Merry Birthday and Happy Christmas!

December always seems to go so fast.  Fair warning, there are a lot of pictures ahead...

The girls helped me bake and then decorate cookies.  It's so funny to see their personalities at play... Cecily is neat and meticulous but loses interest pretty fast.  Cadence is still at the more is better, pile on all of the frosting! stage.  

And sweet, domestic Emmy truly enjoys this sort of thing and would have decorated every cookie for me with a smile.  

This ridiculous Unicorn headband came home from school one day.  Woot.  

Sigh.  So, our bathroom sink drain has been slow lately.  I decided to try a pot of really hot water before resorting to draino.... so I filled a big kettle, heated it up, and poured it down the drain.  It worked!  You could tell the point that whatever was constricting the pipe was cleared out and the water started draining faster.  And then.  There was a gurgling in the tub.  And horror of horrors the tub started backing up every time we turned the sink on.   Yay.  

Of course it was lunch time, and Miriel was hungry, so Emmy made us all lunch...

...while I took care of the baby and Bob plunged the tub.  We just love Saturday morning plumbing adventures.  It worked though, and everything has worked fine since. #crossourfingers  #olderhouseproblems 

The girls were delighted when it snowed and could not wait to play in it.  Well, this one was a little unsure of her snowsuit.

But she loved being outside!

We need a hill. haha.

My 35 birthday was the 17th.  I actually had a lot of fun!  Probably mostly because I decided that this year I would not sit at home and feel sorry for myself for my overlooked mid-December birthday. So I took the girls to McDonald's for lunch before we went grocery shopping... I probably should have explained the 'random acts of kindness in honor of my birthday' before hand  because they were a little mad at me because of one of them.  ha.    

Far over the Misty Mountains cold....  Cadence tried out our ridiculous gnome/dwarf bottle toppers on the soda assortment we bought for Christmas.  

I was hungry for chocolate and peanut butter so I tried a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse brownie cake...  It didn't look like the picture, but it tasted pretty amazing!  

We took the girls to Red Robin for supper.  I'm sure those pay at the table things are great for the restaurant, but we were pretty sure little miss can't-leave-the-screen-alone was going to order all kinds of extra food.

We don't get out much...

On the way home we drove through the festival of lights.  Miriel was not happy (she doesn't like driving in the dark) so I got her out of her seat so she got to see the lights too.  
Bob got me a new mini library kit and a round clock, plus a LOTR book for visual inspiration; it appears I may be making another clock into a tiny hobbit hole.  Haha.  We're not sure this particular clock will work, but now I'm inspired.  It was a good birthday. 

Wednesday morning I had the younger two girls buckled into the van to pick up Emmy from school. When I tried to open the garage door it went up a little bit, went back down, went up again, went back down, went up a few inches and stopped.  So I decided to unhook it from the chain and open it manually since we were already running a bit late... when I pulled the cord it SLAMMED down and I couldn't lift it at all.  Woot.  One panicked call to the grade school so Emmy wouldn't worry and a help! call to Sharon, later; Emmy was home and Sharon and I tried to lift the garage door so the van wouldn't be trapped.  Yeah.  The spring had broken so we could barely budge it.  The repair guy couldn't come until the next day, so we were grounded on Thursday too.  My mom picked up Emmy and ate lunch with us so I didn't have to walk up to the grade school in the cold.   
Little Miss I-must-read-for-exactly-20-minutes and not a second more (or less) parked in front of my microwave timer.  Her book must be open and ready to go before she starts the timer, so she can start reading immediately.  Odd child.  :P  

 Thursday evening was the Grade School Christmas program.  

Miriel and Cadence did pretty well in the bleachers.  Towards the end, Miri was getting a bit restive so Cadence and I were out wandering the hallways with her.  I was not paying quite enough attention to Cadence... she was climbing on and off some chairs that were standing against the wall.  Right under the fire alarm.  She was reaching.... Her hand was mere inches away when I grabbed her.  It.was.so.close.  I don't even want to think about what might have been.  #nichtsnutz

The big girls got out of school early Friday.  After their class parties- the kids were visibly vibrating.  
We went to the farm for Schlipf Christmas that evening.  Last year, we were all sick and didn't get to go so it was exciting to be there and healthy.  The girls were all shy- except for Emmy with her new best friend Joshua.  They brought a saran wrap ball for the kids, which some of them understood better than others.  ha.  My girls were quite pleased with their treasures.  Cecily even said that it was "the best Schlipf Christmas ever!"  Haha... since she remembers so many of them.

We were back at the farm the next day for Christmas round two!  They could hardly wait to open their presents.

They also kept Grandpa and Grandma busy catering to their every whim.  

Aurelia is just so cute.  

Miriel was more interested in Grandma's toys than in presents.

We gave Nathan a fun new game called "Charty Party."  Unfortunately, it needed to be heavily censored, but the sanitized version was still hilarious. It's like apples to apples with charts and graphs... one of the combos had me in stitches... tears, rolling down my face.  It wasn't even that funny.  
The boys played a game of (AC) World Famous Pedigree.  

We sang a little bit of Messiah.  Acappella.  We sounded amazing.  Or something.  
The dining room is getting a bit crowded; we've now outgrown the extra table and have added a kids table in the living room.  

We got home late and rushed the girls through baths and to bed for church the next morning, so they were pretty excited to finally get to play with their new toys Sunday afternoon.  Just roasting a hot dog over her campfire.  

That evening was the Beutel Christmas.  They have been talking about the nativity play...  
Oh, hello!

 One scrappy little shepherd,

 Two little angels.

We did our little family Christmas the next day.  

The older two girls picked out presents for everyone at the Santa's workshop and it's always quite interesting to see what they chose.  And poor Miriel put up with a lot of strange hats...

A paw patrol craft!

She wanted to work on it right! away!  With lots of help, of course- why do I do this to myself?

Somebody was jealous of the crafting so I pulled out this color your own nativity "craft" for the older two. 

I didn't do anything too fancy for Christmas dinner.  Bob suggested Cornish hens like my mom used to make; the girls were not super impressed.  "These are really small turkeys!"  
It's been fairly warm so the only snow left was in the disappearing pile the snowplow left.  Bob and the girls spent quite a bit of time "snow bowling."  Basically, rolling snowballs down the street and seeing who could get them to go the farthest.  

We spent Christmas Eve with the Kochs.  It was a small crowd this year, so I think I actually got to talk to everyone.  It was another late night for the girls though, so if it wasn't for stockings I'm not sure they would have been very happy to get up in the morning for church.   

Her very own Peter and the Wolf! 

They all got timers... see above.  Hopefully I will get my microwave timer back.  Also, Miri-miri is adorable.

That evening was Kid Christmas with Bob's parents.  Cecily really wanted to wear the kitty cat leggings that she got in her stocking with her kitty cat shirt.  (insert eye-roll)  I wouldn't wear them together...but... whatever, put a skirt in between so you're not wearing all pale pink. :)  

I think I like this new toy!  

Thursday we finally had a break and spent the day catching up on laundry and playing with new toys and fighting over silly things.  
Friday we cleaned the house, Matt stopped by, and our sweet neighbor lady came for a bit.  And the girls finally, after two days of begging, got to paint with their new paints from Aunt Susan.  Cecily painted a cat. Of course.  Emmy's was a house... Cadence's was very abstract.  

Bob went out to his parent's for adult Christmas in the evening.  The girls and I made a fizzy bath bomb (yet another craft kit) so they had to try that out.... and got everything ready for the day of days. But, this is getting plenty long, so you'll just have to wait for it.
Blessings. 

Thanksgiving and catch-up

I blinked and Thanksgiving is over and we dove right in to all things Christmas!  

We don't believe in rushing holidays over here... one at a time and no overlap!  We do believe in matching U of I hoodies... Aunt Shelly gave us Miriel's and it just happened to match mine, with the Chief, which I love.

 Cadence is the most willing of helpers these days.

 They like stuff.  I don't mind stuff if I don't have to look at it or step on it.  However, when your stuff drawer is completely full, it's time to clean it out!  (I cringe a little every time they come home with goody bags and filler gifts... they love it, buuuut.... why not one larger gift rather than a million cheap trinkety things? :P Such is life with little girls though.) 

 Sunday evening Shells wanted to hang out with everyone.  Matt and Lena were already in town, and Bob suggested we have everyone at our house so 'we don't have to go anywhere.'  Ha.  We're such introverts.  So we did, and we managed to feed them all on fairly short notice.  No leftovers though... in my world that's a bad thing because if you do have leftovers, everyone got as much as they wanted.  If you don't have leftovers, maybe someone would have liked more and didn't get it; I am Lydiann's granddaughter and that would be the worst thing ever. ha.  
I spy five kids in there somewhere.

 I have never really thought that Matt's boys and my girls look alike.... but I kept doing double takes when Logan was in the bouncy seat.  :)

 The kids were banished to the basement to play Hungry Hippo and we played a quieter game upstairs.

 Look we match!

 My favorite part of this ensemble is the rings over top of the gloves. 

Bob took a few days off before Thanksgiving so he stayed home with Emmy and Cadence while Miriel and I went to Goodfield to help Shelly pack.  I'm not sure that I got much done, other than helping pack her "Big Arts" and "Small Arts."  Ha. (mcmansionhell.com reference...)
We only do one Thanksgiving a year, so we didn't have any big family plans after church.  It was nice... the girls did this Thanksgiving craft kit and our pilgrims appear to have yellow fever... haha. 

 I thought of it too late and the Mr.'s F were already cooking their own thanksgiving dinner when I asked if they wanted to join us.  Honestly, I was a little relieved they said no, because I had no traditional food except turkey, and I was trying out some authentic recipes.  Some of them turned out better than others.  The turkey stew (Sobaheg) burned really badly while it was reheating so the whole house smelled and it tasted pretty bad.  We all decided that we like pumpkin with lots of sugar in a pie crust better than stewed pumpkin- too squashy tasting.  I thought the Indian berry pudding (Nasaump) was pretty good, buuuttt... the texture was unnappealing to anyone else.  It was cream-of-wheat like so I ate it for breakfast the next morning with syrup drizzled on top.  So.  Not sure if I'll be able talk them into an authentic thanksgiving again.  They may have been more excited to drink cider out of GLASS cups than anything else.  Oh, and they may have eaten more deer summer sausage than turkey.

 Friday we were going to all go help Nathan and Michelle load trailers, but Miriel started feeling feverish mid-morning.  So Bob went and we girls stayed home. We went to Koch thanksgiving in the evening with a sick baby, and she did pretty well, considering.    She didn't sleep well though, poor baby, so I didn't sleep well either.  Woot.
She was still pretty warm all day Saturday so we didn't do much.  The girls were dying to decorate for Christmas.

On Sunday, Miriel was still a little warm and Cadence was a little warm and also slightly snotty.  Bob took the morning shift with them.  Miriel was not happy to be left, poor baby.  She was very happy to see me at noon, and was finally starting to feel better.  

They made their own dollhouse out of cardboard boxes, the perfect toy.

Emmy got sick at breakfast on Tuesday. So she spent the day on the couch watching movies... and Cadence couldn't understand why she couldn't be with her, so she got way too much screen time on the other couch.  Emmy was keeping food down all afternoon, until bedtime. *sigh*  So she spent Wednesday on the couch too, even though she was pretty much better.  We went to get a tree after school.  It's the last year in business for our favorite tree farm.  Sad news.  And we were one of their last customers... there were less than 20 trees left.  

We HAD to decorate it right away. So pretty.

Cadence was so excited to get to go to program practice this year.  I helped in the kitchen so I got to watch them sing.  She stood on the risers, no problem, but didn't sing and was lifting her dress up towards the end.  :)
Friday evening was caroling.  Bob was not feeling well so I took the girls... we went to the nursing home so we'd only have to unload once.  Cecily has suddenly decided to be self conscious so she wouldn't stand in front, Emmy was feeling shy, too, Cadence was wild, and then Miriel decided she didn't want to be in the stroller anymore.  I'm not sure we contributed much, other than sheer entertainment.
Saturday morning was the Santa breakfast at school.  We visited the book fair and the older two did Santa's workshop while we waited patiently reading our new books. Or something.  

We stopped at the library for stories and brought home crafts.  While Cecily and Emmy were doing their crafts, Cadence was quietly gluing together a large stack of construction paper.  

Bob spent the morning raking up what is hopefully the last of the leaves.  We have been blessed with the best neighbors... 

Sunday evening was the Christmas program!  Matching dresses straight from china that look better at a distance... Say cheese!

When Daddy takes away your blanky for the picture.  hehe.

She gets has to wear my coat this year.  I don't understand why they are so opposed, It's not that much different than their peacoats.  

The program went well, none of them distinguished themselves.  Cadence was starting to get more comfortable towards the end of her song and was testing the bounce in the risers... thankfully they were done before she did anything memorable.
Cadence and I went to the dentist on Monday.  Apparently she wanted to take a little mirror home so they gave her a plastic one (in her right hand) along with new toothbrush and stickers.  So exciting!

Grandma Kathy ate lunch with us, then took the middles to the farm for a bit.  Miriel and Cecily and I went over after school for awhile.  
The rest of the week has been less busy, thankfully.
Enjoying watching "the guy who sings tractor tractor" on the Behold the Lamb of God live stream.

We hung a mirror at kid height in the bathroom so they can see themselves, you know, so they won't climb up on the sink when they need to wash things off their faces.  It seemed like a good idea, but now they take forever brushing their teeth because they are so busy gazing at themselves.  :P  

We baked some cookies and decorated them.  We've done a little bit of shopping. 
Blessings.