December started with a bang...Declan and a huge jar of Aquaphor. Whenever Declan is quiet and missing, he is almost always into trouble. This evening I found him hiding between the couch and the changing station with our jar of Aquaphor. He thoroughly painted the floor and himself! After 3 showers and tons of paper towels, I think I got it off. The good thing...his face and hands are smooth as butter! How many more days until David gets home? Oh, did I mention this was the same evening the oven caught on fire requiring me to pull out a fire extinguisher as I yelled at Easton to escort the boys to the basement while I opened windows to release the black billows of smoke!
December already...time to pull out the Christmas decorations...and within minutes the boys accessorized the tree. Cache added Luke Skywalker and the twins added bits of cheese (which I already took out before this picture because it grossed me out).
I always try to do festive activities each day in December...which translates to maybe a couple times a week.
Tired of lame snowflakes, I printed out a tutorial online on how to fold 4-6-8-12 point snowflakes. They were a bit hard for Cache to cut out so I did most of the heavy labor (although he was great at unfolding them).
Easton was a master at the larger 4 point stars.
Another example of Declan being quiet and missing...fortunately this time it did not involve any mess!
Sometimes, just sometimes, the twins are actually cute!
Xander would spend all day at the sink washing his hands...hopefully not an early warning of an OCD!
Easton's class was fortunate to have a student teacher for the fall. He was asked to bring in something to put on a Christmas tree for her farewell. This is what we came up with!
Starting to understand my life with Declan yet?
Another festive activity with the kids...I'm not really sure how it fits into Christmas, but they had fun with it anyway...
Yeah, David is home and the tree is out of storage and set up (December 8th)... still lots of time to enjoy it before Christmas.
We tried putting 90% of the ornaments above the twins reach, but I still spent the next 2 weeks picking up ornaments and hanging them on the top!
Another helpful thing about David being home...he helped get the twins birthday balloons on the ceiling and out of the fan (stuck in the fan from the oven fire when I switched on the fan and it immediately started sucking up the balloons!). First he tried Declan as his assistant. Declan is our brave twin (and lightest). However, he refused to reach up for the balloon.
We called in the big guns and Easton delivered for us!
Cache had a cookie exchange at preschool. With a cute idea from pinterest and an instant sugar cookie mix, we were ready in no time!
If you don't understand Declan yet, maybe this will help. The sad part was he was literally stuck and crying and I left him to run upstairs and get the camera. By that time he gave up on me and shortly thereafter got himself out!
I have no idea how this picture got in here, but it's pretty cute.
Xander wedged himself in the back of our kid chair and played trains for a while.
I love it when they stay put.
Riding on David's shoulders is no longer good enough for Declan. Higher is better.
We enjoyed a white Christmas Eve this year. David, Cache, and Declan built a great snowman. As David declared, it was perfect snow for a snowman!
Well, enjoyed may be an overstatement. Easton was terribly sick. So sick, that he ended up in the hospital on Christmas Eve. To spare you the details of his symptoms, they ran every kind of test and determined that is was just a really bad flu. When they got home at nearly 2 in the morning, I was grateful that Easton was at least home for Christmas...although it was pretty much a blur. Such a bummer.
Of course everyone mustered up the strength to open presents (although even the lego boxes sat unopened all week!)
The twins were happy just climbing on everything.
And into everything.
The twins each got a remote control car (thanks to Black Friday).
And now we have 2 glider bikes too.
By early afternoon, Cache was stricken with the flu as well. This is a child who will never wear a jacket outside. Even a long sleeve shirt is a success. Today he asked for his jacket and then preceded to pull on the hood. It was then that I realized we were in trouble! Merry Christmas.
The boys got those water capsules in their stockings. Cache took the liberty of opening every box and organizing them by color. As a master organizer myself, I was very proud of his skills. Fortunately, no one seemed to mind the new assortment of farm animals, dinosaurs, and safari animals.
David took the whole week of Christmas off work. This of course was good because there is no way I could have taken care of two really sick boys by myself, but sad because we had a lot of fun activities planned that never happened. The Saturday after Christmas was the first day we attempted a small activity. We went to a local farm museum (thanks to a cheap groupon deal) and spend a few hours milking fake cows, riding fake horses, and shopping for fake food. It was fun, but quite depressing to call it the highlight of the week.
Easton was actually a natural cow milker. He even looks good doing it. Meanwhile, Declan managed to take the bucket of 'milk' (aka water) apart and make a big mess.
Xander didn't quite realize that he was suppose to gather the eggs not the chickens.
Hmm. Where is Declan this time?
Turns out he actually was hiding. He took a lego helmet from the boys and put it on his finger (his favorite thing) and found a nice cozy hiding spot. And these are just the things he does that I take a picture of!
Feeling a little better. Everyone is allowed to cuddle again.
Our cute friend Saxon came over after church to play with the kids. He used to help us at church with Xander. The boys think he is Batman.
On New Years Eve we took a trip downtown. The Botanical Gardens put on an amazing train display.
My boys were fascinated by the treasure in this pixie home.
Only slightly tempted to push them in!
We decided to walk the 10 blocks to the Natural History Museum as well. Along the way we passed the outdoor sculpture display. This was our favorite piece.
To save a few bucks and a few headaches, we packed a lunch and ate incognito in a less-used hallway rather than fighting the crowds in the cafeteria.
