These are some of our best friends! Theresa and Henry. They are from Germany and come over almost every week for a quick playdate. I really love their Mom, Eike. She's great. They climbed up and were hiding and giggling behind the curtains, being especially cute, so I took their picture.

We've had our hammock out for months, now. Around a month ago, I climbed in with Greg and down we go! It ripped immediately and we quickly sunk to the ground. It was sad- it was a really pretty hammock from Brazil! We replaced it with a newer one and I always get a little nervous climbing inside now :)

Marius started eating food. I've never had a kid so excited about food. Technically- they say you're not supposed to give your kids food until they're 6 months- but he just stares and stares and you could just TELL he wanted it so badly! So at about 5 months, we gave him some mashed banana and has been eating quite a bit, ever since. He LOVES IT!!!! He gets so excited, he cries in impatience while we're getting the jar open. Seriously! He just can't wait for it. And he eats A LOT. It took MONTHS for my other two to just get the HANG of eating food, but he has had no problems. He gobbles it down. It really blows my mind, actually, but I like it!

He's such a good baby. He is smiley and sweet and the kids adore him. Suddenly he's grabbing and playing with toys and so grown up. He looks so much bigger these days.

Brighton is a ball of fun. He loves to run and jump and be wild. I love watching him. He's super fun. Lately, I don't know why, but he's been needy. He crawls into bed with us almost every night. He has trouble going to sleep and just cries and cries for me. It's so wearing. For a good month, I just gave in to everything. I was really worried about it and wanting him to feel safe and secure- but it's been a month, I think he feels fine. So it's time to get more strict again.

This kid is really showing that he's a smarty pants these days. I never teach him anything, but he picks it all up listening to Scarlet and I. He knows his numbers, he knows so many things just from noticing- not from me telling him. His vocab has grown so much and he tells us most everything now, which is GREAT. He's STARTING to reason and compromise and understand when he doesn't get his way a BIT, which is MASS IMPROVEMENT compared to the last year. Oh man. I thought it would never come, and we're just starting to dip our toes into reasoning with this guy. I think in a years time we'll be in a way better place. But even through the turmoil and timeouts- he's a lot of fun, this one. He's all smiles and energy and we simply love him!!

You can't really see it in this pic, but there's a big mound of snow that he just jumped off of.

He's so cute.

He's so physically aggressive. I just love watching him.  

JUMP!!!!

Sweet Marius

I wanted to throw a Christmas Party for the kids, so I did. I just whipped it up, the week of and it turned out really well! Somehow parties have become a no brainer for me, these days. It all seems the same and really simple. I have a sensory station . . . play snow-

Pin the nose on . . . Rudolph (in the past it was a snowman)

We decorated the fridge. That was fun.

Kids love the bean bag tosses, so I made one of those.

And then you need something crafty- so I made ornaments and the kids painted them. It was really a hit!

I think 6 kids and their caretakers/moms came and it really was a calm happy party! I was glad. Oh yes, and we had sugar cookies to decorate. Which we ran out of quickly. At Halloween, seriously NO ONE ate the cookies and I had so much left over. This party was exactly the opposite.

Happy adorable Marius. This saucer is my best toy. He stays in that thing the whole time I make dinner. I honestly forget he's in there until I look down and see him. It blows me away!

He loves eating out of these mesh things. When he's grouchy, we pop in an orange and problem solved! 

Greg's been lookin' quite good these days. He's lost 20 pounds? I don't remember. He wants to lose 10 more, can you believe it? Keepin' the weight off keeps his blood levels where they need to be, so he's been keeping at it. He mostly rides a stationary bike at night, does some pushups and pull ups. He was loving his parkour, but since it's snowy and icey outside, he has to stop until it melts. 

Marius has become quite the little pro at sitting. I always love once they can sit. Suddenly the need for a blanket doesn't seem so important and you can just set them anywhere. He still falls a bit, but for the most part he stays up and plays.

Pat and Randy came to see us! We really wanted to have family for Christmas and it happened! They arrived just a few days before Christmas. They stayed in Germany for awhile, on their way- so the jetlag was very minimal. They were ready to go the day after they arrived. They're going to stay 16 days.

Christmas morning! Oh I love these faces!!!

I think my children are so beautiful!

We really wanted to keep presents to a minimum, this year. So Santa got them 2 gifts, they got ONE gift from me and Greg, one gift from Grandma and Grandpa Arnold- and then 5+ from Pat and Randy.

Little Marius just hung out and watched. He got a little dragon and a Froggy towel and he even got a chocolate egg- even though he can't eat it. Hmm . . . 

This was our gift to them. Greg made it. Fishing poles and fish with magnets inside! They are always pretend fishing on a boat (the couch) or an island (the couch cushions on the floor) and we thought it would be such a fun activity for them. It was definitely the hit gift, I think. It was so cool that Greg made it.

One of Pat and Randy's gifts were cars and a little racetrack for Brighton. He loved it. It's cool, because it's really simple and you can just piece it together anywhere. He loved it.

Scarlet got a doctor kit from Grandma and Grandpa Arnold. She's been begging for one for a couple months, always playing doctor with invisible tools. She was constantly asking everyone for a check up Christmas Day and a couple days after. She was Doctor Scarlet and we were the patients. It's amazing what she picks up from going to the real doctor. For instance, she always pretends to wipe our arms with alcohol swabs before giving us shots. She's a little smarty- that one!

Chewin' on Grandpa's tie.

Playing blocks . . .

Greg made a big snow cave. It's so cool! The kids don't play inside it as much as climbing up and sliding down. They love it. It's been really fun to have this winter. It stays when the rest of the snow melts away. I hope it stays all winter.

This kid glows, I tell ya.

Climbing up . . .

Rolling around in snow.

Shoveling the snow. Last year, the snow packed down and never melted and it got quite slippery. I told Greg this year, we need to hire someone to shovel it and he said he would shovel it. I'm happy, he's held up to his word! It's been nice having a shoveled walkway. It's hard work!

Beautiful Scarlet!

I know I always say Sweet Marius- but he really is so sweet.

Bleh- Marius and I have thrush. It has nearly been the death of me. He was sick forever and got a nasty cough so we got him on antibiotics and then came the thrush. I've had it twice before, but it is SO MUCH WORSE THIS TIME!!! Oh man. It's good I don't have formula on hand, because I'm sure I would cave and give it to him. It has been SO painful. Really. He latches, I scream. He gets scared from my scream and stops nursing a cries. So awesome. So not. It's going away. I think it will be gone in a few days. I hope. I've been taking Grapefruit Seed Extract, trying to treat it naturally and I think it's making us both crazy gassy, which I believe to be the culprit of him suddenly NOT NAPPING AT ALL. BLEH!!!! We've been suffering some serious crying over here, some serious lack of sleep and this part of life has just been MISERABLE. When he's not nursing, and just awake I forget, but there is too much nursing and TRYING and FAILING to nap and hearing CRYING CRYING CRYING. It's just been the worst. I know it will pass. Also, he's sleeping in our room, which has just thrown everything for me. He wakes every morning around 4 or 5am and just jabbers or whines a little- FOR LIKE AN HOUR. Normally we sleep through this because we can't hear it, but instead we just suffer for 30 minutes 'till I just feed him in desperation- EVEN THOUGH HE'S NOT HUNGRY. And it HURTS because I have thrush, but I'm so tired and feel so desperate to make him go to sleep, I do it anyway. Then he DOES go to sleep and then the other kids wake up. It's been a viscous cycle the last week and a half. Bleh. It will end. I know it will. But probably not 'till he's back in his room again, or the thrush goes away. Also, I always work out and shower once I put him down for his morning nap, but because he's in our room I'm afraid to go in. So I end up being dirty, feeling and looking gross all day in my jammies and it makes me feel quite lousy, actually.

That's the update! Happy New Year!