Merry Christmas!

It's been a pretty fun and busy Christmas season this year. I've all but given up running this month for all the preparations that have been taking place.

But, we made it through and I think everyone's been happy and had a good time.

On Christmas Eve we were able to go on a Polar Express train ride.

Here are the kids hanging out before boarding. Elinor is usually doing something crazy in the pictures from this day (and always).

Jake could not stay away from this dog.

Happily settled in.

Enjoying yummy treats. (As soon as they announced they'd be bringing around hot chocolate and cookies, Jake stood up and yelled "Yummyyyyyyyy!" in his cute little baby voice. He continued to yell things like "Yummy in tummy!" periodically until he received his cookie.)

Santa.

Santa with the girls.

Sisters. Emily's Christmas name was Mistletoe (horribly misspelled by Santa's elf Sprinkles.)

And... well, we took about a dozen of this picture, and Jacob has this same expression in all of them. So there ya go.

For the day itself, it started off early and with lots of enthusiasm. The kids were not very happy about being made to pause for a moment for us to take this picture:

All of them in their Christmas Jammies. Ignore Caleb's face.

And just really quick, before I end, here are the kids enjoying their presents from Grandma Oba this year:

Jake riding his scooter like a pro. This one is cool because we can convert it from three wheels to two when he's ready.

Elinor on her new scooter. All the kids have been cruising around on this one.

Caleb trying out his new skateboard.

And Emi thoroughly enjoying her new rollerblades. She really cannot get enough of these things!

Sold Out!

The other night as I was perusing the Boden website, I stumbled across this:

It made me and Joseph laugh, because these were last year's Christmas jammies:

And in fact, Joseph is wearing them this very minute as he finishes up the dishes.

Oh, and by the way, these were going for $54 a pop and are now sold out in this color. Nice, right? I'm a year ahead of Boden! Am I not so fashion forward? I really have an eye for... um... pajama trends.

Santa, the bunkbed, the KitchenAid, and artwork

The ward had a party the other day and the kids were happy to get to chat with Santa for a little bit.

Those cute kids. They each met him individually, but that seemed like too many pictures to put up.

This is how Jacob spent the first half of the party. It's okay though. He woke up and approached Santa on his own (while we were eating) and obtained a candy cane for himself. They were high-fiving and fist-bumping by the time I got there.

We just got bunk beds for the girls the other day (more on that later). I got back late at night and pulled this bed fully assembled out of the van. We had nowhere to put it except in the middle of the living room, so it stayed there until the next day. I laughed when Elinor saw it the next morning and said, "But I thought I was going to sleep in Emily's room!"

Whenever the KitchenAid is doing its thing, this is where Jacob insists on sitting. He's only stuck his hand in there once (it was enough for him to learn his lesson).

And to end, some original artwork for your viewing pleasure. At nighttime after the kids are in bed, we go around throwing stuff away and trying to tidy up. I always come across a few of Elinor's pictures that I can't bear to part with until I have permanent documentation. Here are the latest:

Doesn't this one make you think so much of Allie Brosh's work?

And I don't know what this one is, but I want to go there.

Moustache Monday

I was going through pictures tonight and I noticed a theme with Jacob's:

He is one grumpy baby. The two where he is lying face-down happened when he was way too offended to even look at my face.


 Also, today was Moustache Monday! The little kids wanted in on the action too, of course.

I think they look rather dashing all moustachioed like this, don't you?

Church.

The lady who sits behind us in church sent this picture this evening:

Along with this message: "I wanted to make sure you had these. She made me smile. Is this Elinore?"

This poor lady puts up with the kids' noise and antics each week and is sweet enough to still be amused by some of it.

And yes, this is Elinor. And yes, this is totally typical.

Family pictures!

I decided rather late in the game this year that we needed some pictures for Christmas cards, stat! So, we basically packed everyone up right then and there, piled into the car, and took some pictures at a nearby park. Joseph and the kids had gone to a baptism that morning, so we mostly just went in what we were wearing. The boys did change out of their white shirts. And I changed out of my running clothes (I didn't go to the baptism). Funnily enough, I think I like what we're wearing here much better than what we wore last year for pictures, even though I'd been thinking about those outfits for weeks! Oh, well.

Overall, I'm very happy with how things turned out. It's amazing what a tripod, some touchups on the computer, and having slightly older kids can do to make pictures so much better than last time we tried this on our own!

I love the stair-step going on here. And El's tongue. And Jake's cool-kid attitude. And Caleb's hand on Jacob's head.

Isn't she a cutie?

Always climbing.

He's a punk, but he's pretty awesome. I love this picture of him in his old man jacket! Don't pockets (and a hood) always make the difference between a just-okay jacket and the ultimate jacket that needs to be worn on every possible occasion?

This set up happened very naturally. We just had to pull out the camera really fast and capture it. There was a bunch of dogs down the hill the way they are all facing and since they are all equal parts fascinated with and afraid of dogs, they were happy to watch for a while.

 So, there you have it. Our home done pictures in the park. I love our little family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Festive notes from Emily to the rest of our family:

She's a cutie.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope we could play fun games together.

homeschooling update

The entire time we were homeschooling I worried about three things:

1. Were the kids enjoying themselves? Am I boring??
2. Did the kids feel secluded and cut off from other kids their age?
3. Were we covering everything we needed to for them to go back to school later on?

I think numbers one and two were reasonable concerns, though the kids did not seem to suffer or mind those things in the least.

The third point, however, was something I continued to wonder about. This year when we put them back in school it was interesting to see how they integrated with their grade levels. I recently attended parent-teacher conferences for them last week and was relieved to hear that all was well.

Emily (2nd grade) is ahead of even the enrichment math assignments in her class, and I have been discussing the possibility of coming up with an alternative math curriculum with another mom whose kid is ahead. She is reading at a fifth grade level and was the only kid in her class to know about artists and art that a visiting teacher was presenting on.

Caleb (kinder) is reading at at least a level E (the goal in kinder is to get to level D). His teacher said they ran out of time to continue testing him after they reached level E, so that is where she is keeping him for now. Basically, he is in the highest reading group and she has him read the book they are working on three times by himself so she can help the other kids in his group. I don't know if they really do much math, but he has a lot of experience there too that, if our experience with everything else holds true, none of the other kids have. This is actually concerning to me, since he is definitely not socially ready to move up a grade, but it seems like a waste of time to have him learning the letter "k" and the word "like" when at home he is able to take his turn reading out of the Book of Mormon independently. And I don't think having him read the same story silently to himself three times is conducive to cultivating a love of reading. As I've mentioned before, I've had a bit of a struggle finding books that are interesting for him at his reading level.

Overall, I am amazed at how much more efficient and effective homeschooling is than public schools. We only had to spend a couple of hours each morning to get Emily and Caleb to where they are, and I did zero work with them before deciding to homeschool last year. There are many times (like when we're rushing to get the kids to bed on time or when the school is asking for donations or when I want to visit a museum or park that I know will be crowded on afternoons or weekends) that I wish we were still homeschooling, but there are good things about public school too. While they are ahead academically it is so much fun for them to have all the extra activities that their teachers are able to do with their classes. There is also a lot more exposure to different cultures and ideas, which I like. They also love having so many kids their own age to play with and form friendships with. And honestly, I love having some quiet time at home just with Elinor and Jacob.

There are good and bad things about both, and I am not convinced there is a "better" option. I often wish I could have some sort of part-time option, like MWF at school and T/Th at home, but I think that sort of discontinuity in public school would really cause problems for them, especially Emily. For now we are happy with where things are, though I am certainly going to keep my mind open in the future.

Paparazzi

Saw this super star walking through the park and snapped a quick shot before her handlers chased me off.

Long rambling post that might best be skipped.

Today I am going to showcase my insecurities. Let's jump right in, shall we? You see, my traditional baby gift for good friends is a pair of handmade reversible pants (Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Trousers). They're awesome. We've used them in our own home with Elinor and Jake and loved them. BUT, I usually just give these, along with a treat of some kind, as a "hey, we're thinking of you and excited for your family" kind of bonus gift. The lady in question today was having an actual baby shower (for her fourth girl... what?), so I felt like a single pair of pants was not enough.

Here are the pants, which I was absolutely in love with.

Those bunnies. They kill me. Really, they are on par with the fish pants I gushed about a few weeks ago. I literally carried these babies around the house for a couple of days to prepare myself for letting them go.

Then, I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to turn back to one of my favorite patterns, the Oliver + S Playdate Dress and whip one of those up for her as well. I agonize over things like this. You'll see.

I spied the bird fabric and loved it immediately. I originally had it paired with a dark grey for the yoke, but it looked horrendous once I got it in. Absolutely hideous. So I literally rolled the little dress up and stuck it in the back of a closet for a couple of days while I tried to figure out what to do with it. I didn't even let Joseph see it, I was so horrified. I needed some time to pass so I could evaluate it with fresh eyes. I pulled it out again yesterday and decided to try this light blue fabric that I found in my stash. Better... I think. Still not totally sure. This morning I found myself hemming the little dress and sewing the buttons on 20 minutes after the shower had already started, all the while just beside myself trying to figure out if the dress was still an abomination or if it was cute. Honestly, I'm still undecided. It's totally scary to me to be putting it up here. But, I had to get to the shower so I hastily snapped these pictures so I could agonize over the issue later, stuffed everything into a bag (dress and pants plus a coordinating shirt from Target), and gave them away before I could chicken out.

The whole time Joseph was reassuring me while more than likely wondering how he ended up with such an insane wife. Honestly, another issue I had with this whole fiasco is that I don't want to be the crazy lady who foists hand-made gifts onto her friends and thinks they're awesome when they're really... not.

And really, I am not looking for a weighing-in here of whether or not this dress is a monstrosity. It might be something I need to decide for myself. I just sort of wanted to record a little glimpse into the sort of process I go through sometimes when I sew and also to have this picture here for later reference and deliberation.

Moving on, here is a wonderful memory from Colorado that I've been meaning to share.
The primary visited the Denver temple one day and we took a few pictures.

All the kids were supposed to be touching the wall here. I suppose I took the picture at the wrong time.

Inside the visitor's center.

With friends.

Outside at the fountain.

With those same friends.

And this picture cracks me up because it captures the reality of the situation. This is what was really going on. Getting those other pictures was a challenge. :)

Elinor's art

Elinor has taken the crazy little kid art to a whole new level. We knew her drawings were different from the other kids' at this point, but she has continued to experiment and push the envelope.

Here are my favorites, just from today:

My favorite is "Nintendo" written upside-down in the octopus(?) tentacles.

Pokemon.

And here's what Jacob's been up to today:

Helping to prepare lunch.

After his nap, sitting grumpily in a drawer with a cup of milk.

Cry Baby

Jacob was having a rough morning a couple of days ago and just would. not. stop. crying. Or fussing. Or whining. Or throwing himself on the floor because the world is ending because no one understands him or the difficulty it is to be a baby in a first world country.

Well, I had had it with him and his noise. So had Elinor, apparently, when she came to me with this scarf wrapped around her head and asked me to tie it so it would cover her ears.

It was a great solution. That is, until we were at the grocery store and she kept wandering off and not being able to hear me call her back...