2014 was a pretty good year for all of us.  We all survived, and still like each other, so I am going to count it as a win.

Aaron: This year Aaron did the unthinkable and stayed at his job for over a year.  As of right now he is at almost 1.5 years, and his wife has demanded he remain there until she has her baby because it has excellent benefits.  Like paying him dollars and such.  For Christmas he received a smoker from Santa and a cool book on curing and smoking meats and looks forward to opening his own fancy salami and other cured meats shop shortly.  He was happy to build the largest snowman in the neighborhood after the first major snow, putting all other neighborhood dads to shame.  Aaron’s other major accomplishment this year was reaching 2.5 years of living in the same place, which is the longest he has lived anywhere ever!!!

Kelsey: This year Kelsey did what she seems to have been doing continuously for the past almost 7 years.  That’s right, growing yet another human and complaining about how horrible it is and how stupid she was to do it again.  She really is grateful but is not good at expressing that sentiment.  Kelsey read probably 2 or 3 books and 2 or 3 magazines so she considers it a pretty productive year.  Oh, she maybe made some quilts too.  Kelsey’s 2015 resolutions include having a baby and never getting pregnant again.  And also keeping everyone alive.

Harmon: In October Harmon managed to turn 6, despite his wishes from age 2 on to never get older.  He seems to be taking it in stride, as birthdays seem to yield more precious legos than he can afford from his day job earnings.  Harmon has started Kindergarten at the closest school we could find, our house.  He loves it, and so does his teacher and classmates.  When not building/fixing/thinking about/watching or creating reviews about legos, Harmon enjoys playing outside for hours (heat or snow) and playing all sorts of games with Sammy.  While you shouldn’t brag, this is my blog (and I will do as I please!), so I will add that Harmon is ridiculously smart, sweet, sensitive, and we love him to death.

Sammy: In December Sammy reached the ripe old age of 5.  Sammy has an infectious smile that saves her from trouble on many occasions.  Sammy loves art of any kind and can be found doing projects for hours on end.  One of her favorite activities besides drawing includes cutting paper into teeny tiny pieces.  I think it goes without saying this is not her mother’s favorite activity.  Sammy is a great big sister and is constantly playing with/tormenting Allison.  Sammy is also known for her fierceness, both against members of her family, but also in defending her older brother from “rude kids” in play areas at fast food restaurants.  She is awesome and we likewise adore her bright personality and love her to death.

Allison: If there was ever a better age than 2 I wouldn’t believe it.  Allison (who coincidentally turned 2 in November) is a wild maniac who enjoys doing somersaults off the couch, running through the house in her underwear, and destroying whatever her siblings build.  She also enjoys keeping up with the chatterboxes in the house, both in amount of words uttered and decibel level.  Allison’s favorite thing is Michelangelo the ninja turtle, whom she affectionately calls MikeyAngelo.  Allison loves reading books, going outside for walks with her daddy, playing stuffed animals with Sammy, and trying to get in the middle of whatever Harmon is doing.  She is a good eater, and we hope someday the older kids will learn from her.  Allison is super charming and keeps us laughing.  I think it goes without saying that we love her to death.

Baby #4: He is a boy.  His hobbies include having the hiccups and making his mother cry with pain while expanding her rib cage with a vice.  Luckily he has funny heels that tickle and if he doesn’t stay in too long he may be forgiven.  He should appear in the end of March, but his mother suspects he will wait until April 1st because that is just funnier.

We are blessed.  The End.

(Kelsey making 7-layer dip and putting the olives on top)
Harmon: We are going to call that Olive Garden, because there are olives, and the cheese looks like a garden.

Sammy: (Angry at Aaron for brushing her teeth, rubbing her fingers all over the inside of her mouth) I am putting the germs back on!!!

Ten or so minutes later I hear more hysterical yelling from the yard.  By the time I stop cooking or whatever I was doing (ok, maybe I was on Facebook, I don’t remember anymore) and come to the back door, Aaron is stripping off all of Sammy’s clothes because there are more ants on her.  This time they aren’t just passively crawling on her, they are biting her.  Poor thing only got a few bites, but they were pretty red and irritated, so again I can’t say the yelling was unjustified.  After a shower to make sure all the ants were gone she finally stopped crying and calmed down.  But we got to hear about it all that evening and all the next day, how mean the ants were and the locations of all her bite from the mean ants.

And now strangely enough she has a strong aversion to ants and the back corner of our yard.  Can’t say I blame her.

(Aaron’s defense: “You bought all these clothes!”)

After a week they tired of Gracie and Simba, and became Rapunzel and Eugene (from Tangled, can you tell we’ve been watching a lot of movies?) almost exclusively.  “Look at Rapunzel’s long hair!”  “Eugene doesn’t want to go potty!”

Moving into the third week, it is hard to know what my children’s names are.  Sometimes I will call for Sammy and Harmon only to be told that is not their names.  Then I will call for Simba and Nala only to be told I am wrong again.  After trying Rapunzel and Eugene and being rejected again I finally give up and say if you won’t tell me what your names are then I will just call you Harmon and Sammy.  (It’s like a game of Rumpelstiltskin)  This threat will generally cause them to tell me their newly chosen name and finally I can get out whatever it is I wanted them to do in the first place.

I don’t really remember ever asking to be called something else, although I do remember sometimes wishing I had a different name.  Of course if my mother reads this maybe she can correct me, as I don’t ever remember being 2 or 3.

I came running up and Kelsey came running down — I was working and she was making salchipapas. After a few minutes Sammy was calmed down. She was apparently uninjured. But the discussion around dinner revolved around her fall.

“I went holey moley!” she said repeatedly, describing her fall with a smile. I think she meant “rollie pollie”, but whatever. At least she’s alright.

Yesterday I bought a full sheet set to begin the project. This morning I was delightfully surprised to find when you cut the pillowcases open they were just slightly longer than the width and height of our table (enter side pieces). And then to find that the flat sheet was pretty much perfect for the top and remaining sides. Just under one hour of time and ta-da! A hastily built but already loved fort. Sure it’s not as cute as the one that the other lady built, but it sure makes quick and easy fort building. Maybe someday I will hem the door, make straps, etc. Yeah right. My next problem will be how to get the kids out to do anything else…

Welcome to our fort…

Looking out the back

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Fort naughtiness update:
About one minute after I wrote this (while the kids were happily playing in the new fort) I went downstairs to rinse out some laundry. I came back up and was pleased with how nicely the kids were playing in the fort together, no arguing, hitting, etc. I thought I would open the little door and peek at them just to see how cute they were. But sure enough, since they were getting along there was trouble going on. Upon lifting the door flap I found them huddled over Sammy’s snack plate with the carton of eggs, one having already been neatly cracked onto it. In Sammy’s hand was another egg which she looked about ready to break open, and Harmon told me “we were just having some eggs for a snack!” Nice.

Fast forward a few months. Every night as Sammy goes to bed she will hug you and tell you “you’re my best friend!” something she learned from Harmon a while back. It is ridiculously sweet and heart-melting, making you forget about all the trouble she caused in the day time. And will cause in 2 minutes from then when she is supposed to be sleeping. Back to the point. In the last week she has gotten obsessed with the topic of when she grows up she is going to get married and get a ring. When she is a grown-up she will be getting this ring. (Of course the list of who she is marrying includes Mommy, Daddy, Harmon, and Andrew…) So now, every night after “you’re my best friend!” she adds “I will share my ring with you. I will break it in half!” That’s right, my 2-year-old is so nice, she will break her wedding ring in half to share with me. And what’s more, she says she will break some for Daddy, and some for Harmon. At first I had my doubts, but after I have seen the way she shares her last bit of ice cream with me, I am starting to believe it.

Additionally here is Sammy’s excellent dancing at a birthday party.

Then we moved.  Now the kids are again sleeping on twin mattresses pushed together into one giant bed.  I have been so lazy (in part because I have been doing 99% of the putting to bed because of Aaron’s foot problems and the kids’ mommy-neediness due to the new living situation) I have been snuggling between them until they fall asleep.  This is a long and often frustrating process.  Additionally because they are sleeping in essentially the same bed, they wake each other up all night long.  For some reason even though they go to bed in normal positions, they end up like this:

This means that I end up in their room every night, and because I am too tired I just stay in their bed.  And get kicked.  And half-sleep.  It’s horrible.  I mostly just wrote this blog to whine, but I think instead I will go back to the snuggle-read-beds-apart situation so I can get some sleep.  Wish me luck.

(P.S. Harmon doesn’t really have half brown and half black hair.  I am just too lazy to go fix it.)