7QTs - Kicking off 2015

Coming out of blog hibernation... 

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This is how we celebrated New Years... five hours early : ) 

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New Years Day we went over to my mother in law's and made the world's best Brunswick stew. Two pots of it. If we didn't have day jobs we probably could make this stuff for BBQ restaurants because it is so good : ) 

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We are warring with all of the kids stuff and where to keep it because they have a habit of making a mess and then going to another room and making another mess. I think we've contained it to their room now by moving their kitchen in there plus giving them a bin to keep all their animals. We will see how it goes. We don't have a dedicated playroom though we could upstairs but then M would be left out of the fun. Any good ideas for containing kids messes? 

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I went shopping for some new brown boots last week. Not a good idea to go shopping for those while wearing a skirt. Plus the ankle holes? are huge! As in twice the size of my ankle. I realize that may be the style but really I like my boots tight on my leg. Needless to say I left empty handed and will be hitting up Aldo.com soon. 

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Seriously? Seriously! I've gotten two trial packs of formula in the past several weeks. So maybe this formula people have looked at our track record and assume there is another baby here but there's not or maybe they know something we don't. Though every other person I know on FB is pregnant it seems... 

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Because this random blog post would not be complete without a random nice sunset pic, right?

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You know you have a house full of girls when... 

You wash about 15 pairs of tights a week

You hang up more dresses than other clothes that go in the dryer. 

12 in '14

I made a point to post family pics or pics of all the girls. I realized I have a tons of posts that I never did like R's birthday, E's birthday, beach trip, fair trip etc... Maybe I'll get around to those one day. 

January was the start to an eight-week-long snow adventure. Every other week it seemed like it snowed and in NC that means that everything doesn't function well for a few days. E and I enjoyed a few sled rides and R was just generally too cold to play too long and M only came out for the photo opts. I am so glad we have new neighbors who the girls will LOVE playing with (if it ever snows this winter) 

February - Was more of the same snowy, cold weeks. We celebrated R's 2nd birthday?!? and it was warm enough for them to play outside. We did escape to SC for a little reunion weekend (that makes Lee's side of the family sound massive but really it was 15-ish people) with Lee's family. That was lots of fun hanging out with aunts and uncles and cousins. The 4 hr car ride was another story. 

March - Pascha was super late this year so Marti Gras was too. I think the party at my mom and dad's was March 1 so just squeaking this in here. Lent went really well. We did Presanctified Liturgy (our church) once a week and Fish Fries and Stations of the Cross (local RC parish) every week. It may have been exhausting but draining ones self during Lent is a good and necessary purge. We had fun eating all things green on St. Patricks Day! I think we got our last snow in March which meant no excuse for school to be close and no more snow cream : ( 

April - Lent ran into April which meant church activities plus soccer. We hit the field for another season as the Dragonflies. E scored her first (and second) goal in one game and I swear she jumped over the moon she was so happy (and I may have gotten teary eyed because I knew she had been trying for 3 seasons!). We survived Holy Week and Pascha. Pascha was super cold (please note tights and sandals). 

May - E wrapped up 3 yr old preschool and we signed her up for 4 yr old preschool in the fall. We celebrated E's 4th!!!!!!! birthday!!!! M still came to work with me as she loved napping in the morning especially in the darkness of the bathroom. I am so grateful for my boss and coworkers (especially the ladies) who graciously let me bring my babies to work and monopolize the women's bathroom. There was lots of playing outside this month. Papa (thankfully) was really busy at work so we went through a little withdrawal not seeing him in the mornings but tis the pool season you know! Oh and we had a snake in our garage!

June - We went out for dinner for Father's Day. I think it was our first dinner out as a family of 5. The girls did awesome. We played ALOT in the sprinkler this month. 

July - We spent 4th of July at my MILs pool and had a pool party and E has been 'planning' the 2015 pool party since December. If you missed the best 4th of July cake ever that Grammy made then you had best check it out because it was GORGEOUS. 

August - We trekked up to DC a week earlier than normal for our good friends baby's baptism. We met up with our doppelgänger family up there which was awesome because trying out having 3 sets of twins ages 4 and under makes life with 3 kids seem totally manageable : ) 

September - We were not having our house ripped apart which was a good thing! E started school. R started school. M started Mother's Morning Out. We went to the beach with Grammy, Grandpa Joe and Uncle Kev. The weather was less than fantastic but we still talk about it like it was the best thing ever so we were grateful for the opportunity to play in the sand for a few days

October - We visited the pumpkin patch a few times and we got into the groove of school again. We have met and enjoyed playing with our new neighbors and we even went trick-or-treating with them - hopefully that will be a tradition that we will continue. Despite the fact the girls are so scared of their little dogs going outside is always a waiting game as to when they will come over!

November - M turned one and we are still wondering how that happened! We had a good crowd for her party and I still need to work on my party hosting skills so hopefully I will improve them for the 2015 round of birthdays. We did our standard Thanksgiving run down to Southern Pines and race home for another round the next day. 

December - We made a point to rock out Advent and I think we did it with good success. The girls and I made pound cake for the first time and it was disastrous event to remember. We went to the school Christmas program which was hilarious to see R protest being on stage. And we finally decorated the tree. 

Theophany Stockings

Some people leave their shoes out (I think?) for the Wise Men to fill them with treat on January 6 but in the East we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord... Which has absolutely nothing to do with stockings but you know that's how we roll. 

After surviving a lengthy vesperal Liturgy with the Great Blessing of water we hit up Chik-Fil-A for a quick festive dinner. M was the star of the show as I think she drank the most Holy Water at church (because she liked drinking from a regular cup) and at CFA she spilled R's milk (thank goodness it was not E's because then it would have been a problem). 

We've had our stockings up since a few days after Christmas Day. Lee got the hooks and rope and I think it looks awesome. I cannot wait to get everyone a cross stitched stocking... One day. 

Now we really don't need anything. Especially after the generous Christmas we had but we don't 'do' stockings at home. So the finale of the 12 days of Christmas seems like a good time to 'do' them. 

Last year we didn't do stockings for a variety of reasons... New baby and no stocking hooks and rope but I did have ornaments to fill the stockings so this year I had a bunch... 

M got her First Christmas ornament even though it was her second

I told the girls that even though the ornaments were in their stockings they are family ornaments. However I knew a war might break out over two ornaments so I gave myself an Elsa ornament and Papa got the Olaf ornament in his stocking. Those were definitely the favorites and most talked about : ) (good thing they are family ornaments)

And just like that... it was over. Next year I don't know if we'll do ornaments again. We certainly don't need any more candy or sweets so maybe it will be back to the shampoo and toothpaste and stuff... 

We might be singing a Christmas carol or two until February 2 because I don't think we've quite gotten our fix : ) 

Advent Week 6

So this post is late... Please don't be surprised : ) but we made it through Advent and faired pretty well in getting our goals for the week done.

Here's our weekly preparation schedule:

1. Daily - The Jesse Tree - Well we finished out the Advent/Jesse Tree. It was great. Anyone who is looking for an excuse to read selected Bible passages daily over Advent to learn more about the OT and where Jesus came from - Jesse Tree is your easy option. Plus the ornaments are excellent visual reminders for both adults and kids of what has been read.


2. Daily - O Come Emmanuel - This could be improved next year but the girls know several chunks of the song in English and Latin and the theology in it is incredible.


3. Weekly - Act of Service/Charity - This week I opted to bake for our neighbors and teachers to show our gratefulness/appreciation for them. I think it might be considered borderline cheating but if you knew how busy things are then making the sacrifice of time to bake for several hours (with kids!?!?!)  then it doesn't seem as cheater-ish. Plus last year we didn't even do ANYTHING for the 6th week of Advent so we are just going to roll with it...

Here's how the week turned out:

So the night before is when the overly epic pound cake failure occurred. So my next go to recipe.... Pretzel-Hugs-M&Ms

One bag of pretzels, 4 bags of hugs and 1 bag of Christmas M&Ms...

This year I used smaller pans for the pretzels because last year the pretzels/hugs were not in the oven long enough and getting all those M&Ms on at the speed of light was difficult. So this took longer but was way more manageable. 

And you thought E was the only OCD one in the house...

Nope... She's not : ) 

So this creation came out much better and after only one mishap in the frig/freezer cooling process we were good. 

Then M ate some black beans and thought it was hilarious... 

Everyone was in bed I knew I had to do a second round of pound cake. And I followed the directions closely AND used the parchment paper correctly and bam-o. Nailed them. 

As those were baking I was addressing our Christmas cards...

Totaling rocked out the teacher/neighborhood gifts!

The girls 'addressed' their teachers' cards

R's masterfully work (it says Mrs. Laura)

R had a party at school and was not feeling great so I took her back with me...

To pick out E's present (I assigned names this year) 

After lunch, rest and dinner R seemed to be in better spirits which was good because it was Christmas program time. I forgot their bows in the van so I made a mad dash to grab them before it started. Then we waited intently for the show to start with the 2's and R protested being on stage because for both songs she stood facing the audience with her head turned as far stage right as one can imagine without turning her shoulders. It was a sight to see and super funny. I don't think she did that in rehearsal because she was smack dab in the middle of the line of 2s. E did great. Though last year I could actually pick out her voice in the singing so I guess she is learning how to blend :) 

The next day M crawled up the stairs BY HERSELF and I was up there with E in another room and I hear this Darth Vadar breathing and run out to find her looking over the top stair. A gate was promptly ordered and as I was doing that she got into the bags for school and found an apple and proceeded to eat it. 

On the 23rd we Lee finally dragged in le Tree

E was very concerned I was going to decorate it without her... Which didn't get lit or decorated until the second day of Christmas

Then I helped E and R wrap up the presents they got for their siblings (possible Advent-ish activity, no)

Christmas Eve I went to work and rushed home to get everyone packed up...

I packed up the Jesse Tree for next year

And got down the tabletop Christmas tree for our 12 days ornaments and readings

Then after a long afternoon and evening of church and carols and good food we made it to Grammy and Grandpa Joes... 

I took this picture because I wanted to remember the following conversation:

E - Don't touch the candle R

R - Ooookay

E - Don't touch it - IT'S ELECTRIC 

R - Yes

E - It is ELECTRIC

Not sure what it being electric has to do with touching it but whatever!