Christmas concert

There is something about a Christmas concert that generates the warm fuzzies.   My orchestra Christmas concert ended with Handel's Hallelujah Chorus,  with all the audience invited to sing along at the top of their lungs.  Few things illicit Christmas cheer like Handel.  To me no matter how many times I play it, the Hallelujah Chorus is moving.  It is the ultimate prayer of praise to God, thanks to the Son, and an exclamation of the excitement the gospel brings to my life.
Hallelujah indeed.

These are a just a few of my favorite Christmas things

-Ghiradelli peppermint bark- part chocolate, part candy cane, wholly delicious
-Little Women, the movie- it makes me feel whimsical and nostalgic
-Gingerbread men- soft, chewy, Christmas-y goodness. Copious amounts of fluffy frosting required.
-Egg nog pancakes and milkshakes- Yep, just replace the water/ milk with egg nog
-Josh Groban's 'Noel' Christmas album- keep it on repeat for 1 month straight
-Playing Christmas songs on the piano- some years I forget I play the piano, until Christmas time

-Advent calenders, the chocolate kind from the store. Don't pay attention to the numbers. Disregard the 'one a day' rule.

We had our routine ultrasound this past week.  Yes, choosing to not to find out the sex steals the 18-20 week ultrasound punch line, but it was fun to see the baby anyways.   But both Brady and I independently peaked at the bum shots and although neither of us spotted anything exciting, it was fun to cheat.

Since I have 1 boy and 1 girl already I think I subconsciously assume I know exactly what the 3rd one will be like. (The girl will like pink and coloring, the boy will like super heroes and be laid back. . .)   I imagine them as clones of their same gendered sibling.  But I need to remember that this 3rd one will be their own self, probably just as different from their siblings as Liam and Elsie are from each other.  

Raising our 2 kids so far has yielded drastically different experiences. The things that gave us grief about with one kid were smooth sailing with the other. The troubles we encountered with one were things we thought we'd already mastered with the other

One kid was.....The other kid was . . .

a picky eater,  a hearty eater

a happy baby,  disgruntled infant

                                                loves being with friends, likes independence

an angelic newborn, tormented with acid reflux

 always running away from us in public, always clinging to our legs 

wears whatever clothes mom chooses, personally selects their clothes

loved drawing from the time they could hold a pen, too busy to draw

fearless around water, nervous around water

sleeps like a log,  wakes up to roll over

terrible at nursing, terrible at weaning

generally quiet, always talking

introverted, extroverted 

It's exciting to think about the suprises ahead of us with our next edition. 

bring on the holidays

I have been excited for the holidays ever since I saw the first leaf fall, back in September.  My kids are at this cherished age where Christmas is perfectly mysterious and magical. Elsie walked into Best Buy last week, saw a blown up penguin and Christmas lights and yelled out as is if she'd struck gold, "Ho Ho (Santa) lives here!!"  Liam has been filling Elsie in on what Santa Claus does, and his terms of being good and leaving carrots for his reindeer. He has also erroneously telling his sister for a month, "You'll go to sleep and wake up and then in 2 days, we're going to Nana and Papas house and it will be Christmas Eve."  The count down to Christmas has begun.

The days leading up to Thanksgiving I was all sulky and home sick. Both of our families were getting together for huge, everyone-but-Dani-and-Brady-sized gourmet Thanksgiving dinners.  I was too nauseous to deal with a turkey and worried Thanksgiving just wouldn't pan out this year.  Fate (and my moms prayers) were on my side and I ended up feeling fine enough to cook and although we skipped out on turkey we had a quiet, but charming, Thanksgiving.

Sick of it

Just admit it, we all have days where we want to take over our own living room and dance in our undies, like we don’t give a rip. There are days where it would feel really good to karate kick the air and knock over a side table, like a rock star. Sometimes it just feels good to say, ‘Screw it, we’re moving to Jamaica' (or fill in the blank with any irrational urge.)

Lately I’ve been miserably sick. Since I found out I was pregnant (I’m 16 weeks, just about 4 months along) I have lived right on the verge of vomiting. I haven’t felt like myself in weeks.  I've felt trapped in my overrun house, like I can’t go out lest I barf in some stranger’s trash can, side walk, bush . . . (which actually does happen.) Time has been sluggish and life has been a drag.  My husband wants dinner and his clean house back.  My kids have stayed cute and happy but watch too many movies and walk around shirtless, snacking out of big bags of cereal.  I’m fed up with it all. Fed. Up.

This music video is liberating to watch.  It reminds me that if life isn’t going quite
how you’d like, well, have a sense of humor. Maybe even wreak a little havoc back.

Mikhael Paskalev - I
spy from André
Chocron on Vimeo.

Firth baby #3

Here's a pic of the newest, and final, Firth child, coming the beginning of May. The picture is a few months dated but I'm 16 weeks along. We're excited to have the new edition. We already have one brilliant boy, and one charming girl, so we're planning on letting this one surprise us and won't find out the sex 'til baby's birthday.

(p.s. I still haven't broken the news to my clients or boss at work so don't facebook it or announce it to the world, just yet.)

storm

Elsie got a pink umbrella a week before the storm. She prayed every day for rain. Then she got what she asked for, plus some.  Each day of rain for her was a good day, a day to be celebrated (with a pink umbrella.)

Thanks for all you that checked in on us during the storm. Luckily D.C. escaped most of the damage and power outages. The wind was wild and the rain crazy but we had a good time staying home and waiting it out.

Halloween Trick or Treating

Baby Dragon and Iron Man loved Trick-or-Treating.  They would have gone for hours if we didn't stop them.  Liam literally ran from house to house. Elsie, carried around a little purse and after every house would say "Day gave me candy!!" in her happiest 2 year old voice. 

We went with a group of friends and came back to their house for popcorn, candy counting. (Elsie saw this picture and said "Dats my people!")