Together again

Lexi snap chatted me this cute pic from church yesterday. (:

I was looking around on my blog last night and noticed I was missing a bunch of pictures, and in their place were these boxes with exclamation points. I don't know what happened, but I am so sad! So many missing pictures! Now I'm letting this light a fire under me to get my blog books published. That's 6 years of awesomeness that I don't want to lose. It'll be spendy, but worth it. 

The kids got me into the trivia crack game, and it's totally addicting. I make myself feel better by telling myself that it stimulates my brain. There are challenge rounds that I love and finally today I won 3! Guys, I won 3 challenge rounds! Yesssss! 

And yes, I know how ridiculous I sound. It's a good game. 

This morning Addie woke me up at 8:05. That was fortuitous because we were supposed to pick brenna up by 8:30. We overslept just a lil' bit, but we've been so enjoying our Christmas break! We finally got on the road, picked brenna up, and dropped little girls off at Aina's, and headed up to bwi to pick up the baby boy!

He came in at 11 and we were on our way. Even though I've driven to bwi approximately 8004 times, I still managed to get turned around on the way home. It's a gift really. :/ We grabbed some chicfila, stopped by bed, bath, and beyond, and then saw unbroken at our favorite theater. It was so intense, but also a really good story. 

We had a really good and funny day. We laughed a ton and talked a bunch. It was really nice being together. We took the long way home, (seriously, I've got problems) picked up the girls, dropped off brenna, and finally made it home around 7:30. 

Thats when Matt sent me immediately up to our bathroom for a relaxing bath. It was so nice! He'd drawn a bath, lit a candle, and took the girls. It was fabulous!

Now we're watching the maze runner and checking another fun family day off our list. (:

alecia's shower, kid swap, and bodies

shelly, sarah, and i planned a shower for alecia's sweet baby boy that's coming any day now. of course, i took 4 random pictures and that was all, but at least there's some photographic documentation. we had a brownie sundae ice cream party complete with a fun little claw game.

we had one special item in the claw that whoever got out would win a prize, but the machine didn't work as well as we'd hoped. alecia worked it though. :)

we jokingly had some games that would embarrass alecia. this one was bobbing for nipples. ;)

there were a ton of people and we had a nice time. just goes to show how many people love alecia. :) sarah and i planned baby scattergories and baby pictionary - which turned out to be way too easy because people just shouted out every "baby" related word they could think of. still fun though.

we had lots of december kid swaps. it's such a busy month that we all wanted to take every opportunity to get things done without the littles. taking frankie to the bus stop on our kid watching day is always a highlight.

"i love it! ellie, put your arms around laney! around her. around... oh, that's pretty cute too!"

christian was able to go with brenna's nursing program from the tech center on a field trip up to ny to see the bodies exhibition. they left at 4am and got home at 11:30pm. they had a fun and busy day. it's crazy to me that we live in a place where our kids can go to nyc for a field trip! i love it!

chris reported that the bodies exhibit was "cool and gross." i agree. :)

misc.

this girl is kind of a handful lately. eating is a mess. and not feeding her anything other than the food served is soooo much easier said than done.

example: i make eggs for breakfast, which she usually likes, but on morning x, she hates. so we go to appt z without her having eaten. she is, of course hungry, but eggs don't transfer too well, so she gets whatever snacky snack i have with me. i try to keep those healthy, but you know. then there's the not eating of the dinner. when she goes to bed hungry, she generally wakes up in the middle of the night hungry. and then there's the fact that she's only 2. so i am trying not to sweat this phase too much, and trying to find the healthiest thing she will eat. and yes, chocolate milk qualifies as healthy. deal with it.

there have also been some nighttime diaper issues. it goes a little something like this. we put her to bed. she plays quietly and then shouts for awhile, and then all is quiet. only, she was shouting because she'd poo'd. and who likes to sleep in poo? not this one. so she takes off her diaper. the first time, it was minimally messy. the second time, her comforter took a beating. the third-? time have been b-a-d. like horrifically bad. i took her into the shower after midnight with me one night while matt cleaned up her bed. anyways, we have assured her that we will check on her regularly so she doesn't have to take her diaper off. and that it's soooo much nice to poo on the potty. and that playing with poo is never the answer.

i wear my pink robe a lot in the winter. and i love finding rando pics on my phone. that's me as a mom right now, so there.

we celebrated st. nicholas day. the girls each got a pooping toy (what's with me and pooping lately?) that they loved and played with non-stop. it's a fun tradition from my childhood.

delaney is generally sweet and happy at gymnastics. but every once in awhile she gets grumpy about opening or closing. this day it was opening.

she just was not feeling the opening stretches. she pouted and was grumpy to the point where we had to do a reset time-out.

angry lady.

in preparation for frankie's class party i had to try out my paint project. equal parts shaving cream and elmers school glue make a fun puff paint. that smells like cologne.

it's fun stuff and you can add all sorts of embellishments, like glitter and extract, and then you can also add details to your masterpiece, like a carrot nose, or buttons.

this one continues to be impatient and sweet and adventurous and daddy's girl. amy always jokes that she looks like me, but acts like matt. 'tis true! she's been practicing soccer with daddy and is all geared up for her first game on saturday. her cute haircut is growing out and she is so excited to be able to wear pigtails again soon! she's quite loud and we're working with her on some noise level management, but she's 4, so it's going about as well as you'd think it would with a 4-year-old.

shelly sent me this the other day. our little bald laney and cute little chubby rosie! these kids are all getting so big, it's so fun to see them growing up together. :)

lexi and i have been playing an online game called trivia crack. it's pretty fun and i'm winning 3-0. laney is helping her here. she loves her some sissy!

 

whiddling away at my iphone album.

Mini model

I was so excited to put Delaney in her new dress from auntie Sara and uncle joe today! I had totally spied this Jackie O. number and loved it, but had no reason to buy it. Hooray for Christmas! 

I wanted to take a sweet picture of her to send them, but this is what happened:

Not even a hint of a smile. Modeling is hard work, and this 2-year-old was having none of it. 

We enjoyed our last day of 1:00 church today. 'Twas a good one. I found out I will be keeping my same primary class - hooray! Plus a few kids in the class below us, just until they get a teacher. 

We had missionaries for dinner tonight. I made lexi's favorite Shephards pie. It's a Rachel ray recipe that I revamped a little. For dessert we had leftover Christmas cookies and we still have some to spare. It's a delicious problem to have. 

Tomorrow bubba will come home. Lexi, brenna, and I will head to the airport and for a day of fun, which may or may not include mall shopping, a movie, and ice skating. Fun, fun!

kids work party

matt's little company has always been very generous with Christmas parties. they always have a fun adult party and a separate kid one. we were super late to the kid party his year, we walked in as santa was walking out. we had just enough time to grab a cookie and open our presents.
someone was excited.

all she'd talked about was getting an elsa doll, and when we walked in i saw little girls with all sorts of frozen dolls, so i thought we might be in business. we weren't. she got an olaf icee maker, which was very cute, but very not needed. not that any toy would be, but you know. a: my kitchen is bursting at the seams with all my fun appliances, b: i am an icee snob, i only like shave ice, not icee ice, and c: though she loved her gift, it's not a toy, and she would have been bored within 5 minutes. so i convinced her not to open it and we made a little trip to target later that week. does that make me a bad person? or just efficient? i choose efficient.

addie got a "beado" craft machine. loves it!

and little laney?

the coveted elsa doll! on our little trip to target, we picked little sister up an anna doll and then traded. slightly complicated, but in the end, everyone was happy. until frankie decided she needed an anna doll instead of elsa, but that's another story.

i.love.laney's.face. there was something real good on tv, that's all i know.

we've made some fun beado projects. we've also dropped the fun beado beads all over the floor several times. still fun though, and now with their sweet new art desk, they'll have plenty of places to put all their fun toys.

christmas dinner as a saturday brunch

we looked at our schedule and decided that today before natalie's baptism would be the best time for our Christmas "dinner." we set a goal to eat by 12, and we had blessed and were eating by 12. ps - the girls set my phone camera weird again.

in my forever quest to find new and better, i made all new recipes. this is amy's sausage-chard stuffing. i don't really like stuffing, but this was pretty good, probably the best i've ever tried, and i've tried a lot.

i also tried a new pioneer woman potato recipe. since i love her mashed potatoes so much, i figured why not?! these are duchess potatoes and i think that basically, i nailed it.
in my defense, i broiled the second pan and they looked a lot more like pw's.
 
nomnomnom... she was so glad i took this. ;)

my girls are total carnivores. all but laney, who generally refuses all meat. and soda. and any drink other than water and chocolate milk.

enjoying a delicious glass of bubbly martinellis. #tradition.

delaney tried the martinellis and then decided it was too "spicy."
 
sissy made her some chocolate milk, and that's cause for a toast!

i also made johnna's grannie carols rolls - those were not bad, but turned out more like a roll cake than individual rolls. rachel ray's southern green beans were delish, and colleen's frog eye salad was yummy as well. my only traditional dish was jolene's creamed corn.

after the brunch/dinner addie and i got ready to go to natalies baptism. it was sweet and we stayed to visit for awhile. then we went somewhere we rarely go, kmart. grabbed a few after Christmas clearance items and on to home where we had a mountain of dishes waiting for us.

beau came to visit. he ran up to me and picked me up in a huge bear hug. i've missed lexi's sweet friends. :) bath time and work and soccer time for daddy and frankie (her first game is next week!) and we're calling that a saturday!

play time

even in the craziness of december, we had some time to spend quietly at home. it's kinda rare for matt and i to be home with nothing to do, so we definitely cherish these times!
i love the green blur at the bottom that is laney! supah fast!

daddy started whaling on the drums and the girls started dancing and jumping off the table.

so mama started taking pictures.

i had fun trying to get the girls mid air.

laney does the same thing every time. both arms up, knees bent, looking down.

addie's a bit of a wildcard. you never know what jump she's gonna give ya.

one arm up, both arms, other arm, total wildcard.

they were playing so nicely, each taking turns, and praising the others for their fine jumps. it was a sweet time.

 

probably my favorite picture of the 50 i took. she's awesome!

"ready, mama?"

 

and for the grand finale, group jump!

love these sweet sisters.

it's fun and weird as they're getting bigger. sometimes it feels like we're missing something because there's no baby to wait around for. only an almost 3-year-old big girl! loving every stage!

and for some bonus cuteness. addie is seriously in love with her teacher. and mama is seriously in love with that. we are having such a blessed year of school, for all of the kids. lex is doing well, chris loves his dental program, addie loves miss g, and franks loves her teachers. it's just a big love fest, and we are feeling so blessed!

and another bonus pic. addie after kid day at matt's work. she's legit with that badge!