Do you have any Grey Poupon?

Levi 'a la Mode'

Delicious Looking, isn't he?

Ella-marie's Birthday!

Ella-marie had her 4th birthday this past week. It was quite an eventful week. I had the flu early in the week and luckily for me, Ella-marie wanted funfetti cupcakes with purple frosting and sprinkles. Done. And thank goodness.

Notice that I am standing upright without falling over. It was a good day.
Yumm!!

Presents!

Ella-marie's favorite present...a princess canopy for her bed. Not only her favorite, but everyone elses favorite too.

The Saga of the Binky Weaning

I've had enough! I decided this last weekend that Levi was out of luck because I am totally done with the whole binky drama. I'm done, just done. Levi, however, was not pleased with my decision and has decided that I am a terrible mother. Ah well, such is life. Let me give you a rundown of our marvelous weekend.

Friday night: Crying. Crying. Screaming. Cursing his mother. More crying. Moved Ella-marie to our bed so that she could go to sleep. Crying. More screaming. Pitiful whimpers. Feeling like a terrible mom, but won't give in. Falls asleep 1 hour 15 minutes after being put in bed. Still hiccuping from all of the crying. Woke up twice crying and cried for 20 minutes each time. Not such a bad start for the first night...

Saturday morning nap: Screamed for 1 1/2 hours. Tore bed apart, took off all clothing until foiled by snap buttons. Never slept. Finally gave up and got him up (and got him dressed).

Saturday afternoon nap: Repeat of morning nap, only a little less crying and a smidge of sleeping. Probably about 20 minutes asleep before crying again.

Saturday night: Only crying and cursing for 30 minutes. Still put Ella-marie in our bed. Finally fell asleep with all of his clothes on and his blankets in his bed. Counted as a success. Didn't wake up in the middle of the night at all.

Sunday morning nap: Repeat of Saturday morning nap. No sleeping.

Sunday afternoon nap: Cried for 20 minutes and slept. Only slept for 1 hour because he got woken up by his brothers. (whom I wanted to wring their necks)

Sunday night: Didn't cry when put down. Instead decided to become room president and started bossing Ella-marie around and talking to her. Talked for 45 minutes and then slept. In fact, there were five people "chatting" for that time period. Hmmm, seems suspicious. Slept all night.

Monday morning nap: I wish!

Monday afternoon nap: YES! Only cried for 5 minutes and then slept for 2 1/2 hours.

Monday night: Children were threatened within an inch of their lives to not talk so that Levi could go right to sleep. Yahoo!!! IT WORKED!!! Fell asleep within minutes without crying at all. This may be the best evening of my life!! Once again Mom is the victor and the binky is gone!

We're still alive!

Don't worry, we're all still alive! I just have been too busy to do anything about the pictures on our camera...but I've been called to repentance. And so Grandma, here you go...

My absolute favorite picture from Christmas is of Joseph and Mary and the silly donkey with antlers. They just look so cute! (and innocent!)
Here is the ragtag bunch that came and visited baby Jesus on Christmas. But they're happy, and that makes me happy too. And we also have enough people for all of the parts now. Ahhh, that's why we have so many kids!

Corbin

Miles

Princess Ballerina Ella-marie

Hunter ( I know the gloves are a bit too big, but it was the best I could do!)

Levi (cute as ever!)

And this is the Finch Express. It is very magical and can go to anywhere you want it to go. I think this day they decided to go back to Aunt Emily's house because they weren't done having fun yet.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Santa Claus came to the library this week and my children were ecstatic! They got to make antlers, eat lunch and visit with Santa. They had a lot of fun! Hunter is showing off his marvelous antlers that he made. Levi loved Santa!

Ella-marie was the first (and bravest) girl to sit on Santa's lap.

Corbin and Miles were very jealous that they didn't get to see Santa. I told them that they were out of luck, and it didn't matter because Santa was done with the "F"s anyway because he goes alphabetically down the list.

Yum Yum Cookies!

I was feeling up to making some chocolate dipped pretzels today, and I had two very helpful helpers. Ella-marie and Hunter were in charge of the sprinkles. As you can tell. Ella-marie did a great job sprinkling (well, loading) the pretzels. Hunter had a bit of a harder time because apparently the spoon had a magnetic pull to his mouth and no matter how many times I told him not to put his spoon in his mouth, it always ended up there. But he still put some sprinkles on the pretzels. I know which ones NOT to eat. I'm not sure if I'm going to tell anyone else.

Mommy's helpers hard at work.
The look may be innocent, but the evidence is written all over that guilty face.

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