Christmas, 2011

Man, I am really slacking on the blog front.  The last few months are always the craziest ones of the year for photography, so I guess photographing/documenting my OWN kids gets pushed to the back burner.
I am really going to try to do this more often, since it serves as my only scrapbook-esque item for my kiddos!
This Christmas was really fun!!  We started out the festivities this year with a little party and program at the twins' school.

My little angel got up to the risers and already started fiddling with her halo.  I could tell by looking at her it was going to fixate her for the whole performance.  She has hated anything itchy, loud or annoying since she was tiny.  I love that she's always on the top riser because she's so tall....

Cale was the cutest little shepherd in the program.  (He's the one in blue)  He was so funny when he saw me sitting next to a pew trying to get pictures...he smiled and waved so big!

Hayden's sweet friend Abi from school.  This is the second year they've been together, and they really enjoy each other...

Cale had lots to tell me while dressed as a shepherd....and showed me all around his classroom.  My favorite part of their program was how he danced and sung so happily....he's still little enough not to be embarrassed to do stuff like that.

I attempted to take ONE, just ONE cute picture on Christmas Eve of all of my babies.  This is the best I got.  Fancy, huh?  Nothing says "Classy Christmas" like a bag of hiney wipes on the floor, crazy faces, and a tiny belligerent cat curled up on the loveseat in the background.   (Side note:  I thought the twins were pretty much the same height now, but DANG.  She is an amazon!!!  Let's hope she likes volleyball...)

Bubby with his loot on Christmas morning.  He is really into pirates, so his favorite gift was a giant pirate ship with teeny, tiny parts.  It's really cool.  I love that he's wearing feety jammies in this picture.....definitely the last year for those.

The baby was so sweet and excited on Christmas morning.....she would open one thing and just love on it and play with it forever.  We kept having to tell her she had more presents, but REALLY, the way she was enjoying them was so much better.  Not ripping through them at all, but spending time inspecting and enjoying each one.  I love this picture, and the sweet look on her face.

Sissy loved all of her gifts, too.  She loves tiny dolls and tiny parts, so she was gifted accordingly.  Let's just say momma had to make a trip to Wal Mart on the 26th to get six new tubs to organize all this stuff!

Mixed in to the craziness was the Zunker's annual Christmas Party, Shawn's work Christmas party (where Livi stood on the stage with the guitarist, holding her dress up, hollering "I POOPING!" at me across the room) and lots more Christmas fun.  Looking at lights, shopping, making Christmas cookies for our neighbors, having  "Christmas Toddies" with some of our besties, Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the OTHER set of besties, and lots more.  I stopped working earlier this year, which was so great!!!  I really enjoyed slowing down and giving myself two weeks to enjoy the holiday with my family.  

Now to "undecorate" this house....

Tougher than a two dollar steak....

This kid really cracks me up.  That's a good thing, because lately he's also been making me want to stab myself in the eye with a fork.  He's just at a "stage" (dramatic sigh) and we're just muddling through it the best we know how.  It's funny because the things he does that are stressing me out are SO HIS DAD.  I shouldn't get bothered by these things, because clearly they're genetic and he has no control over them.  For example, after being asked to put on his shoes forty six times, I find him standing in front of the television, HOLDING HIS SHOES.  Dear Lord, is this a boy thing, or a boy-in-my-family thing??  Apply that same scenario to buckling his seat belt, coming when he's called, being told to eat his dinner, and hollering at the baby to "stop making noise".  (Like that's even possible.)

Other than the stuff he's doing that is driving me nuts lately, he's pretty much the awesomest kid on the planet.  (besides my other two of course)

He says hilarious things that make his daddy and I cry.  Here are some recent ones:

"Mommy, I'm tougher than a two dollar steak." --spoken randomly from the backseat.

"JESUS!  Don't jump!!"--hollered at the Jesus decoration on top of a roof when we were looking at lights.

Me:  "CALE! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  How many times have I told you to stop???" followed immediately by him responding, 

Cale:  "Mommy, why do you think God gave me such good parents?" 

And this little conversation with his daddy...

Daddy:  "Buddy, you know Daddy used to be in the air force."

Cale:  "What plane did you fly?"  

Daddy:  "I didn't fly a plane."

Cale:  "Why not??"  

Daddy:  "I didn't want to.  Instead, I was in finance."

Cale:  "Where did you find ants?"

Yep, it's a good thing he says junk like this to offer some moments of hysterical laugher in the midst of difficult parenting.  If ever I get bogged down about this "phase"....I just need to remember how great he is.... How he delivers these one liners that keep us rolling.  How he wants me to lay with him at night and sing him Christmas songs.  How he sung and danced with abandon at his school Christmas pageant.  

How he creates amazing, detailed drawings that blow all of us away.  How he immerses himself in airplanes, Legos, playing pretend, pirates....and becomes the resident expert on all of these topics.  How his tiny little teeth all show when he's laughing really hard at something.  How kind and thoughtful he is.  How he tells me he's never going to grow a beard, never ride a motorcycle, and never move out of my house, all because he wants to make me happy.  I really, really love this kid.

Halloween, 2011

Boy, you're probably REALLY excited to read this blog post.  I know everyone loves to hear about Halloween, right smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season.  Oh well.  This blog is my scrapbook, people....and I have the pics that need to be put somewhere, so here it is.
The twins had a little Halloween party at their school, and I took Liv up there with me.  I realized while there, that I really needed to be an octopus with eight arms, because that baby was ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  Luckily, Uncle Daniel was there for Davis, so he held her for a little bit, and kept her in one spot.

We did it up big time this year....the kiddos invited a few friends over for a "Halloween Playdate"...everyone wore their costumes (because who doesn't want to wear their costume more than twice?) and had cupcakes.  We invited our friends the Pattisons over to watch baseball, eat pizza and carve pumpkins...which the kiddos loved.  Somehow I ended up being the only adult in the kitchen carving pumpkins!!  Livi decided she LOVED the Pattisons' son Preston, and let him hold her and give her her bottle, which is hilarious because she hasn't been held to get a bottle in over a year.  In fact (don't judge) she shouldn't be even GETTING a bottle anymore!!  We also celebrated October in true Halloween fashion by adopting Chewy Louise, who is conveniently black.  We trick or treated around the neighborhood, and the babies LOVED their costumes this year.  Livi was a LaLaLoopsie doll, and loved her blue wig.  I'm sure no one else knew what she was, but my girls love lalaloopsie dolls so they got a kick out of it!  Cale saw a knight costume at CostCo and had to have it....it seems really itchy, but he was a trooper and wore it four times!  Sissy was ADAMENT that she wanted to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid, and it couldn't be the Ariel with the mermaid tail, it had to be "Ariel in the princess dress at the end".  I obliged, and found her a dress at the Disney store, but was secretly a little disappointed.  I loved that she was something more creative last year, and I don't want her to think she has to be a princess, just because that is a "girl" costume.  Hopefully in the future she'll pick some more hilarious costumes....but I always want her to be what she wants to be, so I never try to push them into something I want.  (Unless we get to the age where they want to be something really creepy, and then I'll intervene)
One last note....for Livi's costume, I drew on her face with Crayola washable markers, because I didn't have any face paint, and that stuff is disgusting and greasy anyway.  Now, Livi thinks drawing all over yourself with markers is okay.  The other day she covered herself in marker before I got to her, and when I took her shirt off for bath, I noticed she had colored her belly button blue.