Our Christmas Fun!

We had such a great time celebrating Christmas! So much fun that it has taken us this long to recover enough to get the pictures on the computer. Here is our fun in a nutshell:

We started the Christmas celebrations by celebrating Aunt Holly's 30th birthday on the 21st. Her actual birthday is the 31st, New Year's Eve, but since she lives in Arizona, we celebrated early. Here are all of us with Holly and baby Olivia.

We had so much fun playing with Olivia now that she is about 15 months old. This is when Ava and Carter took turns kissing Olivia. She loves to kiss! Mom didn't get over there in time to get the kissing shots but here's Carter laughing after another big smooch!

Ava and Carter on Christmas Eve getting ready to open their first presents

This is Ava's Barbie and you can see how she is watching Olivia while she plays with it. Reminds me of how Ellie watches Ava when A has something of E's!

Trying out Dad's new shades

The Ladies

Our family Christmas on Christmas morning

"Oh I love them so much" she said!New shoes for the American Girl doll

So it begins.... She got a Justin Bieber cd and a Taylor Swift cd

The awesome doll beds that Grammy made for Kit and Ava's doll Krissy

Ava's new chapstick. And if you look closely at Carter's face, you will see that he is distressed. He got a Buzz Lightyear to go with the Woody doll he got for his birthday. He's trying to find Woody but can't follow my simple directions and is starting to get upset!

Kit got purple glasses too!

Everyone had to test out the new paints as soon as the present were unwrapped

We had a great Christmas!

Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful presents!

On another note, I have to state that Jake wants it known that a good 50% of those presents were from us. I never counted how many there were total and figured out a percentage, so we'll just go with it. He was very offended when I claimed that we weren't responsible for a fair share of those gifts. He also wants it put out there that we managed to spend only about $20 of our own money for those presents. The rest were purchased with gift cards that Jake received for doing an outstanding job closing loans and all that jazz! He's managed to get almost $1000 in gift cards since August just for being great at what he does. While we'll still have to claim that amount on our taxes, it is awesome to get a gift card with several hundred dollars on it to use for groceries and presents! Plus, Uncle Sam usually cuts us a check back anyway so we have been loving all these extra bonuses. So an extra big thank you to Jake for working so hard for us and being rewarded with more than enough perks to take care of Christmas!

Now we are just trying to survive the rest of this week post-Christmas. The tree and decor is already packed away. The carpets have been shampooed thanks to Rich. The kids are playing with all their new toys and driving me crazy! I think all of us are looking forward to next week when we can get back to our regular schedule of school and preschool. And we are gearing up for the next big adventure! 5 weeks and counting until baby!

Merry Christmas

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care



The Menards beauty with several bare spots (note to self: go to a tree farm next year) is decorated,

redecorated after taking a spill courtesy of Ellie and Carter's shenanigans (6 broken ornaments plus 2 a couple days later when Carter just couldn't help himself and plucked them off the tree and threw them onto the wood floor),

and piled with presents underneath. And for the record, we don't spoil our kids and buy them gobs of gifts. 50-70% of those gifts are from my parents. It does, however, make Jake and I look good since it appears they all come from us!

There are no worries of a white Christmas this year. With an 11 inch snowfall and a 17.5 inch snowfall the following weekend, the ground is pretty well covered.

To top it off, we woke up this morning to an additional inch or two. Santa will have no problems landing his sleigh this year.

Ready or not, Christmas is here. We have visited all the grandparents/great-grandparents. Tonight we will go to church and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. (I really do hope that the twins will start singing it. They say they will!) Afterwards, we will head over to the Wendorff house for our Christmas there. Tomorrow the kids will open the presents from us and my parents and we will chat with the Ramaker side on skype. If today continues to go well, Santa may even stop by our house tonight and bring some presents for the kiddos. I'm not sure what I'll do when I can no longer use the threat of no presents from Santa if they can't behave. The holiday season continues to fly by faster and faster each year. It's hard to believe it is here already.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

From the rhyme Ava and Carter learned at preschool: "Tick tock goes the clock. Time for Jesus's birthday!"

Santa Again....

My Mothers of Multiples group had its yearly Holiday Party again this past Saturday. It was originally scheduled for December 11th but 17.5 inches of snow gave us a solid reason to reschedule the party to the 18th in the hopes that there would actually be a turnout. This is one of the events that falls under my line of duty and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't glad for an extra week of preparation!

With rescheduling the party, the Santa (another board member's father) lined up for the 11th was unable to help out the 18th. After exhausting all other revenues (the group president and I were trying to find anyone Santa-like we could think of), I finally had to call in the final reserve. Rich filled in for us as Santa. Not the most Santa-like person we could find but he did a great job! Luckily Santa sits the whole time so the kids didn't have to crane their necks to see a 6'5" Santa face.


The buddy had fun at the party but was nervous the entire time by Santa in the corner. Nevermind that I had told the kids that it was Papa in the costume. Once he put the costume on, he became Santa and they wanted nothing to do with him!

Jake actually came along to the party to help watch the kids! I believe this was his dad's stipulation in playing Santa as he knows that it annoys me that Jake won't come to these events. Here is a picture of Carter and Jacob while they were standing in the corner watching Santa. Jake was trying to convince Carter to go sit on Santa's lap. You can see how thrilled Carter looks at the idea.

Ellie went and sat on his lap but not without a fair amount of bribery.

Jake finally just picked up Carter and stood by Santa for a quick picture.

We decided to pose with Santa to see if that would help the kids take a family picture. Carter is standing behind the picture taker screaming his head off at us. Where is Ava? She wouldn't pass a certain point in the room as it took her too close to Santa. She stayed by the craft and cookie tables and only sat on the chairs furthest from Santa. There was no way she was getting anywhere near there!

So the kids still don't really like Santa. Jake left the party (we might have "misplaced" Ava for a few minutes, in which he got extremely stressed out and decided he was done sitting there trying to watch everyone. She was just sitting at the craft table making another ornament but we didn't see her and Jake doesn't do stressful situations very well) and so Rich and I drove back together. As soon as I got home, Ava and Carter converged on me wondering if Papa was back to normal. They didn't like him as Santa! We shall see what next year's attitude about Santa will be....

All in a Day's Work

In only a little over 13 months of living in our house, I have managed to get just about every room painted. The only spaces left were our master bedroom and the stairwell. While I was going to wait until after Christmas to paint our room, the snowstorm last weekend with around 16" of snow had us trapped at home. Since we couldn't go anywhere, my Saturday class was cancelled, the holiday party for the multiples group moved to this coming Saturday, and most of my papers were written or could be put off for another day, I decided to crack open the cans of paint that have been waiting for some attention since September. That tells you how long it has taken me to go from planning to paint to actually getting the job done.

We decided to make our room a little fun and paint 3 walls a light beige like downstairs and do one wall a dark brown. Jake is a little boring and wants to keep the house on the same color scheme or strip (I wonder how he really feels about Ellie's pink room). At least I can have a little fun with our room while sticking to the same color strip.


Here is the contrast between the previous color (left) and new color (right). Jake said he couldn't tell much difference but I can see one. Definitely less orangey.
I painted the light walls over the weekend. Tuesday, with all that remained on my schedule a history final the next day, I decided to paint the dark brown wall. I was unable to move the entire king-size bed myself, so I manhandled it piece by piece. 32 weeks what?! I still have muscles! (Although it is maybe actions like this that cause me to have lower back pain. Jury's still out on that one.)

Here's the before.

Here's the after. Two coats in one day, plus I put the bed back before Jake got home. Still need to hang things back on the wall but I haven't decided if I want to re-hang what we had or look for something different. I'm also still on the hunt for a headboard. I found a really cool one on Craigslist but with the snowstorm, the lady found someone else who could get it sooner. Blasted! The hunt continues.

But here is our room. I am ready for the baby now. Part of what motivated me to paint was that I finally picked the crib up from another member in my multiples group. I refused to let myself put it together until my room was painted but it was driving me nuts to have a crib sitting there in pieces. So now we are finally ready. The changing table/dresser is in the corner and filled with all the gender neutral clothing we have.

The crib is set up and I will get it made this afternoon just as soon as everything gets out of the dryer. Although our room is furniture-central with all the baby's stuff as well as ours, it is finally ready.

You will see that there is one wall that needs finishing yet. After taping the new wall in the twins' room, I came to the realization that drywall work is not my forte. This project will wait for my dad's visit in February. What took me hours to do on the other side will take him a fraction of the time and the work will be done right. With all that furniture against the wall, it doesn't really bother me anyway.

I was so pleased with all the work I got accomplished in a day! All that is left is the stairwell, which really needs fresh paint. However, I don't think anyone would appreciate me climbing a tall extension ladder to get it done. This project will have to wait until after baby comes. I might even admit defeat and hire the job out (Mom, what will you charge?! It just wouldn't be a typical visit if I don't have projects for both you and Dad when you come in February!).

Here's to an efficient snowy weekend and that darn nesting instinct. Now to get the rest of my house under control......

Christmas Programs

It's been Christmas program central at the Wendorff household. Last Wednesday night, the 2nd grade religious classes acted out the Christmas story at church. I use the term "acted out" very loosely. An adult narrated/read the entire story from the book of Luke. The 2nd graders stood on the stage and occassionally moved around depending on their roles. Everyone, audience included, sang the Christmas songs together. While it was by no means a fancy production, it was still cute to see. Ellie was nervous and didn't want to go. I had to laugh at this after the fact since there was nothing to be scared of at all. She definitely is a little pip-squeak though. Her angel costume dragged on the ground and she was hidden in the mix of girls/angels. She is the 3rd from the left, the little blondie with her head buried in her music sheet!

Ava and Carter's preschool/Mom's day out program put on a Christmas concert today as well. All the ages, 2-5 or 6, sang together. It was so cute. Of course, neither of my children actually sang. Ava stood there and looked around. Every now and then, she'd cross her arms but otherwise she just stood there checking out the audience. Carter stood there with his arms hanging by his sides. His little head hung down. His cheeks were red and it looked like he was about to start crying at any moment. So sweet and precious. My precocious little terrors were anything but in front of a crowd of people! Ava finally noticed me at the last song and started crying. I still haven't figured out if the crying was due to her nerves and seeing me or the fact that I brought my camera and was taking pictures - something I had been told to not do. Thankfully they had cookies and lemonade for after the program so she eventually (as in 5 long minutes) got over it.

Steamrolled

You know that old adage about "when it rains, it pours"? Yeah, it's pouring over here.

Whoever thinks that December is a relaxing, enjoyable month is full of crap, on something, or must live alone in the middle of nowhere.

Here's my two week plan before Christmas:
6th: Twins' preschool 9:30-2, Math class 6-8:50 pm
7th: Twins' 3 year check-up 11 am - 12:30 pm, Multiples group board dinner 6:30-9:30 pm
8th: 2 hour late start at E's school, E's FEP (religious) class 7-8:15 w/ Christmas Program at 7:20
9th: ECFE w/ twins 9:45-11:45, Education final at 1 pm, pick up crib from fellow multiples group member half hour away at 4:30
10th: numerous assignments for two classes due, including 1500 word book report on book that I am 75 of 250 pages into
11th: Education class 8-10, Multiples group Holiday Party 9-12:30 (hence the education final on Thursday so I can leave early for the Holiday Party, which I am still trying to plan at this point)
12th: Take a deep breath, big history essay due, two history quizzes due
13th: Twins' preschool 9:30-2 w/ Christmas program at 1 pm, Math final @ 6 pm
14th: Multiples group general meeting 6:30-9, final Children's Lit assignment due (book that needs to be read yet and analyzed)
15th: 32 week check-up 10:30 am, History final on campus 2 pm
16th: ECFE w/ twins 9:45-11:45
17th: Lay on couch all day and attempt to recover from two weeks of pure chaos and more activities taking place than I ever care to attempt in a two week span again, then gear up for the Christmas events taking place the next week

Of course, some of this might be more manageable if I would actually work on what needs to be done. I could actually try reading the biography on John & Abigail Adams that I need to write about by tomorrow midnight. I could write the paper on my teaching philosophy due Saturday morning. I could finish tracing patterns for the holiday party's craft and start cutting them out. But what fun would it be if I actually started to work on all these things? Then I might actually get them done in a timely manner versus sitting at the computer Friday night at 11:57 pm attempting to upload my book review due at 11:59.

I'm looking forward to December 26th. School will have been finished for a week, Christmas and all the accompanying events will be over, and I will finally have some downtime in which to sit and ponder life. Oh wait, we have a baby that will be due less than 6 weeks after that, a bedroom that needs painting, a house that could really use a good top-to-bottom scrub down (although this might be more of the nesting thing versus actual necessity), and numerous other things that have been on my to-do list since September and that I was going to get to during my 3 week break from classes.

If you see me anytime soon and I look a little flatter to you, it's because I've been run over by the steamroller of life.

Kid Creations

Lest you think I keep all the fun in creating to myself, here are my progeny also sharing in the creation vibe. Last Thursday, on Ellie's second day home from school (sick twice on Tuesday, fine all day Wednesday, and goes and gets sick on me at 3 am Thursday morning, meaning yet another day home before able to return to school), I needed to find something new to entertain the kids. I'm not a fan of anything that tends to cause messes which is why paint and play-doh are not things my children see a lot.

However, we were struggling. Everyone was stir-crazy and we needed something different to do. So I gathered up all my courage and dug out the paints. The kids had a great time painting. It was a stressful half hour as I worried about my floors and where the paint would go but everyone kept the paint on the paper. This was good practice for me as many of the Christmas presents the kids are getting are those "forbidden" items. We have more than enough toys so I decided to venture into the arts and crafts area for this year's presents. My kids will get more time to be creative and I may even learn to relax about messes a little bit!

Creative Juices

What do I do with all my free time you may ask yourself? At least, I assume there are a few out there that seem to think I have endless free time (uhm, Dad, who thinks I have both the material and time to update daily!). Anyway, when I'm not busy with four classes, taking care of kids, trying to keep up my house, doing activities for my multiples group, and trying to find a moment to catch a breath and relax, I have been finding new outlets for my creative energies.

I'm not sure where all this inspiration to create has come from. Probably due to a mother that was an artist and encouraged even our weakest and most pitiful attempts at creation. With having to budget my time so well these last few months with all the activities we've had going on, I find it hard to just sit down and relax. Add to this the fact that I keep getting all these crazy ideas of things I should try to make in my head and I've had a major two months of production.

All my creating has Jake terrified. I can understand why when you look at the picture below. This was my first attempt last spring to create artwork for our walls. Although it looks like an angry death scene on the canvas, I actually had a lot of fun slapping paint down. However, Jake took one look at my artwork and ordered an actual print for our living room wall. These poor canvases were regulated to the back of a closet and I was told to hang up my paint brushes.


I learned something from that experiment though. Before starting a project, have a plan in mind first. If you jump into something without a lot of thought, it looks like someone died on your canvas. If you do some research and put a little effort into your creation, you can end up with the redone canvases below. Jake still says they aren't living room material but once we repaint the stairwell, I'm hanging them there. I think they turned out pretty well, especially in comparison to what they started as! The beauty of canvas: it is repaintable!

The next thing I created in October was trick-or-treat bags for the twins. My mom made the one in the middle for Ellie about five years ago. She didn't have the time to get two more made before Halloween this year, so I took the initiative myself.

They were pretty simple to make. As you can tell, the twins' bags aren't completely finished yet. I couldn't decide how to decorate the pumpkins, ghost, and bat. I know I won't be using lots of glitter glue since Ellie's bag sheds on everything. Anyway, they worked for this year and I will get them jazzed up for next year. I also couldn't think of enough Halloween objects for everyone to have a different image on each side of their bag so everyone gets a pumpkin and then something else. I still need an idea for Finito's bag. Frankenstein?

Since we finally got the wall between our bedroom and the twins' finished, I needed some more artwork for their walls. I decided to create that as well. Pretty cute if I say so myself!

My November projects haven't been as plentiful as I'm wrapping up the semester of school. I did however create myself some new coasters. These were what they originally looked like. They are supposed to hold a picture and at one time had wedding photos in them. Carter decided to rip the photos off and this is what I was left with.

I decided they needed a jazzing up. Some scrapbook paper and several coats of Mod Podge (my new best friend!) later, here's our new coasters.

This is a cross my Grandma Mary gave us for a shower gift. I love the simplicity of the cross but it was brown. Grandma tried to find something black as she knew that was more my style but didn't find anything by the shower date. I decided to make the cross black to tie it in with the rest of our decor. A few coats of black paint and I love it even more!

My final project to date was the decoration of these boxes on Wednesday. My mom made the middle one for me. It was just a photo box that she decoupaged paper onto. I've been reorganizing my office area and had two white DVD boxes from IKEA that weren't being used for movies. I decided to reuse them in my office area to hold supplies but first I made them pretty. I totally ripped off my mom's design, but I think they are so cool! The best part was I already had all the scrapbook paper and the bottle of Mod Podge so the project cost me nothing!

Anyway, that is what I've spent October and November doing with my "free time." Michael's and Joann Fabrics love me. Jake comes home at least once a week now, takes a look at either the kitchen table or counters, and asks what I'm up to now. But I love it. I'm finally finding my stride in creating. It doesn't help that I keep finding more creative blogs and websites. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve for my month break from school. One idea includes transforming this yarn into a hat for the baby to wear home from the hospital. It might be a stretch but the baby will wear a hat made from this yarn. It just may not be made by me!

The only area I haven't been able to explore yet is the photography. I can't stop lusting for a digital SLR camera. I already have it picked out. I just need the means to purchase said camera. Jake has some weird opposition to spending $500 on a camera. I can't figure out why. The store sells used ones too, so as soon as I can find some cash, I'm taking the plunge. I may have to go back to giving plasma twice a week or sell a kidney, but I will have a fancy camera by summer! I will post any new pictures of my break creations just as soon as I survive the rest of this semester. Two weeks and counting!