Greta's new smile

Greta has a new way of looking in the camera that just cracks me up.  I think I remember Claudia doing the same thing at the same age.

Pee Party

One of Greta's favorite things to do is have a pee party (that's how she says tea party) with her sisters.  The other day Claudia promised her that when she woke from her nap she would give her a party.  Claudia loves to decorate and plan and set up, so she made it very nice with candles and table cloth and all.  Some how Aaron slid in there and stole Morgan's spot.

Rasta

Another treasure from my bin from my mom's attic...this crazy hat that I knitted or crocheted in who knows what grade in school.  The thing is ridiculous, so loose and big.  But Morgan loves the crazy hat and wears it often.  I tell her she looks like a Rastafarian, but without the dreadlocks.

This is for you, Maw-maw

Recently, my mom came across this dress that she had made for me when I was about Greta's age.  It's one of Greta's favorites.

I almost deleted this one b/c it was so overexposed.  I took a second look and really liked it!!

En pointe

A big day has finally arrived for Claudia.  My sweet girl is now able to be dancing on pointe shoes in her ballet class.  She has been working very hard, waiting for her teacher to say when she was ready.  (I have much respect for her teacher, she looks at each girl individually and assess them that way.)  Last week she danced her first class in the shoes.  She had so much fun, though she was quite sore after.  I love to watch her dance and am so proud of all her hard work!!

Catching up

I've been a bit behind here...finally tackling my Christmas day photos.  I go through stages of love/hate with my photography and photos.  I'm in the hate stage right now.  I really don't like all my indoor photos, the lighting is terrible, the background is blah.  Also, I recently got some new editing software.  I am super excited about it, but very intimidated by it.  I'm not the most technically minded person and often get overwhelmed at the hows and whys of things like that.  I know I will get it, eventually.  But as of now I am kind of avoiding it b/c I don't know what to do with it.

We are still in the throes of the stomach bug here.  Thankfully it has been hitting the kids pretty mildly.  Morgan, Aaron and Greta have all had it.  Poor Greta...I often think that I could right a book entitled, "You Know You are the 4th Child When..." and include all the ridiculous things that happen to her.  Some are good, sweet, some funny, some a bit neglectful, and some just sad.  Like today... she was perched on the counter while I was assembling our supper.  I knew I was late getting it in, it had to bake for 2 hours and it was already 4:00.  I was quickly trying to get it ready and suddenly she begins to throw up.  (I didn't know she was sick at that point.)  I caught the first half of it with my hands and the second half with the lid of my roaster pan.  She had it all over her and I quickly washed my hands and said, "Greta, as soon as mommy gets supper in the oven I will clean you off."  Oh dear.  Child 1, 2, or 3 would have never had anything so ridiculous said to them.  As soon as I said it I thought, "Oh dear Greta, I am so sorry you are the 4th child and are treated like this!!"  Thankfully all I had to do was throw some carrots on top of what I had already done, drizzle it with oil and throw it in.  She did get cleaned up quickly.

So it has been a crazy couple weeks, recovering from the busyness of the holidays, getting back into the swing of school, and now sickness.  In one sense there is a restfulness to winter, there is no outside work to be done.  But oh, how I long for spring and summer!  I can't wait to spend warm evenings outside and take walks with the kids.  But for now, I'll try to enjoy the chill and the snow.

One thing that I really enjoyed about Christmas this year was seeing how much my older girls latched onto giving gifts.  They had a huge list and they tackled it early, faithfully, and all with their own money!  They had set up their own little Santa's shop upstairs and had this huge wrapping station.  They did a great job of being thoughtful and generous.

Our Christmas day was very nice.  It is always so fun to give the gifts to the kids.  They are sweet and grateful and have so much fun.  We spent the day here and then went to my parents for the evening.  Here are a few snapshots of opening gifts that morning.

Another pair of fuzzy socks.  Guess only 1 made it on.  And yes, the bottom half of my lights are burnt out.  Sad to say, it was that way from the second day the tree was up!!  We were too lazy to care to fix it.  

Sweet sister thank-yous

Greta was very excited about her little Strawberry Shortcake dolls from G-pa H.

I love the box.  I think that was a decoration from Morgan??

Blurry, but Greta kept sniffing the Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  It was cute.

Anticipation...

Reaction to his tool table

Grandpa H. and Bev scored big with the girls this year.  He gives money and I get the gifts.  Morgan got her much anticipated Super Mario Bros. for the Wii.

And Claudia got a cricut.  It cuts all kinds of cool shapes and letters and much fun for scrapbooking or card making.

My sister-in-law Miranda gave me some hand-me-down dress up clothes for Greta.  Wrapped those suckers up and she loved them.

Ice Skating

The day before NewYears Eve, I realized that the girls had a free ice skating pass that they had gotten from the summer reading program that expired at the end of the year.  Claudia brought a friend, Ruth, and the girls had great fun skating together.  I was not brave enough to try skating with both Aaron and Greta, so we sat in the snack room eating Otis Spunkmeyer c.c. cookies and coloring in the Spiderman coloring book.  Great fun was had by all.