Christmas at our house.

I started this blog to record our family life and keep memories alive, but I'm doing a horrible job of that lately. So I force myself now to put down on this here blog our beautiful Christmas...because it truly was. We did all of our visiting the weekend before so Christmas weekend was spent at home together. Christmas eve we watched a movie, played together and relaxed. It was nice and calm and peaceful.Got my Christmas pj's picture.

I always keep a special pair of pj's aside until Christmas eve then give them to the kids to wear so they get all excited about that. This year I almost didn't have any for Bubu, I waited to late and couldn't find any in his size, but my mom pulled through and found some at the very last minute, Thanks Mom! Atty is wearing Bubu's from last year and Spike is wearing Atty's...gotta love the hand me downs... :)

I made special cookies for Atty because he couldn't have any treats in his stocking. I didn't really do any candy this year because of Atty's special diet and the fact that he can't have any. I don't like giving the kids a lot of candy anyways so for Bubu and Spike I gave them one big candy and then things like dried fruit, corn nuts and mandarin oranges {Atty couldn't have any of those things either}. Atty got his regular nuts and then I gave him a plate of cookies while his brothers were getting into their treats. He didn't seem bothered by any of it, so that was nice. The cookies were almond flour cookies with coconut oil frosting and ground up cashews for "sprinkles" with food coloring added. I was pretty excited they turned out so well!

Hanging the stockings with care...

...and being silly...
Then we read Christmas stories {lots and lots} and off to bed for the sleepy heads.

All stuffed, my favorite part! I have to say I was so proud of Bubu and Spike for not saying a word about not getting any candy canes this year or more candy in their stockings. They were so sweet about every thing... really so very understanding.

Lala and her adorable strawberry hat. I got my hubby that shirt in the back ground, so funny! He loved it!!

Atty had a rabbit in his stocking, he was super excited about that. Bunnies are a favorite of his.

Spike all dressed up in his new monkey pj's and monkey hat, so cute.

And of course Bubu looked through every book that they got. {I've read them a million times since then...}

So there ya go...Christmas at our house. Neenee came as always and stayed the day. We lazed around in our pj's all day and did nothing. Absolutely nothing. So nice. That doesn't happen often in our household! Of course it made for A Lot of cleaning the next day but oh well...it was worth it.

They earned it...

We had so much fun the other night!
The kids have been working hard to fill up their rock jar for a reward. The reward is family based, something fun to do together. Team building. I started the rock jar idea last year and since the kids are still so young it's taken quite a while to move the rocks from one jar to the other... This was their first reward, and Bubu took it very seriously. When we were getting close to the end he made sure to always reminded me about putting a rock in the jar after helping with household chores. When they finally filled the jar he was so excited and we started planning right away. We decided to go watch a Christmas lights show that is tuned to music that plays through your car radio. We ate popcorn and black licorice and drink sparkling apple juice {bubu's new found favorite...} while watching the lights. {Atty had his favorite magic diet foods...} Then we followed it up with a special late dinner that we ate in the playroom while watching a movie {something we rarely ever do}. The kids were so happy. The light show was fun, it was just someones yard that was all decked out and all the lights went in time with the music. The kids thought it was amazing, and baby girl kept dancing and staring in awe. {For about ten minutes anyways, then she started fussing, but she's only a year old so what else can you expect right...} They had a donation box in there front yard and the donations went to Children's hospital, the same one that Atty goes too, so that was neat. We didn't have any money on us, but I'd like to swing back by. We might have to make this a regular holiday stop from now on! I didn't want to set the bar too high for the first reward. I want it to be more about what we do together and the fun we can have as a family more then how big or grand we could make it. Plus we can't do any food based things, like go out for ice cream because Atty can't have much of anything food wise right now on his magic diet. Not a lot of fun things to do out doors right now either...good thing it will take them a while to fill the jar back up again!

A beautiful mess

After the last post I wrote I thought I better post a funny and/or cute picture of the girl. She may be wild and crazy, but she's still adorable.

{She loves her yogurt!} ...and she actually is teething...so that explains a lot. *shesh*

Rough

I find the transition from sweet, innocent, can do no wrong, melt your heart adorable to {fairly} well behaved child...unbearable. That rough patch where your youngster finds there Will. Their Voice, their Independence {which is great, just hard to manage}. Where everything turns into a fight, a battle of wills, a big dramatic show. I could sooooooo do with out the drama! I'm finding it even more heart breaking this time around and I'm trying not to take it personal. It's so hard for me to keep my patience through this stage and it seems to be starting so EARLY with this one! It's been extreme for the past week or so, she got sick as well which made it even worse. But now she appears to be feeling better and is still unbearable. Screaming and crying for me to pick her up. All. Day. Long. Flailing around during diaper changes. Waking up all night wanting to nurse and then throwing these intense middle of the night fits. {We are in the process of night time weening, and she is freaking out!} Throwing horrible fits. Horrible. She's just grumpy and miserable and acting like she's teething, but I don't see any teeth coming in. I know a lot of this is tied into the night time weaning thing, she is pretty angry that I would dare deny her one of her most favorite things...nursing. But she is plenty old enough to go with out at night now, so we are going to have to come to terms on that eventually. I don't think I'm going to survive, this last one is going to be the end of me. I've even called off the potty training for now because it was taking a bad turn...Bubu and Spike were almost all the way potty trained by fifteen months, and she's fourteen months and we are not even close! {Still refusing to walk too...shesh!} I feel like I'm doing it all wrong this time around, like I've forgotten what works from the boys to her. Nothing seems the same. Girls are harder I do believe. The last few days have been so miserable it's hard to remember how cute she can be. I think I will spend some time watching her videos, looking at her cute pictures and reading through my journal for her because I need a reminder...I need some feel good feelings.

Please come back to me my sweet adorable little girl...I'm not ready for this yet.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are they branches...

Oldest boy hanging up the first ornament of the year.

The boys always look forward to this part.

It's their favorite, and they take the job very seriously.

Baby girl hanging up her first ornament ever!

So cute, she was really excited to be helping. She would hang the ornament I gave to her up, then point at it, then take it back down again. Over and over again. :)

Our patchwork tree, it may not be stylish but every ornament carries a memory.

I love being able to tell my kids about every ornament, some more precious then others as time goes on. Some from people who have passed on, or moved away. The first ornament for each of the kids, or the first ornaments hung on our first Christmas tree for the hubby and I. The memories, and stories flood back to me as I look at each one and share with my children. They listen quietly as I talk, asking an occasional question as they reverently hang each one careful on the branches. It's so sweet to hear their little voices when they stop to gaze at the tree. Sharing the special stories together and pointing out their favorites. I think that decorating the tree together with our random ornaments has turned in to a lovely tradition for us, one of my favorites. I wouldn't have it any other way.

*

I love hearing about other people's favorite family traditions, what are some of yours for this time of year?

*Snow* Thankful!

So I know this is a little late, but I didn't want to skip my favorite holiday!We had snow for Thanksgiving! Finally some snow, the boys were going crazy waiting for the snow that was suggested for DAYS before it actually came down. Note to self, never mention the possibility of snow...before it is actually falling from the sky.

Lala's first snow. We drove out to relatives house out by where I grew up and they had even more snow! So we all went out to play in the snow and work up our appetites.

Adorable. She wasn't to in to exploring but she did sit in it for a short bit. Her uncle tried to get her to eat some...it was pretty funny.

The boys started eating some too, and Atty asked if it was on his diet...ha ha...we told him yes, it's carb free snow, eat as much as you want...he was excited about that. :)

Cousins. Nice and warm.

I tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but that's never easy so I opted for them all being in the same frame at least.

Pretty little girl, her auntie gave her some early Christmas presents and one was this really cute red skirt. She was stylin'!

We had a kids table this year, first time ever. Pretty exciting.

Resting after filling belly to the brim with turkey and the trimmings.

Working off some calories on an exercise ball after all that good food...ha ha!

We had a wonderful time again this year. I love going over there, so relaxing. Already looking forward to next year. :)

Okay so now on to Christmas. More posts to come...

Helpers...

These two are so adorable together. Lately Banden wants to help with EVERYTHING. There are times when this drives me crazy, I hate to admit, because it slows everything down. But I know that this stage won't last forever and I do want to encourage and teach him. So little by little I've been letting him to more and more on his own. His favorite right now is rinsing the dishes for the dishwasher, and although he uses WAY too much soap and water and the floor is a puddle, he does do such a super job...and is so very capable! When I bust out the stool for him his little monkey sister comes crawling out of no where and scoots right up that step stool to stand next to him. She likes to supervise and is a bit bossy to boot! Banden is so patient with her and sweet. The perfect big brother, my oh my he is growing up fast!! For years before he turned five he would always tell me, I'll do that when I'm five, and now he's five and he is determined to do it all...and more.

Thoughts of a beautiful night.

Walking with my children
as dusk settles in.
Bare branches stretch skeletal fingers
against the dark grey sky.
Crisp air, cold noses.
Birds flying in formation
towards warmth.
Tiny voices echo loudly
in the quiet of the settling night.
Yellow light spills from windows.
An almost full moon
plays peek-a-boo.
The sent of snow teases us
for what we hope might come.
Breath coming out in white puffs.
Talking about finding the beauty
in all things.
Smelling the smoke of fires
burned for warmth.
The season has changed.

*sigh*

I think about blog posts when driving.

When washing the dishes.

Vacuuming.

Taking a shower.

Trying in vain to go to sleep.

I think about blog posts while folding laundry.

mixing muffins.

Sweeping.

Scrubbing toilets.

Making dinner.

I come up with some really great ideas.

But then I sit down to write them out and most often I stall. I come up blank. Or I start to write and get interrupted by a child or a friend on the phone or my husband. And since they all come first I stop. I focus on them. And my idea evaporates into thin air. So I give up. Sometimes I just post some pictures to feel better, but mostly I just give up and walk away. Vacuum...and think about a really great blog post. *sigh*

Is she sassy?

Yes, I do believe she is...

She's 13 months old and still not walking...but she LOVES to dance and she climbs on everything! A couple days ago she figured out how to climb our dinning room chairs, and from there climb onto the table and I have since lost count on how many times she has done this. We have two table sets, one in the dinning room and one in the play room and she just keeps going from one to the other. I get her down from one she's climbing the other. And she's fast! She's also trying to climb the ladder to the boys bunk bed so I'm going to have to start removing it every day.

She's already trying to tell her brothers what to do and run the show. When I have to scold one of the boys for something you can often hear her in the background echoing me. She has the tone down and everything, sounds just like me even though you can't really understand a word she's saying.

But underneath all that sass is a sweetheart. She is so cuddly and gives the most adorable kisses. She is hilarious. So full of personality.

She is starting to play with her brothers, it's so cute to see her growling while playing with a dinosaur or making car noises as she pushes one along the floor after her brother.

She loves playing outside and is constantly trying to sneak out the back door no matter the weather.

She is saying new words almost everyday it seems.

She still has only four teeth on top and two on the bottom, although I'm pretty sure she's working on some more on the bottom right now. She loves to eat! {Even though she only has six teeth...} Veggie soup it is her favorite right now, she can eat bowl after bowl of veggie soup. I guess you don't really need many teeth for that, ha ha!

She adores her daddy, lights up when she sees him and crawls lightening fast into his arms when he walks in the door. {He is quite smitten with her.} Even though she adores her daddy she is still an absolute mommy's girl. :)

Lately she's been a bit obsessed with shoes. Very UNlike her mommy. She gets all her shoes out and plays with them, looks at them and tries to put them on her feet. She is starting to play with her baby dolls too, gives them little kiss and such. Not nearly as much as blocks, dino's and cars though! So far it looks as if she will be more of a tomboy then a girly-girl, which makes my heart happy. She's got drama though, lots and lots of drama. I guess she can't be perfect all the time. {But she's pretty close if you ask me...}

Hey!

I wrote all about the harvest party here...check it out. :)

Happy Harvest!

We had so much fun carving pumpkins this year. We got two giant pumpkins from a friend of ours {plus the ones we picked at the field} and they were so cool! I thought they would be hard to carve, but they were surprisingly easy. Not so easy to carry in and set on the table though! We cleaned them out and saved the seeds. I was so excited to roast up those seeds but unfortunately they did not taste good. Apparently the seeds from the big pumpkins do not make good roasting seeds. Good to know. Next year I won't waste all that time seperating them out, ugggg! We did have tons of fun cleaning out the pumpkin guts though.

Even baby sister got in on the action!

Ta-da! A happy pumpkin and an angry pumpkin, by order of the children. The silly pumpkin had to wait until daddy got home, it was to heavy for mommy...

Hubby and the boys did a great job on the silly pumpkin...

...and it joined the others out front. I love glowing happy, silly and even angry jack-o-lanterns!

This year at our Harvest party we had a clown, a bad spidey, a strawberry fairy and a joker. I was pretty proud of myself for keeping the total budget under 10 dollars...Of course it helped that Lala's adorable outfit was a birthday present. I guess putting things of until the last moment can some times pay off... :)

Can you guys guess who the sassy one in the family is?

We had an awesome Harvest party on Halloween with a couple close friends and no one seemed to mind that there wasn't a single piece of candy involved. I'd call it a success. We will definitely be doing that again next year...

Atty

I had someone ask me why I'm not posting about Atty's health issues any more so I just wanted to note {for anyone else that might be wondering} that I have a separate blog for writing about this wild adventure of getting Atty seizure free. There is a link on my side bar to that blog...Go check it out, he's amazing!

Pumpkin Pickin' Time!

Ever since we moved we've never found an awesome place for pumpkin picking fun...until now! We went to a farm up by where I grew up, it's about an hour away and well worth the drive. It did cost money to get in but for this year at least we only had to pay for Bubu and the adults. For me, my hubby, my sister and Bubu it was ten total, not to bad, considering there were a lot of other things to do at this patch that didn't cost more money {unlike other patches we've been to}. I didn't realize that you couldn't bring in outside food though, and had packed a lunch {Money saving tip for big families, and healthier too!} so we were pretty hungry by the time we were leaving, being as we went right at lunch time! We did get to eat some super yummy apples right off the trees though, that was a special treat. Even Atty got to share an apple with me {although I did get nervous because I didn't have his oil with me and he's suppose to eat all carbs with oil on his special diet.} He really enjoyed it, I loved how excited he got to be able to eat the apple with us.

We enjoyed a corn maze, and got completely lost for a moment. Every one took turns trying to find the way out. At one point Atty tried to take us off roading straight through the corn, he was done with the whole thing, ha ha!

There was lots to look at, Giant Pumpkins, pumpkin tree art, tons and tons of animal, a guy driving a "train" around like a maniac. (seriously, wouldn't have put my kids on that thing...) There was even a play ground that the kids enjoyed for a moment.

Had to take a picture of each of the kids standing in front of this thing of course!

They all humored me.

Even Atty...he normally doesn't like to stand still for pictures.
I wish now that I had thought to get baby sister too, but that will have to wait until next year.

There were donkeys, poultry, goats, horses, pigs, and rabbits. The kids loved them all. My sister even gave them a quarter to get some feed for the chickens, wow was that exciting! ;)

This particular moment melted me. Spike is such a great big brother.

Lala loved the pumpkins, so much so that she kept giving them kisses, adorable!

There was a hay ride down to the pumpkin picking area and that was a lot of fun.

Some of the pumpkins made the perfect seats. Here's Lala with apple clutched in hand, she was obsessed with that apple!

Atty picked a super cute little green pumpkin. Every year one of the kids just has to get a green pumpkin...Usually it's Bubu, but not this year!

She was so excited, pumpkins everywhere! I gave up and let her explore. {Yes that meant crawling around in a dirty field, and she loved every minute of it!}

Bubu picked out the biggest one this year, cause he's the biggest... ;)

I love this picture, Lala in a field of pumpkins.

Since my sister came along we got to get a family picture. I love harvest pictures, pumpkins and a scarecrow in the background, doesn't get much better then that! Thanks sister. We really had a wonderful time, which is saying a lot because every one of us had to wait until WAY past lunch time before we got any food! That actually worked out too though because we went to my brothers place to eat our picnic and got to visit there for a bit. Always fun to go there...

We loved this farm so much I think we might go there and get a real tree for Christmas this year. They have apple orchards, a huge pumpkin field, a tree farm and it's third generation family owned. We'll be back! :)