A Christmas message

Here is a special message from the kids. They sing their new favorite Christmas song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Last year is was Jingle Bells, but now they are really partial to Rudolph and Jingle Bell Rock (they think the line "giddyup jingle horse" is hilarious).

This little post is also serving as my christmas greeting for this year. As I said in a previous post, things have been busier than usual this month with the kids in so many activities and myself at school, that an actual mailed letter just didn't happen. If you follow our blog, you know our day to day happenings, so I don't need to go into that. However, I do want to take this opportunity to say how thankful we are that we have such wonderful friends and family surrounding us. It has been a big year of changes with the kids starting preschool and me going back to work, that we just couldn't have adjusted as well as we did without the support of so many people. We have been so blessed to have grandparents that are willing (and want to!) spend so much time with the kids. We also are blessed to have found such a wonderful daycare and preschool (thanks Christy for pointing us in that direction!) that the kids love and are loved in return.

We wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy holiday season. Thanks for taking time to look in on us so often. We hope you'll continue following us in the new year as our three year olds turn into four year olds and continue having wonderful experiences together. Merry Christmas everyone!

December Update

Here are some pictures of them decorating their little trees. They are filled with a variety of ornaments they have made this year at preschool, sunday school and parties. The trees are very full and decorated just how they want them. I actually took these over Thanksgiving weekend, but haven't posted them until now.

I realized the other day that I had been posting a lot of pictures lately, but very little content updates. So, I decided I had better tell some funny stories about the kids and what they've been up to lately before I forget it all!

It has been a very busy month, both for us and the kids. We've had a lot of extra things like concerts, programs and parties. You've read about the multiples club party last week and their program at preschool. This weekend the kids participated in an "impromptu" christmas pageant at church. They were sheep. Their line was "baa." We also went to a holiday open house tonight at their daycare provider, Gina's, house. The kids ate candy and appetizers for dinner and played with their daycare friends while parents chatted. Gina gave each of the kids a present and they were so excited. They are pretty excited for Christmas to come. We've been getting a lot of questions about Santa. Most often are "How does Santa fit into our fireplace when we don't have a chimney?" and "Where is Santa?" We've just answered that Santa is magic and he can make a chimney if we don't have one. That has seemed to appease them. Grace is asking for a tinkerbell puzzle and an angel from Santa. Will still really wants a dinosaur cave, which he is getting from mom and dad and not Santa. Xander wants a black batman to match his Halloween costume. I think they will be pleased with Santa's choices.

They learned a lot in December about baby Jesus and Christmas, mostly from preschool. They have been coming home asking questions like "Where is Bethlehem?" and "Where is heaven and how do we get there?" Grace is positive that "if we get a map, a drink of water and a horse, we can find our way to Bethlehem." Heaven is a little harder to explain. We told them that God takes us there and Will thinks that God needs to fly an airplane to get there.

But, the best question by far came from Will the other day. (I was glad that Brian handled that one, not me.) He asked "Daddy, where does my pee come from?" Brian told him it came from his tummy. That seemed to satify his curiosity, because he hasn't asked again.

Xander is starting to get a little less ornery lately. We've had zero tolerance for hitting and all the other things he does to Will and Grace. He sat in time out a lot at first, but now he's down to once a day or so, which is a huge improvement. He still likes to test us, though. He's been answering "no" a lot when we tell him to do something. He is a stubborn boy!

I think that's about all for now. Check back later this week. I will post a special holiday message from the kids on video and our Christmas letter. I have not had enough time to do anything but plop a picture into an envelope this year. So, I also though I'd go green and put our letter online. Be sure to come back and check it out. Thanks for checking up on us this week!

Multiples Club Gingerbread man party

LAFM holiday party 09

Finally, the holiday party has come and gone. It was great fun but also a ton of work. I was the committe chair for the party and I have been planning it for 2 months. We had over 150 people there, and I think it went as smoothly as it could have. So, here is a photo album of pictures I managed to take while there. There are a lot of people you won't know, but I took some for the club's webpage, so I just uploaded them all. There are a lot of the kids, though.

So you know, it was a gingerbread man themed party. We had gingerbread men and houses for decorations. All the games and crafts were gingerbread men themed (decorating gingerbread cookies, making ornaments, etc.) We had a great Santa, all the kids got to sit on his lap. We had dinner catered by Olive Garden. We were supposed to have the NE high school drama club do a Gingerbread man skit for us, but because of the bad weather they didn't get any rehearsal time, so they didn't come. At the last minute, a mom of triplets who owns a preschool read a gingerbread man book to the kids. It all worked out! It was a nice party, but boy am I glad it's over. I am not planning another party this year! Too much work! Enjoy the pictures!

Preschool program video

So here is the video of their concert. We were sitting kind of far back and they didn't sing very loud, so turn up your volume. The applause is pretty loud, though, when the volume is up, so be warned! You can see Xander bothering Will at the beginning. Stinker! I appreciate Mrs. Thimijan putting them all together. She did that for the two sets of twins, too. I think otherwise they wouldn't have stood by each other. You can tell how much taller Xander is and I would have put him in back, if I had been the teacher in charge. If you can't see it, there is a little baby doll in a manger in front of them, so they sing to it and point to it. Enjoy!

Christmas program at preschool

Here are some pictures from their preschool program on Sunday. Sorry they're so dark. My camera is terrible. If you click on the picture, you can see it larger and you might be able to make out some things.

The program was short but very cute. Xander poked Will the whole time, we were a little embarrassed. I have the video I will post later. They sang songs about baby Jesus. I had been hearing those songs around the house for a month, so it was cute to see them in context. They were a little shy at first and didn't sing much, but got into it by the end. After the program there were photo ops (see 1st and 3rd pics), cookies and crafts. Both sets of grandparents came and I think the kids were really proud of themselves! Afterwards, we drove thru and got a quick dinner, then came home to watch the Husker game.

Baptism

Mom, Dad, Kara, Wes and Sebastian after church.

Kara, Wes and baby Sebastian

This one's a little dark, but here Sebastian is being baptized by Pastor Larry.

The whole family after church.

Kara and Wes with Pastor Larry.

Well, Kara and Wes had Sebastian baptized at Mom and Dad's chruch (First Methodist next to Wesleyan) on Sunday. We ended up going to early service at our church, because Brian and I sang with the adult choir (they sang something from Handel's "Messiah" that Brian and I wanted to sing), then the kids went to part of Sunday school then we ran up to First Methodist for their late service. The kids got to leave during part of the service and do Sunday school at the Methodist church. They pull the kids out during the service after the children's sermon and they do a craft and play a game, then they came back for the baptism. They had fun. They made a little Mary, Joseph and Jesus out of thread spools that are now under their little Christmas trees.

Sebastian was a good boy during church and his baptism. After church, we had our big Thanksgiving lunch with the Hoefs. Eveyrone, kids and adults, took a nap at mom and dad's after lunch. We finally trudged home in the afternoon, feeling tired and full. We fed the kids a little dinner of scrambled eggs and grapes and had movie night, then went to bed early. It was a long day, but everyone had fun.

A happy Thanksgiving

Grandpa Dale playing with Grace
Me feeding a marshmallow to Camden. I think he liked it!

Our family on Thanksgiving Day.

Daddy and his little clone.

Aunt Lisa, Daddy and Will.

Sorry for only a few Thanksgiving pictures. I'm afraid I didn't bring my camera to the Niebuhrs that day. These pictures are courtesy of Ellen, (thanks Ellen!). We had a nice day on Thanksgiving. We ended up doing our share of the baking in the morning and the kids played and watched some of the Thanksgiving parade on TV. We headed to the Niebuhrs around 10:30 and had our Thanksgiving dinner around noon. We got home around 2 and put the kids down for a nap (and boy did they need it!). When the kids woke up, we went to Kara and Wes' for a light dinner. Wes made chili, and we just hung out, played with Sebastian and watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on tv. It was a nice relaxed evening. The rest of the weekend was pretty busy (more on that later), but we had a great Thanksgiving.

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. We have had quite a few things going on lately. I'll give you a quick rundown of our goings-on, then I'll share the kids' latest news.

Since Halloween, we've had all of our usual activities, preschool/daycare, storytime at the library, time at grandparent's house and bells. Brian and I have had some meetings in the evenings, so it's been busy in the evenings. We've also had some extra rehearsals for things happening at church. Our weekends have been filled with church/Sunday school, family time, celebrations for my birthday with both sides of the family and an open house today for Oma's (Gisela) 80th birthday. We've also enjoyed watching all the Husker football games on TV, and Brian and I went to the K-State game on Saturday. The kids stayed with Dale and Ellen, and watched it on TV. The kids tried to look for us, but we were never on TV. :-) We had a play/dinner date with Hannah and Haylea, our 4 year old twin friends, on Friday night. Their mom, Emalea, brought them over so she and I could do some work for the multiples club Christmas party and all the kids played. We ate McDonald's together then the girls left at bedtime. It was fun to play with some friends their age!

The kids were lucky enough to get an H1N1 shot on Friday the 13th. I am so glad about that! We avoided the flu, luckily, and now I don't have to worry about Will getting really sick with it. That is a huge load off. They boys did have small colds about 2 weeks ago, but Will has gotten over it. A couple of days of albuterol is all he needed. Xander never really did get over it. Friday night, he was really congested and back to running a 101 fever. So, I called the doctor Saturday morning and took him in. He has a sinus infection and is on antibiotics. Poor kids seems to get those fairly often. But, he's tons better already today, and after a good night's sleep tonight, he should be even better tomorrow.

Our biggest news is that we had the kids' first parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday the 18th. Mrs. Thimijan was very happy with the kids in preschool. We talked about each one individually, but then spent a lot of time talking about them as a whole. She had a little conversation with each one about what they liked about preschool and what they have learned about Jesus. Xander said "Jesus is nice." True. They all said they liked playing with Jack (their new friend). They are all also getting better at writing their name. Especially Will, his is very legible. Grace just needs to work on her E and she'll have her whole name. Xander is working on his A and N. Mrs. Thimijan also said that they are pretty quiet at the right times, and run and play at the right times. She said they listen very well and even answer questions. They pray and sing a lot and they also participate at those times. They are preparing for a Christmas program at preschool. It will be on December 5th. I hope to post some video of it after it happens. It is sure to be cute. She says they sing and do all the actions. So, overall it was a good report.

We have a funny story about Jack, their new friend from preschool. When we got out of the car at the library on Wednesday and were walking in, Grace said "Mommy, that boy walking backward looks like Jack." Sure enough, it was Jack. He and all the kids followed each other around the library until story time. Then, he came and sat by them at storytime. A little while later, I looked over and Jack had his arm around Grace. He sat like that for most of the time. She apparently didn't mind. It was so cute!!

We have a pretty laid-back Thanksgiving weekend planned. We're having Thanksgiving lunch with the Niebuhrs on Thursday and the Hoefs are doing a big dinner on Sunday after Sebastian's baptism. I'll post pictures early next week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Family Pictures!

Here are some of our favorite pictures from our photo shoot with Curt last month. I just thought I would share them with you, because they were so cute. However, I did not include our Christmas card ones. You'll have to wait to get our christmas card to see the winning snapshots! Enjoy!

Halloween Night

I realized I hadn't posted pictures from Halloween night. Here we are ready to go trick or treating. There is also a picture of us with baby Sebastian at mom and dad's house. Enjoy!

Carving pumpkins

Here we are on Friday night carving our pumpkins. The kids helped this year. They spent their time pulling out the insides and seeds. They thought it was kind of yucky at first, but then were a fair amount of help. They consulted on the look of their pumpkins, then watched as we carved the actual faces. The top two pictures are of our finished products. The top picture is mine (the big one) and Grace's. The second picture is Brian's (the angel/devil), Xander's the mean looking small one and the other is Will's. The pumpkins are still on the front porch and they go out there periodically to admire them. I think they will be sad when I throw them away in a couple of days.

Preschool Clown Party

Here are the pictures from the clown party at preschool. They had to dress up like clowns and they did some clown games and other halloween games. I brought the snacks for the party, they decorated pumpkin sugar cookies with orange frosting. We were lucky enough to scrounge together 3 clown costumes. We already had one in our dress up box, I found Grace's costume and hat at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, and we were able to borrow Will's costume from a family in the multiples club. She also gave us some accessories (Will's hat, Xander's collar) and I found the rest of the accessories at a dollar store. Funny enough, they told me at preschool that Xander wore that nose and glasses all day and Will wore his nose and hat all day. I got to go help with their party, since I was off from school. It was a lot of fun. Myself and 3 other parents helped set up snack, lead the games and help the kids pass out the treats they brought. The kids brought home so much candy! It was neat to be there because I got to meet the teachers and parents I hadn't met before, and see some of the kids they talk about a lot. The boys talk about a boy named Jack a lot. I got to see how they actually do play with him. So, that was fun!

Pumpkin Patch

with daddy on the hayrack ride

Xander in a hay hole. He didn't want to climb up like.....

Will
and Grace
the kids and I on the hayrack ride

sliding down a 40 ft tunnel slide. Loved it!

you can see how long the slide is in this shot

Brian took the day off on Monday and we went to Roca Berry Farm for the morning. The weather was not too bad, sunny, so that was good. It was a little muddy, and we came home with dirty shoes. It wasn't terribly crowded, so it was fun. We did lots of activities, including the big slide, tricycle track, playing on the big hay piles and going through haunted houses. We actually got them to go through two haunted houses. One was for little kids and it wasn't haunted, it had drawings of cartoon characters under black lights. They liked that one. The other one was a haunted castle that was really dark and had strobe lights and a moving room. It freaked Grace out a little bit, but no one cried or screamed. Will even kind of liked it!

We have been enjoying a bit of a change of schedule this week. It is fall break for LPS, so both my mom and I don't have to work. Grandma Pam picked them up from preschool on Tuesday and had lunch with them, just for a little extra quality time. So, I got some work and errands done. Today (wednesday) they went to Grandma Ellen's as usual, but the unusual part was that they had a little Halloween party with Carter and Camden, too. Dale and Ellen are going to be out of town on Halloween, so they wanted to see them in costume and play a little bit. (I will post pictures of them when Ellen gives them to me.) They played some games, ate "mummies" for dinner (hot dogs in crescent rolls), decorated pumpkin cookies and trick or treated to some forewarned neighbors. Will is coughing a lot from whatever he has that is triggering his asthma, and all the excitement tonight didn't help.

Some great comments/conversations overheard this week:

On the way to the pumpkin patch on a dirt road:

Will: What is wrong with this road? It's bumpy. They need to put cement on it. Someone with a cement truck needs to come put cement on it.

Spoken like a true city kid.

On the way home from the pumpkin patch:

Will: I want to turn my pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.

Me: I'll bet daddy will help you carve it on Saturday.

Will: What does carve it mean?

Me: You can cut it up to turn it into a jack-o-lantern.

Will (whining): I don't want to cut it up. I just want to turn it into a jack-o-lantern. Xander, can I have your magic wand?

Xander: What do you need to magic wand for?

Will: To turn my pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.

After seeing the firefighters at the library last week:

Will: Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a firefighter!

Grace: What can I be when I grow up? I know, I want to be a princess!

Me: Grace, do you want to be something like a doctor?

Will: No, doctors are boys.

Me: Girls can be doctors.

Will: They can? Oh. Grace, you can be a nurse. Nurses are for girls.

Me: Will, did you know boys can be nurses?

Will: They can? Oh.

We need to get Will some exposure to female doctors and male nurses.

Xander, while falling asleep in bed:

Xander: Mommy?

Me: What sweetie?

Xander: Can I have some money?

Me: What do you need money for?

Xander: My piggy bank. Just to put it in there.

He is so like his father more and more! He just wants the money in his possession to hoard, not spend, just keep!