We wish you a merry Christmas...again!

Technology...I love it, but can't always make sense of it.

We went to Caroline's Christmas program today. Yes, today. Her program before Christmas was cancelled due to weather. So we were celebrating Christmas still today on January 9. :) It was such a sweet program, and the kids were so excited and proud. One of the things that I will remember was Caroline walking out to the program with her class. All of the children were walking in a line, looking for their families in the audience. How sweet and beautiful she looked when her eyes found Grandpa Orton, Evan and I.

That was the moment that I wanted to share on the blog. However, I forgot my memory card for my camera, so I was using our video camera to record. I can't figure out how to select the footage I want from the video camera. Grrr. Oh well. We'll just wish you a merry Christmas once again (I think this is Caroline's third serenade of you with this song!) with the video footage that I did manage to post! :)

My New Year's Resolution

You are looking at it. Actually, the sad thing is, you are really looking at only part of it. There is much, much more where that came from.

I promised myself that I would organize the basement, including throwing things away and donating to AmVets. To make it happen, while the boys and Caroline are at school, Evan and I are down there the whole time. And then, when Evan naps, Caroline and I work down there. And then in the evening, when the kids are tucked in bed, and after I blog a bit, I head down there again. So basically, I am living down there right now. :)

I am actually pretty excited about this. It is so good to finally be at the point where I am pushing past being overwhelmed, and I am gritting my teeth and diving in and gaining momentum. I do like to be organized and know where things are, and I LOVE seeing a project through to completion. It is feeling good to only keep what we use. I am so looking forward to a basement with a clear floor and an organized storeroom where if I need something, I know where it is and can pull it out right away.

So, within the month, I'll post another picture of our organized basement. (Bet you can't wait!) There, I wrote it and put it out there. You can hold me to it!

Just like the big kids!

Our young Evan likes to run with the big dogs. High chairs? He much prefers a standard chair. Want some help, Evan? No, he wants to do it himself. He wants to do everything just like his older siblings.

He's carried this attitude to when I drop Caroline off at preschool. Just like all of those big kids there, Evan has to take off his boots, his hat, his mittens and his jacket, and put them in a cubby or on a hook. He wants to do this each time, and for the fact that he is a bit shorter than the typical preschooler, all this work takes a while. This video is a condensed version of what he normally does lately...he's just putting his hat in a cubby. But it shows how very steadfast and committed he is to his goal, God love him. And he's so proud of himself. Take a look at that smile at the end! After all that hard work, I'd like to say that his sweet sister didn't undo it in a flash, but I can't. Poor Evan!

Now, that's a snowman!

My husband has a penchant for building rather large snowmen. However, so far this year he has been denied the opportunity. We've had a lot of snow, but it has never been the right type at the right time. He (and the kids!) have been anxiously waiting for the chance to build this year's big one.

The snowman pictured is last year's. They were very creative in their styling of the snowman. He wore a bushel basket hat, training wheels for eyes, a plastic bat for a nose, the head of a pushbroom for a mouth, and plastic drainage pipes for arms. The kids were so proud...a picture of it actually made it into our local newspaper. We would sit at our front window and watch cars slow down as they passed, with some people even getting out to take a picture!
And here's my peanut's sweet, little snowman that she made all by herself. :)

Future Preschool Teacher

My daughter spent the better part of the afternoon being Mrs. Rickel (her preschool teacher). I was Mrs. Herra, her assistant teacher. Her stuffed animals were her students, and she set them up around her rug (pink blanket), read them her favorite story (Pinkalicious), gave them a snack, assisted bathroom breaks (!), and even explained an art project. Maybe she'll follow in her mother's footsteps and be a teacher when she grows up...

That'll be in addition to her other plans of being a doctor, and artist, a pet shop owner, and an ambulance driver. She'll be a busy woman.

Our day started at about 4:30...

Yesterday, the boys exchanged one of their Christmas gifts that broke for some Bakugan game pieces. Henry said that he was too excited to sleep last night, and couldn't wait until the next day so that he and Seth could play with them. They were also too excited about the five new fish that we added to the aquarium yesterday. The boys asked if Caroline could sleep in their room last night, and there was a lot of fish and Bakugan talk before they actually fell asleep.

Well, true to his word, Henry couldn't wait for the next day. He woke up at 4:30 worrying about the fish. I went to check on them (they were fine), and I heard Seth and Caroling up and talking. Henry came back to the room, and the kids actually asked me if they could stay up and play Bakugan. Amazing that they even tried that one!

Needless to say, they were a bit tired today. They actually all fell asleep at the same time for a nap in the afternoon (MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!), which was lovely. They were all refreshed for ice skating on the pond with their daddy and Uncle Bill.

Our Newest Pets

As you might recall, the kids' first "pets" were their caterpillars they caught this fall. Ever since we had to let them go, the kids (especially Caroline) have been asking to have their own pets. With our house being as busy as it is, Dave and I thought that we might be able to handle fish. So we gave the kids a 10 gallon aquarium for Christmas. We set it up in their bathroom, and have had a fun time decorating it with plants, driftwood and rocks.

They each got to choose 1 platy and one guppy, so now we are the proud owners of 8 fish. Henry has Scuba-Doo and Tux, Caroline has Swishy the Fishy (the second) and Speedy, Evan has Bubbles and Jaws, and Seth has Frisky and Jason. (You've got to love Seth's taste in names...Remember, he was the one that wanted to name his baby brother Fluffy.)

You might have seen that one of Caroline's fish is a second. Unfortunately, Caroline's first fish died a few days ago. We gave Swishy the first a proper "flushing to the sea" burial. After some tears, we decided to draw some pictures of Swishy to put next to the aquarium so that the other fish wouldn't be lonely for her :). She then wanted to write a letter to Swishy, which we did. She ran upstairs with her artwork, but a couple of minutes later, I heard her crying again. I ran upstairs to see what happened. "What's wrong, Caroline?," I asked. "I can't send the letters to Swishy! It won't flush!" Yeah, our toilet was a bit clogged with Caroline's correspondence with her fish.

More cousin fun!

So, my nieces and my brother slept over at our house last night. We had two days full of Wii, doll houses and dolls, Bakugan (a cool new game my nephew taught the kids), nerf basketball, wrestling, and in general, a lot of cousin revelry.

They woke up early (well, you know, they had a lot of playing to do!), had some cinnamon rolls, and then Dave and my brother, Bill, took them out for a little nature hike to the woods and pond behind our house. I was all excited to send Dave out with our camera to get lots of good pictures of them, but unfortunately sent him with dead batteries. He was only able to take one picture, obviously not of the kids, but beautiful nonetheless!
The following picture is us trying to squeeze in as much as possible to the time you have with your visiting nieces...We're making gumdrop Christmas trees (Thanks for the fun activity, Grandma!). Evan just finished a fabulous lunch of hot dogs and ketchup (still on the table), and he was doing his best to get his fair share of gumdrops. We were watching some funny videos on YouTube, and some of them were playing Wii golf as well. Ohhhh, we miss them already!