Christmas Eve

We just returned from a trip to visit my family in Pennsylvania. So expect an onslaught of posts. :)

Christmas Eve, we celebrated at Jack's parents' house. Ellyson was really excited to receive an Elsa dress, and the twins were thrilled about Goldfish snacks in their stockings. Carter couldn't wait to come home and try out his solar system projector.

Since Carter's bedroom is downstairs at our new house, he spent Christmas Eve night sleeping on Ellyson's floor. And for the first time in my parenthood, I understood why my dad used to booby-trap the kids' doors on Christmas Eve. Santa was convinced this would be the year our kids caught him. Thankfully, they didn't.

Barbies are Low-Tech

We are preparing for a road trip. I packed Ellyson's Elsa and Jasmine Barbie dolls in her bag. She loves watching Barbie movies on Netflix, and asked for a Barbie house for Christmas. She told me (repeatedly) she didn't want to take them. I finally asked why, and she told me she "doesn't know how to play with them." Because they don't "talk or have buttons or anything."

Sounds like just the thing I want my kid to say, hours before Santa delivers some Barbies and a big ole Barbie house. Awesome.

Powderpuff

This is what happens when you have a girly girl sandwiched in the middle of boys.

My Birthday

My birthday was last Friday. Ellyson helped me make a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and the twins tried to steal my Starbucks cranberry bliss bar. So, I received no special treatment from them. ;-)

Dressing up

Graham dressed himself today. Baseball cap, puffy vest, Christmas tie, underwear, sequined shoes. We're just glad he put on underwear. We set the bar pretty low. :)

Christmas Programs

Yesterday was Christmas Program day in our house. Thankfully, Carter's program was two hours before the preschool program - especially since I teach a class at our preschool! My director was very understanding, and found a sub to cover my class for the first hour of our school day. I took Ellyson, Grant and Graham to Carter's program (and Grandma and Papa Jack met us there), and then we all went over to our church for the preschool program.

First is Carter's program. He is in the front row, in his Christmas tie. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I'd actually heard Justin Bieber sing (a discussion we had with Carter a number of times over the last few weeks).

Here is the preschool video (about nine minutes long). Ellyson is on the left, in her Christmas dress. The twins are together in the second row, wearing their Christmas ties. I'm in the green sweater, playing referee with the one-year-olds.

Grant Wishes You a Merry Mit-mas

A little Christmas cheer for your Thursday ...

By the way - this kid is making huge strides with using the potty. He has been upgraded to Pull-ups (meanwhile, Graham has been downgraded to them). Both boys are only needing one or two Pull-ups per day, which isn't even worth the load of laundry to wash them every couple days ... so I am cautiously optimistic that I may have washed my last load of diapers on Sunday (fingers crossed)!

New Pants

I made these pajama pants for Carter on Saturday. I can't decide if I'm proud (because I made them, and the fit is awesome) ... or ashamed (because they're Star Wars).

Santa Visit, Take 2

Today was our second Santa visit of the year. My Mothers of Multiples group held its Christmas lunch, and the kids got to see Santa again. Ellyson dressed the part (you know, since she wore sweats to our last Santa photo open), but the boys did not dress up. Maybe we'll just put the two pictures side by side on our bookshelf, so we can see all of them dressed up.

Muscles!

Santa Pictures!

Morning Person

We are a family of morning people. It may take us a while to get everyone ready in the morning, but that's because three of our kids still need help getting dressed. Well, our youngest is the least-morning-person of the bunch. Always has been. At night time, Grant curls up on his bed, with his thumb in his mouth and Sleep Sheep in his other hand, and he is ready - to - sleep. Graham isn't usually quite as ready for bed. And before the crack of dawn, Grant is often hovering over Graham, trying to talk to him, or he is simply jumping on Graham's bed. Graham is not the morning person of the two of them.

Christmas in Grayson

Last weekend, Carter sang at our church's children's Christmas program, and the group performed at the Christmas tree lighting in town also. I made his Christmas tie. (Spoiler alert: it matches his brothers' ties and his sister's dress!)

I took video of the program at church also, but only loaded the one from the tree lighting. The one at church was a lot longer, and the camera jumped around as I helped Graham hop in and out of my lap.

Grant and Graham also discovered candy canes last night. Grant loved his. Graham thought he did. And then, about half-way through, he made a funny face and told us he didn't like it. The kids all visited with Santa also - and as soon as I get the photo from the photographer (no personal cameras allowed), I will post it. Unfortunately, we weren't expecting to see Santa. So all the boys look dressed up, while Ellyson is sporting track pants and a hoodie. Haha. Had we planned for it, something would have gone wrong. I was just happy that all the kids stood (or sat) with him, and we could get a photo without me being in it. (The past two years, I had to stand in the picture, holding the twins.)

Hashtag: Bed head

Oh, My Darlin'

Oh, my darlin'
Oh, my darlin' Clementine ...

These boys do love their clementines!

Graham's Curls

So, this before-and-after happened today. Don't worry: what hair is left, still curls. We trimmed both Grant and Graham about a year ago, but it had finally really filled in again. Graham was actually ready to have his hair cut - he stood perfectly still and even leaned into it. Next, Grant's mullet-in-the-making will need to go ...

Christmas Time is Here

Our turkey was barely digested before our Christmas setup began on Friday. The kids put up their tree in our foyer (though they won't leave the ornaments on it). Jack assembled the Christmas train (and after the first 24 hours, the boys are mostly leaving it intact when they play with it). Jack and Carter picked out our very first real Christmas tree. It came to our house on Friday, but still isn't decorated. We're waiting for branches to settle into place, and for the kids to leave the other tree's ornaments alone. We may end up with just lights on it - haha.

Our old 12' tree made its debut in our church sanctuary this week. It looks great there. Far more people can appreciate it at our church, than ever saw it at our house.

Happy Thanksgiving

... from our little turkeys!

I am glad to see Carter's shirt from his first race (four years ago) finally fits. Haha.

Thanksgiving Week Park Trip

The kids at the park on our 75-degree Thanksgiving break day, Monday. It was all fun and games until someone had to go potty ...

Side note, I can see an end in sight. Our playground trips are riddled with logistics of keeping many small children from falling (or jumping) off a ledge and getting hurt. But Grant and Graham are getting better about it. I think in another year, I won't have to worry so much about the specs of a playground. (How many levels up? Are there openings kids could jump through? Are there multiple points of entry? Is it likely the twins will run in opposite directions, forcing me to choose which one I grab first? Is there a bathroom/parking lot/road alongside the playground? ... These are all factors I consider before taking my kids - without an extra adult - to a playground. And so, I happily watch as Graham recognizes dangerous ledges, and Grant ... well ... he still yells for me to catch him about half a second before giving a sneaky look and jumping, so ... )

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Tuesday was our preschool Thanksgiving program and feast. The kids sang some Thanksgiving songs, and my three were semi-participatory.
I did finish Ellyson's dress in time, and it looked so much better than the "shortcut" trainwrecks I tried via Pinterest. It was my first time making sleeves (all our other shirts and dresses to date have been tank tops), and creating a button hole. She looked so cute, I almost didn't feel guilty about the fact that she was supposed to be wearing a solid-color shirt. ;)

Wordless Wednesday

Carter's Thanksgiving Feast

Wednesday was Carter's Thanksgiving feast at school. With the little three at preschool, I was able to go without a stroller. And Nana met us there, too, to Carter's surprise. Two of us didn't finish our meals (though it's actually pretty good), but one of us (Carter) ate all of his turkey and dressing plus half of mine. That kid does love Thanksgiving food!

There's Always Another First

We've all been a little congested lately. Grant and Graham did some breathing treatments, but nothing major. No fevers or anything. Yesterday, I saw Graham tug on his ear a little. Today, his preschool teacher said he was very reserved and whimpered a little during lunch. Remembering his ear tug yesterday, I pulled out our otoscope and looked in his ear. I felt pretty accomplished when I saw the foggy whiteness of an infection.

We loaded back into the van to see the pediatrician. First ear - really infected, with ear drum looking like it might rupture. Second ear (the one I saw into) - already ruptured and draining. So the white stuff I saw was in his ear canal, not behind the ear drum. I feel less accomplished now.

In Carter's three/two (three in one ear and two in the other) sets of tubes, he has never had an ear drum rupture. This was a first for us. But Graham must have an amazing pain threshold, having let out little more than a whimper with all that was going on in his poor ear.

Hopefully he'll be on the mend, now that we have oral antibiotics, antibiotic drops (a staple in our medicine box, thanks to Carter), and ibuprofen without the fear of masking fevers (he hadn't had one, so I waited to give him any, afraid of masking symptoms that might indicate something more serious).

Wordless Wednesday

When Pinterest Fails

How Pinterest says it will look versus how it looks at home ...

I've been working on a Thanksgiving dress for Ellyson. After failing tremendously (two attempts) at converting a t-shirt into a ruffled dress, I scrapped the project. I am working on a Thanksgiving dress, but I'm using a pattern instead of a "shortcut". Hopefully I'll have good-looking pictures to post soon.

Apples

You don't really love apples unless you eat them two at a time.

For the record, Grant and Graham each ate a whole apple to the core this morning.

Sort-Of Wordless Wednesday

Saturday morning, we had a family portrait session. Not just our family - Jack's whole family - his parents and brother's family, too. For his parents' 40th wedding anniversary this month, we had whole-family pictures taken. It was freezing. Literally. The wind was the worst ... and the wind chill hovered around 30 degrees. Ellyson and Carter were troopers (especially Ellyson), teeth chattering through smiles. When the cameras weren't on the kids, we were wrapping them up to warm them. I love this one, of Jack warming Ellyson between shots.

Testing

So, this kid made the list to be tested for the gifted program at his school. I mean, is anyone surprised? I bit my tongue last year as friends posted announcements that their precious kindergarteners had been marked as gifted. Our elementary school doesn't look at anyone until after the first standardized test, which is the CogAT, given in September of first grade. Carter scored well above average in math, and scored a 97th percentile in verbal. If you've been out of the standardized testing world for a while, that means he did better than 97% of kids his age. This doesn't seem to be a fluke, as he's been reading circles around his classes since they introduced phonics in pre-k.

He still has to pass another standardized test as the "entrance" exam for gifted, but hopefully those scores will support the CogAT, and what we all knew already.

Trick or Treat!

Friday was the first time we've trick-or-treated in our own neighborhood. Our old neighborhood didn't really participate, so we'd always gone to my dad's neighborhood.

This year, my sister who lives near us came over (she usually comes along at Dad's). The kids coerced her into reading Pete the Cat, and then we all trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. After that (it only took about 20 minutes), Jack brought the little two back to our house (where they watched movies), and my sister and I took the big two ... along with the parents and four elementary-aged boys from our neighborhood, and walked to the neighborhood next to ours.

The boys had lots of fun and were pretty well behaved. Both of our kids ran into kids they know from school. And we were treated to fog machines, animatronic spiders, glow bracelets, more candy than Ellyson could carry ... and even a magic show. With all that action, I still had them back home by 8:15. Which was good, because we had a family portrait session scheduled bright and early the next morning.

Trick or Treat!

I think Graham has the hang of trick-or-treating. I left the pantry door open. He took Ellyson's Dorothy basket, and is loading our to-be-handed-out candy into it. On the plus side, he is announcing each color as he picks it ...

Wordless Wednesday

Thanksgiving Runner

Over the weekend, I made this table runner for Thanksgiving. I just have to add the turkey details to the kids' handprints on the back side. Ellyson helped me pick the fabric on Friday. I have enough to do a Thanksgiving dress for her also, and she picked some Christmas fabric. Now that I've unpacked my sewing machine, the bug has bitten me again.

Mourning Blacky

Did you know that alpacas mourn? I learned it the sad way. After watching "our" herd, I looked it up. Turns out, they're known to mourn a death within their herd.

Yesterday, Jack and Carter were in the backyard and Carter noted that Blacky (he and Ellyson have named several of the alpacas) was napping under a tree beside our fence. Jack thought he'd been there hours prior, too. Sure enough, the only movement coming from Blacky, was from the flies.

This morning, he's still there. At first, just one alpaca (Scarlett - the one C&E consider to be Blacky's mom, funny enough) was pacing nearby and watching me. An hour later, I watched from the window as she knelt down and seemed to be rocking alongside his body, with one other alpaca beside her. Another hour or so passed, and most of the herd had joined them. Scarlett still appeared to be the protector, hovering over Blacky's body (video embedded).

A few more hours have passed now, and most of the herd has returned to grazing. But there's always one (they're taking turns; currently it's Whitey) watching over his body. It's really been interesting to see the animals react like this.

Pete the Pumpkin

Carter had to do a "main character" book report and pumpkin character. He chose Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. Jack and I helped with the hot glue and cutting the cardboard, but Carter did most of the work. His little brothers were pretty excited to see Pete! Hopefully we'll be able to sneak it past them, out of the house.

Hulk Smash

Halloween Party

Saturday was my Mother of Multiples group fall/Halloween party. Carter's costume hasn't arrived yet (I had to order it), and the kids were playing on a bounce house and a playground, so we opted to wear alternate costumes. Grant and Graham wore last year's costumes; Carter wore an Ironman he uses for dress-up; Ellyson wore a dress-up Cinderella dress.

Carter took his role very seriously.

Dorothy

Finished Ellyson's Halloween costume! Probably wasn't worth the $5 I saved versus buying it already made - but I made it.