Friday afternoon our mother's helper girls were coming over to play with the kids, so we spent a good amount of time that morning making cards, and cookies, and an ornament for each of them. We love those girls, and the kids loved making things for them.
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| A break to snuggle with Kellan, who did NOT want to be left out with marker fun. |
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| I made this one "for" Cora, who did not want to use the special paint pens and participate in this one. She's more of a "sprinkles on cookies" kind of gal. Haha. Anyway, the kids were then deciding which girl got an ornament from which Schaefer kid. Layla gave to Allie, Finn gave to Grace, and "Cora" gave to Faith. Finn was a little annoyed that I had helped Cora, though, so he said it was VERY important to tell the truth about who really made each ornament. |
Before the girls came on Friday afternoon we went to Aldi for Christmas baking day supplies. I would...not recommend...taking 4 young kids to a grocery story the weekend before Christmas. Smart people avoid things like that!!
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| This is basically Cora's smile in every photo! |
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| On our way out...we had resorted to crackers for Kellan to keep him happy by the end. |
Friday night was Family Movie Night. We were thinking of showing "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" or "Home Alone", but Finn vetoed both of them because he was too freaked out by the previews of both. We ended up watching some cartoon based on a Marriah Carey song. *eyeroll* Raising kids with very, very, very, very sensitive souls has major benefits down the line, right?? :)
After family movie night we called in to Schaefer Family Christmas in D.C. and they all got to watch us open OUR presents...haha. Thanks for your patience with us, guys! Cora got a princess dress (2, actually), a REAL princess crown, and a princess book in which she was the star. She DIED. Absolutely loved it. Layla got a TON of jewelry making supplies and books, and a mechanical kitten. Jackpot for her as well. Bullseye! Finn got a cool robot / coding game, and a headlamp (ALWAYS a winner), and a ukulele. Jonas was able to teach him how to play a few things right away, so he was delighted for sure.
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| Finn reading Cora's princess book. |
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| Kellan got a puppy that you can cool or warm up...he juuuust woke up from a nap here, though, so he wasn't feeling it too much at this point. But I'm sure he will love that super soft puppy sometime soon! |
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| Kellan playing with a headlamp |
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| Layla exploring her new jewelry treasures. |
Saturday was BERUBE BAKING DAY at the Horsman/Berube house! I was gone with Kellan from about 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., and we made many delicious things to consume this holiday season. We also had an "off" year and messed up at least 4 recipes, but they were mostly redeemed. It was a baking day representative of our years in general, right? Haha. Kellan has been cranky lately with teeth, but he took TWO good naps for me while we were there, so it was a Christmas miracle. I'm thinking he likes Grandma's bed.
While we were there we took my Dad to Target to pick something up, so Kellan and I played around with the camera while waiting for him in the car. Kellan's selfie game is about as good as mine is.
Today we went over to Dave and Rachel Gustafson's house for a lovely Christmas brunch with a bunch of the people who have also left our old church and are feeling a little adrift and lonely this holiday season, without a new church and with a few hurts from these past years. It was such a great time. We ate great food, sang treasured songs, shared about where we are and where we hope God meets us this year, and prayed for each other. Rachel read something she wrote for the gathering and it was so GOOD.
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| This is Mr. Dan, a rockstar in my kids world. They adore him. |
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| Jonas added violin (not this one, a bigger one) on a few songs and it sounded so lovely. |
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| Kellan pulled his weight and let many people hold him and didn't cry much at all and let both Jonas and I sit and participate for the ENTIRE 4 HOURS! Excellent work out there, little man. |
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| Kellan snuggling with cousin Claire. |
Back to the citrus game tonight:
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| While we were at Gustafsons today I was letting Kellan chew on my knuckle and there it was...the sharp, sharp ridges of little baby teeth that have FINALLY poked through! 1 day shy of 8 months Kellan got his first (2, I think) teeth. And thank goodness, because those teeth really messed up some of his sleep the last 2 nights. And MY sleep. Poor baby. Kellan worked hard for those 2 little teeth! |
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| Kellan is almost more manic than Cora was at this age about food. He starts to SOB, very quickly, if he is not offered anything that I, or anyone else, am eating near him. He knows when you are trying to give him a cracker in place of whatever great food you have over there in your bowl, darn it! And he makes his wishes KNOWN. Haha. I'll take it. An adventurous eater can basically never be bad in my book. Taste away, little man! And please don't have allergies. |
Photos from J's phone...I'm just too lazy right now to move them to where they belong above. This is how they loaded, so this is how they shall stay.
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| Friday night Cora came down with this on and told us all "Bonjour." She felt VERY French in it. :) |
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| So.much.twirling. |
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| While I was gone baking on Saturday, Jonas was home with the older 3. They had a creative morning with all of the Christmas treasures from the night before! |
Then Tomas and Ava came over to play and they spent 3 hours running around pretending.
The girls playing barbie up in the Gustafson's attic today:
And now we're off to the races prepping for Christmas eve, Christmas Day, and all the Christmas celebrations that will happen from now until Epiphany, on January 6th. Merry Christmas, all!
