Wednesday, January 25, 2012

December 2011

Here are all of our pictures from last month (except the ones from Christmas – I’ll do a separate post for those).

I’m sure you will not be surprised to see that Henry chose to start the month out with a puzzle.  I love this picture of him, with the morning sun shining through the window, making him look like a little puzzle angel.2011 12 01_1468

Lizza was busy working on her headstands:            2011 12 01_1474

And here is Cynthia playing with dinosaur magnets with Henry (we never use our fireplace for actual fires, so it’s a great magnet spot).  Cynthia went through a bit of a leg-warmer phase – she always wanted to wear some, and she preferred them on her arms and her legs.  2011 12 01_1477

All the better to keep her properly warmed up while she does her exercising:2011 12 01_14732011 12 01_1476

Other cute things Cindy did in December:

Pushed various toys around in her stroller:                                       2011 12 03_1464_edited-12011 12 17_1694

Decided to help out more around the house:2011 12 14_1728_edited-1

She knows where the cloths are in the kitchen, and she loves to get them out and start scrubbing the floor or the barstools.  I think it makes her feel like she’s a big kid.2011 12 14_1619

When she wasn’t hard at work she just stood around being cute:                                                 2011 12 18_1679_edited-1

Or cuddled up on the kitchen floor with her blankets and a bottle of warm wassail when she was feeling sick with a sore throat:2011 12 20_1974

She also learned a new trick that is only a tiny bit cute, but mostly dangerous and a big hassle because now that she knows how to get up on the table she climbs up there maybe a hundred times a day:2011 12 08_15972011 12 09_1592

I don’t take pictures of it anymore.

When she gets to be too much trouble I just put Lizza in charge of her, and then everyone’s happy:2011 12 05_1457

I have realized I rely a lot on my older kids to help out with the younger ones.  I am lucky to have such good helpers.2011 12 05_1462

In other exciting December news, Henry managed to get a little toy hand stuck up his nose.  This was a first for me in my 11 years of parenting.  It was way too far up for me to get it out myself (even after trying all sorts of crazy methods found on Google), so I took him to his pediatrician.  She couldn’t get it out either, and while she was trying he was screaming and he snorted it even further up his nose, so we couldn’t even see it anymore.  We got an appointment with an ENT specialist down in Austin later that afternoon, but after he looked up there and saw where it was, he thought it was too far up to get it without causing damage, and he thought it would be too hard to keep Henry still enough.  He suggested bringing Henry in to surgery the next morning and having him put under.  I really did not want to do that, especially after I found out it would cost us around $1000.  I said a prayer and called Daniel and he suggested bribing Henry with Legos.  Turns out that was a brilliant idea – I told Henry that if he could stay completely still and not wiggle or cry at all while the doctor tried to get the hand out then he could pick out whatever Legos he wanted at Target.  He was super excited about that plan – his eyes got really big and he said, “you mean my very own Legos, and I don’t even have to share them with the kids?” When he sat down on my lap to get ready for the doctor to try to get it out, he beamed up at me and said, “Mom, this is such a fun day!!”   Ha. The nurses and I held him down and the doctor stuck a big clamp way up in his nose and Henry did not even flinch! I don’t think he’s ever sat that still in his life. The doctor yelled out “I got it!” and I was so relieved and glad that I had insisted he try instead of scheduling the surgery.  Henry immediately hopped up and said, “Now can we go get my Legos?”

We stopped at Target on the way home and he picked out his very own Star Wars set:2011 12 05_1459    

The hand:                                                                      2011 12 05_1461

After that we started getting ready for Christmas.  Sometimes I think my favorite thing about Christmas is that it makes the whole month of December exciting.

Remember last years’ nativity picture with our cute little newborn Cynthia as baby Jesus?2010 nativity

I attempted it again this year, and quickly discovered that the difference between Cynthia being baby Jesus last year as a 1-month old and this year as a 13-month old is about 80 more picture attempts, most of them looking like this:2011 12 06_15082011 12 06_1532

At one point she was replaced by a much more well-behaved baby doll, but I decided that wasn’t quite as fun.2011 12 06_1518

We kept trying and finally came up with one that worked.  2011 12 06_1530 edit copy

Maybe next year I will have Cynthia be a donkey and then she can be as wild as she wants.

The cutest angel ever:                                                     2011 12 06_1499

A very patient Mary:                                                       2011 12 06_1514

And a runaway baby Jesus:                                              2011 12 06_1546

She’s grown up so much!                                                  2010 Baby Jesus

Other fun Christmasy moments:

2011 12 06_1552_edited-12011 12 24_19022011 12 07_1568_edited-1

2011 12 16_17102011 12 13_16492011 12 13_16482011 12 13_1657

When Henry wasn’t laying around looking at the Christmas tree lights or playing with nativities, he was singing Christmas songs.  He took a particular liking to the Little Drummer boy song.  Here he is dressed up in what he thinks is a superb cowboy/drummer boy outfit, complete with a set of tupperware drums and a sword (the only thing he’s missing is the pants!)                                            2011 12 11_1589

I was lucky enough to catch a performance.  Cutest thing ever.

These next two pictures have nothing to do with Christmas.  This is called “The Ball Game”, and Daniel has played it with the kids since they were really young.  It involves Daniel getting a huge bucket full of balls (he tries to only get the softer kinds) and then the kids stand by the door and he stands way down the hall and throws balls as hard as he can at the kids while they try to dodge them.  I’m not sure how the point system works – it changes a little each time they play. 

I love the looks on their faces as they try to dodge:2011 12 17_16992011 12 17_1700

To make up for the lack of snow here in Texas, we made lots and lots of snowflakes and hung then up above our kitchen table.  It almost felt like winter.                                                             2011 12 18_1687

Rachel really wanted to learn how to sew over Christmas break, but unfortunately she has the wrong mom for that (I have no sewing machine or sewing skills).  My sister gave me the idea to cut out a little stocking shape and let her stitch it together, and she absolutely loved it:                 2011 12 19_1675

We also got out some Christmas puzzles to work on as a family over the break:2011 12 20_1990

I love this picture of Henry.  A puzzle challenge unlike any he had seen before!  It was almost more than he could bear.2011 12 20_1729

The kids love playing this Christmas game every year (and there are fewer casualties than with the ball game).  I draw Christmas pictures and they dance around to music until it stops, and then we pick a little picture out of a bowl, and whoever is on the matching picture gets an m&m.  (so I guess it’s like a cakewalk only with m&m’s for prizes).2011 12 16_1719

I love how the dancing around in a circle gets wilder and goofier as they go along:

In this next clip Daniel decides to make things more interesting by offering $1 for the prize instead of one m&m, and then, just because he loves messing with the kids’ heads, he says the next person to win gets $100 which of course isn’t true, but Tristan perks up and says, “Are you serious?!”, and it’s just like in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Clark says something about Santa Claus coming and his brother Eddie (an adult) believes him and is like, “Are you serious, Clark?”

And the funny thing is that when I tactfully changed the grand prize to 5 m&m’s instead of $100, the kids seem just as happy with that idea. 

Since all the kids were home from school and I had a huge mountain of laundry to fold, I decided to have a laundry-folding party, but it somehow turned into a “let’s take pictures while we jump over this huge pile of clothes” party.2011 12 20_19812011 12 20_19852011 12 20_19882011 12 20_1989

The clothes did eventually get folded.  

A few days before Christmas we bundled everyone up to go down to Austin to see the trail of lights at Zilker Park.  We’ve gone before and the kids loved it – you can walk along a trail through the park and see thousands of Christmas lights in different fun arrangements.  I had read on the internet that the lights would turn on at 6:00 pm, so we made sure to get there a few minutes before 6:00.  We walked over to the big Christmas tree made out of lights where the trail usually starts, and then waited and waited.  No other lights came on.  I finally asked someone about it, and they said, “oh, they decided to not do the trail this year – it’s just the Christmas tree.”  Whoops.  We were pretty bummed, but we decided to pretend it was a big adventure, and of course all adventures end well if there is ice-cream involved, so we started driving around Austin looking for a good ice-cream place.      

2011 12 21_1960_edited-22011 12 21_1965_edited-12011 12 21_19672011 12 21_1969

All’s well that ends well, and frozen custard at Freddy’s was a pretty good end to our adventure:2011 12 21_19702011 12 21_1972

The next day was Tristan’s 11th birthday.  Tristan loves Mexican food, and he decided that he wanted soft tacos for all three meals on his birthday.  We settled on breakfast tacos in the morning, quesadillas for lunch, and dinner at Maudie’s (our favorite Mexican restaurant).

Here is the big 11-year old helping to make the breakfast tacos:2011 12 22_1921_edited-1

His birthday present this year was going to the BYU/UT football game, and he didn’t mind not having any presents to open on his birthday, but just for fun I let him open up some games that I had gotten for the family for Christmas:                                                                     2011 12 22_1924

We also got two huge boxes later that day from Grandpa Darcy with all the kids’ Christmas presents and a birthday present for Tristan, and everyone was super excited about that: 2011 12 22_19272011 12 22_19352011 12 22_1937

Everyone gathered around Tristan’s new Legos:2011 12 22_1931

Tristan put together this little Lego movie that afternoon.  I don’t know how he knows how to do stuff like this:

Henry showing his excitement about all the new presents:2011 12 22_1938

He was so excited he felt like he should suddenly go dress up like a crazy army Batman sock monster:2011 12 22_1940

All the kids at Maudie’s for Tristan’s birthday dinner:2011 12 22_1943

Tristan always chooses pie on his birthday instead of cake (actually this year he said he was fine with just having some ice-cream cones instead of cake or pie, but I convinced him that it would be fun to be able to blow out some candles):                                                                2011 12 22_1956

The next day we let the kids bring down all of their Legos into the kitchen to set up a huge battle (they like to do this about once a year):                                                    2011 12 23_1910_edited-12011 12 23_19112011 12 23_19202011 12 23_1919

More Christmas singing (and puzzling) from Henry.  I guess at some point I should teach him the words:

By now the older kids were mostly puzzled out, but Henry, Lizza, and I worked faithfully on this one:2011 12 24_1903_edited-1

We finally finished it on Christmas Eve, and they were pretty happy:2011 12 24_1992

The end.

7 comments:

audrey said...

That video by Tristan was incredible! I can't believe an 11 year old made it! Good for him. Looks like he got your creative genes.

Rebekah said...

I love reading your posts, and I love all the pictures. (Although, every time I think of Undercover Blues and feel like saying, in a really whiney, pouty voice, "You guys always have so much fun!") I wish life at our house were as carefree as it seems at yours. I admire the way you play with your kids, and I think you do an incredible job of fostering their indivuality and creativity. I can tell they don't feel judged and are not afraid to be themselves. Way to go! Maybe I should send my kids your way for a while. You could fix them and send them back.

Marian said...

jo, there are too many pictures i love to even comment on them all. but i really think my favorite one is the one of cindy and henry by the fireplace with the magnets. i don't even know why, it just seems like such a sweet picture to me. henry is seeming so big!! that first video of him singing - cutest thing ever. the bowing!! who taught him to bow like that? it's all made better by the outfit he's wearing, too. i also love the picture of all your kids on the bench at the restaurant. looks like you guys had a pretty fun month! (one of chad's favorite movie quotes is "are you serious, clark?")

Eliza said...

Loved everything about this post! The video of henry being a cowboy drummer boy is just awesome. Tristan's video was very impressive also, and I loved reading everything at the end of the video because it sounded just like him. You are a very fun mom and quite frankly I don't know how you have the energy for it. I only have enough energy to be boring. I will have to work on that.

Corinne Ritz said...

Too many thoughts, too much to say! Just know that I loved this post, as I love all your posts! I can't let my kids see this post because then they will wanna bring all their legos to the kitchen for a huge battle. I can't block mine off easily like you did for Cindy. Bennett would have a blast while the older kids and I would go crazy!

There is a good chance we might move to Texas in about a year and a half for Jason's grad schooling, and my kids always refer to meeting their 'cousins' in Texas. They love your blog as much as I do. Mostly because your kids love all the crazy things that my kids do. It really would be fun for them to be playmates.

momJulee said...

This is delightful Joanne! Thank you for sharing and I now feel caught up with you and your kids!

Beccarigg said...

I totally second Rebekah's comment 100%! You guys have so much fun and you do an amazing job of fostering individuality and creativity. Every time I read your blog there is just so much joy from your children and your life. It makes me want to be better for my kids and try to provide them an environment like that where they can learn and explore and be who they are, even if it's a cowboy without any pants ; ) And I won't comment on every picture but I just have to post a few of my thoughts real quick:
1) Can Cindy come teach my girls to do chores? That is sad that a 1 year old is schooling them in the chores department!
2) That is so scary about the lego arm getting stuck up Henry's nose! I'm so amazed you guys were able to get it out! Who knew lego bribery beats getting put under for holding still : )
3) Love the nativity, I think you should do it every year and they can see how much they grow each year!
4) Love Henry's little bow after his drummer boy performance. It was especially cute in his cowboy "suit"
5) Tristan's request for soft tacos for all 3 meals made me laugh. just awesome.
6) Tristans' video is crazy amazing!! I can't believe he made that by himself! That is impressive!
7) love the way you spiced up the monotony of laundry. I'm always game for some good jumping pictures : )