Happy New Years from the 4 Little Princesses!

When they wake up tomorrow it'll be 2009!

Some Christmas pictures:

A lot of our Christmas is on video, and I haven't had time to look at that yet. But here are a few of the things we've got still pictures of:

Eric's Christmas present was a new bike (since his old one got run over...)

Claire and Emilie before the Christmas Eve service. Claire's choir was singing and Em was an angel in the Nativity play.

Claire's choir

Emilie is the angel on the right.

The stockings were hung...

Presents X 4 is a lot of presents!

Chloe checking out the baby and baby bed (that my grandma made her). She had the stomach flu and missed out on all the presents earlier in the day :-(

The girls playing with their loot today :-)

Blech....

Well the stomach bug has not left us. Chloe came down with it Christmas Eve night about 2 AM. She was really sick until yesterday. Then at 6 AM this morning, Elise came down with it. At least all the girls have had it now... I'll do a longer post with some of our Christmas pictures as soon as everyone's feeling better.

Cookie Monster

Chloe has discovered Christmas cookies. She may be picky about many foods, but she's found out that all cookies are good. I accidently left a plate of cookies from a neighbor within her reach. We came back into the kitchen and found her like this, sharing her loot with the dog...

We're still here...

I know, once again its been forever since I've posted. We've been super busy, as I'm sure most of you have too. We've been shopping, baking cookies, sent out cards, wrapping presents, and giving out cookies. Claire, Emilie, and Elise have had classroom parties.

Emilie and Elise had Christmas programs. Elise was the loudest one in her class. Her teacher told me the next day that it was funny because when they practiced, Elise didn't pay a lot of attention or participate much. Well, evidently she was paying attention, because she knew every word. I had so many moms stop me and say, "I heard Elise last night" :-)

Emilie's class recited "The Night Before Christmas " interspersed with Christmas carols (Its still OK to celebrate Christmas in Jefferson County schools :-P) Emilie's line was "Now dash away, dash away, dash away all." She practiced a lot. Elise practiced with her. Emilie said her line slowly and loudly and did a great job.

We also went up to Harvester Christian Church's Journey to Bethlehem. It is a really awesome production. They give you a Hebrew name and you're supposed to be on your way to Bethlehem for the census. The Roman soldiers pop up along your way. You travel along a road and stop and talk to different characters along the way and learn what they're doing and what they've seen. You stop in the market place in Bethlehem and then eventually get to the stable for the Nativity scene. Really neat, especially for the kids. The volunteers do an excellent job recreating the scene. They have great costumes and sets, and real animals (which Chloe loved). I didn't get any pictures however, as it was too hard juggling all the kids in the crowds. There were a ton of people there!

We were supposed to hear Claire and Emilie sing with their choirs this morning. Unfortunately, Emilie brought home a stomach bug Friday, and Claire came down with it yesterday. We are hoping that no one else is going to catch it! All I've got left to do is clean the house (although with 4 children off of school, cleaning and then keeping it clean is no small feat!)

On Christmas Eve, Claire's choir will be singing again, and Emilie is going to be an angel in the nativity scene. We have "angel practice" on Tuesday. (I want to know if the "angel" part will rub off.) We're having a small family dinner with my parents and my neighbor on Christmas Eve. We're going to watch "The Nativity Story" after dinner- kinda make it the no presents, remember Jesus' birthday part of the holiday. Christmas day will bring Santa in the morning and my parent's house for an extended family dinner/more presents. The 26th we'll see Eric's family for lunch and presents, and the 27th we're having a neighborhood party. It will be a crazy, but fun week. I'll put up some pictures towards the end of the week.

Chloe and the Christmas Tree

Chloe is fascinated with the Christmas tree. We did our annual Christmas card photo shoot with the kids Sunday night. Eric took this sequence of pictures which pretty much sums it up:

Daddy's taking my picture... I'm so cute...

I don't think anyone would notice if I got into that...

Yeah, let's take all of these "toys" off this tree!

It's Almost Christmas!!