Happy Holidays!

Maggie grows

Maggie is getting so big, so quickly. Okay, I'll be honest, it's really too quick for me. With your first child, generally speaking, you're so anxious for them to move to the next step, and you're so anxious to watch them grow. By the second, and especially for me, the third (and I'm sure even more so with subsequent children), you realize how quickly the time goes by, and you just want them to slow down! Where has 7 months gone? She is crawling all over the place, saying "dadadada", and her favorite food is sweet potatoes (but she'll eat anything you put in front of her - including beads, thank you Livie.) Even more than being a "Mama's girl" she is her sisters' girl. She is crazy about those two! The other day I had her in the office with me and the girls were in their room playing. I turned around and she was gone! I found her right in the middle of the girl's room, just taking in all the action. They love and adore her just as much. Kathryn is constantly asking to hold her - even though she is almost as big as Kathryn :-O, and Olivia's favorite way to "help" is to feed her. She is so blessed to be so loved, and we are so blessed to have her to love.

In case you were wondering

I ended up with a decent picture for our holiday cards this year (which will not be revealed at this time), but just so you will appreciate it more when you do see it, this is what I was working with...



(The most wonderful time of the year also happens to be the busiest, so there may not be as many posts over the next few weeks.)

Get the camera, Mom!

About an hour after I posted this post about the girls not playing well together, someone sprinkled some magic "get-along" dust over them, and they played great, for a couple of hours actually, without a single peep. I knew they were playing in their room, so I wasn't worried that anything was being "harmed", and I just took advantage of the free sewing time. Olivia ran into the office with a huge smile on her face and said, "Mom, we're putting ev-y-thing in the pat-n-pay (pack-n-play)". (me)"That sounds like fun!" (no worries). Kate comes in a few minutes later with the same grin on her face and says, "Mom, you've got to come see. We put everything in the pack-n-play." (I start to follow) "Wait, Mom. You're going to want to get your camera, then come and see." Ha! She was right! I got my camera and went in to see. They had completely unloaded their bookcase, taken all the blankets off their beds, and were started in on the toy chest by the time I made it in. The pack-n-play was literally bulging from all four sides. At least the "room was clean" =)

I'm pretty sure no one family should own this many clothes. Guess what I'm doing today?

The expected after Thanksgiving post

Thanksgiving ended up being a really fun time. Heidi and I surprised ourselves by fixing a really, really good meal (she fixed most of it =) - in spite of Mom not being there. We ate several meals at Josh & Heidi's, and scored some really great deals on Black Friday. Since Heidi and I didn't have babysitters, we didn't get to go out early this year, so the guys split up the list and trekked out around 3:45am. I ended up hitting JoAnn's and Old Navy, but waited until 10am, which I thought would help with crowd lines, but boy was I wrong...

That evening Brad and I hosted the annual "hometeached" gathering. I guess this makes about the 8th or something like that. I seriously can't remember not getting together the day after Thanksgiving with this crew. Kathryn met her match. She and Meredith (or Mary, as she likes to call her) hit it off. So well, in fact, that Amy and I decided to let the girls just stay up and play instead of trying to get them to sleep through all the excitement. We hardly even saw them. I had to pull Kathryn out of her room to get her to eat her supper. When everyone left at 12:30am, they were still going strong. Every single day since Kathryn has said, "Mom, it would be a really fun day if Mary could come and play again" =)

This was the room after they were done playing. They pretended and pretended and pretended. Too much fun...

Our crew was having lots of fun too playing Trivial Pursuit. Seriously, guys, next year - we're voting NO Trivial Pursuit. Who cares if it's tradition?!?!? I didn't have one thing to add, and we even put one of our newest members to sleep (she said she had a headache, but I'm not believing that ;)

We got to meet some newbies that will be forced to get to join us year after year, Jason's fiance Courtney, and Jon's girlfriend Janna. They were so sweet, and great matches for those guys. I finally got to meet sweet little Ty for the first time. He was so good, and just snoozed in his Mommy and Daddy's arms all night. Brad made Starbuck's Espressos while the night was still young, and I'm thinking that will be a new tradition. We missed some of the old folks who had to go to the in-laws this year, but it was a great time, and we're looking forward to next year.

All in all, the girls did exceptionally well this weekend. They had lots of really late nights and several days with no naps, and still trucked right along, and were congenial and sweet. Unfortunately, today is a different story. They have been at each other all morning. Breakfast went like this:

Livie (singing Little Bunny Foo Foo): Little bunny poo poo I'll turn you into a boon!
Kate: No, Livie, it's supposed to be a goon not a boon!!!
Livie: I know, but I say boon!! (singing louder) I'll turn you into a boon!!!
Kate: NO, Livie, that's not RIGHT!!! MOM, can you help her, she's singing it all wrong!!!

This may not seem like that big of a deal, but it's scenarios like this constantly, one right after the other. I haven't heard them agree on one thing this morning. And the tattling, oh the tattling...

Yesterday afternoon, I was laying on the couch (sick with a cold), and Maggie was on the floor in front of me. She spotted a toy she was determined to have, and took off crawling to get to it! She had "started" crawling a couple of weeks ago, but it was just once every now and then. Now I'd say it's official. She's slow, but steady. Quickness will come (I fear =)

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. Now it's officially time to decorate for Christmas!! Did I mention that it has been snowing off and on for the past two days? Not much accumulation, but a little ground covering, and enough to get me in the Christmas spirit =)