Maisie Gets Contacts!

Maisie's been talking to us for awhile about getting contacts, but we wanted to make sure she was both old/responsible enough to handle them. Teag and I both felt as though she'd reached a place where that was the case, so we took her to get fitted a few weeks before Christmas, and then the Tuesday following the holiday, they were ready to be picked up. Before they let you leave, they make sure you know how to both put in and take out your lenses, so we spent a fair bit of time working with one of the techs to make that happen. She was very patient, and very good to teach Maisie the ins and outs of contact wear.

Maisie has a fear of touching her eyes, and it took her a bit to get over that enough to be able to stick something in them. I remember from my own time too, that it takes awhile to get used to the sensation of having something in your eye.

 She managed to get them both in and out of her eyes fairly quickly for a newbie, and I was pretty impressed with her progress.

And here she is, all glasses free!

She was a good sport, and she's enjoyed having them, other than a few rough days where it took longer to put them in, or she couldn't figure out how to get it out of the corner of her eye. It's been almost three years since I've worn them myself, but I still remember a lot of the tricks I used to deal with my lenses. Which is good, because I act as Maisie's back up whenever she has an issue. I'm excited for Maisie to have both clearer vision, and a bit of a physical transformation as well; she looks like a different person without her glasses. Older, I guess, which is a little weird. Contacts are a right of passage, and I'm glad to see she's made it through.

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning dawned bright and early at our house, just the way I like it. Christmas morning doesn't feel like Christmas morning unless it's still dark outside while you open presents. I snuck in and took a picture of how pretty everything looked after Santa had visited.

I love how magical it all looks. There's a special reverence in the room when the kids first enter and take everything in, nearly bursting with anticipation. It doesn't take long for that reverence to transform into giddy excitement though. Before long we were in the thick of present sorting and opening.

The kids all got a wide variety of toys and books from both us and Santa, and even from each other. They were all very gracious, and we heard thank you many times, which always feels good as a parent. The biggest surprise for all of them was when they each discovered they had a similarly shaped package, wrapped in the same kind of paper. Dany was the first to unwrap hers.

It didn't take long for the other kids to catch on, although for some reason, Rory looks mad in her picture.

They each got their own Kindle Fire, and it was fun to see how excited they were. I will say it was a bit sad that they weren't as interested in putting their Legos together as they normally would be, thanks to this new toy. We expected that going into it though. Teag and I each got a lot of stuff we wanted, but mostly it was just fun to watch our kids faces. Christmas with kids is the best.

After present opening, Teag and I made French Toast for breakfast, then we started getting ready for lunch with the Rogers. I don't have many pictures of that, but we did have a pretty fun time with everyone. It was incredibly loud, and the kids were super wound up, but there were some really nice moments, like this one with Grandpa and Sam.

I also have this picture that's actually from New Years Eve, but just thought I'd throw it in here because it's super cute. Twins!

Both Teag and I commented that Christmas felt a little rushed this year. It felt like we were checking off all the appropriate boxes, but it often felt hard to actually feel much of the "Christmas Spirit". Which isn't to say it was a bad Christmas, nothing of the sort. Perhaps we just need to be better at slowing down and enjoying the moment.

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Once again, we got together with the Rogers on the 23rd this year. We had the whole family there, as well as my two grandmas and my Aunt Jean. It was a full house! It also meant that I got a chance to snuggle Will again, though I got in trouble for snuggling him to sleep.

The kids love hanging out with all their cousins, and can pretty much entertain themselves and each other without much help. We just have to tone down the hyper.

The kids had put together a sort of sing-along, which started with the smallest taking the stage.

They were pretty cute, and sang with a fair bit of enthusiasm. Then we got the Christmas Song, which is like the 12 Days of Christmas, and just as long.

And for the grand finale, we got a manger scene of littles, while the older kids sang "That's Why There's A Christmas Day".

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more adorable Mary and Joseph. It was a fun night, and the perfect lead in to Christmas Eve the next day. And as parents, it's always fun to watch your kids perform.

Snowmen Countdown

This year, we had all four kids eligible for the Grand-kid Sleepover. It was a lovely, bliss filled night of silence at our home. My parents even had four new attendees this year, but somehow they managed to survive having their home overrun by 15 kids hopped up on sugar. And even better, they sent them all home with swag bags! Every year my mom orchestrates some kind of countdown to Christmas, and every year she says she's going to simplify. Ha!

This year the theme involved snowmen, and each day the kids got to build a part of their own snowman, and also do some sort of activity.

One day they got to drink some "Snowman Soup", another day they played a snowman game.

And one of their favorite days, they got to build their own Olaf.

They had such a good time sticking on the pretzel arms, and the mini chocolate chip buttons.

But I think they'd all agree that the best part was eating them.

Once we reached Christmas Eve, we had four finished snowmen, complete with hats, scarves and distinct personalities.

It was a ton of work for my parents to put together, but the first thing we heard every day was, "Can we tear off a link, and find out what we're doing today?" They look forward to the Grand-kid Sleepover with a feverish kind of glee. I'm grateful for my parents doing something like this to build special memories for my kids. I know this is something they'll remember forever.

Amelia Earhart

Now that Dany is in 3rd Grade, it's her turn to participate in the biography project. She picked Amelia Earhart as her subject, and she seemed very excited to be able to share everything she learned about her, especially with Teag. I was able to go and watch her give her presentation.

 She was definitely nervous to stand up in front of her whole class, but she tried really hard to smile and she gave good information about her subject. Plus she looks so darn cute.

It was fun to see her so excited, and I was proud of how well she did on her presentation. Way to go Dany!