MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018!!!

This has been a very busy and exciting Christmas! I took on planning the church Christmas party with my friend (luckily, she was better at it than I was). I did a lot of work organizing it, but not as much as she did. As the primary president, one of my big tasks was to prepare the children for a little Nativity play, which turned out beautifully, if not perfectly well organized. Heidi was chosen to be Mary (she just happened to be the only girl at church that day who wasn't already part of a solo or small group for singing) and she was so excited for that role. Asher was chosen to be Gabriel, the lead angel, and Leif was chosen to be Joseph (all by luck of the draw, not their mother's favoritism), but another boy was upset, so Leif decided to be the lead shepherd instead and let him be Joseph. I was so busy scrambling back and forth getting the right kids into the scenes and reminding them what they were supposed to do, that I didn't get any pictures taken (Austin was also pretty busy the whole party either helping to set up or socializing;) but a friend got a few pictures of Heidi and Asher, sadly none of Leif.
I also took the three oldest kids to the ballet The Nutcracker this year, but I didn't get any photos. They enjoyed it, but Leif fell asleep briefly and Heidi was quite antsy for the last half of it. 

Our church also does a much larger scale Nativity pageant for the town on the nights before Christmas (3 night this year, two shows a night). Heidi, Trevor, and I missed the second night because they were melting down long before we ever got there and its a pretty late night, but we went to the first and third nights. We were townspeople for all of the nights, Austin was a Roman centurion for all of the shows, and Asher and Leif were angels for most of the shows, but shepherds for one. 

Heidi doesn't look particularly thrilled in this photo, but she was really excited to get to sit on the donkey for a little while. Trevor loved petting the donkey, the llama (no camels), and the sheep too.

Here Heidi is with the llama, though he's so black you can hardly see him .

10 points if you can spot both Asher and Leif- I'm not sure where they are in this photo, but they were there, loving it! This is a park that we go to quite a bit when its warm outside and they refer to this hill as "angel hill" because they hide behind it for the whole pageant until the part that says "a multitude of heavenly host appeared" and they get to run up into the spotlight.

After the show on Christmas Eve, Austin had to help clean up and I got the kids undressed and into the car and we hustled home to prepare for Santa to come. Here is what the tree looked like after Santa visited (our kids were quite spoiled this year). Asher really wanted Santa to set up the train track around the tree just like he did last year, plus add some track and a new train for Trevor's gift, so that's what happened.

The rest of the pictures are from Christmas morning. Asher asked for a Bruder crane, Leif wanted a police Lego truck (he didn't get quite what he was expecting, but close), and Heidi wanted a pink princess castle (she got magnets that form into a castle, but can be used to build anything and go with the other building magnets we already have)

Our parents got to watch the kids open the presents from them via FaceTime on my iPad. Thank heavens for technology. (Although, when my dad called, the kids were pretty grumpy!)

We got Trevor his own baby doll because he is always stealing Heidi's. Its the same doll as hers, only its dressed in blue. I think the best squeal of the morning came from Trevor when he opened this present. (Although Heidi also got a doll stroller {free from our neighbors} and now Trevor is jealous of that and still keeps stealing her doll while its in the stroller).

Austin has been much better about playing with the kids today than I have! I took lots of pictures, cleaned up, and needed to rest. I did play Heidi's new game with her though. Austin has been building castles, driving trucks around, helping with Lego construction, etc, etc!

Trevor is Two!!!

I can't believe my baby is two already! He is definitely the baby of the family (though that will soon change) and usually gets his way from all his siblings (mom and dad try not to give in as much, but it can be hard!). He is a sweet, good-tempered little fellow most of the time, although its obvious that he is a two-year-old by his sudden temper tantrums and power struggles that happen throughout the day. Sometimes Trevor will just sit and giggle about the littlest things then later he will be melting all over the floor crying about who knows what. He loves to vacuum, especially since he opened his birthday present of a little vacuum that looks very similar to mine. He also loves to color if his siblings are doing so. Mostly he just loves to do what anyone else is doing- imitating as well as he can. Trevor has started talking more- at least making an effort to. He imitates many words and has a few of his favorites that he repeats over and over. I think "Beep!" is his favorite word. He loves to inform us whenever he hears anything beep by yelling "Beep!" He also loves the word "Go!" and yells it in the car whenever we are stopped. The older kids love to hold races in the house and let Trevor be the one to tell them when to "GO!"
Trevor is still dealing with eczema (though its not nearly as bad as it used to be) and still has his milk and peanut allergies, but the milk is slowly getting better. He loves to drink goat milk and goat cheese is his favorite snack! He gets into the fridge, gets it out, and brings it to mewanting me to cut a few slices for him several times a day. We've also found that he seems to be able to eat food with cow's milk in it sometimes, but other foods he's not okay with. Hopefully he outgrows it in the next few years like most kids do.
Trevor's nickname is "puppy" or "pup" (this came from back when he used to drag himself around on the ground like a seal pup) and is perfect for him since he loves puppies. He is on high alert whenever he hears a dog bark or sees a dog walk by and makes sure I'm aware of it by saying "mom, mom, mom! gog!" (his word for dog). He also has lots of stuffed animal puppies that he loves to drag around the house with him and he has to have all of them in his crib when he sleeps.
Trevor has recently started to be less attached to mom, which is a good thing since a new baby is coming soon. I think I'm still his favorite person, but he sure loves his daddy too and is happy to go with a few other friends that he is accustomed to being around. I have a friend who watches my kids for me while I'm at prenatal appointments and he is happy to go with anyone in her family. He also runs all over the chapel at church without me (although he's not nearly as social as his big sister) and no longer has any problem separating from me to go to nursery at church.
This boy is adorable! Everyone loves him so much and we are sure glad to have him!

Here he is busy with his vacuum!

 Trevor also got some books and puzzles for his birthday.

 We made Trevor a Rice Krispie cake since there is no milk involved and butter doesn't seem to bother him (plus it only took mom about 20 minutes to make!) He was a little intimidated by the candles and wasn't quite sure how to blow them out, but Asher took care of that for him.