Christmas 2008

This really is the most wonderful time of the year. This was probably the best Christmas we have had yet! We had a wonderful time with both sides of the family & we really enjoyed our time together with just our little family on Christmas morning.

I had so much fun shopping for the kids this year. I really scored BIG with the "day-after-Halloween" bargains I bought this year too (thanks for the suggestion Karen)! I went out on November 1st and purchased a bunch of 50% off costumes for the kids, because their favorite thing to do is to play "dress up". Well, my bargain hunting paid off Christmas morning when they each opened a huge box full of costumes. They went NUTS! It was so much fun to see :-).

Here are some fun pictures from our Christmas celebrations:
Here comes Santa Clause, here comes Santa Clause....











Judah and Mom-Mom White.






























Pop-Pop White with the girls.













I love this picture of Maya waking up on Christmas morning. Does she look excited or what?











Chandler got the Optimus Prime launcher he had been asking for :-)












The big boxes of costumes.













Is that Tinkerbelle and Hannah Montana I see?


















It's "The Dark Knight"!


















It's an Easy Bake Oven!!













Chandler spent the entire day soaked in Transformer heaven!

















The box says this dumb Transformer is for ages 5 and up....












...but there wasn't a child or adult in the whole house that could figure out how to "transform" that dumb thing back into a car!











Santa enjoying his first taste of way too much stimulation. Aka: The "activity mat".

17 dozen cookies!

We have been doing a little baking around here :-)

These were the cookie jars and coffee mugs I bought for the kids teachers.

(sorry about all the junk in the background).









Side view of the cookie jars...they were so cute :-).














Cute little coffee mugs.

















Yumm...homemade cookies! The kids helped me bake all day Tuesday when they had a snow day.

Baby it's cold outside!

Man...has it been COLD! At least we have had a little snow to go with the bitter cold. This is how the "Fab 4 Whites" have been dealing with the chill in the air :-).


























































WooHoo! Nothing like a snow day the week before Christmas break!


















Santa baby.....


















Judah is LOVING his snow suit!


















"The best way to spread Christmas cheer...is toting around a chubby baby in a Santa hat everywhere you go!"

McKenna turned 7!

My big girl turned 7 years old on Thanksgiving day! In some ways it seems like she should be older than 7 because she seems so "grown up" now that she is the 'big, big, big sister". But, on the other hand, it seems like she should still be my little girl with the cute chubby cheeks who makes up words like "sprankaree", and "spurple" to describe her surroundings.

When you have 4 children so close together you can't help but feel like you are somehow missing out on watching the oldest one grow up. I'll be the first to admit that I have more than just a little guilt over that! It seems like every time I look up McKenna has grown up a little more. A few months go by & I say to myself "when did my little girl quit being so 'little' ". It's bittersweet watching McKenna get older.

She has such a mature countenance for someone so young. She is always thoughtful and kind, and so tenderhearted. I love that about her! She is always thinking of others & yet she has managed to find her own voice amid the flurry of growth in our home. She is also one of the most creative children I've ever met. She doesn't need much to get her creative juices flowing. This girl can make an "art project" out of plain white paper and paper clips...I kid you not! Wherever she goes she has a bag of some sort filled with books to read, journals, sketch books, pencils, and paper. This is the one aspect of her that confounds me the most. I am about the most "un-creative" person I know, so this need for her to have learning materials by her side 24/7 is very foreign to me! When I see my little artistic savant marching around with her art satchel and reading materials, I say to myself "Is that really my child?". She must take after her Daddy in that department, because God knows he's got talent!

So, here are a few pictures of my big girl on her birthday weekend.
Opening presents on her birthday.













Waiting for Daddy to find some matches.


















"Happy Birthday to You"


















At the theater waiting for the movie "Bolt" to start.


















It was only 6:30 pm, but they were completely worn out!

2 Months

Giving Thanks.

I said I was going to do a "Giving Thanks" post, and as they say...better late than never :-).

To be honest, this past week was kinda rough & I just wasn't in the mood to do much "blogging" about it. I won't go into it all right now, because honestly I'm just trying to "move on". I'm quite sure no one wants to read about all the boring little bits and pieces that make up my glamorous life anyway. However, this past week has reminded me of how thankful I am for my family.

So, here is a small list of what I'm thankful for this year....

1) Complicated lives that make for great stories! Think about it...without all the "bumps in the road" our life stories just wouldn't be very interesting. Messy situations are great teachers. They also make for [sometimes] funny stories, and if nothing else...good gossip! Shut up, Pollyanna...you know it's true ;-). Complicated crap keeps you on your toes & sharpens your mind. Without it you would be pretty dull and boring.

2) Insurance. Oddly enough, this is also something I really loathe right now, but we won't go into that. It's a double edged sword. For now I like it because it's serving it's purpose...and for that I'm thankful.

3) Cute kids that make me smile :-)

4) A renewed understanding that there are just some things that money can't buy! For everything else there is cash...VISA can go to hell.

5) One such thing that money can't buy would be stories about my oldest son. Like the time he walked out of the bathroom in his classroom with his pants down around his ankles & asked if someone could "please come wipe him now"! No...he was not at all embarrassed by this! His mother sure was...but there will just be more of that in the future, so I better get used to it.

6) My family, the little place we call home, and the wisdom to know that those are the things that really matter.

THAT'S what I'm thankful for!


*Next up.....McKenna's Birthday pictures!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Sharing Too Much...

I have not had a shower in two days.

My baby just puked on me (maybe I'll go take that shower now).

I still have about 20 lbs to lose...and for the first time in my life I really don't care that I have 20 pounds to lose!

I've been averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night & somehow I'm still alive :-).

This whole "getting older" thing sucks! I think my arms are getting a little bit of "arm jello". I noticed it when I waved goodbye to the kids the other day. What the heck? What's next...tucking my boobs into my pants? Why do our bodies melt as we get older?

Coffee is my breakfast.

Which is precisely why I've been eating dinner leftovers at 10:00 am (I eat "lunch" at 1:30!).

I've now mastered being able to breastfeed while simultaneously wiping another kids butt. I've also mastered eating with my left hand...because I'm nursing on my right side. Not sure I can enter that set of skills on America's Got Talent, but I'm proud of it :-).

Yesterday I put my underwear on inside out & didn't notice that little fact until the end of the day!

*I promise to do a "giving thanks" post next week that is a little more serious. I just thought we all needed a little "randomness" for today. Stay tuned........

6 Weeks!

My baby is growing up so fast! It really feels like I just had him last week & yet it's been 6 weeks. I guess when your days and nights run together like this everything seems a little "off". Half of the time I can't tell you what day of the week it is, and today's date...forget it!

While things are returning to normal here, I'm slowly coming to the realization that my life is forever changed by this new little person. I knew that was going to happen, but it never ceases to amaze me how you fall in love all over again with each new child. It's so much a "feeling", that it's hard to put into words exactly. Just last night as I was watching Judah sleep it occurred to me how blessed I am to know what it feels like to love 4 little people so much that you think your heart might explode with so much love (I know that sounds REALLY corny...but it's true!).

I think that kind of love is something only God can explain. If you think about it, it doesn't really make all that much sense. Here are these little people & they are completely dependent on you for everything. They pee on you, vomit on you, make messes, wake up at all hours of the night, rob you of your vanity, drain your wallet, and cry every 1-2 hours because they have constant needs that need to be met. For the first couple of years that don't even say "I love you" or offer anything in return for all your hard work. Yet, we think they are the most wonderful gifts ever bestowed upon us. THAT is all God's doing! If anyone else in our lives did those things, or demanded that kind of attention from us we would be ready to kick them to the curb! Yes, children are a lot of work...but the rewards of knowing this kind of love are worth it!

OK....enough of that mushy, lovey-dovey talk. I'll just post some new Judah pics now :-).

We will call this "6 Weeks with Judah".

Halloween!

Halloween was a little bit rough this year, but as the pictures show we all survived! Our saga started the day before Halloween when I picked the older two up from school and McKenna threw up in the car before we even got home. Then, as luck would have it Chandler started in with the vomiting and such about 1:00 am on Friday. When daylight started coming through my bedroom window on Friday I was a zombie! I had spent the entire night cleaning up vomit, poo, and other gross bodily fluids...oh, and I had a newborn that woke up every two hours to feed in between all of that.

I begged Jonathan to stay home from work so that I could take a nap & then take Maya and Judah to the pumpkin patch as promised. In the end it all worked out. I didn't really get a nap, but I did manage to make it to the pumpkin patch & get a break from all the sick kids at home. By nightfall the kids were begging to go trick-or-treating, so we decided to let them since no one had puked since 6:00 am. However, Chandler started running a 102 fever, so trick-or-treating didn't last too terribly long. Here's to hoping next year is a little less complicated-LOL!

*Don't you just love how my slide show cut off my head? It's probably all for the best though since I was running on about 2-3 hours of sleep that day!

The 10 Cannots!

On this Election Day 2008, I want to encourage everyone to go vote...but, be sure you understand what you are voting for ;-). A lot has been said about this election and the two candidates running for president, but it is your duty to decipher for yourself what it is you really believe. Politicians will just tell you what they think you want to hear, so it's important that you wade through all that crap to find the real truth.

My hubby sent me an e-mail this morning with the "10 Cannots" & I thought it might be some good old fashioned wisdom for you to think on as you head to the polls today.

The 10 Cannots

By William J. H. Boetcker
(wrongfully attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Quick update

I would hate to disappoint my loyal blog readers by not having a new post this week, so here are a few random pictures from last weekend.

McKenna was quite the social butterfly last weekend when she had TWO parties to attend. The first was a costume party on Friday night & the second was a "Princess" birthday party on Saturday. She had a blast all weekend & I had fun dressing her up both times :-).

Eeek! It's a giant 4 kid mummy!


















Chandler and his "best girl". That's what he calls his big sis. How cute is that?












"Princess McKenna" and the birthday girl :-)













What's up with the stars in the middle of the forehead? Must be a hot new princess accessory I'm not aware of-hehe!











Getting ready to leave for the party. She was so stinking cute I just had to take a picture.
















Judah's chubby cheeks just keep growing!










My favorite baby sleeping position. Gotta love those tiny little butts all curled up in a ball! (Pssst...don't tell my pediatrician I lie to her about my kids sleeping on their back!)










Oh, heck...while we're keeping secrets you also might not want to mention to McKenna that her little sister steals her clothes for "dress up" while she is gone at school all day.

















It's our little secret Maya! ;-)