january extras

here are a few random pictures that didn't find a blog home this month

my children think they are pirates

i don't know where this fetish came from

but i have to admit that it is rubbing off a bit on j and i

step lively, girls

arrrrrgh, matey!

and

walk the plank!

are just a few of the latest phrases we've been tossing around ;)

the performances have been plentiful this month

lots of singing, musical instruments, dancing, and even a FROZEN puppet show

we're proud to say that we know all the words to every song on that soundtrack

i know...i know...what a bunch of geeks

but we've been stuck inside with this miserable cold weather so we've resorted to lots of living room dance parties to keep ourselves busy

one day daddy got wild and gave the girls rambo headbands that he found in my scarf drawer :)

this one just keeps getting better

her nights are getting longer and it takes very little to put a smile on those rosebud lips

finally, no month would be complete without lots of sister snuggles

and sisters fighting...

and sisters sharing the flu...

and pink eye...

and ear infections....

although i really don't want to remember the day that they were all puking simultaneously for 12 hours...i do kind of wish that i had a picture of it just because i can't hardly believe that we survived such an ordeal. but, alas, i was not in the picture-taking frame of mind that day and the following gems are much more fun to look at anyway...

and by the way...we're still hanging on to Christmas

or maybe Christmas is still hanging on to us

mostly its the fact that we are too lazy to strap the tree to the vehicle and haul it out to the compost pile

so it is still sitting on the deck, providing a safe haven for the squirrels and birds and shining a little cheer into these bitter january nights

here's hoping for a february warm up

word on the street is that we might have temperatures high enough to get these little rascals outside to make a snowman tomorrow

i'll take it!

here comes the brrrrr

word on the street is that the polar vortex is swingin' back our direction

 so we drank in the last of daylight with a bit of sledding, snow painting and just hangin' around in the swing :)

these goofy little owl hats were compliments of grandma

delicious mouthfuls of white fluff compliments of mother nature

a few deep breaths of fresh air before we shut ourselves in again

i'm seeing lots of crafts, go fish and old maid on our horizon...

but i don't mind it too much

when i'm cuddled in snug as a bug with these knuckleheads, i'll be honest - there are moments when the term "suffocation" comes to mind

but mostly its cozy :)

january heat wave

we went from nearly fifty below windchills and the governor calling off school for the entire state

to

thirty six degrees and sunny all in the matter of one week

if you live round these parts, you don't need me to tell you that it felt like we had arrived in the bahamas...or like the bahamas had arrived to us

we scampered to the closet and pulled out every waterproof item we own and hit the sledding hill

it was little miss susie sunshine's first time in a sled and the look on her face says it all

she dove right in, not even flinching when the dog kicked up snow in her eyelashes

this little fashionista got a new winter hat as her melon outgrew the old one

she's loving the new look and will proudly model for friends and strangers alike

even as i type, the temperatures are dropping again

and my students are one hundred percent positive that we're going to have another snow day soon

brrrrr...glad we got out when we did!

2013...its a wrap

so....here i am wanting to post something lovely about our christmas festivities and saying "good-bye" to 2013

but all i have are a handful of random shots that really don't feel all that magical

and i'm wanting to kick myself for taking so few pictures of my kids

but that leaves me kicking myself for already breaking my new year's resolution to give myself some grace for all the things i'm not doing

which leads me to kicking myself for what I AM doing....

it's a vicious cycle

so instead of all that, i'm just poppin' in with not a lot to say and a few pictures to prove that we actually celebrated the holidays in 2013 and had some fun while we were at it.

we started the month with our annual north pole party

i decided to scale it back a bit this year and just invite the neighbor kids

the littles drank milk and ate cookies until the christmas police had to put an end to their sugar intake...

we made our yearly gigantic mess while mixing up reindeer food and j read the "night before Christmas"...flashlight style

...then finished off the night with kazoo lips and santa beards

now, if that doesn't put the merry in your Christmas, i just don't know what will

we had our fill of coloring and a few other Christmas crafts

it started out lovely

with lights and christmas music in the background

hot cocoa on the stove and everyone feeling festive

 Tulip's first round of "jingle bells" was sweet

the second round, even sweeter

the third time around the block, i was still smilin'

...and then we reached round 56...

at which point the Christmas police made another appearance, asking miss T if there were any other holiday tunes she knew

you guessed it - nope...just an entire month of that one song

geesh - i should have recorded it.  i know some day i'll want to hear her little voice belting out about a one horse open sleigh, but if i'm really honest with myself, i'm absolutely fine with the fact that christmas music is 11 long months away

you know who got to help out at a co-workers holiday get together by playing the part of old saint nick....

it was too funny not to snap a picture

santa....i know him!

the remainder of the month was spent with grandpas and grandmas and aunts and uncles and little cousins and little sleep

Grandma T must have been a good girl because she got a visit from twinkle's friend, henry, the day before Christmas!

my children opened a gaggle of presents, ate mountains of cookies and stayed up waaaaay too late

at the end of it all, j and i are thinking that we need a vacation from christmas vacation :)

i truly wish i had the energy and the time to sit and reflect on all the goodness of 2013

i'd love to post all my best pictures from the year and ponder all the memories....

but the reality is that i've still got 4 stacks of tests that i need to correct by thursday morning for my 8th graders.

so.....

with that in mind i'll wrap it up by saying this:

2013 was a blessed year

for many reasons

but far and away

this was the best thing that happened to us this year:

and if you know her even one little smidge then i don't need to tell you why

just when i thought life was really getting good

this one snuck in and brought the joy meter up another hundred notches

i'm a little rounder, a little sleepier and a little more forgetful thanks to her

but this year will go down as one of our best simply because it was the year we met sparkle
the year we became 5
the year we found out that three girls is infinitely awesome 

2013....it's a wrap

i caved

i caved.

i let my kids open their presents 10 days early.

but i have good reason....

let me explain

peach and i had wrapped ourselves silly earlier this week and everything was carefully placed under the tree

i was really diggin' how festive it looked, but i seriously could not wait for the girls to open their gifts

and then i started thinking about how we would do the whole Santa thing next weekend

and then after that we'd have Christmas with my parents, my grandparents, J's parents, and his extended family

and all of that was SURE to be gift overload...so why not let them open our gifts early so they could have a WHOLE week to play with them before leaving to see family?

made perfect sense to me

i made my pitch to J, who just smiled and said..."it's not the kids i have to worry about...it's you!"

and i just smiled back....because, when you're guilty, well, what can you say?  but a smile gets you miles in this house (just ask our middle child how that works) and after i pointed out that they were wearing their matching Christmas jammies, which would be PERFECT for pictures, he consented

i don't know what comes over me at Christmas-time

for goodness sakes - i have gone 10 MONTHS with each of my babies, waiting until the very last minute to know the gender and not choosing their names until i met them and had time to get to know them

i savored the waiting, thinking it was soooooo wonderful

so, how is it that i can't wait 10 DAYS at Christmas?!

there's just something about giving a good gift - one that i KNOW is going to send the joy-meter through the roof...i get all crazy with anticipation

anywhoos....

the winning gift was a piano (kate, i hope you're reading!) which will probably drive me crazy by tuesday, but for now it's fun

peach also loved a check up center for her pets

and j spent the morning building homes for squinkies with the huge set of lincoln logs that i got for $3 at a garage sale this summer

i must have been good this year because i got this sweet hand warmer mug that i've had my eye on for quite some time

and the fact that i get to use it an extra week is more justification for why i was oh so right to declare an early Christmas in this house

for all of you out there who have heaps more self-discipline than I....my hat goes off to you

i'll be sippin' coffee and listening to my littles perform concerts this week while you savor the waiting.

i think it's a win.win situation either way

Merry Christmas!