Taking it One Thing At A Time in December

December was quite busy, and I managed for the most part to keep my head above water by taking our schedule day by day and focusing only on the very next thing.  My priority list kept a walk a day in the number one slot, followed by as many home-cooked meals as possible and keeping school on schedule.  After that, I let the rest fall where it may.  Unfortunately for me, that resulted in no Christmas card this year, which is one of my favorite things to do.  It wasn't more important though than the above mentioned priorities and so I have no regrets.  Here we are below, enjoying the mild weather that we had in December, and in the right hand picture below, Charlie even managed to go on a walk with us one of the days.  By the time we realized he was with us, it wasn't too late to turn back and lock him in the garage.  He wants to go for walks with us, but he meows at us the entire time and refuses to walk at a steady pace.  Instead, he chooses to dart from safe object, to safe object and at a certain point, I get concerned that we are too far from home and worry that he may get too tired and refuse to let me catch him.  So, we walked (ran - see photo below of the girls running with Charlie keeping pace) him back home, locked him in the garage and continued on a different path, down a street we rarely walk.  Interestingly enough, a woman came out of her house and asked if we were okay and if we needed help!  When I said we were just out for a walk, she looked surprised and said that she was worried when she saw us with the baby on such a cold day and thought perhaps our car had broke down.  While I appreciated the care (glad to know there are strangers that are willing to help another stranger out), I have since avoided that street.  I guess a mom and four young kids taking a walk in the winter is a strange sight on that street!

Here we are doing school - some of it provided by my brother and sister in law as a Christmas present for the girls.  In clockwise order from top left: the girls studying geodes from their Christmas present, Emma and Will cracking open a geode, Lucy mixing a crystal solution, the girls and I making homemade slime for a preschool science experiment, our crystals that we grew and geodes that we cracked open, and finally, Violet and I enjoying a game of Alphabet Go Fish, because yes, preschool really is that fun.

 The girls had their Christmas Benefit Recital this past month, my taking it "one thing" at a time was quite helpful in managing this big event.

 

They danced to a song from The Nutcracker, and did an amazing job.  Their hair had to be curled for the performances and dress rehearsals and it was the first time I have ever curled their hair.  This was a big deal for me, and of course, I only began the day before they needed their hair curled for dress rehearsal.  After several failed attempts and some texts to our cousin who is a hair stylist, we settled on these new-fangled curlers that ended up being a Godsend!  The downside is you have to sleep on them, but the upside is there was no risk of damaging their hair (or Lucy's fear of me burning her ears or neck) and after several nights of having to use them, I figured out how to put them in their hair in such a way that their sleep disturbance from them was greatly minimized.  Here they are below in clockwise order: another dance mom took this photo of Lucy and Emma backstage, watching the performance before theirs - my first thought was how sweet and it is quite easily my most favorite photo ever but don't worry, Emma told me later that Lucy had her in a choke hold because she thought Emma was getting too close to the curtain, Lucy with her beloved dance teacher of almost six years now, Lucy and Emma in the "new-fangled" curlers, and Emma with her beloved dance teacher of almost six years.  I'm so grateful to have dance in their lives - for the confidence, for the work-ethic, for the exercise, and most importantly, for the girls to know what it's like to be a part of a team and the feeling of pride and accomplishment from working together towards a common goal. 

Here are the girls biggest cheerleaders below.  This was the first year they had friends in the audience, and I can't even begin to describe how loved it made them feel to know that their friends were out there watching and cheering them on.

 

We spent a lot of time indoors playing.  In the top, left hand picture below my sister was over one day and played Duplos with the kids.  She's a great sport, and the kids adore her.  The bottom, right hand picture below shows the girth of our pantry one evening when I decided I was tired of things falling out on me and I needed to completely clean and organize it that moment as this was clearly the next "one thing". 

The girls put on an adorable Christmas parade with their Legos this past month, and I just had to photograph their creativity.  The best part is that they all three played happily together.

 The official start of the Christmas season for our family happens on December 6th, or St. Nick's Day.  The girls put a note for Santa in their shoes of what they would like for Christmas, and in return, St. Nick takes the notes and leaves them oranges and chocolate coins.  This year he also left a Lego Advent Calendar.  I just couldn't get over the cuteness of the clementine orange in one of Opal's little shoes.

The very next day is Will's dad's birthday, so we had fun celebrating with him.  Note the curlers in the kids hair - they had their first dress rehearsal in the morning.  We also celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family at the same restaurant we've been renting out for over ten years now.  It is always a good time to see family, and in the bottom, right hand picture below, one of my kids must have taken a photo of Opal and my niece playing peek-a-boo together.  

We made ornaments this year for Luke's Grave Blanket from plastic pony beads that we filled in metal cookie cutters and then melted in our toaster oven that we put outside (so we wouldn't breathe in melting plastic fumes).  Besides the fact that it took FOREVER for the beads to melt, they did turn out lovely.  

This was Opal's first Christmas on the outside of me, and it was nice to have her with us at Luke's grave.  If you would have told me ten years ago when I had empty arms and an aching heart that I would be standing there ten years later with Luke's four little sisters and Dad, I would have hardly believed it.  Although I would love to be standing anywhere else with Will and all FIVE of my kids, I will take what I can get and I feel so grateful to have Will and my four girls with me on earth. 

We celebrated Christmas at Will's parents house a few days before Christmas when his brother was in town.  We decorated gingerbread cookies, opened presents, and had a lovely afternoon.  

The bottom, right hand pictures above show my kids with black olives on their fingers as I taught them the rhyme, "Little Jack Horner".  This was a favorite memory from my youth at my grandma's house.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on another day, and although we all missed seeing nieces/nephews/cousins, it was a lovely day too.  Violet got a cable knit sweater for Christmas and insisted that my Dad had one too and asked that I text Grandpa to make sure they could be matching. When we got to their house, my mom was the one with the matching sweater, and Violet was proud to be matching (see center photo below).  In the bottom, right hand photo below, we spent time over the holidays with friends of ours who are like family too.

Emma was the head angel in our church's Christmas Eve pageant, and proudly showed us the ornament on the church Christmas tree that she had made in one of her catechism classes as well.

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year, and after church, we spent a sweet evening at home eating a special Christmas Eve dinner of sloppy Joe's, cheesy potatoes, green beans and sparkling cider and then sampled some of the chocolate chip cookie bars we had made to leave out for Santa.

Christmas morning dawned bright and early (but not too early, thank goodness) and it was a happy morning with Opal with us for her very first Christmas.

Having the joy and magic of Christmas through my kids eyes helps to fill up my energy for all of the hard moments of parenting the rest of the year. 

I encouraged the kids to make homemade gifts or gently used items for each other this year.  Violet found some of her sisters' favorite books at a library used book sale, Lucy made bracelets, and Emma made flower presses with Will's help.  The girls and I made homemade garlic salt for Will as garlic is one of his favorite foods.  I thought I had ruined the surprise when he found my not so careful hiding spot in the basement but he revealed on Christmas after he opened our gift to him that he thought it was foot powder when he found it!

Since Opal loves paper, she loved opening presents!  And her sisters loved helping her open her presents too.  I have to say that Opal is my favorite present this year, and to see the gift that she is to each member of our family.  

Highlights of the girls gifts include: Lucy got the Polaroid camera she thought was too expensive to ask for, a doodle pad that magically erases with the touch of a button, a new backpack and of course Legos, Emma got the Shopkins and Lego set she was hoping for, and Violet got the bow maker and LOL's she wanted along with a surprise Lego watch which she was thrilled about.  Opal got a push behind walker, some baby dolls (that I found on eBay to match the ones her sisters have and are no longer sold in stores), some Little People and furniture the girls bought her on eBay to go along with the hand me down Little People Doll House Opal has from her sisters, her very first Duplo set and my favorite, a balancing hen with eggs to stack on her back. 

Will makes the kids a present from wood each year, and this year he made each of the girls a letter to represent the first letter of their name on a piece of repurposed barn wood.  We had handmade our wedding invitations together 15 years ago, and had used a brass stencil that spelled LOVE to emboss the invitations.  I found the brass stencil when we were pregnant with Opal and I couldn't believe that our wedding invitations were a precursor of the four beautiful girls we would have whose initials would spell out LOVE.  Will was able to enlarge the letters and use them as a stencil to paint each girl's initial.  I haven't decided where I will hang these letters yet, but am so excited to have them.  Here we are below, playing with our Christmas presents.

Will's parents came over in the afternoon on Christmas and we had Christmas part two with them, and enjoyed a dinner of ham and more cheesy potatoes.

New Year's Eve we spent at home, and decorated gingerbread houses with the girls.  Our neighbor had found two gingerbread kits on clearance after Halloween at Trader Joe's and thoughtfully bought them for our kids.  So, all we had to finance was one more kit and the girls were each so happy to decorate their own adobe, and the Halloween candy of bats and ghosts blended right in with the Christmas candy!

The rest of our Christmas break was happily spent making crafts that family and given the girls for Christmas...

...and enjoying lots of walks and even some hikes.  See below the piece of ice I found that was shaped like the beautiful state we live in - a mitten.

The weather was so mild that one morning we even ate a picnic breakfast outside of the natural food store by our house.  We walked our towns main street and took in all of the Christmas sights, including a giant train made out of gingerbread, an abdominal snow man made out of cake, and lots of twinkly Christmas lights.  Will figured out that Opal fits inside of his winter coat, and thus became the best and warmest place for Opal on our excursions.

Will and I are in such a special time of our life right now.  It is going by so fast, and it is so much work, but spending our days with our favorite people on earth makes all of the hard work and sleepless nights worth it.  I just want to savor every happy moment with my kids while they still think of Will and I and their sisters as their favorite people too.  Slow down, time!  Someday they will go out in the world and find their own favorite people, but I hope they will always remember our time together with smiles and laughter and love.

What Opal Loves at 10 Months

Opal loves her mama!  In the below pictures: Violet and I, each with our babies strapped on us, and the other photo shows the first time Opal searched me out and pulled herself to a stand at my legs.  I'm almost done with the dishes, baby!

Opal loves her sisters!  In the below photos in clockwise order from top left: Lucy can get Opal to sleep on her, which is more than I can say for myself with Opal most days, Lucy cuddling Opal, Opal with a chocolate kiss mark on her cheek from Emma, and finally, Violet getting a kick out of using one of Opal's pacifiers together with her sister!

Opal loves being outside!  She also loves Charlie, but I'm not sure he returns the affection.  Fortunately we've had a mild winter for Opal's tenth month, and she was able to be outside almost every day.

Opal loves paper!  She loves to eat paper, rip paper, and crumple paper.  She also loves books, but at this point I think it is just because it's a nice stack of paper.

Opal loves Daddy!  And Opal loves playing with Daddy!  In fact, although it pains me to say this, she may prefer Daddy over me right now.  If Will is around, she only wants him.  The good news is, although I've always relished being my babies' number one, it fills my heart with pride to see the father of my children be so loved too.

And finally I can say that Opal loves food!  This past month she finally started eating food with a passion.  We determined that she does not like baby food purees, and doesn't like slimy things like bananas and avocados.  She gags on them every time.  But, this past month her pincer grasp has developed quite nicely, and now that she is able to pick up soft finger foods, she LOVES eating skinned and cut up grapes, cut up blueberries and ripe pears, tiny pieces of cucumber, steamed carrots and green beans, organic "Cheerio" type cereal, and little pieces of cooked pasta, oatmeal (that she can pick up) and sticky rice (also that she can pick up).  Offer it on a spoon to her and she won't eat it!

Opal, we love you and are so happy to be a part of your list of loves!

November 2018

November had gorgeous fall weather as well as cold, winter weather.  We enjoyed both immensely because the fall colors were so magnificent, and because snow in November is exciting and new and not at all like snow in April.  My favorite picture below is Emma being pulled on a sled by Will, over a leaf pile covered in snow.  The snow came before we had finished cleaning up the leaves for the fall!

At the beginning of November we celebrated what my family calls the Outlaws Birthdays - my sister in law and Will have birthdays close together, and so we celebrated them at my parents house.  The kids all flock to Will - both his own and his nieces and nephews and I found it cute that they surrounded him at cake time and present opening time.  The bottom, left hand picture below shows all of the cousins, with a little decorated pumpkin to represent the missing cousin Hayden who lives in Florida.  It was one of the kids ideas, as Hayden's parents had bought her that pumpkin when they visited the month prior, but they left it behind as they didn't think the airline would appreciate bringing along a pumpkin.  It's such a happy occasion when all the cousins are together!

We kicked off the holiday season the week before Thanksgiving with a visit to a gingerbread train at a local hotel in our town.  We met friends there and had a lovely morning.  In the top, right hand picture below is our annual visit with my oldest friend who comes to town from Chicago each Thanksgiving with her family.  She got to meet Opal for the first time which was sweet and my kids got to play with her kids which was special - despite the fact that I think my kids may have traumatized her kids by convincing them to put on a hastily choreographed show for the parents in our basement.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house this year, and although it was a small gathering by my large family standards, it was still a lovely day.  My aunt came to town for it, and brought crafts for my kids which made for some great memories, especially since she did the crafts with them.

Thanksgiving weekend is when we usually put up our Christmas Tree.  Will and I pride ourselves on our efficiency with our pre-lit tree and only two boxes total of decorations.  But, the saying goes, pride comes before the fall, and although Liz of Christmas Past had thoughtfully put a note on one of the decoration boxes telling us that we needed white Christmas lights, we didn't notice the note until after everything was out and ready to decorate and the top third of our pre-lit Christmas tree would not light up.  We bought the lights the following day and resumed our decorating.

This was Opal's first Christmas Tree experience, and she fortunately has handled the tree better than I thought she would.  We only put baby-friendly ornaments within her reach, and we also secured the tree by surrounding it on two sides with walls, and a third side by a couch leaving only one access point for her, and hopefully decreasing the chance of her knocking the tree over.

Once the tree was up, it did add a nice ambiance to our home and the kids enjoyed doing school by it's twinkly lights in the mornings.  Here we are below, 'doing school' as we call it.  Sometimes on the couch, sometimes on the kitchen floor while I cook (and in the below photo, Violet helps cook), and most of the time at the table.  We have a small kids desk in the living room that Emma or Violet will use sometimes, and if Emma is extra wiggly, I have her stand on a balance board while she works as seen in the bottom, right hand picture below.  Opal loves eating paper, and instead of Emma having the excuse that the dog ate her homework, she had the excuse one day that her sister ate her homework.  See photo evidence below.

The top two photos below depict Emma in one picture fixing our dishwasher, and in another picture asking Will how the vacuum works.  It is very interesting to see her curiosity about how things work.  She definitely takes after Will in this and I'm always happy to see Will and Emma share this common interest and ability.

 The other photos above depict Emma and Violet each reading a poem at our weekly Poetry Tea Time.  It seems our favorite rhymes are Limericks and if you look at the one pictured in the photo above, almost any variation can be made in this style and it gives us funny games to play while on a walk or waiting at an appointment or on errands.  The below photos in clockwise order from top left are: Lucy and Emma with their piano teacher during their piano lesson, Violet at dance class, Emma and Lucy with their art teacher, Lucy enjoying an end of semester treat at the end of art class, Violet in her dance class, and Violet and Opal reading books together while we wait for Lucy and Emma to finish their piano lesson.

Pictured below are drawings for a "create a coloring page" contest that their yoga teacher encouraged them to enter, with the theme of yoga.  Violet drew flowers, Emma artfully made the word Yoga to be colored in, and Lucy made a mandala to be colored in.  I'm assuming as we haven't heard back from the contest that they didn't win, but it still made for a nice project for them to tie in their knowledge of yoga and their love of art.

 One of my favorite things to do with my kids is read them stories - from picture books to beloved chapter books from my childhood and new discoveries as well.  It's easiest to do this when I am feeding Opal, otherwise the sisters take turns playing with Opal on the floor while I read aloud to them.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: the girls snuggled on the couch watching a movie, Violet being goofy with a pair of fashion glasses, Lucy displaying some embroidery she created, Emma and Violet making markers from a Marker Making Kit they got last Christmas, and finally, all four girls enjoying their time with our babysitter who was home from college over Thanksgiving break.

The girls love making art, and I happily caught them coloring the same page in utter peace and harmony and took the risk of drawing attention to them in order to take a photo.  Usually, once attention has been drawn to this rare and peaceful encounter, the spell is usually broken.

While Lucy and Emma were in their art class this past month, Violet, Opal and I would go to the library just a few blocks away, as well as the fruit market for a fun and bonding early morning samples circuit that we looked forward to each Friday.  We've learned through experience that the best samples are out in the morning, and almost nonexistent in the afternoon.  Now that Lucy and Emma's art class is over for the semester, we are missing our delicious samples routine.  The lefthand photo below shows Violet using a chair to get what she needs off of a library shelf while I feed Opal. Usually I have to wake Opal up for the day to take the kids to art class, and I always wait until the very last moment as I hate to wake a sleeping baby, especially when my babies sleep so badly.  But, waiting until the last moment means no time for feeding her, and so after dropping the kids off at art class, we go to the library first so that I can feed Opal while Violet browses the books and videos.  Once Opal is happy, we make our way to the "sample store" as Violet calls it.  The bottom, right hand picture below shows all three older girls at a newly decorated part of the library, done in a Alice in Wonderland theme that is really beautiful.

It's tough having to get Opal's winter coat on for each trip out, and it's tough to coordinate her nap schedule for the various classes and appointments that we have.  We find a way though, and for the most part, Opal rolls with it.  Here we are below at the doctor's office, and in the bottom pictures, Opal for the first time in the fort the kids always build at the Chiropractor's office.

 Other fun places we ventured this past month included my brother's house for dinner, a friend's grand opening of her new bakery complete with face painting, and me out on the town one night with a friend.

 I taught Lucy how to sew this past month, and I think I can officially say she is as good as me now, and very soon will be much, much better.  The project that she learned all of the steps of sewing was making herbal eye masks - from pattern making and cutting, pinning, sewing, stuffing and packaging.  She is selling them, and has received great reviews so far.  It is a project that we work on together, so it has been both challenging to find the time to do this with her, but also very rewarding to have this special time with her.  We work well together, I must say and I look forward to many more projects with her!

 My bees are still alive as of this past month, which is better than I can say some years have been!  We made lots of comfort food meals at home this past month too, and my favorites included homemade chicken noodle soup in my pressure cooker with homemade biscuits.  There is nothing I like more than homemade soup with fresh, warm biscuits.  Winter has it's perks!

For the most part, I do not mind the colder weather.  Besides the difficulties of getting Opal into a snowsuit to go anywhere and her resulting crankiness at being confined in what must feel like a baby straight jacket, I do enjoy winter walks, watching snow fall, reasons to drink tea and hot chocolate and all of the comfort foods like stews, soups and roasts that just aren't as appetizing in warmer weather.  I like to be cozy in the house after a crisp winter walk or upon returning home from errands, and I like planning my garden and flowers with anticipation of the spring.  As I write this, we still have about three months of cold weather before us, and if Will is correct, I always embrace each season with excitement but by the end of it, I am a whining mess.  It's a good thing I live where there are four seasons, as my attention span may not appreciate otherwise!