First off, I saw this meme, and it cracked me up. Seriously. Love it.

3/4 looking isn’t too bad, right?

Thankful for an amazing neighborhood with great get togethers and lots of yummy food…

 

Though I’m thinking we might need to get Aiden a new camping chair… his doesn’t quite fit him any more!

Bounce houses for the win. Knowing there were fireworks later that night, we went home for a short movie and hopefully nap time. Only one of the four took us up on the sleeping option, but the relaxing quiet time definitely helped them all!

I do want to know why kids despise naps so much, though. If you told four adults they could pull out sleeping bags for a movie and fall asleep, they wouldn’t make it through opening credits…

Now that we’re big 4 year olds (and a 7 year old), late night fireworks aren’t an automatic no. We had a blast with glow sticks, snacks, and campchairs by the water. Happy Independence Day, America!

 

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve really kept up with this thing.

At the same time, it’s been because of, well, life. Life with 4 kids. Life in Hawaii. Life in general. Fair warning, this post is pretty pic heavy, so be warned!

On that note, now that the kids are getting older and it’s not as much of “here’s something cute they learned how to do today” as it is “wow, look at this cool adventure our family went on!” I’m going to be working on moving away from just updates about the kids to more, well, updates about life in general. Where we are, where we were, where we are headed. Thoughts and musings on events and activities.

That said, what have we been up to, you want to know? Well, we just came off of Easter and Spring Break, so I’ll start there. The kids all had egg hunts and parties at school the week before Easter.

 

Yes, this is the unicorn of Easter Bunny pictures. All are looking, all are smiling. Not a tear in the room. It only took 7 years of trying 😉

Easter was absolutely wonderful, complete with a boat egg hunt the day before, and a sunrise service aboard the USS Missouri. Why in the world would I want to get four kids up at 5 am so that we could go to a sunrise service, you ask? Well, it was sunrise service on the Battleship, why wouldn’t we?!

 

The kids actually did wonderfully, and it’s not like 6:30am is really any different than our normal morning routine. They just had to be dressed a bit earlier than normal.

The rest of the week was a bit of odds and ends. The kids actually went to “camp” MWF all day long so that I could get some things done. Run, errands, scuba dive, the norm…

Thanks to a wonderful friend, I had a dive camera to borrow and I wasn’t disappointed!

 

Lots of random appointments filled the gaps that take a bit too long for the normal weekly preschool routine, but aren’t worth booking them into afterschool care to get done.

Now? We’re back to school and the normal routine. Aiden has started back up with karate again on weekends!

And, of course, there’s the pool.

 

So now on to the near future, hopefully next time I won’t be catching up a few weeks’ worth of events!

Christmas sure is a miraculous thing when you have small children in the house. Aiden is finally at that age where he still believes that a jolly old man in a big red suit can actually come down a chimney (thank goodness we have one!), but yet not so old to not enjoy the little moments like cookie decorating or a Charlie Brown Christmas.

Round one of two rounds of cookies. Because, really, one round is never enough.

Icing tastes just as good straight from the bag as it does on a cookie!

Round two of cookies. The triplets still don’t really “get” what’s coming up, but they are loving the festivities. Cookies abound, and they are happy icing covered children because of it.

Disclaimer: We did not share these cookies with anyone else. Even I won’t eat the cookies that they decorated for themselves.

The blue icing was entirely his after this.

Yum, three layers of icing on one cookie!

At least we have one semi-neat child! 

Note to self: Copy this idea next year and decorate before sweeping/mopping. Or at least pretend that your floor was purposely left dirty because you knew cookie day was coming up. Length of time does not need to be specified.

So that brings us to Christmas Eve. These little guys have no idea what’s coming tomorrow, and I cannot wait to see their faces when they realize the presents under the tree are for them, from the people who love them near and far, and that pajamas all day is perfectly acceptable!!

All dressed up with somewhere wonderful to go. Yay for childrens’ church services where ours weren’t the loudest by far (and were actually behaving quite acceptably… either they’ve figured it out or we finally bored them into submission haha)

And our tradition of a new movie, popcorn, and pizza on Christmas Eve continues. Some quiet family time before the craziness of the holiday itself begins.

We remember, as we celebrate this holy day, this holiday, that while presents and stockings and lights under the tree are wonderful, family is the real thing to celebrate. These four little people who we are so blessed to share a home, to raise, to nurture, and sometimes to annoy, and the love in our home.

Happy Christmas, from our family to yours. No matter why you celebrate, or if you celebrate at all, remember the love between families this day and year round.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:11-14

Christmas is magical. It is pure. It is holy. It is absolutely divine.

We had four little helpers this year. Sure, it’s not a Pinterest-worthy tree, and there are only maybe 1/4 of the ornaments that we normally would put on it hanging from the branches… but they did it. The elves may have spaced some ornaments out later that night (“Look mommy! I put three in a row!” And by in a row, he meant on the same branch), but they did it.

 

And Christmas pajamas. Is there anything cuter than Christmas pajamas??

 

Yes there is. Christmas dresses. (Aiden bargained that he’d be nice at the Santa breakfast if he didn’t have to wear his dress shirt. Pick your battles).

So yeah. And we even have snow here in the beautiful northeast. Snow, lights, presents under the tree… stockings are hung… it is a bit commercialized, but they’re also old enough to talk about Jesus’s birthday, and Mary and the angels, and it really couldn’t get much better than this.

 

 

 

Without further adieu, Thanksgiving pictures. Mima was here visiting with us and it was a wonderful holiday meal with good family, delicious food, and excellent wine 🙂 (side note: I try not to post photos of anyone other than the kids and hubby and I)

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ~Luke 2:11

A lot has changed over the years, but the theme of Christmas remains the same. Love those around you. Celebrate the birth of our Lord. And rejoice with each other for another year together.

Last year there was love and laughter, and a 3.5 year old who loved to “help” his babies open their presents.

Christmas sure will be interesting this year. The babies still don’t really “get” the presents and pageantry associated, but they are curious about presents. To which, our first presents under the tree were placed there after bed tonight, and Santa has his own pile in the living room. For some reason shiny paper with bows under a twinkling tree attracts an 18 month old’s attention better than any toy, camera, or shiny object we can find. When you have three 18 month olds, and a 4.5 year old who thinks that it should be Christmas already because it should be (for no better reason than that), the presents remained hidden until the last moment.

He still insists on “helping” his babies open their presents, but I’m not too sure they’ll actually let him this year! Christmas service was interesting with the babies mobile. Jaina colored on paper, Jacen tried to jump off the chair, and Valerie happily danced to any music that she heard (and got upset when it ended).

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year! I pray for happy adventures, good tidings, and peace to you and those you love.