Elizabeth runs to John Paul to give him an enormous and adorable hug

Me:  Aw John Paul, she loves you so much!
JP:  Elizabeth and I are getting married!!! 
Elizabeth crawls away
JP:  Oh, she crawls when she gets married...

The runaway bride

...

Cecilia, in the bathroom:  Mom, my booty's wet!
Me:  Why is your booty wet?
Cecilia:  Um, because I wanted to surprise you!
Me:  A good way to surprise me is not by dipping your booty in the potty.  Maybe just hug me and say, "Hey Mom, I love you!"
Cecilia:  Or pwetend da floor is made of ice!

Also a way to surprise me...

...

Cecilia:  John Paul, can we pway Aladdin next?
John Paul:  NO!  WE'RE PLAYING NEW TESTAMENT!!!  CALL ME JESUS!!!
Cecilia:  Um, next time can we pway Aladdin?
John Paul:  NO!  We'll play OLD TESTAMENT next!

Totally normal, I promise...



"I'm walking on water!!!"  No God complex here or anything...

...

JP:  I look like Elizabeth!
Andrew:  Not really...  How do you look like Elizabeth?
JP:  Because I have a head.
Andrew:  Lots of people have heads...  Cecilia has a head, Mary Claire has a head...
JP, amazed:  YOU have a head!!!

...

Cecilia, coming in while I'm nursing Mary Claire:  Oh, hi kitty!
John Paul:  She's not kitty!  We're playing Old Testament, and she's Judith!
Cecilia:  She's not Judas!  Dad is Judas!
John Paul:  No, JuDITH!
Cecilia:  No, KITTY!
Me:  No, Cecilia, he's saying Judittttthhhh, not Judas.
Cecilia:  Oh!  Hi Judif!

later...

Cecilia:  And who am I in the Old Testament?
John Paul:  Oh, you're Ruth.  And Elizabeth is Esther. And Dad is Malachi.  Mom is Moses's mom and I'm Isaiah!!!
Aunt Sister:  Why don't we choose names where we're all in the same story?  So we could play...  Pentateuch!
Cecilia:  And I'm Roof!
John Paul:  NO!  We're playing Pentateuch!  Ruth is a Historical Book!!!

She got told.

Judith and Esther, bffs

John Paul, to Mary Claire:  Hi, King Herod!
Mary Claire:  blank stare
John Paul:  Baby Herod, I'm Baby Jesus!
Mary Claire:
John Paul:  Baby Herod, you're so sweet!
Mary Claire:
John Paul:  I'm gazing at Baby Herod, and Baby Herod is gazing at me!

#thingsmostfouryearoldsdontsay

It's a little-known fact that Herod was, in fact, a midget in rainbow baby legs.

Your turn! Heard anything funny lately? Share your snippets with the link-up tool!

My "Most" Posts of 2013

This was a hard one, but a fun one!  Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things started a link-up to highlight some of our posts from this past year.  This past year is when I actually started blogging for a larger audience than just my mom (although the blog is still named for her!), so it's interesting to go back and see which ones have gotten the most clicks and comments, and reflect on which ones I've enjoyed the most.  Soooo without overthinking it (which I am inclined to do!), here are my...

1.  Post with the most clicks:

It's a close race between 50 Reasons My Toddler Won't Nap (a funny one) and My Daddy (a sad one)

2.  Post with the most comments:

Another close race, this time between My Daddy and Awkward Conversations (in which I lament how strangers choose to express their feelings about our family size)

3.  Post with the best picture:

The eyebrows might be my favorite ever...




4.  Post that was hardest to write:

Probably Parts I, II, and III of John Paul's birth story - it was a pretty life-changing experience that left me with a lot of mixed feelings regarding childbirth, most of which have been resolved, partially because it really ended up being therapeutic writing it all out!

5.  Post that was your personal favorite (not your readers' favorite- your favorite)

Nursing Rules for Babies still makes me smile every time, because it's 100% true, no matter which baby I'm thinking about!

I'm really looking forward to spending time perusing everyone else's posts!  Check out more at Amongst Lovely Things!

WIWS: Getting our Pink on

Ah, Gaudete Sunday...  One of the only Sundays of the year when pink is liturgically appropriate!  Cecilia would be set every day with her wardrobe, but John Paul and I needed a little more advance planning...

 

Just ignore my awkward posture, ok?

 Even Father was impressed with our liturgical wardrobe!

 

Cecilia's in her Easter dress and a 12-18 month Janie & Jack cardigan (consignment sale find FTW).  John Paul is rocking his incredible Vineyard "salmon" pants that my sister found on super clearance at Marshall's.  And I'm in my very favorite eShakti skirt that is reeeeeally only appropriate for summer, but it's the closest I had to rose!

 

After a killer night with more than 10 wakings from the babies (combined, not individually thank goodness...) I'm amazed I was able to get through Mass at all, since we all slept in a bit and I didn't have time for breakfast, let alone coffee.  But now the babies are napping and John Paul and Cecilia are doing a craft (Nativity Sticker Scrambles, definitely a winner) so I have a few minutes of freedom.

 

John Paul got a new Catholic Children's Bible that someone gave to my sister, and that kept him busy for most of Mass.  I think my absolute favorite part was how much he absolutely loves the book of Isaiah right now, and he just about peed his pants with excitement when the first reading today was ALSO from Isaiah!!!  Other than that, their behavior wasn't *too* bad (until after Mass when John Paul tried to set up the rope up front so that nobody could move onto the altar...), and Father invited himself over to give us the Epiphany house blessing, so clearly even from the front row we didn't convince him that we're too crazy for him to visit!

 

I so hope you all are having a wonderful Advent, and recognizing any joy in your life amidst the calm preparation you're making for the birth of Christ.  Mary has been posting great reflections every day - check them out on her blog if you haven't been reading it!

 

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple, with Eva guest-hosting this week - check out more outfits!

 

 

Quick Takes - Family Miscellany

--1--

 

John Paul and Elizabeth are hilarious together.  He does this dance where he falls down on purpose and then she laughs hysterically and tries to imitate him, running over and tackling him as soon as he falls down. 

 

 

Of course, it's a bonus if he lifts his shirt up because then she can try beeping his belly button...

 

It's like Mardi Gras every day up in here.

 

--2--

 

I let the kids get their craft on with the very simplest of crafts, pipe cleaner and bead candy canes:

 

 

You'll never guess which kid (John Paul) followed directions painstakingly, checking frequently to make sure he was getting it right, and which kid threw on beads in whichever order she found them (Cecilia).

 

--3--

 

"Oh Mom, could I please have some more microgreens?"

 

#thingsnofouryearoldhaseversaid

 

But yes, seriously he asked for more.  And he ate them.  AFTER he had already had dessert.

 

--4--

 

The babies had their one-year well check (only three weeks late, I am SO on the ball!), and

I can't get over how cute baby talk is at this stage - Elizabeth doesn't say much (Mama, Dada, Bye bye, ball, baby and the like), but Mary Claire is JUST like Cecilia with her crazy verbal abilities!  The doctor was asking how many words she has and I couldn't even count because she picks up one or two new ones every day.  Off the top of my head she has (in her own interpretation, which is usually pretty close):

 

Mama

Dada

Bye bye

Hi

Ball

Cracker

Duck

Bear

Baby

John Paul

Please

Cheese

Puppy

Mary (she always points to the statues on our mantle)

Jesus

And more that I'm sure I'm forgetting

 

And she makes noises for lions (an AMAZING roar that's the cutest ever), elephants (lip trumpeting), puppies (the cutest woofing you've seen), cows, sometimes snakes, and sometimes cats.  Seriously, cutest ever.

 

--5--

 

In other baby news, I feel like everyone on the internet is pregnant right now.  And then I start noticing that people with babies younger than mine are pregnant and I start thinking, "Wait, why am I not pregnant yet???"

 

And then I realize that's crazy talk, because I'm still nursing twins and not fertile yet and thaaaaaaaank goodness!  Not that babies aren't a blessing and all, and we'll happily accept #5 et al. whenever God sees fit to bless us, but the twins are going through such a rough phase right now and when I think about what this would be like if I had morning sickness to top it all off?

 

Yikes.

 

We're actually about to beat the longest non-pregnant period of our married life - how crazy is that?

 

In conclusion, no need to compare oneself to the internet.  But I think we all knew that, right?

 

--6--

 

Someone found an Allen wrench and decided he needed to dismantle the Ikea chairs:

 

 

Aaaand he actually succeeded.  And then put it back together.  Correctly.  So...  New marketing tactic? 

 

IKEA:  So easy a 4-year-old can do it

 

--7--

 

 

Cecilia, my friends.  Just in case you needed to match a voice with her amazing quotes, here she is in all her unclothed glory.

 

Check out more Quick Takers at Jen's!

 

{PHFR} Snow Day!

What's the best way to accomplish a photo dump of a blog post?  Link-ups!

{pretty}

The ice on the tree branches - plenty of them are lying broken in our yard but thankfully nothing fell on any power lines, so our power stayed on!  I know many others who weren't so lucky...  It's beautiful but treacherous!

{happy}

In from the snow and warming up with some snuggles!

(And the first of my dozen snow day pictures - totally counts for TT, right?  I really should just have saved last week's picture and used it, because it fits the dozen theme too!)

Not exactly the most sincere smile...

{funny}

Trying to capture pictures of the kids going down the slide in the snow - the slick snowsuits made them go faster than I've ever seen them go, they were FLYING off the slide so fast I couldn't believe they kept doing it again!

Gotta love those faces!

{real}

I was thinking, "Man, I wish we had a pregnant Mary so that she and Joseph could travel to Bethlehem..." and then I went down to get our nativity and remembered that we had BOUGHT a pregnant Mary last year during the after-Christmas sales!  She's a rather small pregnant mama, but I love that she's riding the donkey on her way to Bethlehem.

Journey To Bethlehem 2PC Set 

 Also real?  Here's our advent wreath!  I'm non-crafty, so it's just a broken clearance section candleholder inside a clearance wreath from Michael's - totally covers up the broken part of the holder!

Picture from last week, which is why only one candle is lit!

Okay, triple link-up!  Sweet!  Go check out more "dozen" takes at Clan Donaldson, more PHFR at Like Mother, Like Daughter, and more advent wreaths at CatholicMom.com