Jolly Old St. Nick (& Other Christmas Pix)

The weekend before Christmas, we took the kiddos to a nearby park that has all kinds of different Christmas lights set up. We took in the lights, then went into the log cabin for hot cocoa, cookies and Santa. (They know he's just a guy dressed up like Santa, but still think it's fun to sit on his lap - except for Kari Bou, who sat as far away as possible!) I thought the picture turned out to be pretty cute, except for one thing: isn't St. Nick supposed to be jolly? This one looked a little bored and /or disgusted to me. It sort of reminded me of the Santa in A Christmas Story, which we watched, of course, on Christmas Eve.

There are way too many cute pictures for me to post all of them, but here are a few that topped the list:



The munchkins on Christmas Sunday. I LOVE dressing the boys in sweater-vests, and I guess I'd better do it while I can. As a friend with older children told me, in about 6 years they won't be caught dead in them.



Malachi hit it off with Grandma Wright ("Gramoo"), when we spent the day with the Wright side of the family on Christmas Eve. A highlight of his day was getting to spit up all over her Christmas sweater.







The Year of the Babies! In 2007 all three pastors' wives at our church have given birth; as well as all three Miller sisters (5 babies total, since I'm in both categories!). So quite a few babies whose parents I dearly love just had their very first Christmas this year. (Top pic: Malachi with Audrey, born in July, and Owen, born in April. Bottom pic: Malachi with Luke, born in February, and Addie, born in May.)



Christmas morning. I think Danny and I were more excited than the kids. After last year's breakfast debacle, we went with a meal of cold cereal and juice; finished our advent tree & read the Christmas story; and then tore into the gifts.



And good times were had by all . . .



After our little family Christmas, we piled kids, food, gifts, chairs and the kitchen sink into our van and drove down to celebrate Christmas with the Miller side of the family. Malachi spent a lot of time with Grandpa Miller, and they shared some good laughs.

And yes - our tree lasted until the day after Christmas this year! That's one day longer than last year's tree. And now I'm headed off to tackle the imposing mountain of too-small clothes I've weeded from the kids' closets over the past couple of weeks. . . many of which were purchased around the beginning of the school year . . .

Things You Never Wanted to Know

I've been tagged again! I'm supposed to share five random facts about myself and then tag several others. I'm not going to tag anyone else, but what could be more fun than writing about myself?? So here are five facts about me that I'll bet most of you didn't know (and will probably wish you hadn't found out). . .

1. When I was a young child, my exhausted mother used to send my sisters and me to bed for a nap every day, during which time I kept myself occupied by picking my nose and using the contents to make designs on the wallpaper by my bed.

2. Danny and I adopted a little gray Holland Lop bunny shortly after we were married. We named him "Larry", but more often than not, referred to him as "Bubba".

3. One of my favorite things to receive at Christmas is striped socks.

4. I just started doing a Zumba class (a workout incorporating various types of Latin dance). I discovered it actually is possible to have a blast, while at the same time feeling like a bumbling klutz.

5. One summer during my college years, I worked in the skip-trace department of Bank One with my sister. So determined were we to save money for school, we parked almost a mile away from the bank, where the parking was free; packed our lunches every day; and worked our hineys off to locate debtors for daily bonus money (something like $4.00). On the weekends, we gave plasma for book money. For exercise, we climbed the stairs in our building during breaks (it was the tallest building in the city - I don't remember how many levels, but there were a LOT). Yeah, we were just a little crazy.

6. One more bonus fact: This is the first year I haven't gotten all giddy over Christmas, starting in October. I haven't really gotten into the Christmas spirit until this past week. Maybe this year we'll leave our tree up until the day after Christmas!

Wright Family 2007 Year in Review

Since there's way too much to put into one post, I'll try to stick to the highlights . . .

This has been a year of beginnings for us all; I'll elaborate as we go on. And I'll start with the family member whose very life has just begun.

Malachi Joel shot into the world at about 10 to midnight on October 3rd. It's hard to believe he's over 2 months old already, and it's hard to imagine our family without him. The comment we get most is, "Wow, he really doesn't look like any of your other kids," closely followed by "What's that smell?" He actually looks a lot like his daddy did at his age, and he daily melts his mommy's heart. He is adored (a little too much at times) by his older siblings; the little dude receives dozens of slobbery kisses and bear hugs daily. For the first 8 weeks he used his lungs pretty often, but he seems to have gotten over the worst of it. His accomplishments include: holding his head up, smiling, cooing, and waving his arms wildly. He is the sweetest little baby in the world.

Karis Hope (Kari Bou) continues to live up to her reputation as the "armor-plated rhino". She's tough, she's loud, she's ornery, and she's all over the place. Lucky for her, she has the ability to smile and laugh her way out of just about anything. She loves to sing "Jesus, Lamb of God" while she's in her room waiting for a spanking, and her next favorite thing is to come into the bathroom in the morning and ask, "You puttin' on you makeup, Mama?" She started using the potty in June and celebrated her 2nd birthday in August. In September she began going to Sunday School for 2's & 3's, where she learned her first Bible verse. She loves to help out by throwing away dirty diapers for me - she gets very upset if anyone else tries to take her "job" away. She makes sure I get plenty of exercise chasing her around; and she also makes sure everyone in the family gets lots of hugs and kisses. She's super affectionate and loves to snuggle.

Rachel Nicole has had a big year. She turned five in August, and started Kindergarten in September. Her teacher is a very warm and nurturing person, and won Rachel's heart almost immediately. She loves seeing her friends every day, and is beginning to read and write full sentences. Her hair suits her personality - bouncy and fun (and a little out of control!). She is very nurturing with Malachi and Karis, and just plain bossy with Zekers, which, I suppose, is a pretty typical first-born girl trait (I should know!). Fitting adjectives to describe Rach would be: social; emotional; dramatic; expressive; nurturing; affectionate; sensitive and perceptive. It amazes me how she can often sense when I'm worn out and goes out of her way to thank me for dinner, or tells me she loves me. Sometimes I wish she understood the concept of personal space a little better; but I do love her sweet hugs and kisses. She's growing up so fast.

Ezekiel James (lovingly known as "Zekers" or "Mr. Beef") is three and a half, and continues to be his own little person. His favorite things include: dressing up as a cowboy; pretending to be a dog; talking incessantly about the trip we took to the pumpkin patch this fall; high school and college-age girls (no joke!); trains; Lightning and Mater (from Cars); and riding his big wheel at breakneck speed. He has a mind of his own - we've had to learn to choose our battles with him very carefully! He never seems to be paying attention to anything, but the other day I went through some flash cards with him and discovered he can easily identify 20 letters of the alphabet. When Rachel gets stuck on one of her verses, he finishes it for her. And I just found out he knows several vowel and many consonant sounds, probably from hearing me work with Rach. He is certainly a little man full of surprises . . . and quite possibly the slowest eater in the midwest! He gives wonderful bear hugs, and loves it when I sing "The Dream Song" from Cinderella to him at night.

This year our senior pastor moved to North Carolina, and Danny officially became the Pastor of Teaching & Adult Ministries. It has been, and will continue to be, a learning process, but he feels (and I would agree) that this is what he was made to do. He does a wonderful job juggling all his ministry responsibilities, as well as the responsibilities that greet him whenever he walks into his home! He has had the privilege of officiating seven weddings this summer/fall. We were able to meet with four of the couples for 4-5 sessions of premarital counseling, which we both really enjoyed (and hopefully they did too!).

As for me, I guess you could say this year held nothing new - just one more pregnancy and baby. But each new life is an unmistakable reminder of God's unmerited favor in our lives. Now, learning to be efficient and organized enough to mother 4 children without completely losing my mind . . . well, I'll let you know if and when that happens! It's often just (barely) controlled chaos around our house; usually I love it. Christmas has presented a bit of a challenge for me this year (which is why you are reading this update on a blog and not in a nice hand-made card with a long personal note!), but I've found that I enjoy cooking large meals and bargain shopping and all the happy noise that comes with having a family of six. And God has gifted us with a larger family of friends and relatives, which includes you. How thankful we are for your love and friendship.

And how thankful we are for the manger, the cross and the empty tomb, which make possible never-ending life with Christ. We pray that this Christmas will turn all our hearts and our minds to Him as we seek to bring Him glory.

Merry Christmas!!

I'm a Big Kid Now

It's hard to believe that my little Malachi is 2 months old already. We went to the doctor today - he weighs 12 lbs and is a whopping 25 inches long. He got pretty angry by the time he'd had his fourth shot, but about 5 minutes later fell fast asleep and has spent most of the day that way.

Things are slowly starting to improve. He's gradually crying less and smiling more (or maybe we just don't notice the noise as much anymore!). I asked the doctor about it today and he said it sounds like colic. Of course, to date, no one has been able to actually define colic, except as a state of constant crying; much less come up with a way to remedy it. It's supposed to go away after 2-3 months, so we're in the home stretch (hopefully!).

He's started sleeping longer at night. I usually put him down around 9:30 and he wakes up to eat around 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30. It works out pretty well for me - I shower and get a few things done after his 5:30 feeding before the other kiddos wake up. He takes 3 naps during the day and eats about every 2.5 - 3 hours. Not a bad little schedule.


My little man just absolutely melts his mommy. He loves his 2:30 am feeding; afterward he just smiles and coos and becomes the happiest baby - maybe because no one is jumping on him or smothering him with kisses while he's trying to eat, or yelling in his ear or trying to feed him a cracker. It's just baby and Mommy time, and I have to say, I will miss that part of it when he starts sleeping through the night. He's also taken quite a shine to his big brother. All Zekers has to do is start talking to him, and his little face just lights up and he tries so hard to talk back. It cracks me up.

So here is a picture of our happy little guy. Words cannot describe his sweetness. I am completely and utterly smitten. End of story.

Giving Thanks and Cutting Trees

It's been a week, but I am finally putting up some pics from Thanksgiving. . . .

We spent Thursday with Danny's side of the family - his dad, mom, sister and her family, and grandma Thomas; and they were all really good sports about Malachi, who cried pretty much all day long, with a few short breaks when he slept. The kiddos had a blast playing with their cousins, Quinn and Ian, and we only had one minor mishap, when the end table hit Rachel in the head (her words). We wolfed down manicotti, a Wright family Thanksgiving tradition, and had a very fun and relaxing time. We even managed to photograph all of the cousins together, although Malachi was none too pleased with the arrangement!

Friday we headed to my parents' house and spent part of the day with them, my younger sister and her family and our grandparents. We attempted a family Christmas photo, but with the kiddos, you only get about 2 tries before they've reached their limit with sitting still and looking at the camera (sort of). Danny and I disagree on this one - he thinks we should send this picture out, and I have to admit, I love the idea of not having to go through taking another one, but I hate to spend that much moolah sending a picture to all our out-of-town friends where Zekers just looks so angry. Sigh . . .

Saturday we took our annual trek out to Sickle's Christmas Tree Farm and cut a tree. This year we decided to go a little smaller and ended up getting a 5-footer, 2 feet shorter than last year's tree. For the first time since we started this tradition 6 years ago, I was in no mood to go out and cut a tree in the cold and wind, but the kids would have been devastated by my "bah-humbuggedness", so off we went, and had our tree cut within the first 5 minutes of our arrival. I'm not posting a picture of our sad little tree - suffice it to say the thing looked much better at the farm. But Rach and Zekers had a blast stringing colored lights and hanging ornaments, and we put the tree up on a little table in front of the window, so from the outside it looks pretty festive. Kari Bou found her own little "tree" and posed with it oh-so-proudly. The guy who seemed to be in charge of things told me to email the pic to them and they'll put it on their website. I'll post a link to it if they do.

This weekend we've done a lot of Christmas shopping and cookie-making. Now that Zekers is old enough to help, he was put in charge of sprinkles, while Rachel and I worked on frosting them - stars, bells, Christmas trees and gingerbread men, who mostly ended up like Tiny Tim and the Headless Horseman! Good times . . .