Merry Christmas!

Oh, my heart is full. We're all gearing up for Christmas around here. The tree is up, the house constantly smells like some sort of baked good (I think we've been through about 25 pounds of flour in the last 6 weeks!), and all of the shopping is done. Now on to the wrapping and such. The kiddos are VERY excited about Christmas coming and are loving all of the music and the Christmas specials and the lights. I think our best gift came early this year. For those who aren't on Facebook (and I would question how you would ever survive!), Lainey prayed yesterday to receive Christ as her Savior. It brings tears of joy to my eyes every time I think of it. This is something that Lon and I have prayed for since before Lainey was born so what a sweet blessing it was to hear her pray that prayer and ask Jesus to forgive her for her sins and be Lord of her life. Later in the day, she said to me, "Mom, I will never forget this day. I will never forget the day I became a Christian." I daresay that I won't either.

Tonight instead of our evening Bible study at church, we had a time of singing Christmas carols. Afterwards, we rode around town for a bit and looked at the holiday lights. Abby was most excited and precious when she said, "Yights. Some. Cute. Oooo."

I'm praying that this Christmas we will all be able to focus on the One who came to be the light of the world. As I marvel in seeing one of my own children come to faith in Him, I am reminded of the true meaning of the season. God saw our need for forgiveness and sent a Savior. What a very precious and priceless gift He has given!

Oh My Goodness. . .

Does this thing still work? It's been so long, I wondered if I was going to remember my username and password! I'm not even sure I remember how to write about all that goes on in our house, but I shall try. Where to begin?

Often when I'm getting ready in the mornings, one or more of the girls ends up in the bathroom with me. It's a place where we get some good memories made, I think. I can remember watching my own mom get ready in the bathroom each morning so it's neat to share something similar with my own kids. This morning, Lainey got up earlier than the other two girls so she ended up in the bathroom with me by herself. I really enjoy moments I'm able to have time one on one with each of the girls because they're quite rare! As she and I were talking, I complimented her on what a good job she's done lately on being obedient. She said, "Yes, I want to have a new life." I asked her what she meant (I sortof knew already, but wanted to hear it from her.) and she said that she wants to go to heaven when she dies. I asked if she knew how to do that and she said that it was by belieiving in Jesus. We then started talking about the need to ask for forgiveness of sins and (trying to explain that we all sin) I asked what the worst thing was she could think of doing. She said, "Like killing someone." I said, "Well, you haven't done that, but you've still done things that are wrong." She said, "Yeah, because you won't let me have a gun." As though she would have killed someone by now if only I wasn't holding her back. I am Obi Wan to her Luke Skywalker. (Did you see that Star Wars reference, Lon? Be proud.)

For those who don't know, Sarah Grace has a birthday a month from today. The only way you could possibly be unaware of this fact is to have not been around Sarah Grace at all for the last two months or I suppose to be completely unrelated and not have all of the Graham children's birthdays written down in permanent marker on your calendar. She is obsesso about turning 4 and is constantly naming off what she might like for her birthday. Never mind that there might be presents for Christmas. To her, Christmas is something we just need to get through so that we can get to her birthday. She missed out on a birthday party for her 3rd birthday due to pink eye so I wonder if that might play into her obsession just a little!

Our home is gearing up for Christmas. When we lived in NC, we bought a big artificial Christmas tree because we had enough house for it. Alas, we moved before the next Christmas and never had enough room. Once again we've finally got enough living room to contain this giant artificial tree and we're very excited. Okay, I'm excited and I suspect the girls are as well. Lon would probably have preferred the 3 foot tree on the small table since he's the one who had to carry it down two flights of stairs so we could put it together. The tree is together and lights and decorations will come tomorrow. We don't give it long before someone attempts to knock the tree over and our money is on that someone either being Abby or the cat! As Lon and I sat on the couch this evening watching a movie with the girls (Joey goes to bed very early most evenings), my heart was full and I whispered to Lon, "Life is pretty good." I'm so grateful for these blessings that the Lord has entrusted to us and LOVE the memories we're making with them!

143 Days

That's how long it's been since Lon and I had our room to ourselves! But we're finally there once again! We finally got Joey's crib all set up (thanks to good friends Jen and Travis) and have booted him upstairs! After quite a bit of crying, he finally settled in to his new digs. Here's hoping that he'll love them so much, he'll sleep all the way through the night or will at least live through me ignorning his crying so that I can train him to sleep all through the night! I must say, after three girls, it was fun to put on little sheets and blankets that had trucks and boats and such!

And this picture was just for posterity's sake because one day these little feet won't be quite so little and I want to be able to remember them just like this:

Lesson 5438 of Parenting: Don't Leave Dishwater Unattended

This is what I discovered this morning when I finished washing dishes and just left the water in the sink to go and tend to something else: Abby playing in the sink saying "Bubbie, bubbie" over and over!!

Bound To Make You Laugh A Little

I delight in listening to the things these girls say each day. They can be quite entertaining! Sometimes I can even remember them well enough to write them down. I knew that diaper changes would prove to be interesting and trigger a few questions once we had a boy in the family. We have chosen to just be honest in answering the question "What's that?" when asked. Because of such, the word "penis" is often bandied about at times other than diaper changes. This can make for some pretty funny conversations. The other day, Sarah Grace asked, "Mom what is the first planet?" I told her it was Mercury. She said, "What's the second planet?" I said "Venus." Do you see where this is going? She then said, "Like Joey has a penis!" I said, "No, Sarah Grace, Venus. With a V." She also informed me a couple of weeks ago that "when Joey grows up, he won't have a penis anymore". Not sure where she got that information, but I tried to correct it! Never boring around here, I promise.

We've often discussed what good little lawyers children can be. You know, when you tell them they can't do something and then you find out they've done it and you call them on it and they try to get off on a technicality. At this point, Lainey is especially good at it. I heard her arguing with Sarah Grace yesterday and Sarah Grace said, "Hey, you kicked me, " to which Lainey said, "It was more like a push." Maybe the answer to my college fund quandries is a scholarship to law school!!

College Fund?

With four kids, wondering how we're going to pay for college is always somewhere in the back of my mind. Well, it seems that Lainey is thinking about it as well, but she's planning on starting much sooner than even I had anticipated. I overheard Lainey and Sarah Grace talking yesterday morning and something was said about Sarah Grace being 8 at some point. Lainey said, "I'll be 14 then." I said, "No, Laine, you'll be 11." She said, "Oh, I'll be 11. I bet I'll be in college then." Guess I need to double up on how many pennies I'm putting into the college fund!!

Ramblings from a Mild Mannered Mother

I don't know if many of you faithful readers (and if you're faithful at reading this, I commend you because I'm sure not faithful at writing) have seen the movie Jerry Maguire but there's a kid in it who is constantly spouting of facts to anyone who will listen to him. He is perhaps most often quoted as saying something to the effect of "The human head weighs 8 pounds." Add to this line, a slight lisp, a spiky hairdo, and some cute little glasses and you'll understand why movie viewers loved him. My point in telling you this is not so that you'll run down to the local video store (do people still do that? or does everyone just watch stuff on the computer now?) and rent this classic movie from 13 years ago. Rather, it is to share with you that Lainey has now entered the phase of spouting off random facts to any and everyone who will listen. I LOVE how much she reads and just takes it all in. I think she remembers everything. Today she said to me, "Mom, sea lions and seals are cousins." She also shared several other oceanic facts, but, unlike her, they just didn't stick in my head. Homeschooling is going very well this year and I'm really enjoying it. Lainey seems to be excited about learning things and amazes me with her abilities. That's a proud parent and teacher talking and this is MY blog, so I can brag. Thank you.

We laugh quite often at Sarah Grace and her little sayings that don't come out quite like most everyone else. It sort of makes my heart ache when she gets it "right" and stops using her version of things. Her latest phrase is "later often" instead of "later on". As in, "Mom, later often can we watch a movie?"

Abby is talking more and more these days. Like Sarah Grace at this age, every animal she sees says "neigh" unless it's a bird and then it says "cack cack" like a duck. My dear friend Jana gave us a wooden rocking "cow" the other day. It was handmade by a man from Texas and even though it has long horns and is a steer, she, being the diehard OU fan, refuses to call it a Texas Longhorn. Anyhooo, when Abby wants to ride it, she has to have a little help to get on it. As she is unable to say to me (yet) "Mother, please I'd like to ride the rocking horse. Could you please assist me in getting on?", she comes to me and says, "Neigh, neigh, neigh, neigh" over and over until I get a clue and put her on. And when she rides, she RIDES noholdsbarred!!! It seems that today, Abby really mastered saying "Joey" instead of "Jo-jo". Again, this is one of those moments when I wish I could slow time down just a little bit. I want him to always be "Jo-jo".

Our token little male is just awesome. He weighed in at 12 pounds 13 ounces last week and is growing like a weed. He is long and lean. He has mastered rolling over and can also get from his tummy to his back, especially when he's mad that I have not retrieved him from his bed as quickly as he might like. He smiles all the time and had several really good laughs tonight. He warms his mama's heart!

It's interesting to me the looks and comments I get when I take all 4 kids out in public somewhere at the same time. I get comments like ,"4?" and "You've got 4?" and "You've got your hands full!" and my least favorite "You finally got a boy!" as though there was something inferior with our 3 beautiful girls and we've finally got one worth hanging on to! I guess to an outsider looking in, it does appear to be a fairly busy life we lead, but as the one who's in the middle of it, I must say, "it's just life". It's what I know. Do I even remember what it was like to parent just 1 child? Barely. I think it's great training for these little kids to grow up in a home where they have to think of others above themselves and where they learn the importance of multitasking. On a good day, I can pay bills on the computer, get a knot out of a shoelace, remember the location of most all things in the house (except the DVD remote which has been missing since before we left for NC) and make 3 different breakfasts all before 8:00. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit (it's usually 8:30), but my point is, "it's what we do". Yep, I've got 4 and yep, they're all very close together, but I can't imagine it any other way. One day, they'll all be grown up and the house will be quiet and I'll be sad because I'll finally know where the DVD remote is, but won't have anyone here asking to watch one!