Time Travel With Me

Come travel with me to a time before Christmas, when the Christmas Tree was still to be gotten (on Christmas Eve Eve, last tree, for free), Advent candles ablaze, presents yet to be bought, presents yet to be wrapped. Travel through a family Christmas, lit by Christ and made merry with His gifts and our own. Then come to Evangeline's 5th birthday, a pink and red affair, many many friends to celebrate...
 ...and then some other stuff thrown in from  whenever I took the pictures and some are blurry. Oh and there are a lot of pictures here, so don't spend all your adoration on the first few.

*There are some repeats in here from last time I blogged a long time ago. I left them in because I didn't write intriguing captions last time. Enjoy twice!

Irene was very proud of her new dress that Grandma Becky picked out for her.

...so proud that she really wanted a picture with Cricket.

Blurry but sweet sisters.

They are on their way to the Nutcracker. Apparently Evangeline's dress, also picked out by Grandma Becky, was much like Clara's. Kyle and I were at a fabulous dinner at the Goat Lady Dairy, so just imagine us eating goat cheese.

Long-suffering dad of two, soon to be three girls. Good thing Irene has her Hairstyling for Dummies book on hand.

One of the last photos of Irene with her pacifier. We took the girls to the dentist (the doctors really harass you if you don't do this, fyi) and the dentist told us that Irene would need to start quitting her pacifier. She overheard the conversation and once we set foot outside the dentist office, she left it in the past. Hasn't touched one since. But she does occasionally find them and save them out for the baby.

Aunt Carol sent them a present to be decorated before and opened on Christmas Eve. The ribbon served as a nice dividing line between "my side" and "your side". 

Q: What do you get when a Jewish Soprano in your choir keeps talking about Hanukkah to a pregnant lady?
A: 50 jelly doughnut the next morning. 

Christmas Eve at church. Typical Irene.

Evangeline's Santa Lucia crown.

They're pretty good at taking turns hogging the attention

While so sad about the hole in our family that Grandaddy left, we were so happy to have Grandma Lucy with us this Christmas. 

Oh Christmas Tree

Morning Tree

What kids don't want to sit on a pile of Christmas presents?

Irene doing a little cooking in her new kitchen from Grandma and Baba.

She does not get the cooking in her underwear thing from us. At least not from me.

It's almost as if she's seen someone disappearing into the refrigerator before.

Donning some Christmas presents.

Evangeline's party. 19 adults and 18 kids I think was the final count. Evangeline chose pink and red for her party colors which was good since the stores put out Valentine's day stuff the day after Christmas.

The kids were really good and spookily quiet as they ate. The adults were pretty good too.

This could be an ad for the Flutterbye. This thing is really cool and actually works.
There have only been about 324 arguments about who get to play with it. Cricket is in on these too.
Thanks Grandma and Pop pop. 

Irene with Cricket again. She has an egg in her hand and one in each pocket.

Evangeline really wanted Irene to try to make a heart with their hula hoop halves.

I told her they did it.

They tried to lure me into this chair, but luckily I had heard the words "booby trap" being "whispered" a lot, and didn't fall for it. And I also saw their practice.

But Kyle came home from work at just the right time.

Kyle made this breakfast for me the other day. 

Booby Trap Paradis

Thanksgiving and Such

So, blogging from the iPad isn't working out so well. Here are some captionless photos of our great time in Chattanooga for Thanksgiving, the necessary car ride pics, last weekend's going to the Nutcracker extravaganza, and some from the airport from grandma and pop pop's departure. We've got some new haircuts to show off on here soon, as well as a pacifier-free Irene, who took the dentist's advice very seriously and hasn't touched a pacifier since she set foot outside the dentist's office.

Seven Years

   Kyle got me a new camera for our anniversary. I am still figuring out how to use it/blog with it. But hopefully it will induce a blogging renaissance on my part. Notice the scratch-free images (the last few with Irene raking with pop pop are with ol' scratchy). 

   My mom and dad took us all out for a huge breakfast downtown on our actual anniversary. It was almost as much a treat as it has been to have them making breakfast every morning here at the house this past month. Evangeline and Irene have developed serious dependencies on silver dollar pancakes. 

   I can't figure out how to caption all the pictures here, but you should catch on pretty quick.

Rare picture of us.

Spilled the beans

So we spilled the beans to the kids that we're going to be having another baby round these parts. They are thrilled. Evangeline really would like it to be a sister. Irene seems to want a brother.

This is her "what if it's a boy" face.

A boy?

 For our part, we really have no idea whether boys or girls are better.

We also made a trip to IKEA to find a new bed for the girls, since Evangeline is pretty much too big for her bed. We've had our eye on this bunk bed for a while.

Guess how much it costs!

 We had a farewell to the old beds tonight. It was surprisingly emotional. Irene doesn't seem to care though. She is more than happy to give her bed away.

One last night of  Irene's prohibited jumping on the bed.

Here is Evangeline's first night in her bed from August, 2010.

Irene is 3

Irene is now three years old.

 Due to Grandaddy's funeral, Irene's party was delayed a day.

It is a strange thing to delay your three year old's birthday party for the funeral of your eighty-nine year old grandfather.

 We ended up having a sort of impromptu party because we were also having Harvest Home at church, which meant that a bunch Irene's friends were going to be there. So, Ellee, in her typical miracle worker way, put together a party that looked like it had been planned for at least 4 weeks in advance. This is why children have mothers. If I'd have planned this thing it would have like one balloon and six pretzel sticks for the kids to eat. And plenty of beer for the adults. As it went, everyone had plenty of balloons, beer, cheese, and cake. And presents. And friends.

I swear she is almost a different kid now. 

She's actually interested in opening every single thing.

Here's some other stuff from the day.

Irene wanted to sit with Grandma on the big chairs at Chipotle.

In typical fashion, the Alaska grandparents showed up on Halloween.

I got stung by a bee but I'm better now.