Sometimes your husband texts you pictures of tarantulas.

 Long story short -- we were planning to spend Monday by driving to the beach and going to an aquarium.  Plans changed and the kids were naturally bummed so we decided to stay local and go to Raleigh's science museum.  We started off the day with donuts.   

A Blue Whale skeleton.

I think the coolest part of the visit for Ben and me was watching a butterfly partially come out of its chrysalis. 

The butterfly room was amazing!  There was even a sloth in there that decided to keep hidden.

But the kids mostly cared about the dinosaurs.

Ben for some reason thinks it's hilarious every time that we're at a pet store or even just talking about tarantulas that I get the heebie jeebies.  Just looking at this picture makes me itchy all over.

So here's the story.

There was a tarantula in the butterfly room.  The kids were too short to see it and Ben was pushing the double stroller.  So I lifted Skyler and Lily up so that they could see it without actually looking at it myself.  

After we had left the museum and were on our way home I checked my phone.  Ba-bam.  On my phone was plastered the above picture from none other than my charming husband.  When I saw it I gave him a death look that I'm pretty sure made his day.

Fast forward to the next morning.  I woke up being unable to open my right eye.  PINK EYE.  I had eyedrops from our family's last episode and so I quarantined myself to my room since the kids will be back in school in less than a week.  Ben took over everything.  He took all four grocery shopping on his own which may not sound like much until you watch how they wander all over the aisle and get in people's way and touch things that they're not supposed to touch.  Then he made dinner for the couple who just had their baby whom I had signed up to feed them that day.

We thought I'd be better today.  Nope.  Fever returned and I woke up still looking like an albino.  Ben had to watch the kids by himself again while I did absolutely nothing all day in bed.  The kids were so bummed because I had promised to paint with them.  Ben decided to kill two birds with one stone and around lunch time all 5 came into my room quickly to bring me this:

Then Ben had to do take 2 of making dinner for someone else: the elders who we promised a fun New Year's Eve game night to.  He somehow managed to clean up and take care of the kids and cook and have a great night with the elders while I continued to do nothing.

As Ben and I say every day to each other, "I like you.  You're my favorite."

And he is.

And I'll take a tarantula text any day from him.

Christmases 1 & 2

We had all sorts of fun plans with my parents the week of Christmas.  We went over for a play date on Monday and in the afternoon my mom started feeling sick.  On Christmas Eve she found out she had the flu and so we stayed away.  Instead we had a pretty fun day of watching Christmas movies and cooking.  

Of course we let the kids open up their Christmas Eve presents -- jammies and slippers.  I couldn't help myself with the Batman jammies.

We put the kids in bed and for the first time ever, Ben and I decided to wait a while just to play it safe.  We couldn't find any benedryl in the house to drug them with and so we found some cold meds to give to Lily and Skyler because they were so excited, they had said for days that they wouldn't be able to sleep.  When all had been quiet for a solid hour I went up to the attic.  Then I heard this death scream from Lily.  I ran down the attic stairs and into her room to find out what was wrong.  "This medicine you gave me isn't making me sleep like it's supposed to!!!!!"  Yep.  This is my life with Lily's panic attacks.  I told her to calm down and just relax and eventually she would fall asleep.  Since she was wide awake and I didn't want to be awake for forever, I told her that I had a few "last minute presents I had to pull down from the attic."  *Wink*

(The next morning Lily told me she had no idea how she missed Santa because she was awake all night.)

Since Nanni was sick, she encouraged my dad to come over and enjoy the fun.  He told me that his favorite part of Christmas is seeing the kids come downstairs and seeing what they got from Santa.  I woke up naturally at 5:45 and at 6 I heard my dad come in through the garage.  The kids were thrilled to see him when they woke up at 6:30 and came down.

And in the words of Ben's mum, "Santa came!  Santa came!!!!" 

This year Ben and I decided to give lots and lots of books.  Our kids spend so much time reading it only made sense.  I found some great stuff at the kids' book fair at school but most of them actually came from my guilty pleasure -- Goodwill.  49 cents per book?  Don't mind if I do...

About a minute after this picture was taken I finally figured out that Thad was trying to eat a clementine like an apple.

Lily gave Ella this adorable little dress up kit and Ella was in love.  She wore it all day.

Thad was the hardest to shop for.  He doesn't have very many interests yet, but one thing he really enjoys doing is head diving into big piles of pillows and blankets.  He just loves it.  So Ben and I found this huge elephant pillow and the green triceratops (pictured at the beginning of the post) at Costco and they turned out to be the perfect presents for him!  They are quite coveted by the other kids, too.

Papa helped Ella ride Skyler's new scooter.  He also took quite a few rides on it himself.  So did Ben.  Daaaaads.

Before she found out I had a camera -- blinged out and playing with tools.

After she found out I had a camera.

We put Christmas with my parents on hold until Saturday when my mom was feeling better and no longer contagious.  Pranshu came too.  We had a great gift exchange and the kids were in heaven.  He loved getting our Humans of New York book since we share that common interest.

Pranshu brought everyone presents including a new doggy bed for Mia!

Christmas dinner was delicious as usual, but since Pranshu was with us we had turkey instead of ham or steak. I'm pretty sure that's the first time we've ever had turkey on Christmas.

We have been so blessed this year I can't even begin to count our many blessings.  So many times throughout the year I have thought to myself, My life is so wonderful.  It feels like I don't even have any trials.  And then a kid would whine about not getting a treat after dinner or everyday I'd struggle helping Lily and Skyler do homework while I make dinner with two babies around my legs, and I'd be brought back to reality... but all in all, we have so much to be thankful for -- especially the birth of our Savior.  What a wonderful thing it is to know that there is always hope and joy when we choose it.

Published

Before you get any ideas, let me just say that I haven't had time to write in a good while.  I guess that's the price you pay with 4 really young kids.

But yesterday morning a friend of mine who is a published author, pleaded for a simple sketch for her book.  She was trying to get her book published online by today and so she was in a hurry.  No one was responding and so I asked her if she still needed help.  She let me know she still needed a simple picture drawn of a swan and she basically needed it right then.  It was actually a really fun project because I hadn't been given an art assignment since college and I can't remember ever drawing birds.  I have been craving a good art project (Santa may or may not be bringing me a ginormous canvas for Christmas) and this was a nice (and quick) warm up.

I had all sorts of problems scanning it.  I had to darken the swan four times to get it to show any detail, so it looks much rougher than I would have liked but I had very limited time and I was also in the middle of stomach flu.  (To be honest, sketching was a nice distraction from being sick).  Since this is on a book maybe I should say something like copyright Sterling R. Walker???

Rachel, aka Sterling R. Walker, added the swan to the rest of the cover that her son painted.  Her book is officially available as of today!  But since this is book 3 of 3, you'll want to start with The Orphan Ship.  I have loved this story and I'm looking forward to finishing it!

Santa and the Parade!

December is always a busy month, but this one has been a whopper.  Luckily it has been busy with all things fun.  Every year our HOA invites Santa to fly down to our neighborhood club house so all the kids can sit on his lap.  It's awesome because we don't have to pay anything and we can take all the pictures we want.  Also refreshments are included.  I will never go to a mall again.

Ella was so excited to meet Santa while she was waiting in line.  This is the first year that she "gets it."  But after waiting in line and finally reaching Santa, she flipped out and decided she wasn't going to sit on some old dude's lap even if her crazy brother and sister were.

Lily and Skyler had a great time with Santa.  Lily brought "Snow," her Christmas version of a Flat Stanley.  Everyone in her class has one and they had to have their picture taken with them while doing something Christmas-y.  Lily wrote a little report all about their adventure.  I can't believe I have a kid old enough to do these kinds of things.  Sheesh.

Having just Ella and Thad at home is sooooo amazing.  The house is semi-quiet and life is pretty simple.  One day they took turns trying to fit into a shoe box.  That's my kind of party.

On Saturday Holly Springs held its annual Christmas parade.  Lily's dance studio was going to be dancing through it and we weren't sure if Lily was going to be a part of it or not.  Ben originally was supposed to be on a campout and there was no way I was going to tackle the other three kids by myself at a parade.  The campout date changed and so we decided to go for it and Lily got really excited.  Ben dropped her off early and saved us some killer seats right in front of Town Hall.

I wish I could say that Ella didn't sit forward in her chair and land on her face in the road 5 minutes later.... but I can't.  Luckily, she didn't get a scratch.  She's had a rough week....

Skyler and his friend, Ace, sat together through the whole parade.

The first jeep is a Willy's Jeep.  Ben wanted me to grab a picture because he and his dad restored one when Ben was a teenager.

We were introduced to the Holly Springs Fire Department's newest member!  Awwwww!

There are about 1,000 dancers at Lily's studio and so finding Lily was a challenge to say the least.  Lily is in the black and pink shoes, just to the right of the second woman's head.

She's in here somewhere too, but I'm not sure where.

The last float before Santa was of a band called Suburban Uprising.  The drummer is one of Ben's young men.

Well December has been so busy that I haven't had much time to make goodies and take them to people.  But my visiting teacher who is being induced in three days just brought me cookies, so I think that was the guilt I needed to get moving.  Happy Decembering everyone!