can see, I did it! However, two nights ago I decided it would be ok if I didn't get it done in time. The other kids were in bed, Greg was out for the evening, and I was frantically trying to work on the stocking, but Grant was not cooperating. He was tired of sitting in the bouncer and was letting me know it. Complain, fuss, fuss. Feeling frustrated, I put my sewing down and took Grant out of the bouncer. The fussing stopped abruptly, and when I sat him on my knees, I received a big huge grin. I didn't do any more sewing that night. Instead, I played with my baby, let him have some naked diaper time, and spent some time marveling at the amazing gift of roly, poly baby-ness God gave us. I also thought about how God sent Jesus down to earth as a baby, perhaps a roly poly one like mine. It was a sweet time, and I'm so thankful God used Grant to remind me to slow down, take a break, and reflect on the true meaning of this Christmas season.

 I do have to say I'm thankful I got the stocking done, though, too. :) Time to work on the party planning to-do list!

Making a list and checking it twice

I so appreciate the classroom newsletter Kari's teacher sends home each week (really like her teacher, too!) It keeps us informed and helps us know what to ask Kari about. This is much needed information since I haven't been able to help out in the classroomthis year and because Kari is not forthcoming with information. This week's newsletter included an interesting and entertaining section--all the kids' Christmas "wish lists." Here's Kari's:
American Girl doll (Kit Kittredge), cat, bike basket, scotch tape, an apple tree...for a treehouse!
There sure were a lot of wishes for animals on that list. I think the kid asking for a llama might be in for some disappointment.

Christmas photos

I was thrilled to get some good photos of all four kids, and I was shocked when we got one with all four of them smiling in the right direction. :) Made me happy.

Four months

Grant turned four months old on Saturday. He is down to getting up two times a night now, which I can handle, and is much happier these days. Don't grow up too quickly, though, little man! I am enjoying you too much.

He still loves attention and hates being alone. Good thing he has a few siblings to keep him entertained all hours of the day. He really doesn't like being in the car, especially the going home part of every trip. It doesn't seem to matter whether he's fed, hungry, rested, or tired. He's been screaming the entire way home from every outing lately. We went to Zoolights on Saturday, and he screamed for 30 minutes straight on the ride home. Not sure what the problem is, but we're hoping it gets better soon. We can't turn him around to face forward for another 8 months!

Grant loves the johnny-jump-up. He's the youngest baby we've put in it who could actually do it! This last week I thought I'd just try and see what he thought. He figured it out right away and seems to love bouncing. We've got the perfect spot for it. He can watch me while I'm working in the kitchen and watch the kids play in the living room at the same time. It's so cute to watch his little feet go, and now if you try to stand him up on your lap, he tries to jump. :)
















That first day he wore himself out and jumped himself to sleep! (We took him out right after we snapped the picture.)

What a week

It's amazing how quickly things can go downhill. We had a great weekend and had fun getting our tree, and then Monday came, and things quickly deteriorated around here. I got a terrible sinus infection, one of the top 5 worst I've had, and had a pretty miserable day on Monday. The kids did pretty well entertaining themselves and giving Mommy grace. Monday evening Kari got sick and started puking. Two hours later, I joined her, and we both were up all night, along with Nurse/Launderer Greg. I commented later on facebook that the sinus infection really was a blessing in a way--no sense of smell! Tuesday was a sick day, really knocked us flat. Wednesday our dryer started malfunctioning (was an easy fix for the repair man when he came, a baby overall button was stuck), and then Wed. evening we discovered a leak under our dishwasher that had been going on for who knows how many weeks. Our dining room and kitchen floors were ruined. Our insurance company came through for us beautifully, though, and it's all going to be covered (thanks, Uncle Matt and American Family!). So, we are getting the damage repaired and having new floors put in tomorrow. It should all be over and done with by Wednesday. Isn't that wonderful? We're feeling pretty thankful.

Here are some photos of the calm before the storm. The kids decorated the tree on Sunday. Usually Greg and I do some redistributing later after they go to bed, but that never happened due to all the crazy happenings, so until a couple days ago, our tree only had ornaments on the bottom half. The neighbor girl I take to school with Kari each morning thought it was pretty funny when she came over later in the week. She helped move some ornaments around.



Grant watched all the action from the recliner. :)

Tree fetching

Can you believe we got a tree for $10? We went to a different place this year not far from home that had a very quaint, country feel to it. We were the only ones there, and it was great. Only one kind of tree (Grand), but it's a kind we like, and you can't beat that price!

Cousins--4 1/2 months apart

This is the only photo I have from our Thanksgiving with the Arnold family, but isn't it a good one?

Big man, little man

Icy, thin layer of snow

The kids couldn't wait to go out yesterday morning. I felt kinda bad that they had so little to play in after all the hype and expectation, but they were happy. They're all set to go out to play again this morning, as it is still around. We sure are loving our wood stove this week!

A little this, a little that

Grant getting read to again--so sweet. Kari loves holding her baby brother.











No, Joel has not sprouted a mop. It was silly hair day at preschool. He borrowed the wig a month ago from the dress-up bin at Grandma and Grandpa's house so he'd be ready when the long-awaited day finally arrived. He's wearing his "Indian" vest they made for Thanksgiving week and holding his Thanksgiving placemat.










Aubrey has been spending a lot of time playing with Playmobil lately. Maybe our tornado girl has some organization in her after all. See how she lined up all the beds?









Joel and Aubrey have gotten into a lot LESS mischief now that I have them separated during rest time once again. This was one of the activities I had them do this last week to avoid a double-trouble disaster while I was doing a bunch of cooking/baking in the kitchen. I forgot how long big paper taped to the table can occupy little ones. It was great!