Friday, December 28, 2007

the syrup story


what a mess..... i have seen some very sweet interactions between each of our children. once i watched annelies sweetly brushing sofia's hair or the time they were cuddled up in bed together reading books and snuggling. or the time i walked in on nico rubbing oliver's back and singing him a lullaby. but nothing tops what rob saw today. this is sweet in a whole different sense of the word. as the kids were playing and running around like they always do, rob decided to peak in and see what they were up to. to his surprise he saw something he couldn't believe!! sofia and jakob were taking turns taking swigs out of the syrup bottle. GROSS!! as soon as they saw me coming to stop them, they scattered like little cockroaches when you turn the light on. rob and i got a big laugh out of that one!!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

christmas in the south





Well our christmas started out on christmas eve when my side of the family came over for a big dinner with roast beef, yorkshire pudding and all the fixings. we opened presents from family members, read the night before christmas and tucked the kids in only to have them come downstairs to see if they could catch santa in the act. luckily they fell asleep before the fat man came. unfortunately that was not the end of the evening though, there was lots of clean up and preparation for santa.

......oh and the kids spread out the deer food in the lawn so the deer would find our house and some yummy treats for santa along with lots of carrots for santa to give the deer.

once i got snuggled up in bed..... i found it didn't last long because annelies was up with an ear infection all night!!! poor thing, she was in agonizing pain. luckily i had left over chewable antibiotic from jakob and some motrin. she was not a happy camper once morning came though, hence the absence of her presence in the family pictures on the stairs. she was actually in her bedroom yelling at the kids to leave her alone!

unlike all my in-laws, we did not wake up to a white christmas, but something amazing did happen....quite miraculously rob was the first one awake and slowly crawled out of bed at 8:30 to wake the other kids up. ollie popped right up and jakob was at rob's side helping with the wake up calls. sofia was so eager to see what surprises santa left for her. all she asked for this year was presents, so she was sure to be happy with whatever she got.

once we got downstairs at about 8:45, the kids started with their stocking and soon moved to the tree where their presents were wrapped with their own paper. nico was transformers, jakob of course was spider-man, annelies was princess, sofia was dora and ollie had cute reindeer paper. this makes it much easier to identify presents not to mention the hassle of name tags. sofia caught on quick to the paper pattern and started handing out gifts while nico assigned everybody who's turn it was to open. they were so cute how organized they were. after all was said and done, rob and i could only come to one conclusion..... the kids are spoiled rotten and they got way too many presents. oh well.... nico's big gift was a keyboard (piano). jakob got a truck and trailer and an xbox 360 game (spider-man friend or foe), annelies got a stamp set and a barbie magnet fashion set, sofia got a dora doll and food for her play kitchen and ollie got a little scooter. then rob and i took turns opening presents. rob put nico in charge of wrapping mine, but nico got confused and long story short... none of my presents got wrapped and i got to just take them out of the bags. oh, well.

it was a fun christmas and we finished it off with our biggest tradition of all.... WAFFLE HOUSE. so yummy. the rest of the day we watched movies and ate! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

PLAYING DRESS UP



the girls love playing dress up. the other day they came down with some of the wigs in their dress up bucket. they were trying it on themselves and me, but the funniest was ollie. they thought it was absolutely hysterical and ollie loved their reaction.

ANNELIES' CHRISTMAS PROGRAM



Annelies' little school had there christmas program and it was so sweet. they sang several christmas songs and each of the kids dressed up like animals except for annelies and her friend natalie. apparently they ran out of costumes or something so they were pretty little girls. it was so cute and afterwards we got to eat cookies and sandwiches. this was ollie's favorite part!!

ANNUAL COOKIE BAKING DAY





Well another christmas and more yummy cookies to bake. we always choose a day that all us cook girls can get together and our little helpers are home from school. (except the boys...) we have so much fun baking our family favorites and the girls love licking the bowls and spoons and apparently sofia loves to play and clean up in the bathroom. it is always so much fun and the end result is so yummy!

Monday, December 17, 2007

VISIT TO SANTA


two saturdays ago we went to tell santa what we wanted for christmas. Nico told santa he wants his puppy that is in tennessee, annelies wants anything hannah montanna and jakob said something that only he understood. sofia shied away and ollie only says ba ba. The santa was very patient and very REAL looking as nico and annelies said. there was absolutely NO wait to see santa and the experience was wonderful. the kids were satisfied that they got to see santa and rob and i were happy that there was no wait. it was a win/win afternoon.

Friday, December 7, 2007

SINTER CLAUS


It was a very busy day. the roast went in the oven at 10 am and the house got straightened up all day with all the little ones coming behind me just to destroy what i had cleaned. rob, lorna and andy came over to eat dinner, get a christmas tree and do our sinter claus traditional stories, hot chocolate and speculas. YUM!! while the boys and annelies left to get the christmas tree, lorna and i finished up dinner. the boys came in with a beautiful tree and we sat down to eat shortly after. we had such a yummy dinner with roast beef, potatoes, carrots, yorkshire pudding, gravy, spinach salad, and rolls. VERY TASTY and rob was in heaven. after dinner poppy told his history of sinter claus story and put jakob in the naughty sack. then rob sang songs with the kids and lorna finished with the bakers dozen. we then opened presents and then finished the night with hot chocolate and speculas. it was a fun night. oh did i mention there was a heated debate between rob and robert (i won't mention about what) and i got stuck with the clean up at the end. i will say the boys did clear the table. other than that, it was a picture book evening!