Pics

First (by request from Naomi ) is the picture that was on our Christmas cards. There are a couple people reading this that were supposed to get this card but didn't, due to the fact I never got my last batch in the mail. Sorry! For those wondering where Mary Jane is (Denise), she was right next to us but in our effort to get the kids looking at the camera, we forgot to pick her up and get her in the shot.


Here are the big gifts that my parents got the boys. They are huge hits.




Sadie in her Christmas dress (from Jeremiah's mom) with her Carebear (from my parents). I almost bought her a Carebear myself, good thing I didn't. We are going to a New Year's Eve party tonight so I put this dress on her again so she can wear it one last time for the Holidays.

Home

I hope everybody had a great Christmas! We did. We arrived back home last night. We had a great time up North and got to visit with so much family! We somehow managed to get all the little cousins on Jeremiah's side together! Something that has never happened before, and who knows when it will happen again...hopefully we don't have to wait another 8 years!

Do I have the only children who sleep in on Christmas morning? I mean they actually don't even wake up when you are trying to wake them.

I have to say it feels very weird to be sitting here with nothing I should be doing. For the last month every time I sat down a little voice would be saying "you should be ______"
Even on Christmas Eve I was up until midnight wrapping gifts. To think that I can start sewing anything I want now! I will miss the Christmas music while I sew though.

Now, I'm off to check on all of you and see how your Holidays have been. I haven't checked my bloglines in six days and the thought of what awaits me there is overwhelming!

Whirlwind

What would Christmas be without your tree being knocked over at least once, right?

I didn't realize just how many things I fit in a day until these past few weeks when I've been trying to squeeze more in. Christmas shopping, baking, gift making. All things I enjoy, but they still take time. We are going up North for Christmas and our trip has just been moved up a day, which means I have one less day to get ready. I still have sewing, wrapping, packing and cleaning to do!

Today was our last day of school until the New Year. We will all enjoy the break.

Jeremiah's mom came down a few days ago to bring the boys their gifts which included cute pajamas. Here is a pic. For once I decided to post the worst one, because it's just so much more realistic.

7 Months

I debated whether or not to commemorate months 7-11 with a post. In the end I decided to because it's only once a month and lets be honest here, your lucky I don't post daily "look what outfit Sadie is wearing today!" updates...don't think I'm not tempted.

Something cool , at least to me, is that her eyes are turning hazel! At first they looked brown, then brown with just a tiny bit of green, and they seem to be getting greener by the week! None of the boys share my eye color so I'm excited.



Yes, this is Sadie on her hands and knees getting ready to crawl. Anytime now (yikes!)

Christmas Party

We had a Christmas party here last night. Five families (including us) and eighteen kids. After everybody left I redid the math a couple times in my head because I couldn't believe there had been eighteen kids here, it didn't feel like that many.

I would love to share some pictures here but, true to myself, I forgot to take any pictures. Not one. I'm seriously considering handing the camera duties to Isaac and letting him be our family photographer.

I made (and tasted) wassail for the first time. It is pretty good. It's a spiced hot drink that is perfect for the Holidays. I used this recipe, but there are many many different recipes (including alcoholic ones).

Eight!

Isaac is eight today. Wow, eight really seems old. He made his own little countdown-to-my-birthday-calender and has been marking off days since Thanksgiving. He helped decorate his birthday cake by putting the dinosaurs and candles on and adding the lava to the volcano. I think that was worth more to him than any fancy store-bought cake we could have got.

I asked him yesterday if he had any special requests for his birthday dinner. He wanted "yellow rice" which is lipton brand chicken flavored rice. I thought that was an interesting request :)

The Winner Is...

...Jeska of Anatomy of Exhaustion! Thanks for participating everybody.

If you just have to have some monKEYS, you can order some here.

Sadie & Santa

I'm sure most of you know we really don't do the Santa thing, but I couldn't resist such a cute photo op. Unlike many places I have seen, they actually let you take your own pictures here. None of the boys were interested in seeing Santa. I kept thinking this picture looked familiar so I compared it to the picture we have of Sammy with Santa when he was a baby...same Santa, same chair, even the same decorations on the tree! Just the baby is different.



By the way, one more day to enter the contest!

MonKEYS Give Away

I ordered an extra set of these monKEYS from Kangarooboo.com because they are so cute. I decided I would share them with one of my readers. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name from those who do. I will leave this up until Monday or Tuesday since I know weekend blog traffic is slow.

It's cool if you have never commented before, and if you never comment again after this. If these bring a smile to your face, get yourself in the drawing!

Christmas Card Photos

We took our family Christmas card picture today. The process was surprisingly quick, only three pictures until we got a good one. Granted, I do not expect perfect pictures. With seven people, all I ask is that everybody is looking at least towards the camera and nobody is picking their nose. I think I gave up on everybody smiling about two kids ago. I do think we got a good one this year though.

Here is a little preview with just the kids:

Then and Now...

When I saw Sadie laying on this quilt I thought it would be cute to take a picture to compare to the one I took six months ago.

Then...


Now!...