Christmas... Finally

Bryan was the official Christmas morning photographer. I've been trying to pick out the best pictures to use for a Christmas post but there are 138 photos to sift through! He stopped taking pictures about halfway through the present unwrapping, so I imagine we would have at least twice as many if he had continued.

And then we have no other pictures from the rest of the day.

Here is our Christmas, told (mostly) through pictures.

 Christmas Eve. I love our stockings!

 Christmas morning.

Sophie, enjoying the spoils of her stocking. 

I love the look on Cooper's face. He's watching Phoebe open the gift that he gave her.

Here I am showing off the ring that Cooper picked out from the Holiday Shop at school. He enjoyed the giving part of Christmas this year. Also, Phoebe picked out my Christmas PJs. That's why I'm wearing color!

Phoebe, wearing her very fancy hair accessory from Peter.

Cooper, just as he unwrapped his gift from Peter. Peter was nervous. He was afraid he hadn't gotten things that people would want. Before we started opening presents we reviewed how to be gracious. The kids all did beautifully. No one announced that they hated the gift (which happened last year and brought all gifting to a halt for a few minutes while we made it clear that that was NOT okay), but rather said thank you and found nice things to say instead. 

Sophie spent most of Christmas morning sitting calmly on Bryan's lap. That means that we have a lot of Sophie closeups.

She did finally get to crawl around. This required us to guard all of our gifts as she is now highly mobile and very curious.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying our gifts, eating delicious food, and staying in our Christmas pajamas. It was a good, calm Christmas.

On the Docket

On Sunday after church I was looking at my calendar and marveling at how I didn't have anything pressing coming up. There were no big projects or meetings, no plans with friends or family. I wondered what I would do with all that extra time.

Dangerous thoughts, I know.

Shortly after my calendar gazing I was asked to teach Phoebe's preschool for the next two weeks, starting tomorrow. And I'm now in charge of a preschool hibernation party that will also take place this month. I've spent most of today planning my lesson for the three-hour chunk of time during which eight three and four-year-olds will be at my house.

The moral of this cautionary tale? Never think that you have free time, because something will come to fill it up.

Too Short

Today was the last weekday of the Christmas break. My kids didn't have a full two weeks off and the time feels too short.

You know that song It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas? There 's a line that I've seen quoted by some people on Facebook during the last few days. "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again." I don't feel that way. I like having the kids home, even if it means I can't go grocery shopping. I like not worrying about making lunches or insisting that the boys do homework.

I think a three week break sounds good. I wonder how I could make that happen...

Resolute

A new year starts today. You know what that means, right? Time for resolutions!

Are you ready? Here they are.

• Sleep, during the night preferably.
• Respond to text messages the same day I get them. I am ridiculously bad at this.
• Respond to emails within a week of receiving of them. That might sound like a long time to some of you, but I have a friend that emailed me in September that I still haven't properly written to. I know, that's awful. I should be writing to her instead of posting this.
• Post something on ye olde blog every week day. I've done this in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014. It's a lot of work and a big time commitment, but I'm still sad that I couldn't make it happen in 2012, and that regret spurns me forward into 2015. Also, this resolution and the one about sleep are in conflict, so I'll need to figure out how to make both work.
• Put Bryan higher on my priority list. I'm afraid that four little people often get my attention first, and that's just not fair. I'm brainstorming ways to catapult him to the top of the list more often.
• Listen. Listen to Bryan. Listen to the kids. Listen to the Holy Ghost. I need to be a better listener. This means limiting electronic distractions even more and looking at people when they talk to me. It also means not talking all the time myself.
• Follow the example of the Savior in everything I do. This is not a new goal, but it's one that I'm bringing to the forefront. It's also something we're working on as a family, so I need to work on it on my own as well.

That seems like a really long list. Some years I make resolutions, some years I don't, I feel like this needs to be a year of deliberate purpose.

A Year of Outtakes

I upload all of my pictures to Google+. The folks at Google (or their robot servants) put together a little movie of my photos. The thing is, most of the snapshots they picked are outtakes, not-quite-perfect variations of better pictures. I guess that's fitting since none of us are perfect. So here are some of the pictures that didn't quite make it onto the blog before. Consider it our blooper reel.



So long 2014, hello 2015.

Happy New Year!

The Big One

The week before Christmas something very exciting happened at our house. Sweet Sophie turned one year old! Her older siblings counted down the days until this important event and were thrilled when it arrived. Peter and Cooper collaborated on this birthday banner and were so pleased that they could make something for Sophie's special day.

We discovered back in September that we don't have any lighters in the house, one of the outcomes of a moving company packing and shipping your belongings. We all chuckled as Phoebe pretended to blow out her candles and I mentally jotted down the word lighter onto the shopping list in my brain. Well, it turns out I don't read that list as thoroughly as I should and I never bought the lighter, so Sophie had an unlit candle on her birthday banana muffin. That's okay, I didn't really want my newly minted one-year-old playing with fire anyway.

Sophie wasn't sure what to make of the gifts at first.

She caught on pretty quickly though.

She loved the paper - wrapping paper, tissue paper, clothing tags, it didn't matter - that was her favorite part.

See, more paper.

I should correct my earlier statement. The paper was her second favorite part. Hearing the Happy Birthday song was her favorite. She would grin when we sang it or played it, which prompted us to sing it and play it a lot.

One is a big birthday at our house. It means you're now allowed to have screen time. We watched The Muppet Christmas Carol as a family on the night of her birthday. I think she liked that I didn't turn her away every time she tried to watch, as I'd done for the year previous.

Here are a few things about Sophie at age one:

• She is crawling and pulling herself to stand on anything and everything.
• She has started to cruise a little and she is careful and skilled at sitting back down after standing. 
• She loves books and baby dolls and will kiss the latter whenever prompted. 
• She also will kiss her family members with big, sloppy, face-grabbing kisses. 
• She is curious and likes to climb into small spaces to investigate them. The big kids have started yelling out "Baby alert!" whenever she goes somewhere they deem unsafe.
• She's not so interested in baby food anymore, but is still getting used to regular table food. 
• She still nurses, though not as often during the day. 
• She says several words including Dada, Mama, na (which means food), dao (which means doll and yes, it does sound different than Dad), hi, bye, and her newest word bumpa (which means Grandpa). 
• She loves to clap, wave, blow kisses, click her tongue, and say "bababababa" which she started doing after I demonstrated what a chicken says.
• She is judicious with her smiles and laughs, unless your name is Peter, Cooper, or Phoebe, then she'll laugh and smile at pretty much anything you do. 
• She is sweet-natured and loves to snuggle.

Happy birthday Sophie!

Little Artists

Our illness coincided with a visit from my parents and grandma who had come all the way from southern California. The original plan was to have them stay at our house, but pesky things like vomit and intense stomach cramps made that difficult. Instead, they slept at a nearby hotel and came over each day to spend time with the healthy and to take care of the plague-ridden. I'm so thankful they risked catching our germs so we could see them. And I think they appreciated sleeping in a place where small people couldn't wake them up each morning.

One of the highlights of the visit was an art lesson from Grandma Bonnie. Some of the students were more attentive than others. During the first round (it was a two-part lesson) she taught them to draw an ocean and a palm tree. Cooper drew a lovely ocean and palm tree. Phoebe gave her best effort to draw the scene. Peter drew an owl.

The second round went a little better. Everyone followed directions and even painted the same picture. Cooper kept thanking her for the art lesson. While all the kids loved it, I think it was especially wonderful for him. And bonus, my Grandma didn't feel like pulling all her hair out in frustration at the conclusion of the tutorial. Any activity with my children that doesn't leave you feeling frustrated and overwhelmed is a success in my book!

Thank you Grandma Bonnie! We love you!

Oh, and I didn't hesitate at all when typing those exclamation points. I mean them deeply.

The Caretakers

Eight years ago, during Peter's first Christmas, our entire family was struck down by the stomach flu. And by entire, I mean uncles and aunts and grandparents and cousins. Everyone. It was a memorable few days.

This year at least the sickness had the decency to wait until the day after Christmas to start knocking us off. Half of us have been sick, with an additional person showing a few symptoms, but not the full blown yuck. Two of us remain untouched, so far.

Maybe Cooper and I should sequester ourselves from the germs. But then, who would take care of everyone else?

Share the Gift

Merry Christmas!

This Elf Puts In Overtime

My big project was supposed to have been done a week ago. But, as I wrote on the blog, that didn't happen. I put it down for a day and let my brain rest. When I picked it back up I had a new perspective on how it needed to come together. I've put in many hours in the last six days. So many hours that Christmas has caught me by surprise. Bryan spent today doing several of my usual pre-Christmas jobs while I worked on my computer.

The project is done. I finished it just a few minutes ago. It's almost twice as long as I thought it would be. And, thanks to some tutoring from Bryan on graphic design and publishing, it's so much better than I thought it would be. I still can't give it to the children tomorrow because now I have to turn it over to someone else, but at least I can show them pictures of how it will look.

This elf is happy that her Christmas project is done. And now, I'm off to stuff oranges into stockings...