This week in the fastest post ever

Or the fastest post I can manage.  I'm kind of long-winded.

Last Sunday we had a birthday dinner for me at my parents house.  I got some fun gifts: money for new clothes (which I have already spent :)), a vegetable steamer that goes in a pot, and a Ninja food processor. Yea for small kitchen appliances!

Ben and Haylee came over with the kids Monday so Steve could show Ben his new game, The Lord of the Rings Card Game.  They played and our kids played and Haylee and I talked.  It was good.  We're doing it again this week.

I worked on Christmas gifts most nights, we did lots of Christmas shopping, I actually got some exercising in.  Cecily has been sleeping better at night--though not during the day--and I haven't been sick, so I've had the energy to exercise.  It's been wonderful. Exercising really lifts my spirits.  Emilia was sick home from school for two days because of a fever and a cough, but wasn't too under the weather.  She napped one day and I had all three of my children napping at the same time for about an hour.  It was bliss.

Friday night, Steve's work paid for us to go see the second installment of the Hobbit.  I was unimpressed.  The free admission probably wasn't worth the babysitting money we paid. But oh well.  At least I got a date with my husband.  That's worth something.

Yesterday morning, Steve and I were discussing what we needed to get done for the day in our bedroom when Emilia comes in and says, "You guys have to come see what I made!" Usually this means she made a big mess in an attempt to make something she thinks is cool.  I was a little apprehensive because I just cleaned the living room on Friday.

This is what she made:

It was her worm-mobile.  In the cartoon show Wild Kratts (that she loves right now), the characters get "creature powers" and one of them is about worms.  The Kratt brothers drive a "worm-mobile" around trying to figure out why worms come up out of the ground when it rains. (This is after they shrink themselves to the size of a worm, of course.) Emilia is in the front seat of her worm-mobile, Mira is in her seat behind her, and Daddy and I are on the couch, which was behind Mira's seat.  She even had cup-holders (you can see hers next to her chair). The Christmas bulb under her foot was a light that she could shine on things, and she used the wand in her hand to steer. It was quite cute.

I realized when I went to write this post that I still haven't posted about our trip.  I guess I will have to try to fit that in soon. Probably not this week.  Maybe after Christmas. We'll see.