Happy Christmas To All!

And to all, a Good Night.

Frosted Sugar Cutout Cookies.

Frosted Sugar Cutout Cookies...the finished product. Clare, Theresa, Noelle, Natalie, Regina and I worked on it this morning. I accidentally added twice the amount of butter to the frosting recipe but ohhhh, is it good.

  I was too busy supervising and refereeing to take any pictures of the decorating, but here's a slightly wider shot of the proceedings.

Regina

Regina, 3 years old, with a hat and puppy that Busha gave her for her birthday/Christmas gifts...

The Pacifier.

Philip has learned to comfort himself.  :-)

Sock Babies

I found this craft idea and couldn't resist - making a Baby Jesus out of a sock.  You can read more about the tradition here.

As an added bonus, all the socks were matched from the sock-matcher basket while we were looking for stray white socks to use for the craft!

December 2013

Thanksgiving week, November 2013, was when Andy installed a wall-mounted gas heater in the rec room.  Prior to then, the rec room had been pretty darn chilly in the winter, and we didn't use it much. 

In this picture, the four youngest girls are nestled in for a movie/sleepover in the rec room, stationed in front of the toasty heater.  

Portrait Time Again.

I bit the bullet and had the kids pose for wall pictures.  Actually my husband's mother is to blame thank, because she needed nice recent pictures of the twins for the newspaper's birthday page.  They ARE turning 7 next week, you know.

So I went for it.  Natalie was straightforward and simple.  Two shots and we were done, although she did have me take the prerequisite "posed"  shot.

"Take a picture of me reading!"

Final shot.

Regina, wild-haired child that she is, was also done in four shots or less.  The abrasion near her eye and the shadow at her hairline are evidence of her tumble down the stairs yesterday - or "lasterday," as she so eloquently phrases it.

Theresa was more challenging.    The phony smiles don't fly with me, so we had to try several different tacks before I was satisfied.  I still haven't chosen a favorite for the wall.    The hair flip was HER idea.

Philip just stared, dumbfounded, at the orange flash indicator light.  I had to take about two dozen pictures to get a few good ones.   I am partial to the middle shot on the right, although I love the dopey look he has bottom right!

Noelle was the real pill this time.  It was either a tilt of the head, or a fake smile, or half-closed eyes, or a blink...I am still waiting for a consensus before I choose a winner.

Noelle's "action" shot.

Group shot!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Regina!

I made Regina's cake in her favorite color, and Clare picked out her candle.  I bought a numeral 3 candle for her, but it got lost.  In my purse. Until the day after her birthday.

That's our Regina...sassy little thing.

Photobomb.

This last picture speaks volumes... somebody (Clare, I believe) has placed a hand in front of Natalie's mouth to prevent her from blowing out Regina's candles.  It didn't help...Noelle blew them out instead!

Dear Sarah,

Wigs 4 Kids.

The picture is a little blurry...but the twins each had 11 inches of hair cut off to donate to a nonprofit wig organization...NOT Locks of Love, which I discovered does NOT supply wigs for cancer patients or burn victims, and DOES charge for its wigs.  The organization we chose is listed below.  We would have gone with Wigs For Kids (international) but they required 12 inches of hair, and we only had 11 to give.