Holiday Hairstyles

I had a little extra time this morning (or at least I thought I did) so I decided to do something a little fancier in the girls' hair for church. You know, fancy hair to match their fancy dresses.


In Makayla's hair I did a braided headband.
Then pulled rest back into a loopy side bun.


I loved the way this turned out. It took me a while to do it today, but with practice I think I could do it fast enough for a school day.

Ellie's hair took forever! All those little twists took a while. Then I was a little annoyed that they didn't work out so great.

I could probably make it look better with some practice. But it took me so long to do that I don't think Ellie will let me practice this style again. Oh well.

Kimberly still has very little hair, but she's cute anyway.

Love Is All You Need

This brought tears to my eyes.



The right side of this video is cut off. Unfortunately, the bottom right corner is where the names of the countries are written. Click here to watch the video on YouTube so you can see the video full screen.

++I think the little boy from Israel is my favorite. And the group from France. And the people in Madagascar.

++The harmonizing by the groups from Cote D'Ivoire*, Philippines, and Ethiopia gave me chills.

++And there is a little girl from Belarus who I want to adopt, so adorable is she.

I really loved this. Can you tell?

*Has anyone ever heard of this country? I hadn't so I looked it up.

Do the Math

sleepless nights & tearful days + fever & runny nose = one sick baby
one sick baby + no sleep = one crabby mama

Hopefully Kimberly starts feeling better soon.
For all our sakes.

In Which I Spare You the Agony of My Home Videos. Or Not.

I've been over-doing it a little with the videos lately. I feel that I have to make up for 5 1/2 years of no home videos of my children. All in one week.

And while it's tempting to upload 10 minutes of Makayla's kindergarten class dancing to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, I've decided to spare you. But I will note that I was such the proud mother watching my daughter prance around on stage during her first-ever concert. She was, by far, the cutest little reindeer of the bunch.

Equally tempting was the idea to upload my video of Ellie running in place. It is so telling of her personality--completely crazy when she thinks no one is watching but quiet and reserved when someone is.

Aw screw it! I am going to torture you with all my home videos.



Hmmm. . . not sure why the video of Makayla's program won't load. The file is probably too large. Well, guess you dodged that bullet.

Big Trouble in a Small Package

I caught Kimberly pulling my nicely-folded laundry off my couch. When I asked her about it, she denied the whole thing. See for yourself.

My New Favorites

1. Kashi Go Lean Crunch. I sprinkle it on vanilla yogurt for breakfast or eat it plain for a yummy snack.


2. Stephen's Candy Cane hot chocolate. I love, love, love hot chocolate on a cold winter day. (Hello daily negative temperatures. Hope you don't stay too long.) I used to use a candy cane to mix my drink to get that pepperminty taste. Now the brilliant people at Stephen's have done it for me. Love it!


3. New stockings and a new place to hang them. I have had my snowman stocking ever since I can remember. My grandma knit (knitted?) it for me. Well, my grandma doesn't knit anymore so I asked my sister to make stockings for the rest of my family. She did a great job! Then last night while visiting a friend in her new house, she gave me this little sign for hanging my stockings. Her new house has a fireplace and mantle so she doesn't need this one anymore. Lucky me! This is the first thing I see when I walk in my apartment. It makes me all excited for Christmas now.

4. My apartment. It's not really new anymore since we've lived here 4 months. But what is new is us living here during the winter. And this apartment, with it's absence of inefficient baseboard heaters, is so much warmer. Very handy when you have little children and live in an area that is extremely cold.

5. My new camera. I am loving it. Especially when I catch rare moments like this.

It's rare because I can count on my 2 hands how many times Kimberly has ever laughed. She just doesn't giggle like my other girls did. She isn't ticklish except for one small spot on her thigh, and even then she doesn't laugh every time. I keep watching this video over and over because I love when my babies laugh.

There you go. My new favorites.

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Ellie's birthday over the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a little party with cake and presents. Nothing big. But it was fun.

I just love this picture of Ellie.

Ellie requested a princess castle cake. This is how it turned out. It looks fine from the front. But when you turn it to the side, not so great. You know in the movies how when a wedding cake gets destroyed someone tries to fix it, but they really aren't fooling anyone? That's what this cake looks like to me. It was 8 layers tall, but the top 2 layers fell over, taking the next 3 layers with it. I tried, somewhat successfully, to save it. But it's pretty obvious. Well, at least Ellie still loved it. Makayla loved the decorating sugar. It turned her finger and mouth very pink.
This picture cracks me up. This is Ellie making fun of Makayla in the previous picture. haha!!
Happy 3rd Birthday Ellie!

Eleven Months

So this is a little early for Kimberly's 11 month post, but oh well.

I thought Kimberly was going to be my shy, reserved and observant little girl. That's how she has been so far. But recently she has started coming out of her shell. And it turns out she is a little ham.

She has learned how to please the crowds. Her best tricks are hiding her face in my shoulder when someone says hi to her. Then she glances at them with a big grin until they ooh and aah at her. She does patty cake on demand. Every. Single. Time. When she gets in trouble for pulling the clean laundry out of the basket (or any number of things like that) she sticks out her bottom lip and bats her eyes. When that gets a laugh out of me, she smiles and claps. (What a stinker!)

And the trick that gets the best response from her sisters is when she sticks out her tongue and pants like a puppy. They LOVE THAT!! Probably because they have always thought she was their little puppy anyway.

No walking yet, (Hallelujah!) but she pulls up to furniture and walks along it.

She shakes her head for "no" and grunts for "yes." She says three words: "Mama", "Dada," and "nana" for everything else.

Her favorite game to play is hide and seek. She lifts up the cushion on the rocking chair, shoves her toys underneath, and puts it back down. Then when she lifts the cushion again, she is pleasantly surprised to find her toy still there. Maybe that's peek a boo, not hide and seek. Whatever you call it, she loves it.

Kimberly is such a light in our lives. We love her and can't wait to celebrate her first birthday next month!

A note about this picture: Kimberly has never been a fan of the pacifier. I tried several different brands and styles with her, but it just wasn't her thing. When she was just a few months old, she started sucking the middle and ring fingers of her right hand. Always her right hand. Always those two fingers. That was how she learned to sooth herself at night when she would wake up. But the problem was that as soon as she fell asleep, her fingers would fall out of her mouth and she would be awake again. So she started using her left hand to hold her fingers in her mouth. What a silly girl!