What's in a Name?

The story of Sennia(pronounced-sen'-nee-ah with a very clear 'sen' NOT sin' nee ah) . When Matt was living in North Jersey and I was by myself I listened to all the Amelia Peabody books one after another and they really got me through it all. Sennia is a character in one of those books. I loved the name, I thought it was beautiful read with the English accent Barbara Rosenblatt used. I wanted Brig...s to be a girl so he could be Sennia:) So I've been waiting for my little Sennia for all this time. I knew she'd come. I wrote Elizabeth Peters and asked her about the name because you can't really find it anywhere. She wrote me a lovely post card and said "'Sennia' is my version of the Arabic name Sania which means 'high' or 'noble'. Couldn't be a better name for a wonderful little girl. Congratulations!"
So that's how you pronounce it and that's where I got the name. I hope you all fall in love with it like I did but if you don't it's ok:) We think it fits our little girl perfectly.

Shower!

This sunny lady gave me a diaper shower:) Very sweet!

I should've gotten better pictures, but you can see the cute diaper cake and the diaper baby!

Here are some wonderful friends who came.

More wonderful friends!

Full diaper favors:)

Yummy vegetarian food. That pizza was super.

It was really fun to have a party at my house, with my friends that somebody did ALL the work for and so sweet of everybody to come and help get us ready for our girl's arrival. Thank you Cindy and everybody!

Houston Museum of Natural Science

 So one of the things I'm learning to love about Houston is that the museums here are very awesomely frequently FREE! Every Tuesday from 2-8pm the Natural Science Museum is free. How progressive of them:) This is the reason, this oil exhibit and the free time at the museum are generous donations from the good ol' oil bussiness. It's a nice little museum. The gem exhibit is pretty extensive and the shells were terrific. It will be a fun monthly outing for the family though:)

This was a popular challenge yesterday. Do you have the energy of gasoline. You turn the crank for 15 seconds and they tell you how much gasoline you matched. Matt was impressive at  about 6 1/2 drops:) Eli I think cranked out 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 (I can't remember).

Brigs almost got a drop-.86 I believe.

Luke at about 1 drop less than Eli.

Alena about 1 drop less than Samuel and Samuel 1 drop less than Luke.

Last Days of 2011

Butterfly Museum trip.

Our New Year's Eve Feast. Homemade bean dip, Quesos, guacamole and salsas.

The cheese, pepperoni, cracker and baguette spread.

We just had it picnic style in the pool yard. It was a long day starting with a big of football @ 8am, the cleaning the church @9am, taking down wallpaper for most of the rest of the day, reorganizing totes and cleaning out baby boy clothes, washing little girl clothes, buying fireworks(Eli and Luke), and then Eli and I made all the dips for dinner. All in all, it was a good day.(oh, I should mention that I slipped a much needed nap in there)

Happy faces of firework spectators.

It was their favorite New Year's Eve on record, probably because it's the first time we've actually had festivities for them:) What a terrific way to bring in the New Year though. Of course they were all in bed by 9pm so Matt and I could do our own New Year's celebrating. Houston does a mighty fine job. We felt the excitement in the air as midnight struck. 2011 we will remember you fondly, thank you for bringing our family back together again.

Samuel's birthday and bedroom!

Happy 7th birthday to a very special boy.  This was a wonderful day and I'm so glad. So thankful to the friends who came last minute to celebrate with him, so thankful to a husband who continues to endure all the painting and decorating with me to make his room come together, so thankful for kids who appreciate things, so thankful for a gorgeous afternoon and this slew of awesome kids. I feel so blessed for every child in this picture, that they are friends to my kids. They're seriously terrific!

It was a Star Wars day. Not a great day for frosting but you gotta roll with it right? 

So Samuel prayed for nearly a year ". . .and please help me get the Clone Turbo Tank. . ." The cost just seemed ridiculous, especially since Samuel doesn't really play with his legos that much. He'll spend 10x's those hours using the paper he also got. BUT, persistence does pay off because Matt and I searched and went in with Gram for a brand new off Craig's list set. It was worth the effort just for the scream and the face that came when he opened it. He'd kind of given up after I pointed out a few months ago(thinking there's NO WAY we can afford that) that is was for ages 9 and up and maybe when he was 9 etc etc. He was/is SO happy and his brothers are just as excited for him, as were his friends. Love Kaiser's face:)

 OK, NOW FOR ROOM REAVEAL #2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bum, ta, ta DUM!

So the colors look a little funny in this picture. I was so worried about doing both but it had to be done:) I'm quite pleased with how it came out. Daytime jungle/animal scenes on half, night time space(Star Warsish) on the other half. Samuel loves it as you can see from the pictures he insisted in posing in.

We still need to redo his dresser-he's insisting it should be dark green. MMmmm. Maybe we'll concede if he agrees to forget about painting the doors dark green. That's too much:) Notice all the Clone Turbo Tank pieces. The boys had to shelf it until tomorrow so the little boys could get some sleep.

He's posing here.lol. That print says 'Keep Calm and a Jedi you will Be'. Matt and I thought that was only too appropriate for Samuel. It's got Yoda w/ a lightsaber. The color is also perfect to tie the blue and green together, I wish I'd done the curtains a lot differently though. I think they should tie the room together more but he likes them so I'll leave them for a while at least.

His constellation chart above his art wire.

Samuel the Lamanite hero print.

These two boys make it all worth it!

Christmas Day Bliss

Alena opened the first gift of the day and only thing that was opened before our 9am meetings.

She looked so beautiful.

And after church Brigham finally got that candy cane he's been waiting for 'Santa Cwaus' to bring him for so long. Among way WAY too many other sweets he devoured that day. What was Santa thinking loading that stocking for a 2 yr old.

Sweetly, it was his brothers that gave him his favorite gifts

'Mater, Wighting Queen, and piwates'.

Luke loved his K'nex Roller coaster from Gram and Poppop.

They played together all day.

I love having girl toys in the mix!

The creativity that my kids displayed for the Christmas gifts they made eachother and the gifts they enjoy using made me so happy.  I was one happy Mamma. And the best part is that we will enjoy many more Christmases like this because it is just what we love. Being together and sharing. It was so fun to play with my kids.

Christmas Eve at the Stecherbush

Ready for Santa!

Alena's first sponge curlers. 

We locked all the unwrappables in the gameroom so they wouldn't have

the bluk of their Christmas surprises spoiled before church. The door was "stuck".

That grey shelf 'Santa' made for Samuel for his room.

Another two projects are the refrigerator and refinishing that Craig's List desk.

And the last project of the night is Samuel's animal tree for his room.

I can't wait to get the room painted and move it all in. I hope it looks as good put together

as it has in my imagination!