Four-ish Months of Posts. Phew!

You know, I probably wouldn't dread updating this if I did it more often. I'll try harder. It's been a busy couple of months around here. These aren't exactly in order. Um, whoops.

My baby brother decided to serve a mission. We are so proud. The Philippinos are so lucky to have him!

We moved in and we had this crazy idea that we would take 3 weeks to get the house organized and then we would put in our yard. We had approximately one week to get the yard in before the snow started falling. It's in, we love it and we can't wait until next year when it's all pretty and green and we can put in flowers and bushes.


I am absolutely in love with our home. It's one level with a basement. For some reason it's easier for me to keep clean. I grew up in a rambler and it feels so much more like home living in one. We have some amazing views. This is what we see when we eat. Gorgeous, huh?

And this is from our front porch. SO pretty!

We are finally getting settled. The kitchen was the first thing to get organized and put together. It looks nothing like this now. The decorations are completely different. I need to take more pictures. We haven't been pulling out the camera very often...something we will work on.

Then the girls Grandma Nadine took them to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. They got all dolled up. I love that they are so girly!

We picked pumpkins


Halloween came. Amelia was groovy in her Hippie costume. Tess was a beautiful princess in blue and Sophie was a cave man. As a side note, whenever Sophie sees a caveman in a book she points and says "costume". We're going to have to work on that. This was actually a picture we took before we took them to our previous neighborhoods Halloween carnival. I'm glad we did. On the actual day of Halloween, Amelia came down with strep throat.



In our new neighborhood we had a trunk or treat. We invited some of our "besties" to come with us. Look how darling they all are!

Sophie got her big girl bed. She loves it when it's on the floor and they can use it as a trampoline. When it's on a bed frame, not so much. She's petrified and hasn't slept in it once.

Around these parts, Halloween and Sophie's big day are synonymous. I'm working on separating the two. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, we decided to celebrate her big day on Sunday.

You can't see it from this picture, but the girl has lungs. She was standing like this to blow out her candle. No bending over. She just stood there and blew. She knocked out both candles every time. It wasn't a fluke. We kept re-lighting them to see if she could do it again. She did. It was awesome!

This is her birthday outfit. She only kept it on when she absolutely had to.

Eating the cake. Everything around here has to be made from scratch. No more cute bakery cakes. Stupid peanuts.



And here is what she looked like most of the night.

Random picture of the two youngest in Soph's big girl bed. Apparently I lied. She will get in there if her sister sleeps there. We play musical beds sometimes.

The same day we closed on our house and started to move things in, I had braces put on. I woudn't recommend that. I would, however, recommend losing the ten pounds I lost right after the braces came on. Go me!

It snowed. Sophie was ready.

Izzy loves the snow. The snow loves Izzy. I don't love the two combined.

One morning right before Christmas, Sophie woke up looking like this. She had fallen off a bar stool and had to had her head glued the night before and the next morning she woke up polka-dotted on her face. Turns out she's allergic to my lip stick that she has smeared on her cheeks the day before. She wasn't so cute for a week. We stayed home lots. It was better than explaining to everyone that it wasn't chicken pox or the plague. She looks fine now.

Tess lost her first and second teeth. It was the day before Christmas. She was right on time to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." The Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause almost bumped into each other.

Then threeish days before Christmas, we were going to make all of our Christmas goodies. I had it all planned out in stages. I should stop doing that. I ended up sliding all of my digits on my left hand in 320 degree sugar. My mom came to the rescue and finished up my candy and then rolled out sugar cookies and had my girls cut them and bake them. I would have taken pictures, but I was trying not to die. My mom rocks!!! The hubster came home and decorated the cookies with the girls. There is a reason they look like orphans in these pictures. If I die, would someone please come over and make sure my girls are dressed and their hair is combed. Please?

We spend Christmas Eve at my parents house. My mom went to all of this work to make these darling costumes for a Nativity. Tess was the obedient, sweet angel. Amelia was a beautiful Mary and Sophie was a begrudging angel until she saw baby Jesus in the manger and she went and rubbed his belly and loved on him. She can be sweet when the mood strikes.

Then we headed home. We opened a present. Pajamas. Surprise! Not everyone was happy or willing to be in the picture.

So we put that one to bed. Then the rest of us stayed up and wrote letters to Santa and read stories.

Okay, sisters on Christmas morning. I could stop here.

But I won't.

Sophie didn't care WHAT she received, only that she could rip open as many presents as humanly possible. She emptied my stocking and opened most of the family gifts.

And she didn't care where she opened them, only that she got to them first.

Tess wanted big girl things this year like hair stuff and makeup. She's going on 12.

Amelia wanted spy gear. Especially the clothes. Spies wear cool clothes.

The hubster had a small stack, but it cost more than everyone elses stacks. What is it they say about men and toys? He's doing his best Japanese tourist impression.

We usually take a family picture in front of our Christmas tree. Totally spaced it this year, so we substituted Grandma Nadine's tree.

Then we had a rocking new year. We had three of the hubsters friends from high school and their wives come over. We have some pretty amazing friends!

We took pictures, played games (not pictured)

Karaoked

Experimented with little pills Colt found on the net. They make all sour things taste sweet. I'm sure they will make our next children be born with three heads. That's not an announcement. We're done. So I guess the REST of them will have children with three heads. We can experiment with all of the pills we want...wait.

(had to throw this in because our girls think they are old enough to stay up...and it was our house and so they stayed instead of being shipped off....they were awesome and played games in their rooms most of the night...my kids rock!)


They did help us when it came to making noise at midnight.

The gang.

Phew! I will try to keep up on this thing more...and pull out the camera. Maybe I should do that 365 day challenge. Or the 52 week challenge. Or not.