On the 4th Day of Christmas...

 Merry Christmas!  I am waiting for Eric to return from the store in order to most likely delay my trip as we ride out a storm that is brewing...so why not blog?  Following Christmas Eve Mass, I attempted to take pictures of the kids.  And the above is my best shot.  I know when I'm fighting a losing battle and I choose to live to fight another day...
  Following dinner, we all sang Christmas Carols and the kids finished watching The Polar Express.  Then they helped put some presents under the tree...which was really more the middle of the living room.  The concept of stacking behind the tree elluded them a bit.  But, they all made it to bed in good time and were soon sleeping with visions of sugarplums in the heads.  In summer pajamas.  Very disconcerting.

 As Eric and I were both fighting heading colds, I took some Nyquil (Eric self-medicates with something a little stronger) and the next morning dawned way earlier than my body was ready for.  For the first time in 10 years, I was not awake before the kids.  I hated missing their initial reactions.  But, they did come and kindly woke us up with cheerful "Merry Christmas"s.   Eric got up and read to the boys for a bit while John and I got a little more sleep.  Finally about a quarter to 8, our opening commenced.

 John wasn't really sure what was going on, but as he is accustomed to, he just rolled with it.  He would open some gifts, play with them, wander the house looking at other things, and then return to open another gift.

The big gifts this year was a set of Cornhole Boards and Corn bags (with Jayhawks!).  Nobody actually asked for these, but if the last few days are any indication, they will be a well loved and often used set.

 The remainder of gifts were opened with much excitement.  Highlights were definitely in the realm of imaginative play.  Harry Potter was the theme du jour.  (Will is such a method actor and becoming quite the expert on all things Harry Potter.  Last night, Eric and I listened with delight as he explained to his friends how Elsa is not really 'magical' since all she can do is freeze things...that is a power, not magic.  Magic is what one learns at Hogwarts)

 Both Dom and Will were thrilled to receive their respective houses scarves and genuine Quidditch goggles.  Look out neighborhood. 

 Dom's Christmas also started looking up when he received the official World Series baseball cap.  We had refused to purchase this for him back in Kansas (the colors are too MU), but Santa came through big time.  What a guy, that Santa.  He hasn't taken it off since.  Except dinner and showers and bed.  And church.

 As we did last year, the kids gave John one of their old toys.  In this case a little stool that Eric and I bought when I was pregnant with Dom for $3 at a garage sale. (First time I ever haggled, I talked the guy down from $5...this occurred during the same garage sale outing when we paid $5 for a game of Racko that still had the original price tag on it for $1.77)  We'd commented at the time we could fix it up and paint it before our baby was born...10 years later we have finally accomplished this.  And John loves it!

 Molly also hit it big with her presents.  She wore her Princess Peach costume the rest of that day and most of the next.  She also was very pleased with her new Frozen hat (and Dom is pleased with that, too, so she will stop stealing his Royals hat...which he has traded in for the World Series one...so John quickly swooped in and put on the old Royals hat...whatever keeps the peace.)  Aunt Megan also provided her a baby carrier which she has declared her favorite present as it is just like mine and she wants to be a little mom like me.  Imitation is the highest form of flattery.  Which she uses to wheedle more chocolate out of me.  Side story, last night they were explaining speech therapy to our neighbor and Molly's description went like this:  'It's where they teach you how to say fun words like: Chocolate!'  She and I are more similar every day.

 Actually, this sort of became the Christmas of baseball caps.  John received two Thomas hats which he immediately donned.  And the rest of us got KU baseball caps.  There will be no sunburns on the top of our heads this year!

 Another exciting gift was a magic set (I need to add here, it is not real magic, these are just tricks that appear to be magical in nature) for William.  They are really neat tricks, actually.  He's impressed several adults with his ability to predict what number they have chosen. 

 Eric must be getting a reputation of being a giant nerd...But, he is really excited to read all of them.

I must be getting a reputation for having cold feet and loving games as my gifts predominately consisted of socks and totally awesome games that I will be begging people to play with me.  So far, my kids and husband have agreed most nights and I am content.  I don't even mind losing every once in a while.

 After several hours of opening presents and just not feeling that well, I was not in the mood to provide much of a lunch (oh, let's just be honest, I'm never in the mood to provide much of a lunch).  But!  Molly had just received a new set of dishes and she happily laid them out on the table and transferred John's and her lunches to them.  When I explained to her that she was going to have to wash those now since I was only obligated to clean the dishes I had provided, she cheerfully agreed.  And then lovingly washed, dried, and put them away.  She looked like she was having so much fun that I pitched in to help.

 All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas Day and are excited to spend the next 8 days continuing the celebration of our Savior's Birth.  And with that, Eric has returned from the store, the storm has passed, and it is time for me to go grocery shopping so that Molly can make us supper.  I wish you all a good night!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

Merry Christmas!  It is a pretty quiet day around here.  The kids have been playing with their gifts, John is napping, and Eric and I are relaxing after weeks of preparations.  So, why not blog?

I believe it is safe to say that the kids all had a great Christmas morning.  Dom may have been a little touch and go (FYI: Socks in the Stocking...not a huge hit), but he did tell me this morning he was happy with all of his gifts.  Even the socks.  He has also mentioned his monogrammed handkerchiefs a couple of times which he told me I was pretty smart to give him since he always needs one in church.  (Ok, upon reading that two of his gifts were socks and handkerchiefs...I can sort of understand his less than enthusiastic reception of these gifts)

 But, let me backtrack a bit and cover events from the last weeks.  We brought out Christmas decorations the first weekend in December and gradually decorated over the next few weeks.  Along with the decorations came our multitude of books.  Will and Molly loved the Christmas treasury.  Especially the music.  Dom and Will sang in the choir for Christmas Eve Mass, and I practiced the music with them most nights.  It was such a wonderful experience for everyone.  Not only did they enthusiastically belt out their songs at this point (as well as really start to listen to their pitch), we'd hear them singing around the house as they did their chores or set up games.  All three older kids really loved 'The 12 Days of Christmas', which I've never been fond of, but you get over that when your kids ask for it and sing it with you.  We are now going to sing a verse a day through the Christmas Season.   During Advent we all sang 'O Come Emmanuel' before dinner, and the boys didn't want to give that up.  Though, the first verse of 12 Days was a little short last night...so we also sang 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing.'  I think I'll push for 'Joy to the World' tonight.

 All of the kids have been pretty helpful around the house.  I'd pit my house elves over just about anyone elses.

 (Just like the rest of the country, it has been really warm here.  Even by Florida standards...we have had to run the AC and the kids have had to wear summer pajamas the last few nights.)

 John is a hoot.  He is so cheerful and up for just about anything.  He loves walking around saying: Ho Ho Ho!

 Here he is about to take flight.  Like a Reindeer.

 Molly and I have spent a lot of quality time together.  She has been begging to make Christmas cookies for weeks.  Well, this was the week!  I even let her break eggs.  She is very fair and always offers to split everything at least 50/50.  I've also noticed that this year she is very aware of not trying my patience.  Which meant baking with my 4-year-old was less of a chore and definitely more of a pleasure. 

 John assisted with the extensive taste testing our kitchen does to insure the quality of our Christmas plates is superior.  He was very diligent in his duties and worked when everyone else was not even aware of his activities.

 On Christmas Eve, we rolled out the sugar cookies and decorated them.  It's pretty neat to leave your kids alone with the dough and come back to find more cookies cut out and really not a huge mess.  I'm pretty sure I made more of a mess than they did.  

It helped that John kept himself entertained by looking at every book on his shelf as evident by the mess he left on the floor.  I posted it on facebook, but I'll document it here as well, during a recent marathon reading of his, he stopped and excitedly ran into the kitchen to show me a picture of a Jayhawk in one of his books.  This was the first time he'd ever stopped reading to do something like this and, of course, I love that it was a Jayhawk.  He wore a shirt with a Jayhawk on it for Mass under his overalls and he was constantly trying to find it back. 

 In other John news, you can imagine how excited he was to see our Polar Express.  It didn't fit under the tree, so we set it up in the office which worked out just fine.  He really doesn't mess with it too much for a toddler, I think.  We only had to repair it a few times.

 And this is just a sweet moment between father and son.  John loves eating with a fork and appreciates when we give him a little more freedom at the dinner table.  Of course, this sort of freedom only happens outside.

 On Christmas Eve, we still had our traditional Rouladen despite it being so warm.  The kids were not exactly thrilled, but they did their best and then filled up on dinner rolls.  Just like their mother use to do decades ago. 

Following dinner we placed Jesus in the manger of our Nativity scene.  A year ago, Molly was allowed to do this.  Will was a little upset, but he found a compromise and made sure that even this once a year task would be treated with the fairness principle he applies to nearly all of his life activities:

We found this note in the Nativity Box and happily watched as Will took his long awaited turn.  He goes again in 2019.

And with that, I think I will go and see what the rest of the family is doing.  I'll leave Christmas morning for another time.  Get 'cited!

Is it really Christmas in 2 weeks?

 Eric pointed out a week or so ago that I had not updated the blog in a while.  There is a reason for that.  It's kind of busy around here lately.  Not only did we take 10 days to travel back to the midwest for Thanksgiving (with nary a photo to show for it...but it was really fun...not the drive home so much as John apparently does not enjoy spending 18 hours in his car seat, and Molly has a propensity to get carsick...all over the car.  I've never seen that much come out of her!), we've also been slogging away at homeschool lessons hoping to get those done in time for the public school break, dealing with an independent toddler, and also just normal day to day things like cooking and laundry.  And John has shown a capacity to fend for himself.  If 5 o'clock rolls around and I haven't provided him appropriate sustenance, he helps himself to the lower shelves of the pantry.  At first I thought this was just 1-year-old typical mess making behavior, until I realized it was the exact same time every day.  Problem has been sort of solved.  With 4 kids, I tend to lose track of time.

 But, let me provide some pictures.  Basketball is in full swing at our house.  Nearly every afternoon we have games going on.   Dom wore the above attire one day and I told him he looked ridiculous.  He took it as a compliment.  I love him for it!

 John is pretty mischievous.  Not only does he raid the snack shelves, he climbs every thing.  Or attempts to.  I found him on the piano, I'll find him on the dining room table, I'll find him climbing on to the computer, and I also found him scaling the deck in the backyard.  He also climbed into the dryer recently.  He was so proud of himself and howled with rage when I took him out.  He's trouble, but I love him for it.  Look at those eyes and smile!  Start praying for me, friends, if you haven't already!  He continues to love all round objects, has developed a taste for trains, and is still the best snuggler of all of our children.

 I recently completed our 2016 calendar and I don't have nearly enough pictures of Will.  He continues to be diligent in his studies and will finish his semester lessons well in time for the public school break.  He is so clever and I have to stay on my toes.  He recently missed some word problems and was convinced the book was wrong.  I explained gently and then more sternly that he had, in fact, got them wrong and he needed to re-think them.  This lesson in humility lasted one day before he got a grammar rule apparently wrong on an English assignment...but, it turned out he was correct and the answer key was wrong.  Will has also completely fallen in love with the world of Hogwarts and spent most of yesterday re-reading The Sorceror's Stone.  It has been wonderful listening to his and Dom's discussions about various characters.  They are actually on Goblet of Fire with Eric, but each has decided to re-read the previous books.  A highlight of our long road trip was listening to the books on CD with the boys.  They loved them and begged to listen to them from the moment we got in the car until our next destination.  We got through two books on that road trip.

 I do have loads of pictures of Molly for the calendar, just nothing super recent here.  She continues to amaze me at her sweetness (aside from cleaning up after herself).  She was not as thrilled about listening to Harry Potter in the car, but really did not complain.  And when we allowed her to pick a movie to watch, she gave her best effort at compromise by choosing the KU Basketball DVD from the 2008 season (when we won the National Championship) that Dom has watched 1000 times.  Ok, I exaggerated...it's probably only 100.  That is not an exaggeration.  She spends her days looking at books, drawing pictures of her friends, and waiting for a chance to play with them.  Which she does basically from the time they get home from school until dinner time.

 We have yet to cut John's hair.  So he still has the adorable curl that goes crazy in humidity.  Case in point.

 As I mentioned, Christmas is in 2 weeks, so it is the time to order last minute Christmas cards.  Last Sunday we did a less than 10 minute session and got 5 or 6 decent shots.  I'll share the Christmas Card rejects here.  I'll keep the winner a secret for now.  Can you imagine there is one better than these? (In my opinion, anyhow)

 Ok, not this one.  St. Nick came and brought all of the kids toothbrushes to help with all of the candy in the shoes.  Lame you say?  But, not so!  These are Light Saber Toothbrushes and the boys LOVED THEM!  Molly also liked her pretty one that lights up for the minute you are suppose to brush your teeth.  Coincidentally, we all had dentist appointments this week and got rave reviews on how clean our teeth are.

And with that I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Let me know if you would like a print of some beautiful kids.  I will hook you up.

Halloween/All Saint's Day

It's been two week since Halloween, so I figured I better get these pictures up before another holiday comes through.  We elected to not decorate until the day before Halloween for multiple reasons.  Rain was the most logical reason, but if I'm honest, it is because I am a bit lazy when it comes to decorating.  However, The Dollar Tree does offer a multitude of decorating options that the kids enjoyed taping up around the house.  They were happy and I continue to lower the bar on their expectations.  However, this year, Eric did create a dummy for the front of the house.  Pretty cool, huh? 

 We walked around the neighborhood with our neighbors.  And by 'walked' I mean the kids ran, our neighbor kindly kept up with them as Eric and I attempted to give John his first Halloween experience.  He's a Hobbit by the way.  The cape is awesome and...I didn't spend too much time agonizing over the rest of the costume.  I don't think I've mentioned, it was really hot and humid that particular day, so John probably wouldn't have kept anything else on for long.  We are going with that story anyway.

 However, the humidity did aid his costume in that it makes his hair extra curly.  He was an adorable half-ling. 

 Eric making our neighbor into a mummy. 

 John has no idea what he is getting into, but he just rolled with it.  He ran up to people and excitedly said: "Hi!".  I think the thought that was the whole point of the exercise.  The candy seemed to always surprise him.

 I don't think we've done this before, but the kids drew their faces on their pumpkins prior to Eric cutting them out. 

 Dom's

 Molly's

 Will's

 After about 30 minutes of Trick-or-Treating, John and Molly were done.  We came home and they had a really good time handing out the candy.  Molly sometimes had a hard time waiting for people to come to us.  At one point, she just started walking down the sidewalk with a bag of candy. 

 Dom came home next and Will followed shortly after.  Our trick-or-treat window was from 6 - 8.  But, the Royals game 4 started at 7...so Dom made sure he was home in plenty of time for that.  As a result of the shorter time, the Buschelmans may for the first time actually finish their Halloween candy.  I left out some of last year's remaining collection (including some additions from Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter) in a bucket before we left on our rounds.  It was gone by the time we came back.  Don't worry, though, I have my collection of chocolate safely stored away for emergencies.

The next morning we prepared for another costume.  All Saint's Day Parade.  Dom was St. Patrick, Will was St. Francis, and Molly was St. Gianna.  And then we all came home, took naps, and started to take down the decorations we had put up 2 days before.  Except for this door cover thing that looks really cool from the inside when the front porch light is on.  It looks like a couple of mummies are looking in your house.  Not scary mummies, but cartoonish mummies. I'm not sure when I'll take that down.  Truth be told, I probably won't.  But, Will or Molly or Dom will point out that I am living in the past and need to move on.  Just like they do every time I wear my Epic Pi Day shirt.