what's up weekly. (So Much News!)

Oh my goodness, you guys.  SO MUCH has happened in the last two weeks since I last popped in.  First, St. Nicholas came on December 6 and filled our wooden shoes.  ("Klompen," for those of us who try to be more Dutch than we really are.  I'm so lucky to be Dutch by association.)

St. Nick left chocolate coins, chocolate windmills, candy waffles, coffee candy, and Dutch cookies for us, so naturally we had to eat some of it with breakfast.  

Then, I made my monthly grocery run.  And then, since Todd took the day off work, we got to decorate the Christmas tree together.

Then after tree decorating, the big kids kept the Christmas festivities going by doing a bunch of their biology dissection assignments with Todd.  Merry Christmas, ya filthy (formaldehyded) animals.

Okay, that was all just St. Nicholas Day, and we still have 13 more days to cover, so I'll pick up the pace.  Luckily, most days weren't quite so eventful.

Santa's cutest helper.

That's 25 pounds of baby in what Atticus calls my "baby tactical rig."  I've been carrying the babies in the Ergos when they get fussy.  It's so fun to cuddle them, but it does get painful quickly.

They seem to enjoy it though!

Ophelia turned three on Sunday!

This girl, I tell you.  She is so funny.  She loves chewing on frozen teething toys.  She often carries around two babies and rocks and pretends to nurse them.  (I realized the other day that she's never seen me mother just one baby at a time!  To her, mothering involves two babies.)  She loves wearing princess dress up and black rain boots.  She holds her own with the bigger sisters.  She poops like four times a day and is very independent about using the potty at this point.  She is full of compliments - last night she told me she loves my "booiful happy face."  She's a total card and loves making the big kids laugh.  She loves telling people that she's "Hoey."  She is pretty easy during school time, either playing independently or sitting on my lap and listening to the older kids' read alouds.  (Or fighting with Juni.) She loves the babies.  She is snuggly and fiesty and a complete gift.

On her birthday, we had our big church Christmas celebration.  First was our regular Sunday worship service, during which Penelope accompanied one of the hymns on the piano for the first time!  She did an amazing job!  After the service was our big Christmas feast, and then a merrymaking time in the afternoon where folks got to share music or jokes or other performances.  Penelope played Hark, The Herald Angels Sing from the hymnal, and Callista played Joy to the World.  It was so fun to see them sharing their talents!

My parents came down to join us for all the festivities, and after we all arrived home from church in the late afternoon, we celebrated Oey's birthday together.  She seemed pretty pumped about it.

 

She was so cute opening her presents.  It was obvious she's been to a birthday party or two in her time - she knew exactly what to do.  She cracked me up opening her presents - here she is, opening a ball from Rocco.

Let's zoom in, shall we?  Like I said, pumped.

She demanded a hug from Rocco after she opened the ball.  It was so sweet.

I love this photo - surrounded by her siblings and loving every second of it.  (The little chair she's sitting in was the gift from me and Todd.  I found it for free on Marketplace - isn't it so cute?!)

After Oey's birthday, we jumped feet first into full-fledged Christmas.  Christmas break is in full swing, both trees are decorated, many of our presents are wrapped and under the tree, and the kids' rooms are even strung with lights.  The kids have spent a lot of free time this week prepping their Christmas Eve gifts for one another - they do their own little Kidland gift exchange on Christmas Eve, the rules of which stipulate that all gifts have to be made (or at least free).  They've been busy elves.

Todd took this photo of me eating my breakfast one morning.  It has become a social event this week, since I have been sleeping in and eating after the kids are already up.

The babies turned seven months old!

These babies are such a joy.  Eulalie makes constant noise - spitting, babbling, gurgling, fussing, laughing.  She is also always wiggling.  She loves people, and hates being left to play independently.  (She also hates being tired, which sets in about 35 minutes after she gets up from nap.)  She is usually already awake when I go in to wake them up from nap.  She likes to go to sleep on her belly with her thumb in her mouth, but I often find her in different spots in the crib after she's rolled and wiggled all around.  When I come close to her, she flaps her arms wildly and kicks her legs and squeals.  She is just full of life and energy.  

Knox is calm and quiet and smiley and thoughtful.  He is friendly and more observant than interactive.  He has the biggest smile, and has two tiny teeth, but he has only laughed once!  He is a great sleeper - he loves to stick his finger through a hole in his crocheted blanket and then suck on it, and he falls right to sleep that way.  He is like Todd - he barely moves in his sleep, so he has already left permanent body-sized divots in both ends of his mattress.  He is super interested in food and loves trying little bits of my dinner.  He is my gentle giant.

I love them both so much.

Laliebeans smiling and spitting, Knox rolling to his belly so he can see everything a bit better.  That's them in a nutshell.

We still took an afternoon to move ahead in Farmer Boy, even though we're on break.  I love reading the Little House books in the winter.  (Fun fact: all the kids but Oey are in this photo.  Look at funny Lalie on my lap!)

We're hopefully getting a trundle bed soon so we can tuck Lolo's bed away during the day.

I've been trying each day of break to pick a project to tackle.  Early in the week, I attempted to start sorting the garage, since the weather was beautiful.  But I hit a snare early in the project, as I don't currently have the shelves I need to do the job, and when I went to order them, the gift card I had didn't work, and then I spent the entire afternoon inside trying to troubleshoot ordering the shelves.  When I finally did get back out to the garage, a solicitor pulled up and trapped me in a conversation.  And that's how I still don't have garage shelves but we'll be getting a new roof.  (I KID.  I KID.  Todd, don't have a heart attack, I sent him packing.  Unlike the Kirby salesmen that one time.  I mean, those two times.)

Anyway.  I finally just ordered the shelves without the gift card, and I'm hoping they arrive today so I can put the boys to the task of building them and then maybe doing some of the garage organization for me.  They're boys, so it hasn't taken long for them to go a bit feral without the routine of school.  I'm hoping the fresh air, sunshine, physical labor and full schedule will be a blessing to them.

I've also taken Atticus out for some driving practice, organized the clothing storage bins, and undertaken the position of Kidland Bank Teller.  (Christmas requires extra staffing.)  Today I hope to make a grocery run and get started on sewing the babies' Christmas stockings and Christmas Eve jammies.  I am loving all the time I have to tackle projects over break!  Discretionary time is my favorite kind of time.

So with that, I will sign off so I can go put together my Christmas menu plan and grocery list.  Have a great weekend!