FOUR years

Somehow, William has turned 4 already!  Unbelievable.  We celebrated his birthday last Saturday.  He requested the same party we always throw...backyard bouncy house party.  The blow up fun house arrived on Friday, so we got some extra bouncing fun in.  Will's friends played along and dressed up in their superhero gear, it was awesome.  I like that Henry went for the Super-Luke-Skywalker look.  It works.

SuperSteven!  Or is it Captain Steven?

And we were surprised with a visit from SuperGrann and SuperPoppi!  That wig on my dad is still cracking me up...and creeping me out a little.  They definitely won the prize for playing along!  It was awesome.

Even little J got into the spirit.  That's Matt's Superman onesie from his first Halloween.  Nice one, Nicole!

So, when we were discussing possibilities for Will's birthday, Will told me he wanted a Superman cake.  And then he also told me he wanted 2 cakes.  "A Superman cake and a January cake, Mommy."  Wait, what's a January cake?  While in Dallas recently, my dear friend Alison lent me this amazing vintage Wilton superhero cake pan from 1977.  Clearly, I had to use it.

Superman needs his gun while he eats his birthday lunch.  I came back to get his plate, and found that the chips, popcorn and cheese were gone, one bite had been taken from his Chick-fil-A nugget, and the grapes were untouched.  Classic Will.

Lots of hijinks in the bouncy house.

Adorable children eating their lunch.

It came to cake time and Will was all smiles.  He was beaming as everyone serenaded him, and he looked at all the singing, smiling faces with great pleasure.

I felt a little weird cutting through Superman.  This is me going "Aaaahhhhh!!!" all gruesome-like.  Superman was a strawberry cake per Will's request, and the Superman logo cake was white per my request.  :)

Henry likes cake!  So does Joy.

The Batman pinata took a beating.  The little guys went first, and then one of the big boys finished it off.  I think it was Luke.  And then they all pounced.

The party died down, Will opened his presents, and then I was able to convince him to take a nap.  And then we had our after-party family bouncing fun.  Very enthusiastic as you can see.

I LOVE these guys.  They are super fun.

This is my favorite from the day.  Matt gets his easy, natural posing skills from his devastatingly handsome father.

Steven and his boys.

And, it always ends in wrestling.  It was a pretty great day celebrating our William Henry.

8 months

This handsome young man is 8 months old already!  He is still a happy, chubby, charming little guy who appears to be really happy to be here.  And we are thrilled to have him around.

Johnny has graduated from the baby Bjorn, at least with me, because he's gotten too long and heavy.  Now that he's an accomplished sitter he can sit in the carts and still see all the action.  This was his first ride around Target in the cart.

Over Christmas break, I took all the boys to a bouncy house place in the mall one day, and Johnathan was a trooper.  He enjoyed playing in the little baby play area and did well sitting in his stroller.  He thought taking his socks off and chewing on them was great fun too.  This month he has cut 2 teeth on the bottom.  While they are super cute, teething is not super fun.

He continues to enjoy his baby food, and currently this is one of his favorite spots in the house.  Reminds me of his biggest brother.  He likes to go through all his food pouches and slide that pantry drawer in and out and see what he can pull out.  He is very particular with his food.  Anything with any kind of texture to it he is not a fan of.  So far, he really just wants the pureed stuff.  I've tried mashing a banana, mashing avocado, giving him those little easily dissolvable puff things, and he just gags on it all.  He has not learned the art of chewing his food.  This is frustrating for me because I am anxious to make the move toward table food rather than all this spoon feeding business.  We'll keep practicing.

He has really been enjoying his baths lately.  He looks at himself in the little circle above the drain and just giggles.  He likes to lay down and kick his feet like he's running in place.  And his arms flap all about, it's the cutest thing.

For now, Johnny is quite content with just sitting and has shown no interest in learning how to move otherwise.  He's a contented little lump.  He knows that people will bring him things.  He still enjoys his saucer too.  I'm fine with it because a crawling baby will complicate my life.  :)

Johnathan thinks that his brother Will hung the moon.  He laughs at whatever Will does and watches his every move.  This could be good.  And this could be bad.  Time will tell.

This week poor little baby has been sick.  He was fussy and not quite himself at Will's birthday party this past Saturday.  Sure enough, he's had a nasty upper respiratory virus all this week.  It's heartbreaking to see him suffering, congested and coughing.  Poor thing.  He's on the mend though; today he's been happier playing and has an appetite, so that is great.  I want my happy John back!

Christmas!

How about a quick Christmas review? Christmas Eve we had our traditional afternoon meal with the family before the church service.  I went with lasagna this year.  Win!

This was Will's first year to be big enough to come to the service with us.  He did pretty well.  He was very tempted to run up and down the aisle since we were seated at the end of the pew, but we kept him contained.  He really enjoyed singing "Silent Night" and getting to hold a candle at the end.
We came home and took a quick picture of the boys before Johnny was whisked off to bed.

So quick, in fact, that he was in bed before the Morans even made it to our house from church.  Hence, he is missing from the cousin photo.  Sorry, Johnny.  Next year!

To say the boys were excited would be an understatement.  They woke up Christmas morning with wonder and delight in their eyes.  They were gifted with all manner of Cars cars, NASCAR hot wheels, board games, Legos, books, Buzz Lightyear and candy.  They were excited.

Thanks for Madagascar 3 Aunt Pam and Uncle Tim!! Not at my cutest, but you're not looking at me, you're looking at those adorable boys!

Johnathan was getting into the spirit of things and really enjoyed the unwrapping even though his brothers didn't give him much of a chance.

He quite enjoyed his new train from Grandma & Grandpa.

Baby's first Christmas!!

After a lovely late breakfast we headed out to Bryan & Sarah's to make merry with the Morans and Reners.  Johnny had quite the laugh at Uncle Zach.

We dined on delectable food delights all day, opened presents and watched the kids run around like crazy.  This is Bryan shouting for joy as he opened up his Lego Tie Fighter from us.

The Twins, as I like to call them, had a grand time reciting potty words to the camera for Steven.  Enjoy...

It was a very special Christmas.  It was the 5th Christmas without Audrey with us.  Joy headed up an incredible effort to remember her.  She happened upon Holden Uganda, a non-profit that spreads the love of Christ by building wells and providing clean water for Ugandan people and dedicating those wells to families who have lost a child.  Joy was able to reach out to a large number of the Moran family's friends and family who in turn donated a great, generous amount of money to fund the largest well to date in sweet Audrey's name.  And somehow it remained a secret from Bryan & Sarah until Christmas morning.

And it was funded and built by the first week of December.  What an overwhelming response of love and compassion for this sweet family.  And to imagine the thousands of Ugandan people who now have access to clean water!

This is a picture of Audrey's well---it brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.  So amazing to have a tribute to her--a well of HOPE--and in Uganda--the country that Zach & Joy will be welcoming their adopted child from in 10-12 months time.  God works in such amazing ways; I am blown away.  Joy put together a book for the Morans with pictures of the well in addition to letters, notes and pictures from several of the contributors.  Bryan & Sarah were speechless and overcome with all manner of emotions.  What a blessing it was to them to know that people are still praying for them, thinking of them and remembering sweet Audrey.

Oh how we miss that precious girl.  Wonder what pose she would have hit in this cousin picture?  What a blessed Christmas it was.  I am so, so thankful for this family.  I am thankful that He carries us through everything, holds us tight, and constantly reminds us of His great love for us.

37 & Trail of Lights

Steven celebrated another birthday in December, yay!!!  #37 to be exact.  I think it was a pretty good day for him...it began with the rare privilege of not having to work that day.  We even took the whole family out for mexican food at an actual sit-down restaurant!  And would you believe that it went well? No one fussed and everyone stayed in their seats.  AND, Steven & I even got to enjoy a margarita.  Success!

Not that he requested a cake, but I went ahead and made him one for the love and joy that is cake.  White cake with chocolate buttercream and a fudge filling.  Rich!  Tasty treats.  Pam watched the kids for us the next night and we went to see the Hobbit.  It was like old times---back when the first Lord of the Rings movies came out when we were first married we'd always go see them for his birthday.  Aaaww.

Dec. 23rd, the very last day it was open, we went to the Trail of Lights.  With all the rest of humanity.  We parked by Austin High, so we had quite a long trek to get to the park.  There's nothing dangerous about running with sticks, right?

We started with sandwiches at Schlotzsky's.  Delightful as always.

The Trail of Lights took a couple years off so we hadn't been since Will was a wee little baby.

We finally caught up to the Rener family, but ended up seeing them for maybe a few minutes before losing each other in the mass of people.

Seeing the lights was fun, but for all the short people, a.k.a. myself and the kids, we couldn't see a thing there were so many people.  Wall to wall bodies.  We were inching along at a snail's pace, and I was thanking God that I wasn't claustrophobic because wow...it was nuts.  The littlest two got fussy.  And poor Matt's feet hurt.

I'm thinking we'll sit out next year.  I've heard great things about the Trail of Lights in Wimberley.  Might be worth the trek!

December randomness

We finally got around to getting our Christmas tree the first week of December.  The kids had been on our case everyday since Thanksgiving about when we were going to get our tree.  The day came, and we headed to our favorite tree place: Lowe's.

We picked a winner (always a bigger one than Steven wants!) and brought it home in the old truck.

And, you can't decorate a tree without a festive beverage in hand or Santa hat on your head.  The kids did a stellar job of helping me adorn the tree with ornaments.  Only one casualty this year at the hands of young Will.  He likes to hang the ornaments on the very tip of the branch, and our glass Winnie the Pooh ornament didn't survive it's fall to the ground.

About a week later, I found that Will had piled up his cars under the tree.  Not sure what the story is there.  A wreck?  A party?  I dunno.

One weekend Dad & Ann came in to town, and we made some home-spun gingerbread houses made of graham crackers.  Amazing creations, right?

We also visited the Children's Museum with them that weekend, and there were two special visitors there that day.  Johnny's first photo with Santa!

I made my first attempt at salt dough ornaments this year.  I put the big boys' hand prints in the middle and Johnny's little footprint on his.  They turned out pretty cute.  I might be making these every year now.

And then, there's Matthew and his bottle cap collection/obsession.  He lined up our entire collection outside and organized them all to see which one we had the most of.  Looks absolutely absurd, doesn't it?

Not to be outdone, Will did some awesome poses with the jump rope.

Just because it's December doesn't mean the housework stops.  Wish it did!  Will was my little jammie helper.  Do you see his pose he likes to strike for every photo?

And this is very telling of the boy's personalities.  Matt sitting in his camp chair reading a chapter book while Will races his cars on the couch for the umpteenth time.  Just a little snapshot of everyday life around here.