The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

And the busiest!! Saturday night was the party for Brian's work. The food was delicious--he had a filet and prawns combo and I had shrimp and scallops. He had peach cobbler a la mode and I had toffee cheesecake for dessert. It was good, but I liked his a little better. Caroline came along to the restaurant and was held by one of the appraisers most of the night, who loves babies. It was a fun evening.

Sunday was church. Julia stuffed our Christmas card envelopes and stuck the address labels and stamps on them--a huge help! She volunteered to do it and seemed to like that job. Brian and I have been busy wrapping presents in our free time, here and there. The office is a mess, with boxes, bows, ribbons, wrapping paper and presents all over.

Spending lots of time with this little lady:


Monday Lauren and I made cutout cookies.


Baby played under her play gym. She got herself in this situation--I did not set her under it like that. She is rolling over from her back to her tummy all the time now, but only lasts so long on her tummy. Then those little legs start kicking and we hear, "Ah ah aaaahh!!" ("Help me, I'm stuck!!") So every few minutes we have to go in there and roll her back to her back. Julia's good at it and even Austin and Lauren can roll her back over. It's only minutes before it has to be done again. :D


Monday night the kids decorated the Christmas cookies. Brian and I only did a few.

Below, Austin with one of his: a smiling Christmas tree. I don't know why that car is on my counter. ??? See the brown stuff by the toaster? That is caramel corn. I made a batch of it Monday afternoon for Julia to take some to her choir Christmas party and for us to take some on our trip.

Lauren studying a handful of sprinkles. (Yes, those are only sprinkles in her hand. She had a hard time controlling them coming out of the bottles. My floor was a mess!) And Julia hard at work.

Some of Julia's cookies:

A few of Lauren's cookies. Brian made "Elvis" in the lower right corner...

Some of Austin's cookies: He enjoyed using the red hots this year...

More of Austin's cookies. He was cute, trying so hard to make the gingerbread men have faces and clothes. The towards the end I think he got bored, as several of his cookies just have one color of frosting hastily spread on, no sprinkles or anything. ;)

Last night I stayed home from Cubbies while everyone else went. I sewed Caroline's blanket, which I'd bought the fabric for in October. This morning Austin had a Kindergarten performance at school. It was about the cutest thing ever. ;) The "Hey, Solomon, there's our moms," photo. See Austin pointing?

Some of the group. I couldn't get the whole Kindergarten. They stretched out too long across the stage. I cut out 10 of those bow ties and 10 of the girls' bows that the kids are wearing. I told his teacher at the beginning of the year that I could do projects at home to help her (instead of coming into the class to help), and this was the first project she gave me.

Austin and Solomon (next to him, on the left, in the photo). They are in different classes and seemed thrilled to stand next to eachother for the performance.

The kids sang a lot of songs: a bunch of nursery rhymes to music, some kid songs, and a few Christmas songs. Some of them were awarded Perfect Attendance certificates at the end; Austin didn't get one of those. During Jingle Bells all the kids shook a bell--cute! Here is Austin showing? discussing? his bell with Solomon.

At home Lauren played in the family room. I laid Caroline on the floor near her, as Caroline likes to feel she is in on what the big kids are doing. I tell you, you lay that baby down for a minute and she rolls to her tummy. It went from not interested in rolling at all for the last five months, and now that's her new trick she wants to do all the time. :D

I'd turned Caroline over at one point, and Lauren said, "When she rolls on her tummy again we can play picnic." LOL Check out Caroline's face in the food! The family room is a mess (as you can see below...) That lamp is broken and needs to go. I don't think Brian wants it in the garage either (as it is still in the house...).

Santa Baby photo shoot: On her tummy Caroline would kick and kick her legs, like she was bicycling them, wanting to go on her back.

I'd put her on her back and the little stinker would roll right back to her tummy (and then kick and get frustrated that she was stuck). I had to hold her still to get this shot.

Lauren quickly decided Caroline shouldn't be the only Santa in the house. I was calling Caroline 'Santa Baby', and Lauren called herself 'Santa Girl'. It was her idea to take these pictures together. Caroline is getting so big!

This afternoon I gave Julia her weekly spelling test she has to do for homework (she never misses any word!). I always use a sentence with the word, and did so today. The sentences are completely out of the blue, and completely unrelated, as I just come up with one to go with each word. Lauren pretended she was giving a spelling test also, and came up with a bunch of sentences. One of hers: "I need to obey my mommy or she will get a mad happy face, and I will get a 'pankin." LOL I guess I'm glad that's forefront in her mind. ;)

Tomorrow is packing day. And Friday we leave for our long, long, 20 hours long, drive up to WA for Christmas.

Pony Boat

Lauren's pony boat mentioned in earlier post. The lady at WalMart gave her the pink pony. Lauren said tonight, "This is Pink Pony and Green Peppermint and Blue Skywalker. And Austin is Luke Skywalker and I am Dawf Vader!" My sweet little girl is Darth Vader?!

She pulled the boat around by the cat toy (toy inside video box).

Another Lauren funny said this week:

Caroline loves playing with her hands now. Sometimes she folds them like she is praying. Lauren saw Caroline folding her hands and said, "She's paying about that she doesn't do poo poo in her diaper on purpose." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff!

Five Months, 22 Weeks

Miss Caroline turned five months old on Wednesday. I can hardly believe it! Of course every month I say the same thing. I also can hardly believe how much hair she is losing. It is so thin, and she has more on one side than the other. But such a sweet, soft little fuzzy head it is. ;)

Lauren played with Lightning McQueen as I took C's pictures. I kept hearing, "I am Lightning McQueen, Vrooooom vroooooom!" as she pressed the button over and over and over. Oh boy...

And then, the very next day, she was 22 weeks. She changed so much in a day! LOL I have to keep it up though, for my week-by-week project.

None of my kids have been eager to roll over. Caroline finally rolled over on her own, from her back to her front on Dec. 9. Then Dec. 10 after she'd rolled to her tummy, she rolled over from her front to her back. And I haven't seen her try that again! She gets stuck on her tummy and quite frustrated about it after awhile!

Yesterday Julia and Austin had a minimum day at school, and Caroline got called a "he". I can see why with this outfit though. ;)

Monday Lauren and I made cookies for my breakfast group's cookie exchange on Tuesday. I made Baseball Bars (not sure why they're called that!) and White Chocolate Raspberry Bars. They taste yummier than they look in this picture. :D We had to bring a dozen cookies for each friend.

Today the little girls and I went to Santa Maria to finish up Christmas shopping and do errands. I got Brian a few things and am absolutely done now! While at WalMart an older lady saw Lauren sitting in the cart basket and said, "Oh! I have the cutest thing for her in my cart." She had to run off down an aisle to where her daughter had the cart, then came back with a My Little Pony for Lauren. The lady had gotten it in a Happy Meal at the McDonald's there. Lauren's eyes lit up, and she got the biggest smile on her face, which in turn made the lady smile. I thought that was a thoughtful thing for that lady to do. Usually on errand days Lauren and I split a turkey wrap at Costco. Today, however, I got us each a Happy Meal at McDonald's and she got two more little ponies. She loves them! They've already joined Noah and the rest of the animals in the ark. Now she's pulling them and their hairbrushes around on a boat she made by hooking a cat toy in a video case. She's pulling the cord of the toy around. It looks like the ponies are sitting on a barge. :D

Little Sisters

Lauren asked to hold the baby after I nursed her. Of course I let her. She doesn't ask often, though she loves to play and visit with Caroline. Much of the time Caroline stared up at her with a look of adoration mixed with a somewhat perplexed look.



Lauren was giving her all kinds of hugs and and kisses.


Then Lauren said, "Could you get me a baby toy to play with her?" Those two had a nice time sitting together in the chair for quite awhile!

Stick Horses

Who needs presents when you are happy with the paper tube?? The other day I used up a roll of wrapping paper, and Austin wasted no time in spotting the empty tube. After a short time of waving it around and pretending it was a gun, he decided to make it into a stick horse. He was going to use regular copy paper for the head, but I gave him cardstock so it would be a little more stable. He drew the face and taped the head on by himself. The salute for the picture? His own doing. ;) And in the second picture: his horse "parked" outside the tent Austin made on Saturday using the cardtable and quilts. Why the horse is wearing Austin's hat is what I'm wondering. :)


A few days later I used up another roll of wrapping paper, and Lauren claimed that empty tube for her horse. She chose pink for her horse's head.

Austin got mad that Lauren took the cowboy hat and he got stuck with the safari hat. He was kind of put out by that and said with disdain, "This is a farmer hat!" He thought it was more cool to be a cowboy I guess.

Christmas Family Tree, Out in the Backyard

Julia's choir musical was last Friday night. They also performed for the Awana kids Tuesday night. It was called The Christmas Family Tree, and had a neat story. It went back in the Christmas story, explaining about ancestors in the genealogy of Jesus (His family tree). Julia sang a solo, part of How Great Our Joy. She did a great job (of course! ;) ).




Friday morning the little girls and I went outside, it was such a nice day.

Caroline liked sitting in her little "chair" I rigged up. She really enjoyed being outside, as did Lauren. Lauren gathered mushrooms that were growing in our back flower bed. Some of them get really big. I like to see them. :) They are interesting to me. She picked a bunch of them and played with them, and we left more to grow bigger.

Saturday we took the kids' picture for our Christmas card, and Caroline thoroughly enjoyed laying on the backdrop in just her diaper (between clothes changes)!!

This time of the year is always so busy, with a lot going on! Julia is done with choir until January, except for the Christmas party next week. We have Brian's company party Saturday. I have a cookie exchange with my breakfast group tomorrow. That is always fun, and we like getting a nice variety of cookies. Lauren and I made two kinds today. I am done (Yay!!) with my Christmas shopping, except for maybe a gift or two for Brian. I've started wrapping too.