Our Christmas scene

The indoor Children's Gardens at MSU

The kids would not go near Santa...so they sit in the sleigh alone...

The amazing poinsettia "tree"

Fun Times

Visiting with my San Fran friend Melissa and her daughter Adelle

My Birthday

Dane's Gingerbread house

Picking out our Christmas tree

STL, con't...

The cousins got a night out while the aunts watched all 11 of our kids...in our family if you look at your significant other you get pregnant. I'm not kidding. If my numbers are right only 5 of the 11 babies were planned. That's a lot of "surprises!"

Dane and Glory at the water table, Magic House

The Magic House is by far the biggest and most amazing Children's Museum for young children I have ever experienced.

We Give Thanks

This year, for the first time we went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. It was a good change of pace...knowing that being Up North would be extremely lonely and sad this year. The car ride was a long 9 hours - one way. The kids did okay, with Glory being the expected pain-in the behind. She slept 1 hour out of nine.

The whole weekend was filled with tons of people...and food...and fun! I am really sad that I took hardly any pictures and not one picture of my two kids together. I plan to do a reenactment to get a picture of them together in their Turkey Day outfits.

Trip to St. Louis, Thanksgiving Weekend

This is about as good as it gets, folks. Family pics don't work out too well for us!

My family celebrated all the November and December Birthdays...this was Dane's turn. He was so excited and cute about it!

Big almost-three-year-old

He loved his cupcake, of course!

(I was freaking out about all the blue frosting he ate)

flashback...halloween!

Better Late than never!?!?

kids update

Big girl Glory, hanging with mom while Dane is at school

The kiddos after bath time.

Dane:

Dane is quite possibly the sweetest boy on earth...yet of course he has his moments. He says the sweetest things to me all the time. "You are my favorite Mommy," "Mom, you are my best friend," "Mommy, you are the best mommy to me." He also says the ugliest things, "You are a mean mom!" "Do you have a baby in your tummy, mom?" Ugh.

He is doing great with school, he loves it. After the children have large group they are dismissed to go to different areas of learning. Dane always chooses art first. I love that.

I just cannot believe how grown up he has gotten. He is recognizing letters and his name. He can spell his name, but only write a "D." He loves singing all the songs he learns at school. I go into Dane's classroom every other Tuesday, I truly enjoy spending that time with him!

Glory:

Glory has personality galore. She is still very aggressive with other children and babies. I'm trying to be patient, I know it is just a phase...but it is frustrating.

Glory is very smart. I realize I am her mom, but I still think she is smart! Her language has exploded! She knows so many words, I could never remember them all. She loves seeing the pumpkins outside; she can say pumpkin and flower. She can sign flower as well. She tells Gatsby, "down!" when he tries to sneak food from her highchair. She gets very excited to see babies and can say, "baby." Other words: please, thank-you, more, out, outside, up, nuk, mine, apple, car, guy, dane, mommy, daddy, grandpa, eye, nose, hi, bye-bye, no, yeah, potty, blanket, dog, baby einstein, barney, blues clues... She will repeat anything you ask her to say. She follows directions very well. She will wipe her nose with a tissue or try to take her clothes off for a bath if you ask her to.

Glory still does not like to be read to and still takes a bottle...

I love being her mom!