Cousins!

So my brother Dan and his family also drove to Ohio for Christmas. They have 2 girls--Emily, who is almost 5, and Elia, who turned 2 back in September. These ages dovetail in quite nicely with our girls, who are 5 1/2, 4 1/2, and almost 3! The girls always have SUCH a grand time whent hey are all together!

Anna, Grace, Faith, and Emily all slept in one room. The first night we were there, the girls got pretty much no sleep at all! I kept hearing giggling, so I went down to check on them around 11:00. The lights were on, and they were all chattering and reading books! I told them to get in bed and go to sleep, but when Bob got up around 2:30 to go to the bathroom, he heard giggling and told them to settle down. When Micah got up to nurse around 6:00--more giggling! I again told them to settle down and go back to sleep, but they were all upstairs a little after 7:00! We were expecting them to all be very crabby, but surprisingly they were not.

I put the fear of God in them the next night, telling them that if there was any trouble, Emily would have to sleep on a mattress in her parents' room. I told them they needed stay in their beds, close their mouths and eyes, and go to sleep! I was very firm, LOL. So firm that Emily was scared to get up at all, even though she needed to go to the bathroom! Anna didn't feel that same fear, so she got up, and Emily was amazed at her bold disregard for the clear law that had been laid down. I was actually directing my comments to Faith, who is one of the main troublemakers, so the next night I had to be careful to clarify!

Emily is just a lot like me, in terms of taking things literally. When I was 4 or 5, I was in this day camp for a week through our church, back when we were stationed in Los Angelos. One little field trip we had was on some pirate boat out in some bay. The pirates were being all fierce (and completely over-the-top, as I can clearly see now when looking back on it), and they threatened to throw any kid overboard who did anything wrong. I. was. PETRIFIED. I sat in one spot and didn't move the entire trip. I kept wondering when they were going to come around and get all of our names and addresses, because without those, how would they let our parents know that we had been thrown overboard?! LOL!

Aunt Melinda was a very patient reader of stories for everyone! Grace has obviously been in her stocking stash of chocolate, LOL.

Even though Emily's birthday isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated in Ohio early. We went bowling at the base. They have this little dragon thing that the younger kids can roll the ball down, so you don't have to wait an approximate year for the ball to get down to the pins. Also, they have the nice bumper things in the gutters, and you can lift them up and down, depending on who's bowling, which makes it nice for Jonathan and Caleb. The boys were really helpful with the girls, helping them carry their balls over to the dragon, making sure it was centered and all.

Elia had the absolute most fun. As soon as she gave the ball a push, she would start jumping up and down, clapping and cheering, as she watched her ball roll down the lane! A very enthusiastic bowler indeed!

She was not an enthusiastic eater of green beans however, LOL. We had those at our Christmas day leftover dinner, and while she would have eaten as much of the cranberry sauce as possible, she wanted nothing to do with the beans, so Dan had to lay down the law--eat this green bean, which was cut into 3 pieces, or no more cranberry sauce. And with that, the battle was on! She refused the green bean the rest of that day, and on until Monday evening. Bob and I went out for pizza with Dan and Melinda, and while we were gone, Luke somehow convinced Elia to eat the bean--all 3 pieces! Yay!

So now we are all missing Emily and Elia, and wishing they lived closer!