Christmas 2010

Where are you Christmas?

Why can't I find you?

Why have you gone away?

Ha ha, ha ha ha. Faith Hill. So hot right now. Christmas came and went rapid fire this year. I can't believe it's over already. It is most definitely the best time of the year. Ahhhhh. Only 11 months until next Christmas! We were with the Strongs for Christmas eve and Christmas day playing many games, thanks to Casey and Tyler. 2 new games to aquire: The Game of Things and Whits and Wagers. I was a natural phenomenon in Wits and Wagers. I don't know why. It's all about guessing and then betting on who guessed the most correctly. It was weird that I did so well.

Christmas night and morning we spent alone however. It was great.

This year Mom helped me make these fabulous stockings! I needed to take pictures of all of them... but once again I have failed you. We made the stockings from sweaters Ry and I found at savers. I really really like them. Thanks Mom!

Every time Atticus opened something he said, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" It was super funny. He's never said it before, or since I don't think.

This is the sweet dollhouse Ryan and I made for the kids. I found it at a yard sale this summer. We painted the roof and wallpapered it with scrapbook paper. We really like how it turned out.

This knife came in a toy cookie making set (Melissa and Doug). Atticus has not parted with it since Christmas morning. He keeps telling us that he's going to cut us. I think this is Rob's doing.

I made Ryan give me bedding. This equals, I picked out my own gift and Ryan didn't get to enjoy picking anything out for me. I'm pretty sure that's not how gift giving is supposed to go. But I absolutely love the set. I still want a bed skirt and possibly more throw pillows. Must save up the money first though:).

I love the bedding so much that when I start getting upset during the day I just walk back and look at my bed. And I am happy again:). Might be dangerously close to idolatry.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Pandora's Box

I like these kids. But they kind of remind me of that Greek chest filled with danger.

The analogy works many days for many reasons. But this morning it refers to the night I just spent with Maggie who threw up every half hour from 11:30 untill about 2 or 2:30. It was so so sad. Poor girl. Sometimes I feel like these kids are walking virus's! Dangeresque. So probably stay away from us for a few days.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

These are terrible pictures. But they do offer some record of our Christmas tree decorating event! We had a good time. I wish I'd taken a picture of the candy canes. They were ALL on one poor branch, barely still holding itself up. I loved watching the kids get excited about every small Christmas tradition this year.

And Maggie- doing what she does best!

I am so sad I never took a picture of the final product! How could I? However, I assure you, the tree was again ugly- with character. We looked through 4 lots before finding it. Some people said it looked like a Dr. Suess tree, others another Charlie Brown one. We loved it!

Walks in November

I miss the warm weather already. Sigh.

Probably don't show this next one to DCFS. I'm not sure it's 100% kosher. But hey, with 3 churchlynns and a double stroller I had to improvise!

Rub a Dub Dub...

3 kids in a tub!

I just found my camera cord so I'm starting a bunch of catch up posts. Be excited.

2 Churchlynn Stories

I lost my wedding ring a couple of weeks ago. Each night I take it off and place it on our dresser next to the bed. My hands get so dry during the winter I have to lather them in eucerin before bed so they don't crack and bleed- and I just don't like the greasy stuff on my ring. So around noon one day I realized I hadn't put my ring back on yet. I went directly to the dresser and found it was gone. Immediately I called Jo and Tic to my room, asking if they'd seen my ring or taken it somewhere. I assured them they weren't in trouble. They swore they didn't have a clue where the ring was. I wasn't too worried because I was 99.9999532% positive one of them had taken it and the ring was still in the house somewhere. Only a matter of time before I found it. So 2 days ago I'm looking under our couch and Jo comes waltzing by, "What are you doing Mama?"
"I'm looking for my ring," pointing to my ring finger, "remember?"
"You're looking for your ring again?"
"Yep! If you ever see my ring make sure to bring it right to Mama, okay?" bending back down to keep looking.
Jo pauses for a minute. "Probably it's in your light." I stop.
"What?"
"Probably it's in your light by your bed." Both of us take off down the hall. Ryan and I have an old fashioned style of lamp by our bed, sort of like this:

It's not an oil lamp but looks a bit like one. I pull out the glass covering around the bulb finding the following locked inside: 4 sewing pins, 1 paper clip, and 1 diamond ring! According to the Jo Tic likes to drop things in the lamp. Probably he was the guilty party. So if you lose anything ask Jo. Probably she'll know where it Probably is.

Yesterday after playing outside for about 5 minutes Jo was cold and wanted to go back in. Atticus was still having a grand time so I let Jo go in by herself and said, "Just poke you're head out the door and call me if you need anything!"
Within a couple of minutes I heard her muffled voice calling me behind the still, closed door. I opened it slightly. "What do you need?"
"I need to go potty!"
I helped Jo with her business and went to leave.
"So Mom?"
"Yes?"
"If I need you again I just poke my head and stand by the door and call you and you'll come again?"
Such a great image! Jo repeatedly poking herself in the head with her index finger behind the closed front door and calling for me! I love how her mind works:).

Things

I'm sad. I've lost my cord to transfer pictures to the computer. Lame, lame, lame, lame, LAME.

This morning Ryan left for work and quickly realized he had a flat tire. So he turned around and came home. Atticus was the only one awake at this point so I turned on "dinosaurs" (Land before Time) , put on my coat, and went out to try and help. I've never changed a flat. I don't know if Ryan had. The car manual came in handy! After about 10 minutes I came back inside, finding two little churchlynns holding each other behind the couch with big, rolling tears on their cheeks. I realized very quickly that Jo had woken up and the two had searched our apartment for me, deciding they'd been abandoned by their mother. They looked at me with such relief! As if they never could have hoped for so much! The look on their faces was heartbreaking. I quickly knelt down and threw my arms around them telling them over and over again that Daddy and Mama would never ever leave them alone. They were quickly reassured. I, on the other hand, had to kiss them and squeeze them every minute for the next hour- such guilt for causing so much fear!

Jo just asked me, "Mama, are girls idiots or are boys idiots?" Pause. How to answer...