Today just really felt like a sitcom at times.  I don't really understand how anyone can possibly stay sane with 4 children under the age of 4. 

Case in point:

Andrew was finishing dinner up because I had to nurse the babies.  John Paul started freaking out because he couldn't get Mr. Potato Head's necklace on.  Then Elizabeth started puking on my stomach and Mary Claire decided she ABSOLUTELY had to burp.  So here I am trying to burp Mary Claire while holding a diaper next to Elizabeth's face so she pukes into that and not on my stomach (I must smell awful most of the time...) and trying to put Mr. Potato Head's necklace on, all while Cecilia is playing happily on the floor with HER Mr. Potato Head saying, "He wooks wike Boy GEORGE!" over and over again.

Seriously, can someone send a few extra sets of hands over here? I am a caricature of a frazzled mom.

(Cecilia had her moment later on.  In a fit of rage because John Paul wouldn't trade the camera he was playing with for the phone book she offered him, she starting sobbing, "IT IS ALL BAD!" over and over again)

The kids made "Christmas" cookies today with a friend from church (who is 10 years old and AWESOME) - I missed it because I had to take Elizabeth to the doctor's office AGAIN (seriously prayers please, kiddo is still only gaining 3-4 ounces a week and apparently it's not enough...) and came home to find their beautiful creations:

The mix was from a bag.  I'm not going to go to the trouble of making cookie dough from scratch when this will taste the same and take zero time!  But I *did* make peppermint buttercream frosting from scratch, and colored sugar.  That took all of 3 minutes...

And they chose those lovely "Christmas" colors for their frosting.  Pink and teal?  Sure...

(Can you tell that I'm still learning how to use our fancy new camera?)

I was pretty amazed at their self-control for the rest of the day.  The cookies sat on the table and John Paul offered one to everybody who came to visit (he particularly liked giving his aunt a "sacred heart") and hardly whined at all about not getting to eat more than one!  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I heard, "Oooohhhhh I want a cookie!" from him, and that's impressive.

Apparently the last giant cookie was made from the leftover dough that they didn't feel like rolling anymore.  John Paul, when asked who should have the huge cookie, immediately answered, "Jesus."

So there you have it - offering up those giant sugar cookies for Jesus.  Now if only we could get him to stop shrieking "NO!" every time he was asked to do ANYTHING, we might be further along on the path to sainthood.

Less than a week until Sister is gone from our lives until March.  HOW AM I GOING TO HANDLE THESE CHILDREN ON MY OWN???  WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO BE OUR NANNY FOR FREE?????????

Eating habits

We got our produce basket from From the Farmer this morning and John Paul, as usual, was SO excited!  He opened it up and proclaimed, "SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS!!!"  And then after he looked around for a second, "BRUSSELS SPROUTS!"

He promptly broke one off the stalk, peeled off the outer leaves, and ate it. 

Raw brussels sprout breath is NASTY, let me tell you.

But we've been having a lot of fun trying out new things.  Cooked brussels sprouts (sauteed with butter, kosher salt, and a bit of pepper) were a hit with him, and I thought they were pretty good.  I mean, I'm not gonna go out and buy brussels sprouts, but I'm perfectly happy to get them in our basket once in a while.

This week we're going to try turnips for the first time (gratin-style, with lots of cheese, butter, and garlic) and mustard greens (braised with bacon).  I'm not real hopeful that either of these will go over well, although mustard greens are apparently similar to arugula, and John Paul LOVES arugula.

Seriously, this kid will eat anything.  He opened the fridge earlier to get a snack and passed over 2 different types of pies, ham, turkey, apples, grapes, peppers, and chose... 

A basil leaf.

But his breath smelled a lot better?

3.5 years later...

 

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...