Snow Much Fun!

We had our first snowfall of the year and the kids had a blast as always.  I stayed in my robe, snapped a few pictures, and headed back inside to enjoy the day from in front of the fire place. 

Marc's parents found an old sled from when he was growing up so of course Marc had to try it out.

And for some reason this crazy dog wanted to rub her head in the snow.

Sledding fun!

All three of these girls were having the best time playing in the snow. I wonder what they would do if they ever had more than a few inches to play in. 

The same dog who was rubbing her head in the snow decided that she wanted to warm up on my nice, clean laundry. Not happening.

I am so thankful for the snow days that the girls (and their daddy) can enjoy and for the home from where inside I can watch their adventures.

Celebrating Brooke

We had a great day celebrating this special one.  I can't even count the number of times she has been sung "Happy Birthday" and she loves it every time.

She looks so grown up!

Daddy spoiled her with this Frozen tent to put on her bed.  It makes changing her sheets nearly impossible for me, but she just loves sleeping in it.  And our little middle of the night visitor doesn't come around much anymore. 

Oh how I love this girl!

Checking out a present from her cousins.

Happy birthday sweet girl! We love you so much and have loved celebrating you this week!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

As I sit down to write this post there is one excited little girl who is having a hard time going to sleep.  Every morning for the past week the first thing she says when she wakes up is how many days until her birthday. How she is that coherent as soon as she wakes up I'll never know.  She obviously doesn't get that trait from either of her parents.

You are a spunky little girl who keeps us on our toes.  You are developing quite the sense of humor and you love making us laugh.  In fact you love it so much that you keep repeating whatever it is that got us laughing in the first place.

Some of your favorite things this year are:

Food: Deli meat, yogurt, fruit, cheese, pasta

Restaurants: Sweet Tomato and Brooklyn Joes (or Broken Joes as you often call it)
Things to do: play Minecraft (a skill that blows me away every time I watch you play it),
playing with your sisters, dolls, and watching TV
TV show: Sophia the First and PJ Masks
Movies: pretty much any movie

Nickname: Baby Bear

You played your second season of soccer this year and loved it. You are also still taking a ballet and tap class.

Kindergarten is halfway over and you are doing an amazing job in school.  You love your teachers and have made many new friends this year. You are picking up reading skills so quickly and easily.  Books are one of your favorite things and it is such a joy to listen to you read them. You make school look easy!

This was also the summer you became a world traveler. We planned a summer vacation to Mexico and so you took your first airplane ride. The vacation was amazing and you had a great time showing off all of your new swimming skills. 

We then had an unexpected trip to Australia! Five years old and you traveled to the other side of the world. The plane ride was LONG, but you didn't complain once.  Well except for the food they served you.  ha! We did so much walking on this trip and I know it wore you out, but you rarely complained.  In fact it was on this trip that you gained a new nickname: Little Legs. You did your best keeping up with us in the miles and miles of walking we did. 

And you still don't like getting wet if you aren't wearing a bathing suit.  Some things don't change. 

Brooke, 

You are such a ray of sunshine in our family. Your smile lights up the room and we love to hear your big belly laughs. You know what you want, how you want it, and when you want it. Quick decisions are one of your specialties, and that is completely unlike me. Your teachers are always telling me how sweet you are and I'd have to agree that you have some extra sweetness bubbling over inside of you. Let's see if you can learn to show some more of that to your sisters this year. :) You are so dearly loved and I am incredibly grateful that God decided that you would be the one to make our family complete.  I can't imagine my life without you.

I'll love you always and forever,

Mommy

Things I Learned (or re-learned) in 2015 - by Marc

1. My wife is so smart. 

 

2. I've been fortunate enough to eat curry in England, foie gras in France, and kangaroo in Australia this year. I'm so glad I'm an American. 

 

3. The time it takes to build two tables and four benches is inversely proportional to the amount of rain in the weather forecast. It's amazing how quickly the project in the garage gets wrapped up when it isn't going to stop raining for days. 

 

4. Sitting by a heater overlooking the Sydney harbour during a late dinner on the first day in Australia is not a good idea. Fortunately my dinner company was understanding of the whole jet lag thing. 

 

5. My wife is directionally challenged, but somehow when in Australia she was basically awesome. She navigated Sydney's public transportation on her own with the three kids and saw all sorts of exciting things with them! 

 

6. Taking your wife and 3 daughters on a pirate cruise in Mexico to celebrate your anniversary probably isn't the best idea. 

 

7. Meeting new cousin kids/babies and spending time with like-minded Duttons from far away is great fun. 

 

8. Selling a much-use-used van is a nerve-wracking process, even if the buyer is taking it as-is. After prayer and some quick googling, the check engine light went off, the idle speeds were reset, and the engine temperature dropped back down to normal - 5 minutes before the van buyer showed up! 

 

9. Buying a used vehicle is worse than playing the lottery. If you lose the lottery, you are only out whatever you put into it. However if you buy a lemon used vehicle, you not only have to return it, but then you have to go through the whole car-buying process again.

 

10. Returning a just-bought used vehicle is really easy! No questions asked, and got my refund check in 5 minutes! 

 

11. Taking your daughters ice skating for the first time is painful but so worth it. 

 

12. Brooke has really good aim in tennis. Unfortunately she likes to hit the ball right back at my head.

 

13. Children are very perceptive when they listen to political candidates debate. They tell it like it is (the kids, not the candidates). 

 

14. Giving up a first class seat on an airplane is so worth it to have my family with me wherever I am, even if I’m working while they play.

 

15. Rainbows in Australia are not upside down. 

 

16. Our God is a mighty God.

 

17. Kids can sleep through dinner at Hard Rock Cafe if they are tired/jet-lagged enough. 

 

18. Garage door openers are very susceptible to lightning strikes, especially when I'm overseas. Surge protectors are my friend now. 

 

19. My wife and kids LOVE to travel. 

 

20. Finishing a basement is fun for awhile.

 

21. Working with the Wednesday night preschoolers at church for 216 weeks felt like a really long time, but now that it's over, it was so worth it. 

 

22. Judges are real people too. 

 

23. Time with friends and family is extremely valuable and should not be taken for granted.

Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas Day. It started with a laid back morning with my favorite people in the world and we ended the day at my mom's house. Brooke wanted to get her daddy this container of M&M's and she was so excited when it was finally time for him to unwrap it.

Books are always a huge hit.  I think this girl got 7-8 books for Christmas and she had finished all of them before school started back. Now she is going through withdrawal....

Oh how they love each other... most of the time. :)

Kayla traded out her old Pottery Barn chair for this more grown up one. It is so soft and comfortable that I may steal it.

This was a Little Live Pets and Shopkins kind of Christmas.

The girls also got new headphones for Christmas which they didn't think anything about.  We had an old portable DVD set up in the car and they have been using their earbuds.  But when we left to go to my mom's house they found out the reason they received those headphones. Fun surprises!

 

 

 

And in no time at all this is what my mom's living room floor looked like. 10 people make a lot of trash. ha!

The big hit of the day were the bow and arrows that all of the girls got. They have had fun shooting these off.

 The rest of Marc's family didn't arrive until the 27th so we celebrated Christmas then as well. The girls always have such a good time when they get together with their cousins.

And we finished up the family time with a friendly round of laser tag. I'll have to admit that I have never played laser tag before. I'm terrified of being chased. Marc learned very early on not to come up quickly behind me on the stairs. It wasn't good for either of us. I'm not sure if something traumatized me early in my life, but I hate it.  So I've had no desire what-so-ever to play in a dark room where people are running around trying to shoot me with laser beams. But, it's amazing what a mama will do for her babies. And I have to say, we had a good time.

Doesn't it look like Marc has his gun pointed at my head? hmmm....

Christmas in the Kitchen

The first few pictures were from some holiday baking we did earlier in the month.

 The girls decorated gingerbread houses - which by the way gets easier every year. :)

And they made and decorated sugar cookies. The sugar cookies won the first battle against me, but ultimately I won the war. Macy decided she wanted to make these cookies while at the store with her daddy.  So what does every great daddy do? He looks up a recipe and purchases the needed ingredients.  Then he lets the mommy make the cookies. No problem, I like to bake, but I quickly remembered how much I hate working with sugar cookie dough.  I just about dumped the entire batch in the garbage, but super fun dad walked in at that exact moment.  Instead of hurling it into the garbage I hurled put it back in the bowl and told him that he was now in charge. Bless him.  So after that nightmare he told me I had to make royal icing to decorate them. In several colors. His life was spared when he found cookie icing at the store. But in the end the girls (and us grown ups) had a fun time decorating. I'm just not sure it was fun enough to do it again next year.

  This was our 4th year hosing a Christmas Eve brunch at our house.  It's always such a lot of work, but it is so worth it.  We love opening our home up to family and friends, and there is always plenty of yummy food to eat.

Yum! Yum!