Adult Assembly Required

This year Carie and I thought we were getting off easy shmeasy in the assembly department.

We had evaluated all the gifts we (and Santa) were gifting the kids to determine what we could/should assemble prior to the big day. There was really only one thing that we thought fit the bill and determined to postpone that assembly thinking that the girls would enjoy helping. It was the wooden doll house and it appeared rather easy to assemble... only 10 screws!

But then... we forgot what Grandpa and Grandma were gifting Abby. We knew it was coming, but hadn't thought one second about what assembly would be needed. I've never seen something so NOT assembled before. Everything was as if it had just come off the press... layers of plastic pieces stuck together.

This is the epitome of adult assembly required. Though... there were no stickers. We escaped the stickers!

Happy Holidays

Better late than never, eh?

So... it's been a while. Probably the longest we've been silent since we started our journey in blog land. So, we'll start here (pretend you are in a time machine, sorry I am only taking you back a month :) ) and work our way up to the here and now.

Well, the letter portion of our "Holiday Greeting" has been written since well before Christmas. It's was written long enough ago that it is probably already outdated. Then ya'll know about our photo issues that lasted for the better part of December, which were resolved just in time for Christmas. Then we had our 8 days of Christmas with some fantastic winter weather. I was able to take several days off work, and the girls had a break from preschool as well. We had quite a bit of family time, of course some projects, great holiday celebrations, and some good ol relaxing. It was hard for all of us to get back into the grove of life, but we have and here we are.

Without further ado, Happy Holidays from our family to yours! (Click on the link to view our holiday letter and a plethora of photos!)

And a very warm thank you to all the awesome Holiday cards we received! We truly enjoyed each and every one!

Photo Attempt 9,768,325,995

Here we’ve got the best of the worst from our attempts this past weekend. While the suckers (from Santa) were helpful props in getting them to stand in each other's personal spaces (never mind the fact that Carie is sitting just to the right of the picture wrangling them all in), they weren't helpful props in achieving the smiles we were going for. Smiles are over-rated.

I've got a whole series of shots where either one or both of the girls have that look, ya know the one that says "are you done yet? Because seriously Mom, I am!” Then there are the shots where Spencer is pretending to sneeze and you can clearly see the AHH as his head is going back followed by the CHOO as he is throwing his head forward. The sucker drool is a bonus!

Visit With Santa

The kids visit with the jolly ol red guy.

The Wrapping...

Is done! Well, except for whatever wrapping Carie has to do that I'm not allowed to help with.

Now I know many of you are feeling jealous and if you are at all like us, on any other normal year, you haven't even begun the wrapping.

But I am so thankful we are done. We have spent several hours on several nights... at least four, maybe five, nights wrapping gifts. Of course this is all after the kids go to bed, which is why it is 12:45 and I'm still awake. So say 12-15 hours of wrapping, wrapping, and more wrapping. That is why I'm glad to be done. And it isn't like we wrapped them all nice and special with bows and ribbons or anything.

Carie figured that we've gone through a solid 8 rolls of wrapping paper, 6+ rolls of tape, plus the roll of heavy duty box tape that is now empty. I just bought 6 rolls of tape and much to our surprise, they are all gone! In fact I needed more tape, but instead I used a sticky name tag to tape the last piece on a package for Carie. Hey, it works!

Hmm... I wonder how Carie will wrap her gifts. We only have a couple name tags left. :)

Christmas Is Upon Us

The girls had their first Christmas party of the season at school today. From all accounts it looks like tons of fun was had by all. Being a Christian based preschool, they did a great job of celebrating the season and honoring the birth of Jesus. I've actually got a few ideas I'd like to run by Carie to incorporate some new traditions into our family celebration.

The girls are counting down the days. They are beyond excited for Christmas and the anticipation of Santa's visit. They are planning out all the details of what we need to do to prepare for Santa's visit. Spencer is still a bit oblivious to the whole deal. Sure he says Santa, he's interested in the tree, the lights, and all the presents. But he doesn't get it yet. Just like the girls, I'm sure his excitement and understanding will grow more and more each year.

Carie and I are also excited and feeling rather ready, a first for us. We keep saying that we have just a few more things to do. Every day it is just a few more things to do. In reality, there really are just a few more things to do. But I'd love to be able to say we are done! As soon as the last packages arrive in the mail, we'll get them wrapped and be done. Hopefully. But I'm terrible about calling it quits. I always come up with something (see above) that sounds great and thus continues our preparation.

It is wonderful to feel on top of the game, to feel the joy and happiness of the season rather than the typical stressors of the season. For this I am grateful.

Impossible

It feels incredibly impossible to capture a picture of all three of our kids... together... as in the same picture... all cooperating... and looking remotely in the same direction... and all happy or even silly. Obviously I'm asking for too much. I just would like one picture.

We had the girls 4 1/2 year pics taken along with our holiday pics taken two weeks ago. That very well could have been one of our most difficult picture experiences to date. Though, I'm sure I’ve long forgotten about how difficult the girls were at his age. Then, to top it off, the girls were uncooperative as well. They weren't all out upset and unwilling to be in the pose like Spencer was, but they were being incredibly ornery. All said and done we walked away with the best of the worst and called it a day. It is what it is and I'm not going to push and make everyone miserable.

We thought we were done until the prints of the girls’ poses weren't acceptable and we've been dealing with reprints for two weeks now. I just returned from looking at the 3rd set of reprints and they are a no go. We've only had positive experiences from this studio and now I feel like they aren't handling this situation the best they can. I'll be calling and speaking with the manager after I take a few more deep breaths. I'm okay with re-taking the photos of the girls. Again, the shots were decent but we most definitely aren't losing the best pictures ever. I'm mostly just disappointed in how this has been handled.

Then this weekend we made a special trip to see Santa. They had visited Santa once already on one of those spur of the moment stops while we were already at the mall and there were no lines. But this trip to see Santa was part of our dedicated day of family fun. We went to a mall we generally don't go to. Last year we discovered that this mall has a very respectable looking Santa with some really nice, non-cheesy and non 1970's, decorations. As a bonus, minimal lines and no waiting. Go figure!

So we arrive, locate Santa, and get in line. We are next and ready to see the jolly red guy until Ellie declares "I have to go potty and I can't hold it much longer". So off to the potty they go. They return and we reclaim a spot in line. Again, minimal lines and minimal waiting. All is going well UNTIL Santa has to go feed his reindeer. Understandably Santa needs a break, but frustrating still. Thank goodness we were all laid back, no agenda, no pressure, just going with the flow.

The attendant told us we could leave our stuff in line and walk around, so we do. This mall also has an incredibly cool pond in the middle of it which draws our kids to it like a magnet. I then try and get some pics of our kids around the pond, around the beautiful holiday decorations, etc... But again, the children are not interested in meeting my needs. Still slightly frustrated from the likely outcome, I haven't downloaded those pics to see if we have any winners.

I give... if only I could grow up and really just do so.

Are These Really Our Children?

Last night we went out for dinner and it was up to the kiddos to choose where we were going. Spencer belted out "PIZZA PIZZA" and the girls quickly agreed. They then discussed where to go for pizza, and thankfully they all came to the same conclusion. They wanted to eat at a restaurant, and more specifically "the pizza place with the dough". A local pizza joint that serves up delicious pizza by the slice.

We arrive and place our usual order. A slice each for Carie and I, one kid slice and one order of kids pasta for the three kiddo's to share. Essentially the kid servings are the same as the adult servings, but cheaper and pre-cut. Love that!

Generally that is more than enough to go around, with plenty left over. Last night though, so not the case. First Abby was upset that we didn't order her her own piece of pizza. Most of that was her tiredness speaking! After some negotiating, everyone got started on the dinner we had and we ordered another piece of pizza. Spencer was sitting between Abby and I and eating everything off of his plate and our plates.

When the 2nd kid piece arrived, Ellie wanted to share some more pizza. Thankfully Abby was away from the table for the moment and I managed to share Abby's pizza with Ellie while still keeping the pizza looking like a whole slice. Of course Ellie starts to tell Abby this, but thankfully Abby wasn't paying attention. I'm thinking there is NO way she's going to be able to eat all of it anyways. But, both girls finished it all off in no time. Abby even asked to try my pizza that has stuff on it. They used to eat toppings on their pizza, but now it is all cheese all the time. Except Abby will tell you she doesn't like cheese. After trying my slice she decided she liked the stuff! Before they were done they were asking for still more pizza. They had also nearly finished off the pasta that was originally ordered.

So, we ordered two more pieces to go since Mr. Spencer is beyond done at this point. We ordered one slice of cheese for Ellie and one slice with toppings for Abby. Sure enough, each girl finished off yet another piece of pizza. Between the three kids, they cleared four pieces of pizza and the better part of an order of pasta. Not only did they finish off our usual order that usually leaves us with leftovers. But they totally finished off three more slices of pizza.

You'd think they'd be full, right? Nope! They were up for snacks. They all had several mini-muffins for snacks.

Carie says to me... "This is all coming back up later, isn’t' it?"

I said... "Don't jinx us!"

Thankfully it all stayed in their little bodies and they all slept happily ever after.

Looks like we may need to go clothes shopping soon.

Birthday Confusion

Today is the girls 1/2 birthday. While we make note of it, we've never really had a big celebration for their 1/2 birthday before. The big celebration has always landed on their whole birthday.

But then enters the preschool equation and the fact that their whole birthday lands just after the passing of the school season. Add to that the fact that they have different teachers, which is wonderful in most cases, except this one. And, well, they are just still 4 1/2!

Last year their teachers (again two different teachers) planned their celebrations for the same day. They celebrated near the end of the school year, but still many weeks before their whole birthday would actually come around. We had many discussions about what was going on, how many more days till their big birthday celebration at home, etc... This was relatively easy because they were both in the same predicament. They had a great time taking in special treats for their friends.

This year Abby's teacher has a policy of celebrating the summer birthdays on their 1/2 birthday. This seems very easy for us to explain and very easy for the kids to get. Abby was totally jazzed to celebrate her 1/2 birthday with her friends. She chose to make turkey cookies (sugar cookies decorated as a turkey) as her special birthday treats... reconfirming that they are so in the here and now with thanksgiving being so fresh in their minds. She got royal treatment from her teacher, as always. She was the special helper of the day, got 2 stickers, got to pick something (glittery lotion) out of the treat box (that I didn't even know existed), and who knows what else. At pick up time she came bouncing out of the room on cloud 9.

For some reason I thought Ellie's teacher had a similar policy on celebrating birthdays, but I was mistaken. They have many summer birthdays in her classroom and she plans on having a big celebration for everyone in the spring. Here enters the confusion for the girls.

We explained to the girls how this was all going to work and Ellie is way okay with having a big celebration in the spring. Actually, she's ecstatic over celebrating in the spring. However, she now appears to be totally confused about her birthday. She is convinced that her 1/2 birthday is in the spring and Abby's 1/2 birthday is today. They both know their whole birthdays are on June 6th, but I get the sense that they are losing touch that they are twins and share the same birthday.

I've always wanted them to be individuals, and not "the twins". But it saddens me to feel that they are losing a sense of their twin-ness.

There are also a set of triplets between the girls classes. The two girls in Abby's class will be celebrating their 1/2 birthday on Friday while obviously the boy in Ellie's class will be celebrating at a later time. I wish it were possible to see the parents at drop off or pick up to get a sense as to how it is going in their home. Hopefully we'll run into them at the Christmas program next week and we can chat.

A Phase We Can Live Without!

Again, the boy felt it necessary to stick his head in the toilet. Then he thought his foot needed to go in as well. When Carie discoverd him his head was dripping wet and he was swooshing his foot in the bowl. Thank goodness I thoroughly cleaned the bathroom after his last incident. But still!

We've got to find a solution that keeps the facilities child proofed for him yet accessible to the other four kids (ages 4 1/2 and 3 1/2) who wait till the last moment to make a run for it. This seems impossible.

The Boy's First Swirly

Spencer has a renewed obsession with the facilities. He is fascinated with flushing the toilet and watching the water swirl down and away. If you don't want him flushing the toilet while you are using it, you must shut the door behind you.

Tonight it appears that he examined the swirling water a bit closer.

He wandered off, we heard the toilet flush, and then he returned to us looking like this. His head, shirt, and socks were soaked.

We can only assume, well, you know.