On Tuesday we celebrated the Anderson Family Christmas with great fanfare. It was the first time in a few years that we were all in the same place at the same time. Grandpa, Grammie and Uncle Jared drove up from NC, Uncle Luke, Aunt Alicia, Aunt Cammie and “da cousins” came from Charlottesville, and Uncle Carson from Arlington. Even the kids’ great Uncles Ron and Jhoel made it for dinner! We had a great time and it was a lot of fun to spend the early holiday together.

The highlight of the afternoon/evening for the kids (besides the gifts, duh) was watching Grandpa and Uncle Luke build a playhouse. Grandpa built most of it in his workshop at home, but they assembled the pieces in our yard. It is phenomenal and will receive a post all of its own once I take finished-product photos!

We did a pot-luck turkey dinner and the food was outstanding. Maybe next year we will spring for a bigger table, though!

The playhouse project:

Last weekend we celebrated Harper’s FOURTH birthday a few weeks early. We decided to have her party before Christmas this year so that everyone wasn’t exhausted from the holidays. She invited our two closest friends and family, and she was so excited that her cousins were able to make it too! Harper had been talking non-stop about her “Princess Party” since Roman’s birthday party (in July), so she had very high expectations. We did not disappoint with plenty of pink, sparkles, and princess. Most of her party requests involved princess treats, so the kids were all on a sugar high for the next 24 hours. Needless to say, it was a fun evening and she is already talking about next year’s princess party!

Wands up!

Pop Pop and the Birthday Princess share a moment

Charlie and Harper helping Uncle Carson open HIS birthday present

Marshmallow “wands”

Last week we got our first snowfall of the season. The kids were excited; I was not! I am just not a winter person. The snow fell on the last day of school, which resulted in an early release. The kids missed their Christmas concert at school, and Harper didn’t get to celebrate her birthday with her class. She will get to celebrate it after the holidays, but it was still a bummer.

We didn’t play in the white stuff too much, but Harper did have fun helping Daddy shovel the driveway. Roman was not thrilled about being out in the cold, and it turns out he has ear infections, so he was not too happy that day!

Me: “Harper, thanks for helping your brother.”
Harper: “You’re welcome, and thanks for telling ME da important things.”

Me: (turning off singing/dancing Santa who is driving me crazy)
Roman: “That wasn’t very nice. He was trying to get his dance on!”

Me: “Harper, do you really like princesses?”
Harper: “AND fairies.” (duh)

Showing us his new dump truck (aka “Santa Truck”)
Roman: “See, dis is da driver, dis is da passenger, and dis is da DUMP.”

It has been absolutely freezing here for the past week, so we have been doing a lot of indoor activities. Last week Harper found an candle art project in her Highlights Magazine, so we broke out the craft stuff (we actually had the materials, for once) and did it. Harper pretty much did hers by herself, but Roman wasn’t quite as focused. They turned out really cute!

 
The kids have a few computer games that they really enjoy. They play Reader Rabbit quite a bit. It’s a team effort:

 
Harper is taking both ballet and gymnastics now. She absolutely insists on wearing ONLY pink leotards. Luckily her ballet studio has a dress code, and her class is required to wear all pink. Last week I took my camera along to gymnastics. They don’t allow flash photography in the gym, so the shots are pretty blurry. Harper is the one in bright pink (big surprise).

Ada started pulling herself up on furniture last week! It’s only a matter of time before she is walking (God help us).

 
I tried, in vain, to get some photos of the kids in front of the tree. What a disaster! There was a lot of kissing, hugging and wrestling involved. The only good one I got turned out blurry!

 
Ada takes baths in the sink. What fun!

 
Santa Roman (he slept in this hat):

We decked ours. Portman is pretty stoked about the fireplace.

So sorry, it’s been a while, and honestly I don’t even know what we’ve been doing! Ada is crawling, so that has added a whole new element of chaos to our day. Harper and Roman have been busy with school, and Harper is also doing ballet and gymnastics. She loves gymnastics and LOVES ballet and it has been really fun to watch her improve at both of them. Last week, for the first time she did a hanging flip on the gymnastics bar all by herself! She was so proud of herself. Roman is all boy and has been busy playing trucks and trains. Lately he has been hooked on really big jigsaw puzzles and will spend hours doing them over and over again.

We spent Thanksgiving at Wintergreen with cousins Charlie and Wyatt. The kids had a packed 48 hours together and it took the rest of the weekend to recover! Ada very much enjoyed her Thanksgiving meal, while the rest of them pretty much refused it.

Roman: “It’s me in a bucket!”

Ada fell asleep watching TV and Portman took a terrible photo of it:

The car turtle was a “boat” and the bike flag was an “oar.” “Rowing” ensued.