Weekend Recap

We've had another fantastic December weekend. So much fun and time with sweet friends. At one point Nathan said, "It's like Friend Friday today!"

Early in the weekend I baked and decorated some sugar cookies to give as gifts to the kids' teachers at church. We really love the preschool ministry at our church. For the most part, the kids have the same teachers every week. It's a sacrifice for the teachers to serve every week, but such a help for our kids, especially our Elisabeth who is doing so well in the nursery now. We wanted to say Merry Christmas and thank you for taking such good care of our kids each week.

I ended up finishing them on Friday afternoon after my parents picked the kids up to spend the night.

Friday morning, Levi and Audrey and their mom came over to play. I told Nathan on Monday that Levi was coming on Friday, and he asked at least twice per day, how many days it was until Friday. At first I couldn't figure out why he was asking because I had mentioned it pretty casually that they were coming over and didn't even think he'd remember, but he always reminded me that Levi was coming over on Friday. It's fun watching him make friends especially with such sweet families!

Can't you tell they didn't have any fun at all?!!

Friday afternoon, the kids went to my parents' house for the evening. I love my kids more than anything, but this is still a welcome sight on a Friday afternoon!

Matt and I went on a date Friday night. We went out to dinner at Smokies and then went bowling. We don't bowl very often, but always have a good time when we do and wonder why we don't go more often (and then we remember how tired we usually are on Friday nights!).

 Callen, a friend from my parents' church (and the son of Samuel's Puggles teacher) came to play Friday night too, so his parents could have a date. Samuel was excited about playing with him too.

Saturday morning, Nathan had choir practice for his performance Sunday night (he does children's choir at my parents' church and loves it!). When he finished I picked up the other kids and met him and my mom at their neighborhood visit with Santa.

I showed up and Nathan was excitedly telling me that Cole was there too!! He was through the roof excited. Cole is one of his very best friends at school, and it was such a surprise to see him there. I knew he lived in the same neighborhood as my parents but didn't find out until Saturday that he lives on the same street as my parents do which will be perfect for play dates! I was just telling Matt the day before how different school will be for our kids living in such a big town, and how I was anxious wondering how our kids will be able to maintain friendships when there are so many schools and they are so big. It eased my worry knowing that Cole living close to my parents is an easy way to maintain this sweet friendship after pre-K is over (which already has me in a puddle of tears).

Samuel is pretty fond of Cole too. They play on the playground together after school a lot.

I knew Elisabeth wouldn't be a fan of Santa, and I was right. All parents need one crying picture with Santa, right?!

She was a fan of the toys though!

And Samuel was a fan of the donuts (black icing and all)

Matt and Barry (and Nathan) worked on the shed in the afternoon

Saturday night, Brett and Michelle and their kids joined us for dinner which was so fun! We've missed their family, and with busy schedules we've had a hard time getting together, and I was really excited that it worked out for them to come over on Saturday. Our kids are practically the exact same age (with a bonus Elisabeth :)), and have the most adorable friendships. Emma is really Nathan's first real friend and Grant is the same for Samuel. It was fun watching the kids play while the guys talked about airplanes and Michelle and I talked about sending our babies off to Kindergarten, and we all laughed about our second born children and their feisty, ornery, adorableness. Samuel and Grant have such similar personalities that any story we would tell about them was practically the same. We could laugh and cry together about the things they both do.

The only time the kids were quiet and still was during dessert, of course! They much preferred playing to eating!

Sunday morning we headed to church in our December best. This is actually the last Sunday we'll be at our church until the first of the year.

Elisabeth and her sucker :). The second we picked her up from her class, she started asking for it and again after we stopped at each of her brothers' classes

Sunday night, Nathan sang at my parents' church for their children's Christmas program. He was so excited, and worked really hard memorizing all the words to his songs (Samuel memorized them along with him and sang along Sunday night!). He did a great job as a sheep, and I'm grateful for the opportunity for him to participate because he really likes singing and performing. We celebrated at his new favorite restaurant (Arbys) afterward.

This weekend I was especially grateful for precious friendships and the opportunity to worship our Savior in several different ways throughout the Christmas season.

16 Months Old

Elisabeth Kae, you are sixteen months old!

 I have a really hard time deciding which age is my favorite with you and your brothers, because there are such joys and challenges at each age, but I feel like we are at a sweet spot with you in the last couple of months and having SO much fun. I told your dad the other day, that this is the payoff for the first year of your life which was tough on us in some ways. You still are demanding and needy, but every single day you do the most adorable and hilarious things and are learning and growing so fast, and you are just such a joy right now. We are eating you up!

You are saying new words all the time and will try and repeat anything we ask you too. Some new words you're saying are water (wa), milk (mik), bath (baa), boot (boo), fish and sucker (shu) and my favorite new word you say is choo choo! You say it all the time too. We do have a lot of trains in our house.

You are starting to outgrow your 12-18 month clothes. They are getting too short, and your belly is hanging out of your shirts :). 18-24 month things fit well on you. You are wearing a size 4 diaper and size 5 shoe.

We've been trying (not too hard though) to get you to drink out of a cup more than a bottle. Some days are good, and some days you just demand a bottle. You'll wave your arms and yell "no" if I think about getting you a cup instead. You got sick this month too, so any progress we made was stalled while you were sick. Sick girl needs a bottle!

You are starting to play with baby dolls more. You carry them around and give them hugs and kisses. You like to play with some of the kitchen toys too, blocks, and with your brothers' trains. Really though, toys are just a short distraction from books which are by far your favorite things these days. We read books all the time. "Goodnight Daniel Tiger" is your new favorite. The other day, Nathan came downstairs and said, "Sorry Mommy it took me awhile to come downstairs. Elisabeth wanted me to read the Goodnight Daniel Tiger book THREE times." Your daddy and I feel his pain sometimes. As soon as we read the last word in a book, you immediately shout, "More!"

I'm sure this video will be very boring for everyone but me. But I'll tell you as much as I think I'll remember the things my kids do at certain ages, I know I won't remember everything, so I wanted to record a normal play time with Elisabeth at 16 months old to look back on.



On Sunday after church the preschool sets out a basket of dum dums for the kids. You go crazy for them. As soon as we pick you up from your class you start yelling, "Shu shu." You also ask for them when we take Nathan to school and are so disappointed when they aren't there.

You're still a fickle eater and not a big breakfast fan at all. You refuse to let me spoon feed you anything (but ice cream) and just don't seem hungry in the mornings. I made eggs for dinner and you ate and ate and ate them. (I think you had thirds), but if I make them for breakfast, you eat maybe two bites. You still love any kind of meat (at lunch or dinner) and hot dogs are your very favorite food I think. When we have chicken or pork for dinner, you always eat more than your brothers.

Your favorite snack is goldfish. You ask for fish several times a day. You'll hand me the bag and run off yelling, "bowl, bowl" and bring me a bowl to put them in.

You have all four of your canines now, so we should be done with teething until you get your two year molars

You take one nap per day for about 1.5-2 hours and sleep from about 7:30-7 every night. When I lay you down after your bottle and lots of reading books, you snuggle right up on your pillow and go to sleep.

You love to sing songs with hand motions, and patty cake is your favorite
You brought me a blanket one day and wanted to wear it as a super cape. I tied it on and you ran around the house with your hands spread out behind your back. Adorable! And a clear sign you have older brothers!

I love where you're at right now, but I have been a little weepy thinking about how much you've grown since last Christmas when you were a tiny baby who couldn't even sit up on your own. It feels like a completely different Christmas with you this year. You are growing up too fast. I'm trying to soak up as much as I can!

Gingerbread Decorating 2015

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is gingerbread decorating! Nathan asked to decorate a house this year (we've only done trains in the past), and Samuel wanted to do a train. Last year they shared a train, and that didn't work out so well. Nathan got really upset when Samuel started eating it! So this year, they each got to do their own thing.

Nathan always wants to make his look just like the picture on the box. He is like that with everything he does.

Samuel did a much better job decorating than last year.

He still took some icing breaks though :)

He sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating :)

Elisabeth stole licks of icing. I would squeeze some on her finger and she would feed it to Samuel. It was hilarious!

Some days pants are optional in our family

He was really proud of his hard work. I helped him some, but he did most of it by himself.

Samuel had a little more help with his.

The boys helped with clean up too :)

Fun times!

Weekend Recap

December weekends are always full of fun! We had a great weekend full of festive activities.
Friday night, my parents kept the kiddos so Matt and I could have a date night. It had been a few weeks since we'd had one, so I was really excited about a night alone with Matt. I ended up not feeling super great (I was functioning okay, just tired and a little achy), so we went out to dinner and then picked up a movie from Redbox and had a relaxing evening (and a full night's sleep!)

Saturday morning we picked up the kids and headed to our local Christmas parade. The kids had a good time. Elisabeth ended up being really ornery and trying to run out into the parade. She'd just laugh at us when we'd drag her back. She was a handful, but the boys were great!

Nathan said his favorite part of the parade was the band. If Elisabeth could talk in sentences she would have said her favorite part was the candy. That girl was sugared up. She'd just spit out a piece of candy if something better came along.

And Samuel said his favorite part was the road cleaner (aka street sweeper that came at the end of the parade). Ha ha. Love that kid!

We came home for lunch and naps. During naptime, Nathan and Matt worked on his shed, and I made a dessert for our Sunday School Christmas party.

We ran back to my parents later that afternoon to drop the kids off on the way to our Christmas party.

Elisabeth showed off her horse riding skills before we left for the party.

We had a really fun night! The party was a progressive dinner which was fun and a good way to visit with lots of different couples during the evening. And the food was delicious. I was full after the appetizer house! We got a chance to visit with some couples we didn't know very well, which was nice.

We're so grateful that the Lord led us to such a great group of people at FBC!

My parents dropped the kids by our house Sunday morning just in time for church. Christmas outfits for church are another of my favorite things about December weekends! Baby girl Christmas dresses make my heart go pitter patter!

I grabbed my phone and snapped this on the way into church.

He's Super Dad on Sundays and every other day too!

Sunday afternoon Matt and Nathan spent more time outside on the shed (they are getting close to finished- by the end of the year for sure!) while the rest of us napped and then played outside. We went back to church Sunday night for their Christmas program. They had dueling pianos and the church choir and orchestra performed too. I'm a sucker for Christmas music, so I loved it. The boys lasted through about two songs before they were asking to go to their classes.

We can't wait for more fun next weekend!