1.31.2011

12.28.10

Christmas festivities continued for us as we headed to great-Mamaw's house for gift opening, and then on to Shu-Shu's to spend the night.

Grayson was quite excited about her new pink scooter and pink princess helmet! Finley was mostly excited about the wrapping paper.


Posted by Picasa

1.26.2011

12.26.10

By Christmas night everything was covered in white. The next day it was deep enough for sledding, building snowmen, and teaching Finley how to make snow angels.



Posted by Picasa

1.24.2011

12.25.10

Happy Birthday Jesus!

A couple of gifts opened at home, then a yummy breakfast at Toad Hall, then stockings and gifts and celebrating with family.


Then, a great surprise: a white Christmas!

Grayson caught the first snowflakes on her tongue.

Finley stayed inside...

but apparently thought she could snag one through the glass door.
Posted by Picasa

1.19.2011

12.24.10

Christmas Eve!

I think this is the first time we've been able to snag a full family picture at Christmas.

The day was filled with lots of fun cousin time, including the gingerbread house adventure. They turned out really cute, and I'm still in the camp that gingerbread houses are just a good excuse to eat a lot of candy and lick icing off your fingers. We headed to church early that evening and then back to Toad Hall for a yummy dinner. A fun day to celebrate the coming of the King!
Posted by Picasa

1.17.2011

12.20.10

Oh Christmas crafts.

I love to create. I'm still wrestling with how to make time for it, how to not feel guilty when I do find time for it, and how to not get frustrated when the time I find for it never quite seems like enough. But because I love it, I typically decide that making the majority of our Christmas gifts would just be perfect. This year, our house was on the market. So each time the room looked like the pictures below, I had to clean it all up if we got the call and then drag it all out the next day. It was tricky. Still fun to get to create some new things, but tricky.

Crafting essentials...mini hot glue gun: the best $3 ever spent. New silicone-like hot glue gun mat thingy: best $5 ever spent except that I need it to be about 3 times as big. My hot glue gun now thanks me that it doesn't get stuck to the random sheet of paper I used in an attempt to protect the desk. New sewing machine: deserves a whole post in itself but let's just say I had no idea what I was missing. Justin gets a shout out for spotting the deal online. My old starter machine was awesome for sewing straight lines. Buttonholes and zigzag stitches, not so much. This new lovely not only sews zigzags, but flowers, ducks, trucks, and dolphins. Yes, dolphins. A neatly stitched, tiny row of dolphins. And no, I'm not adding that decorative touch to any of my creations in the near future. I'm just saying that someone who can stitch dolphins with the press of a button might just be my new crafting BFF.

The larger shot of the room in action, including the essential ribbon holder in the closet, scrap fabric bucket, and new bucket 'o ruffle.

I picked up some pre-made ruffle at a warehouse sale when we went to visit cousins and finally got to use it for some cutesy-bootsy (thank you for the new phrase Kiki) skirts. My treasured rotary cutter is also peeking out behind the skirts; another crafting essential. I was apparently living in the dark ages with my scissors until I saw the light and started using the rotary two years or so back.

Grayson wanted to get in on the crafting action, so I gave her some supplies. Like mother like daughter. Ribbon, stickers, and "scrap favric" as she calls it. No hot glue gun for her yet but she sure has a big love for a glue stick. As in she can use a whole glue stick in 30 minutes kind of love. And I promise she's not eating it.
Posted by Picasa

1.12.2011

12.18.10

This year we started something that I have a feeling will become a tradition in the Christmas season...we took Grayson to see her first performance of the Nutcracker. Let me just tell you, these 3 year old cuties might have been unsure of the Mouse King at first, but they warmed up to the whole idea pretty quickly. From piling into the Suburban together, to meeting the characters and getting autographs and pictures, to sipping "tea" afterwards at lunch, they thoroughly enjoyed their day.

It apparently left a huge impression too as its now almost a month later and I still get the request multiple times a day.. "ok mama, I'm going to be Clara and you be the Mouse King...wait...you be the snow dancers and I'll be Clara...wait...you be the mice and I'll be Clara". It goes on and on and on. She's almost always Clara though. She has a perfect white dress up gown for the occasion (thanks Aunt Ali, you didn't even realize it was going to be perfect get-up for pretending to be Clara!) Shu-shu also brought her a book this weekend that tells the story of the ballet. This has helped immensely with her reenactments!



Posted by Picasa

1.05.2011

12.11.10

We bake cookies and celebrate Jesus coming with a new nativity set for the girls.

Finley really wanted to help...


Or maybe she just wanted some sugar...
Posted by Picasa

12.4.10

Enjoying the snowflakes...


Cleaning out the shed...

Cleaning up the house and taking pictures like this because...

yes (gasp), we put our house on the market. This was basically why December got really busy and the blog got neglected. To make a long story short, although we love our house, we've been talking about moving for about a year now. Just talking mostly, but we finally decided after much prayer that the Lord was saying to make the jump and list the house...now...in December...what? Really though, we would be happy living here a few more years or selling it soon and moving to a new (old) house in town. So we will see. No offers on the table yet to contend with. Only dog hair, toys, and laundry to contend with for showings and that open house we held the week of Christmas. Yes, we are crazy. And yes, we had a bunch of people show up. Go figure.
Posted by Picasa

December Recap: 12.1.10

December got a little busy for us and the blog got neglected. So I'm going to post a few of the highlights here in January before we get too far into the new year.

12.1.10:
We head to Lowe's and get our Christmas tree (it's hard to beat their prices!). Excitement all around, even in the cold.

Posted by Picasa

1.03.2011

'I'm walking my dog' she says so calmly...'

At least it was baby and not her sister

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Dishwasher love

1.02.2011

NOT for the squeamish

Consider yourself warned. Close this post now if you are squeamish!

I have so many blog posts to catch up on from the holidays, but this happened tonight at bedtime and was just too classic to not post. I feel like I vaguely remember this mistake in weaning Grayson, but maybe not to this degree. I've been weaning Finley over the last few weeks, and she has been liking her whole milk (so thankful!). Tonight was the first drop of the bedtime feed, so I naturally offered her a sippy cup of milk. She was totally enjoying it and drank almost the whole thing. Only problem is that I had momentarily forgotten that at dinner with friends tonight she ate a huge meal and also drank another almost-whole sippy cup of milk. Ooops.

This is what happened when she burped as I laid her down on her changing pad. It was a volcano. Ewe. I yelled for assistance, Justin took one peek, and said he had to get the camera. But she was happy as a clam the entire time! Into the bath she went and I've never seen her belly quite so large.

Posted by Picasa