Merry Christmas Card 2013!

Merry Christmas!

It snowed ALL DAY yesterday here in Chicagoland, and now it officially feels like Christmastime. (Sing it, Bing.) Luckily, I spent Saturday afternoon trying to bribe the heck out of my kids so they'd be cute for some Christmas Card photos. Since I don't think I'm going to be sending out physical Christmas cards to everyone, this is what you're getting. Here ya go!

Summary 2013:

Mike is now in full swing as a medical student at Midwestern. He LOVES it. He comes home ragged and exhausted and stressed but still all excited about all the gross things he's seen and learned. He's even got a best friend/racquetball buddy. Because he's all stressed and we have way too many babies for real jobs, he's now been called as a sacrament meeting greeter. It's only difficult because they've discovered that I play the organ.

Katie is almost totally potty-trained. (YAY!!!) She is now 3' 2", but still pretty skinny (except for after dinner). She had her first haircut about a week ago, loves to wear her puffy coat (always with the hood up), and really just wants me to get off the computer and go let her play in the snow on our porch. Maybe after lunch. Her favorite food is definitely still noodles and clementine oranges (they're like candy!) and her favorite Christmas movie is Frosty the Snowman. Oh, and Curious George: a Very Monkey Christmas. But sometimes Mommy needs a break from that one. Her favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bells," but she only sings the first half of the chorus and it turns into the song that never ends. Oh well.

Josh is the cookie monster. Whenever I put crackers or puffy snacks on his tray, he goes at it two-fisted. He's still the skinny twin, but he's gaining weight like crazy and now has a little bit of neck-fat that gets all wrinkly when he's giggling. Oh, and he definitely has more than an inch on his brother (not to mention the most stylish hair in the family). He's got sitting up and doing the inchworm DOWN. He's got two teeth (the bottom front ones) and he LOVES bananas and graham crackers. Also, he ate two of the ginger snaps from relief society all by himself.

Peter is SUPER mobile. He army crawls like a boss and can almost really crawl. He's also super vocal, and while both boys said "mama" first, Peter's favorite sound to make is "dadadadadadadadadadada." (grrrr.) He loves food but still would rather that I pop them in his mouth for him. It's okay, he's got the weight advantage. I'm not going to say he's chubby (heaven's sake, he's one of my babies!) but he definitely looks it next to his brother and sister.

One thing they all have in common, though, is the gorgeous sparkly blue eyes with long lashes that just make you want to die. (See above pictures.)

As for me and my black-sheep-brown eyes, I'm sticking it out. I managed Thanksgiving all by myself, and I'm planning Christmas like a real live grown-up Mom. (It's weird.) It still makes me all sad that we're not going to go see family over the holidays, but at the same time it's kind of exciting to do Christmas all by ourselves like a real family. Katie's certainly excited. I'm fairly sure one of those before-the-sunrise things is going to start happening just like my siblings still do. Geez.

Besides that, the ward has figured out that I'm musical, so I've been playing the organ once a month, I'm participating a lot in the Christmas program, and I'm still on the Relief Society fellowshipping committee. I've made some pretty awesome best friends who have everything in common with me and who make my life a lot brighter and happier. And somehow I'm managing to stay alive with these ridiculous kids all over me (quite literally--Katie sees me with both brothers and decides to join the pile, saying "Mom, now we're a big pile of people!")

One thing that I've been thinking about recently is that even though this is probably one of the hardest times of my life so far, I have way more to be grateful for than I ever have. I'm grateful for three beautiful, healthy children, even when they wake me up at 4:30 every night. I'm grateful for an amazing, handsome, ambitious husband who is only not around because he's studying hard so he can be a good doctor and take care of our family. And I'm super grateful to be here with such good friends and neighbors who have welcomed us, even though we're so far away from family. Even with the trials, I've got a pretty good life. And as always, I have the Savior, who came to this earth to save all of us, which is the whole reason we have Christmas. I just need to keep remembering that.

Merry Christmas everyone. Be happy. We love you.