It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a visit from Santa. For us this usually happens at the church Christmas party and this year was no exception. I shouldn't be phased by now, but I am still trying to get used to my kids wearing shorts when they meet Santa. Poor Santa was sweating like crazy in that suit. I was impressed that no tears were shed on Santa's lap. I think this maybe a first. Here is Netta looking cute as always. 

We bought a puppet at Ikea and King has become obsessed with it and when King gets fixated on something, there is no use fighting it. So, the puppet got to come to the party and sit on Santa's lap. 

Santa was actually EZ's friend's dad and I kept waiting to see if EZ would figure it out, but luckily he didn't. 

I thought Conrad might be the crier, but I guess he is still little enough to not be freaked out. He just looks confused instead. 

This year it took our house quite a while to start looking like Christmas. We didn't actually decorate till around the 15th. I kept saying that we had to wait till the house was clean till we could decorate and cleaning just wasn't happening. There are just too many kids and not enough adults to keep this place orderly. Once we finally got the tree up, I really wanted a picture of myself with the kids. Of course, only 3 would cooperate and you can probably guess who wouldn't. 

Luckily, King cheered up later and we got this gem of him and EZ. They crack me up. 

Thanksgiving in Utah

This year we were able to spend Thanksgiving in Utah again. It is awesome because all of John's siblings get together and my sister Meghan and her family still live there. John had to work a couple days while we were there so that gave me good chance to head down to Provo and get together with my friend Ashley and my sister. Ashley and her family just moved to Provo from Round Rock for grad school. It was so awesome to see Ashley and to see Netta and her son Ethan running around holding hands the whole time. It was so cute and I could kick myself for not getting a picture. After visiting Ashley we met up with Meghan and her kids at BYU. I loved BYU and I love going back to visit. My kids were so excited to go to Utah for the snow and of course it snowed a ton before we got there, but not once while we were there. Luckily BYU still had some piles of snow leftover.

King is in this super stubborn phase right now and insists on wearing the same pair of sandals every day. Well it was cold so I tried to make him wear sneakers, but since he can take them off I can't really make him do anything and so he spent most of the day walking around in his socks. Of course that was not very conducive to climbing a snow pile.

One of the highlights of getting together with Meghan was that Conrad and Timmy finally got to meet. Timmy is 2 1/2 months older than Conrad and about twice his size!

As always my kids had a blast playing with their cousins. 

I love this picture of Conrad and Timmy. Best buds holding hands already. 

On Thanksgiving all of John's family got together at the church so we could all fit and right before the meal we did Conrad's baby blessing. It was great to get to have so much of John's family there. We now have officially split the baby blessings equally between the two families. EZ and Netta were with my family and King and Conrad with John's. (Not sure why he loves to make that fish lips face so much).

Thanksgiving dinner is always followed by tons of games. King really liked this huge ball. If you look closely he is actually wearing his sandals with socks. Since he kept taking his sneakers off we finally caved and let him wear the sandals, but of course with socks since it is cold. You will also notice that he is in ball jammies. He became obsessed with these as well and insisted on wearing them all the time. If you took them away he would just yell "My balls. My balls. Where are my balls?" This whole clothing battle is one that I just don't care enough to fight.

Frisbee dodgeball is always a must. Netta basically spent the whole time running up and down the line collecting frisbees and then passing them out to people. 

EZ took things a little more seriously and I was able to get this cool action shot. 

We stayed with John's brother Jeremy in their new house and it was perfect. Not only did they have 2 rooms for us to stay in, but they have 4 girls and one is EZ's age, one is Netta's and one is King's. My kids were so happy and so occupied that it was amazing! Sadly though I only have 2 pictures of the kids together. I really messed that up. Here is Netta with Cassidy, who is EZ's age. I really need a picture of Cassidy and EZ together because they were joined at the hip the whole time at the house. 

With all these kids we had to find ways to keep everyone amused and so we hit up this place called Jungle Jim's that has a bunch of carnival rides inside. It was so awesome and I am really bummed we don't have one by us. 

Netta liked the rides, but of course also really liked the candy. Her collage-aged cousin Harry was so impressed that Netta remembered his name that he gave her a dollar and of course that went to good use and got this lollipop.

Here is EZ enjoying a ride with Jeremy's oldest daughter Alissa.

Thanks to having all these people around, germs spread like crazy and a serious stomach bug hit each and every family and either left you throwing up, having diarrhea or both. The disease struck EZ, John and King, but not Netta or me, which is amazing since I always get what the kids get. Sadly, that meant different families were quarantined at different times and we didn't get to see everyone as much as we would have liked. EZ was especially bummed that we didn't get to spend as much time with Misha's daughter Arden.

We love going to the Aquarium in Sandy and as luck would have it our last day there the Aquarium was actually free, so of course we had to go. John's sister Buffy was able to join us along with her kids Cinco and Libby. Cinco was so sweet to Netta and was holding her hand as they walked around. All this cousins holding hands and playing almost had me in tears. 

Buffy won over our kids by letting EZ and Netta spend the night with some of the other cousins and then her and her husband Stewart drove everyone home in their motorhome. My kids were at first really confused as to what a motorhome is. Netta followed Buffy into their mud room and said "Are we in the motorhome yet?" But once they figured it out they were in love and now they say we have to get one. They also started telling everyone that we are moving to Utah in 2 years. I have talked about moving out of our house in 2 years, just into a better house, but apparently that won't be good enough for them. I just can't compete with the fun of being around so much family!

Fall Means . . .

Soccer! EZ wanted to do soccer at the Y again and even though last year was a little painful to watch, we really want him to keep trying and keep learning so we signed him up. He is still one of the slower kids on the team and can be a bit of a space cadet, but there was definitely a big improvement from last year. He had two great coaches and it was kind of funny, because the head coach was French and fit the European stereotype of knowing a lot about soccer and his son was amazingly good. Towards the end of the season EZ really surprised me when he asked to play goalie. He had never shown any interest in it before. I have to say I was on pins and needles every time he got to play it. I was so worried the other team would score a bazillion points while he was in there. Amazingly enough no one ever scored while he was in goal! I think he liked it because he could play and dance around a bit while the ball was on the other side of the field and there was enough of a commotion when it came back to his end to get his attention. He also really liked the fact that the team was all boys this year. He is definitely getting into the girls are gross and boys are awesome phase. 

Fall also means I get to take a trip by myself! Well this year it meant a trip with only Conrad, but that is close enough. I was definitely in need of some time away. I love my kids, but 4 is a lot of work and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Well I still am, but the vacation definitely helped. I decided to visit my family in Pittsburgh and I used some of my down time to make this Steelers football hat and learned the Conrad hates hats. 

Since I failed miserably at getting pictures of my parents with Conrad when they came in August, I made sure  I took some this time. 

One of the bonuses of going now was that my sister Sarah was still staying with my parents and my sister Katie was able to fly up from El Paso as well, so we got to have a little new cousins reunion. Unfortunately, it didn't work for Meghan to come out with Timmy. I swear one day we will get all 4 boys together. 

We didn't do anything amazingly exciting while I was there, but that is exactly what I wanted. I really enjoyed the trip, but I did learn that 4 days is not quite enough time away to make me start missing my kids. HaHa. Maybe someday I can take a longer trip, but for now I am grateful for what I can get. 

October Part 2

The second half of October of course revolved all around Halloween. Netta, King, Conrad and I all made the annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch. I feel bad doing it while EZ is at school, but I don't want to deal with the crowds on the weekend and I need something to keep the other kiddos entertained while he is gone. Here is a group shot that my friend took of the kids in our group. I really thought I had taken some photos with my camera, but apparently not and really I can't blame myself since I was chasing 2 kids and carrying 1 in the baby bjorn. Thank goodness for friends. 

We also had multiple Halloween activities. The first was a Trunk or Treat at our church building. Conrad went as this absolutely adorable bat, thanks to my friend Sandy's costume. 

 Netta obviously was a Pirate. 

Here we have Sir EZ. 

And King as Buzz Lightyear, with his father the pimp. So classy. (in the September post I talked about Dell buying John and other managers costumes and this gem was one of them as well).

One last one of Conrad just because he is so dang cute.

Netta got the most bang for her buck since she also had a Halloween costume parade at school.  

A girl in her class came as a jellyfish, which has to be the coolest costume ever. 

On Halloween we went trick or treating in our neighborhood. We were really torn as to whether we should stay in our neighborhood or go somewhere else. I always complain about our neighborhood being lame and it was tempting to leave, but we decided that if we want it to get better we have to stay and support it. So we stayed in the neighborhood and it was good, but kind of lame. The kids got plenty of candy, but it took forever because maybe every 3rd house was actually handing out candy. I am glad we stayed though, because I felt bad for the other kids who were hiking all over and I didn't want our house to be another empty one and I wanted to support those people who did hand out candy. Here are the kids with their pumpkins. EZ and King both had costume changes. King is so obsessed with that Super Why costume that he is still wearing it out and about months later. 

John and I got to have a little fun at our friends' adult Halloween party. I was so excited to be out with only Conrad, but then I had a bit of an emotional break down as we were trying to get ready. It really isn't fun trying to come up with a costume when you are in the middle of trying to lose a bunch of baby weight. Especially since almost every Halloween costume out there is made for a hooker. Plus I was trying to shop for a costume with my kids in tow. Never a good idea. I actually almost bailed on the party and then I came up with this gem of a costume: the frazzled housewife. It was super easy to through together and it went with my mood perfectly. In the end the costume got a lot of laughs and I was glad I went and got some adult interaction.

October Part 1

So here it is the end of December and I am just posting about October. I am going to do my best to crank out posts about the last 3 months while I have John home to help entertain the kids over Christmas break. Life with 4 is great, but we are in basic survival mode right now and unfortunately that means anything that doesn't keep my kids alive, aka blogging, goes on the back burner. So the beginning of October our neighborhood had a block party. Now for the most part our HOA sucks and I really wish we didn't have one, but last year and this year they did host a sweet block party as part of National Night Out. We made the most of the food, the bounce house, the raffles and of course the face painting. The best part for me was when the IPod someone was using to play music started playing some song that said the F word every other word. It took a while for the person in charge to notice and turn it off. Luckily my kids didn't notice and their favorite part was of course the face painting. 

Fall in Austin means Austin City Limits and of course John got his 3 day pass last year the minute they went on sale. He was supposed to get me a 1 day pass, but he "missed that email" and then they sold out. Really it was ok, because the whether wasn't great and I would have had to take Conrad and I am not sure how much pot I want him exposed to just yet ;). John of course took EZ and Netta one day to Austin Kiddie Limits. They always have so much fun and it makes for some really cute pictures. 

They always have someone spray painting hair and Netta always wants it and EZ always wants nothing to do with it.  

They both however love getting the tattoos . . .

. . . and rocking out with the kids from Austin School of Rock.

I was a little bit sad I missed all this fun with the kids, and my hormones may have made me cry over it a little, but I am glad they had so much fun with their dad and maybe I will brave the crowds next year.  

September Happenings

So technically school started in August for EZ, but for the sake of finally getting this posted we are just going to lump it in with September. EZ started first grade and was totally ready to go back to school. On the first day John offered to walk with him to the classroom and EZ said no he didn't even want John to walk with him to the school entrance. Apparently kindergarten made him a pro. His enthusiasm died down a bit after he realized how much more work 1st grade is than kindergarten. He never once complained about going to school last year, but already there have been tears shed about not wanting to go to school, because they don't get to play with their friends enough. Hopefully, this will not be a year long thing, although I do feel bad for how much work they have to do. Thank you high stakes testing.

Netta was also super stoked to go back to school and her adjustment to pre-k has gone quite smoothly, since it's just a lot of hugs and playing with some learning thrown in. 

We have been loving having Conrad to play with and take care of. The kids want to be involved in everything he does including bath time. As soon as I start the bath for him they come running and insist on helping. It takes longer to give him a bath then if I did it on my won, but hey at least it is keeping the kids entertained. 

We have discovered some new favorite baby things this time around. First is this little cradle thing that attaches to the pack 'n play. Conrad loves being bundled up and sleeping in there. And I love that it is the exact same height as our bed. We already had a plain pack 'n play and I wasn't really interested in buying another, so lucky for us our friends Kim and John lent it to us. Second is the stuffed animal attached to his binky called a wubbanub. It helps hold the binky in his mouth and we love it. I totally attribute him being a champion sleeper to it. It is helps make it harder to lose, but of course I managed to drop it and leave it behind at a friend's house the first time we used it. Haha. 

Conrad is such a cutie and gets a lot of compliments on his lips and his eyes. So far it looks like his eyes are going to be blue and we are super excited about that. That way we will have two with blue eyes and two with brown. 

September was an extra crazy month for John at work. He had to work long hours, including the weekends, which made things a bit hectic for all of us, but we are just grateful for his job and how well it takes care of us. To break up the tension at work they had a little disco karaoke and all got costumes. Here he is with his friend Tom who actually moved here to fill John's old position when he switched jobs and it turns out he goes to church with us so they get to see a lot of each other. A guy who is single at work asked John if he was embarrassed  for ladies at work to see him dressed like that and he was like "Are you kidding. I am married and have 4 kids. Who am I trying to impress." Clearly no one ;) and that is why I love him.