December 24-31

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas twice since St. Stephen's is currently without a priest.  The bishop gave his blessing for the Christmas liturgy to be celebrated on Sunday with the substitute priest.  We had the service, the festal potluck, and a relaxing evening of dinner and games with the Creightons.  Then on Monday we went to Catholic Mass, opened our first day's presents, and made a Christmas duck (!) for dinner.

Jacob and Jillian drove in on Monday afternoon.  This made Bryan especially happy because Mom, Dad, and James arrived late Monday night early Tuesday morning and Jacob was willing to go pick them up from the airport.  Jacque and Will came in Tuesday afternoon.  The Bossards were unfortunately detained due to sickness, but we did get to see them on Saturday.  Bishop PAUL decided to visit for the church feast day, so we had liturgy with the bishop on Wednesday morning.  Jacob and Jillian left Wednesday afternoon to go help Joe propose to Angelina on Thursday evening, after which they all came back to our house.  On Friday the Eichers and Aufdemberges came to visit and after the kids went to bed we did the secret Santa gift exchange (Justine and Joseph video called in).  Jacob left Friday night for work related reasons.  The Bossards, now free from sickness, arrived Saturday afternoon just in time to say hello-goodbye to dad before Bryan took him to the airport.  The Smiths left a few hours later.  We still have the Bossards through tomorrow, Joe, Angelina, and Jillian through Monday, and Mom and James until Friday.

We played a lot of games and ate a lot of Christmas cookies this week.  Peppermint ice cream was consumed with homemade hot fudge.  Bryan has a new video game called Super Mario Maker and he designed levels for people to play.  We played a few new board games and convinced James to play Splendor, Carcassone, and Forbidden Island with Olivia.  Jacque and Will got the girls a new game, Hullabaloo, that they enjoy playing by themselves.  The week was quite enjoyable.  :)

Matthias is in 12 month clothes, has a second tooth, and grabs his toes.  My siblings were quite impressed with his baby planks as well as with his "superman," which I'm guessing is a stretch where you put all your limbs in the air while you balance on your stomach.

Olivia thinks her godmother is a fairy godmother.  After receiving a gift from her godmother, she wanted to know if she also had a fairy godfather.  She does.  Then she wondered how else her fairy godmother might help her in her life.  Justine seemed pleased with this designation.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: A Quest for Four Smiles

December 17-24

Olivia and Gretchen had a dance recital last Sunday.  They were in The Nutcracker: All Jazzed Up.  I have a vague idea of how The Nutcracker goes, which is the only reason I could follow what was happening on stage at all.  Bryan just saw a series of disconnected dances that claimed to be part of an overarching story line.  Olivia was a wildflower and Gretchen was a lavender angel.  I need to invest in some hairspray for next time.  Their buns were fine when I left them in the dressing room, but by the time they got on stage they both had wisps of hair in their faces.  Poor Olivia was pushing hair out of her eyes after every other step.

Matthias is definitely a thumb sucker.  After fighting it for almost two months, he finally succumbed, and now he uses his thumb when he's being tired and snuggly.  It has made church easier since he can generally be convinced to suck his thumb to take his morning nap while being held, but it hasn't really affected his sleeping routine yet.  I still have to nurse him, but after I put him down his thumb goes straight into his mouth.  He favors the right thumb slightly more than the left and is becoming attached to his blanket square as a thumb sucking aid.

Baby planks are Matthias's exercise of choice.  He pushes up on his hands and feet all the time and looks very proud of himself.  Every now and again he gets one knee down, but never two.

I found a tooth all popped through the gum in Matthias's mouth last night.  Another one is on the way.

Speaking of teeth, Olivia has teeth like a shark.  Since her adult teeth are coming up behind her baby teeth, the little ones are taking longer than usual to fall out.  She has two big teeth nearly halfway in while two baby teeth just hang out in front of them.

Gretchen talks a lot about "God magic."  As far as she is concerned, God is a very real, although somewhat finicky, magician.  She will tell me that God will use His magic to help her remember something, or ask me if maybe God could use His magic to get us more milk for breakfast since we ran out.

Kaitlyn's phrase of choice recently is, "Oh, I forgot!"  It could mean that she actually forgot something, but it could also mean that she wants something ("I forgot to get cereal," generally said just before dinner) or that she's stalling ("I forgot to tell you something," used at bedtime) or that she had an idea ("I forgot to color a letter for Gretchen") or that she noticed something ("I forgot Matthias was crying"). She forgets everything.

I've been teaching the girls to play board games this week.  We played Carcassone and Splendor and Olivia played Scrabble with me.  They're not fantastic at the older games yet, but they understand the basic rules and they're very excited to play.

Jacque made a surprise visit this week.  She was coming to straighten out some car things having to do with titles and Chicago emissions requirements.  It was nice to see her, however briefly.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Sound Bites 27

Gretchen: I don't like this cookie.
Me: You don't?  Why not?
Gretchen: It hurts my mouth.
Me: What hurts your mouth?
Gretchen: Probably the chocolate.  Chocolate is hot sometimes, like hot chocolate.  That is always hot.  Except when it gets colder and colder.

Gretchen: We are making buckEYES.  Are they called buckEYES because of the one dot that is an eye?

Gretchen: Mommy, Kaitlyn's smelly.
Me: Kaitlyn, did you poop?
Kaitlyn: Um, yes!
Me: *checking Kaitlyn* Nope, you're fine.
Kaitlyn: Oh, my fine.
Gretchen: She's fine?
Me: Yep.  She must have just farted.
Gretchen: I thought she pooped because something was stinky over here.  It was actually me who farted.

Gretchen: When I am a mother I am going to let my kids do whatever they want.

*Kaitlyn, after finishing two bowls of cereal, spots me across the room preparing my own breakfast.*
Kaitlyn: Here!  *starts moving a chair to stand on*  I will help you eat it!

Olivia: Chapter 3.
Gretchen: 4!
Olivia: No, that's a 3.
Gretchen: Sometimes threes look like fours.
Olivia: Mom, is that a three?
Me: Yes.
Olivia: See?
Gretchen: She just thinks it's a three because it looks like a three.

Me: How are you?
Kaitlyn: I Kaitlyn Elaine!
Grandma: We know who you are, we want to know HOW you are.
Kaitlyn: ...Mmhmm.

Gretchen: I never whine at grandma because I like her.  But I whine at you because I do not like you as much.  Because you always yell at me a lot.

Me: What are you doing?
Kaitlyn: I'm sweeping Daddy.  He's not being nice.

Olivia: Mine is 199.
Gretchen: Mine is *dramatic pause* 69.
Olivia: 199 is bigger.
Gretchen: I mean, mine is 78 tall and strong.
Olivia: 199 is still bigger.  199 is the biggest number I know.
Me: What comes after 199?
Olivia: 200!
Me: Now that's the biggest number you know.

Olivia: What's the biggest number?  1000?
Me: What comes after 1000?
Olivia: 1001.  1002.  1003.  Oh, mine is 1009!
Gretchen: Mine is 1010.
Olivia: Mom, is 1010 a number?
Me: Yes.
Olivia: Well what is the one where after it we start over again at one?
Me: There isn't a number like that.  You can always count to a bigger number.  That's the concept of infinity.

Olivia: Daddy is a slow poke.
Gretchen: No!  Daddy is always a fast poke.

December 10-17

Matthias grabs things!  It started with the toys on his arch (just as we were about to retire it to the basement...) and now he can get his carseat lion, too.  He also scoots backwards on his stomach.  See the amusing pictures below.

Kaitlyn likes to use everyone's middle names.  When asked who she is, she responds with "I Kaitlyn Elaine!"  Mom thinks this means that Kaitlyn is in trouble too often, but I actually just really like to say her middle name, so I think that's where she picked it up.  Kaitlyn also wanders through the house hollering for Olivia Helen and Gretchen Bernice.

I decided to attempt a vegan German chocolate cake for my birthday this year.  Yes, my birthday was last week, but I was busy.  We celebrated on Tuesday.  The cake was comically flat (three layers looked more like one and a half) and too pale due to lack of egg yolks, but it tasted pretty good.  I'd say the taste was more like a store German chocolate cake than a homemade one.  Regardless, it was too inconvenient and too time consuming and didn't feel like we were really following the spirit of the fast even though we followed the letter, so in the future I'll just wait until my baptism birthday and have the real thing!

Due to unfortunate circumstances, I drove 200 miles in two days this week.  Gretchen had a dress rehearsal for her dance recital on Wednesday night, and then the whole family drove down to Sidney (that mileage doesn't even count because Bryan drove it).  On Thursday we visited with Grandma and then I left all four kids with her in the afternoon while I drove up to Van Wert (northwest of Lima) for an orchestra rehearsal followed by an evening concert.  Side note: My concert was accompaniment for Michael W. Smith and Jordan Smith.  Neither of these names meant anything to me, but apparently mom and dad used to listen to Michael W. Smith before I was born and Murry saw Jordan Smith on The Voice a few years ago.  After the concert, I went back to Sidney to be with my family.  Olivia's dress rehearsal for the same dance recital  was on Friday evening, so I drove her back to Lima for that and then we of course had to return to Sidney when it was done.

Yesterday was "Murry's Christmas," the official Barhorst present opening day.  Since we have church and Keshia wants to start her own Christmas traditions at her house with her kids, Murry just decided to move her celebration up a few days.  We all gathered there Friday night and played games after the kids went to bed.  Murry and I started a Christmas puzzle.  Then on Saturday morning we opened the pile of presents under the tree.  The girls got a few new shoes, boots, and dresses, as well as some books and toys.  Matthias slept through most of the opening.  I'd had the great foresight to bring laundry baskets this year for easy transportation, so we just tossed presents in as they were opened.  Note to self: do this every year.  We packed everything up last night and then left in time for church this morning.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: I Gave Olivia the Camera ...Twice

Olivia wanted me to take a picture of Matthias, but I was busy, so I gave her my phone and showed her how to get to the camera.  After she got the picture she wanted, she turned the camera on herself.  Then I showed her the selfie button.  She retained custody of my phone for the next half hour or so, and then borrowed it again a few days later.  I now share with you a sampling of what is photo-worthy in the life of a six-year-old (spoiler alert: everything).  She did have some sequences of distance shots vs close-ups, and she made an effort to get a few people.  I'm not posting every picture because there were too many (87 the first day and 166 the second day), but there are more than enough here for you to piece together her journey.  I did include 98% of the selfies because I was amazed by how many she took and thought she might care later.  For ease of viewing, I grouped all of the pictures by category rather than chronologically.

Day One:

Matthias (the reason she borrowed the camera in the first place):

Selfies:

Other people:

The least fuzzy of the random objects:

Day Two:
Selfies:

Still Olivia, but taken by someone else:

Other people:

The least fuzzy of the random objects: