December 13-20

The rather large Kaitlyn update:
-She has another tooth.  This puts her at five and means that her teething cold is temporarily absent again.
-She can pull herself to standing.  She cannot be left unattended in this state because her balance and judgement are poor.
-Her coordination has improved enough that all small things go directly into her mouth.  No matter how often the floor is swept, she WILL find some tasty tidbit to sample.
-She babbles using many different syllables and tries to imitate words with absolutely no success.  :)
-She eats a wide variety of foods but favors squash and "whatever mom is eating."

I have less to report on Gretchen and Olivia.  They can trash a playroom with alarming alacrity, but cleaning up is like pulling teeth.  They play with each other all the time and only fight occasionally.  Oh, and they helped me fill a box: I told Olivia that there was a little girl that didn't have any toys so we were going to give her some of ours.  She responded by helping me fill a box with various toys, stuffed animals, and dress-up clothes for the little girl.  Her ready generosity shocked me and I reiterated several times that we were giving these away forever.  I tried not to veto any items, though, unless they were ones Gretchen played with all the time, and soon we had a full box.  Now I'm trying to find a little girl to deliver it to, because simply dropping it off at a local thrift store or shelter doesn't mean much to a four-year-old.

I baked a mountain of stollen and we drove around town to hand it out to people.  Of course, we picked the coldest, windiest day so far this winter, so few people were out and about.  :/

The girls and Bryan put up the Christmas tree and decorated it yesterday.  Olivia and Gretchen were very excited to put all the beautiful things on the tree.  Kaitlyn was excited to beat on the boxes.

Today we're headed to Sidney for a Christmas party and then we're spending the week with Bryan's family.  Actually, we're spending it with several members of my family, too: Josef, Jacob, and Jacque are coming with us.  :)  After Christmas we'll be back home and the Bossards will be joining us at our house.  Now if I could only get that Christmas letter written...

Pictures and Video:

Video password BarhorstBrewed
Kaitlyn Terrorizes Her Sisters

Big scary Kaitlyn:

The refrigerator:

The refrigerator box:

Stollen:

The tree: