The Christmas Post 2011

After trimming the tree, we started the Christmas season with my (I thought) clever plan of taking pictures of the children sleeping for the Christmas card so I wouldn't have a repeat of 2009.

Things began cherubically

but sleeping big kids are kind of disheveled.

and the flash made Evelyn grimace.

So, I moved on to posing some shots.

Again, Adelaide was pretty easy, although quite committed to my original "sleeping child" idea

I'm in a stocking.... zzzzzzzzzz.

Evelyn loves to take pictures, but is also easily distracted. Here she's trying to figure out how to put Santa on the sleigh.

This was adorable but we ultimately decided it was too bare for the US Postal Service.

There we go! Matilda did a splendid job posing for the card this year and I let her eat the candy cane when we were done.

The first Sunday of Advent our church hosted an Advent wreath making brunch after the service. The kids enjoyed donuts and fruit and Matilda really loved helping to make the wreath. It was a bit more challenging with Evelyn, the event lasted much longer than her attention span, but she did help put a few decorations on our family wreath and she loved lighting the candles at dinner time, singing happy birthday Jesus (every night for 28 nights) and blowing out the candles.

After collecting the supplies, Daddy showed the girls how to put the greens into the floral foam

Matilda did a great job sticking the boxwood and assorted greenery into the wreath and really seemed to enjoy herself.

Evelyn was much more interested in running around, hiding under the table and tickling Daddy with the wreath supplies.

Tada! Thats our wreath! We put the candles in at home.

Silly Evelyn!

In mid-December, Ms. Nina, the director of the Little Cherubs church choir, hosted a "Happy birthday, Jesus!" party following choir practice. There were little tables set up in the youth lounge, a buffet with cheeses, fruit, veggies, meatballs, deli meats and lots of sweets, fancy candy canes at each place, punch, and even a birthday cake. Ms. Nina invited the siblings to attend too and made (and wrapped!) a blanket for every child (even the siblings who are not in the choir!) The kids sang songs, read a story, unwrapped their blankets and enjoyed the goodies. After the party, we took the girls to visit Santa at our neighborhood store. He was a jolly santa with a real beard!

Evelyn was scared and pulled a Randy.

Matilda was determined to be VERY good.

Matilda and Santa chatted for just a minute.

She assured him she was a good girl and asked for a princess doll.

We did so many fun things getting ready for the big day! We purchased a large Advent calendar from noel eternelle in Montreal last July and put a candy in each door for the girls. They loved opening the doors to find their treat and count down to the big day! We read tons of Christmas books--we added a few to our collection this year, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The girls watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman a million times along with some Christmas specials of their favorite pre-school shows, but Matilda found the Grinch movie to be too scary. I watched Polar Express with them as well, but there were some parts Matilda found too frightening and we had to fast forward.

We baked cookies... LOTS of cookies. And we worked on Christmas crafts. The girls made Ruldoph, Frosty and Santa faces on paper plates with foam stickers, created plastic snow globes, decorated gift bags, and helped make hot chocolate gift sets for Kim and Eric and Grandma and Grandpa to put under the tree. With Kim's help, they also made penguin ornaments. Daddy and Adelaide made a little footprint ornament for her first christmas and I put together a photo ornament for her as well as a calendar and framed some of her birthday pictures for the family.

Matilda's cherub choir sang twice this December, once on the 18th and again at the Christmas Eve service. Kim and Eric arrived on Christmas Eve and the whole family attended the service followed by a nice dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After dinner, we went home to get cleaned up for bed and feed Adelaide. Then Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls and we opened the last day on the Advent calendar where the girls found an extra special candy--chocolate covered marshmallows! The big girls hung their stockings by the fireplace and went to bed. Kim, Eric, Ed and I stayed up until midnight wrapping presents, filling stockings and getting the house ready for guests the next day.

Christmas morning, the tree was absolutely stuffed with gifts from Santa, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and friends. We kept the girls upstairs until grandma and grandpa arrived, but they were so excited when they woke up and realized Santa had left a gift in their bedrooms. I was washing dishes when I heard Matilda yell "Santa came! Mommy, did Jesus find you!?" It was so cute. He left each girl a "Zhu Zhu Pet" which is just a little robotic hamster that rolls around and makes funny noises. Adorably, they seemed satisfied (until we got downstairs) with the idea that that might be all Santa got for them!

When they saw all the gifts they were a bit overwhelmed, I think. Matilda was delighted that Santa remembered to bring her a princess doll. There were so many gifts that the girls ran out of steam and stopped opening 1/2 way through and had to come back and finish later with Grandma. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts and the trinkets in their stockings. It was a fun morning. Once the unwrapping was over and cleaned up, I made gingerbread waffles. Even the girls were brave enough to try them this year and it's a Christmas tradition I have no intention of abandoning!

There was plenty of food this year. Ed ordered a Jamon Serano from Spain, along with a stand and special knife to make the delectable delicate slices. There were also 100 oysters overnighted to our door that he and Eric expertly shucked, displayed on a bed of rock salt and slurped down. There were cookies and candies galore, cheese, olives, and dolmas. For dinner we served prime rib roast with port wine sauce, turkey breast, gravy, creamed spinach, potatoes au gratin and home made dinner rolls, accompanied by a Jeroboam of champagne (4 bottles) Shanti and Laura joined us for Christmas dinner and the conversation and company were delightful.

I am sure that there are pictures and videos somewhere of the advent calendar and

maybe cookies and the cherub choir and the ham and the whole family at Christmas Eve dinner...

but I can't find them. Once I unearth them, I'll add them here for posterity.

My gift from Jim and Joanne (photography backdrop and lighting kit) came in a bag so large we couldn't resist putting the family into it!

Evelyn is the only kid I know who is excited to receive clothing as a gift, here's one of the many princess nightgowns she got and wants to wear constantly.

In the days following Christmas the girls had a blast playing with their new toys and with their relatives. On the 29th, Jim, Eric, Kim and Edward went to Milwaukee for a basketball game and the girls and I had a quiet afternoon and evening at home unwinding from all the festivities. On the 30th Ed left for California to watch the Rose Bowl. My dad came out on the 31st to visit and help out with the girls.

By the 3rd of January our decorations were put away, our guests had all returned home, Ed was back in town and life has gone back to normal. It's always sad to see Christmas go, especially such a fun one that the girls were so excited about, but I know next year will be even better now that Matilda and Evelyn are old enough to remember what we did this year. It's wonderful to be building our family traditions and lovely memories for years to come.

First Day of School

Evelyn had her first day of school on Tuesday, January 3. She and Matilda are in the same class this semester. There were no tears for the drop off and they both had a great day. They met new friends, talked about their favorite things, had snack, played and learned about the letter F, the days of the week and the months of the year. Thursday, they practiced the letter F and calendar skills again. When I arrived to pick them up, Evelyn didn't even notice I was there, she was so busy building letters with special "handwriting" blocks.

When we got home from their first day of school I set up my new photography backdrop stand from Jim and Joanne to take some pictures of the girls in the outfits Kim and Eric picked for them. Evelyn is a little ham and enjoys being in front of the camera.

Matilda is a more difficult subject, she doesn't like to keep still and she makes funny faces but, with practice she'll get used to having her portrait taken.

Of course, we had to get a picture with Adelaide!

Everyone wants to hold her though, so you don't get much time to snap a good shot before the big sisters lose patience and just want to play with baby Adelaide.

Trimming the Tree

We brought up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and the big girls were so excited to help decorate!



This is the "Safe Tree" that has mostly non-breakable things on it. I gave them a box full of christmas balls, bells and other trinkets (and candy canes!) to put on the tree themselves. At first, the tree was pretty bottom-heavy in decor, but then Evelyn got this bright idea:

She is really impressed with her efforts. She and Matilda still get excited every day when I turn on the lights.


The "Safe Tree" also has all our travelling ornaments on it. Whenever we visit a new place, Ed and I try to pick up an ornament or bauble to put on the tree to remember the trip. We're only missing 6 cities: Orlando, New Orleans, Charleston, Wellington, Madrid, and Montreal.

The ornament Evelyn is looking at is a light house from our trip to Cape Cod. while we were decorating the tree, I told the girls about the trips associated with each of the special ornaments. For this one, I explained to Matilda that we took her to Cape Cod before Evelyn was born. Something was lost in translation, however, and it is now "The lighthouse where Evelyn was born." :)

Big Girl Bed

It was bound to happen eventually. Evelyn has started climbing out of her crib. The tiny hotel crib stood no chance of containing her, and her successful escapes only emboldened her. So, on December 15, we converted her crib to a toddler bed.

She is such a wild sleeper, I was certain she'd fall out or just spend all night running around her room abusing her freedom, but she shocked me and went right to sleep and stayed in her big girl bed all night.



As you can see, she was pretty stoked. (I was too!)

Happy Baby

Baby Adelaide is awake more often now and much of that time is spent smiling! She's such a happy baby and I love watching her socialize. She seems truly delighted to see us most of the time!

She started giving us a few smiles around 5 weeks old but now she's a pro.

Here she is hanging out watching me do some chores.



Those tiny toes are positively scrumptious too!

Sharing

When Matilda is at school, Evelyn needs someone to play with!





Soon enough, Adelaide will know what to do with those dolls.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year. First on my list is three healthy beautiful children. We are thankful for our abundance, our family, and the love we have for one another, as well as all the things--big and little--that are too numerous to name but which enrich our lives daily.

Adelaide was in this picture, you just can't see her because Matilda shifted and blocked her in the frame. It's hard to take family pictures on your own!



For Adelaide's first Thanksgiving, we had a huge turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, bleu cheese mashed potatoes, sausage sage and apple dressing, turkey wine gravy, jellied cranberry sauce, cranberry apricot relish and pumpkin pie tartlets.
Matilda took one look at her plate, declared she was scared to try it, and ran away, preferring to spend Thanksgiving enjoying her own company.



Evelyn tried one bite of everything, loved the jellied cranberry sauce and ate almost 1/2 a can of it! She also enjoyed the home made whipped cream and pumpkin pie tartlets. We have plenty of left overs for soup and the freezer.



We have already decorated for Christmas and are making our menu plans for the big day with the Gustafson clan visiting.

One Month

Adelaide is 1 month old now. Last week she had a check up and was up to 9 pounds 2 ounces; she has gained nearly a pound a week since we left the hospital. She's also grown 1/2 an inch in length and has nearly outgrown the newborn sized diapers. The 0-3 month clothing is still a little big on her, but her newborn pjs are getting too short.
She's a great eater, generally pretty happy and very tolerant of her sisters' incessant attentions.
And she loves to snuggle and be held.

Sweet dreams

I'm so lucky to have 3 of the snuggliest cupcakes around!

Matilda's First Haircut

Since Matilda refuses to wear clips now to keep her hair out of her mouth, I took her to the salon for her first hair cut.



She was really good and it came out awfully cute, but now she looks so much older!



They saved a lock of her hair for me to keep.

Splish Splash

On Saturday November 12, 2011 Adelaide had her first tub bath.



Initially, she was a bit startled and upset, but she quickly calmed down and seemed to enjoy having her hair washed and resting in the warm tub having attention lavished upon her by her sisters, parents, and Eric and Kim.

She smells fantastic.

Who Can Do Anything?

Matilda's choir, the Little Cherubs, performed at church again this week singing "Who Can Do Anything?"

Matilda seemed a little distracted this week, but was in a good mood and having a lot of fun. Also, cute as a button in her curls and silver tutu!

2 Weeks

2 weeks in and we're all doing great. My gallbladder is hardly bothering me at all and I'm healing quickly and getting my energy back. Matilda and Evelyn adore Adelaide and love to get a chance to hold her and light up when she looks at them. Adelaide still has her days and nights mixed up a little (if I let her, she'll go 4 or more hours between feeding in the day but never waits more than 2 hours at night) but we're working on that and she's learning to be a more efficient nurser so I can feed her overnight in about 20-30 minutes instead of an hour.



We are so happy with our little family and so blessed that Adelaide is here and healthy.

Belly Button

Yesterday, at just 12 days old, Miss Adelaide Vivienne became the proud owner of an adorable new belly button!

Matilda's first chior performance

Matilda has joined the Little Cherubs choir at our church. It is a choir for 3-5 year olds that performs 10 times a year and is the most adorable thing you could imagine!

I missed her first performance because I was at the hospital still from having Adelaide, but Ed recorded the show for me and to share with all of you!

Matilda is at the far right of the front row wearing a pink striped dress and tights.



The song they sang was "A Great Big God"
Here are the lyrics:

You hung all the stars and named them one by one
You tolled out the moon and lit the sun.
Tipping up the mountains, pouring out the sea;
Then you turned around and you made me!

You're a great big God, a very busy God
But you take time for me.
You're a great big God, a very busy God,
But you take care of me.

You control the thunder, cause the wind to blow
Send the driving rain and silent snow;
Open every flower, color every tree;
Then you sit right down and talk to me!

You're a great big God, a very busy God,
But you take time for me.
You're a great big God, a very busy God,
But you take care of me.

You're always there; you really care
You're a great big wonderful God!

You're a great big God, a very busy God
But you take time for me.
You're a great big God, a very busy God,
But you take time for me!

Happy Halloween from the Gustafson "Ghouls"

The girls have been so excited about Halloween this year! They have been preparing all month. They went to a farm to pick out pumpkins and painted them.


They got apples and made caramel apples with Daddy; we all went shopping together for Halloween costumes; checked a pile of Halloween books out of the library; watched Garfeild's Halloween special, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Barney's Halloween Party and Ichabod Crane; Matilda's school had a Halloween party; they wore glow-in-the-dark skeleton pjs; and were delighted to recieve adorable felt trick or treating bags from Mona and Joe.

Today was the big day. They got all dressed up--Evelyn was Little Red Riding Hood and Matilda was a witch.






Ed loaded them up in the wagon and they went Trick or Treating for over an hour while Adelaide and I handed out candy at home. They came home with their bags full of candy!


There is one house on a street near ours that goes all-out every year with spooky Halloween decorations. Matilda has noticed and has been talking about going there for weeks. They went door to door all the way there, but when they got to the much anticipated spooky house, they just couldn't get the nerve to go up to the door through the dark tunnel the home owners had constructed. Ed reports that both girls broke down in tears in the driveway of the spooky house and demanded to come straight home--they didn't even want to do any more trick or treating at other houses! Maybe next year they won't be so scared. But they had a fantastic time. And they thoroughly enjoyed having a few pieces of candy after dinner. And we had MANY more trick or treaters this year than we have before. I think we only have about 5 pieces of candy left-over from the 2 shopping bags full that we purchased!

Happy birthday, little Lulu!

Evelyn turned 2 today! Late last night, when she was fast asleep, Ed and I blew up a bunch of balloons and covered her floor with them to surprise her when she woke up this morning. Matilda, Ed and I all burst in singing happy birthday first thing this morning, just to get things off on the right foot.


She kept busy playing with her balloons all morning while we got the house picked up and got ready for her little party. Grandma and Grandpa came over and we opened presents. She was pretty spoiled this year getting movies, books, stickers, play food, a "bilibo," and Jessie from Toy Story, but the highlights were her doll house, the baby doll cradle and rocking chair--complete with new doll who she sings lullabies to:


And a Dora the Explorer tricycle


After presents we had pepperoni pizza and oranges for lunch followed, of course, by birthday cake! I made a sour cream pumpkin spice cake with a swirl of brown sugar streusel, apricot filling and an orange glaze in a pumpkin shaped pan--with some sprinkles of course, it IS a birthday party! The whole time we were singing "Happy Birthday" she was trying to blow out her candles. When we were done, she successfully extinguished them--she is our first child to blow out her own birthday candles! She was so excited about all her new toys that she hardly had any cake. Although, I did give her the scraps from carving the cake the day before and it was judged "nummy!"


As the festivities drew to a close and nap time was near, we managed to get all three of the girls rounded up for a birthday picture--here they are: 3, 2 and new:

Evelyn is turning 2!

Just 2 short years ago, we headed to the hospital to start an induction of labor to meet Evelyn. Hinting at Evelyn's active nature and enthusiastic personality, the labor and delivery were much faster than anticipated!

She had grown, learned and experienced so much in the last year.

In October, She dressed up as a bee and had her first experience trick or treating.

In November, she learned to walk, and she flew to Canada to visit friends with Mommy.

In December, her language skills really took off!

In January, she kept busy with housework, and weaned at the end of the month.

In February, she learned to pose for pictures with "CHEESE!" She got all 4 incisors in the same week, and she had her 15 month check up where she came in at the 90th percentile for height and weight at 27 pounds and 33 inches.

In March, she continued to climb on everything, from standing on top of her rocking horse to trapping her big sister under a laundry basket--I have yet to see a physical challenge she's not ready to try to best. We also found out in March that Evelyn would be a big sister!

In April, I was pretty sick, but Evelyn and Matilda stayed happy and busy dressing up as princesses, drawing, dancing, singing and watching princess movies. By this point, Evelyn was as heavily invested in princesses as Matilda. She was also learning to adore her baby dolls and enjoy longer more complex bedtime stories.

In May, we celebrated Easter. The girls went to a farm to hold chicks and bunnies and hunt for Eggs. The Easter Bunny left baskets full of goodies for them, Kim and Eric came to visit and we had a nice celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

In June, we celebrated Father's Day... twice! Evelyn had a wonderful bike ride and picnic with Daddy and the next weekend we gave him presents and had ice cream cake! She also had her toe nails painted for the first time, continued to enjoy playing dress up and climbing everything in the house.

In July, we celebrated Matilda's 3rd birthday. Evelyn and Matilda also spent nearly 2 weeks in Door County. 1 week while Ed and I were in Canada, and then a bit longer for the family reunion. Evelyn had a wonderful time meeting her cousins and swimming in the hot tub, taking walks, and playing on the swing set. She even started coppying her older cousins by trying to drink out of big-girl cups! At the end of the month, I took the girls to the Shedd Aquarium while Ed was at the Big Ten media day luncheon. They had a great time looking at the animals and even watching a movie!

In August, Ed went away on a guys' trip and Grandpa Mike came to stay with us for a week to help take care of the girls. We all had a great time.

In September, Uncle Eric came to visit and go to a football game with Ed. Evelyn was so smitten with Uncle Eric. She and the girls had a fantastic time playing with him and loved not having to share him. 2 months later, Evelyn still asks "Where's Uncle Eric?" when she wakes up from nap and wants to play! She can't wait for him to visit again--and bring Aunt Kim! In September we also noticed that Evelyn was having skin reactions to disposable diapers, so we started using cloth diapers for her. She's showing interest in potty training and hopefully we'll be ready to give that a go this winter!

In October, Evelyn was invited to join Matilda's preschool for their first field trip and she and Ed went along to Norton farm for a hay-ride, pumpkin and gourd picking, and met a chicken! We have also been busy enjoying fall and Halloween activities--making caramel apples, painting pumpkins, shopping for Halloween costumes, sampling Halloween candy, reading spooky stories and watching fun kids' Halloween movies. And, the highlight of this month so far, baby Adelaide was born! Evelyn loves her baby sister and is very interested in what she is doing, making certain she's not crying, giving hugs and kisses and saying, "she's so cute!"

Tomorrow we will celebrate as my baby turns 2!

One Week Old

Adelaide had her first check up today. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces when she was born, but down to 6 pounds 5 ounces the day we went home. Today, she was already back up to 6 pounds 13.5 ounces, so she's growing really well! She's still a very content and healthy baby, is fitting in nicely and is getting cuter every day!

Adelaide Vivienne

As you well know, this has been a difficult and complicated pregnancy. Once we got close to the end, I had frequent monitoring, and very suddenly had some concerning bloodwork and symptoms to point to me possibly having cholestasis like I did with Evelyn. For the baby's safety, my doctor decided to induce at 37 weeks.





The induction went smoothly. I recieved my first dose of pitocin at 4:00am on Friday, October 21st and 9 hours and just 1 push later, we welcomed our third daughter, Adelaide Vivienne Gustafson, into this world. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces (the last ultrasound over-estimated her weight by more than a pound!) and 20.5 inches long. She has very dark brown, soft baby hair, dark blue eyes we suspect will turn brown, pale blonde eyebrows and a very pleasant pink complexion. She's long and thin but very healthy.




She took to nursing well right after birth and is generally a very sleepy and content newborn. Matilda and Evelyn absolutely love her and they want to look at her, touch her, hug her, hold her, kiss her and talk about her all the time. We are slowly adjusting to our new larger family and a more packed routine. I am recovering well and Adelaide continues to eat well, sleep, and be a perfectly happy healthy newborn despite being 3 weeks early. We are all so happy and blessed to be adding another healthy baby to our family.