Long, Long Ago

Happy New Year! Last night I was thinking about the song Auld Lang Syne and wanted to find out the history and meaning of the song. Here is a link to the information I found incase you are also curious...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

This morning I explained New Year's Resolutions to the girls. Here is what they came up with. I still have to decide on some for myself but I'm pretty sure the top one will be to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes!

2009 New Year's Resolutions

Emmie: "I want to be nice to my sisters."

Katie: "I want to be nice to my Mom & Dad all the time...I mean sometimes."

Allie: "I want to play with my Groovy Girl. I want to listen."

Will: "I want to sleep through the night." (Ok, I wrote this one for him).

We hope your new year is filled with fun and happiness!

Together

I have a lot to catch up on...we've been traveling for over a week now. We've visited our family in St. Louis and Ft. Wayne. We've celebrated Christmas. Katie has turned 5!!! I've visited with friends from highschool. Soon, I will catch up on all of this fun but for now we're just having fun being together...






Pics taken by my brother Joe with my future Nikon D70. :)

The Verdict Is In...

A little naughty, mostly nice!

The girls quickly came down the stairs at 8 am to see if Santa had come to visit. They saw that some of the cookies had been eaten and found 4 piles of presents under the tree. I could almost see the relief on their faces...

"Yes! I guess we were good enough!"



The girls begin to open up presents. W was busy having his bottle.


A loved her Dora book with musical flashlight.


"A comfy robe!"


"Could it be? Just what I've always wanted?"

"Yes! Now I can play beauty salon!"

"Just one more burp and I can open up MY presents!"

"Nothing like an argyle monkey to match my argyle hat, shirt and socks!"

"This is pretty silly!"

Time to play beauty salon...hope you made your holiday appointment early!

E had a tangle situation and had to call in the pro K for some help!

Hope Santa is good to you!

It Was Only A Matter Of Time...

I just couldn't hold out any longer... I had to put the girls and W in matching clothes atleast once. No harm done with pajamas, right?

Anyway, tonight was our family Christmas celebration. First, we had a 'gourmet' dinner from 'The Rice Place' (aka Chipotle...one of the girls' favorite places to eat). We had a 'Secret Sibs' gift exchange. We also gave W and the girls our gifts and they had a few very cute handmade gifts for us including the handprint Christmas tree apron (shown below) from K. After exchanging gifts, we drove around to look at lights. When we came home, we left cookies out for Santa as he is coming to our house early tonight since we will be traveling over the holidays. A missed the cookie preparation as she fell asleep in the car during our drive.

Pics from tomorrow morning coming soon!

"Santa, I'm Comin' Back Down and I Don't Have A Dirty Diaper Anymore!"

Last night we had our annual Santa party. Ok, well it is only the 2nd year that we have had the party but we plan on doing it for many more years so it is officially the 'Annual Santa Party'. We had 5 families over for dinner and dessert and a visit with Santa. It is so fun to see all of the eyes light up as Santa enters the house. Santa sits with each child and asks what they would like for Christmas. He also asks them what special Christmas wish they would make for someone else and then gives them a candy cane.

Santa had only been here for about a minute when we realized A had a dirty diaper...poor girl had to leave the festivities. R took her upstairs to resolve the problem. A few minutes later, we hear A stomping down the stairs quickly and saying in a loud and very excited voice, "Santa I'm comin' back down and I don't have a dirty diaper anymore!"

Here are some pictures from the night.

Santa enters the house...


A gets a high five!


W meets Santa for the first time.


A is in love.

K asked Santa for a beauty salon girl.

E wants to know if this is the REAL Santa.

Our first Christmas as a family of 6!

Gotta Love Giggles!

I hesitate to make this post because you will have to listen to me acting silly. In reward for the agony of listening to me sing (if you want to call it that) Frosty the Snowman, you will get to hear W's first giggles. I was actually taping him when he giggled out loud for the first time! The girls were very excited!

Country Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Charleston Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Disco Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Busy Girl

K had another performance today! Today her 'Little One's Worship' class sang songs at mass. Here are 2 videos from this morning as well as a picture of her walking down the aisle. I also took a couple of pictures when we came home. The videos are very grainy as I had to really zoom in from where we were sitting.

Twinkle Toes

Today, K had an informal recital during her last dance class. She really loves dance class and wasn't a bit shy during her performances. K will move up to the 5-year-old class in January and have her formal recital in May. A and W sat with me and enjoyed the show. Here are 2 videos.

Snow Fun!

Monday it was in the 60s. Tuesday...snow! This is probably the most snow we will get all season. Here is a video of the girls playing in the snow.

Three Months Old!

W will be 3 months old tomorrow. He is such a happy little boy! He is so very sweet and easy going. We are cherishing every day with him as we watch him grow and change...and look even more like Daddy. Here is a video of him from today along with three more pictures. Also, a funny pic of A...she was running around like this so I just had to get a picture of her silliness!

Video

Baptism

As I wrote in an earlier post, W was baptized with his cousin Jack in Chicago on the 23rd. W and Jack looked so cute in their white outfits. Jack was a happy camper...well, a sleeping camper. W was not so happy but seemed to really like it when the priest poured the water over his head. Aunt Erin and Uncle John are W's godparents...thank you for being an important part of our son's life.

Grandma and Grandpa H were lucky to see both of their grandsons baptized on the same day. Grandma B and Uncle Tony and Aunt Fawn were also in Chicago for the baptism. Thanks for coming everyone! A big thanks to Aunt Erin and Uncle Jay for letting W join Jack at your church and for having us as guests at your house.

As promised, here are more pictures...

Yeah, finally...our first family of 6 picture together!


The baptism...


The boys with their boys...so sweet. W needed his pacifier...poor little guy.

The girls with our boys.

Grandma and Grandpa H with their grandchildren.

Grandma B with W.

Super Uncle Tony and Aunt Fawn with W.

Cousins

On our trip, we visited with many relatives. The girls and W met their cousin Jack in Chicago. As we were headed out the door of my parents' house to head to St. Louis, my brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew were headed in the door to my parents' house. We would have loved to have had more time to spend with them but were able to delay our departure about 3 hours to spend some time with them.

W also met Grandpa B on this trip but I don't have a picture of them together. Grandpa B waits until babies are 6 months old before he will hold them. I hope he didn't do that with his seven kids, ha. I think I can talk him into holding him at Christmas...W will be much less breakable by then. :)

K meets cute little cousin Jack. He has the sweetest little smile.


E with Jack...

W meets super cute and fun cousin Jacob.

W meets sweet and beautiful cousin Nicole.

W meets Uncle Joey. I love this pic.

Another pic with Uncle Joey... he seriously needs to start a photography business...he takes awesome pictures AND gets children to react like this.