Baby Jesus

They can't possibly have a taller baby and have it still fit in the manger.  Valerie only fit diagonally.  We put her in sleepy and she fell fast asleep and stayed that way all of rehursal.  The pictures of Paul and I also in costume come Christmas.

Adventures!

Wow, over a week since I updated?

On the 19th, we went to Carter's Friend's party.  It was at a huge bounce place and little Henri was climbing up the huge slide by himself, little stinker!  We had wonderful Indian food (ok, I did, the kids were busy bouncing).

Carter's been off school, so Monday we went out to Azteca with Jane, my HS Spanish teacher (the bill & parking lot was much better than Olive Garden!).  She loved hanging out with the kids.

Tuesday we headed to Pacific Science Center with Christine and her 3 kids...

Then we headed to the Bellevue Children's Museum

Valerie also started rolling this week.

Sickos

The little ones at our house are not feeling well.  At 12:00 Henri was eating lunch and coloring stickers.  At 12:30...

Make sure the volume is turned up so you can hear the snoring, which is what alerted me to his falling asleep!

Valerie enjoys her bath...

Reading and other stuff

So it's been lovely to be done with Christmas stuff early.  We're basically hanging out doing what we want. Like taking several hour walks in the sunshine, which is unusual for this time of year.  Carter has his last day of school for the year tomorrow.

Last year I read 52 books in 52 weeks, so this year I decided to take on the bible.  I only read 4 other books and some magazines besides the bible.  I finished tonight.  Yay, me!  Next year I plan to do daily devotionals, now that I know the whole story and where things are located but hopefully I'll be back to the 52 books in 2011 :) 

Off to get some sleep.  Henri & Valerie have both been up with a croupy sounding cough tonight.  Carter's sleeping on Valerie's floor again, Henri is in Carter's bed after his wake up and Valerie is back in bed with the humidifier on after 10 minutes in the steamy bathroom.  Only 5-6 hours until Henri gets up.  Good thing I spent the afternoon making 12 bags of quiche filler, 2 ham casseroles and loading up the coffee maker for tomorrow.  I'm going to need a nap tomorrow, I think.

Gingerbread Man as retold by Carter Lyttle

Once upon a time Carter and my mom and dad and my little brother and my little sister baked a gingerbread man.  It was supposed to cook for 10 minutes, but it actually baked for 9 minutes, then it jumped out of the oven and it ran out the door!  My dad tried to close the door, but it ran too fast.  Then a bear was there, and a wall.  The gingerbread man jumped over the wall, and the bear got hit.  Henri went around it, and the rest of my family went around the wall to try to catch the gingebread man.  Then a wolf came adn tried to catch the gingerbread man, but he got hit by a rock.  Then a running clock came after the gingerbread man, but then the clock broke and the gingerbread man ran away!  Then my fishes were coming after the gingerbread man - in their fish tank.  And then there was a wolf that chased the gingerbread man through a little hole in the wall.  The wolf was too big to fit through the hole in the wall, and the gingerbread man got away again!  Next a meteoroid came, and tried to chase the gingerbread man, but it hit some paper.  Then the gingerbread man ran to a forest, and found some birds.  But the birds weren't chasing him... they didn't see him.  So, the gingerbread man ran out of the forest and back into the fish bowl.  My fishes shared with the whole family, and we all ate the gingerbread man!  The end.

Merry Christmas banner

So glad we've done the "obligatory" things for Christmas and can just do what we want the rest of the season.  I've been taking the little ones for hourS long stroller rides trying to burn off those Christmas cookies.  Tonight I made a project for fun, but I think I'm giving it in our MOPS gift exchange this morning.  It's a banner that says "Merry Christmas" suitable for a doorway or mantle.

In a cuteness report, Carter slept on the floor in Valerie's room last night.

Super cute Valerie pictures