NOVEL

 I'm really glad that it was nice enough to play with Christmas toys today, and that I was able to get the dining room cleaned before the rest of the house got ruined.

I'm also really glad that I had extra hands to help me clean. We are still not finished with the entire house, so I'm going to need all the help I can get next week, because I'm going to have my fingers crossed that I will have a little one sleeping over! I can't wait! I decided to wait until it got a little closer to the end of the year to do the Favorites post, because it's really easy to forget all the great things about my little guys if I don't write them down somewhere. When I sit down to write these posts, I usually just go through my pictures, so I can get all the pictures in one spot. It's easy to forget when you're looking at pictures over and over again that so many of my kids are actually here! Anyway, I just put together a few things that I want to remember about these kids this year. At five years old, Kate gets really excited when it's time to open presents. I love that she wants to be a part of the whole event. For the past few years, Kate has always got a new American Girl doll. I found her a doll almost exactly like Claire in 2008, and she has been such a great sister to Claire. They play dress up together, and have birthday parties with each other and the dolls. Every time I walk into my living room, Kate and her doll are playing with their American Girl dolls, talking and laughing together. They make great friends. My sister Amy and I always said that if we had a daughter that we would get a double bed for her so that we could have a guest bedroom for any guests that came to stay. I think Amy was the one that set me off. The other day, Kate came to me and told me that her friends' cousin was sleeping in the guest room because she couldn't sleep in her own bed. I told Kate that we don't sleep with our friends, and that she could sleep in her own room. I thought she would run away from the idea, but instead she said "I really want to do that". I was so excited! There was just one thing that needed to be done. She needed a new bed. I already have a pretty amazing system going in my house. It's pretty simple, I have one huge shelf in the living room that I keep all