Just for the record...

...Nathan is not the only one enjoying our new bedroom set-up. The girls are enjoying having some space all to themselves too!

Doesn't their fort look like fun?!

Christmas Finale

Christmas is a season. This is what I am trying to learn. Growing up, Christmas in our family focused around one main event...my mother's family Christmas Eve party. It is what I looked forward to every year. Sure, I was excited about Santa coming Christmas morning, but I was always much more enthusiastic about the Christmas Eve party. All that to say, my family dynamic has changed drastically over the past couple of years and since we live so far away from our extended family, Christmas Eve is no longer the big event for me. I am learning how to celebrate Christmas as a season and not just one (or two) particular days in the month of December. Christmas for us began the day after Thanksgiving. The tree and decorations went up, the carols began to be sung and what seemed like endless present shopping and wrapping began. We celebrated Christmas with our Massachusetts families in the middle of December, and Jake and I celebrated the holidays with our Pennsylvania friends and co-workers later in the month. We finished up our holiday celebrations with the kids on the evening of Christmas day.

So, I think the 2009 Christmas season is officially over for this Party of Five! Now it's time to ring in the new year!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! To our families who are far away from us...we want you to know you are close to our hearts today. We love you all and hope you are having a blessed day.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Emma, Abby, Nate, Jake & Nikki

Can you guess...

...who slept in their very own bed in their own room all by himself last night?

Nathan!

There has been some changes in our house as far as sleeping arrangements go. When we moved in September to our 3 bedroom house, we let Emma have her own bedroom and had Abby & Nate share a room since this is what they are familiar with at Mom's house. It seemed like the best set up because Abby & Nate play together so much and enjoy playing with a lot of the same toys. However, over the past few weeks Nathan has been making several comments about wanting privacy. So, Jake and I pondered the idea of switching Emma and Nathan and giving Nate his own room and have the girls share. We liked the idea, but weren't so sure how Emma and Nate would feel about it. So we all talked about it. It was an obvious "YES!" from Abby who would finally have an all girl room...a surprisingly enthusiastic "YES!" from Nathan who was thrilled about the idea of keeping his sisters out of his space.... and a not quite as excited, but willing to give it a try (especially after it was agreed she could have the top bunk) "Yes" from Emma. So, we went for it. Last weekend Jake and I switched all the kids clothes and toys. We now have a very flowery, girly, pink and purple room for Emma and Abby. And Nathan has his very own boy room. He was so excited he was shaking (literally. I thought he was cold so I told Jake to turn the heat up and Nate said, "No Mickey, I'm just so excited about my new room!). When the kids first came over, Emma and Abby played together for almost two hours in their new room. I can't remember the last time Emma willingly played with her little sister! And the first thing Nate did in his new room was play trains with Daddy. Nate couldn't wait to sleep in his very own bed and he put his pj's on at 6:00 and climbed in bed to "practice" sleeping alone! He went to bed (later that night, not at 6pm!) tear free and slept the entire night in his new room!

I'm sure the novelty of this will wear off sooner or later and we will have new challenges on our hands...but for now we are enjoying the kids excitement about it:)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Just five days to go and it will be Christmas Day...can you even believe it! It certainly feels like Christmas around here.

Snow....on the ground.

Baking....has begun.

Shopping....done.

Presents....wrapped.

Wallet....empty!

Looks like the holidays are here!

Yes, she did!

For all of you who know Miss Emma Ruth Marshall, you are not going to believe what I'm about to tell you, but it is TRUE! You may want to sit down for the following announcement. Are you ready?

EMMA ATE A SPINACH BALL!!!

Can you even believe it?! I wish I had a picture to prove it to you, but I don't. I do however have a witness, Auntie Christine. You'll have to ask Emma for the complete story about the spinach ball, but I will tell you this...Emma has learned two very important lessons:

#1 Ohio is in fact located next to Pennsylvania.

#2 NEVER make a bet with Daddy!

Four Christmas's

This past weekend, we took this "Party of Five" on the road for a weekend of Christmas celebrations in Massachusetts. In less than two days, we managed to celebrate Christmas with the majority of our families. The parties began early Saturday morning and didn't end until noon on Sunday!

Christmas #1:

The festivities began on Saturday morning with brunch and presents at Grampa Marshall's house...

Christmas #2:

And continued on Saturday afternoon (though this picture was actually taken on Sunday) with a party at Nana & Grampa Daly's house. There was plenty of family, food and gifts to go around!
Christmas #3:
Saturday evening my Mom, Memere & Pepere all came over to the Daly house to visit and brought along with them lots of holiday cheer and more gifts!

Christmas #4:

Last but not least, our final gathering was on Sunday morning at my sister's house to exchange gifts and visit with Auntie Renee, Uncle Chris & Connor. We even got to visit with Auntie Dee & Ross in England via Skype!

Whew! It was a very busy weekend but so much fun! Here are some highlights:

We enjoyed every minute of time spent together with family during this special visit. Though we will miss seeing all of you on December 25th, we are thankful for the time we had to spend together this past weekend. We love you all!

Gingerbread Workshop

The kids worked together to create their own gingerbread house. The house encountered a slight earthquake and a blizzard in the process, but luckily it survived! It took a lot of icing, candy and hard work but the end results looks pretty sweet :)

Ready...Set...Decorate!

We didn't waste much time after Thanksgiving to start getting ready for Christmas. Since we had the kids with us for five days, we tried to get as much accomplished in preparation for Christmas as possible. I think we did pretty good. We put up and decorated out tree, baked cookies, saw Santa, went shopping for all the cousins and made a gingerbread house...whew!

Putting up the tree always sets the tone for the Christmas season in our house. It was a great night with the kids full of excitement, lights twinkling, Christmas music playing, and the smell of sugar cookies baking in the oven. I don't think these pictures need much illustration, you can see for yourself what a good time it was.

Giving Thanks

We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving together with Emma, Abby & Nate. It was full of food, fun and lots and lots of love! Since this was my first Thanksgiving with Emma, Abby & Nate, I asked them what Thanksgiving Day means to them. They told me that on Thanksgiving we are supposed to get dressed up (but not too fancy, just a little dressed up), have a feast, make a craft and play a game. And so that's just what we did!

We began getting ready for the big feast the night before. All of the kids wanted to help make something to eat. So, we told them they could each pick any dessert they wanted to have on Thanksgiving and then they could help make it.

Emma chose to make her very own apple dumpling creation. Since she has made them before, she led the way and I assisted her. Let me tell you something, this girl sure does know her way around the kitchen!

They were easy to make and delicious...good job Emma!

Abby chose to make something chocolaty of course! We made brownies together and put a special twist on them with peanut butter & chocolate frosting...yummy!
Abby assured me that she knows how to crack an egg...and she was right. She sure does know how to crack an egg, she just needs to work on where to crack an egg!

And then there is Nathan. Nathan was so excited to make a pumpkin pie. He was very enthusiastic about everything from pouring, to stirring, to rolling out the dough.

Nate made a delicious pumpkin pie and put his own special touch in it too.....eggshells:) Got to love baking with a four year old!

For a craft we made Thanksgiving place mats that we used at dinner. Everyone made their own place mat with their name, the year and all the different things they are thankful for. At dinner, we went around the table and shared some of the different items on our place mats.

(Notice: both girls wrote they are thankful for school..woohoo!)

Time for the feast!

After dinner we played a game completely thought up and made by the kids....pin the buckle on the pilgrim...

After playing such a fun game, we all worked up an appetite for some dessert...

This is where our pictures end, but our day didn't. We did all of the kids' favorite Thanksgiving traditions and then we did one of my favorite traditions...TAKE A NAP :)!