Sayonara 2009

Good-bye 2009, hello 2010. I admit, I'm a little sad to see 2009 go. It's been a good year for us. We bought a house, had two babies, got a new (to us van) and saw our oldest kids turn 4. What a year! Can 2010 top that? Only time will tell. Here are a few favorite moments from 2009...

More Christmas

Here we are, at the end of all of our Christmas celebrations. This week my brother Eric came into town from Seattle. The boys absolutely love when all the cousins are together and they get to play. And we like to have adult time while that happens! :)

Every year I get all the cousins matching/coordinating pajamas and we take a cousin picture. It's so much fun! The first year the new baby was cousin Sawyer. Last year it was cousin Natalie. This year it was the girls. Who will be new next year? (DON'T LOOK AT US FOR THAT ONE!)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! What a fabulous holiday. A wonderful church service, family time galore, and children that are exhausted AND happy! What more can a girl ask for?! NOTHING!

We have been very busy the last couple of days. Christmas Eve we spend with my family. We had a great dinner and opened gifts. The boys have been playing with their Batmobiles nonstop. Dan and I love our new skillet and are excited to use it tomorrow morning! Following that celebration we had a great service at church. The boys did well (Thomas slept through most of Mass so that kept him quiet!), the girls did well (passed around between family members) and I had lots of time to focus on the reason for the season.

This morning we got up bright and early and opened our family gifts and stockings. Thomas ran out and after being read his letter from Santa, pranced around, "I was a good boy. Oh yeah. I was good!" We opened presents (the boys got a dinosaur castle and a digital camera, I got an IPOD, the girls got toys and Dan got an outdoor BBQ pit). We then jumped into the car and went up to the traditional Domrese breakfast. YUMMY! My favorite part? Cinnabons! Everything went swimmingly and we headed home for a nice rest time. Then we went back into the car for a Christmas gathering with the great grandparents. How fun! Another great time with family.

We are now home. I am blogging and then skipping all the pickup and getting one good nights sleep to catch up from the last few days. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

My Hilarious Children

My kids crack me up. After a crazy long day, we were finally eating dinner at IHOP with grandpa Bob and grandma Patti at 8:00 PM. Yes, so late. We NEVER do that! The boys were exhausted, starving, and delirious.

When given a paper menu at a restaurant, we have the boys circle what they want and then place their own order (helping them to gain independence). When asked what they wanted to drink, Joshua gave his typical "root beer" order. Thomas, on the other hand, realized it was IHOP and ordered coffee. :) So cute!!!

Thomas then placed his order. And generously placed an order for grandpa Bob as well. *Grandpa Bob changed his order. Apparently he didn't want a smiley face pancake?*

Joshua, apparently losing coordination when sleepy, fell out of his chair twice. Just sitting there and then toppled out falling into an unoccupied car seat. He definitely kept us laughing!

Katie slept the majority of the time. Molly decided to be a big girl and sat in her highchair and ate pancakes, broccoli, crackers, and cantalope. Anything put in front of her, that girl ate!

My children are hilarious.

*An exciting post and pictures to come tomorrow....

A Stranger to Blogging?

Have I been a stranger? Yes! It's been busy! Apparently having mobile children makes it less likely you get to sit on the computer. :)

Since I last wrote here are the updates:

Thomas and Joshua continue to do great in school. We have started learning sight words at home. The boys are ready to learn sounds and begin reading. So exciting! They are very excited for the snow and have been playing independently outside and inside recently. So great!

Katie can now officially crawl and pull herself to standing. There is no holding that girl back! She is saying 'mama' and loves her some food. But real people food, none of that baby food mush!

Molly is now competent at sitting and can scoot if she desires. She is so laid back, something has to be well worth her while to make the effort to move. She is most content just lying on the floor with her feet and arms in the air. She's going to have some mega-ab muscles if she keeps that up! She likes to say 'dada' more than anything else. :)

Here are a few pictures to tide you over!

Christmas Lists

I just posted the boys' Christmas lists on the blog. Hopefully this helps family and friends who are searching or wondering the boys' deepest desires. :) This list is, of course, narrowed down from the hundreds of items the boys cut out from newspaper ads. This might be the most fun Christmas yet!

Joshua

Just wanted to note some of the things Joshua (and the other kiddos) say...

Last night in the car with Dan, Joshua explained that he knows he has been angry lately. He said that it is because he 'wasn't ready to come out of mommy's tummy, but he got pulled out anyway.'

This is very true. Joshua was not ready to be born. Thomas was. Thomas pushed the issue. Joshua was breech and hung on to my ribs for dear life. They had a very VERY difficult time pulling him out by his feet and we've always said that the poor kid was not ready yet. Apparently we were right.

Joshua has always been my sensitive child. Remember this? http://domrese.blogspot.com/2008/12/joshuas-insight.html