Christmas Day

We had a fabulous, wonderful, awesome Christmas Day. It's been a really terrific whole Christmas break, really. These kiddos are just getting older and more fun.

Waiting at the top of the stair Christmas morning, about to see what Santa brought.


Checking out their stockings.


Baseball and football cards - Santa seems to know that these are always a favorite.


Will showing off a new mask.


Helen (and Will) got a new, real t-ball glove from Daddy, since they will start t-ball for the first time this spring.


Hugs from Charlie after he opened his present from Will.


Opening a joint present.


Mr. Popper's Penguins - a gift from Gramma. Perfect for movie night. (We read the book together earlier this year.)


Will specifically asked for "green sponges." And he got them. And he was so happy.


Helen got Daddy his own Superman underwear. Yes, she picked them out all by herself. She has a mind of her own.

So, after we had opened quite a few presents, Cort comes down with a big box for all the kids. They open it up, and inside are four Jeep t-shirts and a note that led them through the house until they landed on a square he had drawn with tape in the foyer. They were to wait there until he "gave the sign" to Grandad (yes, my parents were in on this too). At this point, I realized that he had bought the kids their own toy Jeep to ride. They have one at Gransan and Grandad's house and love it. Especially Will. And remember, Cort had promised Will a Jeep for scoring a goal during soccer. So there was a little toot of a horn, and Grandad opened the door, and I braced myself to see one of these:

But that is not what I saw. Not at all. Nope, my husband had gone out and bought a real, live Jeep. "For the kids." Uh hmmm. Right.

So, we are now the proud owners of a third vehicle (for a two-driver family), and we can't put both of our cars under the carport or get out of the driveway without moving a vehicle, since the Jeep is taking up space. Of course, we live in inner-city Houston. But Cort says we can drive it to Mango Beach, the smoothie place a few blocks away. That we otherwise would walk to, but who needs exercise? Oh, and did I mention that it doesn't work with car seats? And that I can't drive it at all (I never learned how to drive a stick shift)?

But boy, is Cort happy and proud. The kids love it too.

So, later that day we took the Jeep over to the local high school football field for the second annual Christmas Day flag football game. The kids had a blast. So did Cort, at least until Helen had to go to the bathroom, and he had to take her . . . because I can't drive the Jeep.

Helen close on Charlie's tail.


Joe making a run.


Huddling up.


A touchdown for Will!


Teammates.


The boys' team, talking strategy.

A merry, merry Christmas indeed.

Christmas 2011

Joy Love Family Christmas

Don't send boring Christmas cards , personalize them at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Cathedral House Holiday Program #8

Last night we attended our eighth Cathedral House holiday program. Eight years of holiday cuteness.

2004 - Charlie and Joe were dressed as Little Bo Peep's lost sheep and pulled around the stage in wagons.

2005 and 2006 - How can I not remember these? This is why I need to write things down on this blog. I know the boys were adorable though.

2007 - This year Charlie danced to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" and Joseph danced to "The Candy Man." I think Will and Helen, who were only 7 months old, were snowflakes.

2008 - This was Charlie and Joe's shining moment, since the 4-year-olds have speaking roles. Joe was a groom, dressed adorably in a tux. Charlie was a dad and sang a solo. Will and Helen stood around while their classmates danced to "Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath." How can that have been three years ago?

2009 - By this time, Charlie and Joe had graduated and taken their spot with the other Cathedral House alumni - sitting on the floor in front of the stage to watch. Will and Helen were adorable as Santa's elves.

2010 - How can it be possible that I don't remember this one either? Really?

2011 - And that brings us to last night. As 4-year-olds, Will and Helen now have speaking parts. They were both painters, who had lines about painting the town during the holidays. Their teacher was a little nervous that Helen wouldn't do it. And Will was pretty quiet at first during practice. But they were GREAT! They had the first lines of the night, and they were loud, clear, and perfect! And, pretty cute.

We sure are going to miss these next year.

Gingerbread traditions

When I was a little girl, my mom always ordered a gingerbread house at Christmas. I would be so excited when it arrived, and I would look at it for a long time, carefully eating only from the back side first so as to preserve it as a holiday decoration for as long as possible. (But I always ate it at the end.)

I went off to college, and she continued sending me one, where it sustained me through finals. I've gotten one every year, even as an adult. One year I was so busy at work that it never left the office (where she had sent it) but rather served as several meals because I didn't even have time to run downstairs and grab a sandwich.

Now, she sends it to the whole family. The kids love it. (I think they'd also love to make their own. Maybe we'll try that too this year.)

But somehow, it doesn't last nearly as long.


Before

During


After

I can't tell you how fast this happened.

It was a good football weekend

Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy.



And the Texans won their division and clinched a playoff spot.



It was a good weekend for my boys.

Makes My Monday

--The kids finally filled up the family marble jar, so we took a trip to NASA on Saturday as a reward. It's gotten so easy to take them all somewhere these days. Charlie and Joseph are so interested in everything too. So much fun.

--Sunday morning Will wanted all the kids to clean up the whole house to surprise us (while we were still sleeping). Yes, they do that sometimes. But he couldn't get any takers to help him yesterday. So he did it all by himself.

--Along those lines, Will loves to clean so much that he has asked for sponges for Christmas. Green sponges.

--We finally had Charlie's parent-teacher conference last week. His teacher started with showing us a bunch of test scores from the beginning of the year, but the scores are somewhat difficult to interpret. Then she told us that on "reading fluency" they are looking for a benchmark of 60 points. He scored 179 at the beginning of second grade.

--Charlie and Joe's basketball games start this weekend. I'm glad. For some reason I can manage to keep our lives organized only if we are incredibly busy.

Makes My Monday

It's a bit unlike me, but I've joined a Facebook group full of people that I don't know.

We all have one thing in common: we all have two sets of twins.

As of this past weekend, though, I do know two of them. They both live in Houston, and we met up at the zoo on the day after Thanksgiving.

The three of us and our combined six sets of twins.

Here we all are. This picture makes my Monday.

Thankful for . . .

. . . my husband, who loves me enough to declare it on Facebook, clean up after Thanksgiving dinner before he sits down to watch football, and just rigged a towel over the window to keep the sun from ruining the Thanksgiving nap I'm about to take. I am blessed to have him as my partner in this crazy life we live.

. . . my first set of twins, who changed my life forever. Charlie makes me proud with his intelligence and natural leadership ability. Joe amazes me with his intellectual curiosity and wit. They both astound me with their passion and enthusiasm. I love getting to see the people they are becoming.

. . . my second set of twins, who vaulted our family into both craziness and completeness. Helen impresses me with her independence, determination, spunk, and strong will. She exasperates me plenty, but she makes me proud more. Will is the epitome of sweetness in every bone of his little body, with a bit of wry humor thrown in. He rounds out our family and compels us to be loving with each other.

. . . everything that makes my Thanksgiving easy. A husband who fries our turkey, wants cranberries out of a can (so you can see the ridges), and this year discovered that Costco sells pre made turkey gravy. An extended family who doesn't think it weird or get offended that we want to spend the holiday at home instead of traveling, allowing us to enjoy precious time with our kids guilt-free. And eating in our pajamas. There's no better way to do it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Makes My Monday

I am grateful to have a husband and partner who thinks nothing of taking care of our three other children so I can spend a special weekend with just one of them.

And that he obviously does it so well. See how he has everything under control?

Getting emailed pictures like this and knowing what fun they are having with Daddy--it makes my Monday!

The "Sh" Word

For the most part, I am loving our new life as parents of four kids. We've never really had four kids before.

We had two babies.

Then we had two toddlers.

Then we had two toddlers and two babies.

Eventually we had two kids, but still two toddlers.

But now, we have four kids. Independent kids who can do most things for themselves, are capable of listening and following directions, and have the reasoning skills to understand threats when they don't listen. It's a whole new--and much easier--world.

But with growing up comes a certain loss of innocence.

Charlie and Joe had never heard of a "bad" word until they started public school. They soon came home talking about how you shouldn't say the "sh" word -- which I learned was "shut up." Or the "f" word -- "fart." Or the "d" word - dummy. Pretty cute, really. And I agreed with them that we don't say those words. But we don't have consequences for saying them.

This morning, however, the landscape changed. Charlie told Joe: "Say S-H-I-T." Joe was clueless, and obliged: "Shit!" Charlie: "Ohhhh, you said a bad word!!" Joe: "Shit is a bad word?" Charlie: "Shit is a bad word!" Joe: "I didn't know we can't say shit!" And just like that, they both have learned their first curse word. And given the frequency that they violate the rules above regarding "shut up," "fart," and "dummy," we're going to have to deal with this one. I can't have my second graders cussing.

I know this is just a small thing. But it's the beginning. There have been so many sexual abuse scandals in sports lately, and I know that topic--the abuse, sex, or both--is going to have to be addressed soon. Not too mention all the new "bad words" I'm sure they'll be learning in no time.

Maybe this growing up thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Communication is important in a marriage

Yesterday Cort sent me this email:

I just deleted 2243 emails from you. 449 were "unread."

Parent-Teacher conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences for three of our four kids this week.

We found out from Joseph's teacher that he is doing wonderfully. At the beginning of the year we were a little worried about his reading, but she says he is reading on a 4th grade level as a 2nd grader and is in the top reading group in his class. She said he skips 98% of the math work because he has already mastered it before she introduces it, so he is given extra work to do independently or with one other little boy. She teaches her class algebra (in the 2nd grade!) and he is loving it. He is also writing stories way above his age level. And he has had no discipline problems.

We found out from Will and Helen's teacher that they are doing wonderfully, too. She recognizes that Helen is headstrong and independent, but says she is very much a leader and it serves her well. She loves Will and obviously "gets" him. She told us that they both pick up on things very quickly. And even though they are the youngest in their class, they are ahead of many of the much older kids.

So now, of course, the question is: Do we go ahead and schedule a conference with Charlie's teacher? Or should we just quit while we're ahead?

Love that girl

Before soccer started, Helen proclaimed that she did not want to play. We signed her up anyway.

The first game, she hovered around the ball, but she would not kick it.

The second game, she kicked it a few times, but fell back as soon as someone took it away. Then she started crying. She spent the entire second half sitting on the sidelines crying. When I asked her why, she said because "I can't score a goal."

During the next week, we pointed out that Joseph had not yet scored a goal for his team, but he wasn't crying. We told her that a player who is sitting on the sidelines crying will never be able to score a goal. And when Joseph scored a goal in his next game, we pointed out that if he had been crying, he would not have scored.

At which point she looked me in the eyes and said, "You can stop telling me that Mom. I know that. And I am not going to cry ever again in soccer."

And then she went out in her game and played her little heart out. She did not score that game. She did score in the next game. Twice. Since then, she has scored more. And not scored. She has been aggressive, she has played great defense, she has been enthusiastic and competitive, she has been in the thick of things every game, and she has loved it. And she hasn't cried once. I really don't think she'll ever cry again.

I absolutely love that girl's determination. She's going to do okay in life.

Snaggle-toothed

Coach Cort

He's really so good at this.

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween

from Super Why

and Princess Presto

who despite her newfound princess-ness still insisted on wearing Crocs with her dress

and also Harry Potter, the seeker (we were running out of sports themes!), with the snitch

and Quidditch Captain and keeper Oliver Wood and his quaffle.

We sure enjoyed our loot

and, as always, handing out the candy with Dad.

We found out too much candy is a little like too much of something else, in that it can make you fall backwards into bushes.

But we thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

. . . . We are not, however, looking forward to tomorrow.

Gramma's here!

The kids went to the airport last night to pick up Gramma and her suitcase.

Conversations in the car

Helen: "Daddy, C-A-T spells cat."

Cort: "Very good. What does C-A-T-E spell? Remember that the E is a silent E."

Helen: "C-A-T [using a long A] spells Cate!"

Joe: "Ha! Like Cate [last name omitted]"

Charlie: "Yea, she was the first girl I kissed on the lips."

The little advantages that come with having twins

When one kid comes home with the word "frixy" on his spelling list, it's nice to have another kid in the same grade. Because then you can look at his spelling list and figure out that the word is actually "frisky."

Times Are Changing

We've been busy lately. But it's a different busy. A carting-kids-to-multiple-activities busy, not a chasing-after-multiple-kids busy.

A couple of weekends ago, we had an even-busier-than-usual Saturday scheduled. In addition to the usual two soccer games and one baseball game, Joe was participating in a UIL competition. And, Cort decided that he wanted to do a 150-mile bike ride around Galveston Bay.

Three years ago I would have told Cort he couldn't do the bike ride.

Two years ago I would have let him go, but I would have sulked about having to handle the kids alone all weekend.

This year, however, I was fine with it.

The day was busy, yes. But, relatively speaking, it was easy. I wasn't having to chase after toddlers. I was taking four kids to their respective activities. Four kids who can carry some of their own stuff, know where to go and what to do when they get there, and aren't going to go run away from me if I don't have my eye on them every second.

This was just once of many times lately that it has occurred to me how much these kids have grown up recently. I think I'm only starting to realize, looking back, how much work it really was to have four very small children at once. But no longer. My kids are growing up, and things are changing.

P.S. It was busy. We left for Charlie and Joe's soccer game at 7:40am. Afterwards we came home so Joe could shower and then went right back for Will and Helen's soccer game. Before the game was even over, I took Joe to the prelims of his UIL competition (thank you to Claire and Peter for taking the rest of the kids home!). After we found out he made the finals, we headed home for lunch. Then we went back to the UIL competition for the finals. Immediately after the finals over we came home, the boys changed into their baseball uniforms, and we went back to the ball fields for their baseball game. We got home around 7pm, ordered pizza, ate, and went to bed.

However, we ended the day with two wins in soccer, a goal for both Charlie and Joe, a win in baseball, and a first place finish in UIL solo acting! And despite getting rained on, Cort successfully finished his bike ride on Sunday.

A busy day. But a really, really good day.

Observations of a Sports Mom

1. I'm a sports mom. Who'd have thunk it?

2. Remember last year when I said that we were definitely only going to let the boys play one sport this fall? Yeah, famous last words, and all that.

3. Charlie is a coach in the making. When he's not in the soccer game, he is constantly yelling from the sidelines. "Guys, spread out - don't bunch up!" "Who's got #6?" "Pass the ball!" Etc., etc. He is also vocal with his teammates on the baseball field. And I caught him, after one of his younger teammates at the bottom of the lineup struck out, giving the kid a very sweet, guy-like, "it's ok you'll get it next time" pat on the batting helmet as he passed him going to the plate.

4. I really love baseball. I'm glad the boys do too. But it is so much more nervewracking than soccer as a mom. It's harder for your child to single-handedly miss a play in soccer.

5. I can't wait until spring when Will and Helen start t-ball. T-ball is less stressful than baseball. And way cuter.

6. Joe has really, really improved his hitting. He's quite consistent at making contact with the ball. He still can't catch though. Which brings us back to the nervewracking part -- I know it's good to let the kids play different positions, but I'm so nervous when Joe plays infield.

7. All of our boys are slow. Excruciatingly slow. When Charlie and Joe run to first base, I just want to push them.

8. Will and Helen have loved the idea of soccer for awhile. The reality, not as much. That led Cort to promise Helen a lollipop if she scored. And, given the relative odds, to promise Will a Jeep. A real Jeep. Guess who scored a goal in his second soccer game? Yep, there's a parenting lesson in "be careful what you promise your kid" right there.

9. You don't really appreciate something when you have it. For example, Charlie was a natural soccer player at age 3. He scored goal after goal after goal. Joe didn't score a goal for the first two years he played, and he still scores far less than Charlie does. And here's the thing. Never once have a seen Joe cry about this. Helen, on the other hand? A different story.

10. Helen has always been our strongest and most coordinated child. That's why it has surprised us that she hasn't been better in her first sport: soccer. But suddenly, she's getting there. She was incredibly tentative in her first game. She cried half of her second game because she "couldn't" score. But then she played hard in her third game, and even though she didn't score she announced that she wasn't going to cry anymore. By the fourth game, she scored two goals. This morning on the way to school, she was talking about how many games her team had won and lost and how they would definitely win the next time they played the team that beat them.

11. Cort is amazing. He is currently the dugout coach for the boys' coach-pitch baseball team, the assistant coach for the boys' U8 soccer team, the head coach for Will and Helen's U4 soccer team, and the U4 division director. And he's so good at it. It's especially cool to see all these little 4-year-olds listen and actually learn.

12. My main job in all this is to wash and keep track of 5 water bottles, 6 jerseys, 4 pairs of soccer shorts, 2 pairs of (white, ugh) baseball pants, 2 baseball belts, 2 baseball caps, 6 pairs of cleats, 8 individual shin guards, and 12 individual socks. I'm actually pretty proud I've managed this so far.

Mr. Long Term Memory

You can send him upstairs to brush his teeth, and by the time he gets to the second floor Will has completely forgotten what he's supposed to be doing. But at the same time, he's got a somewhat freakish long term memory.

Example One: I got Helen a shirt at Target in September. It has a little saying on it. Because she is starting to read, I was trying to get her to sound out some of the easier words.

That's when Will piped up, "I know what it says: Play like a girl. Beat the boys!"

Since he can't read (at least, not nearly that well), I was floored. And thoroughly confused. Then he told me that it was just like the shirt that another little girl, Carter, had while we were on vacation.

He saw that shirt once. In early August. Someone read it to him.

And over a month and a half later he remembered exactly what it said when he saw it again.

Example Two: The other night, I picked Will and Helen up from school. We were planning to pick up some food somewhere and bring it home to eat, so I asked them where they wanted to go. They picked Chik-Fil-A. An excellent choice, except that there are no Chik-Fil-As near their school or our house. (Yet. Rumor is that we may be getting one close by soon. Yippity skippity!! But anyway . . . .)

So I told them that we couldn't go to Chik-Fil-A because there weren't any close by. They reminded me that Daddy brought Chik-Fil-A to them at the baseball game last week. I said, yes, but there is a Chik-Fil-A by Daddy's office so he got it from there. There is no Chik-Fil-A around here. That was the end of our Chik-Fil-A discussion, and we started discussing other dinner options.

About five minutes later, Will said, "Mommy, so are we a long way from Greenway Plaza?"

Greenway Plaza is the group of office buildings where Cort works. But we never say "Greenway Plaza" to the kids. Just "Daddy's office" or, at the most, they know that Mommy works downtown but Daddy doesn't. I have absolutely no recollection of ever telling Will about Greenway Plaza. But apparently at some point I did. Because when I asked him how he knew about Greenway Plaza, he told me that I told him once that Daddy worked there.

And he remembered it.

Practice

This is Helen sitting under the sign our husbands had made to recognize their wives' tolerance for football tailgating.

Why do I doubt that Helen's future husband will ever describe her as "accommodating"?