Relaxing Before the Holidays

With Christmas only three days away it seems counter-intuitive that we would be relaxing these days but that's just what we've been up to.  With no travel and no visitors planned we don't have much to concern ourselves with.  The Christmas shopping and decorating was done pretty early with just one final trip needed this weekend for stocking stuffers and wrapping paper.  And since most of the family is sick with a cold of some sort we've not been doing too much.  The girls finished up school last week with each enjoying their Christmas parties.  Margot and Mark went to Isla's and got to see her put on a little Christmas concert, which I am sad I missed.  She seems to really be loving her school and I'm very happy we switched her.  She'll be attending our church preschool again next year as well, but three days instead of two.  I also took Sawyer and Isla to the church Christmas concert, which had all the grades except preschool participate.  They loved it and clapped excitedly after each performance.  I didn't think we'd stay to the end, but we did.

As for this weekend, it was probably the most low key we've had in a long while, and I have to say it was wonderful.  I read an entire book, which I can't remember doing in a long time.  But the kids were pretty well behaved, or at least would go off and play on their own a bit more...or I just wasn't caring about what they got into.  On Sunday Sawyer & Isla spent an hour with my make-up and then put various dresses on.  Quite frankly I should have stopped them but it made for a peaceful hour...and at the end of the day I need new makeup so didn't really care.

We stayed in jammies a bit longer, and just kind of hung out.  We did make it over to the library on Saturday to get out of the house for a bit of play time, which is where most of the pictures are from. We also made some more cookies - holiday M&M cookies this time.  Just one more batch to make sometime in the next two weeks - Molasses, at Mark's request.  Shouldn't be hard since we have lots more relaxing time planned over the next two weeks while the kids are off from school, and I'm mostly off from work.

As for our trip to the library, they play in this bin quite a bit.  You take those shapes and velcro them on a big wall, but it's also a great little area to roll around in...which they did.

 Isla played with some of the ipad games while she was there

And as soon as Margot was left to her own devices she threw all those shapes on the floor. Luckily she's pretty good at cleaning up so she helped put them all back too

 We played some legos...with Margot in her very comfy leisure suit that had us laughing all day.

 And Isla did some dress-up as a cowgirl.

All in all, a good weekend.  We are looking forward to an equally relaxing holiday.  At Sawyer's request we'll be having spaghetti and meatballs for Christmas Eve dinner, but will let the girls wear their fancy dresses and eat in the dining room with candles.  Rather than make a pie or anything, we are going to have hot fudge sundaes with sprinkles, whipped cream, and cherries for dessert on both nights...something I know the kids will eat...and sometime tomorrow when I go to the grocery store I'll figure out a dinner for Christmas based on whatever looks good.  If we spend the whole day in sweats and pajamas on Thursday I'll totally be ok with it....especially if these colds don't go away.

A Visit to Santa

These pictures aren't as good because they were all taken on my phone, but they capture our trip into town to visit Santa.  Our town sets up a little gingerbread house and each Saturday and Sunday Santa is there for three hours for you to stop by.  Due to Margot's nap we left the house with about 15 minutes to spare and just managed to see him before he left.  There was no line so we walked right up.  Sawyer held back a bit but Isla walked right up and talked to him and sat on his lap.  She told me asked for an airplane that flies and a race car.  Can't say I'd heard either of those before.

 For a girl who left the house insisting she would not speak or sit on Santa's lap, but only look, it didn't take her long to get up there.  They had her at "free candy cane".  She went up and talked to him and then I was able to snap a quick picture.

 Our very first year of pictures with Santa

Margot cried so did not sit on Santa's lap, though she happily accepted the candy cane, waved, and said thank you.  And later on before bed she wanted to take a selfie of herself on my phone.

The reason being is I was taking a few pictures of Sawyer and Isla.  They are obsessed with putting on my high heels these days and wear them around the house.  Isla also added a beaded necklace and some lip gloss.  This is the clean version.  She preferred to walk around naked with her necklace and heels but I finally convinced her to put some jammies on.  God help us.

 Not to be outdone, Sawyer got her heels on, insisted on a quick pony tail and wanted a picture as well

And one together for good measure.  Both girls had a low fever yesterday, and Sawyer woke up with one again today, slightly higher though.  On the flip side, Isla's went away.  So Sawyer is home from school today and Isla and I ran out this morning to get her some cough medicine, cough drops, and a few treats to keep them busy today while she hopefully hangs on the couch to rest up and so she's not too sad about missing out on Grinch day at school today.

Margot's First Haircut

Last week Margot got her first haircut!  She was starting to look a little rough, and was getting a mullet-ish tail so we thought that our girl needed a little clean-up.  Off we went to Miss Kateri's where each of the girls have gotten their first cuts. Well "we" didn't go, I was downtown for work that day, so Mark took the girls and brought the camera to take pictures for me.  I think that's why I love these pictures so much - they tell such a story and make me feel like I was there.  So forgive the extra volume of pictures of basically the same thing, but I like the little changes in facial expressions from one to the other.

So without further ado...I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:
Who am I kidding, I am doing the talking for these pictures, even if I wasn't there - doesn't this picture just say "are we really doing this" to you?

And it begins...seemingly highly skeptical

Catching a look of herself in the mirror....just utter confusion and disbelief here

 But then the sadness sets in...she seems so forlorn that her hair is getting cut

And when all is said and done, the cape comes off and she's allowed to play in the car for a minute. It's like she's thinking...my parents must really not like me to make me do this.

 I mean really, who put this silly pony tail in my hair?

Mark said she was just utterly quiet during the whole thing...I just think she looks injured in this picture.  Ha - poor girl

And in other news, we did some Christmas-related things this weekend.  I whipped up some cookie dough Friday night so that after a morning of grocery shopping we were ready to make some cutout cookies.  I waited till Margot went to bed because she went nutzo on that cookie dough last time.  Her sisters did that for her, and we let her join in on the frosting and decorating stage instead.

As Mark said, these girls make cookies so often, we seem to be building quite a portfolio of cooking making / decorating pictures over these years.  First up, the poser...

We did three kinds this year - snowflakes, candy canes, and trees.  We started with white frosting, then switched to red, and then green.  I ended up decorating the trees as the rest of my support got tired and decided to move on.

 Margot decorated a total of two cookies and instead feasted on frosting and sprinkles

 Isla hung in for far longer this time - though she also polished off 3-4 cookies as we were decorating

And lastly, here's our work horse.  She's thinking about how lazy her sisters are and how she gets stuck doing most of the work.

Just before we did the cookies we did run into town to see Santa Claus.  I will post my two pictures from my phone tomorrow.  Suffice it to say, Isla was super brave and went first, walking right up. Sawyer decided if Isla could be brave (and get a candy cane) then she could too.  I tried to put Margot up there with Isla but she started to cry, and I have a soft spot for Margot crying so I surely didn't leave her on there to get a picture.  All told we were out of the house for 20 minutes, but these girls enjoyed talking to Santa and feel they do not need to go back and see him again.

A Visit, A Birthday, and Some Phone Pics

We were very lucky last week to get a visit from some of our favorite people.  The Daleys decided to make Ryan's Christmas party trip to Chicago a family trip.  That meant we got to see Kate, Ryan, Maeve and Rory for a nice weekend visit.  I can't say we were super productive while they were here. Other than a trip to the library, frozen yogurt and the playground we didn't leave the house the whole weekend.  

This was the scene when they arrived - I was feeding Rory but my girl wanted her love too and insisted I spread the love around equally.

One reason for our laziness was the fact that we had five kids 6 and under and it's hard to leave the house with that many kids.  But the other is probably the fact that all five kids had a cough and/or runny nose, and I was battling a cold myself.  Rory's tired eyes kind of say it all in this pic, so there was a lot of just playing around the house.  

But hey, that can be fun too.  Maeve and Isla played well together probably 80% of the time, the other 20% was probably spent arguing over toys...usually this horse.  Eventually they learned to share it, and we saw a lot of this - two girls running around the house on a horse.  They also were big into playing Elsa and Anna where one would lay on the ground after they were hit by ice and the other used her magical powers.

And sometimes these girls just relaxed and watched a movie together.  Perhaps our little Margot shouldn't watch tv/ipad at her age but she's a serious fan so it's hard to say no.  I think Rory was napping so this is the closest I got to a picture of all the children together.  

Kate and Ryan headed out for the Christmas party the one night and we got to watch all five kids.  It pretty much convinced us that having five kids would be madness.  Mark was bathing Margot while I was giving Rory a bottle and putting him to bed.  During that time, Isla was running around upstairs, Maeve fell asleep on the couch, and Sawyer watched the ipad on the couch.  We thought we did pretty well though because all five children were in bed by 7:30 until Maeve woke up at 11p ready to rock.  I brought her downstairs because she was all kinds of chatty, and not into whispering, where she kindly suggested that we "watch a movie called Frozen".  And that was where Kate and Ryan found us shortly thereafter.  Luckily she listened when they said it was time for back to bed; unluckily, Rory woke up just as everyone was about to go to upstairs.  Sleeping is not boy's thing so he is going to owe his mom and dad big time someday.

Next up after the weekend was my birthday.  I used to totally make it my day - take the day off of work, go Christmas/me shopping, see a movie, and then end the night meeting Mark out for a nice dinner.  Why has that stopped?  This year I worked, helped make dinner, and then had some lovely desserts that Mark picked up.  One of the big highlights was using my space heater Mark bought me for my office (because the basement is cold).  It was fun, but I'm thinking perhaps I need to bring back a few elements of my celebrations from year's past.

The girls were very much looking forward to having cake, and Margot came over and sat with me, and even helped sing.  Please ignore the crazy hair - I had just taken out a pony tail so there's some weird kinks going on.  Only pics of Margie and me, but Sawyer and Isla were on either side singing away as well, and dug right into the cannolis - which Sawyer calls "granolis", which makes Mark and I laugh each time even though it's totally not that funny.  

And now...just some random photos.  This is one of my favorites of Margot and I.  She loves to take pictures with my phone.

 A picture of Sawyer showing Grandma how she does math on the ipad...and a few sisters looking on

 Margot had some fun with the bucket from Isla's toy

 And Sawyer took a bit of a selfie..she actually took a bunch...

We are all sorts of looking forward to Christmas.  We have a nice relaxing holiday at home planned, are hoping for some snow to go sledding, planning to hit up a movie or two, will probably do some breakfasts/lunches out, and hope to play with lots of new toys that allow Mark and I to also relax a bit as well.  Pretty crazy it's only two weeks away...

Lots to be Thankful for

As I mentioned, we headed over to Manchester for Thanksgiving this year.   We had a wonderful visit with the Grandparents, Ann and Ted, and especially the cousins.  The kiddos always seem to pick up right where they left off.  While we celebrated Isla's birthday on Wednesday, the main event of course was Thursday where there was tons of great food and wine, and of course kids running around.  It was a lovely, relaxing day.  Margot has been battling a bit of a cold and so she slept through dinner but for the better because after each nap she got a little bit better and I got to eat a meal without a kid sitting on my lap.  

Friday was more of the same, though we got out of the house for a bit to walk around in Chelsea.  We went to a few toy stores and out for lunch before heading back for some much needed naps.  It was the first nap Isla's taken in probably 6 months, and she passed out cold for three hours.  I wish I could bottle how it looked like she felt when she woke up.  Needless to say we were very happy about the naps because we had plans to take Grandma and Grandpa out for early birthday dinners that night.  It's not often we like to take our kids to nicer restaurants but this was a worthy exception and so of course we got them dolled up.  

Before we left, we took some pictures of the five cousins together.  I'm not sure which one I'll pick to frame, but I thought I'd put a few on here because when shown together they make me laugh as well. The prize for most photogenic child of mine goes to Sawyer - way to always be looking at the camera girl!

 Like this one a lot though Ben looks younger than he is because he's kneeling

 Not quite as many smiles here but this might be the best all-around

Margot kind of seems like she's drugged...I attribute this to the cold - she's a walking stuffed up nose commercial.  Still cute in purple though, now if only we could get that hair to really grow...

And then we decided to try some sitting on the fireplace.  Many of Mark's kid photos are on this fireplace so it seemed appropriate. Margot - look at your Mama...and take out that binky!!

 Ok, great!  Oops...Ben and Isla, just because I said Margot's name doesn't mean you have to look at her - keep your eyes on the camera!

Whichever one we end up choosing, I'm just glad that these kids all get along and enjoy spending time together. And with that, a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting us.  I am sure they are both loving the quiet and missing the noise right now.  More pictures probably to come - I think I have a few on my phone from this weekend, and we started decorating for Christmas today.  I think we'll be all finished sometime this week and I want to try out some new (to me) settings on my camera to see how they turn out when taken with the tree as a backdrop.

Happy 4th Birthday to Isla!

We celebrated another birthday this past week, in multiple locations.  It was a great celebration, and each Thanksgiving is a little walk down memory lane for me because I think about the year that Isla was born.  That year, we had a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just Mark, Sawyer and I and I woke up the next day knowing I was going to have our Isla that day.  We hung out at home making Turkey Noodle Soup, Turkey Sandwiches, and then made our way to the hospital.  And at around 6p our girl had arrived, quite a cute little thing at that.  Is a great memory for sure.

And now our girl is 4.  She's been counting down to this one for awhile, and is so happy to have moved past 3 - that was just too babyish for her, now she's a big girl.  We celebrated a bit at home in the morning.  She woke up and got herself dressed, putting on one of the new shirts she got from her cousin Alexa.  This was her favorite...most likely because we are very into my little ponies right now, and even though this is a unicorn, it's very similar and was an instant hit.  As you can see...very excited to be 4.

After a quick breakfast Sawyer could wait no longer for Isla to open her presents.  Sawyer was with me when we bought them and it was eating her up.  Luckily Isla was pretty jazzed about all of her presents, including her lip glosses, which is what Sawyer is showing her.

She also got a pony game, which we spent some time playing today.

We then hopped into the car and made our way east to Manchester for the holiday weekend. Thankfully we had some helpers in Manchester to pick up the cake for us, who went above and beyond by getting balloons and all sorts of other decorations.  As you can see, they were very well received.

 Margot got into the action

 And all the girls ran around for a bit which was nice

 It's amazing how big a hit balloons can be

Preparing for cake:

 Getting in on the necklace action

 The only shot I have of Isla's Olaf cupcake cake

 Blowing out candles

And of course playing with one of her new presents from the Grandparents.  She got lots of good building things and games which have been keeping us busy since we've been home

 All in all I think she had a great birthday, followed by a great visit in Michigan.  And since I've been a total deadbeat poster this month, here's a few other photos I found on the camera.  The three girls were watching a tv show together and cuddling at the same time...proof that even though there is fighting and yelling and hitting, they do love each other...

 And from the front.

And finally, a shot of Margot and Mark with our little magoo playing with one of her dolls.  She has gotten more into babies lately and loves to hug and kiss and rock the baby