Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Matthew got the part of Santa Claus in the 2nd grade play this year.  He really wanted a speaking part and was excited to try out, and even more excited when he got the part of Santa.  He found out back before Halloween that he got the part and I practiced his lines with him a lot.  Because of the baby being due during that time I was afraid I might forget about practicing his lines and then he'd be the one kid who didn't know his lines when it came time for the play.  I was also overly paranoid that I was going to completely forget about his play and forget to take him to it that day.  I kept asking Scott to remind me about the play.

See the video of Matthew's play HERE.  At about 22:25 you can see Scott get up to take Grant out.  We are famous!

 

Matthew got his lines memorized pretty quickly but we still went over them a lot.  And even though I have been very scatterbrained post-baby, I did not forget the night of the play.  So all was well.  Matthew goes by "Matt" this year at school because there was another Matthew G. in his class.  It's still weird to hear his teachers and classmates call him Matt.

 And here's Matthew in the big red Santa suit.  I think it was an adult suit, so he had to hike it up a few times, but it was still good.

 He insisted on bringing a pillow from home to make himself extra Santa like.

The school provided the suit and we provided the wig, beard and glasses.

I had to give the beard and wig a haircut because they had a ridiculous amount of white Santa hair.  After a little trim it was better.  Here's Matthew/Santa doing his crazy Santa dance during the performance.

Matthew had many lines, all of which he recited perfectly for the play.  Here he is saying some lines with Mrs. Claus.

 And Matthew and Mrs. Claus after the show

 Matthew and Anna

She was proud to be Santa's sister

I tried to take a close up picture of him.  Imagine this beard with about twice as much hair!!  It had a crazy amount of hair and long beard ringlets.  Those are gone now.  I think it looks better.  After I trimmed the wig I thought it looked a little too Ronald McDonald.  But the hat covers it most of the time.

A blurry picture of Santa and John.  John was afraid of him at first (it's a toddler's prerogative to be afraid of Santa) but then was only slightly weirded out when he realized it was Matthew.  Matthew did a great job in the play and had a lot of fun being a part of it.  And all the kids and parents wanted to take pictures with him after the show.  I should have brought candy canes for him to pass out!!

The New Normal

We're getting used to having a family of seven.   SEVEN!!?!  My mom helped us out a lot by being here while I recovered and rested these past few weeks.  The kids have helped me a lot too.  Things have changed and are changing and we're adjusting, little by little.

Here's Emma having story time with Scott

She growing and changing each day.  And I think she is growing into her long arms.

I wanted to have Grant potty trained before the baby came, and we had been working on it.  But, SURPRISE!!  Baby came early.  But after we got home from the hospital we eventually started trying again and Grant is doing great!  Except for the occasional potty training strike he goes on, he's pretty much there!  Good job Grant!  And he spends most days in just his underwear.

John is talking more and more.  He loved having Grandma read him stories while she was here.  Now that she is gone John isn't getting quite as many stories read to him, but we're still reading a lot.  RAWR is one of his favorites these days.

Anna and Matthew are also helping read stories to the younger boys.

Our new normal for morning time.  I have to get the kids fed and off to school but Emma only wants to be held.  On this morning she fell asleep.

Anna likes math.  She also likes counting her money in her piggy bank.  Maybe this is some finance/accounting genes she inherited.

Emma grew big enough to fit in the Baby Bjorn.  Yea and hooray!

She seems to like being held in there.

Anna, Grant and John all helped me make a chocolate peppermint cake this week.  The cake was a big hit!  Here's Anna putting the final touches on the cake - crushed candy cane pieces.  I've had more energy the past few days than I expected.  Resting a lot has helped.  And Emma has cooperated enough for me to make dinners all week...and cake!

 Emma snuggling with Scott

Her cheeks are chubbing up.  She's getting more plumpy.  She's a good eater.

Emma is filling out her newborn sized clothes now.  When we first brought her home her little arms and legs would get lost inside her clothes.  She's growing bigger.

And here's a bonus picture of Anna as a newborn.  She was quite a bit bigger than Emma when we brought her home, but they look a little alike.

Emma's First Bath

Emma had her first real bath a week or so ago, just after she lost her little umbilical cord stump.  Here she is in the tub getting ready to be washed.  She wasn't that happy about any of this.

All the kids wanted to come in and see her getting her bath.  Even John brought in a little stool to climb up and see her.  Here is Grant checking her out.

 Emma was a lot less happy about the whole bath thing once we started pouring water on her.

 Make it stop!!

Poor Emma.

Eventually we got her all clean.  It actually didn't take long since she isn't very big and Scott and I know what we are doing now when it comes to bathing a newborn.  We've had lots of practice.  :)

 All bundled up in the towel.  She still didn't feel happy.

 Once we got her into nice dry clothes she felt better again.

Oh, it's good to be clean!

This bath was over a week ago, but Emma is doing well.  According to the bath scale at home she is almost up to 8 pounds now.  Way to go Emma!  She has stopped sleeping quite so much during the day but wants to eat all the time.  I feed her a lot and I think she is growing pretty well.  I feel hungry and drained all the time - I'm blaming the semi-constant nursing for that.  But having four other kids might have something to do with it too.  At least the part about being tired.  When she's not eating she wants to be held, so getting things done has gotten a lot more complicated.  She may be riding in the baby carrier a lot.  And she's doing a little better at night - slightly longer periods of sleep.  So I think we are at least moving in the right direction.  We shall see!

And here is a bonus photo of John getting bathed at the same age.  He was 9 pounds 6 ozs when he was born (vs. Emma's 5lbs, 8 ozs).  In the same tub he looks like a giant compared to Emma.  Emma has some chunking up to do.

Christmas Fun

I haven't been doing a good job of taking pictures lately.  We've done some fun things, but I don't have a lot of pictures of it all.  It's been busy around our house.  We decorated our Christmas tree.  Here is Matthew putting the star on...with some help from Scott.

 

A blurry picture of our tree without the star.

 We went to see some Christmas lights at a nearby place

 Tons of lights...very pretty

A nativity scene at the end.  Those dark blurs in front are some of the kids.

We made and decorated gingerbread houses.  Actually my mom made the house pieces and frosting and the kids helped assemble them and did most of the decorating on their own.  I made these house pieces last year on my own and its no small feat.  Glad I had a pro here to help this year.  Maybe next year Emma won't need so much holding...or maybe she will.  Last year John wanted to be held during our gingerbread house making time.  So things are busy here.  I've been in sort of new baby hermit mode lately...but my mom will be leaving this week and I have to go back to my usual responsibilities.  We'll see how it goes.  :)  Happy December!!

O Christmas Tree

We went and got a Christmas tree this weekend.  It was a warm day, relatively speaking.  So we headed out to our favorite local tree farm and hunted for our perfect tree.  Locally they grow white pine and scotch pine trees.  Here are Scott and John searching among the pines.

 Grant really liked this little one

 He had fun running around in the trees

 Everyone had fun trying to find that perfect tree

What a handsome guy!!  Definitely my favorite tree finder...and so handy with a saw!!  Scott found a good tree and we were all ready to cut it down until he found a dead bird in it.  Soooo, we moved on and picked a different tree.

 Anna and Grant kept finding little trees

And finally we found a winner - a beautiful tree without any dead animals in it.  Success!!
Emma was in the purple baby carrier...fast asleep.

 Grant took the first turn at sawing our tree down

I love Grant's new flaming orange coat.  It makes him easier to spot.

 Matthew has a go at the tree

 And Anna took a turn

 John, on the other hand, laid down in the soft pine needles.

It was his nap time and he was tired.

 Here's Grant waiting for our tree to be cut down

Scott finished off the job after everyone had a turn

 Hooray!!

Everyone was happy with our tree

While we waited for the tree farm wagon to come get us and our tree, the big kids went to take a look at a little pond nearby.  John stayed behind.  He was too tired for pond adventures.

And he laid down by a tree to rest...and smell the pine needles.  My little Ferdinand.

Christmas tree euphoria!!