Christmas break -- week 2

What a fun week we had! It was so nice to have Derk home all week, and we had so much fun. We kept ourselves really busy, which was great, but we're sure ready for some relaxation this weekend.

We kicked the week off with a trip to Payless to get Asher some new shoes. I just have to say that I love shoe shopping with a boy. I gave that kid 2 options, he chose the one he liked best within 5 seconds, and we were in and out within 5 minutes. It. was. lovely. :)

Later on Monday afternoon was Asher's first soccer practice! He's officially a Wild Cat. It was so funny -- he was so excited to go, but once he saw the play equipment just past the field, that's all he wanted to do. I found myself getting annoyed a little bit until I realized all his teammates were doing the same thing. It was hysterical, and I just couldn't help but think how amazing his coach is to be coaching a bunch of 3 year olds. :)

Asher with his teammates (he's the second one from the left)

His coach had the kids practice learning how to throw the ball in from the sidelines. He told them to stand with their legs crossed, showed them how, and told them to do that in order to avoid jumping off the ground, which would be a penalty.

Asher's interpretation of those instructions... :)

Isn't he adorable? I love his thumb's up at the end. :)


Our little Wild Cat

Tuesday was a big day! Cambria has been caught numerous times sticking mine or Kyrie's earrings in her ears and keeps telling us she wants earrings. We decided to go ahead and let her get her ears pierced. We had a little talk with her and told her all about what would happen and that it would hurt, and she said she wanted to do it and would be a big girl. And if I had any doubts before, I now know, with 100% certainty, that suckers are a sure-fire way to cure any problem your kid has -- just pop one in their mouth, and they instantly forget they were having issues. :)

I love how you can see her facial expression slightly changing through each phase... :)

So pretty!

Wednesday was baking day. As in, we literally baked all. day. long. Man, was I ever exhausted! We made breads and cookies and all kinds of things. The funny part was that it was all mainly Derk's idea, but when push came to shove and it was time to bake, he got invited out to lunch with his buddy. Convenient! :) Baking with kids is a 3 ring circus most of the time, but we all had a super fun time. Asher actually refused to help. I begged him to come help me, but he says "baking is boring". Very strange, considering his dad and I both love to cook, but what can I do? So he got to watch a movie while us girls baked. :)

After dinner and baths, we all went into the living room to sing Christmas carols. Derk had been studying some tablature all week, so it was really fun. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid and my dad would play the guitar for us.

Asher was so exhausted from such a long, busy day that he didn't even make it to hear Derk read the Christmas story from the Bible. :)


After we got them all tucked into bed, Derk and I finished up our Christmas prep. Luckily, we were smart enough to wrap all the presents a few weeks ago, so we had a pretty easy night. I had to finish making one last gift for Cambria (I made Asher and Bri capes, which turned out adorable, if I do say so myself!), then we had to set everything out, and that was it. We were in bed nice and early and got to watch one of our shows before bed. Easy night, right?

Wrong.

Kyrie had fallen asleep very quickly but decided to wake up a few hours later. I actually woke up because she was talking so loud -- then I realized that she was talking to someone. At 11:30. I guess she called Grandma and Grandpa! I felt so bad. After I made her get off and went back to bed myself, she decided she needed a playmate and woke Bri up. I didn't get those 2 girls to sleep until after 1:30. And then Asher was up and at 'em at 5 since he'd fallen asleep before 6:30 the night before.

Even though we were basically zombie parents, we had a nice Christmas morning. I had big plans to make scones for breakfast, like my mother-in-law does, but I was so tired from baking all day that I didn't have anything left in me to make more dough and more mess. So what did we have? Poptarts and oranges! :) I'm serious, too. My kids have never even had Poptarts before, so they thought this was a really great treat. Asher asked me, "What is that, Mom?" when I handed him his plate. It was pretty funny. Maybe we'll do Poptarts every year. :)

Santa came...


...and he left a note!

Time for presents!




Last, but not least, messages from the kids for all our dear family.
We love you all so much and missed you so much this year.
(I have no idea why the last 2 videos are showing up black....)