the rest of Christmas and Calvin's first birthday

I can't really remember what I left off with, but I think I wrote about Thurs and Fri. Saturday, we didn't have anything planned. The guys did, though. They decided to borrow a friend's truck and try shop for a refrigerator. So, Dave, Josh and Sean left and took care of some errands and went to Sears. They were gone all day, so the ladies were back at home with the kids. I don't really remember doing anything specific. The boys watched a couple of movies, the some of the kids got bundled up and went outside to play in the snow. I went outside with Violet for a little while. She and Alyssa had fun playing ring around the rosy multiple times and falling over. I don't have any snow pants for Violet, so she got pretty soaked. Alyssa and Emily and I spent awhile at the table working on stringing beads to make a little penguin keychain. That took a couple hours. All through the middle of doing this, we were breaking up little kid spats, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, and cleaning. That evening after the kids went to bed, we pulled out the kids' new Christmas presents - the white boards - and played pictionary (boys against girls, which turned out to be a bad idea. The girls pulled ahead at the beginning of the game and the guys got pouty) I pulled out of the game a little early so I could make Calvin a cake. We decided that we had so much leftover ingredients for breakfast burritos that we would serve those again Sunday morning because they were easy and fast, instead of the oven baked french toast. We made that Monday morning instead. Everybody got up on Sunday morning in time to leave for Bethany at 8:55. I was impressed. It was a crazy morning, but we pulled it off. Everyone seemed to enjoy being at the chapel that morning. Bobbie Smith talked about dreams, but I was serving in the nursery watching kids for the month of December, so I missed it. I watched Renee, Austin, Calvin, Evan, Adalynn, and Lynnea with Barb Anderson's help. Sunday evening was spent playing lots of rounds of Boggle. Sean was surprised at how many words Emily came up with that he didn't think about! Sunday was also Calvin's first birthday. We asked my mom, dad and sister to come celebrate with us on Sunday afternoon. He slept through the lasagna, garlic bread and salad lunch but woke up just in time to eat a piece of lasagna and his first bite of cake. I cut him a slice of the 2 layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He put his hands on the frosting and licked his fingers, and that was it. He got both hands on the cake and lifted it up to his mouth and started sucking on it like it was a sippy cup. It took him just a few minutes to demolish the whole piece. He kept finding smashed up pieces of cake between his fingers and in his bib pocket. I took him to his 1 yr check up on Monday right in the middle of the time when everybody was packing up and leaving. I said goodbye before I left knowing they'd be done before I got home. His appt was at 1:30. He only had to get one vaccination and a finger prick (to test for anemia and lead levels). He screamed only for a second after the shot and didn't even react when his finger got pricked. The little chunk weighs 23 lbs 6 oz, is 30 1/2 " tall and head is 18 3/4". He's between the 50-75 percentile on all 3 measurements. When I got home, the house was silent. Dave was a little sad. He was working on putting Violet down for a nap. After she went to sleep, we just stood there and were like "whoa! its over!" and "I can't believe how quiet it is in here!" We spent some time cleaning up, collecting laundry and starting that process. We have LOTS of leftover food. Too much bread. We went through all 10 gallons of milk, though. We just have a 1/2 a gallon of whole milk left. The verdict on the fridge was just to not buy one right now. Financially it wouldn't be smart - we have a working fridge in the garage, why not use it. So now we just have to move it into the spot in the kitchen so its more functional. Right now I'm waiting for the last load of laundry to finish in the washer. I have a load to fold right now, so while the kids are napping I'm going to go do that. Nicky and Dorothy Rowe (and their two kids, Darcy and Abigail), Shawn and Kim Thompson, and Rachel are coming to visit for New Year's. I think we'll make them help us finish leftovers, too!