Sarah's Salon

Poor Sarah is stuck in a family full of boys . . . and she's such a girly girl. So she takes what she can get as far as playing dress up, dolls, and fixing hair. Sarah's Salon is quite a chic place to get your hair done. She makes signs, sets up her waiting area with magazines to read, and even passes out appointment cards. I always seem to be busy doing mommy things, so she does the boys' hair in our family. There's not much you can do with the short hair on our boys, so she wets it and combs it this way and that way. She did "do" my hair once and I ended up with a frizzy poof ball of a head. But it made her happy! Her feminine influence is strong with all the boys, and we're so grateful to have that in our family! We love you, Sarah!

Sarah's Salon

Oops! I guess her influence is rubbing off. Maybe Jonah will be a hair stylist? (Over Daddy's dead body!)

Premature Spring Fever

I'm getting spring fever already and it's only January. This is very, very bad! But when you see images like this:

And little seedling beginning to sprout like this:

And the sun is shining and it's warmer than it's been for a month, how else am I supposed to feel? But, like I said, it's only January! So when that next snow storm comes and the temperatures drop and the inversion is so thick I can't even see my neighbor's house, you'll know you can find me devouring a pan of brownies in an attempt to make myself feel better. Don't be surprised if after the next storm (because we all know it's coming since, after all, it's STILL only January) I've gained 5 to 10 lbs. Weather like this messes up my body clock. I guess I should be more grateful for the reprieve instead of complaining. Sorry! This shows what a pessimist I can be. It's just that I'm SO anxious for spring, for longer days and more sunshine, to be able to send the kids outside to play instead of climbing the walls with their sticky, messy little fingers, and to plunge back into running so I can finally lose this baby weight.

Disciplining

Writing assignments work well as a disciplinary tool for Jacob. I have great ideas in mind for when he's older to write essays on making good choices, living IN the world but not OF the world, and respecting his parents. But for now he gets to write sentences over and over, like in the Little House on the Prairie days of writing sentences on the blackboard. Hey, if it can work for Laura Ingalls, it can work for Jacob. Like I've said before, Ma and Pa Ingalls were very wise. So the other day when Jacob screamed at me, stomped up the stairs and slammed his door, there had to be a consequence. After giving him a few minutes to cool off, I talked to him about respecting his mother. He just asked, "How many times to I have to write it?" He knew.

"I will treat my mom with respect." written 30 times.

1. I will hold the door for you at church.
2. I will speak kindly to you.
3. I will obey you the 1st time you ask me.
4. I will get out the dishes for you.
5. I will help you get the kids in the car.

He also had to come up with a list of 5 ways he'll show respect to me. I have to say, it's pretty cute and he did a pretty good job. Maybe I'll show him this list when he's older to remind him of what he promised as a child. Do you think it'll work?

Sarah FINALLY Got Her Wish!

Sarah has been begging me almost daily for months to cut her hair shorter. The begging occurs every morning as we set about the task of yanking a brush through her tangled hair. So when we finally had a slow Saturday this weekend, she seized her moment and vamped up her begging. We hopped in the car and headed toward a cheap haircut shop. After watching her brothers' monthly wrestling matches/haircuts I guess she expected it to hurt because she kept saying, "This doesn't hurt at all!" Yeah, her brothers are just wimps. She's completely thrilled with her new do and loves to ask any and everyone if they like it too! You look pretty cute, Sarah, not that you ever couldn't look cute!

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year in our new home. We feel so blessed! Here are some highlights:Brandon surprised me with tickets to see John Schmidt! I had no idea he was such a fabulous entertainer! We thoroughly enjoyed the concert and will definitely be back for more! Thanks, Honey!!!

Jacob's 1st grade class put together a Christmas program. I have to say that I'm completely impressed that his teacher would take this on by herself! It was a darling program which Jacob had several parts in. He sang right our, knew all the words, and was a delight to watch!We did our annual family nativity complete with all the craziness that 17 grandchildren bring! What a good looking group! Jonah was up for Joseph this year, but I decided that it might be in the best interest of Mary and the baby Jesus to wait until next year.We made our annual trip to Bowman's to see the Santa that knows us, but we don't know him. He's from around here and knows our Nanny & Papa. Jonah wasn't too excited about sitting on Santa's lap, but knew that if at least got close enough he'd get the candy Santa was handing out.Every year I swear I'm going to MAKE Christmas Eve dinner, but the last 3 years we've ended up at Benihana with Nanny & Papa. It's a fun tradition and the kids truly enjoy watching their food being prepared. Lucky for us, Nanny has an IN with the best chef there and he gives the kids a great show!After dinner we drove by some lights and came home to open Christmas pajamas! The boys got matching football jammies with football slippers. So cute! Nathan's pj's even had little cleat feet!Since Sarah doesn't have any sisters to match with, she got jammies that have matching doll pj's! She was delighted and loves getting her doll dressed every night after she puts on her own pj's. After opening pj's, we put the 2 little one's to bed and read Christmas stories & played games. About 1 a.m. Sarah woke up to go potty and was literally shaking with excitement! It was a little tricky to get her back to bed. While Brandon was tucking her in she said, "Daddy, I think I have sugar plums dancing in my head!" We had just read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and I think she was taking it to heart!Here are some pictures of our Christmas spoils! We try to keep it simple and the kids really enjoy their couple of toys. Jacob got a sled, new scooter (his got lost during our move), a Nerf gun, electronic Battleship game, and some Mercy Watson books. Oh, and of course, Santa remembered to get him a new deer calendar! Sarah finally got her doll with hair (She desperately wanted an American Girl doll, but I thought we'd hold off a little longer. She calls this Target special an American Girl doll anyway!), scooter, doll swing, the Loving Family nursery for her doll house, a tutu, and a Dick & Jane book.Jonah got a sled, sit 'n spin, laptop computer, basketball for the bathtub, and a truck book.

What do you get your 3rd boy who doesn't even know better yet? Not much, that's for sure! Luckily, Grandma got him a fun race car toy (which Jonah's quite enjoying) to add to his teething ring and rice cereal! Nanny got him a fun board book!
Here's my whole Christmas: a new entryway rug! Yahoo! Thanks, Mom & Dad! We were thrilled to have Nanny & Papa join us for another Christmas. They spent the night so they could see the kids in all their excitement Christmas morning. It's always more fun to have Nanny & Papa around! We had a yummy Christmas morning breakfast of eggs, sausage, oranges and cinnamon rolls. This year I finally attempted my mom's famous cinnamon rolls. She used to make them for all our neighbors as neighbor gifts when I was a little girl. It was a lot of work. That was the one thing I remember when we decided to move from Georgia that the neighbors mentioned, "No more Christmas cinnamon rolls!" I have to say, I did a pretty good job! They were actually fun to make. I'll definitely make these every year now that I've figured it out. Thanks, Mom, for keeping your phone handy while I was making these. I must have called her 8 times that day! Justin & Amy came over to spend Christmas afternoon with us! They helped Jacob figure out his Battleship game and were great to be a good audience as the kids paraded their gifts around to show off!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I SHOULD be writing about Christmas, but I'm running a little behind. So here's our Thanksgiving day festivities first. We celebrated with Brandon's family this year, and hosted dinner in our new home for all 29 of us! We feel so blessed to have a home with a large gathering area for so much family. We had a great day of food, games, movies and visiting.

Every Thanksgiving we spend with Brandon's family, they sing their traditional Thanksgiving song. I don't think I'll ever learn the words to that song as we only sing it once every 2 years! Oh, well! We have our own song in my family!

Sarah & Jacob ready to feast!

Jonah, Eli, Samuel, & Naomi eating at the kids' table.

Brandon with Nathan & Brett with William. We FINALLY got coordinating genders with these last babies!

Nathan enjoying a little snuggle time with Uncle Justin. Gear up, Justin, there's lots of this coming your way because . . .

"My Aunt Amy is having a baby! I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT!!!" is the sign Jacob posted after Justin and Amy told us their wonderful news!

Nathan & Papa

Papa was enjoying a little snuggle time with Nathan. I hope Nathan comes to realize how blessed he is to have the influence of such a wonderful grandfather in his life. After all, Nathan was named after this sweet man.