Merry Christmas... with Love

Christmas arrived! And some part of me knows that there are aspects of this Christmas that I have been waiting for for my entire life. Such as having all my children under my roof and Santa's magic being real and all around us. We are also coming off a year that held great change, growing of our faith, and was full of spiritual experiences, and those things also brought about a special spirit in our home this Chrismtas season (or at least in my heart)

Christmas Eve... PJ hunt done and ready for Luke 2, dessert, & bed

Dear Santa, please bring me Rapunzel hair

Dear Santa, please bring me a princess castle

Dear Santa, please bring me a donut maker

Dear Santa, please bring us new hats

Some were more happy about this than others

A Choo-Choo wagon for when the boys get a little bigger and we can leave the house more

We were especially grateful for Skype today, as we used it 3 different times to talk to people in 3 different countries. We especially feel blessed this year by all the angels in our lives. Many of you, our friends and family, have answered our countless prayers and helped us in so many ways. From caring for my family while I was in the hospital and couldn't, to all the many gifts and acts of service we have been blessed with since returning home. It has been a humbling experience and our hearts are softened and touched. Many of our smiles this year have been because of your love and generosity. Merry Christmas with love.

Every Day Changes

Makaela continues to grow into a girl older and more mature each time I turn around. Her latest feat was learning to braid hair, and that alone wasn't enough... she then braided Ella's fine toddler hair. And she did pretty well for a first time. We are still so lucky to have our Makaela (and our Ella who let's her because she adores her).

Thea is really starting to develop her babysitting skills. She is enjoying the boys more and more as they start to smile and interact with her. We are so lucky to have our Thea too.

Dancing through the holiday

Makaela had another performance today (and Mark was at work, so babies and Grandpa & Grandma had to come!), and while we were there we found Mrs. Claus and Santa sitting around with nothing to do!

So we gave them an armful of babies... 

Ella proved to be the hardest to get to smile and pose for the picture. When Makaeala was changed she came and it seemed to help Ella a little, but it took a helper telling her she could have a pink candy cane for Ella to stop looking at her feet, take her fingers out of her mouth, and look at the camera! That girl will do anything for candy!

And for the grandparents & family members (especially those in Ukraine)... Makaela's dances. Below are links to watch both her Christmas dances. (she is on left to start)

Makaela Dancing Click Here

Makaela Dancing #2 Click Here

Other December Days

I finally managed to capture Creighton's smile! 

My sweet friend Tiffanie brought the girls gingerbread men, frosting, & chocolate chips since she knew that we wouldn't probably be making any such cute things this year. It was so fun!

A birthday dinner for my sister-in-law

Garrick Family Christmas Party

The Nativity

Special visitor 

My Little One

With Ella home alone with me and the boys all day, I get to really enjoy her and the bundle of personality she is. Here are some of her goings ons:

Our Elf came back from the North Pole and Ella was completely delighted when she hid in her bubble gum machine! That meant she could carry the elf around with her all day! They had tea parties, built towers, and watched TV together.

She learned to sing Jingle Bells! And we heard it at least 100 times the day she did. So the next day I put her new talent to use and put her in front of a captive audience to sing and do her little dance moves. She started singing, and then turned to me after one line and said, "mom! we are missing one! he will miss it!" So we have done this show a few times now so everyone can enjoy it.

Ella never just talks. She is always posing while she talks. Toes are moving, arms are moving, legs are being pointed and bent, and her face is always animated! One day I took a basket of laundry to her room to put away, and had no babies in tow! For the next 40 minutes I don't think Ella even hardly took a breath, she talked, and talked, and talked. She was thrilled to have a captive audience! At one point she did pause for about 2 seconds causing me to look up and realize she had big tears. Before I could even ask what happened (a drawer rolled over her toe) she was talking again and wiping her eyes saying, "mom I just need my eyes to stop dripping so I can tell you my story still!" I do love this girl.

Another day we were wrapping presents and I went to feed babies. When I came back I found my entire roll of wrapping paper taped closed. "I did it mom! I can tape the wrapping paper by myself!" 

So goes life with our little Ella. It's wonderful.

Another Month...

Another month has passed making our boys now 4 months old! They still seem so little, but at the doctors they are proving to be growing incredibly fast!

Creighton: 13 lbs 6oz

He is the most smiley of the 3 and loves to talk to us. He continues to have a fairly mild temperament and was the only boy to leave his check-up without any prescriptions! He also loves to grab things including his blankets and proves to be the best at tummy time! Every day he looks a little more like Mark, and his hair is coming in the quickest... and it's not blond!

Paxton: 13lbs 10oz

 He's starting to smile and talk, and is always trying to be held. He is often too busy smiling to have his bottle propped and prefers to be held and fed. He is now on 2 medications for his reflux in addition to needing lotions for his eczema. He coo's and smiles as well and thinks that whenever you pick him up he has won a baby lottery.

Weston: 13lbs 12oz

 Loves to gurgle! His poor eye continues to get frequent infections and he too is getting some slight eczema. He loves to see you when he wakes up and will immediately stop crying and smile at you when you appear at his crib side. He is the most serious of the boys, but when he smiles or gurgles at you it is heaven.

At 4 months old we have racked up some nice statistics:

1. We have used about 3,294 diapers
2. Together they have consumed about 90 cans of formula (That's over $2,000.00 worth)
3. We (mostly Mark) has prepared and washed about 2,160 bottles.
4. The boys have created about 96 loads of laundry since coming home (that's about 6-9 loads a week)
5. And we have not had a full nights rest for 122 days. 

We are a little more tired, but a lot more happy around here as we continue to feel very blessed.

Christmas in November

Thanksgiving was the earliest it could possibly be this year. Meaning we had an entire week after Thanksgiving that was still November! However, we began our December celebrations despite the calendar telling us it wasn't December yet.

One day I had to go run an errand and Mark had to get the leaves raked after work before dark. So Makaela was thrilled to be on duty for babysitting the boys (Disclaimer: Mark was available in the backyard). I called Makaela half way through my errand and she reported that 2 boys had woken up so she sent her friend home and went in and collected them out of their cribs and took them downstairs to the bouncers. When I called again on my way home she informed me that the 2 were now crying, and when asked how she was doing with that she replied, "fine." When I got home I found her like so:

Bouncing Creighton in the bouncer with one hand, holding Paxton in her lap, and reading a Christmas story to them. What a grown up little girl! So lucky to have her on my family team!

 One of our favorite traditions is the "Pajama Run!" 

Together with my family we hit a local mall and all run around and find our Christmas Eve Pajamas. We love it because we get to enjoy dinner together, and we all get to pick the Pajamas we want to wear when Santa comes. This year we headed downtown and it was so delightful! 

The girls overlooking Main Street in the tunnel

Waiting for mom to collect her PJ's

And waiting for the elevator... always with sass!

 And we ended our Christmas in November week with the Festival of Trees. Mark wins a husband of the season award for letting me go to bid night while he stayed home with all 6 kids and got all their school night stuff done. I enjoyed walking around the festival and taking in all that the it holds: lot's of touching stories that remind me what this season is all about. I always go home a little more grateful for each of my healthy children and all our other blessings.

We headed back to the Festival later on to watch Makaela dance. And she was so thrilled to have a TON of family there to watch her! Eric, Allison, Logan, Lindsey, Kailey, Benjamin, David, Andrew, Kayden, Luke, Emma, Grandma, Grandpa, and even some neighbors Tiffanie, Dylan, & Owen! She loved having her uncles yell out her name to her on stage too. It was a favorite performance for her as she danced 2 dances, and I of course cried as I watched her shine on stage. I will forever continue to say: watching your kids develop their talents is one of the most fabulous things you get to do as a mom.

This same day we also enjoyed a piano recital by Makaela and Thea. And it was Thea's first recital! So of course I grabbed a picture of her, but somehow failed to get the two sisters together. Oh well.

 Thea & Makaela again felt special as they had their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents there. The girls performed beautifully and made us so proud of all that hard work and practicing!

So Despite it just being December 1 (at the end of these activities), we are off to a fabulous and festive start!

Our Thanksgiving

Picking up where we left off...

Thanksgiving was wonderful, largely in part to having my kids home for 5 1/2 days! We spent the day with my parents and brother, since the babies have to avoid crowds much larger then this so they can stay healthy. We started the day off with a Feast with the Beasts at the zoo. One of the best moments was watching the elephants stomp and break open their HUGE pumpkins! We saw gorilla's and orangutans feast on pinata's, pies, and pumpkins, and a bunch of other animals enjoy their feasts as well! It was a good start to the day, and pleasantly warm. 

When we got home we discovered our oven timer hadn't worked, so our turkey had not yet even started cooking! So we took it down to my parents and house, and luckily they too had done a turkey, so we were still able to enjoy plenty of feast at the hour we had planned. And the boys hardly slept during this day! But all in all they did pretty well!

And the day before Thanksgiving, the girls had no school, so we had a big outing... to the library and adjacent park. Yup, pretty impressive! j/k But it was fun for the girls to finally get to visit the re-modeled park and have some time to browse books. 

Earlier in the week I had snapped a few moments:

A pleasant moment with the boys were not screaming, but rather making faces, smiling, and talking with me. Weston & Creighton (Paxton still snoozed).

And this is what a fairly typical feeding looks like. Weston and Paxton screaming to eat while Creighton looks on, waiting his turn. Creighton remains the most calm and mellow of the 3. He usually wakes up talking in his crib and kicking his legs. Weston always wakes up screaming. And Paxton usually complains upon waking, but he saves his cries for eating because that is when his reflux really gets to him. But they are all wonderful, and we love them each for their uniqueness!

And my Ella. Oh sweet Ella. She drives me crazy sometimes, but more often she makes me laughs. This was they day she asked me to take like half a dozen pictures of her ruffle bum outfit. What a hoot! This girl says the funniest things, and is so full of personality that I can hardly handle it! Love her to pieces!

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! As explained on our Maxfamclan blog, we ran out of memory space, so we will start this new blog and see how long we last here! Hopefully at least another 5 years.