Christmas pre-party

I like to stretch Christmas over roughly a month.  We got some presents in the mail the beginning of the month and much to the husband's dismay, I thought the kids should open them.  They did and he even had fun.

My parents sent a package with my brother and his wife when they came to visit recently.  And I decided they should open those, too.  Mostly because I wanted the house clean and I could use the presents as bribery. 

Yes, I bribe my kids.  Don't hate me.

This guy was very excited about STANDING on his present.

When he opened it, he was even more excited about it.  What boy doesn't like a TRUCK.

Grandma with the white fridge really knows hot to make girls happy.

HOT ROLLERS!

So does Aunt Alisha (the other Aunt Melisha) and her kids with their little box of fun. 

Grace is conservative.

Calla gets a little of everything.

Violet needed some more.

Carsten put his pockets to good use. 

This morning we busted out the curlers.  The girls have so much fun with them at grandma's house that grandma thought the girls needed their own set.  They were so excited that what was ON the box was actually IN the box!

And they are so cute!

Grace's hair even curled this time.  HUGE success there!

I may have taken advantage of the curlers to see what I could do to improve the hair situation I was faced with.  And I think it was successful.  Even kind of fun. 

Only one person in that photo who is in obvious need of a nap.  But we got her earlier, so here she is:

Good times!  Cute kids!  Great hair!  Awesome Christmas!  And that's just the beginning!

The table full of awesome

Because we moved and pulled the older girls out of the school that they know and love, and we are only leasing a house for now, we felt that homeschooling the kids would make sense.  I hate the idea of starting them in school, again, only to pull them out, again.  It just seems unstable and I don't like unstable.

I had to laugh because when we started telling people we were homeschooling up here, they seemed most worried about my children's social lives.  One particular incident was particularly memorable.  "But what about the social aspect?" she asked.  "Well, I'm pretty anti-social, aren't I?"  I said with a smile.  We both laughed because we both know that I'm kind of the opposite of anti-social.  And being able to pull that off with a laugh was awesome.

In the planning stages of this whole event, I began to realize that my biggest challenge was going to be the 25 pound bulldozer that runs around the house all day, minus a nap.

We call him Carsten.  We love him.  But just so you know, boys are strange creatures.  Constantly running around and tearing things out and throwing them in a pile in the middle of any room he happens to be in, and then stomping on them.  Or jumping off of it.  Or maybe even just leaving it there for his sister to find so she'll burst into tears.

Anyway, he was pegged as my biggest challenge.  And I needed a solution. Something that he couldn't reach or climb on top of.  I decided I needed a bar-height table. 

The husband is pretty handy, so I put the request in with him.  After mulling it over, he thought it would be something he could build for us to make our lives easier.

So he collected the necessary lumber and other supplies, and the necessary helpers.

He found his necessary tools in the pile of boxes and crap out in the shop, and went to work.

The farther they got into the project, the more hope I had.

Carsten took it upon himself to constantly move the tape measures around.  There were two of them, but did dad EVER have one within reach when he went to reach for one?  My money is on "no."

Our 10' long counter top with a lovely lip on the back so stuff doesn't fall behind it and get lost forever.  Huge bonus there.

And did I mention that it's TEN FEET LONG???   I'm pretty excited about that.

"You are really taking my picture?  Don't do that."  But he's so cute!

And he will sword fight with the 25 pound bulldozer that comes at him with an empty paper towel roll stuck on his hand! 

For the record, I'm pretty thrifty and prefer function over looks.  I realized the other day that I re-use things ALL THE TIME, as I was cutting the top off a Priority mailing box so my kids could have a place to contain all their papers.  Not pretty (like you see in all those crafty blogs of people who seem to have more time in the day than I do), but it sure is functional!

With that said, isn't this thing GORGEOUS!! 

We stayed up late a couple nights and primed and painted it.  And then Brent screwed a 2x4 to the wall and installed a (very raw) shelf for the computer and the printer. 

I must say, I love the color the kids picked.  And I love that we painted the base with chalkboard paint. 

I think I prefer handing the 25 pound bulldozer a piece of chalk and telling him to write on the table over finding him with a pen/pencil/marker writing on the wall/floor/counter/etc. It's too late for some of those writing utensil/surface combinations, but one can hope.

Look at these happy, beautiful school girls at their awesome table! 

I cannot get them away from this table.  It calls their names in their sleep.  They love this space and it's constantly full of numerous projects and such.  I love that it's the space for just that and nothing else. 

And the functional chalk board should be pretty fun. 

Now, if I can get the bulldozer to cooperate and let me do my part in the homeschooling adventure, I'd have it made.  We're still working on that.  But the table is tall on awesome (haha) and I think we are going to be able to make it through. 

A fun little visit

My brother and his little pregnant wife came and spent the night on the way through.  They got here after bedtime, but since the kids were so excited, we let them stay up for a bit.  They love their uncle Reed and aunt Melissa.

They also have an aunt Alisha.  And I am notorious for getting their names mixed up.  Violet fixed the problem for me though.  She asked when aunt "Melisha" was going to be here.  I laughed.  And then decided to use that name from now on.

We let the kids stay up because they like their uncle Reed and aunt Melissa.  A lot.  To the point that Grace could barely sleep the night before.

Uncle Reed is a lot of fun.

A whole lot of fun.

Did I mention he was fun?

He even won Violet over, eventually.

And aunt Melissa (AKA Melisha), colors and visits with them.  For little girls, that's pretty darn awesome fun.  (And yes, that says Aunt Melisha.)

And then there was a miracle.  Not that we were looking for one.  But what a great photo!

We're all pretty excited about visiting these two in February when they welcome their little bundle skin-side.  Personally, I'm super excited they're having a baby.  They're going to have so much fun!  They want to take the baby camping with us this summer.  That has huge fun potential.

And you better believe I sent them off with a carrier. Because life with a baby and no carrier just is too hard.

Thanks for visiting, you two!!  We'll see you again real soon!

Longing for familiar

This week I'm working on getting our Christmas letter out.  It's always a big deal because I love doing it and making it all fun and fancy.  It even has a theme.  I can't tell you what it is since it isn't out yet. Sorry.  (But not really.)

Anyway, when we moved I kept thinking that my Christmas list was going to get just that much longer now.  Of course it did.  While I was writing little notes on some of them, I started getting all teary from missing everyone.  It's really starting to sink in that I am not surrounded by familiar faces and I'm not going to just go to town and run into four people I know and actually like.  And I'm not going to just call my friend and say sonmething like, "Hey, I'm bringing lunch."  And she says, "Great!  I only have peanut butter anyway." 

Grace has been feeling it, too.  Being eight and having moved and left friends before, she gets it.  At school her class was such a great class.  Just a nice bunch of kids that all seemed to work hard and have fun.  I really like that bunch.  I like their parents, too.

We've been kind of hunkered down and the lonely started to set in.  There was a local homeschool rollerskating activity today and I had considered going.  But then I realized that I would have four kids, two of which would not be very fun to skate with because they are little.  And rollerskating while wearing a baby on my back just doesn't fall into my comfort zone. 

Grace told Brent the other night that she was in a slump--they had been reading "Oh! The Places You'll Go" and asked him what a slump was.  (Today she announed that all she really wanted was a friend.)

I know exactly how she feels.  And for that reason I realized that regardless of the two little ones, I had to get her and Calla out and to the activity.  I needed to go, too.  So yesterday I got us all registered.

Brent came home last night and I told him we were going. He wondered what I was doing with the younger two.  I told him I didn't know but I thought it was really important that we went.

This morning Grace was pretty excited.  I still had no idea how I was going to manage the younger two.  I have a stroller in the car and figured I'd tie one of them in there.  The other was my problem, whichever one that was.

Then I checked my email.  There was a forward from Brent--he had arranged to take a few hours off work to take the two younger ones so I could rollerskate with the two school girls. 

I may have cried.  What an awesome guy.  I hadn't even asked him to do that.  I hadn't even considered it.  He's been at work for maybe four weeks here and he felt it was important enough to arrange to help me out for a few hours. 

He totally made our day.  All of us.  G&C got to go skate with mom and V&C got to go hang out with their dad.

On the way to the rink, we stopped and sent a package and got the mail.  In the mail was a package for Grace from her class.  Her teacher really liked her and they have been sending her packages.  Today she got a Christmas card from each of her classmates along with a little gingerbread house activity and a recipe book.  One of the boys wrote in his card to her, "I miss you.  I will miss you forever."  It totally made me giggle.  The whole thing was just so great.  (Thank you Mrs. B!)  She's sending them all a present for Christmas.  I love it.  She needed that today.

But it gets better.  Grace made a friend.  And Calla made a friend.  Grace's friend lives (get this) A MILE AWAY!  And Calla's friend's mom (get this) is a part of a homeschool network and I am calling her next week to see what it's all about and if I want to be a part of it. 

I'd call that a successful day. 

But it gets better.  About half an hour before the end of the event, Calla was hungry.  Really hungry.  But being the mom that I am, I won't buy her the crap food they sell at the roller rink.  She begins to have a meltdown, but then pulls it together enough to go enjoy the rest of the skating.  (She's pretty good, by the way.)  And then her daddy shows up, WITH BANANAS!!  YAY DAD!!!  The guy was on his game today.  Seriously.  He made our day numerous times, and he had some serious competition.

Then we all dropped dad off at work (with a kiss and a big round of THANK YOUS!) and came home and made an amazing chicken soup. 

Later I got a message from one of my local cyber friends saying she wants to be one of my familiar faces.  I love her already. 

Before we moved, I was telling one of my friends that I really wasn't very excited about moving.  At all.  Her comment was something like, "Well, if you didn't go and make a thousand friends, it wouldn't be so hard."  Well, my friend, here's to not learning from the past.  I love you and I miss you.  I miss all my familiar.  But I'm feeling hopeful that this could become familiar.

Busy