Happy New Year

We had a nice New Years Eve this year.  We had our normal appetizer dinner by candlelight...which the boys think is the most amazing thing ever.  And then we had a little family dance party and game playing.  After those festivities we put Nora and Ben to bed.  We let Isaac stay up this year.

After the younger kids were settled in bed the Van Shaar family came over and played games until about 10:30 or 11.  Jacob wasn't feeling great so we didn't want to stay up all the way to midnight.  I think Isaac would have liked it though.

New Years day we played games with our little family.  It's fun to see Isaac getting old enough to really enjoy them and Ben tries.  Usually about half way through he says "I'm done."  But they do both like playing the more age appropriate games.

Ben started Sunbeams this year.  I almost cried watching him in primary.  He just seems so little still.  He is certainly the youngest of the bunch!  He had a great time and has done really well.  And guess what!?  He went fully potty trained.  He's done such a good job with toilet training.  It took some convincing to get things started but once he put the underwear on he was great.

Later that Sunday night Ben pulled out one of our annual thankful books and started telling Nora all about the pictures.  It was truly adorable.  Love this little family of mine.

And once I started taking pictures Isaac wanted in on the action too.

Jacob read the boys the Dr Suess Oobleck story.  So while he was reading I made some oobleck of our own and let the kids experiment with it.  It was so funny watching them because Ben, the normally no mess kid, dived right in and it took some persuasion to get Isaac, the normally VERY messy kid, to touch it.

We also celebrated Jacob's Birthday.  He asked for a new shop vac.  The boys think it's the coolest and wouldn't stop playing with the hoses.

Jacob asked for a white cake with fresh raspberry frosting.  It was yummy, but made for a little bit of a girly looking cake.  He didn't mind.

I'm sure grateful for this man.  He is a good father and a great husband.  Pretty much perfect for me.  

Nora is 5 months

Cute Nora is 5 months old!  She is so big.  She is mostly wearing 6-9 month clothes and she rolls and scoots all over the place.  She is one mobile baby.  I wasn't quite ready for it.

She is so smiley and happy (most of the time).

She loves her brothers and hates being left alone.  She wants to be in the thick of the action all the time.

She is sitting pretty much independently.  I still put a pillow behind her just for those occasional topples.  Mostly I think she does it on purpose because she wants to crawl to something.  She does this sort of push with her feet pull with her arms crawl.  She's getting pretty fast at it.

I love her wide eyes and her cuddly disposition.  She likes being held and hugged close.  She especially likes that when she is cranky at night.  She is capable of sleeping through but she wakes sometimes I think because of teething pain...who really knows though.

She loves her feet and still loves chewing on fabric and fingers.  She also still spits up A TON.  We started her on cereal because her doctor thought that might help with the spit up...not so much.  But I do think it's helped with sleeping through the night.

I sure love watching her move.  I really could just sit and watch for ever.  She does get frustrated though and will start to cry when she can't quite get what she wants or she crawls there just to push it out of her reach again.

And sometimes she does try and get on her knees from this position too.  She is one busy, happy, adorable chunk of a babe!

Love you Nora!

Christmas!

These first two photos weren't really about Christmas, just Isaac showing off that he is 5 years old.  And adorable.

I had two eager helpers the day before Christmas.  We made spritz cookies for Santa.  It's our tradition.

Nora was a less willing helper.  She woke early from a nap and was cranky.  I had to stop cookie production to hold her for a while until she settled back down.

And of course we had to periodically check the Santa tracker to find out where he was currently delivering packages.

Christmas Eve we spent at Sarah and Kevin's house.  She made a delicious ham dinner and the kids acted out the Nativity.  It was so cute.  Perhaps not terribly reverent, but adorable just the same.

Our baby Jesus looks a little like Santa...hmm....we made it work.

And our angel flew high to share the good tidings with the shepherds.

And later on our wise men traveled from afar.

Riley was a willing model for practicing my camera skills.  She's cute.  She kept making these close mouthed smiles until I asked her if she ever showed her teeth.  She laughed.

We also heard the traditional "Magic Curtain" from Jacob.  The kids were loving it.  

And when we got home for Aunt Sarah's house the boys got to open their Christmas PJs.

They were a hit.  Star Wars for Isaac and Spider Man for Ben.  Poor third child Nora just got changed into her hand me down Christmas pjs from relatives.

She didn't seem to mind.  I think she was just happy to be a part of the action.

Isaac, Ben and Dad set out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer while I put Nora to sleep.

Ben LOVED this playdough set that was given by his cousins earlier that night.  He kept wanting to open it and play with it but it was bed time.

And after kids were tucked in Santa arrived.

Then came Christmas morning goodness!  We usually let the kids check out their stockings and open their few gifts from Santa before pausing for breakfast.  This year Santa brought games and books.

New water bottles in their stockings.

And these light up bands were also in their stockings and were a huge hit.  I think Ben said it was his favorite gift of Christmas.

Nora also had fun exploring the stocking.

And then she got help from a more than willing big brother.

I know this picture isn't great but I love seeing her reach for the corner of the paper to open her gift.

Nora tested out all her new toys (and wrapping paper) the way babies do...

The big gift from us this year were razor scooters.

They even got to try them out inside for a few days.  That ended quickly when the started riding too close to their sister and one of them accidentally dropped the scooter handle on her head.  Poor Nora.  She was fine but the scooters quickly found a home in the garage to be used on warmer days.

Isaac probably liked his K'Nex the best of all.  And I think Jacob liked them best too.

And then, finally it was time to play with the playdough!

Brunson grandparents gifted the fun marble run.  The boys love it too.  Actually, they love all the gifts they got this year.  There weren't any misses.  Good job Santa, parents and grandparents!

We had a wonderful day full of family, playing games, eating treats and enjoyed it thoroughly!