You might not know...

William and Ryan fold their arms during the prayer, it's the cutest thing.  Often I'll just come put their plate on the table and they'll start folding their arms.  It melts my heart.

I'm 23 1/2 weeks along now.  I'm big, I might not look that big in the picture but I feel like it. I've started to waddle around, have back and leg pains when I sit on the floor or hard chairs for long periods of time, and the growing pains are coming.  It's really not that bad, just some days are worse than others.  I really thought it wouldn't be bad this time around because my body has already stretched this way.  BUT I guess my body has been through a lot the last couple of years, so it can scream at me if it wants.

Steven calls Christopher, Chris.  I have no clue why, because we've only ever called him Christopher.  It's cute though.

Jacob works his tail off at work and doesn't come home most days until bedtime or later.  We are all excited for his few days off for Christmas.  The boys have been counting down until "daddy doesn't have to go to work and can stay home with us forever!"

Ryan will snuggle with me more and when I tell him how handsome he is and how much I love him, he leans back and blows me a kiss.  Melts my heart.  He also loves to joke around and if his older brothers leave the gate open, he's down those stairs in seconds.

With Jacob working late I've discovered some very useful information.  I can clean up BEFORE the boys go to bed.  I bribe the older two with an extra book reading if they can help me pick up before so many songs are finished.  And William and Ryan love when I vacuum, everyone wins.  Genius.

When Jacob does come home before the boys go to bed there is a lot of wrestling.  Normally William and Ryan have sat back and watched, but now they want part of the action.  They love it!

Steven's new favorite thing is to draw and color; he's getting really good at both.  It's cute and we are going through sheets of paper, totally worth it.

William has been more attached to me, which I love and hate, but it's cute.  He and Ryan are discovering the elfy treats that come every morning. They go to the stocking and feel if there's anything in it.  Ryan actually sticks his hand in it to get some, tricky tricky.  They're favorite toys as of late are spoons, whisks, spatulas, really thing in our silverware drawer.  All the dangerous stuff has now been relocated.

Christopher has really started to play with William and Ryan, I love it.  Although it's hard for him to know when they are having fun and laughing and when he crosses the line to hurting them.  I'm guessing that will always be a problem.

My iphone broke.  It's funny how much control I felt I lost the two days I didn't have a phone.  We bought a cheap android phone at Walmart for $50.  It's not nearly as nice, my pictures are worse quality, and we actually bought an ipad so we could still facetime Jacob's parents, but it's all still a lot cheaper than it would have been to buy me new iphone so we'll all survive. And the best part is that my pictures that I took on my phone were synced with blogger and BAM my pictures are automatically here.  Amazing.

Jacob just ordered a jump seat from a Ford vehicle off of Ebay that he will hopefully bolt between the captain chairs in our existing van, so we don't have to get a new van.  And only for $200.  My husband is awesome, if it works.  If not, he's still awesome.

Tonight for dinner we had Christmas pancakes each boy averaged about 5 pancakes each.  I made these pancakes and tripled the recipe thinking there would be plenty left over to freeze and give them for breakfasts later on. There's only 2 left.  And Jacob didn't have any. Wowza.  Oh and after we cooked them we cut out Christmas shapes with our cookie cutters, the boys had a blast.  According to Steven, ginger bread men aren't for Christmas, just FYI.

I found a new way to deal with winy screaming kids who 30 minutes after waking up show me they need a nap.  I vacuum.  They get distracted because they have to run around and scream once the vacuum's on, it's a rule apparently, but when that wears off and they find something else to cry about the noise of the vacuum drowns them out.  I'm pretty sure that's how I survived today, and now my house is all clean.  Win win if you ask me.