Ring Around the Rosie

This is one of those posts where words cannot do justice to the pictures.

Watching these girls in all their sweetness was probably my best memory of Christmas this year. When I see them together, interacting and enjoying each other in one of life's simplest pleasures... I could almost cry. (In fact, I think I did the first time I looked back at these pictures.) It makes me remember that Casey and I were once little and the best of companions too.

I have to pinch myself in moments like these to really realize that these are our daughters!!! Looking at them and how quickly they are growing and changing, I am in awe that we actually made them! How lucky are we? God has blessed us with three daughters the same age and we get to watch them play together.

Our families are truly blessed and I thank God for ALL of our children. Wes scooped up Sophie and Stella to play Ring Around the Rosie on Christmas Day and the girls laughed and squealed with delight and anticipation.

They clasped hands with each new round.

(Ahh! I can't even stand the cuteness of this!)

And repeated this game over and over and over.
They even chose to go it alone when Wes's arms needed a breather. :)

I know there's a lot of the same, but I'm posting every single picture I took of this interaction because I want to remember it forever. It was one of the sweetest things EVER!

Yay! Wes is ready for round TWO! And, clearly, Sophie & Stella are THRILLED!

(Mya still wasn't feeling up to playing for most of this, but she joined in at the end for a bit.)

Watching for a moment. LOVE her piggies. :)

Then all three girls held hands and swayed/walked in a circle while singing the few words they could remember of the song.

Sugar and spice

and everything nice.

That's what little girls

are made of.

I love these sweet girls with all my heart and I love that they get to share the same companionship that I cherish so much with MY sister.

Love you, Casey!

Christmas Celebrations, Part 4

Christmas Day (brunch time through early evening) is typically spent at my parents house.

This has been the ritual in years past... except this year, my little family arrived both late and incomplete. My heart is heavy this Christmas with the family rift that continues to bring pain and sadness to us and has completely changed our idea of normal. It is unfair and I want so badly for it to just go away.

But since I choose instead not to dwell on what I am unable to change right now, I'm going to focus my thoughts and gratitude on the three happy hours I spent with (most of) my loved ones. (And hopefully next year will be different.)

Upon arrival after nap time, Will, Sophie and I were greeted by these two cuties who had been sniffling and coughing their way through the holidays. Poor babies. It's never fun to be sick, let alone when there are countless parties to attend in a short period.

Stella wore her pretty, new tutu over her jammies. :)

Mya was just not herself - super quiet and snuggly and not really interested in playing.

Will got right to work opening presents. It seems his method is to rip without pause and then play and enjoy and act interested later.

A large Case combine and front end loader.

Will got some new toys to help him learn to tell time from Casey & Wes.

Sophie got a Melissa & Doug Band in a Box set and a new Cabbage Patch baby doll.

My "baby brother" Zach (age 21) in his best Christmas Day attire. :)

Amanda & Taylor had to party hop back and forth to Pemberville multiple times today but it was nice to see them for a short time. Amanda got the kids each a nice gift and gave us a free night of babysitting to go out on a date. So nice!

Sophie adores her Nana. She gets so excited to see her and loves & hugs on her constantly.

You'll never guess what he's doing here... Yes! Helping others open their gifts again! How did you know? He's so thoughtful.

Story time with Papa. Such a sweet picture of Mya & Sophia.

Stella & Nana join in.

Can you just feel how much he loves having his picture taken?

Reading his new book from Amanda.

We had a delicious dinner and Casey made gingerbread cookies for dessert.

Somebody's feeling grumpy after a long day!

Little Dub & Big Dub (or Uncle Dub).

{"Dub" came from the "W's" at the beginning of both their names. :)}

This was so funny. Will had been begging to play with Nana's Nativity Scene for a long time. So finally we're here and he's playing... and he decides to incorporate his new Honda CBR motorcycle... :)

Who needs a donkey? This is a much more efficient way to get to Bethlehem, no? LOL

My mom's tree was gorgeous.

Stella, Sophia & Mya

Poor Stella did not want to do this. But I LOVE Mya's face in this picture. So cute!

Cousins.

What cracks me up about this picture is that you can easily spot the bookworms in each family. ;) Mya & Will are both the kids that constantly bring books to mom or dad to read.

Sharing.

Our time there felt brief and I wish things could have been different. But we did enjoy every minute with cousins. There were lots of gifts I didn't get a chance to photograph, but I'm sure they will be showcased in future posts during play time: an easel, a new set of building blocks, a sit 'n spin, a kids Sequence game, etc.

We stayed in jammies ALL DAY. Christmas Day was very relaxing. :)

Lead Me

Father, give me the strength

To be everything I'm called to be

Oh, Father, show me the way

To lead them

Won't you lead me?

To lead them with strong hands

To stand up when they can't

Don't leave them hungry for love

Chasing things that I could give up.

I'll show them I'm willing to fight

And give them the BEST OF MY LIFE

So we can call this our home

Lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone.

Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone.

----------------------------------------

I get teary every time I hear that song.

{Lead Me by Sanctus Real}

My brother in law, Wes, gave me one of this Christian band's latest albums awhile back featuring this hit song. It is so powerful and so uplifting to me as a mom. I love the entire album, though, and would like to purchase more of their music.

The group is all originally from the Toledo area and I believe I heard they have been Grammy nominated this year! They're touring all over the country, including right nearby at Perrysburg's Cedar Creek Church on NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

I'm so excited that Wes has the inside scoop on this group (he has one of the drummer's kids in his kindergarten class this year!) because we have arrangements to see the show without having to purchase tickets! I CANNOT wait - it's going to be incredible - and a perfect spiritual message to ring in the new year.

For more info on this group, check out their blog and also the personal blog of one of the band members whose family is struggling with the birth of a son with a rare congenital heart defect.

I also highly recommend purchasing their music. ;)

Christmas Celebrations, Part 3

December 25th - Christmas morning!

But first, one more close-up picture from Christmas Eve that I meant to include at the end of my last post: We always spend Christmas morning at home, of course.

Remember I said Will didn't get to bed until midnight on Christmas Eve? Well lo and behold... guess who arrived at the top of our bedroom steps at 6:30 a.m.??? Nice alarm clock, huh?
I was reeeeeally hoping he would sleep till 8-ish on account of the late bedtime. But nope! So instead, we made him climb into bed with us until about 8:15 or so and he was okay with that... But he didn't sleep... And he's really squirmy. ;)

Finally, we got up and came downstairs. Sophie was still sleeping - bless her heart - and we had to wake her to get started since Will had been waiting so long. She wasn't real happy about being awake at first and even opened the first couple presents with scrunched eyebrows. Haha. But she livened up after awhile and we all took a nap around noon. :)

Believe it or not, even after the 24 new books we opened in our Christmas Countdown, the kids still opened more books on Christmas morning. What can I say? We're a book-loving bunch!

Will has this dinosaur book nearly memorized now and has learned a few more new names of these huge prehistoric creatures: diplodocus, oviraptor, ankylosaurus, etc.

Lots more new puzzles too!

Melissa & Doug dress-up bear family.

I love these new Montessori-esque puzzles that I scored for a great deal from Land of Nod. One on fractions and two on graduating dimensions/color shades.

This year, we each had a designated wrapping paper style to look for instead of labeling. I didn't get too much into what was from Santa and what was from us, but Will knows he got presents from both. I think by next year, we'll have to formulate a plan with this and establish some sort of tradition. But I've read a couple cool ideas on how other families do things.

Sophie got a super cool new sorting game from Lakeshore to help her learn colors. The quality of this set is really impressive, as expected from Lakeshore. And, though she didn't seem to understand the concept at first (except that it is fun to put the rings on the spindles), by the afternoon she was grasping the concept of sorting! (Even if she didn't understand that each color has it's own name yet.) By the next day, she had improved even more and she has been saying "purple" for a couple weeks now. So I think she's going to catch on quickly. I also think purple might be her favorite color. :)

Will once again elected himself everyones helper with gift opening.

Craig got a new pair of sneaks. Ha! Like he really needs another pair of shoes... I literally just got him a different pair of Pumas for his birthday in October. But, that's what he wanted! This man and his shoes...

I knew this game would be a huge hit even if the real point of the game didn't catch on until later. And I was right! Both kids loved plunking the little round chips into the board and watching them drop and fill up the board.

I love, love, love this gift presentation!

And I love, love, love my new "family tree" necklace from Craig.

A colorful new set of "xylopipes" has left our ears ringing. But what a smiley face it brought for our girl!

Stockings!

Craig got The Fast & The Furious on blu-ray.

The kids got bibs, Tell Me a Story cards, water color crayons, etc.

Remember how much I complained about my ear buds always falling out when I was running with the iPod? Well, I got a sweet new pair in my stocking and these bad boys don't budge! They're awesome! I laughed at the Paul Frank pink... I'm going to be so hip when I run now. LOL

Will "helping"... again.

Yay! Some new Bows2Cute hair bows for our lovely lady's locks.

P.S. I love the kids' Christmas jammies this year! My mom got all the grandkids a pair to wear on Christmas morning this year and all three little girls were matching.

At the end of all the gifts and stockings, daddy tells Will he has one more surprise...

...waiting for him in the closet.

Woo hoo! A red bicycle, just like he asked for on every Santa's lap!

The bike came with training wheels, which I plan to remove as soon as the weather is nice enough to practice outside. A part of me wishes we'd gotten the bike this past summer because I really think he'd have been capable of learning to ride without the training wheels then.

After the bike reveal, we settled in for a late breakfast. I had a cranberry nut coffee cake baking in the oven while we were opening, so I just made up a quick fruit salad and put some sausage links on to warm while I scrambled the eggs. This picture is hideous:

Mmm! I love the strong almond extract flavor in this cake.

The rest of the morning was spent playing with our gifts.

Reading books... or, in this case, a children's atlas.

Filling the Connect 4 board 30 or 40 times. ;)

Kickin' up feet in new slippers.

Cuddling.

Trying our hand with a "button snake".

"Button snakes" are/were all over the Tot School blogs and I always wanted to make/get one. The point of them is to teach little fingers how to button. I'm sure it would be incredibly easy to make... just stitch a piece of ribbon with one end attached to a felt square and the other to a button. Then cut a just-wide-enough slit in several other felt squares (doesn't have to be felt) and the child just "buttons" each square and slides it down the ribbon. Easy peasy. But I never got around to trying this before finding one on Etsy for $3.50 + free shipping. That's definitely worth the time I saved making my own. ;)

Flashy new additions to the matchbox "Cars & Trucks" collection.

A (pretty challenging!) cube puzzle by Melissa & Doug with six different farm animal scenes to make different puzzle pictures.

Loving up the littlest.

Teamwork on the color sorting.

Will does an excellent job helping to "teach" Sophie by telling her the names of each color as they place each ring.

Teamwork to wake daddy from his premature snooze. ;)

Will thought it would be hilarious if we wore our stockings on our feet like a sock. Maybe my kid's onto something! This just may be the next fashion statement over skinny jeans! LOL

He's always offering up the smooches. Love.

A family pic on the couch just before we all crashed for a much-needed nap.