Festival of Lights

The Washington DC temple and visitors center does a great job of putting up Christmas lights and hosting Christmas concerts the whole month of December.  We went up one Friday night as a low-key primary activity.  It was a cold night, and Dave spent it directing traffic, but I really enjoyed the trip.  The kids were well behaved and they loved looking at the lights and the live nativity.  As a bonus, one of our friends had her camera set up to take family pictures, and they turned out awesome.  We'll have to photoshop Dave in.

Trimming the Tree

The last few years we have not scheduled a Christmas tree outing.  Whenever the mood strikes Dave, he brings us back a tree.  Sometimes the older kids go to help pick it out, but not always.  When the tree is all set up with the lights on and the star on top, the kids set to work.  Every year we open the ornaments up and are surprised at what we have.  The kids have their favorites, especially ones that remind them of a special place or have their picture on it.  This year we listened to Christmas music and ate some sugar cookies while we decorated.  After the kids were done I did some touch-up work to move some ornaments out of the reach of Freya, but all in all the kids did a great job.

We hung up the stockings with great care. Good thing we don't have plans to add anyone else to our family, we have run out of room on the mantle!

Our baby turns 1

Look who is a big girl now.  We no longer have a baby in the house, we have a one year old.  Freya celebrated her birthday on December 1st with family and a cake frosted bright pink.  She was a little tentative at first, but quickly made a huge mess while devouring the cake.  She didn't really get the present opening, but she liked playing with her new baby doll stroller, ball toy, stacking cups, and other fun things.  Mommy loved seeing all her new cute clothes.  At her check-up she weighed in the smallest of any of our children at this stage, just barely 19 pounds with a diaper on.  This is in the 25% range, and nothing to worry about at all, but most of my kids hit 20 pounds a few months earlier.  Her relative petiteness is adorable.  She was also 29 inches long and her head was 17 and half inches around.  Her two strawberry patches have stopped growing and seem to be starting to fade slightly.  She says mama and dada and takes a few steps here and there.  Freya is starting to show a lot of spunkiness.  She knows how to get and keep attention and she has smiles that will melt anyone's heart.  She hates to be confined in high chairs or grocery carts.  Going to the store with her is quite a match of wits and wills.  At Costco the other day she kept climbing out of the cart, which was going to lead to a major injury.  So I took to holding her foot down so she couldn't climb out.  She yelled bloody murder and cried and cried because I would not let her go.  Safety first little girl, it is non-negotiable.  Everyone we passed looked at her little pathetic face and started laughing or saying, "oh, how cute".  She will only be cute when crying for so long, but right now, we find her just about perfect.  Happy birthday baby girl!

11 Months

11 months old is such a fun age.  Freya can really giggle now.  And recently she started more interactive play with her siblings, especially Enoch.  For the last several days when she is eating a cracker and Enoch is nearby she reaches out her little hand to give him a bite.  Then once he takes one she takes a quick bite and reaches out again.  They crack each other up and it is so fun to see.  Freya is cruising all over the place, letting go and standing for several seconds, and starting to lunge forward.  No steps yet, but they are not too far away.  She much prefers moving to sitting still.  She rocks back and forth in her high chair and waves her hands in a windmill fashion while you try vainly to feed her without becoming covered in food yourself.  She still wakes up once a night, but that is a big improvement for her.  Up until a few weeks ago she was still waking up 3-4 times a night.  She loves to clap and is really starting to show her love of music.  When I sing to her she gives me her undivided attention.  I love this little girl and cannot believe she will be a year old in December.

Halloween

After the winds and rains of Hurricane Sandy, we were very ready for a nice night of trick or treating.  The weather was very pleasant.  It was cold, but all the walking kept us nice and warm.  Although the Halloween season featured many costumes, on the big day were were the following: a bunch of purple grapes, Obi Wan Kenobi, Iron Man and SuperGirl.  Enoch was the first to tire, not even making it as far as our daily walk to school.  So we let Hilde continue with a good friend of hers and the three younger kids came home with me. 

 I didn't bother getting Freya any type of Halloween costume.  The bear costume we used for Phinn and Enoch was too small since she was born in December vice their July birthdates.  So here supergirl onesie was it.  She spent the whole time quietly watching the mayhem from the comfort of her stroller in her nice big and cozy jacket.  The only thing people could see of her were here eyes. 

 Phinn had been begging to be IronMan for at least a month.  Once we actually bought his costume we told him he had to wait until Halloween to wear it.  We did let him wear the mask though.  So please take note: nobody has been able to locate the mask.  It has not so conveniently disappeared. He didn't mind too much.  What he did mind was that I did not let him take a giant sword with him.  First of all, totally not in character, second of all, he is not to be trusted with a sword!

 Here was the gang as we headed out.  They just couldn't stay still for a picture, the excitement was rising and I was keeping them from candy!

 Trick or Treat!  Phinn would frequently look through the candy bowl, apparently he only wanted suckers.  People would take pity on the poor kid and give him extra candy to make up for not having suckers.  Poor kid.

 Then there was the Halloween Parade at Phinn's preschool.  It was re-scheduled from Tuesday due to Sandy.  Phinn kept running out of line to give me a big hug and kiss.  I did not mind one bit.

 

 And Freya slept peacefully through the whole thing.

New England Teaser

When I cleaned out my camera's pictures I found just a handful from our trip to New England.  First of all, cemeteries can be so very cool and interesting.  We had a quick lunch break in Sudbury, Massachusetts and stopped in to see a couple of the gravestones. 

 And we have a couple of pictures from our trip to the Boston Aquarium.  Bummer that it was under construction so exhibits were shifted and some were closed, but there was still plenty for the kids to see.

And these goggles have become the favorite toy at our house.  Even though they were Enoch's special treat from the gift shop, Phinn wears them whenever he can get his hands on them.