Shoe Box

I cannot believe that we are getting ready to start this Christmas season! Days seem to just fly around here! Our favorite thing to do every year is make our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. This year I stockpiled items throughout the year to cut back on expenses of the boxes. Last year we made 3 boxes and I spent about $35. This year we made 6 boxes and I spent about $15-$20!! Double the boxes for 1/2 the price!! I had Matt collect all the soap from the hotels he stayed at for work - so each box was able to get 3 bars of soap. I also got a bunch of free toothpaste that we added in them. I got the school supplies for cheap in August. I did mess up and I should have purchased the hard candy after Halloween, but we just never made it to the stores. I also got some flip flops for a quarter during the summer and lots of other stuff after holidays. All this cut our cost drastically. So what did we do with our savings? Samaratins Purse sent out a gift catalog so I told the kids they could pick out a gift that would be sent to those kids that would help them out. We went through the whole catalog and I explained what each gift would be used for. Carly immediately picked out a mosquito net so the kids wouldn't get bug bites when they sleep. She could sympathizes with them about the bugs, so she was bound and determined about purchasing the nets. Chloe loves cows, so she chose a dairy animal (probably a goat). And Harper purchased water for a community. He wanted people to have good drinks. They were very sweet about their purchases! I enjoyed going through the catalog with them. I love starting the holiday season with giving to others.

Here they are shopping through the catalog.
All the boxes lined up! They love packing the boxes. We can't wait to see where they go this year. Last years went to Madagascar!

Fun Day

We took the kids to Sports Connection a couple of weeks ago because they have kids bowling. It was a lot of fun!! The kids like to bowl on the Wii, but regular bowling seems exhausting with 4 little kids. This was a short bowling alley, with little balls and little pins, and guard rails on the gutters. They did so well! We had a fun time!

Finley loved the balls. She had to hold onto it the whole time as she watched them bowl.

Everyone had to ride a motorcycle!! Look at this biker babe!! There is no way she could ever ride a real bike in real life with that hair of hers :)

Carly and Chloe played a game of air hockey. This is one of Matt's and my favorite games to play, so we wanted to make sure they knew exactly how to play it! They did really good!
Carly working so hard to guard her goal. She needed both blockers!

Bubbles

Bubble baths are very exciting in this house. We do them as treats for the kids, because they are a pain in the neck for us! We give them a bubble bath and then have to take them all out and give them a shower after. Well, the other night we gave them one and little missy wasn't in the tub, but thoroughly enjoyed standing next to it and splashing. The bathroom was a big mess after her (and so was she) but her little laugh was priceless! This girl is great!!

Getting ready for her own bath now!
The girls wanted their picture taken too and I think this picture is funny. Matt has it as our screensaver and the girls saw it and asked me which one was which. I asked them if they could tell who was who, and they can't!! Harper runs up and quickly points out who is Carly and who is Chloe. I tried to get them to pick out who the other one was, but they couldn't!! Kind of crazy they can't tell themselves apart!

Good Halloween Picture

As I sat down to update the blog, I realized I never posted a cute picture of the kids all ready for Halloween. They were super cute and Finley kept that hat on all night!! I couldn't believe it!
They look like Hansel and Gretel here! They had fun being Germans and yodeling to everyone. When we got home from the Fall festival at church, they quick changed into all different outfits so they could answer the door in different things. They even got to snack on their cookies from the cake walk and peanuts from Grandma and Grandpa. Lucky night!!

Comparison

Everyone always says they don't think Finley looks at all like the girls. I think she does. So I found this picture of the girls and decided to recreate it with Finley. Now of course Finley's hair throws it off a bunch - I can't believe she is 4 months younger than they are and has so much more hair than them! She has always felt older to me than she is because of all this hair. I never really felt like she was a newborn - she was big and had lots of hair!! I am anxious to see what our next sweetie is going to look like!

Finley Claire at 15 months
Carly and Chloe at 19 months

First Time.....ALONE!!!

Once again, Chloe was sick this week. Sunday night we went over to Mom and Dad's for dinner before Awanas. Chloe was fine all day long, then we went shopping to get the last odds and ends for our shoe boxes. On the way to their house, Chloe starts crying and saying her legs don't work. We get there, she is still down and out. Mom holds her head and thought she had a fever. Sure enough it was 101. This was 30 minutes before we had to be to church, so obviously she couldn't go. Grandma and Grandpa offered to let her stay there while we went. Uh oh!!! They have never gone anywhere by themselves!!! They have gone places alone with us, but not dropped off and be totally Riffleless!! I had to break it to Carly that she would be going to Sparks alone!!! Oh the tears!!! She was very sad to say the least. It broke my heart to see her so sad. I know that was hard for her, so I was understanding in this big hurtle. She cried all the way there and while she was there. So I went in and sat with her in her class so she could calm down. I started coloring and talking to her teacher - our friend Erin. She calmed down, said her verse, and then they lined up for game time. I left her at this point and she had fun playing "bolleyball." When I picked her up, she had a huge smile on her face - the kind that looked like she conquered the world! I was very proud of her bravery. The world of twin hood is very unique and I understand that things are hard for them to do separate, but now that it is done, she is quite ok with it. I told Carly last night that if Chloe didn't get better, then she would have to go to dance class alone. She was fine with that and then she was excited to announce that if she still wasn't better by Wednesday, she would have to go to choir alone. Chloe immediately said she was better after she heard that (choir is their absolute favorite thing to do). But Chloe broke her fever last night so I think she is good to go to dance class.

Man Down

Friday Chloe got the stomach bug! She woke up complaining of a tummy ache so I wasn't sure if she was hungry or hurting (you know every pain is dealt with the same dramatic approach with these ladies, so you don't know if it is a broken arm or a hang nail). She ate breakfast, slightly, and then just moped around. She laid on the couch where Harper and Carly decided that they needed to entertain their ailing sister. They had a whole stage set up and were playing for her enjoyment. It was so sweet to see her smirk when they were doing silly stuff. Well, I ventured to the bedrooms to put laundry away and she followed me into her room. She just wanted to be around me. I told her to lay down in her bed until I was done. Harper came looking for her, found her in her bed, and said, "Well (as he climbed up into bed with her) I am just going to pray for her." He said the sweetest little prayer so that she would feel better, gave her a little back scratch, and proceeded to go find Carly. She loved it! Her little face was just glowing as he prayed for her. These guys love each other so much and don't like when one is down. The whole dynamics of the house changes when one is sick. It is really weird. Well, she was completely fine the next morning and only proceeded to puke in the middle of school (right in the middle of the floor once) two times! So, we took a sick day and snuggled our little bug. She then shared the bug with me (I got it Monday). It wasn't fun, but very short lived. During dinner that night I wasn't good at all, so I fed Finley, put the food for the big kids out, and then hit the couch. I told them to clean up when they are done. Later on I got up, they had eaten all their food, plates were in the sink, placemats were put away, and the decorative ones were out. I love them!! They made sure it was perfect for me. Then Daddy came home and gave them all a bath. Hopefully we have seen the end of this thing!