Happy New Year!

We are off to a great start in 2012.  We are back in our routine, with Jacob and Gwyn both returning to school this week.  Jacob got his first report card home this week, Brian and I are very proud of him, he's doing so well.  He is just an awesome kid!

A friend of his from school gave him this little note, I thought it was just too sweet:

We had a great time after Christmas, Brian was off a few days or worked from home and we were able to have some great family time.  We spent New Year's Eve at our neighbor's house, we had some great food and the kids played and our New Years was at 8 pm!  Brian set up the tent in Gwyn and Annie's room and he camped out with the kids....Mommy had the whole downstairs to herself, but I only lasted until about 10:30pm...I can't even remember the last time Brian or I saw midnight!

Here are the kids in some coordinating pajamas...our biggest news was that Annie transitioned into a big girl bed and is now sleeping in Gwyn's room in the other full-size bed.  She loves it and is doing pretty well, we had several bad nights in a row with her coming downstairs at 3 am, but Gwyn is now sneaking out of her room so she doesn't wake Annie up.  We took down the crib, which had been in constant use since July 13, 2006 (the day we brought Jacob home from the hospital)...it was a little bittersweet.  The kids play so well together, it is fun to hear their little conversations.  We were also able to take them to the movies with some friends to see both The Chipmunks and The Muppets.

 Loved this picture of Gwyn from a few weeks ago, she's got the whole "hands on her hips pose" down pretty good!  She LOVES The Lion King, and to hear her and Annie sing "A kun a matta" or however you spell it, is HILARIOUS!  They had me rolling, I'll have to get that on video.

We made some "snow" from the kit that Santa brought for Gwyn, since all she asked for was a snowflake for Christmas.

Santa also brought these fun straw glasses, Jacob and Gwyn loved them, but it took a little encouraging (and some non-diluted orange juice) for Annie to warm up to them:

Love these sweet sisters!

Erika sent me this picture when we were in Oklahoma with all our kids...I think Gwyn is the only happy one since she gets to hold a real baby!

Brian took the kids to see Phineas and Ferb (Brian's favorite cartoon) at the Toyota Center.  They met some friends there and had a great time, and I met up with them for dinner (table of 14 with 8 of those being kids!).  The kids did great, had a wonderful time, and even though during the trivia portion of the show Brian got a little depressed that there were a lot of kids there who knew more about Phineas and Ferb than he did, we all had a great time.  We even got several comments at the restaurant on how well behaved all the kids were.  This is the only picture, which is a video of the kids at Phineas and Ferb...Annie had a great time too and was even dancing to the music.  Brian and the kids also had several tattoos on of Phineas and Ferb that Stacy and Justin got the kids for Christmas. 

He is growing up too fast!

The weather has been amazing, in the 70s, so it is perfect weather for playing outside for hours every day.  I took this one of the kids swinging:


I had to capture this video of the kids in the car, who think it is great to just out of the blue start cheering for Daddy.  I loved Brian's smile, you can tell he likes it!!

Funny things the kids said this week:
Annie:  Come on Ginny, let's play bunnies. (Annie LOVES her Calico Critters)
Gwyn:  God still loves you if you forget your Bible.
Gwyn:  Jesus doesn't steal. (no, He doesn't)
Jacob:  Can we pray for another baby to play with Annie?  (No, no we can't)
Gwyn:  What if you have 16 babies come out of your belly? (enough of the baby talk!!)
Gwyn:  What if my nails grew all the way to Jesus, then you and Daddy would both have to cut them, but only in the grass. (I wish I could record all her thoughts, she thinks about some crazy stuff)

At dinner each night, we started family question time.  I pick out 5 or so questions from this little box, and we got around the table answering them.  It is pretty entertaining, especially when Gwyn's answers usually have absolutely nothing to do with the question.  Annie usually says what Gwyn says, and Jacob's answers are pretty fun.  We discuss where we want to go on vacation, what our favorite thing to eat is, what is our favorite mode of transportation, what song we want the family to sing, what is the first thing we think about when we wake up each morning, what is our family motto, etc.  We are Team Katterhenry!!