It hasn’t been that difficult living tv-less since our television bit the dust last May. Actually, it is kinda nice since I don’t think televisions are that pretty and the space it used to occupy is no longer an eye sore. Now, we have plants and pretty things there!

We are still able to get some television on our computers thanks to Hulu, but the only shows in mine and Ben’s repertoire are Supernatural (yes, we like scary things), New Girl, and Fringe (my show, not Ben’s). The only thing difficult about living without television is that I don’t know what news is going out in the world and usually only find out when people start tweeting about some occurrence. I probably should check some online news site more often. Other than that, living without a television has worked well for us and movie watching is done on our computers. The best part is just add on a projector and our ipod speaker system and we got ourselves our own little home theatre. Better than any large television in my honest opinion.

We lay blankets out, bring out the trays, have some yummy food and we all love the coziness of our own home theatre. We spent the day after New Year’s just chillin’ out and watching a movie together. It was such a nice, cozy, comfy, lazy day. Those can sometimes be the best kind, don’t you think?

New Year’s Eve was a wild and crazy night that involved some homemade 2012 crowns, yummy shrimp and black eyed peas for dinner, then loads and loads of dancing. Also, we all put on the silliest outfit we could think of and I think Ben wins again as his was pretty darn silly. Our strobe light came out of the closet and we had a blast dancing the night away!

It was a great way to ring in the New Year, though we didn’t quite stay up until midnight. We went as long as we could though and must have partied so hard because the next morning Soulie was sick. How did you ring in 2012?

p.s. doesn’t brave make the best camera faces?

December came and went. It was such a busy month with Soul’s birthday, then Ben’s, then Christmas and all the other festivities that were shoved in between. It was a good month, but our decorations are pretty much all put away, except the tree. True wanted it up one more week, so I happily obliged. And guess what? Even though you could see our advent calendar here, we never ever did a single one. Oh how busy everyday is for our family of six!

I can’t believe the holidays are all over and as much as I want to do it all over again, I am glad that all that low nutrition food will for the most part be over and done with. I am a sucker for sweets so if it is around, I just can’t say no. So how do I deal with sweets the rest of the year? I just don’t really let it come in my house. Unless, we have a baking day.

I have a lot of little goals and resolutions floating around my head, but I have not had a chance to write it out all out yet. There are some things I definitely want to be focusing on more this year. Though the goal of the moment, is to kinda clean things up around here. Every weekend leaves this house in shambles, especially since we had an impromptu New Year’s Day party here since Soul was sick and we didn’t want to go anywhere, my family brought the party here.

January things that will make this month fly…

– My dad’s 53rd birthday was yesterday! Happy Birthday Grumpy!!!

– A few little projects to turn in this month. I wish there were more days in January.

– Last month before my sister gets married.

– Keeping up with the daily busyness of my four littles.

I know I have a long list of to-dos that feel like they will never get done, but the best thing of this month so far is that Glow has slept through the night two nights in a row! Yay!!! I am pretty happy about this because I hope to get full night’s rest again, so that I can start waking up early with Ben again. Good job Glow, let’s keep the sleeping through the night thing going…

Happy New Year everyone! I have lots to share from our festivities soon.

Our most favorite thing of 2011 is having this little girl added to our family. We all absolutely, positively love her!

Enjoy ringing in the New Year wherever you are!!! 2012, here we come!!!

New Year’s Eve of 2008 started the first Bratcher dance party, also known as Club Bratcher. We all get dressed up as silly as possible, have a nice little dinner involving some black eyed peas, then we put on some Black Eyed Peas, along with some other bumpin’ music, and dance our hearts out. We even have a strobe light for the occasion.

This tradition has been a favorite of ours since we started and we only had two kids, though I will admit it didn’t happen last year because Ben and I had a fight. Yup. Those things happen to us too, but this year it is on again for sure and now we have four kids… yay! We still have to figure out what is on the menu for the night, but you can be sure we will all be ready to party come New Years Eve! We are so excited! How do you plan to ring in the New Year?

Christmas morning the girls were anxious to go downstairs to see if Santa had come. True had left him an apple and some cookies the night before, so she wanted to see if he ate them. Indeed, he had and had also left some nicely wrapped packages beside his empty plate (the open presents on the left are from Christmas Eve).

Here are my four girls, smiling together, well as best as I could get them all to at the same time. They are happily clutching some of the toys they got from their Grammy and Grumpy. The Minnie in True’s arms were for Soul, but she doesn’t liked stuffed animals and freaked out, so True claimed her for her own. The Monchichi Soul’s holding is Brave’s ultimate favorite toy she got a couple birthdays ago and Brave is holding True’s Jesse doll she got from my parents the night before. My kids are a little mixed up on whose toy is whose, but maybe they are just really good at sharing!

For stocking stuffers, True got a headband, Brave a 2-d puzzle, and Soul and Glow got little dolls. We also added some of their favorite snacks in the stocking, even Ben got some special snacks too!

Santa brought them a record player and some read along vintage record sets that Santa got here. They were super duper excited about getting to play their read along records, especially their Sound of Music one their Auntie RJ gifted the night before. My girls are big fans of Rodgers & Hammerstein. The morning was spent listening to some records then hurriedly dressing and leaving the house to gather with our church family.

After spending time being reminded about Christ’s kingship and how that relates to the traditional Christmas songs we sing about his rule, we came home to relax, play, and finish opening presents under the tree. Ben and I gifted the big girls each with a Moomin book to add to their collection and Soul got a vintage quilt for when she moves out of her crib. I am so glad we go simple with the amount of gifts we give them cause too many presents means more stuff and more stuff means more messes. We really don’t need more messes around this place! The rest of the afternoon was spent with the big girls watching movies big screen style on the wall, while the babies slept, and Ben and I cuddled.

These dolls are some of our favorite toys the girls have, but again, they have lots of  very favorite toys. We have a nice little collection. We have had the one on the very left for years, and the two little ones were in Soul and Glow’s stocking this year (the white one is vintage), and my parents gave Soul the big one on Christmas Eve. They are not very many toys Soul likes and these dolls are one of the few that she does actually like. Though, when she first took out that big one, she was a bit frightened because she isn’t quite used to seeing them so large. I love these dollies so much because their adorable little faces are too sweet! Just like my girls. BTW- I purchased one extra little one, so if you are interested in purchasing it from me, email me for details.

Christmas evening, we went to my aunt’s and spent the rest of the day eating more yummy food and playing fun games with my family. I love that my girls know it is Jesus’ birthday that we celebrate and I especially love being with my family on this very special holiday. The day was obviously very merry and very bright!