Stuff

 Anne in the dress I made out of Grandma's nice wool. The twins have matching ones which will hopefully fit them before summer!

 From inside our van

 This is a REAL duet. :)

 Stockings! It was pretty weird stuffing our own stockings this year without any "real" grown-ups around.

 Sledding!

 Elijah is NOT enjoying catching the snow in the face from Uncle Caleb's steering with his feet. :)

 This is more like it.

Elijah kept wanting to go down standing up. Future snow boarder???

But now the poor boy has a nasty, nasty cold, which I'm trying to loosen up, so I'd better go get him out of the tub!

Christmas program

Here are a couple pictures from the Christmas show the kids were in. Anne was a singer in the choir and Peter was the angel Gabriel. He LOVED talking into the mic in front of all the people, crazy kid. They both did great jobs! The program was called Christmas in Reverse and told the story of Christmas, starting back in the Garden of Eden.

 Oh yeah! As part of the dinner entertainment, Christian told a cowboy Christmas poem, by Waddie Mitchell. On a slightly different note, he also gave the message for our Christmas Eve service. I can't get it to upload on the blog, but if you're interested in listening to it, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

 Adam and Eve were probably my favorite parts. "Adam" lost a tooth while biting into the apple and kept going without missing a beat!

Here's a video of one of the last songs. Anne is behind the amazing sheep and Peter is the sparkly stuff you can occasionally see in the upper left darkness. :)

2010 Slideshow

The Youngs- 2010
Make sure you pause the music at the bottom of the blog so you can hear the slideshow music!

Teeth and training

So the twins have been cranky lately, especially when I'm wanting to sleep. Yesterday morning (I think. The days do tend to blur together.) I stuck my finger into Berea's mouth and discovered she's broken out with two molars! Normally Tirzah's been first with the teeth, but upon inspection of her gums, she doesn't have any out, but one just barely under the surface, and red/swollen in other places. No wonder they've been such pills! That, and the colds that keep coming...
I just looked at my baby book and discovered that I was eating completely by myself, with utensils, by the time I was 15 months old. I have no recollection of when I taught the other kids how to eat- just that each time I remembered why I hung on to the bibs. I've been seriously dragging my feet even thinking about teaching the twins how to use utensils. But I have made a few attempts.
Attempt #1: Pasty oatmeal for breakfast- they love it. Two bowls, two high chair trays, two chunky baby spoons. Put the bowls on the trays, attempt to field the spoons in the general direction of the mouths. Give up, but leave the babies with said bowls and spoons. 10 minutes later: Pull smeared oatmeally trays and bowls off the chairs. Clean happy babies' faces, hands, arms, take off their jammies... 2 days later: finally wash the cemented oatmeal out of the hair.
Attempt #2 (the best so far): Rice and beans. One bowl, (eventually) two spoons, same everything else. I take turns with each baby. I fill the spoon with food, they put it in their mouths and keep it there while I snag the other baby's spoon and fill it... Overall happy babies till they get tired of it. Finish by just feeding them. Pretty clean.
Attempt #3: Rice and refries (hey, it makes a complete protein). One spoon, one bowl. Jealous, impatient babies. They do NOT like me taking the spoon away to give the other one a bite. While giving Tirzah a bite, Berea would grab her arm, thereby making it very difficult for T to feed herself. Replay for Tirzah while Berea's trying to take a bit. We eventually work through it, only slightly disheveled. Next time, two spoons. And bibs.

 Tirzah

 Berea, with crazy ponytail hair

Who, me? I'm not ALL the way on the table....

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

Decorating and stuff

This year I finally learned my lesson and cleaned the house (the yearly dusting) the day BEFORE decorating! It actually was also great in that cleaning day was warm and sunny and decorating day was cold and snowy! Quite conducive to the mood. 

 This year I let go of control- and let the kids put on all the ornaments. I've even mostly let them stay put!

 I did draw the line at the garland though. Not quite ready to let that one go. :)

 Our no-break African nativity set- the way the kids set it up, all the men were gathered in a circle around Mary and baby Jesus. I think if I were Mary I would have yelled, "Back off, will you?!!"

 I LOVE pulling out the Christmas ornaments- my mom bought/made us kids an ornament every year of our lives, so when we left home for college we each had our own little stash! They probably had to splurge and get some new ones after we were all out, since their tree was probably pretty barren by then! :) This particular pig ornament was from high school, when I went through a pig-loving phase.

 At over 4 1/2 feet tall now, my 8 year old can almost reach the top of the tree. He also has the same size feet as two of his aunties. Yikes.

Elijah is very satisfied with the results. :) He made one branch the "mouse branch"- all the mice ornaments he could find. :)