Amelia the Angel

Last week Amelia's preschool had a Christmas pageant. Amelia was honored to be chosen to be the angel in their nativity. Her teacher told us that they chose Amelia because they knew she'd have no trouble memorizing the part and speaking clearly (there were very few lines to be spoken, and all the rest were only about a sentence). I got my camera switched to do video a little late, so you're just catching her lines. Just before this, they ushered her out onto the stage with a microphone and told her to go ahead. She leaned into the microphone and said, "yeah... yeah..." but it came out REALLY loud. At that point she had everyone's attention! Her lines were, "Do not be afraid. I bring you news of great joy. Tonight in Bethlehem a baby has been born in a stable. He is called Jesus and He is our Lord." She delivered her lines really well and the audience erupted with spontaneous applause! Mike and I were so proud!

Christmas Cookies

The kids and I made some Christmas sugar cookies this year for Santa. It's a good thing they were just for Santa, because I tried out a new recipe and they were pretty nasty! We had a great time decorating them anyway, and the taste didn't matter to Colin, who was only really interested in eating sprinkles.

Here are the cookies all ready for Santa to get. He had to come early to our house since we'll be in Arizona.

The Best Nativity EVER

Amelia made this fabulous nativity at preschool. It is made mainly of toilet paper tubes and a tangerine box. I think it is totally cool! I love how Joseph even has a beard.

Amelia's Latest Drawing of Daddy

Amelia drew this awesome picture of her Daddy. Those aren't earmuffs by his head, they're actually ears. He has some large knees and three feet! I love her drawings!

Boxing Match

I Hate Tummy Time

Jack hates tummy time. Period. This is him glaring at me yesterday during tummy time, just like he does every time I place him on the ground. I'm sure he feels very vulnerable down there, with two siblings threatening to step on him (or fall on him, in Colin's case) at any moment. He will probably never learn how to roll. He is actually a very cheerful and happy baby, with this one exception!

Happy Greeting

For the last couple of weeks, Colin has become very excited about picking Amelia up from preschool. He often screams, "There's Ama-ya! There's my sister!" Usually a crushing hug is involved and often someone falls down. Dad urged me to get a video of it, so I managed to get this small clip today. Amelia's teacher (in the blue sweater) has been laughing at them every day, and you can see in the video that she's anticipating it, too!

Adventures with Bobo

Brian left this morning and we miss him already! We had a grand time and the kids adore him. Here are some photos from our adventures.

Brian/Uncle Bobo/Uncle Toots

Mike's brother, Brian, just arrived today for a visit! The kids are thrilled, and Amelia has been waiting all week to call him "Uncle Toots" (rhymes with foot, not suit). He'll be here for a couple of days, and we're so glad to see him! Here the kids are checking out his sweet tat. Amelia asked him if it was a "painting." And yes, it is the mark of a fine uncle to have Jack's spit up stains all over his shirt.

Family Photo Shoot

This year, for Christmas, we decided to have a very talented photographer that we know here in PA take pictures of our family. She did such a fabulous job that it's hard to choose my favorite, so I decided to put a bunch of them up here, and in the title and sidebar. Thanks, Katie!

Yes, those are Canadian Geese back there!

Colin

Colin's eye color is changing! It's hard to tell from the photo, but his eyes aren't pure blue anymore, they have a brownish center with blue around the outside. I wonder how much more they will change!?

Jack

We took Jack in for a well baby visit yesterday and he is almost in the 70th percentile for weight, and 55-60th for length and head. He got 5 shots, poor thing!

Kicked Out

On Saturday night, Jack got kicked out of the little pack 'n' play in our room and slept in the crib for the first time. He did just fine, but I really missed having him in my room! He's so smiley and nice, that I don't mind waking up to his lovely face. But, in reality, we needed that pack 'n' play to be freed up, plus there was an empty room and a much more comfortable mattress waiting for him. He's already 4 months old, and growing way too fast. I snapped this photo in the dark after he'd gone to sleep.

Christmas Decor

We put our Christmas decorations up about a week before Thanksgiving this year, and the kids have been loving it. We put the less fragile ornaments on the bottom because we knew the kids would want to mess with the tree, but somehow they have managed to break 4 or 5 of them already! On Thanksgiving they were trying to get the higher, more breakable ornaments down (in order to smash them, I'm sure) by stacking one step stool on top of another! Fortunately Mike spotted them before an ambulance was necessary.

Nothing like a relaxing winter evening in front of a cozy fire for wrestling and roughhousing on the floor with Daddy. Notice Mike's hand protecting himself from the inevitable kick to the groin. An important lesson to learn for a father of three!

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite being away from home for Thanksgiving, we managed to have a very enjoyable holiday. We had a great meal and some very good friends to enjoy it with. Here are some photos from the festivities.

Amelia made this clever pilgrim costume at preschool. The school had a big Thanksgiving feast, and she decided NOT to try the turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. What a silly girl. Fortunately she decided to try them on the big day, and she liked them!

Thanksgiving morning was a big cooking morning for me. One of the things I made was lemon meringue pie, and a tradition that goes back to my childhood is for everyone to hang out in the kitchen and lick the lemon bowl and the meringue bowl. Amelia and Colin loved it. They were like little wild animals.

Here is Mike expertly carving the turkey at our feast! He did an excellent job! I made turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and lemon pie while my frined Lori made stuffing (fabulous), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, jello fruit salad, coconut cream pie, and banana cream pie. It was such an awesome meal!

Amelia

Gratitude

I heard this quote today and I just loved it. Thanksgiving season is a great time for me to reflect on everything that I have to be grateful for. And I have SO much to be grateful for.

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. … Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride”

-Jenkins Lloyd Jones

Little Panda Bear

It's Colin's turn to show some of his singing skills! Here he is singing "Little Panda Bear."

Beautiful Jack

Here he is laying on my bed! He's almost 4 months now, huge, and adorable.

SNOW!!!

It all started with some light flurries yesterday, and then some this morning. We were excited, but we were still waiting for the real thing. Then, suddenly, the snow started accumulating around 8:00 this morning and we were making snowballs by 9:00! This is our first snow ever, and we're loving it! Everything looks different, and beautiful. These pictures are of the kids with jammies, galoshes, and coats. We went promptly to Target this afternoon to get some snow boots and bibs for better playing. The snow is all melted now, and we're getting pumped for our second snow ever, which hopefully will come soon!

Workin on the Yard

Today we worked on getting some of the leaves out of our front yard. We have TONS, more than we could ever really get rid of, but we're giving it a try! Colin was excited to come outside with us and help. He loved the leaf blower, and he got his own "rake" (a broom). It was around 35 degrees outside, so his little nose turned pink.

This is one of about four times I found him laying on his back, resting. He looked like a turtle on its back. He was wearing Mike's eye protection, too. What a funny little guy!

Video of Jack

I got some video of Jack laughing, finally! Here he is!

Amish Country

Today, despite the heavy fog and rain, we made the hour and a half trek out to Amish country for some quick sight seeing. We'd heard that this was a beautiful area, and it really was. Lots of rolling green hills studded with cute farms and silos. We didn't get out of the car much because of the rain, but we did stop at a farmer's market to try the famous Pennsylvania Amish Shoofly Pie (delicious!) and to pick up some Winesap apples. We also bought some homemade rootbeer that one Amish family was selling in a shack in front of their house - very yeasty and yummy! We saw lots of fascinating Amish people, complete with some awesome straw hats. I didn't get any family photos, but I had to be a nerdy tourist and take some pictures of Amish things to show the family out west!

Here's one of the many big farms we drove by. EVERYONE had clothes on the line, despite the rain. It made me grateful for my lovely dryer.

Lancaster County is famous for covered bridges, and here's the one we drove under.

Here's one of the Amish buggies cruising down the road. I know it looks a little like Fred Flintstone is driving that thing, but there's actually a horse pulling it. Isn't that wild!?

They ride these crazy scooter/bike things that look like bikes minus the pedals. We actually saw a lady riding one with a baby in the basket.

Mike made me take this one. The town name makes immature people like us laugh and laugh. You can only imagine the zillions of comments Mike came up with! In fact, you can see his contributions in the comments to this post.

Wild Man Colin

Getting Colin's face in a photo right now is quite a challenge! Here are three attempts made last Sunday! He's a wild little guy!

Primary Program

Today at church all of the kids ages 12 and under participated in a big performance for the rest of the congregation. Each kid got a chance to say a memorized line from the pulpit and they sang a bunch of songs. I've helped with lots of "primary programs" in the past as a teacher and leader, but this was the first time I got to watch my own kid perform. It was AWESOME! Amelia delivered her line like a champ, but the real thrill was watching her sing. She had a seat right in the front and we could see her the entire time. When the piano would start for each song she would stand up with the rest of the kids and then start to bob up and down and dance a little (no one else was doing that). Then, when the singing started she would open her mouth as wide as she could and BELLOW the words. She might have been the loudest kid in the group. She took the singing very seriously, and even if she wasn't sure of the words, she's keep singing anyway. It was hilarious. Mike and I couldn't stop laughing at her the whole time. I thought the whole thing would make her nervous, so I was a little worried about it this morning. Apparently I had nothing to fear! Afterward, tons of people came up to me to comment on her performance, and one woman told me that I need to get her an agent. I'm so amazed. She has a preschool Christmas Program next month, and I am definitely bringing the video camera.

Jack in the Bumbo

Jack sat in a Bumbo Seat for the first time today. It's great! He only lasted for a few minutes before he got tired, but I think he really enjoyed being able to sit by himself.