Happy Halloween!

Leah is a ninja, Samuel is Iron Man, and Audrey is Jessie. They had a blast and we are still hungover on candy!

Christmas Traditions

I love the traditions of my childhood and I am enjoying passing those traditions on to my children. And of course, establishing new traditions in my own home. Here are some traditions from my childhood that I am passing on to my children:

We always got a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve before bed. This year I sent my kids down to get their PJ's on and they were amazed that new pajamas had "magically" appeared on their beds! It was fun to play Santa's advocate.

On Christmas Eve, after a Family Home Evening lesson with the account of the Savior's birth in Luke 2, we always played board games, had a fire in the fireplace, and ate goodies. It is such a cozy memory. We did that this year as well. We taught the kids how to play Sorry and it was so much fun to play it with them now that they get how! What a fun age!

This Christmas we also discovered the magic of "The Polar Express" with children who truly believe. We discovered how much fun it is to get gifts for our children and help them pick out gifts for one another. It was fun to decorate Christmas cookies and have a game night with friends.

Other traditions include a dramatic reading of "The Grinch," and coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. Everyone stays in their pajamas all day long, right? It was so fun to watch the kids go from one new treasure to the next all day. Audrey looked like she really wanted to just roll in the piles of wrapping paper all over the floor...that paper looked so TASTY!

The kids received so many fun and thoughtful and generous gifts: Hungry Hungry Hippos was the request of choice from Santa (Whew! That was only $13!). The kids also got nerf guns, new gloves, new coats and shirts and pants and socks, Build-a-Bear stuffed animals from a secret Santa, books, coloring books, puzzles, and so much more! I got some new kitchen items including a scale, new silverware and Chris got me a dock for my iPod! I suppose my new haircut counts as a Christmas gift as well. I am one step closer to being back to my original hair color. Oh yeah, and Chris himself installed a new (used), WORKING, and free dishwasher for me on Christmas Eve! I love having a dishwasher again! And I thought on a new budget, we would be having a simple Christmas.... Not so! We are too blessed!

Celebrations, Part 1

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We are so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting to celebrate with us. After iPod Scrabble wars, we started off the weekend celebrations by attending the Best Neighborhood Party ever, with tons of food and sweets, fireworks, volleyball, movie, and good friends. The kids loved the sparklers and glow sticks, and even Audrey was mesmerized by the fireworks.

On Monday, we enjoyed watching the kids as they enjoyed the parade, (while I not so discreetly wished I could have been selling otter pops at $.46 profit each.)

Then we did sparklers at home and had root beer floats. That's American tradition at its best!

16 Weeks plus Thanksgiving Dinner

Here is that standard side-shot of the pregnancy-in-process. I was very full after having just eaten Thanksgiving and its fixings, therefore it was a very good opportunity for the obligatory photo. Before you comment on whether or not you think I'm skinny for 16 weeks, please see the rules.

We had a superb time with the Swensons of Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend, and all 6 children ages 5 and under got along famously. The little 2 year olds were especially cute admiring Ben, who is only 2 months old; the 4 and 5 year olds mastered the art of imaginative play famously. The adults were fully occupied by keeping all the little ones fed and clean (and making sure all the bleeds had band-aids), followed by keeping the kitchen clean, and discovered that engineering ginger bread houses is best left to engineers. There is hardly the need to leave the house much when there are more little kids than adults.

Liz showed me how possible it is to be a mom of twice as many kids as arms and to keep a house organized all without losing your mind, and I think it all comes down to that iPod touch...

We are especially grateful for good friends; For the option to simply sit around and swap stories; to laugh at ourselves and analyze family dynamics, figuring out why everyone needs therapy and how we will mess up our own kids and ensure them a spot in therapy, too; For good friends who have to like you even though they know all the dirt there is to know about you. And now our kids have no choice but to like each other by nature of being 4th generation friends. Isn't that great?

Feat for Four

About once every couple of years I get an itch to hike the Y. I keep forgetting how steep and uneventful a climb it is. To satisfy Leah's desire to "go on a mountain," and hearing her comment along the lines that a walk at Bridal Veil Falls isn't mountainous enough, I decided she needed to hike the Y, too.

We can see the Y from our house, and she agreed that it would be cool to go that high. We got her some real walking shoes (with laces!) specifically for the trek. (And she wore those pink sketchers for 48 hours straight after getting them). We had countless conversations about how it would be hard, but that we would keep going. We are trying to teach her the idea of working hard to accomplish a goal. As for me, I am trying to train myself that having little kids doesn’t have to stop me from doing hard and adventurous things like this.

Well, Memorial Day was the day that did not get rained out. Honestly, I thought we would turn around half way up. But we pushed ourselves and we encouraged Leah to push herself, and we made it all the way to the top! We had to pace her with a 30-second break at each switchback, but as we got close enough to see the Y, she renewed her excitement at being so close to our goal. Now she can look at the Y and know that she walked there!

Unfortunately, the kids were grumpy the whole way down and Chris had to carry Leah on his shoulders. I had Samuel in a too-small carrier on my back the whole way (30 extra pounds makes a big difference), and he fell asleep on the way down. I have to say going down was nearly as hard as going up as my legs were tired and shaky and I didn't have a lot of traction on the steep, dry dirt/gravel trail. I even got some war wounds-I turned my ankle and skinned my knee on the way down.

Here are some pictures to prove that we really did it! (Note the grumpy children hiking/not grumpy children eating ice cream)

Three quarters of the way up.

At the top.

Chris and Leah climbing on the rocks.

Chris rubbed his cone on his face, too. Happy Memorial Day!

Christmas in a (very large) nutshell

So Lola (and Santa) has come and gone, Happy New Year is here, Samuel had a Happy Birthday, and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Christmas with Lola

Chris's mom Pearly, whom we endear with the Tagalog title Lola spent Christmas and New Years with us. Leah immediately latched on and shooed the rest of us out of the guest room, announcing "Girls only!" (I'm a girl, but apparently, I wasn't invited!) We had a wonderful time with Lola, who took us to "The Princess and the Frog," showered us with gifts, and filled our tummies with our favorite eats, including Cafe Rio, Tucano's, Wingers, Korean for Chris and of course, authentic Filipino food. (We have over 100 lumpia in the freezer!!!)

We had a family outing to Jumpin' Jacks, where in only one hour, you can wear out your children for an entire afternoon!

The blessing of Lola was not limited to food and fun. She also provided the parental reprieve we so desperately needed; evenings out, mornings in, dish-duty, diaper duty, snow-shoveling, you get the idea. And she certainly got on famously with her two grandchildren, who simply adore their Lola.

Leah was allowed to don her new Tinkerbell costume Christmas morning, which she wore day and night in the 48 hours following Christmas (when I made her dress modestly for church), at which point Lola bought her a Cinderella costume, complete with crown, magic wand and glass slippers, which she still desires to wear daily. (10 points: Can you count how many pictures in this post have her wearing the said Tinkerbell costume?)

Christmas with the Coombs'

We spent Christmas evening with our very best friends David and Michal, who showered us with gifts and, as always, good laughs. They love our kids as much as we do.

Christmas was a blast. We plan on going on some road trips this next year now that we have a portable DVD player for the car, our exciting Christmas present for the Napervillian grandparent contigency. Thanks Mom and Dad! (50 points: Anyone recognize the screen-shot?) And Chris has enjoyed not having any classes this semester so that instead of late night studying, he can do some late-night gaming on his new PS3!, which he got from Dad and Debbie.

My first attempt at homemade pasta was a disastrous failure, we're still working on all our new DVD's, the kids are loving their new toys and books, and the play table we got with all our Christmas giftcards has been put to good use. We are truly blessed to have such beautiful, healthy children, wonderful friends and family, luxuries such as toys and books and PS3's, but we know we owe all our gratitude to our Father in Heaven and to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who provide a beautiful eternal plan.

P.S. Why am I not smiling in this picture? I had been vomiting for 24 hours on account of too much fudge.