Mommy's helper.

Today Nicolas helped me make rice krispy treats for the kids' after school snack:

This is how I found him not 10 minutes after I made the video clip. Apparently all the stirring wore him out! I love this kid so much!

Earth rules.

Another moment of amusement with my Sophie today:

"Mom, do you know why I cancelled my play date with Suzie*?"
Me: "I didn't know you had a play date with Suzie*."
Her: "Well, I'm saying I wouldn't even think of asking her after today. Know why? 'Cause she litters! I saw her with my own two eyes throw her drink box on the playground. I told her to pick it up and she said 'no'! Can you believe it? Apparently she doesn't know about the Earth Rules. If you litter, the Earth will die! If the Earth dies, we all fall off and die, too!"

Sometimes I can't believe she's only 7. She has wisdom and compassion way beyond her years.

(*Name changed for privacy.)

Bathroom makeover.

In December of 2008, Chris had put his name in the hat for a transfer to the other side of the state to fill a resident trooper position that would have put us located near his hometown, and near to his dad and many of his siblings' families. We made a trip over there at Christmas time that year(about 4 hours away), checked out some houses, and got a feel for the area and made the decision it would be a good move for us. So in January of '09 we put our house on the market, knowing it might take some time to sell, while we waited for Chris to get a final confirmation on the transfer. He was also in school at ISU at the time, and since he graduated in May, we figured that would set us up with the perfect amount of time to get everything done. Well, as each month went by, the traffic of potential home buyers was sporadic at best, but we weren't too worried, since the state was doing budget cuts and the resident trooper position Chris was vying for was one of the ones on hold. We continued to wait it out, until we got the final word last summer that they would not be filling that position currently. With the job transfer out of the picture, we decided to fulfill our contract with our realtor (1 year of having the house on the market), with the idea that if we were able to sell the house, we would stay in our same school district, but look for a better home. Well, our contract just ran out and we didn't get a single offer on our home, so we've taken it off the market for the time being. I was feeling a little blah for a few days surrounding the culmination of all these events and the final day of deciding what to do. It was a long year of uncertainty, inconvenience and stress, having to show the home on a moment's notice, the constant barrage of questions from our friends and neighbors about our situation - were we moving, were we not moving? etc., etc.

So this week I've come to terms with the fact that it's in our best interest to take the house off the market rather than lower the price too much just to make a sale when relocation is not a necessity. We're going to just continue to make gradual improvements to the house, as it was our first home purchase, I was feeling excited at the prospect of buying our second home with more knowledge and experience under our belts. Since that won't be happening for a while and we're going to have to deal with some of the issues our house has (let's face it, our home needs Holmes!!), I've started doing a few small, budget friendly projects to help me fall back in love with our house and remember why I picked it 5 years ago. So, long story longer, here are the before and after pics of the 2nd floor bathroom. Okay, I was so excited to have a bathroom just for the kids in our first home that I went a little overboard with the Ducky theme, and decided it was time for an update. I really like how it turned out, with just a new paint job, fixtures and a few accessories!

Before...

After...

Vacation over.

Wow. That went by fast! We didn't do much, just spent a lot of time at home together, and outside in the snow. Tomorrow the kids head back to school and the post-holidays doldrums set in.Here's Sophie after our girl's day together, complete with a haircut, new outfit and hat, that she picked out! That night as I was tucking her in she informed me it was "the BEST Monday-after-Christmas-girls-day-out EVER!" Funny girl.
Here is Sam proudly enjoying his Lego house. He actually had it finished (with a little help from his daddy) by Christmas night, and has spent at least a few hours everyday since then playing with it.
Noah and Sam had a lot of fun sledding down this section of hill. Our property is very rocky and has a lot of shrubs and trees, not very conduscive to safe snow sledding!

On this morning last week, I had intended to go grocery shopping, but after looking out the window and seeing this mess, I decided to stay home instead.Chris is such a great dad. He spent much of his time on his days off the past two weeks playing with the kids, with their new Christmas toys, gadgets and video games, and out in the snow helping them build snowmen, make paths and find spots to slide.

Not just for kids.

We made the kids take turns opening their presents so they could watch each other instead of rushing through all their own gifts. It made the moment last a little longer.

Sam really likes his Drawn to Life SpongeBob game for DS. All four kids ended up receiving a DS game, but unfortunately we only have 2 DS consoles, so I'm afraid there will be some arguments tonight!

Here the kids are trying out the creepy crawly maker. I remember having one of these when I was a kid.

Nerf gun wars were a major part of our day, and pretty much everyone in the family was involved at some point.

Noah trying out his Moonshoes. They're like mini trampolines for your feet, and a bit tricky until you get the hang of it!

Of course, Daddy had to give the Mario Bros. Wii game a try.

Chris and Sam working on the Lego home. Legos are so cool!

Sophie, multitasking. ;)

Christmas traditions.

Tonight the kids got bundled up in their new Christmas jammies and we read some stories in the 'Friend' magazine about the importance of being mindful of the true spirit of giving at this time of year. Then we said family prayer and sent the kiddos off to bed. Sophie said the prayer: "Heavenly Father, please bless Jesus that he'll have a good birthday tomorrow! Amen."

Now I've got the homemade Christmas tree shaped cinnamon rolls in the fridge to rise overnight, and Chris and I are just relaxing, watching Twilight for the umpteenth time, waiting for all the kids to fall asleep; two down, two to go! I'm so glad we've been wrapping presents gradually over the past couple of weeks, so the work to do tonight is minimal. I'm so excited for our kids to enjoy a super great day tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Kickin' it off!

Today was the kids' last day of school until after the New Year. They will be home for the next 19 days! I guess for those of you with kids on year round school, a two and half week break isn't anything unusual, but I'm just hoping I can keep them busy so they're not fighting. Tonight we decided to jump-start their Christmas vacation by decorating a gingerbread house. It's something we've done almost every year and the kids love it.