Stuart Middle(as opposed to Little)

Here is a better shot of Abbey with Stuart. She is so good with him. She has a little harness she puts on him and walks him around. She cleans his cage and cares for him all on her own. He actually is a little bit jumpy with me, but she has no problems with him.  He feels like velvet and everyone loves to pet him. Asher especially loves the "big mousy."

After Much Anticipation...

The morning finally arrived! For some(Abbey) it arrived at 6 am. For the rest of us, it arrived around 8 and then someone else(Asher) needed to be woken up. He wasn't thrilled about this until we told him Santa had come and when he saw the display he let out an audible gasp and it was all magic from there on.  

Asher opening the target practice game with his first "gun." Previous to this he had been carting around a plastic, pink hairdryer which he called his "peent dum."

Abbey showing enthusiasm for her ipod.

The girls each received a wardrobe for their American Girl dolls. Abbey has two dolls, so she got two wardrobes. My neighbor was so kind to do the lettering for me. 

Asher loves books and these from uncle Chris and aunt CC were a hit.

Emma and the dollhouse for her Calico Critters(she got the dalmatian family). The elves really outdid themselves this year and burned the midnight oil on this little project.

Claire and her Barbie dollhouse.

Abbey and the thrill of her morning, a chinchilla she named Stuart.

The train set Santa brought for Asher.

We spent the rest of the day being lazy and visiting Grandma's Jolene and Bowen, playing with and assembling new toys, watching new movies and eating leftovers. Definitely a day well spent.

The Eve

One of the reasons we love living so close to family is that we get to have everyone over for Christmas Eve. This always consists of ham, potatoes, and the works, the reading of the Nativity in Luke, new jammies and books, putting the kids to bed and playing games until way too late. I wish it were Christmas Eve every night. This year I actually won Pit which has NEVER happened. Maybe that was because I hurried and called it a game while I was still ahead.

The kids in their jammies. I forgot to take a picture of the cute bags their books came in.

Abbey scanning her Nancy Drew books and Grandma Jolene reading Claire's Fancy Nancy book.

Claire and Grandpa

Emma and Jared's girlfriend, Su Bin, reading Asher's Dr. Suess books(Emma actually got a Marley book)

Uncle Jared reading Asher's books to him.

Those also present but who somehow escaped the camera were uncle Josh, aunt Marissa and Grandma Bowen.

Procrastination

Behind the scenes of "The Making of a Holiday Card" 

This was my desperate, last minute attempt to pull together a Christmas card on the last Sunday before Christmas.

It was apparent that the group shot wasn't the way to go this year. Claire was decent, but Emma has the "I've been at church for three hours already and I just want to get in from the cold" look, Abbey is forcing a smile in a major way and Asher just desperately wants his car to be in the picture too. After promises of candy and Sunday appropriate movie time, we tried individual shots.

I don't need candy that bad...

Well, maybe I do.

Miss dimples knows what I like.

Claire baring all her awkward tooth glory.

You get one shot mom and this is as good as it gets.  Okay, I'll take it.

After cropping them, changing them to sepia and sticking them on a Costco photo card, they didn't turn out too shabby. Too bad I lost half my addresses in our computer transfer, so I still have some to send out, but it might be a little too late now. Next year I might have to start in November.

Sing it sister

Abbey enjoyed being a part of the school choir this year with many of her friends from the neighborhood. Their Christmas concert was cute, but the highlight was watching Asher do the hand motions with the choir. I don't have any pics of him, but I did catch it on film. Even the choir kids were laughing at him.

Always a smile for mom.

Concentrating so hard on her part.

The whole group, minus a few.

We're in for a long winter...

but who needs a snowblower when you've got these two lovely ladies?

The Gingerman House

Asher's favorite cookies ever are gingerbread or as he calls them, gingermen. He was so thrilled to see we were making entire gingermen houses. Seriously, Christmas was over as far as he was concerned.

Emma and Claire working on their masterpiece, which later turned into just throwing candy at the house to see if it would stick.

Abbey, who is so methodical, was very sweet to let the two year old ruin her house. Talk about love.

Just another action shot...

In her defense, it did take a lot of effort to get from my room to the fireplace where she is trying to get as warm as felinely possible.

The Life

Our kids may never have slept in our bed, but this is who I fight for my pillow each night. Just might be in the running for fattest(and laziest) cat ever!

I'm a big kid now...

Daddy took off the training wheels and off she went. So much easier and earlier than her sisters. I guess this is where her effort award kicks in.

Her Best Effort

Emma's teacher called me and said she would be receiving an award at the school's award's assembly, so being the good mother I am, I went to support her and take pictures. There were three categories: Academic, Citizenship and Best Effort(apparently not top in the class, but sure tries hard.) Emma earned the latter. I was very proud of her, she does try very hard. The funny thing was a few days later Abbey announced that she got the academic award. I told her that yes, she got that last year, but we were talking about this year. She went to her backpack and pulled out her academic award to show us that she indeed did receive it. The 4th grade was in a later assembly and her teacher had not called me so no pictures of her achievement. Not feeling like such a good mom now.

Emma is in the middle of the back row in the stripes.

Leaves are falling all around...

Well, everywhere but our house. We hope to remedy that this year. To get our fix, we went to Grandma and Grandpa to rake leaves. All fought over different tools, but that's pretty much how it goes at our house. We had fun anyway.

Asher's help was just a bit counter productive, but he sure had a good time.

Chop, Chop

I hit the six year cycle this year. The one where I get so fed up with my hair that I chop it all off. Ya, that one. The last time I did this was before Emma was born and the last time before that was before I got married. My hairdresser cut me a chin length bob and then I begged her to go shorter. When she was done, she looked a bit concerned and said, "Your not going to cry are you?" No, no tears. Hair always grows back, well, for most of us anyway.

Favorite Things

Although, Spring will always be my favorite season, Fall is a close second for many reasons.

When soccer season is over, we can resume our Saturday morning ritual of pancake breakfasts. I don't even have to make the pancakes anymore.

There is nothing I love more than soup(well, maybe good Indian food) and Fall is the perfect time to dust off all my recipes. I will be eating in these babies all winter long. The best part is the 1.50 price tag at Tai Pan.

Reflecting

The theme for The Reflections contest this year was, "Wow." A little broad, but doable. All girls were willing participants.

Since Emma's only love is dogs, she drew this and Paul helped her name it, "Bow Wow" 

I can't recall what Claire named this, but she thought space was pretty wow.

Upon our return from the magical kingdom, this was the only way to go for Abs. Although her sisters were wrapping up their projects after only 30-60 minutes, Abbey spent hours and hours on this and spared no expense on the details. It's no wonder she went on to the district level while her sisters did not.

We were suckers for frozen treats in any form.

The tea cups were a must.

One of their favorite parts of the trip this year was finding the different characters.

Yes, this is our family walking past the crazy tourists.

In all its' glory. Did I mention that is is approximately 2 feet by 3 feet and she colored it all with colored pencils? 

Calling all Goblins, Ghosts and Other Miscellaneous Creatures

One spooky house, courtesy of the children that inhabit it.

Three sisters loving short sleeve weather in October.

Four kids hurriedly carving their pumpkins at the last minute.

One storm fairy who concocted this because she wanted to wear her dance costume one more time.

One supergirl who was set on being  PINK  even though we had to special order it and it didn't come in time for the school parade. It did, however, make it there for the trick-or-treating.

One scary green dinosaur who didn't care that his costume distorted his face.  He still had one mean growl.

One gray wolf who ended the night with Strep for the 3rd or 4th time in just as many months.

Sibling love

The whole t-o-ting crowd.

Top row: Abbey and friend Caitlyn

Middle row: friend Abbey or Allison, Claire holding cousin Henry, Abbey or Allison(I still can't tell them apart), Emma and Asher

Bottom row: cousins Anna and Maddie

I failed to mention in previous posts that my mom had both of her knees,yes BOTH, replaced while we were in the land of Disney and then ended up in the ICU for a week because she had blood clots. It's taken a toll on my dad. This is what the kids encountered while visiting grandma's house.