Kiddie-isms and Sickness

--Jonny is addicted to the iPad.  He knows that thing inside and out.  I often catch him trying to have conversations with Siri.  "Hi, hewow, how eye you?"  . . . ."I'm sorry.  I missed that." . . . "Oooh yeah.  Uhuh."  He talks to her like he's talking on the phone.

--Audrey is really great at saying prayers.  She's gotten into the habit of saying, at the end of her prayers, "And we thank thee for the love, the truth, and the honor."

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I feel like I ran too fast into November and December, picking up great speed and popping bolts until I entirely crashed and burned in a heap in January.  The family has battled sickness and sleeplessness like young foolish soldiers, naive and losing.  We need to be mothered: all events cancelled, a strict diet of green smoothies and chicken noodle soup, a thorough course in proper hand washing technique, warm socks, read-aloud chapter books, and sleep.  Lots and lots of sleep.  Instead, we are struggling to our feet and limping toward February, stumbling here and there with an ear infection or a persistent headache or a broken laptop or poor customer service for any number of things . . . our parenting and childing are subpar, and our fellowshipping is even lower right now.  Forgive us.  Allow us the grace we need to pick ourselves up and pull ourselves back together.  Turn a blind eye to our absences, please.  Consider it a quarantine.  Consider it a convalescence of both the mental and physical.  We are social creatures who love the sun.  Forgive us for wintering badly.  Wish us luck, and we'll see you in February, well and healthy enough to hug people again.  Also, we have been reading a lot, playing games, having dance parties, and planning the year's vacations, so all hope is not lost.

Post Christmas Update

Playing with moon sand that Aunt Adri made them for Christmas!  I have a bone to pick with her . . . moon sand EVERYWHERE!!  :S

We caught Darcy standing up!  This was her first attempt.  She started squatting back down as soon as I snapped the picture.  She's getting big so fast!!

But she's still so little.  :)  What a sweet, sweet baby.

I took this after Jonny saw me with my phone out, trying to snap a picture of Darcy.  He knelt down and said, "Take picture a me."

One of my favorite things is seeing tiny, rolly polly babies sitting.  :)

Each month the kids go on a date with either David or I.  January is Audrey's month to go out with Dave.  They went and saw a movie and then had ice cream.  Is she not the cutest?!?  She cut her own bangs, so I fixed them (sorta).  (Rachael, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're cringing.)  :)  Ah, well.  She's still adorable.  And so is Dave!

The ballet recital!!  The girls had their first recital last Saturday.  These two were AMAZING!  They really were just so so cute.  Jane's was this jazzy kick line dance with hats and attitude, which she totally nailed.  Claire's was this precious dance to Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.  I love that they're both appreciating their lessons.

Claire's costume was a little snug, so that's a bummer.  After recitals are over, I'll open the back and make it more wearable.

Another bummer: we accidentally left the stroller in the parking lot after leaving the recital.  We didn't realize it until two days later!  We went back, and it was there, but someone had run it over.  SO sad!  Dave and I realized that that stroller is kinda unlucky--the day we bought it was the day we left my diaper bag in the parking lot on the commons in Rockwall, and the day it "died" we left it in the parking lot . . . unlucky.  Even so, it was faithful during it's service, and it will be missed.

Christmas Pictures!

Christmas eve and we are ready to drive to Grandma's house!

Opening PJs, Christmas eve.

Thankfully Jessica had her camera out to capture all the moments!  :)  Cute baby girl!

Christmas morning!

Dave read How Murray Saved Christmas to the kids on Christmas eve.  It's my favorite Christmas book.  Since Dave's Dad's name is Murray, this was really a Hunt family tradition.

The kids were sick, but that didn't stop us from doing nails and having fun.

This little goose slept through all of Christmas morning--her FIRST Christmas morning.  I think, though, that she doesn't feel cheated in the least.  She got new PJs, too, after all.

Opening PJs.

A baby pirate!

Stocking massacre.

Uncle Chandler helped Jonny open his PJs.  They are buddies.  :)

Story time.

We acted out the nativity.  Jonny was Joseph, of course.

Stocking party!

It snowed arrived right as we were arriving.  It was so pretty!

Grandma is the best at doing nails.  :)

The big night!  All the loot.  And there was a LOT of loot with all of us there.  Audrey, Jane, and Claire were asleep right behind that couch back there, and when we were putting all the gifts out, Audrey woke up.  Oops!  She wasn't too bent out of shape.

Arrrg!  Jonny got some pirate dress-ups among his gifts.  Darcy thinks they're just what she's always wanted.

The "wobot" jammies that he loves so much.

Now he really looks like a wobot.  Look at these cute babies!!

Can you see the tree?  :)

Audrey was Mary, and the littler kids played assorted shepherds and kings and angels.  It was a full cast.

Allison being regal.

The "big" gift surprise from Grandma and Grandpa was a cool karaoke machine to use at their house.  the kids (ehem, and the adults) had a blast!!  The girls are all decked out in the dress-ups we got our kids for Christmas.  Best gift ever!

Pretty nails!  Plus she got a new watch and necklace!

Everyone had a turn singing Let It Go once . . . or five times.

Me and Lula.  She's so cute!  All these kids are so adorable, I can't stand it.

Lula supervising Darcy's crawling practice.

Too bad Jonny didn't get in the picture.  Mom made the kids aprons!  They were SO excited, and they wear them all the time.  They're great for wearing on Sunday during lunch so their clothes don't get messy.

Keeping the kids occupied on cold days when they took turns being sick was a challenge, but one we were up to!  They colored a lot, and we even made little paper plate mail boxes and wrote notes and colored pictures to each other.

The view from the back yard.  So pretty!

These last three are snapshots from the iPad that Audrey took of my siblings.  :)