4

Our little girl is 4 today.  Its been a loud 4 years!  Ellie is the most feisty girl I know.  She is completely stubborn. She knows what she wants and she wont settle for anything less. She loves Ben more than she'll let on and she has a blast when Zach plays with her, especially when he plays babies with her.  She'll never admit that though. She loves her stufties (stuffed animals) more than anything and thinks Minnie and Hello Kitty are the coolest. She hates having her hair combed, but loves to wear "pretty dresses" so she can spin.  She is adventurous and fearless (unless you put a completely harmless puppy in front of her).  She has discovered ballet on a favorite cartoon and loves to put on her Halloween costume and dance around the house.  She keeps all of us on our toes and makes us fall in love with her more and more each day.  We wouldn't be the same with out her!

Merry Christmas

We had a tissue filled Christmas this year.  After all the males in the house got sick on Thanksgiving, I thought we were in the clear.  I was very wrong.  Ben and Sam both had fevers and were stuck on the couch for a day or two. Zach got croup, I caught a cold and Jon was diagnosed with the flu and bronchitis the day after Christmas.  Ellie was the only one to remain completely healthy.  Luckily everyone was coherent for the majority of Christmas eve and day.  We had a typical Christmas eve. The kids got in their new pj's and we watched A Christmas Story.

After the movie, Jon read Twas The Night Before Christmas and the kids were off to bed.  The adults kept our traditions of White Christmas and a late dinner of amazing snacks.

We limited presents for each kid this year.  I guess when you have 4 kids, even a limited amount looks like a ton. The kids were so excited to see the tree Christmas morning.  They all got some really cool stuff and Charlie slept through all the chaos of opening presents.

After the traditional Christmas breakfast feast, we all crashed on the couch while the kids checked out their gifts. Ellie finally got to watch Frozen with aunt Corrie, the boys had Legos all over the dining room and Zach made some repairs with his Mickey tools.

Even with the coughing, sneezing, runny/stuffy noses etc etc, it was a great day.  We have Jon home with us for another week and we're looking forward to a big birthday tomorrow then ringing in a new year.

Week 1 of the dog

We've had charlie for 8 days now.  Its been interesting. Overall, he's an amazing dog.  He sleeps in his crate at night, he's on his way to being housebroken all ready, he rarely barks, he's doing better on walks and he loves to cuddle.

He likes to chew his bone and gets a little feisty in the morning, but we have no complaints.

We can't say the same for Sam and Ellie.  If Charlie is sleeping we can get Sam to come over and pet him.  Ellie might give him half a pet, but thats about it.  Neither one of them like walking by him and will go out of their way to avoid him if he's awake.  Its pretty ridiculous.  Sam said he's afraid Charlie will bite him even though he hasn't bit anyone and hasn't shown any interest in biting.  Ellie wont tell us why she's afraid.  She says she loves the puppy, but she doesn't want a puppy.  We're still working on them.

Katie and Charlie have had a few stare downs, but last night they actually interacted.  Katie won then she came over to rub it in while he was asleep.

Charlie

After lots of begging and tears, Ben wore me down, then I wore Jon down.  We are officially no longer the meanest parents ever because we got a dog today.  He is 3 months old.  He's a collie mix. We met him and a few of his siblings today.  He was by far the most calm of the group. Sam surprised us by not being completely freaked out by him.  However, Ellie has surprised us by not wanting to go near him.
We have a 2 week trial period with him.  So far so good, but we'll see how he does once he gets used to us and the house.  The kids have named him Charlie.  I don't know if I'm sold on the name, but I'm sure it will grow on me.

Wordless Wednesday: Real men wear tutu's

Smile

They mastered smiling, just not looking at the camera!

Santa

We headed to see Santa last night.  We thought this might be the year that Jon didn't have to see Santa too, but he had to jump in at the last minute.

The kids were amazed by the lights, as usual.  They talked to Santa, got their candy cane and we were on our way.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas came early

Jon has been complaining about our pots and pans for a while now.  We got a set for our wedding (10.5 years ago). I don't know what the shelf life is on pots and pans, but 10+ years sounds pretty good.  Most of them were fine, but the ones we used most often were falling apart.  The non stick coating was flaking off and was extremely hard to clean.
Jon started researching new pots and pans about a month or two ago.  He's been back and forth with what he wants, but finally settled on a set.  I ordered it off Amazon before he changed his mind again and because it randomly went on sale the day he decided on them.  They came today and while I wanted to save them for Christmas, Jon threatened to not cook from now until then if I didn't let him have them.  For the sake of the kids, he won!  Merry early Christmas baby.

Cookie day

Corrie and I had a mini cookie day on Monday.  We limited it to chocolate chip and sugar cookies. Somehow, even with only 2 types, we have a ton of cookies.

Sam missed most of the activities since he was at school, but he made it home in time to taste test so we didn't hear any complaints!

Ben was very excited to help decorate the cookies and thought Jons traditional "dirty snowman" was hilarious. The tradition will live on for another generation!

Loose to gone in 1 day

Sam informed Jon that he had a loose tooth.  Turns out it was very loose.  After a few unsuccessful tries, Sam said it hurt to eat.  Jon gave it one more good yank and it was out.  He was fine for about 15 seconds then realized he had a hole there and it was bleeding.  We had some tears but he recovered quickly. He happily went to bed tonight with a tooth under his pillow.

Its a date

Ben and I went to see A Christmas Carol today compliments of aunt Corrie.  We weren't sure if Sam was old enough to appreciate it and not be scared of the ghosts, but we felt Ben was ready.

Ben and I had a great afternoon,  The seats were great. Ben enjoyed most of the show.  The ghosts freaked him out a bit.  He said his favorite part was the end because Scrooge becomes nice.

We had a great time today.  Thanks for the tickets Corrie!

White Christmas

White Christmas is my absolute favorite Christmas movie. Its become part of our Christmas tradition that we watch it every Christmas Eve with Gram and Corrie after the kids go to bed.  When we heard that it was coming to the Playhouse, we couldn't pass it up.
The show was great.  The costumes were beautiful and the dance numbers were amazing.  It had a couple downsides though.  It was hard to watch people other than Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney play those parts. They also changed a few parts.  Some things were moved, some added and some things were left out.  I was hoping it would be a little closer to the original than it was, but I can't deny they did a great job.  The fact that Corrie managed to get us a seat upgrade to front row balcony didn't hurt either!  It was a great show, a great night with great company.