Naptime

Today I told Montana she was going to have a nap. She began to throw a fit, so I walked away. This is how I found her when I came back 5 minutes later.

Daredevil!

Our little risktaker, Hallie, just decided to take the plunge off of this chair the other night. When she didn't get hurt the first time, she just kept going. She must have jumped at least 10 times.

Paging Dr. Hallie

This is Hallie's new baby she received from Aunt Mary for Christmas. It really overshadows the doll I gave her last year that I think is highly special! This baby sneezes, cries, gurgles, and you can hear her heartbeat. Hallie now wants to go everywhere with this baby and the baby must be put to bed at the same time as her.

Cold weather....or whimpy dad?

Oftentimes Matt's excuse for not getting moving in the morning is that he's too cold. On this day, I was not letting him out of his pancake making duties. So, he decided to bundle up. In reality, we had like a month of frigid temps that kept our in-floor heat working overtime. Today, it's crazy to think that a week ago it was
-33 and now it is currently 36 and melting.

Santa's Tree and Special Drinks

Here is a picture of Santa's tree right before it was taken down last night and one taken from the road one lot over from our house. The picture really doesn't do it justice, it looks really cool from the road in our huge windows. This may just be the last year for that view for us!

A family favorite and Dad's speciality, "special drinks" to us, Italian sodas to most everyone else, or Amalfis if you are a Kaladi Brothers patron. Whatever you like to call them, they are pretty good and very special when we let the kids share in the joy.

Hallie's strange positions

While I'm not fond of showing myself sleeping on the blog, I think it's important to note that we finally have a child who will fall asleep outside of her bed when she gets tired enough. It's nowhere near the time that she will go to sleep in her bed, mind you, but we have utilized this situation while visiting and being "off-schedule." Plus, she's just so snuggly!

Here is Hallie helping dad reinstall our bathroom sink after replacing the laminate floor in our bathroom with tile. Did I mention that during our Christmas break we put tile in the kitchen and two bathrooms? We also painted one of the bathrooms and put wainscoating in both. We also have a fireplace (currently sitting in the middle of our bedroom) waiting to be installed in the living room! I'm so excited.

Helicopter Mania

Matt gave Carson the RC mini helicopter mainly because he's always wanted a remote control airplane. With the 20 foot ceilings, there's plenty of airspace in our living area. Carson has learned to control it surprisingly well and how to utilize his younger sisters by "allowing" them to retrieve it when it "lands" and set it up for take off again!

Hallie's thank you

We may have had some more exciting clips to share, but my husband cannot figure out that you cannot video with our camera in the "portrait" view and all of his videos are sideways.

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas Eve evening was a bit hectic and I forgot to go over the Christmas morning protocol with the kids before tucking them in for the night. Therefore, who knows how long Carson was up checking things out before Hallie cried and woke Matt and I! We then woke Tana and all were awed by the tree that Santa had left. (See later post.) My favorite thing about the morning was Hallie carrying her full stocking around saying "mine" without bothering to check out what was in it. :) All the kids received basketballs and the girls got new swimsuits and sandals for Hawaii, which Hallie insisted on wearing for the rest of the day. Everyone enjoys watching Carson fly his RC mini helicopter and Matt was so excited to get his own from sister-in-law Katy!

Our Family Christmas Photo

I don't know why, but I have this obsession about coordinating my family's outfits at Christmas and Easter and expecting to take a photo together. It's usually hard to get a photo of us all together even on these holidays and I don't think we've ever taken a good one. But, that will not stop me from continuing this thing that I do!

Christmas Eve snow play

I don't love to play in the snow! A little sledding is fun, but I don't last long. This year I have the excuse that I cannot fit into any snowpants, nor can I bend over to tie my boots....thankfully, the kids have aunts and uncles who do like to play outside in the winter. I am so glad that Aunt Katy and our new addition, Uncle Jesse, along with Aunt Britt were here to take my place!