Christmas Day!

Evie got up first this morning and came and woke us up. It was 6:55. Annalise was still asleep so we told Evie to go back to bed until 7:00. At 7 on the dot, she came and woke us up again (it's funny how fast you can fall back asleep) and then woke up Annalise. They were down sorting presents by the time we got out of bed and made it downstairs.

For some reason, Evie thought it would be hilarious to give Jim a box of lint for Christmas. So this is the yield from this week's laundry.

Check out that smile! Annalise is excited to get her Barbie horse and carriage.


Evie opens another present from Santa--scrabble Flash.

Here's the least surprising present of the day. Cows for our Future Farmer. The bull is anotomically correct. Try explaining that to a 4 year old.

Evie made some presents at school for us and she gave one to Jim to open.

Amongst this brewing fight, I get to open the other one that she made at school.

More Barbies. This is definately my kid. And they are cheerleaders!

Take a closer look at the wrapping paper Evie made in school for our present. Guess they aren't doing much in the way of separation of church and state.

We also received a book from our friends up north. The 12 days of Christmas in Minnesota! We love it.

Jim opens his big present. A beer brewing kit. JIm comes from a long line of men who make alcohol in the basement so it was only a matter of time before the brewing bug bit him. The kit comes with everything to make beer execpt the bottles. So save all your pry top bottles for us! We need 53!

This was our awesome breakfast. I made the cinnamon rolls according to an ancient Sherwood, Ohio Methodist Church Lady recipe. Jim made the eggs Benedict and holidase sauce from scratch. It was pretty filling and we didn't eat lunch until around 2 pm.

When all the stuff was removed from its packaging, we got down to playing. Annalise can really keep herself busy. I think if you look closely, there is a calf in that carriage.

Evie busts out her circut kit or "engineering kit" as she calls it. You can make 300 things with this and she is already through 20 of them.

Unfortunately, we also got a sick kid for Christmas. Evie seems to have her yearly case of croup. I even called the dr. today because I was wondering if we should get her an antibiotic. The dr said no to the Rx and to keep her away from all elderly and babies. So she is stuck at home with Jim for a few days while she heals. Annalise and I are heading to Ohio for the beginning of the trianglar family Christmases. You never know what happens around the holidays. We could be back home with Jim and Evie on Monday. Cross your fingers that Annalise isn't a carrier.

For now Annalise seems fine as she tries to interrupt my lounging time on the couch this afternoon. I am happy to say that we played with all the toys and stayed in our jammies all day. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, across the hills and dales, lakes and rivers, mountains and valleys, oceans and streams.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

(Nothing like taking the family picture when all of us are clean and dressed for church )

In some homes, families make birthday cakes for the Baby Jesus. We start the day with this particularly uplifting song from the 80's. Enjoy.

Return to Sender

So today we returned sweet Baby Georgie (by the way, I hope she doesn't marry anyone with the last name of Brown because then she would be Sweet Georgie Brown and that would just remind me of the Harlem Globetrotters) to her Ohio kin for the start of her worldwide tour of first Christmas. We did have lots of fun with her despite the fact that she slept like a normal 4 month old who was away from her nursing mom. One thing is for certain, we will all sleep well tonight. Her Grandma Cooper probably won't. Here are some pics I captured on the phone. That's why they are the greatest quality but you can clearly see how happy a baby she is and how much fun we had being around her. Evie loved on her a lot and even got good at feeding her bottles. We never did get a chance to teach Evie to change diapers.
Aunt Becky sent all her most embarassing holiday clothes and we took the opportunity to dress her up like a little elf.

On Monday, I was feeling brave so I loaded all three kids in the back of the grocery getter and we went down to the Indiana State Museum. There, they have an old train that used to run in the L.S.Ayres store in downtown. You could also visit Santa. Since we already have talked to Santa this season, the big kids took a spin on the train and then we explored the rest of the musuem.

Georgie rode in the sling and I got lots of looks from parents and nice comments from grandma types about how cute she was.

We started walking around the displays and realized that this isn't really a super fun museum for kids, but it did really go over Indiana history in detail including this varsity jacket from Bobby Plump of the Milan Miracle team of 1954. You probably know the story better as the Gene Hackman version of Hoosiers (cue the music!) We also learned that one of our favorite authors, Norman Bridwell of Clifford fame has ties to Indiana.

Overwhelmed by Indiana history and geology, Georgie fell asleep.

We only started to get her in funny poses before we returned her back to Ohio.

But before she left, we gave her a taste of solid food.

Evie's Teeth

We went to the dentist today. All of us checked out with no cavities. Evie had her first whole head scan to make sure that there are adult teeth growing in behind those baby teeth. They are all there and developing, but some look like they will be pretty crunched in there. We are taking orthodontist recommendations as well as donations.

Our weekend

Friday started Evie's winter break from school. Annalise had her holiday party at school and Evie and I attended. Evie participated in the rousing circle of Reindeer Hokey Pokey. They were shaking their antler's all about.

Then we had a quiet afternoon at home and that night, we curled up as a family with the Legos.
We had a bug making night. I am particularly proud of my blue mosquito.

On Saturday, I met Aunt Becky at the Warm Glow Candle outlet to pick up Georgiana. We will have her until at least Thursday while Aunt Becky and Uncle Bran run back down to SC to take care of some business.

After a long, long night of waking up every hour (GEORGIE), we awoke to a beautiful morning fog that left crystals on all the trees.

It was pretty, but not pretty enough for us to skip Georgie's morning nap and get a few more winks. The kids were left with the TV and they did ok.

This is a rare sight at our house. Georgie doesn't like to sleep very much. Thank goodness Annalise's poor sleep habits have broken us in for this kid's visit.

We did find a place that made her happy--under the Christmas tree with some company.

Evie is being a good helper and even tried to give Georgie a bottle. Since Georgie isn't all that good at taking bottles, this didn't last long. We managed to fill her up with lots of milk before shipping her off to bed tonight. We hope she sleeps better.

Evie entertains Georgie.

And we get a smile. For a kid that never sleeps, she sure is happy. Wish I could say the same about me and Uncle Jim. We are going to bed early tonight!