And just like that....it's all over

These past two weeks have been wonderful. Josh has been home from work, and all my family has been here for the holidays. We've been busy, and I wish I had more pictures to share. I'll have to steal some from Sarah...she always has a camera with her :)

We had lots of meals together - either at our house or my parents.We made gingerbread houses for Family NightThe girls got matching PJ's for Christmas Eve...And matching dresses for church. Madison just woke up from a nap, and wouldn't stop crying unless she had her pacifier :( We had homemade cinnamon rolls Christmas morning...yum!And we spent all of Christmas day in our own home, and in our pajamas...mostly.The Sunday after Christmas, December 26th, Scarlett had her Baby Blessing in church.I am so blessed with a beautiful, healthy, happy familyAnd I am so glad I got to share this holiday with my brothers and sistersThis will be the last time we are all together until the family reunion this summer!
Happy Holidays! And here's to an even better new year - bring on 2011!

He is the Son of God

'Tis the season

The stockings are hungThe Christmas dresses are finished




The tree is trimmed, with presents beneath.
(Unfortunately this particular tree is suffering a slow and painful death...and it has to last another week! We underestimated how thirsty it was )



And the elves are working very hard.This weekend I finally went through my treasured Barbie collection. That's right, these dolls are mine. I grew up loving Barbie, and every year I would get a Holiday Barbie to add to my collection, and I saved the ones that I never opened. My oldest one - 1992 - only sells for about $70 on Amazon, and the others are about $40 each. For that price, I'm keeping them. Some of them will show up on Christmas morning for some special little Viets girls. And some will have to wait for birthdays and Christmases to come.


Our girls are really enjoying the Christmas season this year. They helped us put up decorations, and even though I like the lights on our house, Lydia insists that we need more :)

Lydia talks to our Elf on the Shelf every day. In the mornings she is anxious to see where he is, and during the day she will go tell him of all the good things she's done, and the naughty things that Claire has done.

Claire is loving the Christmas decorations. She puts ornaments on and off the tree, and she takes pieces of my nativity set to "time out" and hides them in random cupboards.

Scarlett... she is such a blessing in our lives. She makes me so happy. She makes all of us so happy. In the mornings she wakes up with a smile on her face, just cooing and babbling as she waits for me to come get her. During the day if the kids are watching TV, they want her to lie down on a blanket so that they can lay beside her. We all love her, and are anxious for her first Christmas!

A week in Kansas

Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday, and it is especially awesome at the Viets home, where everyone has a passion for gooooood food! The star of the show is always the turkey, and this year there were two: one in the oven, and one being smoked outside. Papa Jon and Jacob were the masters of meat.
But the real masterchef was Mimi. It seems like every time we visit we steal her recipees. On the menu this Thanksgiving: 2 turkeys, a ham, stuffing, scalloped corn, sweet potatoes, spinach salad, homemade rolls, cranberry-raspberry jello, green bean casserole, and pies for dessert! Oh yeah, and there was the infamous green jello salad, which only those of true Viets descent can tolerate. I took a helping of this concoction years ago at my first Viets Thanksgiving, thinking that it was an innocent lime jello, but OH NO it was NOT. It was savory, not sweet, and I swear it had onions or peppers in it. Weird. But all the Viets boys love it.

So there we were - all together under one roof - Josh's 4 brothers and their families, plus Papa Jon's family. 25 of us. There was just enough seating for all the adults, but the kids took turns at the kids table or ate in Mimi & Papa's room , which was essentially converted to a day care for the day :)The girls had a blast with all their cousins, there are 9 Viets grandkids now. Claire and Savannah were up to their usual 2yr-old antics, making messes and being too darn cute about it.
Scarlett - as usual - was a great baby. She slept 8-9 hours through the night every night. I blame the sheepskin comforter that was in the bassinet, so I have already bought my own. Works like a charm.
The weather was fantastic: sunny and in the 60's. The kids even went SWIMMING! ....in a heated hot tub. I hadn't packed swimsuits because, well, its November, so my girls only had their princess panties :) It's a good thing they are still too young to care, because they had a blast. Josh had his usual golf outing with his brothers, and Mimi and I took the girls to see Tangled (which I loved!). Josh was kicking himself for not bringing hunting gear because his brother Jake went duck hunting for a couple days, and found success with his newly trained partner Athena :)

And much to my dismay, Lydia was especially anxious to help Jacob with the ducks. Ugh!

The pics that didn't make the cut

If you get a card from us this Christmas, I hope you appreciate how hard it was for us to get a decent family pic. There are plenty more just like these.

Lydia's been busy!

It's that time of year -lots of parties, performances, and celebrations. First off was Lydia's Thanksgiving program at her preschool. They had a big feast with parents (and grandparents!) for lunch, and performed some songs. All the kids were dressed as Indians or Pilgrims. The best part was that at our table was a book on some of the Thanksgiving projects that Lydia had done at school. There was a recipee book on "How to Cook a Turkey", and here are some of Lydia's answers:
Where do you get a turkey? from the barn
How much does it weigh? 15 pounds
How long does it take to cook? 8 minutes
How do you cook it? At the restaurant
What do you eat with your turkey? Peanut butter, and ice cream. Then I drink some milk
Who does the cooking? Mommy and Daddy
Who cleans up? I do (yeah right!)


Then, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Lydia had a dance performance at the mall! It was Santa's first day at the mall, and some of the local groups had been invited to perform on a stage set up next to him. Lydia was a star.Of course after the performance she had to go see Santa. She had been carrying around her Target catalog all week (she called it her "menu") so that she could show Santa what she wanted. Claire was too shy to sit with Santa, but Lydia was in heaven.It's a good thing, too, because this picture cost me $25! Seriously!

2 months

Scarlett is 2 months old already! Just a month ago she was like this...
...still a fragile little newborn, with her reddish skin and plump little arms and legs.

Then a few weeks later, around Halloween, she began to hold her head up:She's learned to take the "rough love" of her older sisters, who always want to cuddle with her. And now, at 2 months old, this little girl is at 12 pounds already! Thats about the 75th percentile for girls, which I am very proud of because I've worried about finding the time to feed her while keeping up with the other two!
And....though I know this comment may come back to haunt me....Scarlett is an easy baby. She sleeps through the night, and she's easily entertained during the day. I'm looking forward to every month ahead with this little angel!

She makes me laugh every day

"There is NO way in this whole wide world I will ever ever ever, no NEVER kiss a frog - yuck!" - Tiana, from Princess and the Frog

Beautiful

Last night we went out to dinner as a family to one of our favorite Mexican restaraunts. Toward the end of our meal, an older couple came up to us and said "Your little girls sure are beautiful." It made my day. For some reason a comment like that means a lot when coming from a complete stranger.

Of course I know my girls are beautiful. But I am biased :)

November so far...

Wow the days are flying by. Has it really been two weeks since Halloween? Here's whats up with us:

The house is coming together. It seems like all we do is work on the house. Cleaning, organizing, rearranging, and throwing out. My goal is to have a tolerable amount of order to my house before the Christmas chaos.

Christmas is coming up fast. I have neighbors who put on their Christmas lights last week! Really! And oh my goodness the retailers are already advertizing mega-sales, and I feel so much pressure to get out there and shop for Christmas now before everything flies off the shelves!

I went back to the gym. Turns out I'm not losing my baby weight as quick as I used to. Lydia said to me "Mommy why is your tummy still big?" I'm also supposed to run a 10K before I turn 30, so I gotta get my act together. Now. It was a painful first week.

Scarlett is a great baby. She sleeps 7 to 8 hours through the night, but she doesn't nap very long during the day, which is a tolerable trade-off.

The weather is awesome. So far November has given us temperatures in the 60s and 70s, and every day is sunny. I never appreciated it when I lived here before, but after being in Scotland for nearly 4 years, this is bliss. The girls play outside every day. Unfortunately just a few days ago Claire discovered fire ants. I forgot they didn't have those in Scotland and I should've warned her. I also need to warn the girls about scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes! Yikes!

Lydia and Claire make me laugh every day. I need to do a whole post on Claire because she is quite the character. And Lydia is so grown up and smart - I can talk to her about anything, but she's also learned to talk back. I just have to learn new ways to outsmart her.

And because I can't have a post without pics or video, here's a couple clips of Lydia.

Halloween back in America

In Scotland, and most other European countries, there is only one holiday - Christmas. They claim that "all those other holidays are just created by Americans to make money".

Okay so maybe we spend a lot of money on silly holidays like Halloween - but its so much fun! I had forgotten that so many people decorate their houses for Halloween - on the inside and out - with lights and inflatables and scenes like this one here. And there are so many parties to go to! Luckily Lydia has no shortage of costumes, so she was Rapunzel for her school party, then Snow White for a church party, then Bo Peep for the Trunk or Treat.
Here we are at the church's Halloween carnival. Lydia worked on the pumpkin for about 5 minutes then left the rest for daddy. He did a great job :)
Then Claire... oh Claire... she hates dressing up. She just couldn't be bothered with it. We tried and tried to at least get a fairy skirt on her, but she'd take it off. So she went around the party like this - no shoes, not playing any games, just looking for food to eat. But Lydia was a great sport and played all the games...even though she cheated on some of them. This year we went with the Toy Story theme for Halloween (like many others I'm sure). Here's the cast:




And how did we get that Mrs Potato Head costume on Claire?? Josh held her tight, I shoved it on her, then grabbed her up in my arms and Josh stuck some candy in her mouth. Done. Then as the trunk-or-treating started she forgot she had it on. We only have 3 girls ...the pink batgirl is Addie, one of Lydia's friends, who wanted to be in the picture too! And you can see that we forced poor Scarlett into a sheep costume. Lydia loved having Scarlett as her sheep.She was the CUTEST Little Bo Peep ever! And many thanks to my mom for her adorable costume.