The Mom

I copied this directly off of my friend's blog because I loved it.

Mom is the one who . . .
. . . opens the windows to let in the light.
. . . eats the broken graham crackers.
. . . makes a sandwich for herself out of the heels of the bread.
. . . has a coat for every child, but forgets one for herself.
. . . knows where the clean socks are.
. . . runs towards a sick child, not away from the sick child.
. . . hears you cough in the middle of the night.

My Christmas Projects

We had a really tough time coming up with an idea for what to give the doctors at Chad's work. Finally 6 days before Christmas I came up with the idea to make them wreaths. Now this wasn't an entirely brilliant plan because I'd never made a wreath before. But several hours at the craft store (I Heart Hobby Lobby) and a couple hours at home, and VOILA!! this is what I came up with.

This one has two little mittens with snowflakes on them, so the big white snowflake really does fit in.

You can't see it, but there is a little bird (not a real one) in a nest on the lower right side. It was really cute.

Christmas, New Years, and Sledding

Christmas was great. We all shared some kind of stomach bug that week, so we weren't sure how things were going to go, but by Christmas we were doing okay. We did the Nativity story with the kids on Christmas Eve. Caleb and Natalie were Joseph and Mary. Claire was a shepherd. The Wise Men were played by the kids' dolls. The gifts were gold (a penny), frankincense (a tip to a nasal aspirator), and myrrh (and Italian bud vase). It was so fun.

For New Years we had some of Chad's family over to eat good food and play fun games. We played Uno Attack (or whatever its called) and that was really fun. We also played Yahtzee Free-for-All. Now Yahtzee is one of my most favorite games to play (probably because its one of the few games that I can beat Chad at every once in a while). Yahtzee Free-for-All wasn't at all what I expected it to be.... I expected everyone has their own set of dice and everyone plays at the same time and the first person done gets extra points and then the person with the hightest score wins. Thats not it at all, but it was fun. Chad thinks he likes it better than the original, but I think he just said that because he beat me.

The Saturday after New Years we got about 6 inches of snow. It was very exciting. We decided to take the kids sledding. Claire wasn't really into it, mostly because it was interrupting her nap time, but Caleb and Natalie had a great time. They want to go again this weekend, but that probably won't happen unless we get more snow. But maybe!

Claire's Birthday

On Dec. 21st Claire turned 1. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone. She has been so much fun. Here are a few things about her. She loves to smile for a camera. If you hold a camera up, she'll smile. She loves to laugh at her big brother and sometimes her big sister. Claire is quite the dare-devil. Her favorite place to play is the stairs, which really makes me nervous much of the time, but she hasn't taken a spill yet. She copies sounds and motions made by her older siblings. She loves to eat, and she will eat almost anything. She has decided lately to throw fits when she doesn't get what she wants, and boy can she throw a fit! She isn't walking yet but is getting more confident every day, so it won't be long. She's tall (97th percentile for height) and skinny (10th percentile for weight), and I suspect she will pass both of her older siblings in height eventually. And she's absolutely adorable, but I'm probably biased. Her first word was "kitty!"

Her cake was really fun to make. Its the Baby Einstein caterpillar.

She loved the cupcake we gave her.