Merry Christmas!

View last year's production here.

View 2010's production here.

We hope every has a wonderful, happy Christmas.

A Few Things Lately

Summer learned about fire safety at school, and now every time our fireplace puffs out a little smoke into the room, she does her emergency "Stop . . . Drop . . . and Roll," where she voices each step, and pauses in between each one to think about what to do next. Sometimes I'll see her randomly rolling on the floor, covering her eyes. She even gets Claire to do it with her occasionally.

Claire is currently very concerned about not being able to give Santa a hug and a kiss when he comes. She is very worried about this, so Summer is scheming up a plan to "stay up late and listen for the bells."

Pyper notices every time Rhett or I start to build a fire, and she'll march over to us, picking any tiny piece of paper off the floor for us to throw into the fire. She'll also take some of the newspaper and try to crumple it, then hand it to us. She feels very proud afterward. She is a great helper.

Rhett checked out the first book in "The Great Brain" series and started reading it to me a couple Saturdays ago in the car as we drove to the store. The girls actually listened quite intently, and now when we ride in the car together, and sometimes at bedtime, they ask for dad to read some more to them. So far, we have finished the first three chapters. We get interrupted often with things like, "What does bank mean? I don't know that word," (Claire, after Rhett read about the river bank) or "I think there are skeletons in 'Skeleton Cave,'" (Summer, predicting why the kids don't go to the cave.) It's been fun watching them enjoy a story with only one black and white picture a chapter--and that requires them to listen intently and sit still for extended time.

Me--well, I'm working on this year's Barney Christmas production. We've had a few glitches--like a broken camera, and then a new one that records in AVG which Windows Movie Maker isn't too friendly with, so I'm working on patience and will hopefully have our video out tomorrow night.

Bet you can't wait!

You Know You're Pregnant If . . .

10. You put your kids to bed at 7, and you're climbing into bed at 7:15.
9. You get teary eyed over weird things--like watching "Arthur Christmas."
8. The maternity clothes in your closet that you haven't even put away from the last child are beginning to fit you again.
7. You're craving random foods like Ramen Noodles (with Summer), ribs (with Claire), oranges (with Pyper), and grapefruit now.
6. Your kids walk around the house with dolls stuffed in their shirts so they look like mom.
5. You race out to the car--forgetting your glasses--to get the kids to school on time and can't figure out why everything around you looks so different.
4. You're introducing your youngest to the idea of a new baby--pointing out babies at every chance possible.
3. You get to go on your oldest child's first school bus ride and have to hold back tears because you have so many emotions you can't contain yourself. Excitement . . . happiness . . . gratitude . . .
2. You're back to sipping calcium magnesium before you go to bed to prevent leg cramps in the night.
1. You postpone your family picture--again--so that everyone in the family can be included.

Yes, we are pregnant again. It's been quite a surprise for us, but we are super excited to see who gets to join our family next. We are about 22 weeks along--and still don't know what the gender is. We'll find out as soon as we have the ultrasound. And we'll have a BIG post about it on here. So stay tuned . . .

Happy Birthday Claire!

We got to celebrate Claire's special day today. It was so much fun.

I had this idea to fill a wall with balloons colored by people who care about Claire--but the idea was too late to have people mail anything. So hopefully next year, we'll get some from distant family and friends. But this year, we got a wall-full colored by her school friends and her sister. (I think Claire did a few too.) When she went to bed the night before, Rhett and I hung the pictures up to surprise her. She was sooooo delighted! She usually comes upstairs a little grumpy in the mornings, so when she came up this morning, she had a little frown on her face. Then she saw all the balloons. She just stared at them. Then she got a huge a smile. She asked, "Are my friends here?" I told her no, that I'd gotten the pictures from them at school the day before. Then she asked, "Did they mail them?" I said no, and explained again. She loved it. She looked at them all day--studying each one. Here she is eating her birthday cinnamon roll breakfast with special juice. Goofy smile because her mouth is full. Pip thought we were celebrating for her again--every time we sang Happy Birthday to Claire, Pip beamed as if we were singing it to her. 

We let her say the blessing on the food, and this is what her prayer consisted of: "Thanks for all my presents. Thanks for the cinnamon rolls. And thanks for all the things we have." That was it. :) Love it.

We let her open her presents after breakfast.

All day, every time I said, "Claire! Happy Birthday!" She would respond, "Thanks mom. Happy birthday to you too." I loved it. Such a sweetie.

Instead of taking treats to school, we actually took stickers. She loved it! The moment we opened the door and entered her school, she yelled out, "I GOT STICKERS!" Everyone was so excited and she walked around letting each person choose which sticker they wanted, then she'd put it on their hand. The kids loved it, and the teachers enjoyed it too. But best of all, was seeing Claire's face as she had something special to give to every person in her class.

The "library girl" visited their class today and read stories about snow (a request from Claire's teacher since we've told Claire for so long that her birthday is when it snows--and we have no snow). Teacher Mary said that when they sat down for stories, Claire climbed onto the couch, stuck a pillow under her feet, crossed her ankles, placed a tiny, baby doll blanket over her lap, and put her hands back behind her head. She totally lounged for the story. Everyone thought it was so funny.

For a special treat, I picked the girls up in Rhett's car. (They love riding in his car.) And then we looked at Christmas lights for a little bit. We got home and then ate dinner. While we were eating, I said to Claire, "Claire, I'm so glad you are in our family." Summer responded, "Yeah, because if you weren't in our family, then we would have your birthday, and I would have to blow the candles out!" haha. Pretty good thinking on that one.

And here she is eating her chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and strawberry icecream--all her choice.

For another special treat, we watched "Arthur Christmas"--which was really quite funny and cute.

After the girls were tucked in bed, I sang "Happy Birthday" one more time. Then said goodnight. It was a special day getting to celebrate having Claire in our family. We love her so much. She is a great example to us of kindness, manners, generosity, and gentleness. We love you Claire Bear!

Conversations

Conversation at the Dinner Table
Claire: "Dad, who made this?"
Rhett: "Who made what?"
Claire: "Who made this?"
Rhett: "Your body?"
Claire: "Yes."
Rhett: "Heavenly Father."
Claire: "What's it made of?"
Summer: "I know! Bones! And skin!"
Claire: "And skeleton?"
Rhett: "Yes. And muscles."

*     *     *     *

Conversation in the Car
Listening to a violin concerto by Mozart
Summer: "Mom, is this a cello?"
Me: "No. It's a violin."
Claire: "Are there drums?"
Me: "Nope. No drums in this song. Just violins."
Summer: "Are there trumpets?"
Me: "No. No trumpets. Just violins."
Claire: "Are there flutes?"
Me: "No. Just violins."

We're Thankful For . . .

My favorites from our Thankful Turkey:

Summer: I'm thankful for the wii!
Claire: I'm thankful for my smiling face.
Summer: I'm thankful for my new warm pajamas my mom made. (Oh yeah!)
Claire: I'm thankful for my smiley face stamp.
Summer: I'm thankful for the paper that I cut.