Cabbages and Kings

It's been a slow month for blogging. I think this is a new record for fewest posts in a month! I have been keeping busy with routine things, so nothing much to say today.

We went to the ward Thanksgiving dinner last week. This is an ambitious undertaking by our ward, I must say! They provided turkey and rolls for the couple hundred people who showed up, and ward members brought sides and pies. The kids had a blast, of course. We have such a great group of kids Emily's age. She is very outnumbered by boys, but she loves them anyway. In the pictures below they were lining up at the door, then one of them would yell, "Ready, set... go!" and they would all take off across the room to the other side. Then they would collapse on top of each other, pick themselves up while laughing themselves silly, and head back to the door to start it all over again. It never got old. I love three-year-olds!














A little while ago Emily asked if she could play outside if she stayed close. I said okay and stayed inside with the younger two while she went outside. I checked on her through the window periodically, and always saw this:
She looked so sad and lonely that I was worried about her. She kept assuring me that she was just taking care of her fire. She sat like that until I called her in.

Since she started taking ballet, Emily has been doing cute, weird dance moves sporadically throughout the day. Here she was doing her chick-a-dee dance, flapping her wings and singing under her breath, very intently. It was just so bizarre looking that I had to take a picture.

I love that Emily and Caleb are buddies. They squabble and fight a lot, but really do love each other. After asking me several times to read her a book, Emily sat down on the couch with it and proceeded to read it to Caleb. It was so cute to see them both poring over this book (it was a toddler look-and-find).

Caleb got a monster sweater recently, and I put it on him for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was so funny to see him grab the front of his shirt, pull it toward Emily, and growl at her. She would scream and run and he would chase her around the apartment while laughing hysterically. They're just taking a break together in this picture. No hard feelings for trying to eat you with my sweater, right sister?














Caleb loves Elinor. And he has a huge head. Not much else to say about this picture.

Practicing diapering one of Emily's dolls.

My kid collection. Maybe one day I'll get a good picture of all three of them! Hopefully with a better backdrop than our old carpet.

We went to a tree lighting on Friday and that was pretty crazy and crowded but fun. I loved this picture of Joseph and the kids because it shows all of their attitudes so well. Joseph is excited and enthusiastic and ready to help the kids have a good time and get excited about Christmas. Emily is cold and tired and wants nothing more than to go to bed. Caleb is just doing his own thing, oblivious to and unconcerned with what we have planned. And the baby... what baby? Oh yeah. I almost forgot about her because she is always tucked away in a corner while I attend to more pressing (and rambunctious) demands.

Here's the big tree. A couple of seconds after I took this picture a big chunk of the base of the tree was pushed out like a hidden door and two workers crawled out. That was a surprise! It definitely confused and astounded our half asleep Emily!

Sorry about this super long post. You could probably tell that it was the result of my clearing the pictures off the camera and my phone. We are looking forward to spending time with family during the coming holidays and so excited to experience it all with our three crazy kids.