It's a good thing my New Year's resolution was not to be up-to-date with this blog! Better late than never with the pictures and updates though, right?
We had a great time with Pauly and his adventures before he headed back to the North Pole. It was somewhat surprising the things that Katherine thought were funny and what were not - some of the simple things were hilarious to her and the more creative ones weren't funny at all. Go figure!
Pauly built a snowman from marshmallows. Hilarious to Katherine AND she enjoyed swiping all the mini ones.
Pauly helped himself to some Fruit Loops.
Katherine tried out the enormous lollipop she got from the candy store across from Nana and Grumps's house. Messy and good!
Pauly left us a self-portrait using Katherine's crayons.
I try to get a picture whenever they're sitting pleasantly together - it's a rare treat!
Reading some library books in our bed in the morning.
This is the first year Katherine wrote a list for Santa. She thought hard about what she wanted to write down.
Katherine's list: "Dear Santa, Laguna Blue, markers, Pocahantas, unicorn pillow pet, Smurf movie"
She was a nice big sister and wrote a list for Daniel too. "For Daniel. Rockstar Mickey, Shu Toduroki, chair, book, Spiderman"
We left the lists under the tree since Pauly was hanging out there, and he brought them back to Santa when he flew home that night.
Pauly returned to us with a note from Santa which said to check Mommy's email for a special message. There was a video waiting for Katherine from the Portable North Pole website.
Uncle and Joanie came for a visit. All the kids, furry guy included, loved to see them!
We had a special storytime at the library when Miss Erin dressed up as an elf and read a story about counting down until Santa arrives. The kids counted...
And then Santa walked in! I hadn't told the kids that he would be there, so it was a huge surprise for them and very exciting.
Pauly used a tea light to make a little campfire for himself and roast marshmallows. This is one of the things I
thought would be funny to Katherine and she barely chuckled at it!
Pauly hanging out in the nativity scene. Katherine loved this one!
Our one-mitten girl taking a nap. We combat the thumb-sucking that sometimes creeps in at bedtime with a single mitten. That's all we need since she leaves it on and would only ever use her right hand. Now what in the world to do about our two-finger dude Daniel?
Big boy has tried sitting on the potty a few times! Nothing's coming out yet, but we're happy any time he agrees to sit there. Doggy and Lightning McQueen must come along of course.
Pauly spelled out a message using the Annie's Bunny Crackers.
And then I started loosing creativity ... and he just sat on the fish tank. Fish tank was funnier to Katherine than the cracker message. Seriously?!
She still laughs about Pauly in her stocking.
Katherine sings a cute little song she learned at church school. (Click to play)
We had fun with our annual tradition of decorating a gingerbread house together. I can't wait until Daniel can join in the fun next year. He ate plenty of Hot Tamales off of this one so I think he'll really be into it.
Poor little D had a pretty awful last few weeks of the year. After a couple days of crankiness (and by cranky, I mean screaming and crying most of the day), we noticed some sores in his mouth which turned out to be Coxsackie virus (aka hand-foot-mouth disease). He wouldn't eat at all and we felt terrible for him. After a week or so of that, he cleared up only to get a cold next! Lots of sleepless nights for us all, and once he just zonked right on the floor mid-morning when I left the room for a minute.
Katherine's class had a birthday party for Jesus with singing and lots of fun games.
Katherine and one of her favorite classmates, Saanvi.
Each kid in the class brought up a picture of someone and set in the nativity scene. After placing her shepherd, Katherine relocated the angel that someone else had already done to the top and put Jesus down in the hay. Can't have everybody just hanging out all willy-nilly in there!
What birthday party is complete without cupcakes? Katherine loved being able to decorate her own - with pleeeenty of sprinkles of course.
Thumbs up, it's delicious! That's her boyfriend Max sitting next to her. :)
Pauly dove into the leftover Halloween candy. You guessed it, she thought this was hilarious.
The best part of helping me bake Christmas cookies was licking the beaters! The heck with Salmonella, cookie dough is delicious.
Katherine caught her first glimpse of Star Wars on TV one night and loved it! I did her hair like Princess Leia and she has a great time playing pretend Star Wars with Brendan. Yoda is one of her favorite characters.
Pauly turned the milk green one day. Katherine was pretty upset with this one actually and was glad to hear we still had regular milk for her to drink. Don't mess with that first cup of milk in the morning - she's worse than an adult without their first cup of coffee! Ha!
Santa came through our neighborhood on a fire truck! Some of his helpers even threw out candy for the kids. Big hit!
Pauly hanging out on top of the tree
My little Viking babysitter
Pauly hanging out on the china cabinet
We had a fun playdate at my friend (and running partner) Kristi's house. Katherine and Daniel both really like her kids. Daniel was in heaven with all the "boy" toys around!
Katherine and Anna playing in the basement
Daniel found Cars toys. Mack the truck and lots of McQueens - score!
Pauly hanging out on the entertainment center
Pauly hanging out in the pantry
Daniel is asleep but Inky is awake? It's backwards day on our couch.
Katherine helped to make sure Santa's cookies had
plenty of sprinkles.
Pauly left this note for the kids on Christmas Eve morning to say goodbye since he'd be flying back to the North Pole that night. We all miss the little guy and look forward to the magic again next year.
I hope Santa comes to our house hungry!
Every time Katherine tossed out carrots for the reindeer, Inky would go and eat them all! We finally had to just hold him back inside and toss some more out there before quickly shutting the door.
Santa came! Brendan and I could barely sleep because we were so excited to see the kids' faces in the morning. Oh yeah, and the three or four times Katherine yelled out to ask if it was morning yet also didn't help us sleep. ;)
Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning to see if Santa was here.
Katherine had no idea she was getting a bike so seeing that just blew her mind!
Daniel just after coming downstairs, ready to check out what Santa brought
We started a little tradition that the kids each pick out a gift for each other. Daniel got this Cinderella for Katherine and she got him a pack of Hot Wheels cars.
Score! Katherine got Laguna Blue, the Monster High doll that was the number one thing on her list.
Katherine loved the Rapunzel doll from Nana and Grumps. It's been going everywhere with her!
Katherine and Grumps
Aunt Laura and Daniel
Rockstar Mickey! The number one thing on Daniel's list.
Katherine and Nana
Everyone pitched in and helped assemble the cardboard blocks that Daniel got from Santa and the tower building could begin.
Nana singing "The 'ol gray mare" to Katherine
Piggy back rides are a big hit with the kids. Katherine suggested Laura should get one too! My stomach hurt from laughing so hard by the time their lap around the house was done.
Christmas part two at Gram and Grandpa's house!
Katherine loves with Ariel bath doll from Emily and Andrew. She plays with it every time she's in the tub.
Daniel and Andrew both liked their new dumptrucks.
Katherine was very excited to no longer be just four years old. She's now four AND A HALF! She had a little piece of cake to celebrate.
Brendan's friend Ed and his new wife Lowen stopped by to visit when they were in town from California. Katherine usually likes playing with Ed but she LOVED Lowen this time and can't wait to see them again.
Katherine got this Pretty Pretty Princess game from Sarah for Christmas. It is a lot of fun to play and she loves it.
Of course she picked the yellow character and jewelry to collect.
Minnie Mouse was at Perkins for kids night. Katherine told her all about how we were in her house in Disney World and how she only had cheese in the refrigerator.
"Hey Mommy, do I look like Jesus?"
New Years and it was warm enough to be playing outside! I needed a couple ingredients for dinner, so I took Katherine on the bike to the supermarket instead of driving. It's about a mile and a half to there and she was a great little passenger.
Daniel and Inky stood watch as we pedaled away.
Cooking with Kat - she helped me make chili in the crockpot one day and did just about everything herself, including browning the meat on the stove.
Silly boy
Aww... they're not fighting...
Gosh they're cute together before the hair pulling and stuff starts.
We took the kids and their new bikes up to Willow Lane Elementary school so they could ride around in the parking lot there for practice.
Daniel was just interested in running around!
Peaking into the school
Jump!
It had been a while since we had been to East Penn Childrens Fitness Academy. Daniel and I met up with some friends and had a great time playing at the open tumble session while Katherine was in school.
Katherine trying on my wedding dress.
What pretty lips she has!
My handsome little guy
She's starting to really look like a big kid.
Conductor Daniel playing with castle
Chef Katherine helped me make flank steak. She specializes in "dumping and stirring".
Happy girl ready for school
Tech support is hard at work on Brendan's laptop.
Katherine and her friend Bella at Bella's princess and pirate dance party
Limbo time!
This many 3 and 4 year olds in one picture all looking in the same-ish direction is amazing.
Fingerpainting. Good messy fun!
Katherine started taking swim lessons last week. Emmaus Aquatic Center runs the lessons and they do them at our gym's pools, so it works out great that I can have Daniel play in the gym's child minding area during her lesson.
Thumbs up for a good first day at swim lessons!
Finally we got some snow for the kids to play in! We had about 3" today, which was a great amount because it was enough to play in but not too difficult for them to walk through. Daniel loved to eat the snow.
Mmm, yum!
Not even Inky can get privacy around here when trying to go to the bathroom.
Snowtube rides are Katherine's favorite thing. Daniel likes them too but not as much as her.
Katherine making her own snowstorm
More snow-eating
Katherine played out front while Brendan shoveled and our neighbor Hailey came to play with her. It was a day of snowy fun!
