Emilie's 5th Birthday

Like I mentioned in my entry last night, I had wanted to do this first to keep things in order...but here it is anyway (only a month and a half late).

For Emilie's 5th birthday, she had breakfast with Daddy at McDonalds and later that afternoon, we went to the movies with both the girls. After the movies, we headed back over to my parents' house (they had the boys) for cake and ice cream and some present opening. Emilie requested a cake with flowers and polka dots (thank goodness! something I can kind of do!) and it was even chocolate -- another plus for Emilie!

I'm sure you other moms and/or dads feel the same way...I cannot believe how quickly five years goes by. I still look at her sometimes and think, "No way was she just a little 7 lb baby five short years ago!" They really do grow right before your eyes!

Truly amazing...

Hopefully this won't sound like the late night ramblings of a tired mind, but I just had to get back up and post this now (even though there were a few posts I wanted to do before this one, just to keep a chronological flow).

I cannot believe how truly blessed I am. There are times during the course of a day when this is (shamefully) not always the first thought on my mind...But then I see them sleeping so peacefully and I can't help but stand there for moments on end just watching them breathe and thanking God for them.

After climbing in bed tonight, I turned on the news only to find a story on a family whose second son was a stillbirth. They had quite a few pictures of him and his coloring was so good that it was really hard to believe he wasn't just sleeping. This only magnified the gratefulness that had so overwhelmed me earlier and brought me to tears. Wow. To have four little children, as much work as they can be, is incredible, amazing and absolutely wonderful. What a blessing...

Sledding!

For New Year's Eve this year we took the oldest kids sledding. It was an absolute blast! Nathan laughed the whole way down every time we went and the girls were even brave enough to go all by themselves a few times. The hike back up the hill was a little challenging (especially at the very top) because the kids (and I) had a hard time getting our footing on the well-packed snow. But that didn't deter us from going down numerous times! I had forgotten how much fun sledding can be!

Don't you want to move back to WI?

For my sisters that think WI is miserable in the winter (or should I say "sister"?)...Here's some pictures that might just make you miss it. :) I won't mention what the driving conditions were like (Julie -- this was the day I told you about), but it sure was beautiful to look at! Just an FYI -- Last December we had about 7" of snow. This December we had about 35".

I was wondering if he ever cried...?

Yes. Sam does cry. And he's really perfected that boo-boo lip! But this is not typical of him -- he's usually a very happy baby. Actually all of mine have been for the most part -- I kinda thought we would be due for a baby with the world's worst case of colic this time. Thankfully we weren't. But he does cry sometimes and this is one of those times!

Christmas Day

As is typical for us, we spent Christmas morning at Brad's parents' house. After a late breakfast, we opened gifts and then the three little ones (and Brad -- for puroses of crowd control) took a nap while Emilie and I used her new "cool bake" oven (basically an EasyBake oven, but somehow -- don't ask me how -- this one bakes with ice -- not heat). We were even brave enough to sample the end product and they actually weren't that bad. :)

Christmas Morning

The nice thing about Christmas morning this year (one of them, anyway) is that our kids are still young enough that we were actually up before them! Brad had time to start his coffee and get the camera out to get some pre-opening shots in. I think we're going to have to re-name Nathan (again). Maybe Scrooge would fit him better. Shortly after he openend his first present, we handed him his second. He threw it on the floor and emphatically declared, "No!". I guess he only wanted one this year. Wouldn't it be nice if that were the case every year from here on out!