craft night, round two

there has been a lot of cousin fun and togetherness over the past week.  last friday we headed over to the ellis house for an evening of pizza and tearing out every single toy in camryn and henry’s rooms.  mom brought along a kit for decorating gingerbread cookies.  night two of craft creating was a hit.  even the littler ones had fun with the frosting and decorations.

brian was very into decorating his cookie just the right way.

will was also very serious about his decorating.  he followed the markings on the cookie and filled it in just right.

camryn filling in her tree.

the more candies on top of the cookie, the better!

being elf-ed

we’ve had a fun time hanging out with all of my family over the past week, and we’ve definitely kept busy.  last thursday everyone came over for dinner and some time together.  ginny came prepped with a craft for the kids.  the kids, especially the older ones, loved getting to turn themselves into an elf.

nate, who as always enjoyed doing crafts, was the first to jump into making his.  he had a plan and knew exactly what he wanted it to be like.

he loved getting to have aunt ginny help him out along the way.

each mom jumped in and helped out.  even matt did his fair share of cutting out shoes and hats before whining his way out of it.

jilly has definitely been growing up a lot lately, and was very serious about her elf.  she is for sure going to be ready to do preschool this fall!

our smiley, happy girl.

dad hung out with the movie watchers while we worked with a couple cousins at a time.

camyrn grace was busy right away accordion folding her elf legs.

no child seemed to be able to get enough of gluing on the the fuzzy poms.

they all turned out super cute and are hung up to be seen when you walk in the front door.

Merry Christmas

I think this pretty much sums it up!  May your day be blessed!

get the reindeer ready

Last week we got together with our good friends Miss Jenni and Asa to make some reindeer cookies just like the big kids (Nate and Amara) had done a couple of years ago.

There was much concentrating,

careful placement of reindeer features,

a smidgen of finger licking,

happy smiles,

and a little bit of creative freedom of expression by our female cookie decorator.

We had a lot of fun, and have enjoyed eating them.  Definitely a fun day – next year Naika and Laurel can join in the fun and maybe we’ll have to schedule when Nate and Amara are off school.

to Bethlehem we go . . .

. . . where sheep run wild and Joseph doesn’t smile.

Today was the big day for Nate and Jilly as they got to both take part in the program at church this morning.

Nate was asked to be Joseph and eagerly said yes, and Jilly was a sheep along with the rest of the three year old gang.  Nate took his role very seriously and was adorable about it.  He ended up getting to be Joseph at both performances and was thrilled with the opportunity.

Jilly has been talking about “my program” for weeks now, but apparently didn’t realize that it wasn’t over and done in a moment’s time like her ballets she does for us at home.  I was hopeful that she would have a little more focus than she showed at practice Saturday, but what you see is what you get.  She ran off the stage to tell me something no fewer than 2 times.  She also provided comical entertainment for the entire congregation as she and another little girl kept snatching and trading each other’s sheep ears.  Oh my.

I leaned over to Brad near the end, and whispered, “Good thing we have 12 months before she get’s to go up there again!”

Nate with his 9:15 Mary (Audrey):

Nate with his 11:00 Mary (Kaitlin):

 

wipeout

One of Nate’s favorite, yet seldom viewed, shows is Wipeout.  We’ve happened to catch it on tv a few times just by chance, but I actually have no clue when or what channel it’s on regularly.  (I like the fact that we’ve majorly cut back on our tv watching so I’m okay with continuing to not know when it’s on.)

One of Laurel’s favorite activites is to be let up onto the furniture to crawl around.  She’s beginning to show understanding of the proper way to get off the couch which makes me feel better about letting her up in the first place.

So, what do Wipeout and Laurel’s couch obsession have to do with each other?  Yesterday I used the ottoman as a sort of bridge between the couch and ottoman and it kinda looked like an obstacle course.  Watching Laurel attempt to go back and forth over and over, slipping off a several points, made me think of it as a mini Wipeout course.

Laurel makes a valiant effort to enter the course, but it comes down the the mommy-boost to get started.

She makes it across transition point one with just a slight wobble, almost as if she’s been practicing this afternoon.

Oh no!  Transition point two seems to be giving her a little trouble.  It seems as if she’s got an eye on the paci rather than the tight corner she’s cutting.

WIPEOUT!

And our champion of the day is . . . LAUREL!

it’s back . . . now when’s it gonna go?

last saturday we got our first gonna-be-here-for-a-few-days snowfall.  to say that nate and jilly were super excited would be a huge understatement.  pretty much as soon as it switched from ice to flakes, nate was begging to get bundled up and head out.  and of course as soon as jilly got wind of what nate was anxious to do, she of course was all in too.

they had such a good time.  nate of course had a plan for what he wanted to do with the snow.  he had dreams of building a mountain (on the 12′x12′ deck), and jilly was thrilled to just fall down over and over again (exclaiming “it didn’t hurt, mom!” each time).  soon they were asking for shovels and carting snow from the yard onto the deck.  apparently we need to work on the concept of building in the yard and cleaning the snow off the deck.

although each day the snow is still here, this is day six, i get more and more anxious about when it will all be melted, i’m glad to know that the kids are at an age where they can really enjoy being out there playing together (read: mom can stay inside and watch through the window).  i’m going to go spend some more time wishing and hoping that it will all melt before the next several inches fall – whenever that might be . . .

CCS Christmas Program

This past weekend was a super busy one for us.  The highlight of it was certainly getting to go to the Christmas program at Cornerstone Christian School where Nate attends.  All of the kids from Kindergarten – 9th grade participated, and it was fun.  (Except for the fact that Jilly is 3 and sitting still is not her greatest strength.)  Nate’s class sang 4 songs along with the other Kindergarten class and the 1st grade class.

It was cute to watch his face when they first went up on the risers as he scanned the large, full room for us.  Unfortunately I don’t think he ever spotted us.  But, he was super excited to have not just us there but also Grandma and Grandpa Knorr and Ann and her family.

We’re definitely looking forward to the next time!

(Oh, and I might have been that mother who charged the video camera, but forgot to check if the disc was full.  Of course, if you don’t check it, it will most definitely be full.  Next time!)

more and more to see and do

Things have kept busy around here even as some of our fall activities have begun to wind down.  It’s nice to have a little more home time, and a few more days each week to move at our own chosen pace.  Somehow though, Laurel’s pace in growing up never seems to slow down.  At nearly 14 months she’s trucking right along with the milestones.

When she’s not busy re- or undecorating the Christmas tree, you might just find her:

- eating from plates and bowls rather than her highchair tray (lucky for us, she shows no interest in dumping them!)

- figuring out more and more things to do with the toy collection around the house (the magna doodle still seems to be the highly coveted toy around this house, whether 1, 3, or 5.  another one will be appearing at Christmas time!)

- oh, and we’ve discovered the wonderful world that is opened up with chair climbing (nate benefited from this discover as he now gets to have a LEGO table in his room)

There’s more she’s up to, but I’m too busy watching her like a hawk to snap pictures of it all.  Goodness, I love that littlest!)