merry christmas!

hark the herald angels sing

glory to the newborn king

peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled

joyful all ye nations rise

join the triumph of the skies

with angelic host proclaim

Christ is born in bethelehem

hark the herald angels sing

glory to the newborn king

God and sinners reconciled.  <---- this is why we celebrate and make merry on this very special day.  

the most precious and best gift ever given in the form of a newborn king.  this is why we make much of christmas.  this is the reason for our holiday traditions.  this is the best. news. ever.

and so, with joyful hearts, we wish you a
merry christmas from our (bruin) family to yours! 

decking the halls.

finally!  moving on to christmas posts!

pretty much as soon as the last bite of thanksgiving dinner was eaten, mikey asked when we were going to get our christmas tree and decorate the house.

he's down with doing holidays in order and doesn't get why stores put up their christmas stuff when we're still shopping for halloween costumes.  but he figures it's all fair game once that turkey leg is put down.

in years past, we've always tried to get a tree sometime during the thanksgiving weekend.  unfortunately for this year, phil had to work nights for most of the weekend and was simply too tired to do it.  so we decided we'd get the tree the next weekend.

and to mikey, this meant that we were the Very Last Family to get a tree.  he got more and more antsy during the week whenever he'd see a house with lights up or a balloon santa sitting on a motorcycle on someone's lawn.

he was so worried about being the only family with no decorations up that he took matters into his own hands.  one afternoon, he and his kid sister got out the markers and drew tiny little colored balls on paper, cut them out, and taped each one on our staircase banister.  definitely cute, but not quite the festive look he was hoping for, i think.

suffice it to say, it was an exceptionally looong week in the life of our resident seven-year-old. 

but!  all good things come to those who wait, and finally, a whole week after thanksgiving weekend, we set out on our annual tree expedition.

we stopped first at our local bakery to fortify ourselves for the task that lay ahead.

unfortunately, they weren't open yet.

but the waiting paid off and we decided that today was a day when chocolate for breakfast was completely in order.

i only have two words for these macaroons.  OH and MY.

only when we were adequately sugared up were we truly ready for the great tree hunting expedition of 2011.

after much toil and drama (not really), we tsais found our perfect christmas tree.

and here it is...

behold!  we saw and we conquered!  at home depot!

mikey's initial reaction was, "are you being serious?"  but he fully embraced the wonder of our christmas tree by the time we were in line to purchase it.  not exactly sure what brought him around, but i'm guessing it was the rationale that a tiny tree was better than no tree at all.

and so, with the tree expedition complete, my little troops headed back for home.  (not having to tie the tree to the top of our van this year because it fit in our truck = bonus high fives between the parents.)

that evening, it was time to trim the tree.

and deck the halls.

we didn't get to hang all our ornaments this year, but we did make sure to hang the important ones!

we opted for a tiny tree to put on top of an end table instead of giving up living room space that's already tight to begin with.  the kids still had a great time hanging ornaments just the same.

but for some reason, phil is never in a really great mood on tree decorating night.  this is his reaction when asked what he's got against christmas.  scrooge.

bah humbug mood aside, he's still really good about untangling the hooks and handing ornaments off to small children to hang on the tree.

the decorating was left entirely to the kids.

they loved it.

i love her.

and him too.

ok, and her too.

alright, alright, and the baby too.  but he was napping so no pictures of him.

even though the tree was tiny, our girl couldn't quite get the star on top.

so big brother had to step in and set it on.

with some help straightening from daddy.

i hope he never gets too old to love christmas decorating.

no fireplace mantel this year, but a staircase works just as well for hanging stockings.

baby jonah's first christmas.  :)

the finished masterpiece!

nevermind that the ornaments were not very evenly distributed.

and happy, cheesy smiles to wish you and yours a very merry christmas!

baby makeover.

this is my baby jonah.

i think i've talked about him once or twice here on this blog.

we like him a smidge around here.

yeah, he'll do.

but it's been brought to my attention a time or two that the boy could maybe use a trim.

i just couldn't bring myself to do it though.

i couldn't cut those sweet little baby hairs off his sweet little baby head.

except that those sweet little baby hairs were beginning to stab his sweet little baby eyes.  and sweeping the pesky hairs off to the side wasn't cutting it anymore since his hair has decidedly settled down from before.  you remember. 

so, it was time.

are you ready for it?


are you sure?

baby makeover!  new and improved?

maybe.  though both phil and i were unexpectedly more sad than either of us thought we'd be over the loss of that soft baby hair.

it took us a few days to adjust.

but we've recovered nicely and love his new 'do.  it matches daddy's.

and big brother's.

because it's the only haircut this mommy knows how to do.  and it's free.

they're gonna have to pay me to learn a different one.  : p

baby brother.

jonah is nine months old today.

huh?

apparently he decided this newborn business was old news and has moved on and left me in the dust.  he crawls, pulls up, attempts to climb up the stairs (mental note- time for the baby gates.  again.), has houdini-like skills when it comes to wrangling himself out of his feeding seat, and just in this last week has taken to trilling his tongue.  this is our first baby to do this and we all find this fascinating and hilarious in equal parts.

he does this tongue trilling thing whenever he's happy and content.  which is most often just after he's eaten.  or when we're all in the van and a quiet moment settles over us and suddenly a pleasant little "rrrrrrrrrrr" will emit from the the middle row.  like the sound from a sweet little bird.  and then we'll all burst into laughter.  which is then followed by jonah's satisfied-with-himself little chuckle.  which then causes more laughter.

it's a hoot, really.

and i keep meaning to catch him doing it on video.  along with a thousand other things i keep meaning to get to.  (assume that any correspondence i may owe you is also in that list. thank you.)

but the one thing that most strongly assures me that he has forever moved on from newbornity?

he went straight to table food.  just like lauren did.

i had spent a whole afternoon making him a bunch of baby purees and was all set with the cute little baby bowls and baby spoons and reasoned that starting at seven months wasn't that much later than the recommended six months.  only he kept turning his nose up at my cute little bowls of pureed love.

i figured he simply wasn't interested in food yet and was still happy with just milk.  keeping him a newborn a little longer?  who, me?  noooo, i just wasn't going to push him into something he wasn't developmentally ready for. 

and then one day, we were out to lunch at a curry place.  and daddy fed him bites of curry rice.  it was love and he's never looked back.

straight to table food.  again.

and my cute little cubes of baby purees?

languishing in the freezer covered with protective ice.

but never let it be said that mommy made baby food for all the others but not the fourth baby!  i think i shall save those cubes and send them to college with him.

aaaanyway, one of the few pureed foods he will eat is applesauce.  but only because he's seen the other kids eat it and has decided it's a kid food and not a baby food.

especially when big brother mikey feeds it to him.

he's his favorite.  (it applies both ways.)

mikey had been asking and asking when he could feed jonah and i kept putting him off fearing the mess that would ensue.  i needn't have worried.

turns out the big brother is quite a pro.

ever notice how everyone who tries to feed a baby will automatically open their own mouth wide as they pop in the spoon?  it's like sneezing with your eyes open.  it can't be done.

best big brother in the whole wide world.  this little brother certainly thinks so.

fall wrap up.

oh my where have i been?!  thanksgiving was literally yesterday, and yet how is it that half of december is already gone?  i'm so confused.  and so behind.

this is where a normal person would skip over the posts that were never got to and get with the program and post all the happy christmasy stuff because we are in the middle of december now.  and we all know how depressing it is to be posting christmas stuff in february.

i get that.  i do.  i am normally the go-with-the-flow, laid-back, it's-all-good kinda gal.  except that there's this one teeny, tiny part of me that is just the teeniest, tiniest bit ocd about having things in order.  skipping around, jumping over, or jumbling up the order of things opens the door and lets the crazy out.  realize that i live in a small space with four small kids who are home all the time.  which means that there exists virtually no neatness or order anywhere around me.  which means that teeny tiny ocd part of me needs to rear its ugly head somewhere lest the very planets themselves become misaligned.

and that's not gonna be pretty for anyone.

okay, so maybe i'm exaggerating the merest tad.  but that one small need for order begs to be satisfied in at least one area of my life...  well hello, little blog of mine.  so in the interest of keeping the crazy contained, i shall plow on with my autumnal post.

thank you for indulging me.


********
ok, so i might have mentioned a time or two that we're doing this homeschooling thing this year.  and one of the very nice perks of it is that we get to have playdates, unit study co-ops with our friends.  we got to have one last month.

the girls gathered in the pretty pink room to draw and discuss topics pertinent to girlness.  the girl in the green shirt?  yup, she was reveling in it.

the boys on the other hand, gathered in the backyard around a bucket of oversize tinker toys.  to build guns, of course.

but we moms determined that at least some learning must go on at our monthly gatherings, and auntie gwen had an awesome lesson all ready.  it was very fitting to the time of year.  last month.  (we're indulging me, remember?)

they all love a good read-aloud.

the story was to be followed by a special project.

a cornhusk doll with pink hair?  yes, please!

aw, look at the other good moms standing at the ready to lend a helping hand.  uh, except this one slacker mom who kept lurking in the back.  ahem.

the topics pertinent to girlness continued.  (pink AND purple hair?  pure genius.)

and yesh, my little big girl (who declared to me a couple weeks ago that she pees in the potty now and not in her pants and has kept herself dry ever since.  potty self-trainers = their weight in gold) got a pink-haired doll too.

the dolls were cool with the boys as long as they could make them into star wars clone troopers.

it was a collaborative effort.

she wanted to do it all herself and my ocd self had to let her.

and this one creates better stuff than i do, anyway.

such a FUN afternoon!!

all done!

all done with a project that was right up her alley.

this one decided her doll needed a haircut.

but just as soon as the project was over, the boys went right back to their guns.

aw well, there's only so much doll-making a boy can take, right?  ;)