Sleep update from Miss Thumb Sucker. . . not as good as last time, but I'll still take it. I'll attribute this to her double ear infection she is still trying to kick. She will be on her last day of antibiotics tomorrow. I was hoping it might be a little better by now, but I guess it will take some retraining once again. It never ends does it? You finally get them sleeping great and then they get sick, or you travel somewhere or something else interrupts the wonderfulness of sleep. She is also starting to try and talk a little bit more. Most things are still a form of the "da", "ba" or "puh" sounds with a thrown in "ma" and "na" every once in a while, but some form of these she says ball, book, baby, bottle, puppy, papa, dada, mama and nana (for no no). She also says hi and uh-oh clear as day just throw in some talent. Her other latest deal is trying to keep up with brother and sister by attempting to run and to wrestle with daddy. I really need to get some video of it, it just cracks me up.
I am coming up blank for Miss Firecracker. . . that must be a good thing. She has been pretty calm lately except at bed time. She is having trouble staying in her bed. Always getting up for something, we have to remind her after she is tucked in and kissed and prayers said that we don't get out of bed. "What happens if we get out of bed?" we ask her. "I get a spankin." she replies. However, she has figured out that we don't give spankings if she has to go to the bathroom (how do you tell them they can't get out of bed if they need to go potty?). So, she sneaks to the bathroom and somehow manages to go, even though she just went 5 minutes before. The other (actually kind of funny, but still in an ornery Miss Firecracker way) thing she likes to do at bedtime is try and talk to her brother. He knows this is not allowed and since he is the compliant one he tries to tell her to be quiet, mostly to no avail. The funniest part is, since he doesn't take naps anymore he is usually exhausted come bedtime and falls asleep within minutes, so we can hear Miss Firecracker attempting to tell him a story but gets no response. So, after a few minutes you hear her start going, "Noisy Man? Noisy Man?! NOISY MAN!" at which point we have to intervene and remind her of the 'no talking at bedtime' rule as well. 
Noisy Man has been going through a mean phase lately. He seems to be picking on his sisters constantly and doesn't really show much remorse if he hurts them or makes them cry. He'll say the required sorry, but that is about as far as it goes. This just puzzles me as he is usually my tender-hearted little guy that wouldn't really want to hurt a fly (although he is really into the hunting stuff). So, we are having him work on memorizing 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord's servant does not argue (it really says is not quarrelsome, but that is a bit tough for age 4) but is kind to everyone. Hopefully, this will sink in or I will be searching for another kindness verse for him! He is also totally in to all of the Christmas stuff! We are doing an ABC Advent 'calendar'. I say 'calendar' because we aren't really using a calendar, just doing a letter each night with a corresponding Christmas word. A is for Angel, B is for Baby, etc. They are really having fun with it and so am I. We watched an awesome Veggie Tales movie on Santa the other night that did a great job explaining where he really came from and even had a very strong message tying him to Jesus. I think it will be a yearly watched movie for us! Just for reference it was Veggie Tales: St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving. We watched it on a Netflix instant play.
Daddy has sadly been using the treadmill more than mommy the last 3 weeks. He has been doing a pretty good job at getting on it about 3 times a week. He is majorly busy at work lately too, with lots of meetings and such. Gotta wrap things up for the calendar year and their fiscal year starts in October, so they have lots of new stuff coming in that way too. He has also been battling a cold for the last 2 weeks as well. Just kind of off and on sore throat and such but the last 2 days it seems to have gotten a little worse.
Mommy is still recovering from the musical. It took me a good 2 weeks to really get my voice back and now I am getting all congested. I was so tired all week, but was having fun watching movies and staying up late with daddy do I didn't really get any extra rest. I am finally starting to feel like myself again, thus the main reason daddy has been using the treadmill more than I. I got on it for the 1st time in 3 weeks 2 days ago. I have been busy baking and making. Along with all the stuff we did on family day Sunday, I have made monster cookies, homemade hot cocoa mix and peppermint, chocolate, marshmallow sticks for stirring. These are my (I think) adorable gifts for Noisy Man's teachers, bus driver and other such gifts this year. (must give credit to moneysavingmom.com for the ideas). I think after today I might be done creating and being in the kitchen for a while, excluding necessary meals I guess. I also finally got our Christmas card done. My sis-in-law came down to snap the picture for us last night, I stayed up late putting it all together, then sent it to her to have her send it to the printers. Hysterically, she sent me a copy of her Christmas letter and we had done the exact same thing centering around numbers! Oh well, too late to change anything now. Hopefully, I'll get them back in time to get them sent out by Monday.
