Christmas Eve~2008

Christmas Eve! The girls and I (while Lacey was napping) made a snowman! They decided to name him "Frosty"~original! I did most of the heavy lifting but they used the snowman parts to make him come to life!
We tried to go to church. Tried. Like my sister said, we were in a church. It was sooooo crowded and the kids couldn't see a thing so it was not worth staying for. Better luck next year! Besides we still had a busy night ahead of us!

We had to make cookies for Santa!

We tried a group picture in front of the tree, Lacey wasn't much interested! We kept the TV off all evening (which sad as it is, is pretty much always on after dinner) and instead listened to Chistmas carols, the kids danced in the living room while they waited for the cookies to cool enough to decorate, and we watched home videos of our family outings. It was a quiet, peaceful evening.

Taylor and Molly each chose a cookie to leave for Santa and then we placed the cookies and milk near the tree for Santa to find. All were in bed and asleep by 9 pm!

Christmas Day~2008

Merry Christmas! I was awakened by the sound of little footsteps around 5:30 am! I got to the living room to find that Taylor and Molly had sorted all the presents into piles by name. Excited as they were they agreed to put them all back so that Morgan would be able to see them under the tree as Santa had intended. Then I went back to bed! Two hours later a little face asked if I was going to be getting up soon ; ) I had to wake Lacey, as you can tell by her hesitation , as her two perky sisters insist she open presents.
Morgan got a box full of Max and Ruby books, a shirt, and a toy. She had to pause a moment to quickly flip through her new books.

Lacey got the hang of it but was still willing to take the ever-ready help from her big sisters.

One of the boxes was To: Fancy Girls. It contained CD's (which went with the CD player with working microphones that came later that day) dress-up shoes, dress-up clothes, pretend microphones and a pretend head-set microphone like singers wear. Or as my husband commented, "McDonald's employees"

Lacey in her pretty dress with one of her new babies. It was really a great Christmas. We all scaled back this year and it was so nice. There weren't tons of gifts and the girls really were happy and grateful for everything they received. After opening Santa's gifts, Grandpa Gene and Grandma Sue arrived and we had brunch with them while we watched some of the Disney parade. We got dressed and cleaned up and headed to Grandma Dar and Grandpa Ed's house. We had some more presents there and the girls had a good time playing with their cousins. After an early dinner, the kids watched a movie while the adults visited. On Friday, we went to Grandma Sue's house and had dinner there with Grandpa Gene's family. Taylor and Carter were connected at the hip most of the night (he's 4 and just thinks Taylor is the coolest~~~poor kid!). A few more gifts arrived (in a red bag on the front porch!) and then Gene played his guitar and the kids danced or played their own instruments along with him. Very cute! The best present of all was being with family and friends.

Snow Day

The second week in a row we've had a snow day! They'll be going to school until July at this rate! Chris took the kids in the backyard to play. Lacey and I watched through the patio doors. Morgan had a heck of a time with the snow so deep. The paper said we got 12.5 inches~on top of what we already had!
I just thought all the shovels in a row made for a cute picture!

Gingerbread House Day

Taylor's school has the 1st graders make Gingerbread Houses. You can tell they've been doing this for awhile, it ran like clockwork! Wednesday, parent volunteers prepped a foil covered rectangle for each child and then hot-glued graham crackers to a milk carton. I helped on Thursday when the kids got to decorate.

Some kids slathered on the frosting and others were more conservative. Taylor was timid at first but by the end you could barely find the house underneath.

Proud of her creation!

Close Enough

The girls were very interested, but that's as close as they were willing to get.
He caught us watching him and waved. Taylor waved back and then said she would sit on his lap with Lacey, Molly would have none of it, and Morgan was happy to see him but I had little faith she would be brave enough to approach....plus we weren't willing to stand in line to have them freak out in the end. So we played it safe this year and watched from afar. Ho Ho Ho

Book then Bed.........

Morgan loves these little letter books. She wants to be prompted through them. 'What's that?" "What's that?" Lacey is looking at the letter G very intently~she must be deciding what page looks the tastiest!

Christmas Cookies

Time to decorate cookies! It's my mom's mom's recipe for cut-outs and they have to be rolled super thin (not something I was very good at when I tried to do it a few years ago) so Grandma Dar made the cut-outs ahead of time and we were just in charge of decorating them.
Taylor is an old-pro!

A rookie, but liked to sprinkle!

Molly was very careful and did a great job not licking her fingers.....I think!

What's your function?

Last weekend I took Taylor and Molly to see the children's theatre in SP. They were performing the musical School House Rock. {The mini educational shows they use to show between cartoons on Saturday morning....surely you remember them....they were catchy!} So catchy in fact that Molly has been singing one of the lines this week, "conjunction junction, what's your function?" It makes me smile everytime!

Molly Ballerina

Molly had a visitor night tonight at ballet. We (taylor and I) were able to sit and watch her practice. So I shot some video and took some pictures. She is a "first year" so I would guess from getting a closer look at her classmates that they range in age from 3-6.
Molly loves ballet! She keeps track of all the Thursday's on the calendar and she even lays out her ballet clothes. I found them a couple of Thursday's ago taken out of her closet and layed neatly on her rocking chair. One ballet slipper on each side of the dress......I should've taken a picture! She did a great job tonight. She listened to her teacher, payed attention, and seemed to know all of the expected routines. She has just started (she began in September) to share some of her moves at home with us. She does not know any of her classmates by name. She tells me she is too shy to talk to them. I'm glad though that that doesn't keep her from enjoying the class! Money well spent!

10 degrees

Took the kids out to find a christmas tree. Yes, it's 10 degrees outside and the wind is blowing, and the kids are freezing but we have to have a tree......not any tree....'the' tree. Begin the search......................
We took the horse drawn wagon tour of the tree farm. Saw a few trees that held promise, but our bottoms were frozen to the seats and we couldn't get off!....No, we (mostly Chris) decided that we should stay on the wagon and find a tree closer to the car. About half-way through we picked up some new people and a very nice man....who had a white beard (coincidence???) led us in singing Jingle Bells. It was cute!

After the ride, the kids were starting to complain. So I looked at the pre-cut ones and liked none of them. We decided to pack up and buy a pre-cut one off of the lot they had in town. We had to take two vehicles, one full of kids (the van) and one with a rack on top (the blazer) to hold the tree. Chris got to drive the blazer....and listen to the Packer game while I got to listen to "I'm cold!" "My toes are frozen" "I want to go home" "I don't want to get a Christmas tree"........definately think Chris got the better end of that deal! We got to the lot and let the kids stay in the warm van while Chris and I picked out 'the' tree.

Back in the van the kids had gotten warmer~were whining less~and Lacey had fallen off to sleep looking a little like Rudolph!

Oh Christmas Tree........

We got the tree in the house and let it thaw for the day.
The girls couldn't wait to decorate. Molly put all of her ornaments in the same spot.

Taylor did a little better at spreading them out.

Morgan was busy decorating and undecorating.

The finished product! I think it looks pretty good!

Paint Eyes?

Morgan came into the bathroom last night as I was putting on make-up. She says to me in her cute little 2 year old voice. "Ma-ma paint eyes?"

Piggies!

Finally! I was just barely able to get some pig tails in Morgan's hair. She is almost 2 1/2! Taylor and Molly thought she looked like a deer. hee hee

The Baby Turns One!

Finally getting some pictures up from Lacey's birthday. Pretty typical 1 year old party. The paper was a big hit!

So thankfully her 'helpful' older sisters were more than happy to make sure that presents were properly unwrapped and played with. As you can see, Lacey couldn't care less!

Lacey preferred table foods by 6 months, despite not having a tooth until 8 months, so she knew exactly what to do with her first cupcake, devour!

She also loved the candle lit and thought it was great fun to be sung to.

Happy Birthday Lacey!

Naked Americans

During our circle time I've been reading the kids books about Thanksgiving. We've been discussing both Pilgrims and Native Americans. Today I wrote out the word "Native" on the chalkboard so I could show the kids what the letters were and that there was a "T" and a "V" in it so they could see and hear the sounds. Didn't want them telling all their relatives over Thanksgiving about the 'Naked' Americans!

Pizza Guy

Morgan is obsessed with the 'pizza guy'. She loves pizza. This little thing can put away a good two slices of pizza hut pizza easily! But she refers to everything as 'pizza guy'~~the pizza itself ('pizza guy hot'), the pizza box, and the delivery guy. Today we had a plumber come over to check our water softener and Morgan was all excited....and then confused why the 'pizza guy' was downstairs and didn't bring any pizza!

Happy Birthday Lacey!

Robot Molly

The Naughty Shot

The girls and I went to get our flu shots. Taylor and Molly are old enough to remember what a "shot" is and neither was very excited about going. Taylor was being sassy and stubborn (imagine that!) and I said in a very matter of fact way "I hope they don't have to give you a naughty shot at the doctor's office today too" She got wide-eyed at that and corrected her behavior. We got busy loading up the car, collecting "lovies" to take along for extra courage and headed out the door. We drove the 15 minutes or so to the clinic and as we were getting the kids out of the van Taylor asked me in her sweet 6 year old way (she can be very sweet) "do I have to get the naughty shot?" I had to hide my smile as I replied "I hope not." So she does listen when I talk to her!!!

Happy Halloween!

Weather was amazing! No bulky extra layers of clothes. This was our trick-or-treating crew. My sister Heidi holding Brody the tiger, Brookelyn the cowgirl, Molly cinderella, Taylor sleeping beauty, Morgan the kangaroo, Lacey the kitten, my brother Erik and his daughter Lata the pirate, arrrr!





















Morgan was a little unsure, hence the unhappy kangaroo picture. She chose that costume though because she liked the idea of bouncing like a kangaroo.







It actually looks like they like each other in this picture!

















I don't think Morgan actually said "trick or treat" all night. Though she definately got the hang of it after a block or so. She couldn't keep up with the professionals (taylor and molly) but she was on a mission. The next day of course she was all about the trick or treat and telling me how she got 'teats' in her bucket. She was excited about having her 'baby' kangaroo with her and loved her tail.









She also loved Lacey's tail! Thankfully Lacey is a good kitty and didn't mind a little tail pulling!











However, after an hour and a half of sitting in the stroller and watching everyone else run around even the good kitty had had enough!

She's actually mad because I took away her glowstick...she kept trying to chew on it...I didn't want a glow-in-the-dark baby!!!!!

Molly Ballerina

Molly enjoyed her summer class so much that we decided to let her continue. She is now in Miss Donna Davis's ballet program. It will run the whole school year with a recital in May. She loves it! She can't wait to get her ballet clothes on every Thursday. This past week she told me she even talked! I guess Miss Davis asked the girls (and the one boy) what they were going to be for Halloween and Molly shared that she is going to be Cinderella.

Walk'n and Talk'n

Lacey has had a few brave moments where she has gotten to a standing position pulling up on something and has let go, but today I saw her get to a standing position from the ground and stand with a very proud grin. In addition to that, she has quite clearly connected who "ma-ma" is and how to say it! How has my baby gotten so big so fast?

ABC's

Morgan is so cute, most of the time. She is trying to assert herself every once in awhile courtesty of obnoxious older sisters behavior!!! But for the most part she is still very laid back and easy going. She has started to learn the alphabet and I just love it! I will take some of the credit but most of it belongs to the leapfrog videos that the other two girls were addicted to as well. We started watching them about 3 weeks ago and she has already absorbed so much. Her interest in letters has carried over into her book selections. At bedtime, she chooses the little individual letter books to read. At the park, she will visit the letter board and point and name quite a few letters. I just love hearing them come out in her little 'baby' voice. 'Q' sounds like 'coo' and 'M' is always followed with 'mmmmmm' (from the video). The other night in the bathtub she was playing with the letters and she found "V" and shook/wiggled as if she was vibrating (again the video). Money well spent!

Hat

I noticed earlier this week that Taylor wears her hat to the bus stop/park and wears it while she plays but when the bus shows up and she gets in the bus line she takes it off before stepping on the bus. So this morning when we were getting ready to head out the door I asked her about it. She told me she didn't want anyone to laugh at her. Mommy bear asks if someone had laughed at her. She said no...I'm guessing she saw other people get picked on and is just being cautious...it's tough being a kid!

Post-it

When I pack Taylor's lunch I write her a note on a post-it. Usually it's something like, "Run fast in gym today" or "Pick out a good book during your library time". Today on the refrigerator I found a post-it that read, "You have day care today i will miss you mama love Taylor"

Pumpkins

We went to Little Amerika and rode the pumpkin train today. The kids had a good time picking out pumpkins. Molly wanted to pick out a great big one and Taylor was happy with her petite pumpkin. Morgan enjoyed running around all the pumpkins as though it was her very own obstacle course. Lacey is a good little observer and is quite entertained by her big sisters antics.

Brush with Fame!

We did our apple picking at Jimmy's Apples....the Jimmy....that's right! Jimmy the Groundhog! Here's the picture op!

Apple Picking