Christmas Joy (comes from Jesus)

Kathleen's preschool had their Christmas program last week.  The children had been practicing for weeks (it was before Thanksgiving when I first saw them singing Joy to the World), and Kathleen was beyond excited.   She might not have sung every word, but she was all about the choreography!  (We know that three minutes is more than a little long, but stick around for the "dancing" at 1:35 -- it's pretty funny!)

We're so grateful that Kathleen's in a little Christian preschool, a place where her teachers help reinforce what we're teaching at home: that Christmas isn't about Santa or presents, but about the amazing gift of the Christ Child.  (Because, let me tell you, it's hard to compete with Santa.  We need all the extra help we can get!)  Kathleen loved practicing the nativity play; she performs it at home for us, again and again.  She particularly likes to be the angel.  We will never tire of hearing her say, "You will call him Jesus, and He will come to save all people!" When I was growing up, we always acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve, and it's fun to watch our littles do the same thing.

In case you didn't get to watch real-live children perform the nativity story this year, I wanted to share this cute YouTube video from New Zealand.  (I love their little accents!  And the costumes!)  We've watched it here again and again.  The children and I love it!

We wish you lots of joy...

What have you people been doing, anyway?

Since clearly we haven't been blogging, here's a little bit of what we've been up to these past six weeks.

Being sweet and sleepy.

(Though not, unfortunately, the sleep-through-the-night-type of sleepy!)



Loving our little brother.


Growing.


Goofing around.

John David sports his Daniel-Boone-style cap, a gift from Nan and Grandpa (who might have been a bit concerned by the photographs of our boy in princess crowns).

At the girls' request, Mama models a tutu-hat (The things girls think up!) The girls had me wearing that thing in the backyard for over an hour before I realized anyone in the neighborhood could see right over the fence. So much for dignity!

Taking family walks.

The whole crew enjoyed any absolutely gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Shoreline park. With a wagon, a scooter, and a baby wrap, and two adults, we could move everyone along.

It was Luke's first big outdoor adventure, and he was rewarded with a spectacular sunset.

Visiting Stanford's fountain, dyed red for the Big Game. (That'd be the Stanford-Cal football game, in case you were wondering.)




Cheering during football games.





Jim sneakily arrayed our children in Army gear to cheer with him during the Army - Notre Dame game. Luke was the only one who stuck with me in cheering for the Irish, and he was only in it for the milk. Fortunately for me, the Irish prevailed, just as they did at the Army-Notre Dame game eleven years ago, when I first met Jim. Kathleen was disappointed by Army's loss, but she was even more concerned about the cadets. "Daddy," she asked, "did you see the cadets? They look so sad!"

Gathering colorful fall leaves.

We met Jim at Stanford for a leaf-gathering session just before Thanksgiving, while the leaves still had color. (Or at least as much color as they have around here.) We had lots of fun collecting them, and when we got home we dipped them in wax for our Thanksgiving centerpiece.

It had rained earlier in the morning, but stopped in time for our adventure. We were glad for the break in the weather, not only so that we could go out, but also for the chance to wear rainboots!

He didn't have rainboots, but John David didn't miss a chance to stomp in some puddles.

Hosting Thanksgiving.

Hosting Thanksgiving sounds a lot more impressive than it actually was.  Basically we cleaned our house and set the table, and my extended family arrived to do everything else.  I was technically in charge of roasting the turkey, but my parents bought the turkey, brought the turkey to our house, and prepped the turkey for me.  All I did was supply an oven.  It was a pretty sweet deal!

While my parents fixed the turkey and my siblings brought the requisite side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, the girls and I watched the Thanksgiving Day parade and made these little gumdrop cuties.  What fun!

John David and his cousin Emily took turns playing with (and climbing all over) their Nan.

This little cutie (along with his siblings) tops the list of the things for which we are truly thankful.  God has been so very good to us!

Kathleen baked her first pumpkin pie.  She was much more excited about having baked it than actually eating it.  Turns out, she prefers apple.


Growing more...


Attempting to contain John David (and generally failing).

A kind friend from our community group brought us supper, including cupcakes.  John David wanted those cupcakes.  He dragged two toddler chairs across the dining room to the gated kitchen, somehow managed to lift one chair over the gate, used the other to launch himself over the gate, and then dragged the first chair over to the counter, where he was able to reach his cupcakes.  That's when we discovered him.  He was quite pleased with himself.  The camera happened to be lying on the counter near the cupcakes, and so I was able to photograph him in his triumph...  Keeping John David out of trouble is a full-time job.  But since my attention is divided at least four ways, he frequently finds trouble.

Getting ready for Christmas.



The girls adore Advent!  They love all the traditions of the season -- lighting the Advent wreath, reading the Advent books, hanging the numbers on the Advent calendar and the ornaments on the Jesse tree...  And of course, they had a ball decorating the tree.  John David seems to prefer un-decorating the tree; at various times our tree has been only half decorated, since he's emptied it of everything he can reach!

Growing still more.


Playing ball.

I think he looks like some sort of super hero in this photo.  (Think, "By the Power of Grayskull!")



John David is signing boy here. And it's true. That child is all boy.


Surviving the stomach flu.

The entire family fell to the stomach flu recently.  The three older children came down with the virus first, within twelve hours of one another.  By the time they had started to recover three days later, both Jim and I had gotten it.  To add insult to injury, our dryer was broken.  (It had been, since about the time Luke was born.)  We had clean, wet sheets strung just about everywhere in the house to dry.  It was a brutal, brutal week, in which I have never been more grateful for the streaming videos from Netflix.  But as far as John David was concerned, life was good, because for a week he had unlimited access to juice.


Life with four little ones is a whirlwind of meals and snacks and books and games and laundry and all that.  Every now and then we manage to sleep a bit.  It's busy.  Really busy.  But it's everything you'd expect from a circus, and we're just about crazy enough to love it!

Luke's First Party

These photos are more than a little late. But then, you probably expected that. We have a lot around here -- a lot of love, a lot of laundry, a lot of little children. But with all that (and a laptop that has given up the ghost, and another laptop tied up in dissertation writing), we don't have a ton of spare time for blogging. One day we'll catch up. Probably around the time I fit in my skinny jeans... (By which I mean: don't hold your breath, friends!)

After a few (long) days in the hospital, it was finally time to head home to the circus. We loaded Luke into his infant seat. He was not impressed. However, he calmed down completely once we got moving.  He spent the trip home sleeping.  His parents just kept repeating, "We have four kids!"

We did not intend to take Luke home without pants on... but I had foolishly brought little footie pants for him, and those wouldn't have allowed the nurses to confirm that Luke was actually ours at the door -- at least not without unbuckling him and undressing him. (The nurses had to check his hospital anklet to match up with my hospital bracelet.) We covered him with a blanket, but he wore no pants, poor guy!

We were welcomed as we pulled up to the curb...

The girls love their dot markers!

And even more warmly welcomed once we walked in the door!

The children and their dad (who is, in fact, Super Dad, by the way) had planned a welcome home party for Luke, complete with Curious George party hats, paper plates, and, of course, balloons.

While Dad and Nan and Grandpa had a chance to hold little Luke, Mama caught up on some of the snuggling that hadn't happened the last few days.  John David wasn't too interested in snuggling -- he was more interested in the balloons!  But Mama's girls needed some extra snuggling.  We're not at all accustomed to being apart from another, and they took the separation harder than we'd anticipated.

Of course, no party would be complete without a cake!  We sang to Luke and blew out candles for him, and we happily ate some delicious cake.

We're so happy to be home!

Unfortunately for you, Luke, you don't get to pick your family...

Welcome Flash (a.k.a. Luke Bennett Golby)!

We are proud to announce the arrival of our 4th child, Luke Bennett Golby. Luke tipped the scales at 8 lbs., 10 oz. and was 21-1/4 inches long.

He also had big feet and long fingers and toes, like his dad.

Despite Kristen's last-minute push to name him Tim or Buster (in honor of the Giants win last night), we compromised on Luke (maybe he'll be a doctor) Bennett (Kristen's grandfather's middle name). I'm pretty sure the girls will still call him Flash. He's totally got the blonde hair for it.

In fact, he also came out like a flash. After having to be induced, Luke shot out like a rocket. Seriously, the delivery was fast. The doctor described it as "half a push," and that might have been excessive. I told Kristen that I only can give her credit for delivering 3 kids now, which she didn't find nearly as funny as I did. But I couldn't be more proud of her. She's amazing!

Thanks again to everyone for all your prayers. We feel really blessed, even though we might be a bit overwhelmed. As I told Kristen, when we moved from 2 to 3 kids, we switched from man-to-man to zone defense. Now that we have four kids, four and under, we can only do triage!