Let Me Sum Up

Let's take the whirlwind tour of November and December shall we? The 1st was Brandon's birthday and we celebrated in our usual way. Dinner of his choice and apple pie. He's more of a pie man than a cake man. 

The finishing touch to Parker and Andrew's Halloween costumes finally came in the mail.  And while they were too late for the holiday, they were still one of the best purchases I've ever made. They'll still be around for next year, and I don't think the boys took them off for all of November except to sleep and bathe. They still wear them a lot of the time. Paige and Claire even got in on the fun by making these crowns to complete the character set.  "P" for Peach and "D" for Daisy.

Noah decided that being upright was more fun than crawling and of course the other kids love to help him practice his walking. He's still not quite there on his own yet, but it won't be long. We've seen him take a cautious step here or there. He's gotten to where he only needs something to hold on to for comfort's sake and he likes to go fast. When he does take off on his own, I think he's going to go right into a run.

 Brandon's folks came for a visit and of course we had a lot of fun.

Brandon and his mom share the same birthday month so we celebrated again.  Chocolate mousse cake this time. MMmmmmm.

We also made sure to launch some rockets in the field behind our house. One of our all-time favorite family activities.

The boys decided that they prefer "straight" hair over the "spiky" look that I usually give them on Sundays.  I like to think of this look as the "Wall Street."  Have you ever seen a more handsome pair of boys?!

I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving because it was one of those days that was more fun to just enjoy than try to make photo-worthy moments out of. We had a quiet dinner at home with just us. We did go all out with our dinner and I enjoyed spending most of the morning cooking away. When meal time came I broke out my gold-colored silverware, something my Grandma Karpowitz always did for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's funny how exciting little touches like that are for the kids. They went on and on about "solid gold forks!" for the whole weekend. I wish boys! I wish! We all dressed up nicely for dinner and went around the table saying what we were each thankful for. We made a game out of it by having to repeat what each person had said before us and in the end it got silly and fun. When dinner was over we put our jammies right back on and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening being lazy and eating pie. Lots of pie.

Emma Lee. What a girl, this one. She is becoming more and more a Daddy's girl every day. She also picked up a funny way of identifying the time of day. When it's light out she'll say, "Oh! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!" and when it's dark, "Mom, it's too late!"

At the beginning of December she decided to be a big girl and go on the potty. I was thinking that she was the easiest of them all.  The day that she really decided to be serious about it she got right down to business and didn't have a single accident.  After several days of wearing big girl undies and going on the potty we took her to pick out a "potty prize." Apparently this all lost it's lustre because this week we're back in diapers. This is why I hate potty training two year olds. But we'll be patient and I'm sure it won't be long before she decides to ditch the diapers for good. She'll just about change her own diaper to avoid sitting in anything too long, so hopefully she's not getting too comfortable in them again.

This shot was from a family movie night. I had set out all these pillows to make a comfy spot for myself on the floor, but while I was busy making popcorn it was commandeered by these two. They looked so sweet I didn't have the heart to make them move!

We decorated the Christmas tree, of course and Emma was thrilled to be the one to put the star on top. Sort of.  ;) Sadly I don't have any more pics from the event because I was too busy keeping the kids in ornaments ready to put on the tree. We had a fun surprise this year and Grandma Karpowitz sent us her olive wood ornaments from Jerusalem! We were so excited as we've tried to keep our decorations and celebrations centered on the Savior and that added a fun and beautiful touch to our tree.

The kids insisted that we keep up with the tradition of gingerbread houses. To keep it real, I don't make my own gingerbread. We buy the kit that comes with 4 small houses as that is the perfect number for us since Emma would rather eat the candy than decorate with it anyway. In fact, despite all my warnings of dust and bugs, I don't think these poor little gingerbread houses had any candy left on them by the time December was over.

I'm going to save Christmas for it's own post, but to finish off this one, here's where I found my silly goose one day when all had gone quiet. I looked and looked and called and called and she stayed right where she was, with the door shut I might add, until I found her.

 And then Paige had to prove that she could still fit too.