New Favorite Sport

It has come to my attention that Sierra is great at any sport she plays...  With Volleyball there wasn't as much to it...  you just hit a ball over the net... which was hard, but had no real interaction with the other "team/the enemy", but with Basketball Sierra's true colors are showing through.  :)

We should have known "who" Sierra really was, but now that we do know, I can easily go back to one particular incident that will forever stick in my mind...

Long, long ago, Sierra was just a cute little five year old playing soccer in the warm California sun.  Her little pony tail bouncing all over the field chasing the ball happily....  then another girl pushed her over and Sierra fell.  She got off the ground, looked at me as if she was going to cry, and then, in slow motion, I watched all innocence evaporate from her face.  She turned into a little ball of rage and there was nothing that was going to get in between her and that ball.  She ran faster than I ever saw her run, stole her ball back, and proceeded to kick it past everyone and score a goal ...and i'm pretty sure she kicked a few shins along the way.  Cute little Sierra returned in time for orange slices at the end of the game.  :)

It's like this on the basketball court with my now sweet little 11 year old.  :)  She is a little ball of rage, but a really quite talented one!!  My favorite part is when she steals the ball from the other team.  I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but one girl from each team ends up holding the ball and neither one is willing to let go.  In the meantime the rest of the girls just stand by and watch because at this age it's against the rules to add more grabbing hands to the fight. "The Fight for the Ball" often turns to a wrestling match in which Sierra rarely loses.   There is nothing that can pry the ball from Sierra's hands... it's great. :)  It makes me happy.  :)

...and.  When all the other parents watching the game find out Sierra's mine, they tell me how good she is ...and I say thanks...  as if I've done something to make her a sport superstar.  :)

I'm glad she is now doing much better in school so that she was able to play basketball.....  :)

Happy's Goose

Sorry in advance mom.  I love you.

This is our Christmas Goose.  It is a Christmas decorations that my mom made ...I think.   I do remember my mom making wreaths at some point.  I obviously get my awesome craftiness from her.  :)

Anyways, this festive decoration was handed down to me many, many years ago.  The goose comes out every Christmas and is put in a special spot.  :)

We put it right where Happy can see it the most ...because he loves it and thinks it's wonderful.  In Denmark it hung above his computer ...here in Germany it hung right next to his big TV.  Over the years it has turned into Happy's Goose.  It's his favorite part of Christmas.

Good Family Makes Cookies. GO MOM!

Look at us.  Making Cookies... like a good family...  There is some unwritten rule that if you don't make Christmas cookies with your family you are a terrible mom.  :)  FYI.

HA!  I only say that because every year I actually succeed in making cookies with my kids, despite swearing that I'll never do it again...  :)  Usually it's okay because in the end, although I have a complete mess in the kitchen, I at least have yummy cookies.  This year I made cookies with ...ugh, ...crisco.  I thought they would be good since that is what the recipe actually called for and this time I actually had it.  Shortening?  Isn't that Crisco.  Ewwww..  

The dough wasn't even yummy to eat.  Oh well, lesson learned...  crisco is gross, just use butter.  I don't think the kids noticed though.  :)  ...and I don't think I'll ever use Crisco for anything else ever again.

We don't have a lot of counter space in our German kitchen.  :)

Here is Michaela's cookie.  She made it for Happy. First she took a teeny tiny rocket shaped cookie and covered it with as much frosting as she could, then she figured out how to maximize the amount of candy she was able to stick on to it...

I'm not sure why, but her cookie reminds me of a caterpillar.  :)  Anyways, she then convinced Happy that he HAD to eat it because she... "made it with love" just for him.

Then Happy proceeded to make a "special cookie" for her.

He went into the kitchen and five minutes later he returned with a plate of tiny carrot, celery, and cucumber pieces... and then began to "decorate" a cookie with "vegetable sprinkles" for Michaela.  Nice. Those two are an interesting pair.

...and if Andrea had her way she would just make flour cookies. Actually, Andrea has zero interest in making a cookie.  She would rather throw flour on the dough repeatedly ...and roll it out indefinitely.  :)

  ...and she got mad because I eventually made her stop.  Please note the perfected pout by my angelic three year old:  crossed arms, sad eyes, big fat lower lip ...she's got it down!  But she's the fourth kid and this doesn't work on me.  Sorry pup.  :)

ok.

...not true, it did work ...she continued to "flour" and roll out dough for quite a while because she is the fourth kid ...and I've learned that wasting a blob of  icky-tasting crisco dough is well worth a solid half hour of entertainment for a three year old.

Back up to the Eve

On Christmas Eve we went over to Kelly's house for a FONDUE PARTY!  :)  We had cheese and chocolate and I have to admit to eating way more of the chocolate than the cheese.  :)  It was a really great day because all my favorite German-Living families were there...   :)   The kids kept to themselves, the husbands mostly kept to themselves...  perfect.  :) 

Krista and Andrea!  They have gotten twin comments several times while being out in public.  They have the same floppy hair and I caught them both hitting themselves in the head the other day.  Smart ones....

 Brett and Scotty!

Kelly was my friend until she got this for Andrea.  It has a million small pieces and if they aren't arranged in the right order my sweet Andrea loses her mind ...so I hid it.  It's not really part of our family anymore.  Sorry, Kelly, I couldn't take the stress!!  :)

Boys playing chess...  FYI, Scotty is a chess superstar.  The Boy kicks our butt all the time and we never let him win.  He sets traps for us and then whips his little queen around the board killing all our pieces right before yelling "CHECK"...  He is his daddy's boy.  Can't spell to save his life, but is a math genius.  :)

Happy with a book.  Well, it's Michaela with a book, but she is happy.  :)

So there you have it.  Our Christmas Eve.  :)  Sierra was in charge of pictures, so she isn't in any ...she'll make a great mom one day!  :)

Christmas Morning!

 The monkey danced and sang...  Andrea loved it!  Thanks Dale!

 Michaela got some Norwegian money to spend in Norway.  It looks like more than it really is.  :)

 Love those mermaids!

 Poozie would open a few presents, but always end up back at the castle....

 Yes, there is candy in her mouth.

Can you find the kid in the mess?

 Fuzzy socks...

I survived!

It's all done!  Christmas is back in the attic... New Years Eve has been cleaned up... Michaela comes home tomorrow.  Andrea starts school back up this week. The other three kids go to school next week.  I can't wait for a schedule!

Yes, that's what my life has become, one where I thrive on waking up at 6:45, drinking a coffee, making four different lunches, waking up four children, and heading out the door on the way to school at 8:00am.  I really do love it!  A schedule makes me happy.  I have two calenders, I make lists, and I have a special laundry basket filled with things I should do something with.  It's the only way a mom of four kids, of totally different ages, with completely different activities, can function.  ...and my "functioning" is sometimes questionable at best.  :)  Tonight I forgot to give the kids dinner and opened up a precious box of macaroni and cheese at 9:00pm.  Oops.

So Christmas.  Our Christmas morning didn't even start until 9AM!!!  We have been training the kids to sleep in ever since school got out and it worked out pretty well for us this Christmas morning.  :)  It's really good that we got to sleep in because on Christmas Eve Santa dropped off a pink play mobile princess castle for Andrea ...and good ole' Santa asked Happy to build it.  Who would have thought a child's toy would take a solid four hours to build!!  It was a bit much, and we've learned another Christmas Eve lesson.  I'm sure by the time the kids are all grown up we will have a fool proof way to NOT be up ridiculously late on Christmas Eve.

Anyways, I think our Christmas was pretty reasonable.  This time of year I'm often annoyed at the amount of, ummm, let's see, for lack of a better word I'm often annoyed at the amount of CRAP our kids have.  I think we did an okay job at not raising the CRAP level of our house.

Andrea got the above mentioned play mobile castle.  It's pink and is silly big, therefore she loves it  ...lots of new various play mobile in Andrea's life now.  She can play "house" all day long.  Andrea also got some new mermaids because she is obsessed with mermaids.  Special thanks to my friend Kelly who gave her her very first mermaid for her birthday. :)  I'm not sure what about mermaids are so special, but Andrea loves them ...almost as much as Hello Kitty.  :)  

All Scotty really asked for was a new Mario Kart game, which of course you can only get for the new Nintendo 3DS, hence he got a new DS.  (Oh yah, Andrea also got a new DS so she would leave Scotty's alone.)  :)  Scotty also got lots of wood toys: Two big domino sets, a marble track, Kapla - which are like wooden flat rectangles that you build stuff with.  He also got a new piece for his hot wheels track and a battling spin-y toy thing.

Sierra's big gift was a new iPod that takes pictures.  She got lots of clothes and some drawing stuff.  Jewelry, random things, blank CDs to put music on...  Nothing too exciting.  She's 11 and officially done with toys ...although when Andrea wants to play castle Sierra is her favorite person to play with.  :)  

Michaela's big gift was a week long ski trip to Norway.  :)  She also got lots of clothes and jewelry and some drawing stuff, several books ...random things... basically the same "stuff" as Sierra. She did get a membership to an online game too ...that made her happy.  :)

Happy got some stuff.  I got some stuff.  Lots of stuff, nothing too exciting, we already have everything we need ...and I could now write something really cheesy about how all we really need is our family ...but it would be cheesy ...so I won't.  ...but it's true.  It feels very safe to know there are people who love me no matter what.  I will never be stuck alone.

HA!  Alone? I can't even be alone when going to the bathroom! ...Andrea always comes in because she wants to "pee with mommy"  ...and she has to finish first because everything is a contest in which she has to win.  Hmmmmmm...  I don't know where she got that from.  :)

...pictures later.  I'm tired.  That was a lot to type and it's been a while since I've written lots.  :)