And so it begins...

Our good friend Madi came over one night and dressed up in Cooper's Halloween princess costume (which Cooper refused to wear except for on Halloween).  She also dressed Cooper up in some random articles of clothing.  Well, that was all it took.  Now Cooper wants to wear her princess costume everywhere.  The other night she wore it to our Bible study group, complete with a tutu and another skirt underneath.  She is a character!  (The bad news is that the dress was NOT made to be worn daily and is already starting to fall apart.  Yikes!)

I don't have any pictures, but today she's wearing a Beaver tutu under a ladybug costume that's approximately size 12 months... 

Tired girl...I think Madi got her binky for her.

Madi

We now have a playroom and Cooper has a new kitchen!  We emptied out all of the stuff stored in the room formerly known as the cats' room and now it's a playroom.  We love it!

Not the princess dress, but she picked it out and then said something like, "This is a cute outfit."  :)

This girl...

...is pretty excited to have a baby sister!  We keep reminding her that she may have a baby brother, and she adamantly says, "No.  Baby sister," but I think she'll be happy either way.  :) 

She chooses her clothes most days and looks rather goofy, but this particular day ended up looking
awfully cute.  I cannot believe how fast her hair is growing!  It was above her shoulders this summer.  I think it's adorable, but it sure gets a lot of food in it.  Sheesh. 

Papa's Christmas Train

In addition to the garden train in the grill room, my dad spent MANY hours working on this train for the kids.  (Next year it will be all decorated and have a couple more cars.)  His time and energy paid off.  All the kids LOVED it, and we literally spent hours riding around the property.  No one ever asked to get off or be done. 

Somehow, the pregnant lady never missed a ride...everyone else rotated through.  :)  It was very fun, though, and not as bumpy as one might imagine.  Our favorite rides were when Grammie would deliver gingerbread men and hot chocolate to us.  :)

Ready for their first ride!

To make it seem more "train-like," Dad added that middle "car."  Mom thought it looked like we were hauling a little casket.  :)

Morgan and Anna's house to our left.

With our "engineer" in front of the quilting barn.  (Anna and Rowland joined us, too.)

Morgan driving us.

Christmas 2013

We headed to my parents' around lunchtime on Christmas Eve.  The kids were SO excited to see all of their decorations, especially Papa's Christmas train.  We went to my parents' new church at 5:00 for the family service.  All four kiddos did great.  It helped that the entire service was only 45 minutes.  Perfect!

Mom had lasagna cooking in the oven while we were gone, so dinner was virtually ready when we got home.  Also perfect.  :)  Cooper had had a terrible nap, but was holding up fine until we got home from church.  Then she was super lethargic and wouldn't let me put her down.  Right as we sat down to dinner, she made a funny noise and I quickly covered her mouth with the bib I had in my hand.  Good call.  Poor baby threw up.  (Everyone was pretty impressed with my reflexes.  :)

I was certain I'd be up all night with her and that we were going to pass a stomach bug through the whole family, but thankfully I was wrong.  She only woke up once that night (when her fever returned) and she was good to go the next morning.  Thank you, Lord!

We had a low-key, wonderful Christmas Day.  My kids waited fairly patiently for Morgan's family to come over to do stockings.  Then we ate breakfast and moved to the "quilting barn" to do presents.  (Dad and Nate had set up a fake tree out there so it still felt Christmasy.)  Overall, the day was much less crazy than I'd anticipated.  Yay!

Watching the Christmas train go around the grill room.  It was really cold in there, so sometimes they just watched through the sliding door.  Usually Judson was in the grill room, though.

Almost time for stockings...!

Showing off her bling.  :)

Torturing Macy with a head massager.

Judson's turn.

Dad's new cooler for his pool.  :)

I knew this would be a hit and I was right.  Once he opened this puppy "guitar,"  he just wandered around playing it and tapping his foot.  SO CUTE!!

Awake from his nap and ready for some action!

Christmas dinner table

Jesus' birthday cake...a sherbet roll, which was quite a hit, since it was a very light dessert.

The kids were on their way to bed when I realized we didn't have a single family picture for the season, so this is what we got.  :)

Zoo Lights

We went to Zoo Lights on the 26th.  I mistakenly thought it wouldn't be crowded since it was after Christmas.  Wrong.  People didn't stay long, though, because it was cold, and we had a great time.