Many things but also really nothing

Last night was the Women’s Christmas Tea at church, and Sola Gratia sang for it.  We also had our regular rehearsal afterward – a long (but lovely) night of singing!

Unlike our usual Thursdays when I can wander out of the house in whatever I happen to be wearing with no makeup and my hair a mess, I actually had to look presentable.  I do that so infrequently I forgot how hard it is.  :)

A little snuggle with my James before I headed out the door:

You can see in the pic above that the lights at the top of the tree have gone out.  :(

I’ve done something to my neck/upper back so I’m kind of miserable.  Matt rubbed it for me last night but I still woke up hurting.  I took some meds this morning and am functional, thank goodness.  I dropped Joanna off in the car this morning, and we’ll pick her up the same way this afternoon!  I think the walk might feel good, but carrying a person on my person would be a bad idea.

I would absolutely put the grumpy children down for a nap right now if it weren’t for 1:50 Kindergarten pick-up.  I’m not sure if I mentioned this once or twice or nineteen times, but I HATE 1:50 PICK-UP.  I think it might just top the list of “reasons to homeschool.”  :)

I know.  I’m being dramatic.

Moving on…

When we got the new television, I organized our entertainment center and went ahead and took out our DVD/VCR combo.  The DVD player had long since stopped working, and we pretty much never watch tapes, so all we were using it for was the clock.  And that seemed silly.  But it did make me totally crazy not to have a clock in the living room, so I stuck an old alarm clock in there yesterday.  It was perfect!  I of course made sure the alarms were off, but I discovered at 12:15am that the clock doesn’t care whether you have turned off the alarms.  It’s going to beep anyway.  Needless to say, I’m looking for a new solution for telling time in the living room.  :)

Since I’ve decided to do a Christmas card this year, I’m working on getting some pics of the kids (and maybe all of us?) to use.  I did a little playing with it this morning, and so far I like what I’m seeing!  Hopefully I can actually carry this project through.  :)

And now, I have picked up Joanna, put the big kids down for a rest, and am now ready to watch a little TV on Hulu with my tiny pal Laura.  Later I’ll have to post the pictures of James I took with my little camera while I was in the car line.  I needed something to entertain myself!

Thursday Morning

James slept in a little this morning (hallelujah!), and was quite chipper when I went in to get him.  He said to me “Thomas train, shirt.”  I looked at his shirt, which had a doggie on it, and probably looked at him skeptically.  Then he looked in his shirt and said it again with a laugh.  Sure enough, Thomas the train was in the little pouch created from his tucked-in jammie shirt.  He was so tickled with it, and it stayed in until it was time to take Joanna to school.  :)

It was much chillier than my Houston children are used to, so I left the jammies on Natalie and James then put another layer of clothes on top for the walk to school.  James got to wear his new blue cashmere hat that Gran made him.  No hand-me-down pink hats for this boy! 

I of course didn’t get a picture of any of this in my frenzy, but let’s see if you can get an appropriate mental image:  I put Laura in her car seat in the stroller (thinking she might nap) and Ray rode in the other seat.  I put James in the Ergo (LOVE that thing!!) on my back.  Natalie and Joanna walked.  It seems Natalie walks faster in the afternoons, FYI.  She wasn’t quite awake or something this morning; I kind of had to pull her along.  I ended up carrying her/propping her on the stroller for the last leg of the trip.  And it turns out I was seen by people I know.  :)  Someone should take a picture – I’m sure it is quite a sight!

The most, let’s say trying thing about wearing James on my back is not his weight (the Ergo is AWESOME!) but oh my the talking in my ear!  I really do love it, but oh boy!  He points out every car and other interesting thing, and of course he likes me to respond to him.  I just love that boy.  Anyway, on the way home he kept making this noise, like “eh eh eeehhh eh.”  I asked him what he was doing (it was almost but not quite a pain kind of noise), and he said “talk car.”  After a few minutes I figured out he really was talking to the cars!  He is just so amazing.

A New TV, and other things

Matt and I bit the bullet last week and bought a new TV.  I’m not sure what the last television Matt bought was, but the last one I bought was a 13 inch in 1994.  I was in the seventh grade and I bought it for my bedroom.  :) 

The last couple of televisions we had were handed down to us (wahoo!), but it felt like time to upgrade to something that did not weigh a ton.  That was pretty much my requirement: that it not weigh a ton.  :) 

I was very happy to discover today when we hooked it up that not only does it not weigh a ton, it has a built in tuner.  This bad boy has found all the antenna channels, and the picture is SO GOOD.  I’m watching “live” television and it’s beautiful! 

And now, for a post full of pictures that have nothing to do with each other.

My uncle John came into town for Thanksgiving, and we all gathered at my grandma’s on Saturday night.  We had family time and spaghetti and tacos and ice cream.  It was so lovely!  All I managed to take pictures of though were my children zoned in on the iPad.  :)

When I pull out my camera, James asks me to take his picture.  I love that!

I love the drama too.

Last week we also bought a new little pocket camera.  (Merry Christmas to us!)  Even though I LOVE taking pictures with my big beautiful DSLR, and everything else pretty much makes me sad, I also really miss have a camera in my purse all the time. 

I took this one today of my sweet Natalie in the car.  I really thought she was asleep, but she wasn’t.  Look at that pouty face!

These were from last week…

He’s letting her give him a ponytail.  :)

It’s like a live Barbie doll!

Poor kid.

Christmas is Coming!

Because Christmas is always on the same date but Thanksgiving is not, the time in between the two is variable from year to year.  This year it’s a little on the long side, which is nice!  We started pulling down our Christmas decorations on Friday, and it feels good to have the house all festive!

James has found his absolute favorite ornaments.  In fact, one is in the car right now.  He carries them around and we just can’t keep them on the tree.  :)

I told him to turn them around so I could see them, but he turned himself around instead.  He’s so funny.  They’re race cars, if you can’t tell from the back.  He calls them “beautiful cars.”  I love him so much!

Good times!

I tried very hard to get the house in shape before we brought down extra stuff from the attic, so it wouldn’t feel overwhelming.  I did a pretty good job, I think.  The house sure isn’t clean, but it’s not too crazy right now.  :)  I put away a few toys and tried to streamline some other clutter.  We got most of our decking of the halls done yesterday and hope to be finished today.  I want to get the empty tubs out of my living room at least.  :)  I don’t put up a ton of stuff, but there are a few things I just love to look at this time of year.  Maybe I’ll do a post on my Christmas décor at some point.  There are so many cute DIY things on Pinterest that someday I think I’ll go all out decorating.  And someday=no toddlers in the house.  :) 

Along those lines, Matt’s dad has been helping Second Baptist Church set up their train displays, so we stopped by there today to take look!

Sweet Natalie posing by the tools:

James was IN HEAVEN!

He kept saying “here is comes!” as the trains went around and around.

So happy!

Aunt Mindy was there too, so the children were able to deliver their handmade birthday cards – yay!

While we there with all those pretty trees I had Mindy take our family picture. 

This was the best one, and I like it!

It is HARD to get three children (and two adults) looking at the camera at the same time.  Thanks Mindy!

Thanksgiving Day!

We went to Matt’s brother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was lovely!  Matt and the girls walked down with a wagonload of rolls and a pie, and I waited for James to wake up from his nap.  Then he and I came on down.  It’s nice to get to walk to Thanksgiving dinner!

Natalie is snuggling her cousin Kurt and Aunt Mindy.  We sure do love our family!

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of those cute feet.

James loves babies!!  He loved “playing” with baby Brooke.

I love this look on his face.  :)

Snuggling with Aunt Missy, watching the babies play.

Surfing on Kurt’s back.

Mark asked us to bring a pumpkin pie, and I was (slacker!) just going to get one from the store since I’d never made any kind of pie before.  But my mom showed up at my house the day before with the ingredients for one and then made it!  I don’t like pumpkin pie so I didn’t taste it, but Natalie ate a piece and proclaimed it very good!  It was pretty!

Today is Mindy’s birthday, so we sang her “Happy Birthday” on Thursday.

Most everyone was too stuffed to eat cake though.  :)

Happy birthday Mindy – we love you!!!!

Playing

It has been SO NICE having Joanna home from Kindergarten this week.  I guess I had forgotten a little bit just how fantastically wonderful and sweet and helpful she is through the day!

It may look like James is in terrible pain in this next picture, but he really is working up his super cheese face.  :)

The children have (for the most part anyway) been playing so sweetly together the past few days.  I love watching and listening to them play!

It’s not unusual to find this sweet girl cozied up with a stack of books.

Joanna’s butterfly!

We listen to our Musikgarten CDs a lot; we all just love the songs.  Here everyone has a baby and they are bouncing to “Bounce Along” on our toddler disk.

“Ten Wiggly Fingers”

This morning they were playing “musical” which means they were acting out the Christmas story like the pageant we’re rehearsing for children’s choir.

Every time I yank out the camera it destroys the fantasy of their play a bit, so I watched for awhile before I pulled it out.  First Joanna was the angel Gabriel, Natalie was Mary, and they had James being Joseph.  There was a baby doll playing the part of Jesus.  Then they switched things up a bit – here Joanna is Mary, Natalie was Joseph (not sure where she went) and poor James was being such a good sport as baby Jesus in the manger.

It is just so fun to watch them play!!!

Hangin’ with the Girls

I looked over at James the other day and saw him laying like baby Laura on her quilt, enjoying his sippy cup of water.  He’s so cute.  :)

Yesterday Ray wasn’t over so there weren’t as many “boy” toys out being played with.  I guess that’s how James ended up wearing all those necklaces and playing with the beaded bag.  :)

Most day these three play so sweetly – I love it!!  And we sure do love having our Joanna home for Thanksgiving break!

They were having a birthday party – see the cake?!

That boy is so cute in his overalls!  (Even wearing all the bling.)

It has been a lovely vacation so far.  We’ve done plenty of laying around in our jammies.  Soooo nice!

Our First Thanksgiving, not to be confused with THE First Thanksgiving

Because I didn’t take any pictures back in 1621.

We went downtown to my Great Aunt Pat and Uncle Val’s beautiful condo for our extended family’s Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday.

Natalie was one very happy girl – the place was covered in mirrors!!

She loves to look at herself dance and make faces.

I have no idea where she gets this.

Ahem.  :)

For the record, I use my left eye to shoot.  I’ve always been “left-eyed.”  I wonder how common that is?  What eye do you use?

This next face is actually a reenactment as the first time she made it I couldn’t quite get the shot.  It’s a very accurate representation though!

It was soooo fun to take pictures in their house!  There was so much gorgeous light coming in from the windows, and it was bouncing all over the place with all those mirrors!

A view from one window.  Sooooo pretty!

We made a few attempts at a family portrait.  :)

We were not entirely successful.

I really didn’t spend the entire day taking pictures in the mirrors.  :)

Though it might seem that way.  I shot a bunch on Manual, but I did switch over to auto some; I just couldn’t quite dial the settings just right.

I love this one.  I’m not totally sure why, but I think it seems like it has some movement to it?

I don’t want to even think about all the fingerprints my three angels left there.  Thank goodness for the maid.  Bless her.

David was appointed turkey carver – he worked very hard and did a good job!

Those are my beautiful mashed potatoes.  They were very good too, I might add.

A good spread!!  Thanksgiving is really all about the sides for me.

James was a pretty happy boy all day, especially considering he did not have a nap.  Or would not have one, anyway.  :)

I love this girl:

My sweet Aunt Pat even had a kids table and some toys set up for my crew!

One attempt at getting James to nap – he wouldn’t do it – too much fun to be had!

I made the comment to someone that I really needed to make sure I was looking alright before I snapped any pictures.  I was bound to be reflected in them.

The recliners were all remote-controlled and would tip all the way forward.  A very fun ride.  :)

Kathryn catching a little after-turkey nap.  I have not really been able to have one of those since 2007.  :)

I love this boy:

My grandmother was feeling a little poorly and couldn’t make it.  I missed her but I sure was thankful she could send along a couple of pecan pies!!

This is my Great Uncle Val.  He’s my grandmother’s brother, and he’s a super-wonderful man.  He turned 82 today, and we celebrated his birthday on Saturday.

In the late afternoon I caught some of that wonderful light I like (that I can find at my house too), but it was ten times more wonderful coming in the giant windows of the high-rise.

James took some rides with Theresa on the recliners.

So fun!  Theresa is my second cousin, so she is James’ second cousin, once removed.  Just so you know.

We had such a wonderful day.  I felt so very blessed to be surrounded by my extended family that I’ve spent many many Thanksgivings with.  We were missing quite a few faces, but it was still a lovely visit.  Happy Thanksgiving, whether yours is over or still yet to come!