New Year's Eve

Despite a lovely invite from friends for dinner yesterday, we were going to be spending New Year's Eve at home. We felt we shouldn't drag our germy, coughing offspring into close proximity of others. Ah well, such is life.

Seeing as we probably got our germs from my sister's girls, we figured they were the only people we could, in good conscience, associate with. Ha!! So we invited the cousins for dinner and the kids were SO excited to be having a PARTY together!

I threw some chicken in the crock-pot (God bless whoever invented that thing), rolled out some sugar cookies and settled down to the important stuff: the decorations :). If you know me, you know that's the fun part for me! 

Homemade decorations with the kids

Party table for nine!

All dressed up for the occasion!

Poor Alexis had a quick visit to the doc on their way to us, as she was complaining of a painful chest and coughing. After a breathing treatment and two xrays they gave her antibiotics for suspected pneumonia too!! Poor girlie. We were thankful they still came to dinner...I don't even know how many prescriptions we have right now between our two families!

Catching a quick pic of Emma tolerating a head band!!

This one looks like they had a bit too much of the bubbly (or sparkling apple juice!)

The kids end of the table

Jack and Ax. She's got her "cheese" face down pat...him not so much. At least he has stopped hiding under the table when the camera comes out.

Everyone got into PJs before we bid our goodbyes

Us. Do we look tired, or what?!

Lovely pic of Ness and Sean...these two are celebrating their 10th anniversary this month!!!

Such fun to have a "party" to celebrate, despite all the sickies between our two families!

And we celebrated the first day of 2014 by staying in our pajamas all day, eating left overs, playing playdough and Skyping with relatives overseas.

And it's Andre's Mom's birthday today so we celebrated with her over Skype too. Happy birthday Baba!

Sick. Again.

It seems like since October, we've had sickness cycling through our house. Ugh. Thankfully, none of it's been serious, but I always feel on high alert with Sophie.

She's got another case of pneumonia now, very mild but with a nasty cough that's interfering with her sleep. We've been up with her a lot, poor baby.

But I'm enjoying the late night cuddles, after we've wiped tears, suctioned her nose, and put on fresh, unsnotty tubes!

We're going through these like there's no tomorrow

And her inhaler has been put to GOOD use this week

When she does fall asleep, she is OUT! Not even me taping on her pulse ox (machine with a LOUD alarm that checks her O2 level) or taking photos of her (!) wakes her up

Hopefully this is not a sign of what 2014 is going to be like! She's had a relatively healthy year so here's to another one!

Favorite Things

Or favorite people...some of our favorites came for a visit today. Never enough time together! Thanks for stopping by McDowells.

Luke and Sophie...alternately the caption could be "Duplos and Tubes" :) All four of the kiddos played so nicely together the whole visit!

Group shot, without Hubby though. Amazingly we're all looking!

Love this lady. She's a keeper!

Christmas Day

Apparently I can't think of clever titles to my blog posts.

I'd like to say it's just tonight, but it seems to be a permanent problem. I console myself with the fact that those who read these boring posts are mostly family members who are much more interested in seeing recent photos/doings of my children than reading a clever post!

 Ok, where was I?...Ah yes, see blog title :) At least my boring titles always let me know right away what I'm supposed to be posting about!

Christmas morning we opened a few presents and consumed a lot of monkey bread. Yum!

Jack gave Sophie a bottle for her dolly. They had the best time feeding Dolly!

We then got dressed up and headed to church to celebrate and remember the reason for the day, Jesus, our Rescuer coming as a baby to save the world.  My absolute favorite Christmas song is "Here With Us" by Joy Williams. The lyrics are perfect:

It's still a mystery to me
That the hands of God could be so small,
How tiny fingers reaching in the night
Were the very hands that measured the sky

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Heaven's love reaching down to save the world
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Son of God, Servant King,
You're here with us
You're here with us

It's still a mystery to me, oh,
How His infant eyes have seen the dawn of time
How His ears have heard an angel's symphony,
But still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep


Jesus the Christ, born in Bethlehem
A baby born to save, to save the souls of man

Christmas pics after church

After naps we let them open their stockings, which they loved. They were a little confused about the orange at the bottom! Since it's a tradition in both Russian and English cultures, we're keeping it!

They spent most of the day playing with their Legos/Duplos from Nana and Grampa

A blessed and peaceful day for our family. And a HAPPY CHRISTMAS season to you and yours!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all our dear family and friends, near and far, a peaceful and joy-filled Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I didn't get my act together to send cards so to all of you dear ones, please accept this as our Christmas greeting. And thank you to all who have sent us such beautiful and meaningful cards this year!

Sugar High!

Gingerbread time!

More candy was eaten than used in the decorating of this house...needless to say, supper was a bust!

Birthday Fun

Sophie's birthday, despite being cold and rainy, turned out to be a really fun day!

We started the day off with Dutch pancakes and sunflowers from Daddy

Then it was present time! Jack gave her a Noah's ark set (which he loves more than she does!)

And her first baby doll from Mummy and Daddy along with a crib and a stroller from Nana and Grandpa

And a beautiful doggy which arrived in the mail from our dear Ms. Donna and Mr. Carroll

Tickles for the birthday girl

And then Nana arrived with a diaper bag for Dolly

And a new dress and the cutest plate ever!

After naps we had a birthday tea party, complete with china and candles on the cake

Sophie got two more packages in the mail and the kids had tons of fun playing with the fishing set from Aunty Kirsty all the way from Australia!

Of course Dolly got lots of love

Lovely blanket from Baba

Dolly's "Os" were not well received and have remained in the diaper bag!

And after baths, stories with Nana. A wonderful end to a special day!