Not a Short Christmas Post

That's my family walking down main street at the most adorable Christmas village I've ever had the chance to stroll. This was a very special year for us. Since my parents are busy around the other side of the world, all my younger siblings headed my way. If you know me, you know I love house guests. Koryn called a few hours after I said goodbye to last of them at the airport this weekend because she knew I would be having a hard time with the 'empty' house. I would collect people if I could.

Anywho. Allison and Noah were the first to arrive. They brought some good tunes along which turned into a dance/karaoke party one night:

I think we only stopped because my dear friend, Sara, dropped off a gift for the girls. Fairy princess dress ups and toy puppies...she knows them well.

I mention this mostly because of the puppies: luckily Allison and Noah overheard the girls naming their pups. Edison Lund and Fluff Willow Folly. Names of dolls/imaginary friends/babies change pretty quick around here, so I'm glad they caught that :) They spent the rest of the evening introducing E Lund and F.W. Folly to the Nativity crew.

Then it was on to the Christmas village. There's a county park around here that moved about three dozen turn-of-the-century buildings (churches, general stores, school house, homes, stables, you name it) to create its own little village. I was amazed, it was magical. You buy tickets to go on a train that takes you past big lighted displays and Santa. For real. That dude was just hanging out in a field by his sleigh to wave to us.

They've also brought in a century old carousel and ferris wheel. This is kind-of one of those 'had to be there' stories, but I gotta write it down. We walked into the carousel and there was the worst, off tune, loud band playing Christmas music. Allison and I can be...a bit snotty about music. We could not stop laughing. Allison said, "We have to pull it together before we see this band face to face." I asked if it could be a recording then promptly said, "No. There's no way they recorded this then thought, 'Yeah! I think we got it! That's a wrap, folks.' " I was picturing a band of sweet old men playing on the other side of the carousel which made me feel awful every time a particularly bad note was played and we would crumple in laughter again.

Allison and I hopped on the ride with the girls, rounded the corner, and to our surprise, realized it wasn't a band! It was the carousel. So my best thought was that the pipes themselves are just as old and don't sound how they used to, you know? Well, by the time we realized that, we were giggling with relief that we hadn't been mercilessly laughing at sweet old people and then about peeing our pants with laughter that we seriously could not keep our equilibrium straight on this carousel! I'm not kidding you, that thing was FLYING. And if you stood in between the horses going up and down, it was all you could do to stay upright. We'd pull it together just as another sour note belted out and we would start all over again.

J took the girls out on the ferris wheel that was as delightfully terrifying as the carousel.

After singing carols with our fellow passengers on the train ride, the conductor made a point of mentioning Santa had ridden his way back to the village if we wanted to say hi. We mosied about, thinking there would be an enormous line. Something about waiting in line to see Santa takes away some of the magic to me--probably because you hurry and tell him what you want, they click an overpriced picture, then you get out of the way. So there was nothing sweeter than walking into a dimly lit, beautiful little home to find just Santa and Mrs Claus waiting to see the girls--I was half expecting to find him on a break. I don't know how it happened that we caught it with only one lady ahead of us.

Abbey has never been big on Santa and I don't tend to make a big deal about it. We'd seen him at the mall a few weeks ago so I asked her if she wanted to say hi and remind him. She just said, "No. He knows." Good enough. But Hayden ate it up. He was sweet and gave her plenty of time to chat about things other than toys. I loved this. I know some people don't like the Santa concept and I totally get that. But I'm glad we get this for a few years, there's so much goodness and innocence wrapped up in that hug.

On Christmas Eve, we picked up my two youngest siblings to complete the crowd. It was so fun to reintroduce myself to my little, tall brother, Collin. He has been on an LDS mission in North Carolina and I haven't seen him for three years. Megs kept our rears in check with some personal training all week and Collin graciously endured the kids' energy that was usually directed his way. These two have been ridiculously easy going their entire lives, they are so nice to have around and I had a few tears when they left.

We hope your Christmas season was wonderful as well. See you in 2012!

First of Many

And so it begins. I imagine we'll have a recital or two in our future :) Abbey did so well at her first performance. She didn't look nervous, didn't hesitate to jump up there, {seriously} didn't rush through her song. It was so cute to see this bitty body sitting at that enormous Steinway.

The last few months have given me a little glimpse into what my mom did for me for years. I wish you could have been there, Mom. I realized that all of Abbey's grandparents are not only out of state, but are all actually out of the country right now. So I uploaded this video for you, thank you, world wide web!

I spent the rest of the recital walking the halls with a loud kid. I imagine I'll have a lot of that in my future as well :)

Why I Don't Post To My Blog Anymore

Oh, that boy. I can't quite articulate what he does to my heart. It's different. With a boy.

To be fair, he has demanded so little in his six months. {Ya heard, six months!} But that little has sucked away any of the free time I had with two.

It's hard to explain my time. I've been feeling the need to be more efficient with the time that I have, but am having difficulty with the HOW. I am in my car. A lot. I am feeding mouths. A lot. I am navigating ridiculous meltdowns. A lot.



It went on like this for a while. Poor little chicken. She wants five kids in our family, Abbey wants more. (Abbey will not be winning this argument, by the way.) My mental reserves are exhausted trying to find a way to validate these sorts of feelings all the day long :)

All and all, loving this busy life of mine right now.

Off You Go, Little Lamb

My gal started kindergarten. Full-day Kindergarten.

I was in serious denial through August. Then I was just down right sad the day before she started. Like, really sad. The actual day was much too chaotic to wallow. First, she was assigned to the wrong bus route, but handled it like a champ. I was following behind in my own car until Hayden just about wet her pants. We had to pull over and lost track then didn't know where she was for a while. Yikes!! The principal was on it and figured out what route she should be on, so, problem solved. Then Justin wanted to pick her up that afternoon only to call twenty minutes later when the driver wouldn't let her go to him. You see, you have to have photo ID to get a kindergartner off the bus. He didn't have any. Nor had I even put him on the list of people who were allowed to pick her up. **New Student Parent Alert** Luckily this kid has confidence to spare and kept teasing me all weekend about letting her go on the wrong bus.

Still not used to this. I don't like that so many of her memories now will be when she's not with us. And I hate the crazy rush when she gets home to squeeze in all we missed out on during the day. Trying to be more positive about this... :)

...because I am fairly certain she will rock it.

Bob It

because someone got a haircut from her sister first!

It could have been worse, but luckily Sophie (Katherine's much more obedient child) came down and asked if she could have a haircut, too. Ha ha, oh man.

After surveying the damage, I thought about leaving it and just pulling it up in little ponytails until it grew back...in a year. I did love those golden locks. But I really love short haircuts and that chunk taken out of the back was the reason to do it.

Abbey had to earn the money for the haircut. But she still insists it was a good idea and she liked it. As it turns out, she cut her own bangs as well, and it does look cute. Nobody tell her that! Later that week, Hayden wanted to pretend to cut Abbey's hair. Abbey asked her how old she was and Hayden answered, eight. Then Abbey said, "Oh, sorry, you have to be nine to cut hair." I flipped around and said, "No! You have to go to school. Ok? Nobody cuts hair until you go to beauty school!"

Three Months

loving the extra manliness around here

Stars and Stripes

oh me, oh my, how I love the fourth of july!!!

The weekend started off at the water park with a few families from the old neighborhood. And this is where I learned that I am responsible for WAY too much skin. I applied, reapplied, and re-reapplied sunscreen to the girls but I ended up with some crazy tan lines and Bennett's cheeks got more sun than I realized. Boo, bad mommy. Then we enjoyed a quiet BBQ at Kara's house that night since everyone's kids were exhausted from the day :)

I asked the girls to turn around and smile for one picture. This one picture in the seven hours we were there. I guess Abbey talked to J later and said, "I just came here to swim and have fun and all mom wants to do is take pictures." First of all, puh-lease! Second of all, ....touché. Sometimes it is too much. After that admonishment I was timid about bringing out the lens at J's work party the next night. Which is a bummer since it is held at the most picturesque piece of property and I look forward to getting a few shots there every year.

Great food, great company. Everything was great until, dun dun dun. The fireworks started. Big fireworks. Good, illegal fireworks. The girls had just found their eggs from the chicken coop and didn't have hands to cover their ears. Hayden was cracking us up by using her arms instead.

We went inside to save the girls from imminent doom and got talking with my awesome OB who delivered Bennett while the kiddos played hide-n-seek in her basement. By the time we wandered back outside, the last of the partiers had gathered on the front lawn to watch the neighbor's firework show (who also fancies the good, illegal ones). It was perfect. We were close enough to have a good show and far enough away that the girls were not so frightened of the noise. I was so happy to see them finally enjoying fireworks, what a treat. And we were the last car to leave, as usual.



To cap off the perfect weekend, some friends invited us boating the next day. We hit up the church breakfast that morning. Well...we slept through breakfast. But made it for the flag ceremony and patriotic talk. It was nice to have a reverent moment to remember those who have fought and this wonderful country we enjoy.

We thought we'd be boating for 2-3 hours, but were able to keep the boat all day and got in a good six hours on the lake. I loved watching my kids on the tubes. They've surprised me lately with their bravery.

And this time I was not messing around when it came to the sunscreen.

We barely had time to shower and change before heading out to the last BBQ of the weekend...so we didn't. Didn't shower or change, I mean. By this point, nobody cared what anyone looked like, it was all about how much fun you could squeeze into a day.

Hayden picked up this piñata at a garage sale a few weeks ago. That girl knows how to party.

The concerned lad in the background asked, "Why are we hitting a piñata from Italy on the 4th of July?"

Yeah, what gives? They had nothing to do with this.

The adults laughed and marveled that the youngster knew Italy's colors and never really answered his question.

After the kids each got about three or four turns and their faces were turning from excitement to frustration, J stepped in to finish the job. Luckily, no one was harmed in the process.

Then off to squeeze in just a little bit more fun, really use up every minute of the weekend. We met over in an open field to watch the big boys play with their toy airplanes :) I've given them a hard time about it, but the thing is actually pretty cool.

As you can see from Abbey's face, clearly it is time for this day to come to an end. Can't wait for next year!