I can do anything you can do better

Kilian and Lucy are starting to be a little bit competitive at times. It hasn't gotten out of hand, yet. Being two years older, Kilian can usually do things better/faster/easier. Lately we've discovered that Lucy has got him on two things. 1) rolling her "r's" and 2) winking. He just cannot do either.


She often practices rolling her R's in the car. The other day after he tried and tried, I heard her coaching him on where to put his tongue, etc. She gave up on him and said, "I think the problem is just that you are missing so many teeth".


Of course if you do practice rolling your R's right now - you'll see teeth have nothing to do with it.


Hopefully I can catch some video of the winking attempts Kilian makes. I didn't know our faces had so many muscles.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from Jamesnia!!

Here are the kids and St. Nick after Christmas Eve Mass. Last night was a really fun night at home. After our favorite soup and opening 1 gift, Brad read "Twas the night before Christmas" (to those that could sit still enough for it) for the 3rd year in a row. We're calling it a tradition now.

These are such fun ages - which reminds me...I can't answer 6,4 and 2 for their ages now. 7,5 and 2 now. Birthday posts to come later.

Somebody learned to curl ribbon. He made about 20 of these in various colors and taped them ALL AROUND the house. I was even greeted by one on my shower door yesterday.


This house had 4 nice hooks already on mantle for us when we moved in, so it only seemed right to go ahead and hang a stocking for Baby James #4, even though I don't anticipate it getting filled!

Finally - this is the present that appeared behind our couch on the 23rd. It is to all 3 kids from Brad and me. It is way too heavy to move over by the tree. The kids are stumped. They haven't even given any guesses. I'll give 2 hints though....it is bouncy and I lived on mine while I was growing up - even competed some :)

By the way - I'm not really blogging at 7:00 am on Christmas morning. I typed this last night and am trying out the "schedule" feature for the first time. I think I like it!

Polar Express

Earlier in December we got to experience the Polar Express right here in Lubbock! We all wore our pajamas and managed to stay warm enough while we waited in line to get on a real train. It was a double decker and we were on the top level!

You can kind of see it behind Lucy (who is being carried by my dad. My mom was too sick to join us that night).

Brrrr. I have on my favorite red robe (and no make up apparently).

Here is Kilian with the conductor - who did come by and punch our tickets!

Here is Camille holding hers...waiting for the conductor to come by.

Kilian and his buddies looking out the window as we take off.
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Our hot chocolate and cookie servers

After about 30 minutes, we arrived at the "north pole" - please excuse the glare on the window. Some elves and their "boss" hopped on our train at that point.


The elves sang and told jokes and even let some kids have some microphone time. Our brave Kilian hopped up there and sang "Jingle Bell Rock" for everyone. (he does NOT get that courage from me...)


Santa made his way through the train car, asking everyone what they want for Christmas. Camille's very helpful answer was "toys".

Santa also gave each child a special jingle bell.

Here is our attempt at a family picture. It is quite difficult on a train that sways back and forth so much. I'm so glad we were able to get tickets. They sold out pretty quickly!

We went with two other families from school and all the kids loved every minute of it. I'm looking forward to remembering this each time we read the "Polar Express" or see the movie in the future!