December all at once

Everyone knows what it's like to get behind on blogging and then not know where to start to catch up. This whole post is our December.

Not long after the twins were born someone in our ward said to me "That poor Avonlea, she just doesn't know what hit her." They were referring to her becoming a big sister twice and being so young. Like she was going to get booted out of the way and not get any more attention. Shows how much that person doesn't know Avonlea. She is the perfect personality for her position in a family. She has loved and adored on the twins and has been thoroughly in LOVE with them since she met them. She even packs 2 baby dolls around like she has twins herself.

In the first picture she just squeezed in between the twins on her own. We told her to give them a hug so she did.  We didn't' think we got a good picture because she holds the pose for half a second so we asked her to hug them again and that is more than a 2 year old could do so.......

She dropped out of the picture completely.

Gensie got this doll cradle for her birthday. We had to see if it passed the test, could it hold twins?

Cadence on the left, London on the right

Did something different with the tree this year and I loved it. I usually decorate with red, gold, green, and white. This year I did just red a white kinda a pepperminty themed tree with a touch of santa at the top and bottom.

We went to my parents house for Christmas. Every year one of my Uncles has a Christmas party. He is a huge hunter and has tons of taxidermied animals all over his house. This was one of his most recent ones and it was on kids level. The problem was Avonlea can't read so she got real friendly with this huge bear.

Brindee, Avonlea, Genesis

We got to go see Great Grandpa Washburn. He loves babies! He had twins (my mom being one of them) He has identical twin granddaughters and now identical twin great granddaughters. He has 58 grandkids 29 boys and 29 girls. He now has 50 great grandkids and is just getting started. He still has 42 unmarried grandkids. Quite the posterity. London left Cadence right.

Christmas morning waiting for the clan to gather.

Christmas dinner

Dessert: you could have Cadence if you go for the full fat goodies...

Cadence

or you could go for London who is...well...reduced fat.

London

Left to right: McKay, Lele, London, Cadence, Gensie

Gensie and Brindee had so much fun together. They played and played dress up and did each others hair.  Brindee is my brother Logan and Sarah's oldest.

Millie is such a sweet girl. She was a lot of help with the twins.

Millie was so sweet to all our kids. Gensie loved playing with her and now Gensie has named one of her dolls "Millie."

Gensie is 4

Oh and Gensie had a birthday in November. She turned "fouw". Holiday birthdays are so hard. In the mix of everything that happens in Nov-Dec where is there time for a birthday party or making a cake in the middle of all the holiday junk? But, you can't skip it. Every kid needs a fun birthday cake. She wanted a pink elephant this year. It's really light pink because I colored it with pomegranate juice to avoid the bad food colorings. She was happy with it.

Just look at this girl. Isn't she beautiful? Good thing she got her Daddy's good looks. Girls are so much fun to dress up. I'm really lucky I have four of them.

Genesis means the first or the beginning. Boy did we name her right. She is the first and the beginning of 4 little girls right in a row. We are so grateful she is ours and that she is a best friend to McKay and is so good at playing boy things. She is very kind to Avonlea and the twins. If you ask her which twin this is she says "I don't' know put her down and let me see if she can crawl."

• Favorite color: "Bunny dawk bwown." 
• Favorite movie: Lady and the Tramp and Calamity Jane
• Favorite food: avocado, beans with cheese, almonds and any berry.
• Favorite animal: A puppy

She has been learning to read and only has 25 more lessons to go. She can almost make her bed by herself, helps empty the dishwasher every day, empties the dirty clothes hamper, picks up the living room and her bedroom and can really help entertain the twins when mom needs help.

We love our Gensie Sue.

November

I think with just having had Halloween the kids were still in the mode and this is what they did to themselves and to the twins.

Cadence on the left, London on the right.

Lele dressed herself as you can see. She is at that wonderful 2 year old phase where she is really into dressing herself or wearing nothing at all.

McKay reads to his sisters a lot.

What's for dinner? A taste of London.

A little bit of apple pie canning in November.

Thanksgiving dinner was oh so good. My mom came and 2 younger sisters and 1 of my brothers.

A little project

I had this little jumper for Gensie. It's missing the tag but it's about a size 12 months. I never loved it on her. Then Avonlea wore it and I didn't' love it on her either. So I decided to not even put the twins in it. I was just going to get rid of it but then I had a great idea.

I cut it up and made a skirt for Gensie complete with hair bows. I have been having a really hard time finding winter dresses that I liked for Gensie this year so we were in need and it really turned out well. She already had the off-white sweater.