room change!

It happened, Solace was ready for his own room, and the big boys were ready to share again. It sure was nice these past few months having them apart, and having Solace in the crib in my room... but we all needed a change. Paul and I needed more sleep, and the big boys needed each other. Hawken would often complain that he didn't want to sleep "by my lone self!"... Poor thing.  Saying good bye to his bed in the little boy room.

Welcome to the BIG boy room, just across the hall. Matix happily helped us move Hawk's bed and things into the room. They love sharing it, and I'm glad. Although we do have 5 bedrooms in this house, I really love having a playroom, which means sharing a bedroom is a must for some of the kiddies. The boys each have a tiny robot I painted on the wall near their beds. Who knew that would be so special...?

Lullaby wanted pictures of her in her bed too. She didn't switch rooms or anything, she just didn't want to be left out. :)

Solace's room, or the LITTLE boy room now has the changing table and his crib and the futon, which is nice for those nights that he needs a little extra snuggles from mommy before deciding to sleep again. Daddy has been getting really good sleep, so it's worth it.

It's hard to see all the angles of the room in pictures only, maybe I will do a video too. We'll see. :)

file folder game

Grandma Stacy sent this new file folder game for the kids. It has stockings for each person (and dog) in our family. Each stocking gets a candy cane with matching color to the stocking and a gift. Solace gets a paci, Daddy gets a bike, Sakina gets a dog bone... You get it.  What a fun game. Thanks Stacy!

silly.

I love doing holiday things as many days before the holiday as I can. They seem to come so fast and then they're gone, and we have a whole year that we have to wait for them again. I don't want to miss any chance I have to make it more special for the kids. We made Christmas nachos one night, which is regular nachos, but we used red and green tortilla chips instead of the regular ones. The kids loved it. :)

out with the old

A while ago, they tore down our old playground. I wasn't sad. It needed a lot of updating, so instead of updating it, they removed it completely and the area sat empty for a few weeks. We got a letter from the HOA saying they will be installing a new playground with a canopy cover. YAY! They are also putting in new picnic tables in the large grass area near the playground, and exercise equipment as well. We can hardly wait. Just a few days ago, they started working on the playground. First they put in the poles, and anchored them with TONS of cement.

Then a couple days later, we have a canopy! It looks SO good. I can only imagine what the new playground will look like. We can hardly wait!

book exchange

Before Christmas, Matix's preschool class had a little book exchange party. It was cute. All the siblings went to the party as well, so we had a little kid exchange too. Matix was so excited to choose a book for Claire, and he didn't realize he would also be getting a book. His book is the new Planes book (from the movie). He is SO happy about it, despite looking upset in the picture, I promise he was happy. Hawk and Lulli got one book to share, and it is a new Christmas book. It's actually one Paul had as a child, so he was happy to see it again. :)

They also decorated cookies and ran around and played with their friends. I am glad this class is full of GOOD kids. They are all so sweet.

Christmas Eve

Today was a busy day. We saw Dale and Vanessa and played with their kids in the morning. We picked up secret gifts to deliver to some unsuspecting families. We bought some things to re-do our stairs at Home Depot. We had dinner. We re-enacted the Nativity, several times, with the kids each playing multiple roles (including DUCK, which according to Hawken was in the stable). Lullaby as Mary, Matix as Joseph.

Hawken the shepherd.

Wrapping the baby in swaddling clothes.

The three wise men bringing the baby gifts.

We read from Luke. We delivered those secret gifts and ran back to our car laughing. We called Grandpa Chuck to hear Twas The Night Before Christmas. It was a good day. And now all our children are nestled all snug in their beds and Paul and I are ready to knock out too. I am so thankful to have a deeper meaning to Christmas in our home. It isn't about the gifts (although we are all excited about those too), it's about life and love and being thankful for the beautiful example of our Savior. Merry (almost) Christmas.

dreamy

How much do I love this baby? Thhiiiiiiiiiiiissss much (imagine my arms outstretched as far as they could possibly reach). He is a dreamy baby.

beauty

According to Lullaby, she LOVES this guy. Perhaps some of that pink hair dye seeped into my blood all those years ago, because now it's in her. 

There was a lady at the grocery store today who had red hair, like stop sign red. Lullaby was fascinated with her, and kept pointing her out to me and calling her beautiful. I like that she sees beauty in things and in people that aren't always traditional. 

cute

Sleepy headed snuggles after naps. I love my lovey boys. :)

an early gift

Most of the Christmas packages from grandparents, great-grandparents, family friends and families that have adopted us in along the way... have arrived and the kids have been LOVING opening the box to find a million little wrapped gifts inside. They read each name on the tags and spell out the things they don't know. They are SO excited. One package, from my dad, had a wrapped gift of books for the kids, mostly Christmas themed.

It was torn open on the sides from the long journey it had from Wisconsin all the way to Texas. I said they could go ahead and open up that one gift early (Grandpa approved it over the phone too).

Opening a Christmas present early, is CRAZY exciting. Unheard of fun. Instantly, this gift becomes the best most amazing gift ever.

The kids ripped into the gift, although they could clearly already see what it was, and acted so surprised. They screamed and smiled and read every book. There were no repeats of books we already have.

What a fun day that was, I can hardly imagine what their reactions will be for real Christmas... Thanks Dad for the preview and for the books. We love them.

the tree

We got a live tree again this year so we can plant it afterward. We tried to get a banana tree or some other kind of fruit tree, but it's always the kids' pick. I like it that way. They have to talk it out and find one that they agree on. We have such sweet kids.

The one they picked is more of a bush than a tree, but it looks pretty Christmas-y. We put on one sting of lights, and several ornaments. The boys were battling on who could get their ornament the highest.

Group shot of Daddy and the kiddies. I am seriously in love with our family. We are so blessed.

missionaries

Some places we move to, we love the missionaries, and sometimes they are just okay. It's taken us a few months, but we have finally spent some time with the missionaries here in Houston, and they are SUPER fun. There are three sets of missionaries for our ward, and the ones that are zoned to our little area within the ward boundaries are awesome. We had them over for dinner. They played with the boys before and after dinner and tired them completely out. Too bad I can't hire them to come ever every night to do the same thing. :)

long weekend

Our weekend was a long one. It started on Friday. We went over to our friends' house for a movie night. The kids decorated cookies and watched their kid movie in the back room, while the parents watched a movie in the living room.  The only picture I got that night was of Lullaby eating a candy cane. They all stayed up WAY past their bedtimes and Paul and I were exhausted by the time we got home and got everyone in bed.  We saw the new Superman movie though, which was pretty good, so it was worth it, plus the kids had a blast!

Saturday was our church ward Christmas party. There was a dinner and then Santa came. Paul ate standing up holding the baby. What a good daddy.

The dinner was good, the santa was bad. Really, not the best santa. There was a square pillow in his chest, trying to eat him... Oh well. Lullaby was cautious and would only go over to him if Paul was holding her, but even then she wasn't happy.

After the party, the Johnson's (same family as the night before) dropped off their kids at our house so they could go to Karl's fancy work party. All 8 kids were perfect. Even baby Cole, who had never been babysat before did great.  They had such a good time, and Solace was the only one who went down during all the fun (but still far after his bed time). The other kids stayed up and partied until 10 something when Karl and Jessica got back. Crazy.

Naps on Sunday before church were really nice, but not long enough and we had 4 crabby kids all day.  After church we came home for dinner and then when right back out to get to the stake center (in Sugarland) for the Christmas Chorus Night. It was really beautiful and another church from the area joined ours, making it that much bigger and better. We brought cookies, but about half way through the performance the kids were ready to go, and so were we.  So we didn't get to eat any of the billion cookies, but we were happy to be home at 8pm, still after bedtime, but a lot better than the previous two nights. Thank heavens Paul was able to be there too, this was a weekend I couldn't have done alone.