Christmas Wrap-Up

Christmas is a busy time of year for us at the Moon house.  Mostly because we're not at the Moon house that much.  We headed over to Grandad's house for an early Christmas with my dad's side of the family, then a couple of days later we headed out for a very quick trip to Dodge City for a Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  We got home in time to head to our church's Christmas Eve service, frost a couple of cookies and leave a plateful for Santa.  Then once the kids were asleep we did our best at our "some assembly required" toys.  That always takes longer than we anticipate.  Sam got a train table set this year and setting that up took quite a while.  We had Christmas morning at our house and then after naps headed over to Chris' parent's house for another Christmas.  The next day we went back over for the big extended Clark Christmas, and then last night we went back again to spend a little more time with cousin Lucy before she left.  Tonight the kids are having a movie night sleepover at Grandad's with their cousins.  Busy, busy, busy. 

The kids were so worn out last night that I told them if they slept until 9am I'd give them a prize. I just wanted to sleep in so badly!! Isabella, who is usually up right at 7am didn't get to our room until 8:52. She was so sad because her clock didn't say 9. I told her it was close enough. At 9:01 Anna and Sophia came up and proclaimed themselves winners. Sam and Daddy got out of bed at 10am. It felt amazing and was totally worth the package of gum I gave them for winning. I will have to think of more sleeping in bribes the rest of the week!

Sam with his new NASA helmet from Uncle Chris.

Dads and the cousins getting ready to sprinkle food for the reindeer.  The moms were smart and stayed inside.  It was cold out!

Fun with Kaitlynn and Emma.

Instead of frosting his cookies, Sam decided to add the snowman's candy corn noses to his bowl of frosting and eat it.  Gross!

Sophia reading us the Christmas story from Luke 2.

The big present!

Papa got the kids a giant bounce house for his garage which is quickly turning into a playroom for the kids.  They LOVE it!

Head first of course!

Sophia got a couple of dinosaur excavating kits and has been chiseling away at her first one.

Her Daddy has snuck away to the garage to enjoy it too.

What a fun and busy Christmas we have had.  We've even managed to stay healthy so far!  We hope you are all enjoying yours as much as we are.  Merry Christmas and have a fabulous new year! 

Visions of Tree Houses Dancing in Her Head

As I've mentioned before, Sophia is a tomboy at heart.  She LOVES to climb trees.  And since our neighborhood is only a few years old, she has to go over to her grandparents' houses to find trees worth climbing in.  She spends a lot of time trying to convince her Papa to build an elaborate tree house connecting two trees in his yard.  She draws pictures of tree houses and has told me she has every intention of living in a tree house in our back yard when she's an adult.  So, Santa was pretty clever in bringing her the 1960 Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson. 

Since Christmas morning I can't even count the number of times she's watched it.  At least two times a day.  And no, normally I wouldn't let them watch movies that much, but it is Christmas break so I'm indulging them a bit. I wasn't sure if it would capture her attention since it's almost as old as her Grandparents.  But she can't stop watching it.  So fun to see her enjoy something that I enjoyed as a child!  Santa also brought her the 1980 Space Camp since she also has an interest in that since going to the Cosmosphere.  But so far the tree house plan seems a little more realistic to her!

Hark the Herald....

This morning, Sophia was talking about the Christmas program she's in tomorrow when she turned and asked me why one of the songs said, "Our God, Herald... Mom, his name's not Herald."  Then I realized she was talking about "Hark the Herald Angels Sing!"  So funny!  I had to explain the correct words and then what they meant.  But it was a really sweet way to start the day! 

Teacher Gifts

Having four kids means lots and lots of teacher gifts.  Between school, preschool, parent's day out, and church....that's a lot of teachers!  I'm just thankful that so many people care so much about my kiddos!  We were feeling crafty this year -- mainly out of financial necessity, but also because who doesn't love a good craft project.  Besides, this many teachers would really throw off my gift budget if I did a $5 gift card (which I'm sure they'd prefer). After Christmas I'll have to post what the kids made for their teachers.  They turned out pretty cute and were really pretty simple! 

Minor surgery is only minor when it's someone else's child.

That's what our ear doctor told us the first time we took one of our children in for tubes in their ears.  I agree.  Nothing seems minor when they're putting your child under anesthesia.  On Wednesday we went in for our third trip for tubes.  Isabella and Sam have both had the procedure done, but hearing tests after Sam's tubes came out showed that he needed them again.  This time they were also removing his adenoids to help clear up things even more.  One positive note is he may not snore anymore.  I'm thinking his future wife will appreciate this procedure.

The night before surgery... 

He was naked after his bath showing me the new dance moves his Daddy taught him.  I won't show you the other pictures!!

Here's Sam in his little tiger gown with his sleepsak.  While he no longer wears it to bed, he still snuggles with it like a blankie.  Looks like my own little Linus.

He was quite insistent that he wanted his "watch" off.  (The medical bracelets were pretty tight and he told every nurse and doctor that he wanted that watch taken off.  None of them agreed much to his disappointment.

After surgery, Sam woke up really disoriented, crying and he really couldn't calm down for a bit.  I don't blame him.  His biggest issue was the IV taped onto his hand which of course had to stay in for 30 more minutes.  Once that came out he was able to calm down and relax a bit with me.  We were released and as I buckled him into the car seat he promptly threw up.  Uggh.  I hate cleaning out the car seats.  Had he done it 2 minutes earlier, someone at the surgery center could have cleaned it up!  Just saying. 

We came home and all he wanted to do was snuggle on my lap.  He sat their silently not moving for an hour and then fell asleep for an hour.  Not a bad way to spend a morning!  By lunchtime I had to get things ready for the girls so he decided he could finally eat.  (McDonalds pancakes of course). 

And after his 5 hour nap he woke up feeling a little less grouchy and a little more like himself.  By bedtime he was finally back to playing with his toys and talking my ear off. 

I'm really hoping that's the last time we have that procedure done.  But we'll see.  But I do agree, it's only minor if it's not your own child!!

The Digital Television Conversion

Chris and I have always had to make choices in order for me to be able to stay-at-home.  While it would have been easier for us if he made gobs of money and I just stayed at home to take care of my kiddos - well, it rarely works that way for most people.  So we constantly evaluate things on a want/need basis.  And after reading a book while pregnant with Sophia we sometimes have had to look at things with the idea that "if this was the one thing preventing me from being able to stay-at-home, would it be worth it?" 

That being said, we haven't paid for cable in eight years.  It wasn't a necessity and we could always use our rabbit ears to catch the main local stations.  Then came the big digital television conversion.  It was supposed to be amazing.  The quality of the picture would improve, it would be everything we never knew we were missing.  I'm sure for most cable or satellite subscribers the transition has been wonderful.  But for those of us stretching out one income, the switch has not been so great. 

After buying special new digital rabbit ears and upgrading our main television we've noticed a few things: 

1.  We lost PBS.  No more free cartoons.  Yep, the government sponsored station's signal (which my tax dollars pay for) doesn't reach our house.  We are not in the boonies.  We live on the north side of Wichita - the biggest city in our state, less than 15 minutes from downtown.  But as representative from the station have told us, small things like houses and buildings can get in the way of the signal.  Houses?  Really?  Awesome signal you've got there. 

2.  Weather can affect the signal.  Yep, apparently clouds can get in the way too.  Not too comforting in tornado alley to lose a signal during bad weather. 

3.  But our most recent realization is probably the most absurd.  Geese get in the way too. 

Yep, birds.  We back up to a pond and geese love it this time of the year.  But as a flock of geese fly over our house, we momentarily lose our signal.  Seriously the TV freezes because birds fly over our house.

So far, I'm not impressed with the conversion.  We get fewer channels and they freeze up all the time.  Thank you US government for mandating the conversion.  So impressive.  No wonder we own so many DVDs. 

Adventures at Bedtime

Every night Chris and I check on the kiddos before we head to bed.  It's nice to see them sleeping peacefully and after some days where there is a lot of arguing or disobeying it's really nice to go to bed remembering them in this state - sleeping angels. 

We often get a kick out of some of their sleeping positions.  Isabella makes us giggle the most.  I can't even describe the way we've found her at times.  Last night we went to check on them and Anna and Isabella had apparently gotten out of bed a few times.  They went to bed wearing what we deem "winter jammies" - long sleeves and pants.  We found them in shorts and little tank tops which doesn't work since we keep our house pretty cool at night.  They must have gotten cold again, because they got out socks and put them on their feet and their hands. 

Isabella chose colorful knee highs of course!

Anna doesn't like the light that Chris turned on to take the picture!

Sophia falls asleep like she's involved in a very intimate conversation with Polar Bear -- her constant bedtime companion since she was 21 months old.  I'm sure I have a picture of her when she was 2 or 3 that looks identical to this.  It's hard to believe she's 7 1/2!!

Silly girls!  I don't think I've missed a single night of checking in on them at bedtime in the last 7 1/2 years.  I'd like to think I'll still be doing this when they're 18.  I'm guessing they won't appreciate the camera then!