And Andrew still hasn't figured out that babies don't eat noses...

 

 

Elizabeth at 6 weeks, John Paul at 1 week

Christmas!

After a rather short but exciting Advent, we adults were all ready for Christmas!  The kids were excited about Baby Jesus and presents, but still reluctant to leave our Advent preparations behind.  We're still trying to wean them off of "O Come O Come Emmanuel"

 

 

John Paul got an awesome Yoda hat

 

Cecilia asked for new bows and ot some in her stocking!

 

And speaking of stockings...  We all (except for the babies) have our own coordinating personalized stockings, which I was pretty excited about.

 

Somehow we ended up with a 10-foot tree because there weren't any smaller ones left by the time we got ours on the Friday before Christmas!  The kids were SUPER excited to see all 3 nativities (Little People, Earth Craft, and Rubber Duckies) set up WITH Baby Jesus in the manger!

 

The babies?  Well, they nursed/slept through the festivities, which meant I sat on the couch playing with our new camera.

 

But see?  There I am in the background, doing what I do best.  And that's where I sat for almost all of Christmas (and that's where I sit about 95% of the time anyway).

Sometimes...

 

Sometimes you're trying to take a cute picture with the kids, put they insist on holding jars in front of their faces.

 

 

Or looking away while your sister holds a baby by your head and the baby sticks her creepy little tongue out...

Fun with water beads

 Meg bought some water beads at the dollar store to put in John Paul's stocking.  The kids went NUTS for them, and for good reason - they're a blast!

 

 

They had a great time exploring the textures, and pouring from vessel to vessel.

 

Although Cecilia got in trouble for standing on her chair instead of kneeling...

 

And they were frequently dropped on the floor, but the kids were good about picking them up.

 

Definitely a non-messy, super-fun way to explore water absorption and have a blast!

 

And seriously, look how pretty they are!  They start out the size of small seeds and swell to the size of large marbles when placed in water.  They have the consistency of firm gelatin and BOUNCE! 

An update

 Things are still busy here! We've been doing a lot of this:

 

 

Elizabeth & Mary Claire holding hands after nursing

 

John Paul & Cecilia reading together

Tonight's prayer

A counting prayer:

5 people John Paul wanted to thank God for:

John Paul
Cecilia
Dad
Mom
...  Grandaddy!

4 animals:

Bear
Moose
Dog
...  Horse!

3 foods:

Turkey
Broccoli
...  Ravioli!

Cecilia's choice?  "A bean!!!"

2 Saints to pray for us:

St. Andrew
St. Cecilia

1 thing to say sorry for:

"God I'm sorry for disobeying..."

Cecilia:  "Doggies are nice!"

Not sure she understands penitence yet...

Double duty

 

Sure, it would make a sweet post-nursing picture, except that Mary Claire (on the right) had just puked down my shirt.

 

And of course, the burp cloth was on my other shoulder, since Elizabeth (left) is the big puker.

 

Sigh.

Big Sister!

 

Not surprisingly, Cecilia is quite taken with her new "Big Sister" role.  She LOVES to "hold" and "rock" the babies, with considerable assistance.

 

But what's her absolute favorite activity these days?

 

Kissing!!!