Cailin's Preschool Show

Cailin had her preschool Christmas show last week. She was so cute. I ended up making her a Christmas skirt & headband, even though earlier I swore I wouldn't because I had too many other projects. Well, then I couldn't find anything cute that didn't cost more than I was willing to spend, so I had to. Luckily it didn't take long.

Here she is waiting to place her toy donation at the baby Jesus.
And getting all lined up. She's standing next to a little boy named Jack. It was pretty clear the whole show that she'd rather not be, hehehe.She kept peeking over at him, giving weird looks and scootching away.And here are the videos:

Jesus, Jesus, Go to Sleep:

Little Angels: This one has a lot of her glaring at poor Jack, hehehe.

This Little Light of Mine:

Santa Baby

Wow, I can't believe how close Christmas is! The time really flew by this year. After Thanksgiving, our old friend, Oodle the elf came. The kids had watched the new Elf on the Shelf cartoon the night before and were sooooo excited, you'd think it was Christmas morning already! That whole first week or longer, they were all pretty obsessed with him, getting up early to find him, writing him letters and drawing him pictures everyday, which they were so excited to see he had brought back to the North Pole each night. They are much more into it this year than last, and I think it was actually the cartoon that did it. The next day Oodle brought them the DVD. Sam is such a Christmas guy.He gets really into everything. He loves to put on his red robe and a Santa hat and play Santa all the time. Sometimes Cailin is Mrs. Claus.Link is enjoying all the lights, and it's nice that he's not mobile yet :) Cailin and I have a lot of fun dressing him up during the day, hehehe.There has been Christmas crafting, Silly picture set-ups by Sam,
and what is funnier than Link in Cailin's headband? A gingerbread baby!There has been more hijinx by Oodle as well. The kids all refused to use this bathroom all this day, hehehe.

Jason's Birthday

Jason had some training on his Birthday and all that week for work so he was busy with homework, but we still made the best of it. We managed to get out to eat, the kids behaved and we came home for cake & ice cream! I made him a Boggle cake, since he plays several sets of it on his iPad a day. You can find the words "Jason", "Birthday", and "Dec" in it (plus many others that the kids had fun finding). Somehow I missed getting pictures of the present opening. Anyway, Jason is one year older and wiser, too!

Six Months!

I can't believe Lincoln is halfway to his first Birthday already! He's getting so big. Mostly he has the biggest thunder thighs ever! Have to wait until after Christmas for his check-up too see how big exactly, though. He is loving making noise right now. One of his favorites sounds like "Blah-blah-blah-blah!" He also likes to say ,"mamama", and "babababa" and "wawawawa". He loves clicking his tongue, blowing raspberries and recently learned how to fake cough, fake sneeze, and gasp loudly. Anything for a little attention! He's getting a little better at sitting up, but still not quite there yet on his own. Also, still not rolling onto his belly! He will if you push him onto his side, though. He still hates being on his belly and will roll right over if placed on his belly. He loves to grab his little feet and also his ears. Sometimes I'll even see him sleeping while holding onto his ears. He is enjoying all his baby food so far, but doesn't want too much of it. He is getting to be so much fun. Having all the kids all over him all the time is finally starting to be a benefit rather than an annoyance. He loves the attention and laughs at all the crazy thing they do. They all feel really responsible for cheering him up when he gets fussy. Here's some more recent pictures! Not happy about this sweater, hehehe.Here he is mid-sneeze!He's been doing more thumb-sucking lately. I'm still not too worried about it becoming a habit, because he has all his other fingers in there even more. There is a slight resemblance here, hehehe.Here he is making some tough business decisions.

Holidazzle & Santa!

Last weekend we went to the Holidazzle parade in Minneapolis. It's a Christmas light parade that Target puts on every year. We intended to go last year, but it was like 20 below and there were blizzards every other day. We don't have that problem this year! There still has been basically no snow to speak of :) Anyway, it was still pretty chilly so we bundled up and bought "hot seat" tickets ahead of time. They put you in a big heated tent with bleacher seats and you get hot cocoa. It was okay, but next time we'll just brave the cold. The tent was crowded and it was hard to see the parade through it, plus you couldn't hear any of the music or anything. Also, we had bundled up anyway and keeping track of our gloves, hats and coats became a problem in the dark on the top of bleacher seats! Most of our pictures look a lot like this:It was neat and not too long, so we walked a few blocks away to see the Macy's Santaland. Apparently, a lot of other parade goers had the same idea, so it was pretty crowded. We went through the whole elf workshop land. Jason thought it was creepy, but I though it was cute!
Link was asleep in the carrier by then, so he didn't meet Santa at the end.We really need to pick out the kids' clothes if there is even the slightest chance of meeting Santa! They're always wearing weird things (Ben has on a Halloween rib cage shirt). Sam wanted to keep on his cold weather gear so that when he met Santa "it would look like I've been through the North Pole". The Santa was great--looked perfect and took a lot of time talking with each kid--and it was in a private room away from the line, too. Ben asked for an XBox Kinect, Sam asked for a magic 8 ball (he is always so easy to please!), and Cailin asked for Barbies. After we got home (after walking and getting lost all over downtown Minneapolis forever!) the kids stripped down to their thermals and wanted a picture since they were all matching. Well, mostly because they were all matching with Lincoln. Sam had already changed, though, and was upset:
He finally put his thermals back on and got a picture with Link. The next evening they wanted to re-create the pictures with all of them.
And, here's some more Santa pictures from the ward Christmas party.
Cailin said she plans to wear this headband everyday until Christmas. She hasn't, but she has come pretty close so far!I had made these chocolate cookies with peppermint kisses in the middle to bring, and when the kids came back from the dessert table, they all had one, even though we had a bunch more at home. Sam had been eating them and more peppermint kisses all day, and we're very glad we left after dinner and before the program, because once we got home Sam barfed all over the kitchen floor. He said he didn't feel it coming at all, and it smelled all pepperminty, so we're pretty sure it was because he ate too many kisses! We stayed home from church the next day just to be sure, though.