Christmas

Since we have moved to Canada, the Christmas season has been marked by a special event our church does with the local government to present a Nativity Pageant to the public. It was only two nights this year, with two shows a night, but the older kids were able to participate in all four of them. (I kept Natalie and Trevor home on the second night because they were so tired.) We have really enjoyed this event as it reminds us what Christmas is really about and is a fun time to be together with our family and friends. Asher and Leif were angels for all four shows, Heidi was a shepherd girl (she really likes the sheep), Austin was a Roman centurion, and I was a town person. I had Trevor dressed to stay with me, but he wandered off with a family friend during the show and I think he ended up being a shepherd too. I was quite busy trying to keep Natalie warm and keep track of all my kids and didn't get many pictures. Heidi got a little ride on the donkey again this year, so that is the only picture we got, unfortunately. I'm going to try hard next year to get pictures of all the kids dressed up in their cute costumes.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas day this year. I didn't get much sleep thanks to my anxiety and kids waking me up, so when the kids woke up at 7:00, they just hung out with Austin in the living room for an hour until I was ready to get up. They were so excited when I finally came down so that they could open their stockings and other presents. Many of our presents were from grandparents, so we waited until a good time to call them to open the presents from them, which elongated the present-opening a bit and made it more fun, although the kids probably thought it would have been more fun just to open everything all at once. Everyone got some fun toys, books, and clothes and Natalie enjoyed digging around in the presents and playing with wrapping paper.

We had crepes with whipped cream, raspberries, and strawberries for breakfast (along with a little candy from the stockings ;) and the kids spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys (or in Heidi's case, changing her clothes-including her new socks- several times). The boys also went to play in the snow for a bit with their friends and took the dog we are puppy-sitting on a walk.

We had our friends over for Christmas dinner (Nachos and super yummy tacos!) then we got the kids off to bed so I could get some sleep. It was a very pleasant Christmas day.

Oh, and Trevor has a thing for Snoopy, so my mom got him a Snoopy costume, which he loves. Unfortunately its very hard to get off and on, but isn't he cute!!!?

10 Months

Sweet Little Natalie is 10 months old. She's growing up so fast! She can now crawl on her knees- she was only able to army crawl for awhile. It is so cute to see her creeping along slowly and a little awkwardly! She also babbles a lot. Her most common sound is ma-ma-ma and the boys are convinced that she's saying mama. I have been telling them that she's just making noises, but the time she chooses to say it almost makes me think she might actually be talking to me. I'm not sure. Natalie also like to pull herself up to standing. She was doing it a lot in her crib until I lowered the mattress down and made the top rail a little too inconvenient to hold on to while standing. It didn't help her sleeping though. Many nights she is up as often as every 45 minutes (though we do have some better nights) and its killing me with sleep-deprivation. Especially since she only want to sleep while being held and its super tricky to get her back in her crib without waking her. I think we are just going to do some sleep-training, but not until Austin finishes his test and not until I take a break from school with the other kids since its going to mean a few nights of even worse sleep than usual. Despite her poor sleep habits though, Natalie is the sweetest little thing during the day, going along with anything and smiling all the time. Another one of her recent tricks is clapping- its so cute how she does it- holding one hand out in front of her while bringing the other to it to clap. She also waves, but only sometimes when she wants to. Her personality is just bubbling out and she is even more fun to be around. We love this girl! In the busy-ness of the day, I didn't get any photos of her, but I have a few from the last week or so (and yes, she does wear this Christmas outfit all the time-along with another one she has- because once the season is over, its going to look pretty silly)

Trevor is Three!

 

Oh Trevor- full of personality and mischief. So independent and self-willed. This kid keeps us on our toes, can be completely exasperating, but is a sweetheart that makes everyone happy. Trevor has been insisting most of the day that he's either 9 or 93, but occasionally has admitted to being three. We started out the day with allergen-safe chocolate waffles with raspberries. )He was lucky enough to have his Grandpa here for the morning of his birthday) We then opened up Trevor's presents and he spent the time before lunch playing with them. After lunch he went down for his usual nap without too much fuss. In the afternoon, he hung out with his brothers and dad (who was home for the day supposed to be studying for an upcoming test) while I took Heidi to ballet, then we had a quick dinner and ate cake before Austin and the older boys left for their church activities.  Here are some photos from his special day plus his first birthday interview.

Who is your favorite person? Mommy

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Airplanes (He means the Planes movies, which were also Leif's favorite for a long time)

What is your favorite outfit? Ski sweater (pictured above. I love that he likes this sweater. Asher hated it more than anything in the world and Leif wouldn't wear it either, so I'm glad someone does. He looks like a true Swede in it with his ultra-blonde hair)

What song do you like the best? Nothing

What is your favorite cereal? Flakes

Who is your best friend? Mommy and the boys

What do you want to do when your grow up? Make presents

What is your favorite book? Where the Wild Things Are

What are you really good at? Playing with toys (he was referring to the toys he got for his birthday today)

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? On a date with mom, dad can come too and Heidi (when I pressed for where we would go, he just kept repeating 'on a date'- not sure if he knows what that means ;)

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? A dollar

What is your favorite dinner? chicken and rice (this is a common meal for Trevor since he's allergic to so many things and these are the basics of other meals that I make for the rest of the family)

If you could have a wish, what would it be? (no response for this question)

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? my special kind, I can' t have the boys' kind (Austin has found Hagan Daas dairy-free ice cream that Trevor eats, and it really is good)

Who do you want to be like? Like mom

What do you like to do with your friends? Play outside

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Eat chicken nuggets (we eat these at least once a week for lunch, so I think he'll be well satisfied)

What is your favorite thing to do? Playing magnets and toys

What are you proud of? building things with Legos

What are you afraid of? Scary animals

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Read

How strong is Dad? Dad lifts me up on his shoulders

What does Dad do best? wrestling

What does Mom do best? reading

What do you like best about Dad? He teases me and tickles me

What do you like best about Mom? (he was to eager to get away to answer this question)

Il Sette Bello

 

Since most people don't know what Il Sette Bello is, its The Beautiful Seven. It's an Italian card game that gets its name from the card it revolves around- the Seven of Coins which is also called Il Sette Bello. I thought it was a good title for this post since Seven seems to be an age that fits Leif perfectly. He has always been sweet and thoughtful, but in the last few months, he has become even more so, quickly doing what is asked of him and looking for ways that he can help out. 

This beautiful boy turned 7 today and is a delight to have around. Leif loves music and is a deep thinker. Leif rarely asks questions though- instead he carefully curates his own thoughts, comes up with a thesis, and presents it to us as fact then waits to see how we respond. He then changes his thesis based off of our responses. 

We started our day with chocolate waffles, as is our tradition, then all the kids spent the rest of the day playing with his presents. We had some family friends over for dinner and pumpkin pie and Austin actually came home for the evening- something that doesn't happen all too often lately with how busy he is. Here are some photos I got of Leif followed by his birthday interview. 

(please note that Trevor's Chrismas PJs haven't arrived by mail yet, so he's the only one not wearing them- he's naked most of the time anyway unless I battle with him to keep clothes on)

(we discovered several years ago that the word life has the same letters as Leif's name, so we cut them out of the cereal box and stuck them in his pie :)

 

Who is your favorite person? Natalie

What is your favorite color? Orange

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Minecraft (not really watching since its a video game, but by far his favorite thing to do that involves a screen)

What is your favorite outfit? Christmas Snoopy Pajamas (he says this now because he and Asher lived in these PJs last Christmas season until I put them away for the year, and they were so excited when I got them out again with the Christmas stuff. But in reality, the outfit he loves most is his yellow bear shirt-pictured above- or complete camo which he got from my dad)

What song do you like the best? If You Could Hie to Kolob (he taught himself to play this on the piano after he found out that its his grandfather's favorite hymn)

What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios

Who is your best friend? Asher

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be an astronaut (this kid loves all things space)

What is your favorite book? The Happy Hollisters (he just got these books for his birthday, but he has read a few excerpts from them which is why he asked for them for his birthday)

What are you really good at? Playing the piano (he loves to practice and often works at it much longer than I ask him to)

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Colorado

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? A Taj Mahal Lego Set (He's had his eye on this since we learned about the Taj Mahal a couple months ago. Its a very advanced set, but he and Asher have done hard ones before, so I'm sure he could do it . . . if he had a lot of money)

What is your favorite dinner? Chicken Rolls

If you could have a wish, what would it be? To be able to pull whatever I want out of the air

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip-the green kind

Who do you want to be like? Our Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Play outside

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Have fun

What is your favorite thing to do? Look into a microscope (he just got this today, but apparently it trumps all for fun)

What are you proud of? Reading

What are you afraid of? Lava

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Take care of us

How strong is Dad? Really strong

What does Dad do best? Work

What does Mom do best? Take care of us

What do you like best about Dad? He takes care of our family

What do you like best about Mom? She makes cookies

9 Months

 Our sweet little baby is getting bigger and bigger every day. Natalie hit a few milestones this month- all within the same two days. She figured out how to clap one evening just as I was getting everyone to bed (that delayed bedtime by about 20 minutes as everyone wanted to clap with her) and the next morning she figured out how to army crawl. The kids spent that whole day placing desirable items near her then pulling them just out of reach to get her to crawl after them. Natalie is still just about as delightful as can be- smiling and babbling. She has started to develop some stranger danger and shies away when anyone outside of our immediate family tries to take her from mom. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems like Natalie, more than any of our other kids at this age, follows daddy around with her eyes and tries to get his attention all the time. If he is standing near me while I'm holding her, she leans to him trying to get him to pick her up.
As you can tell, Natalie's hair is getting thicker and longer, but is a bit unruly- so cute. I got one picture of her when she first woke up, but the others didn't turn out well so I tried later in the day.