So this is Christmas

This may have been one of the nicest Christmases in my opinion.  The kids slept in until 8:00, and I hadn't taken on as much homemade because of the babies...so I was in bed by 12:30 (earlier than other years).  The babies slept in even later...they got up after we'd had breakfast. 



The three older kids got up and were given permission to start opening their stockings while we got breakfast set out.  Breakfast was oranges, spiced cider, poptarts (a novelty for us), and an experimental crock pot french toast recipe that I found on Pinterest.  The french toast was the worst part of the day-- over cooked and sorta yucky.  I regretted abandoning my traditional breakfast casserole, and regretted it even more the next day (my birthday) when I didn't have leftovers for breakfast.

At any rate, no one really cared about breakfast...there were presents to open!  Too many presents, in fact.  Ok, maybe not, but the kids were so contented with everything that they could have had less and been just as happy...we had to keep them on track to finish opening them.

Mr. Fox got me a food processor, which I've wanted just forever!!  And it's as wonderful as I'd imagined.  I actually helped him get it.  I saw a FB notice from one of my thrifty/money saving sources telling about a really great deal on a food processor.  I looked it up, sure enough, about 70% marked down for Cyber Monday, good brand, good reviews on Amazon.com.  But it was late, Fox was in bed asleep already.  I went in, woke him up, told him about this amazing deal, and asked him if he wanted to get it for me.  I think he fell back asleep, and I shook his arm again, and he mumbled, "I don't know."  Well, of course I couldn't risk the deal being over the next day, so I bought it, and told him what a good husband he was afterwards. : )  (He is a really awesome husband, btw, regardless of food processors).  I have a similar story from 5 years ago when "he bought me" some cute black boots : )

Anyhow, Santa brought Moose a strider bike.



This'll be a picture to show the future dates: Buzz Lightyear jammies, superhero cape, Cinderella shoes, on a bike.

Monkey got a camera.

 

Owl and Otter got owl and otter stuffed animals from Santa, and Buntings from Fox and me.
 

Chick got a Cinderella dress and shoes. 

hem looks funny in this pic because she'd just finished twirling.

 

Santa had put a letter in under the dress, saying that Mrs. Clause had made the dress especially for Chick, but she's grown so much since last year and it might not fit right...so he was including extra fabric in case Mama had to fix it.  Which I did.  She didn't get to wear it for two days because I had to cut it open down the back and put in a zipper and button.  I'm going to pat myself on the back, though, because I think it looks rather intentional.  It's a beautiful dress...made from remnant sparkly fabrics bought long ago (for such an occasion), notions and things on hand, and a $4 thrifted formal dress.  Plus it's fully lined in white satin, so when she wears it inside out it looks like a wedding dress. 

Monkey got a photo calendar from Fox and me.  Moose got a homemade super hero cape. 

Fox's brother got us a fantastic new printer, and it's amazing.  Plus we've been without a printer for a year...so it's even more wonderful because of the stark contrast!!

Anyhow, lots of present opening, and such.  No tantrums or drama.  Sometimes my kids are the sweetest ever.  Then they spent a long time all sitting quietly at the table coloring in some new coloring books that they'd gotten.

Because Christmas sometimes feels rushed, and because getting my family out the door is often difficult and tedious, the party came to US.  My parents and my brother and his family came and had dinner with us (with all of us taking part in the food assignments, so I didn't have to stress about "hosting" much).  It was a nice informal dinner and visit.  The three older kids and my brother's two all got flashlights from my parents...and then we'd just see them as they ran from dark room to another dark room.  Lots of giggling and cousin fun : )

Oh, and a non-present: when we were getting ready to set the table I lamented using the old table that came with the house...we had a nice new one downstairs and were waiting to set it up (I think we were waiting until we'd completed the kitchen remodel that we have yet to start and have been discussing but not doing for over a year).  Anyhow, Fox agreed to set it up.  It was a Christmas miracle : )

Lastly, it doesn't matter how many babies I have, I still have to make things for Christmas.  I made song cubes-- the cubes themselves are bought, but I made the inserts.  One had 50 primary songs to use for Family Home Evening (roll the cube like a die to decide what song to sing), and the other had a set of 6 primary songs, 6 colors, and 6 generic kid songs.



I made cookies in a jar for all of the kids' sunday school teachers (and my Mom made kleenex holders for the two school teachers). 



I made a fort kit for a family exchange gift.  I had intended to make one for our family too, but I had to abandon that plan in order to not get too stressed and lose too much sleep.



And I did Christmas cards.  Some still have yet to be sent...so some of you reading may still get a card...I think I'm aiming for Presidents' Day now.....



It really was a Merry Christmas.

Showered with double the love

Back in September the gals in my family threw a shower for me and the babies.  It was really fun. We played games (that I did poorly at, but enjoyed anyhow), ate a yummy rich chocolate dessert, and of course admired the babies.  Owl and Otter got some fun new clothes and things, which I am really excited about! 

The outfits that they are wearing were a gift from our wonderful neighbor, Sharon.  They are one of my favorite sets : )

My sister Melinda gave the babies darling Halloween costumes, which we had fun trying out on them : )  you'll see more of them when I get caught up and can post Halloween pictures!

I didn't get a picture of my Mom or my sister Judy, but here's everyone else...

Owl smiling at cousin Emily. 
Emily was a bit of a baby hog,
but it's ok because she's expecting a baby of her own
and needed a bit of baby time : ) 
Plus they matched.

Otter with cousin Katie

Otter with Aunt Marlene

Otter with Aunt Melinda

Owl with Aunt Laura

Thanks for the love and support, everyone!

I forget that I'm so short.
All pictured here except for Melinda

This, That, and Cute Kids.

Ok, here's an update on happier things than yesterday....

Last night I made three pans of beef enchiladas--one for dinner (but by the time I finished it was too late for last night's dinner, so we'll have it tonight), and two for the freezer.  I have leftover meat filling, so I think I'll mix it with beans and cheese and freeze some burritos too.

I just tried a new muffin recipe (Cinnamon Raisin) that is really good.  It has a sugar glaze on it, but I think they'll be fine with just some butter....maybe cinnamon butter?  The recipe only made a dozen, so I'll have to multiply it and make more for freezing.  I did half wheat flour.

Today I scheduled the ultrasound for next week, and I can't wait.  I'm a worry wart, so I'm looking forward to seeing the babies and making sure things are good.  We had what we THINK was two good heartbeats at my appt on Monday, but they were very close together so it's hard to be sure that they were different babies.  I've also started having contractions...I hear it's common to get them earlier with each subsequent baby, and especially with twins, so I'm trying to just ignore it...but I'll feel better to be checked out.  In most of the stories that I've heard the problems don't really start this early anyhow...and my previous pregnancies really have been wonderful.....

I've done two hats on the knifty knitter.  Two isn't so great considering how quickly the knitter goes, but I was trying new things.  On one I did a coordinating band of purl stitches, and on the other I did a knit-purl alternating pattern and had it come to two points with two pom-poms. The pom-poms didn't turn out so well, so I think I'll be redoing them.  Anyhow, it's been fun : )

(Both hats are for the Relief Society service project at church, but I'm planning to do some for my kids soon)

This is a picture of the new bunk bed.  The girls seem to be alternating who sleeps where.

My sister, Laura, gave us this awesome congrats gift.  It was so clever and fun that I had to share:



Nametags, for when we are so sleep deprived we need some extra help remembering who we are.  Matching flash cards.  Juggling balls.  Doublemint gum.  He or she, what will they be.  D&E candles...which set will we need?  There was also a box of Mike & Ike's-- to help us start thinking of names (This present was given to us a couple of weeks ago and has been sitting on the counter waiting for me to take the picture...I can't blame HH for eating the Mike & Ike's in that time!)

Chick:

I can't believe what a good helper she is these days.  I think if I let her she'd bring me breakfast in bed each morning.  She is looking forward to helping with the babies, but in the meantime she's great with Monkey and Moose.

Dance class is going well, as is preschool.  She did a great job reading me a book last night-- the contractions threw her for a loop since she'd never seen them before in her reading, but she took it all in stride.

She's set a good example of imaginative play for her siblings.  There's a recurring theme of wars and people "firing" other people (which is catching them on fire)...I think it's because several American girl stories are set during war times.  We just finished reading the entire Addy collection, and it was a good way to discuss civil rights, etc.  I don't think I made it through a single chapter without getting choked up, but I did a good job of hiding it.

Speaking of American Girls:  I've mentioned before that my girls love the Molly movie.  The other night Monkey must have asked Chick something, and Chick's response was, "The food which is on my plate is..."  I smiled and said, "Did you just quote the Molly movie?"  "No, Mom.  She says 'THAT' not which.  'The vegetable that you are lucky enough to have on your plate is...'"  HH and I had to laugh: no, she hadn't quoted the movie, but evidently she could quote the whole thing if  need be!

Monkey:

My goodness this girl can really crack us up.

Whenever she sees a pregnant woman she asks if the woman has "two twin babies in her tummy"...I'm trying to help her understand that USUALLY babies come one at a time.

Monkey likes to pretend to have "two twin babies" in her tummy too, and I love hearing their names.  "Faltelana" and "Christiana" are common ones...anything ending in "ana" is popular with her.  She's a good little Mama with her baby doll, too.  She feeds her the bottle, and then walked around holding and bouncing her carefully and saying, "shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh" softly and lovingly.  It melts my heart every time.

The other night the girls learned the phrase "female" and "male." Monkey said "Mama and Chick and Me are female."  "Moose and Daddy are mailboxes."

Monkey outgrew calling the "hospital" a "hopsital" but she still has funny little ways of saying things.  One of my favorites is getting "she" and "her" mixed.  As in: "She's going to she's house."

Playing with an awesome new toy from her birthday party.

 Moose:

Ah, dear little stinker Moose.  He throws more tantrums than any child ever, it seems, but he's also very loving and sweet, and plays well with his sisters.
He sometimes goes potty in the potty seat, and I think we'll ramp up the effort in the summer when he can be outside more.  (he'd probably do really well if we consistenly gave him the opportunity...I'm just not up for the effort and possible mess right now!)
He says a lot of words now...pretty much anything you ask him to, if he's in the right mood.  My favorite is "BaLaLa" for Banana.

He's obsessed with "truck!" and "woof" and "neigh!"  (the animal sounds are always instead of the animal name, but paradoxically it's always "kikky" and not "meow")

A less positive thing: he never goes voluntarily to timeouts.  Any suggestions?  I'm trying to not pick him up (the kid is a TANK, and I can REALLY FEEL IT when I do pick him up, which can't be good), but I have to be consistent in disciplining him...he already seems to think he can get away with anything.

Oh, another funny thing: he was looking at a picture of himself from before he cut his forehead, and he touched the picture on the forehead and acted concerned (obviously wanting to say something).  My guess is that the cut is part of his definition of himself right now, so it was weird for him to see a picture without the cut.  He points the cut out to people a lot....

sorry about the red-eye.  It matches his sweater, at least....

Miscellaneous Merriness. or HO HO HO Highlights.

 We saw Santa at our ward party.  

Moose was indifferent.

Monkey warmed up once he gave her a candy cane.

Chick asked for a tractor.  (That was news to me.)

 My favorite wrapping job of the holiday.  Nicely done, HH.

 Monkey is great at pretend eating.  Here she is modelling both a felt sandwich AND the bracelet that Chick made for her!  Chick also made a bracelet for me (which I CHERISH and showed off to everyone at church on Sunday) and necklaces for both of her grandmas.

 Chick and Monkey helped Moose open his present.  He was indifferent.

Moose DOES like eating the pearl strand that was on the Christmas tree, as well as any ornaments that he could reach. 
He wisely perfected crawling at the start of December, so that he could get into more things.  

As soon as he'd mastered that skill, he got a job as a part-time kitchen floor cleaner.  

Fine by me--I didn't want to have to get a dog to clean up the table scraps anyhow.

 Moose also uses his mobility to pay social calls on cute little girls
(a practice that I'm sure will continue for quite some time...
though hopefully not just with girl COUSINS.)

These last pictures are of the kitchen that Santa made for the girls.  It's red and blue to match their tea set.  You might notice that it doesn't have a faucet yet (Chick noticed almost immediately...ahem). 

From what I understand the fault lies with Mrs Santa not ordering one in time (I don't know why, since she's been wanting to have Santa build this for quite some time), and then expecting Santa to take out the one that was in the downstairs wetbar (which Santa refused to do because it was all plumbed in.)  
Santa is very practical, you know.

But aside from the lack of faucet, I think it's a very cute little kitchen. 
One that caused ME no end of stress because SANTA can procrastinate and he's just LUCKY that he's skilled enough to have pulled it all together in time.

The girls have made me many wonderful concoctions, and seriously, 

I could watch them play cook all day long.  

It was worth the stress : ) 

More projects DONE!

It always feels a little miraculous when I finish a project...so many languish away at only half done. Well, here's the baby prep that I've done since I last posted:

I packed the emergency "getaway" bag.

I sent a copy of all of my work files & contact addresses to the back-up designer.

I made 3 changing pads. {All made from stash materials}

This first one is to be permanently stationed on the bathroom counter. We've had one there all along, but it was just a plain jane white storebought one...this one is color-coordinated and uses embroidered fabric : )

These other two (and I'm sorry about the pictures...I took them late at night with poor lighting) are changing pads with storage pockets for wipes and a couple of diapers to use when you are out and about. I used THIS tutorial, which was super easy (I used fleece for the inside, because that's what I had). The black and white one did take longer--it was inspired by THIS mini-quilt.

One of these is for a baby shower gift this weekend. Originally I made the one with red to be the gift, but now I'm not sure--the blue and green looks like it might make a better gift. What do you think? Which would you give as a gift?

Anyhow, I've also painted the cradle, but I still have one more coat to do in a few spots...and it's pouring down rain outside so I don't think I'll get to finish it today.

Today we get to go meet our new nephew/cousin, as well as go to a midwife appt. I think I'm going to do some mega cooking of muffins to freeze, and work on getting the last pictures hung in my bedroom. Wish me luck!

Oh, and I wanted to mention how great THIS site is. It's called Starfall and has phonics activities for kids. It's simple enough that Chick can do it by herself, but cute enough that it doesn't drive parents crazy when sitting with your child (unless your child does Z twelve times and you have to hear the Zigzag people song over and OVER AND OVER). I also received my order of Sandpaper letters from THIS etsy shop. They are GORGEOUS.

Weekend Fun

Happy Spring! We had a really wonderful first day of spring. We started out the day with a breakfast/devotional/egg hunt at church. Sadly, I didn't realize that my camera didn't have the memory card in it until we were there. It was fun, though.

Next we worked in the yard. I might have mentioned before that we've had 2 little boys (who haven't the etiquette yet to not tell the blatant truth), on 2 separate occasions, tell us that our back yard looks like a junk yard. Don't I know it. It still does, though it's better than it was. Anyhow, we were out there for a couple of hours and made some good progress--I cleared out yard debris, and HH worked on weeds, piling up some wood, and cutting up the old (huge) antennae to put in the garbage. The girls worked on picking dandelions, playing with the wagon, jumping on the mini-tramp, raking (Chick), and getting filthy (Monkey). Then Monkey got a bath, and we all had lunch and a few minutes of rest before it was time to leave again.

After a quick stop to Fred Meyers, that didn't turn out to be quick in the least, we went to cousin K's first birthday party. It was lots of fun. I had my camera, but didn't think to take any pictures. This is the only one that I took: (blowing bubbles with cousin Ben)
I did take pictures of the market skirt that I made, though. It looks wide & short, which isn't what I was going for, since K is tall...I don't know how it will fit. I took measurements & supposedly the skirt should fit, but I don't believe it.

After the party we came home and spent some time in the front yard--I weeded the flower beds a bit, HH weeded in the lawn, and the girls played with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. It was a really lovely day.

Today was church. Then Chick and HH went into the backyard for a while to enjoy the sunshine, while Monkey and I took little cat naps. Now the girls are dancing in their pettiskirts and it's time to eat dinner. So bye.