Christmas Cards 2010

Needless to say, family photos when you have 6 kids under the age of 10 are nothing less than a major challenge. We had ours taken in October with the hope of getting "just one, pleeease, just one!" good one of everyone. No such luck. We were lucky to get a few with everyone sitting down in the same general area.

In steps my hero, Shutterfly. Year after year I have ordered our holiday cards from their online site, and this year will be no exception. They have so many different layouts (for moms like me who have to slice and dice photos to get good ones of everyone, or those lucky moms who have so many amazing shots, they can't pick just one), and the styles and graphics are just beautiful. And it's so easy to upload photos to their site to just 'drop' into the design. We get so many compliments on our cards! One year I didn't send one - I just ran out of time. I can't believe the number of people who told me they were disappointed!

This is what I'm choosing from this year: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards I need one with 6-7 individual photos, for separate photos of each child, and then hopefully room for the one of Oliver and me. Or maybe I'll use one of all of the kids, perfect or not. Or maybe the one where Gus is sitting with his back to the camera, but everyone else looks great (thanks a lot, Gus).

I have also ordered photo books from Shutterfly. They're so great to look through, and the kids love seeing themselves in print. The quality is outstanding, and the shipping is fast. Love it! It's my goal to make one of every year since we got married. Maybe after the house starts cleaning itself. :)

So, be on the lookout for this year's masterpiece! I am compiling it little by little, day by day. Hope to have it out by New Years! ;)

Some New News

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving again. Where does the time go?

Noteworthy News:

Emma just turned 10 on November 19th! She received her own hairdryer in a fetching pink paisley design, a matching straightening iron, a makeup case and some (mild) makeup to call her own. She was really hoping for a camera, but that will have to happen for Christmas, as I have yet to find a good one at a good price. Suggestions welcome!

Simon turned 9 on October 18th, and all he wanted was a football and some flag football gear. He got just that and had a fabulous time playing with 7 of his closest friends.

Elliot turned 1 on October 20th, and got... a ball. What a difference between what Emma got for her 1st birthday, as the oldest, and what he got. :) Poor guy!! He didn't even get a party. That's okay, I don't think he noticed. I took his picture on his birthday, so I'm doing okay.

Gus turned 4 on November 16th (we did not plan all of these birthdays to be so close together!!) and got some new Thomas the Train toys, which he lives and breathes for. From Grandma and Grandpa he even got a big pop-up Thomas tent, which he slept in last night. Sam is showing signs of being a huge Thomas fan, too, so hopefully this investment will pay off with him and Elliot as well. :)

The kids are absolutely loving being back at public school, and I must admit that it's nice for me to have some breathing room. I never understood those moms who wanted to be away from their kids until everyone started needing me all the time. :) But seriously, it's great for them to be with their friends and Emma and Simon have both been identified as 'gifted' (they do that testing in 2nd grade), so they are in classes that are more challenging for them, which is great. Max is loving kindergarten and his teacher, and making lots of his own friends, which is fantastic, because he really doesn't have any in our neighborhood, so he tags around with Simon. Gus is in preschool, and Sam goes to the same school on the same days (T,Th mornings) to a program for toddlers/pre-preschool and he LOVES it. I never saw a kid more excited to be around other kids his age, and he cannot get enough of his teachers, who adore him. Elliot gets alone time with me on these days, and it's good for us to have in-depth chats while running errands and whatnot.

Today we are getting an assessment of our energy usage. A guy from our energy company is coming out to go through the house. That's the highlight of my day! Tomorrow is grocery shopping for the week and Thanksgiving, which we're spending with Matt & Jen + kids at my parents' house. So thankful for family and the ability to be together and ... the food!!

Simon and Woodrow Wilson

This evening, Simon was telling Oliver what he learned today about President Wilson.

Simon: He was a professor and then president at a college, and then Governor, and then President of the United States.

Oliver: That's right, and what did he teach? If I recall correctly, it was Political Science.

Simon: Yep, it was. And he got really sick while he was President.

Oliver: Oh yeah? Did he die while in office?

Simon: No, he was in bed.

A quiet moment

The days really fly by, and the few times I have to sit down and actually think about something don't come around that often. I get nostalgic when I look through old photos and I think "wow, Max was so little" or "aww, I remember when Emma did that" and can barely remember that time period. Sometimes I wish I could just slow it all down and file away more memories. Today I was holding Elliot and thinking how big he is already. I squeezed him and smelled him, and instantly remembered my other babies and their smells, and realized 'this is why we have so many kids'!! :) No more for us, though - we took care of that in December!

Today we spent the majority of the morning cleaning/organizing and vacuuming. Emma and Simon worked over his room while I did some of the same on the main floor. So many days I just fly through things and put this or that aside for another time to take care of it. I guess sometimes you have to actually take some time to do that. After lunch, we buckled down and went through some school work (including writing letters to Grandma, Grandpa, and Bert as practice for the proper way to do so), and now I'm preparing dinner and trying to keep things picked up!

I love the accomplishment of days like this - getting so much done is cathartic - but now I'm thinking about all the other stuff I really should be doing, like transferring information from calendars (I have 7 years of calendars set aside) to baby books, and more importantly, writing entries in the kids' memory books, which I haven't done in way too many months. I feel like I'm on a speeding train with my head hanging out the window!

Warm fuzzies

The high for today is -4 here in Nebraska. This photo makes me feel a little cozier! :) This is Elliot, 2 months old.

Elliot

We welcomed Elliot Jonas to our family on October 20th at 8:42pm. He was 8lbs 15ozs and 21" in length. We are all doing great, although very busy!! Here are some photos I took this morning: http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ElliotJonas#

More 'soon'! :)

I was so excited last night. Haven't I said 'it's the little things'? We cleaned out the garage, wall to wall, and it looks so much better. It was totally a spur-of-the moment decision on my part - I started while Oly was taking Max for a bike ride to the coffee store, because I was completely sick and tired of stepping over everything and having to weave through things to get through the garage. And also, never being able to find anything!!

When Oly came home, he said two things: "whoa" to all the stuff in the driveway, and "it rained on my bikes" to the three bikes I had put out, and the 4 minute rain shower we had. He didn't even change out of his cycling clothes before he jumped in to help, though, and it went pretty quickly from there! We had several people slow down while driving by, or ask if we were having a garage sale. It did look like a completely unorganized "I threw all this crap on the driveway" sale, I guess. Someone even tried in earnest to buy Oly's motorcycle.

I will take photos when we are completely done, but one stall is completely his bike storage/work shop, which is what he has wanted for a couple of years. The other side is inevitable storage (you know, that stuff that gets shoved out to the garage when you don't have a dedicated storage castle), various non-bicycle tools, and the kids' bikes and other play stuff. Yeah, we haven't been able to park in there for a while, so I've kind of given up on that idea. Plus, our new van (when we finally get it) won't fit in there anyway.

We also moved several things out to the tool shed in the back yard, which, for 4 years has been the home of the lawnmower and the occasional rake/shovel. We put two plastic shelving units (that used to be in the garage) in the shed, and made use of a lot of space that had been wasted. We also moved the snowblower and the seed spreader out there, and even IT looks nice.

After we did most of the work, we took a break and sat in the hot tub for awhile while Sam slept and the kids played. We did a bit more off and on (mostly me putting away some of the stuff I'd brought in to be placed elsewhere, like our DVD collection and some baby stuff), and when Sam, Gus and Max went to bed, I cleaned out the wall units and finished up most of what I needed to do. When we had to move the wall units, it became apparent that there was no way I'd be able to help lift them, so I suggested we use an upside down rug on my side, and I'd drag it while Oly manuvered the other side. He said "I don't think that's going to work" and I said "can we just try it?" I'm so smart.

My van is packed with stuff to take to a friend's house for her garage sale next weekend, and we have filled our trash tote and two additional garbage cans, not including the 20some cans of latex paint that need to be dealt with. Hopefully Oly will get his bike storage stuff assembled today, too. Gotta keep the productivity flowing!