Rebecca has been potty training for a little more than 2 weeks.  We are having good days with it where she tells me when she needs to go and has no accidents.  Then we have bad days where she not only won't tell me when she needs to go, but doesn't tell me when she's had an accident.  We went cold turkey, no more pull ups or diapers, but straight panties.  I'm taking the frog potty in the car with us when we drive out of our little town, since there is nothing around us when she needs to stop.  She's had no accidents in town or in the car, since she's told me whenever she needs to go.  She's dry every morning when she wakes up.  In alot of ways I feel like we are finished, it's just a matter of Little Bit being consistent.

I have been doing alot of work on my faerie garden.  First, I painted my faerie house, but I already told you about that.  Next, Daddy painted the bunny and the lattices for me with spray paint that I bought by myself at Walmart.  Then, I painted the suns to hang back on the wall.  One is me, and one is Britt, and one is Daddy.  Today I will paint the moon with twinkle stars, and that is Momma.  I need to find Rebecca a moon or star.












Last week, I used my glitter sticky kit and made a faerie box.  I'm going to write notes for faeries and maybe a faerie will come in my faerie house and write me back.  I got little pieces of sticky foam and rubbed glitter sheets on them.  I liked it alot.  I have a box and a little mirror.














Yesterday, after T-ball practice, Momma and I went to Walmart to buy flowers.  First, we looked at things.  There was "cactuses" and pink plants, and a big big orange tree with blooms on it that I'm going to go back and get.  Then after we looked, I picked the flowers I wanted, and Momma helped me put them in the buggy and then in the car.  I paid for it with my own money that I've been saving up.  I still have alot so Momma said I can take Daddy back to see the orange flower tree and get it if he says ok.














Today, we planted the flowers.  I let Britt and Rebecca help.  We planted some sunflower seeds and some purple flowers to climb on the lattices.  I planted some pink flowers and little yellow and blue flowers.  I planted some bulbs that will be pink and purple.  I need to get a few more things.  Then I will decorate with my other stuff.  I love my faerie garden.

Indiana Jones doesn't go anywhere without his hat.  He has a whip and he is afraid of snakes, because in number 3, when he was kid, he feel in a snake pit.  There was a venomous snake with long fangs.  Once he feel in a lion cart, and that's where he got his whip.  The first time he used it, he got his cheek, but after that he got the lion. His nickname is Indie.  The Holy Grail was stole by the "Natzis" and he had to stop them.  He stop them, but the holy grail and water won't really make you live forever, that part is not true.  Momma says Indiana Jones is still alive.  He found the cross that was stole from a museum.  Then he was on a boat trying to get it back.  It almost washed off but he caught it and said, "It belongs in a museum."  Then the bad guys fell off the boat in a stormy night.  Then the "Natzis" come in a big tank and he sticks a rock in the tank gun and it explodes.  Then he almost falls off with the tank and some of the "Yahtzees."  His dad thought he died, but he climbed back up and his hat blew back.


I like Indiana Jones because he goes on great adventures, and because he's also just like a cowboy.  When I grow up I'm going to be an archeologist that helps Indiana Jones, and I'm going to have a whip and a hat just like him.  I like the hat better than other kinds of hats, because it's like Indiana Jones, and it's been on so many adventures with me, just like Niagra Falls where it got so wet. My first hat got lost, but Ss. Kate got me a new one.  Ad it's just like the old one.  I'm going to wear it everywhere too, yesterday I wore it to baseball practice.

I recently finished reading "Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled" by Elder Michael Gowens​.  Santa bought it from Sovereign Grace Publications​ for me in my book bag and stocking this past Christmas.  I've been reading it a chapter at a time, and studying many of the verses that he uses in each chapter.  And it's been incredibly helpful.  I'd recommend it to anyone.  There are a lot of good things in it.  And even though I read the chapter on grief about three different times in the last 2 months, I find many of the other topics just as pertinent.  After all grief for me has brought loneliness and fear, has heightened anxiety, and mostly been an intense battle with depression.

This has been an incredible help as I muddle through this experience.  The days that I read a chapter or spend some time studying out the verses typically have been my better days.  It's been a help in applying verses I knew with my head, but weren't feeling and implementing in my heart.  I want to share one especially helpful section near the very end on hope.  I'll share the first paragraph for the context of the second...

Consider an Old Testament example of how hope saves the believer from despair.  Jeremiah reached the point of hopeless despair as he walked in the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem.  He cried, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord" (Lam. 3:18).  Suddenly, like Hopeful, he was startled by an epiphany.  As a man half amazed he remembered something else: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.  It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not;" (Lam. 3;21-22).  Hope replaced hopelessness when he realized that though the destruction around him was significant, yet life remained.  He was still alive, as well as many, many others.  The nation had not been annihilated.  Indeed, the temple was gone, but the people themselves had not been wiped out.  Life remained, and the mercy of God remained in fresh supply at the beginning of each new day.  This salutary reminder gave him hope to face the unknown tomorrow.

It will give you hope to face the unknown tomorrow as well when you focus your mind on the things that remain, not the things you have lost.  Life remains, Today remains.  His mercy for today remains.  His promise remains.  His love remains the same, whether in sunshine or in shadow. (emphasis mine)

It was unbearable to have to give birth to a baby that was gone.  It's unbearable to have to continue each day without her.  Children eventually bury their parents, you don't expect to bear your babies.  But "His mercies are new every morning" and make each day bearable.  It isn't having other kids that helps, it isn't having my own health that helps, it isn't things that help but feeling and knowledge of His love.  More than any one other thing, reading and studying what God has to say about everything helps.

The other thing I have done in working through my grief, is actually setting aside some time to think about everything that happened and to think about Abigail now.  I quickly figured out that my tendency to stuff my feelings and do things that need doing, lead to worse days and they happened more frequently.  The truth is that it's easy to stay busy with three living children, homeschooling, cook, and housekeeper.  She is always in the back of my mind, but I can't get things done when I dwell on it.  And yet I still need to.  Sometimes I do that by writing in her journal, sometimes I do that by working on her stocking.  I even signed up for two grief workshops and have some art journaling prompts similar to the writing project I did back in October.

It may sound crazy to "schedule" grieving time, but I find that when I work on these things.  I give myself permission to make sense of the things I hated about the experience, things that the hospital did that didn't help, things I should have done that I didn't know to do.  It helps to give myself permission to wonder what she would have been like, and to wonder what she is doing right now.  It helps to go over and over and over in my mind the things I know about Heaven to place her there.  It helps to figure out what this mess is that I currently am.  I've cried and begged Gary to fix me, that I don't like me, that I want to be where he is, since he's "over it."  He of course can't, only I can work through this, grief is very lonely in that way.

I came up with a new superhero.  His name is Speed Boy.  He has a family of super heroes.  His daddy's power is super strength.  His mother's power is she can become invisible.  Ruth's power is that she can read people's minds.  Then there is Rebecca, I mean his other little sister, and her power is that she can be invisible only in the water.  Speed Boy is a little like Dash in the Incredibles movie, except he can only run on land.  Then an evil robot shows up to come and attack the city.  His dad says, "Team, fight that robot."  Suddenly when he goes to smash the robot, he shoots his claw out so that he can't get it.  But then Ruth reads the robot's mind, and speed Boy goes round and round so he gets dizzy.  Then Momma jumps on and the daddy smashes it to the ground and shoots it with it's own claw.  then they live happily ever after the end.

Britt,

You have been 7 for a couple of weeks now.  It is always hard for me to believe that my firstborn could be so old.  This year has really been a year of growth and change for you.

All those questions I wrote last year about you asking, you continue to ask.  But you have also chosen to act on them as well.  You asked about joining the Church the beginning of April, so we spent a month talking with you, discussing what a big decision it was.  We wanted to be sure you understood what your confession of faith was, that it wasn't just a decision to making Momma and Daddy happy, or something you hadn't given thought to.  We also wanted to be sure that you understood that it was more than just a confession of faith, but a promise, a lifetime commitment.  In May you asked the Church to join and then were baptized.

We again had a period of unemployment this year, which resulted in a move back across the country to Florida for Daddy's new job.  For the first time in your life you weren't excited about a move.  Pennsylvania had undoubtable become home for you.  Even know you ask when we can go back and visit, and often say that you miss your friends and your hideout in the woods there.  You like what is comfortable and known, and I cannot blame you too much as I am the same way.  Even in this move though you have shown alot of maturity, especially when talking about the different Churches we have visited and share your thoughts on where we should be members at.

You have also been forced to grow in another way, a way that we didn't want.  We lost our baby this year, and death which was reserved for the bad guys in the superhero movies that you and Daddy love to watch together, has become very real for you.  The permanence of it, and questions of Heaven come up often now.  You talk about things you wanted to do with Abigail, and often go out to her stone after Church on Sundays.  You always ask me if you can go and "see Abigail".  Then, when I look out the window, I often see you standing there talking with no one else around.  I often feel at a loss as to how to talk to you about it or comfort you, as I don't know what to even do for myself.

You continue to enjoy homeschooling, and I will confess to having used the threat of putting you in public school more than a time or two when you will not cooperate with me.  I still enjoy teaching you.  Science I believe remains your favorite subject this year we have studied the weather and seasons, and now are learning all about the human body, an area you have wanted to learn about for some time.  You continue to do very well at math, though you don't enjoy it that much.  It won't be much longer before you complete your Alpha book and will be ready for Beta.  Your reading just over the summer months improved alot, and you know alot of sight words and can read short vowels.  The current reading book we are in will teach you long vowels, and then I've told you that if you work hard and are diligent, you will be able to read anything, it'll just be a matter of learning what new words mean.

You are compassionate and caring about your sisters in a way that often surprises me.  You attention to them and devotion is something I don't see often in boys.  You make a point to include Ruth as much as possible.  And Rebecca never seems to be a bother to you.  You still ask for a brother, and perhaps you will get one, but I often wonder what the dynamic will be like with the age gap that you would now have.

You wanted to play t-ball last year and did.  You don't have much skill yet, but you do have alot of fun.  And even though you are bummed out about not being able to play for the Gratz Grizzlies again this year, you did want to play again.  You will be playing baseball, and I'm curious to see how you will do.  I hope the experience will teach you to be more coachable.  It is a skill you need not only in baseball (and in schooling) but a life lesson.  You often think you know everything, or that no one can help you to do something better.  It's one area I hope to see you grow in this coming year.

I don't know what the next year will hold.  But Little Boy, I know that mine and your Daddy's love for you will be a constant.

Love,
Momma

Last week Rebecca had her first Dentist appointment.  She like the other two, was so excited they were all arguing about who got to go first.  She climbed up in the chair like she'd done it a 100 times before.  And sat there like such a big girl.  I went back and sat in the room with her, just to see how she would do.  She was no trouble at all, and the dental hygienist thought she was so cute, and couldn't get over how she did.  They are going to wait a while longer on fixing her front tooth, since she's so little they weren't sure if she could sit still long enough.  We are going to watch it though, since it is really close to the nerve and they don't want the tooth to die.

Well, Simba told his son to protect the pride lands with the fastest, the keenest of sight, the strongest, and the fiercest.  And once the crocodiles needed to fight for the new king of the crocodiles.  Then there was one with a girl hyena, and she was nice and part of the clean up crew.  I like the show because bunga is so funny, he's the honey badger.  And I like it because in one of the movies he jumped into the waterfall to clean the smell off, but it didn't work, he was too stinky.  I like the show too, because he has the roar of the elders and the lions of the past roar with him.  It's very cool.  The End.

Friday will be my birthday.  I'm going to have a birthday party.  I invited Lilli, Julia, and Brystal my cousins, I also invited Brady, Phillip, and Jessica.  I wanted to invite Sebastian and Zane, but Momma says they can't come from Pennsylvania.  Memaw and Mister are invited two and Uncle James and Aunt Manna and Aunt Joan and Aunt Heather.  I wanted to invite Grumps and Ahna but Momma said they can't come either right now.

I'm going to have a transformer, swimming, sleepover party.  I have lots of party games planned.  First will be tug o war.  The next game is dress up.  But after you are done wearing it, you have to put it back in the guest room, because we don't have a place to unpack that stuff yet.  The next game is music chairs.  Then we'll color anything we want.  The rest of the games will be a surprise.  Then we'll have supper.  I wanted corn on the cob and hot dogs, but Daddy is making pork chops for the grown ups.  Then we'll sing happy birthday and I'll blow out my candles and eat cake.  I'm going to have a transformer cake, with orange on it.  It's my favorite color.  And then we open presents.  Then at night, we go swimming, right before bed, when we can turn on the cool lights.

I can't wait.

We know that Abigail was with us for 116 days.  From the time I *knew* we were expecting till we found out we had lost her was 141 days.  The time from the day she was stillborn to her due date was 116 days.  Today marks 141 days since her birth.  No matter how you measure it, our daughter has been gone longer than she was with us.  We are further from her than ever.  Details, that I don't have captured in pictures have begun to fade like the yellowed fraying edges of long forgotten photographs.  Unfortunately the pain of her absence hasn't faded as quickly as those details, it hasn't just disappeared like she did.  I'm grappling with the realization that it never will disappear only diminish with enough time.

My days continue to be ups and downs.  One day I almost feel normal, tackling housework, working on school with the kids, even cooking supper.  The next I don't want to get out of my fuzzy pants, I wear the prayer shawl that was made for me after Abigail passed, and if we actually eat two meals before Daddy comes home to take over, I think it's a success.  I still don't feel angry with God, like everyone claims is a part of grief.  Maybe I'm just weird.  I am struggling with alot of anger toward medical professionals.  And some anger when I watch the way others parent... or rather don't.

Most of all though I'm floundering with depression.  I have struggled for years off and on with being depressive, as I've called it with Gary.  But this requires a lengthy pep talk before I even get out of bed.  I eat because I'm suppose to rarely because anything tastes good.  I HATE being around people for any length of time, the anxiety and internal pressure to keep it together is astronomical.  There isn't much I feel like doing.  Other than grief stuff I haven't read in months, I have no clue what's going on with our regular tv shows, because Gary's been watching them without me.  I don't care much about how the house looks.  The only thing I've been able to keep up with is my writing, and that's because it's my one good grip on normalcy and sanity.  Most of all she remains constantly in my thoughts, but is the one thing no one wants to talk about.  The biggest change perhaps even bigger than the depression and anxiety is my sleep.  I've always been one that wants to sleep 10 hours a day.  Part of that might be the hypothyroid, but a large part of it is the grief.  It takes absolutely forever for me to fall asleep, up to 2 hours of laying in bed listening to Gary snore (which by itself is enough to drive anyone crazy).  Then when I get to sleep I sleep fitfully and wake up early.  And that's when I don't have the dream where we are pregnant and lose another child.  It feels inevitable that we will lose the next one too.  To the point that I see-saw between NEEDing another child and being terrified to bury another one.  The constant internal conflict of such polar opposites makes me feel like I'm going crazy, though I've been told that's normal even if everything about it is totally irrational.

On top of all of this is the constant concern that I not needlessly burden others.  The worry that I'm becoming insanely morbid.  The pressure real or imagined that everyone else is ready for me to move on and be over this.  The jealousy that Gary has adjusted and I'm stuck.  I don't like being like this, and I don't have a fix. The anger I feel when he says that we have 3 children, while I'm screaming in my head, no we have FOUR.  Navigating grief is bad enough, without wondering how I'm affect others.

Then when I wear out that mental rollercoaster, I get down to what really gives me trouble.  How is it that I stink so stellarly in my Christian walk in this.  If I really have the hope that scripture shows forth, if I really understand what Christ has done for me, then why am I so lousy at laying hold on that peace.  We are suppose to in everything give thanks.  And while that doesn't mean I should be thankful that Abigail died, back at New Year's Eve I got really mad at the notion of thanking God for this past year.  One I'm happy to be rid of.  Of course the momentary anger is just a disguise to avoiding bursting into tears.  If we are to do right, whether we feel like it or not.  And if being a Church is the best cure.  Why do I still feel so lousy when I do what I should.  Why is my anxiety 10 times worse when I go.  Why do I go home having been through the emotional wringer during preaching?  If we are to bring glory to God in our daily walk and the way we handle trials, why am I such a disgrace.  How can I accept and move on?  If there was some formula I'd be all over it.  I HATE feeling this way.

Instead I continue to grapple each day to make it through everything necessary, without any answers, hoping that one day the details of loss will fade like old photographs.

There was a baby lizard in our house, and I caught it on her tail.  Then we put her on Abigail's flower.  That baby lizard was so cute.  I named it Tiny Tiny.  I do have another friend lizard named Diamond, but it was way bigger than that lizard we put on Abigail's flower.  I can't wait to catch another lizard.  I might catch a different lizard or a different lizard.  There are a lot of lizards at our house.  I like them because they are so cute.  Yesterday I saw a lizard in the mail box.  The lizard was big, even bigger than Diamond, his name was Big Big.  I haven't named all the lizards yet, because I just got to this house, and I'm still looking for them all.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .,fmjdkdkdchdlk

Which being interpreted apparently says...
"Everyone else was getting to help with Momma's planner so I wanted to.  She knows I love ponies, especially My Little Ponies, and so she got me some stuff that I like to put on my birthday week, and I got to help her decorate yesterday.  It's almost my birthday, "eeeekkkkk!"  It is after Britt's."
Or at least it's something along those lines.

I have lots of plans to get my faerie garden ready.  I pulled out the weeds and picked up the dead leaves.  There are some flower pots for me to plant some flowers in for the faeries to see out one of their windows.  I can't wait for them to move into my faerie house.  I want to put it out today, because it would be so fantastic, but it's not ready.  I found crystals and moss, and I know faeries like crystals and moss.  So I'm going to keep all those little diamonds and pearls with my garden.  We are going to build something that we can put real flowers in and it go up on the walls.  I want to take the white thing and make it pink.  And we need to paint some more stuff out there, because it's losing color because it was there for a long time.  I'm going to have so much fun with my faerie house and garden.

Optimus Prime is my favorite of the transformers.  Heat Wave is my next favorite.  He is a fire truck.  And there is Bubble Bee too, and he speaks like this "buzz, buzz, buzz."  Just like a bee.  There is Blades that turns into a helicopter.  They fight 'ceptacons.  They turn into planes, but Rescue Bots, they turn into cars.  There is Chase, who is a police truck.  And Casey Burns is the chief.  Cody sometimes talks to them when they don't have to fight.  And there is Boulder who is a dozer truck, he can push alot of dirt or fertilizer or stuff.  He can also push alot of rocks at one time.  Optimus Prime is a semi truck.  He gave the rescue bots a mission to be a great team, to earn the respect and save people, because earth is their new home.  They can lift cars and alot of things in robot mode, but they pretended to be trucks.  They were from different planets until their home got destroyed.

I like transformers alot.  A few days ago, Momma got me transformer stickers.  I used them on my birthday week in her planner.  She said she'd leave them there forever.  We covered up all the pink on my birthday week, but only on my birthday week, not the other pages.  It's a kind of art, I treat it like it is anyway.  I like to do it with Momma. I hope she gets me a transformer's cake.

And Unca Nick and Aunt Alex got me two transformers for Christmas.  They were my favorite present.  And Donatello too.  He got me Optimus Prime and Sideswipe.  I like to pretend that they are brothers.

Flipping through the radio channels on the tv tonight, because that's how I use the tv as a glorified radio.  The money is totally wasted on me, we have tv for Gary.  Anyway, flipping through the radio channels tonight, I perked up when an Avalon song was on that came out back when I was in highschool, about the time a friend, Kristi I think introduced me to Christian rock, pop?  Whatever you call it.  It was a song I liked alot back then, the idea of being willing to testify or speak or praise God throughout my life, just like everything we see in creation.  Of course I was also in 7th grade when it came out, and thought the song had great positive feeling music, with great harmony.  However, when I heard the song again, a different set of words just blew me away, "I'll be a witness in the silences when words are not enough."

I have hoped in some small way, to live to see that Abigail's life mattered, even if it was a very tiny and short one.  If in someway she brings glory to God, in the way that we handle her loss, then ... It's not that it makes it better or ok in someway, but I suppose it helps to see good come from the bad.  And while I have tried so hard to sort through everything and make sense of everything that I feel by writing, almost obsessively you might say, the words are not enough.  Oh, I blog, sometimes I share snippets of things on facebook, I journal daily in my planner, and I have Abigail's journal.  I have lots of words, I supposed if I could ever get what it is that needs to be said, said, then I could just put up the pen.  The problem is the words are not enough.  They are never enough.

Recently a sister in the Church passed away, a woman I've never met but who lives in vibrant detail in countless stories that I've heard.  Someone who was like a sister to Gary's grandmother, a woman who they all call Aunt.  As we have talked and made plans to go up for the funeral, I wondered what I could say.  It brought the very real panic and feelings of losing Abigail back to the forefront of my mind.  The utter worthlessness of words at that point, the rarity of anything that is said penetrating the fog, and sticking with you.  The despair of hearing "I'm so sorry" over and over and over and over.  And yet we feel that we have to say something.  I wondered during a long drive what I would say, I wondered what I would have said to myself.  Maybe that is all we are really grappling for in these situations, words for ourselves?  Somehow hoping that what we think we would need is what others need.  Maybe that's why we stink at speaking to others in their loss before we experience it.  We have no idea what it is and what we need.

I have thought that what I would say is "It's not ok, but it will be well.  There will always be a huge hole, but that is ok too.  You will be lonely, but He never leaves us alone.  I know, because I'm there."  And maybe, others can see that, maybe when others look in, those silences say volumes.  Maybe the silences will speak to what words cannot.

Here we are rolling over into 2016. Sayonara 2015, you absolutely STUNK!

So, for a review of last year's resolutions.

• We did manage to reduce our debt, and cash flow unemployment, nearly all of the big move, and with the generous support of so many the burial of Abigail.  We didn't pay cash for the car, but the loan we took out was tiny.  It will be paid off just making the minimum payments this year, and the interest rate is so low that the bank will have made a whopping $11 dollars off of us.  I can live with that, even if Dave Ramsey wouldn't.  I am happy with how much progress we made on the debt.  Everything I had planned to do by the end of the year we were finished with in July, to the tune of $20,427.47.  For the most part I am happy with that.  We might have used about half of what Gary made this year, to get rid of debt.  Not too shabby since we also have 3 kids.  Of course with the layoff we didn't do much after that, other than to cash flow the move to the tune of $5,186.46.  One of the unspoken reasons why we wanted a bigger vehicle was to have another baby.  I suppose we made that goal too, even if it wasn't the way anticipated.

• I also managed to improve my time management.  It's an area I feel like can always stand to be improved.  My planner has been a big help in that regard.  (Seriously, that EC Planner has been one of the BEST buys I have ever made. If you think you are interested follow the link and you and I both get $10 off if you buy one.)  Gary tells me that I do ALOT, so I must be doing fine in that area, but I always feel like I don't get enough done, and I don't have time for so many of the things I want to do for all the things I have to do.

• I feel like I met the majority of my schooling goals over the spring, to finish out the school year.  This year was going really well for the first 2.5 months too.  We took off from co-ops in the spring, and only did one in the fall.  I was intentional about picking out field trips, and making the most of opportunities when we were job hunting with Gary, and staying on target when we were home.  We have addressed alot of character stuff, but as always new things crop up in their place.

• One of my biggest successes I think has been in handling my temper and interactions with the kids.  I have for several years now, tried to be better about not yelling.  And you know what, losing a child that you will never be able to say "I love you" to, makes not yelling at the ones you do have infinitely easier.  I still rarely lose my temper with them over defiance, and having to repeat myself a million times.  But I can count on one hand the times that has happened in the last 5 months, and it doesn't equal me yelling.  What burns me up now more than anything, is the rage I feel when I hear someone else screaming at their kids.  It is pretty irrational, but hey, try losing a child, and then we'll talk about my irrational anger with other parents and medical professionals.  But I digress, I continue to hope to improve, to better model what I expect behavior wise from my children, but I'm not going to list it on my resolutions next year.

• My biggest failing this year, has been with my Bible reading and studying.  I started off well with the Church's reading, but had fallen off the wagon by mid year.  My own studies have been sporadic at best, and I didn't really start with any of them till after we lost Abigail.

Day 1, 12-4-15, This morning the kids woke up to find the elves with a skittle message "We are back".

Day 1, 12-4-15, After both Britt and Ruth took some time to sound it out and read the message, they were all excited to eat the skittles with breakfast.

Day 2, 12-5-15, We spent all day walking around the elves, and not using the ceiling fan.

Day 3, 12-6-15, We came home from Church to discover that the elves had gotten hungry, and got into the Christmas goodies. Grandmother's candy and oyster crackers were a hit, as was Ahna's Chex Mix.

Day 4, 12-7-2015, Apparently the elves haven't been told that we have more rooms in the new house than just the kitchen, because once again they were bringing Christmas surprises in there. They dyed the last of the milk green and left a note, "because green milk tastes better."

12-8-15, Day 5, The Elves take a shower.

12-8-15, Day 5, Ruth shreked about Twinkle and Jingle being naked in the bathtub. Britt just thought it was weird that they leave their boots and hats on in the shower.

12-8-15, Day 5, Mistletoe is covering his eyes while the girls get undressed.

12-9-15, Day 6, Today the elves used special dry erase markers, lipstick and some shaving cream to make a Santa hat on the mirror. Their message said, "Hohoho, Don't you look like Santa?"

Britt was really worried about who drew on a mirror like that. But Momma assured him it would all clean up easy. That the elves brought special markers, not regular markers. He said that was good because they would get a spanking if they drew on mirrors. I told him yes they would. (Which by the way is precisely the reason, the elves weren't sure if they should pull this stunt. No need to encourage bad behavior, my three have it covered without inspiration.) Grumpy pants, wouldn't co-operate for a picture, and said, just post that one. She was mad that I made her put on clean pants for supper, and they weren't a pair that she likes. Rebecca insisted that Spiderman and Little Spiderman take a picture with her.

12-10-15, Day 7, Do you wanna build a snowman? (out of playdo?)

Mistletoe's letter reads:

Do you want to build a snowman? Do you like mine? Since it does not snow in Florida, we brought you some playdo. We thought you might like to play with it while Momma unboxes the schoolroom today. What do you think of my snowman? Jingle and Twinkle say it doesn't look like Olaf. Olaf says it looks good though.

Love,
Mistletoe
(and Jingle and Twinkle)

12-11-2015, Day 8, The elves are up to mischief and mayham with the Minions.

Dave and Kevin watch it all while Twinkle turns bananas into minions. Apparently she used Jerry, Stuart, and Kevin as models. Apparently Stuart just knocked out Mistletoe with the fart gun. While a horrified Jerry and a laughing Jingle look on.

12-17-2015, Day 9, After a somewhat lengthy absence due to really bad behavior at bedtime, the elves appeared today in the fireplace.

Twinkle was inspecting the chimney. Wonder why she needed to do that. Ruth finally figured out that she was check to make sure Santa could get in. I told her I guess she needed to see if it was structurally sound. Britt on the other hand was real insistent that Mistletoe was make a hole in there, so that Santa could get down the chimney. I informed him there was already a hole, that's why it was a chimney. Jingle doesn't look like any contractor I would trust. I think she's just looking for an excuse to use that thing.
12-24-2015, Day 16, The elves brought the snow that they promised the kids, in the post card that they mailed them right before Thanksgiving. It came in the form of big snow flakes hung from the ceiling and special North Pole snow that wouldn't melt all over the windows.




12-24, Day 16, Tonight as promised the Elves climbed down so the kids could tell them bye, before Santa picks them up tonight.

12-24, The kids playing and talking to their elves before the leave for another year.