Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Eve and I am just now sitting down to get a Merry Christmas post out to you all! It has been a fun and adventurous year for us all, and will only be more so in the year to come. I, like many others, meant to get a Christmas card, a physical one, out to friends and family and gosh darnit, this year I was going to do it. Well, time and chance happeneth to all and here I am digitally telling you all what a wonderful year we've had. Maybe next year you'll get a real one. So here's a quick peak into all of our lives!
Odell is two now and has clearly forgotten that she is a calm, placid child who wants for nothing but to stare at everything and giggle when prompted. She is now talking up a storm and has great joy in "MY-KA-SI-WAP!" (which translates roughly to, "Mother, may I please sit in your lap?"). This also has very little to do with actually sitting in my lap, but more to do with stepping, climbing, pulling, jumping, and dancing on my lap. Needless to say Mommy does not get very much accomplished during this time. We've also discovered that she has somehow absorbed from the universe how to identify the entire alphabet by sight and knows several shapes and colors. Funny how you try so hard with the first ones to teach them everything and then the little ones just learn it on their own sometimes. She loves to laugh, loves to point out everything, loves to dance, looks irresistible in pigtails, loves her older brother and sister and gives us hugs and kisses all day. Not potty trained yet, we're working on it. I'm trying to enjoy every minute of having a bubbly happy little girl around all day whilst trying not to spoil her completely.
Linus' personality continues to blossom in the most intricate and interesting ways and makes life entertaining to say the least. Everything has to be exact with him. Everything has to have an answer (which makes for a LOT of questions). But we love watching him develop and see the way he observes the world. His behavior has been getting better, to the relief of his parents and family, and we've learned a lot of coping mechanisms with him. For example, he lives for a routine and schedule. Not that he's constantly aware of what's happening next, necessarily, but when days stay pretty much the same, the tantrums are fewer. He loves to cuddle with Mom, loves puzzles and coloring (and I must say in my humble opinion, he colors really well. In the lines perfectly and picks the coolest colors, coloring in every empty spot possible- I'll have to save that for another post), loves writing words, loves making really loud random noises, loves making his sisters laugh, and generally just has a great time being a four year old little boy. He also can't wait to start school next year.
Chloe is growing like a weed. She's getting taller and more gangly by the minute. Her pride and joy is her long, beautiful, flowing locks of silvery blonde hair. Or, that is, her long, tangled mess of knots and frizz. I'm pretty sure she thinks that I'm purposefully torturing her for no good reason at all every time I tell her we need to brush her hair. Yet she won't let me cut it. I even consented to bribing her, but no go. Crazy girl. She LOVES Kindergarten, although it takes her until she gets to school to realize that most days, so sometimes our mornings go a little slow. :-) She loves all things art, and I am fully enjoying entering the stage of motherhood where I get to pick out cool art kits and crafts for her for birthdays and holidays. I vividly remember spending hours on my spyrograph, moon sand, and friendship bracelet kits as a kid, and am glad to have an excuse to do it again. She is doing swimmingly at school and it's fun to help and watch her learn to read. We've also moved into the wonderful world of chapter books and I am SO excited. As you can tell, I sort of live vicariously through Chloe. She is a lot like me and I couldn't be more thrilled. :-) I'm sure someday along the line this may cause a problem between us, but that's okay. Except, one thing, she does have a very different taste in colors and style than me, that may be because she is six, but we went to the craft store to pick out some fabric together for her closet door replacement curtains and I finally had to bribe her to pick something that didn't have real pictures of kittens on it or an assortment of Easter Hosanna phrases ("Alleluia! Praise the Lord! He is Risen!"). We'll see if she grows out of it someday. :-)
Craig and I are keeping more than busy, between school, work, photography, seminary, Young Men's President, in home daycare, cooking and cleaning (between the both of us), spending time with the kids, and trying to snatch a kiss here and there, we are booked. Craig is starting his internship and final semester of school in recreation management and will be looking for a job here before too long. We are SOOOOO excited to be done, and a bit apprehensive about what the future will bring...but mostly just SOOOOO excited to be done. We had that major stomach bug go through our house for THREE WEEKS right after Thanksgiving, but by a miracle, I got it earlier on and was able to take care of the rest of the family without fear of getting it myself while we focused on NOT getting Craig sick so he could make it to all his finals and get all his projects done for the semester. And thankfully he didn't and pulled off another 4.0 this semester (I gotta brag because heaven knows he won't!). Craig and I were also able to take a trip to his uncle's house in Virginia for a week before Christmas just the two of us (Craig's uncle is a dentist and he helped with fixing Craig's broken tooth, which also included a root canal and three fillings). We enjoyed our time visiting some of the historic sites near Richmond and also watching movies, playing video games, eating lots of food, staying up late and sleeping in, and doing everything we don't get to do with the kids. Not that we don't love them, but it was nice to relax for a week.
Here's to a wonderfully exciting year in 2013! We look forward to all the changes, and hope we are settled enough to get a real card out next year. Love you all!