Pictures for My Mama

A couple of years ago, during one of our trips to visit my parents and my sister in California, my mom took us to Ross and among our purchases was a darling dress for Audrey.  We both couldn't wait for her to grow into it - it was a size 4 and Audrey was just about 2 years old at the time, so I knew it would be awhile before she would be able to wear it.

Well, the other day when I asked Audrey what she'd like to wear, she pointed to the cute little black and white dress that Grandma had bought for her.  And it fit!  And she looked so cute in it!  So, I had to post a few pictures so Grandma can see Audrey in her little dress.

Here's that pose again!  She does it completely on her own - it's the funniest thing.

Thanks Grandma for the cute dress!  We love you!

A Loaf for Luke

If I am honest, I have to admit that some of the posts here aren't exactly my best work.  They turn out not to be as witty or funny or just plain as memorable as I'd like them to be.  I will have to take the blame for that.  Sometimes I'm not on my game.  But no matter what I write about this next episode in the Christian home will likely be one of my favorites for years to come.  I'm still shaking my head in bewildered amusement, just thinking about it.

First thing you should know is that I make yummy wheat bread regularly.  We don't really buy bread - unless I decide to go on strike for a couple of days.  Most often, though, our cupboard stores at least one loaf of homemade wheat bread for us... I try to stay on top of things so that when we're about half way through our last loaf, I make a new batch to replenish our supply.  (As a completely related aside:  Thank you to my sister Megan for the recipe!!!)

Well, a few weeks ago I had a freshly made batch of yummy wheat bread, sitting on the counter, cooling on the baking racks, waiting to be put into bags.  We were downstairs playing with the kids.  Luke was a bit whiney but that was understandable because it was getting to be pretty close to dinnertime.  A bit later, Luke ventured upstairs and after a few (very quiet) minutes, when he didn't return, I decided to go upstairs to see what he was up to.  Most moms can attest that when things are too quiet, it usually means trouble!

When I turned the corner from the hallway to the kitchen, this is what I found:

Luke had reached up and grabbed one of the loaves of bread and sat himself down for a little pre-dinner snack!

I was beside myself with amusement!

He would alternately take little pinches of bread with his fingers, or he would just put the loaf to his mouth and take bites right off the top.

He was so cute sitting there munching on a full, uncut loaf of bread - he totally took matters into his own hands and was so business-like about the consumption of his little stolen snack.

When he was satisfied, he simply set the loaf down and surveyed the damage.

I'd say he did pretty good!

Christmas Morning

The thing that I am learning more and more is that Christmas is really for kids.  As much as I love the holiday on my own, for myself, after you have kids a whole new side of Christmas suddenly opens up and everything is so much more fun and exciting than it used to be.  Christmas with kids is simply the best!

(Now, the one exception to all this added joy and fun is trying to get your 4 year old to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.  Audrey was so excited and none of the usual tricks worked.  It made for a very late night for all of us.)

But despite some slight sleep deprivation, Christmas morning was so much fun.  Audrey was excited to see that Santa had eaten the cookies and drunk the milk.  And right away she was looking under the tree, in search for which presents were hers.

She got a few little gifts from Santa and Grammy, her main gift was new outfits and accessories for her Barbie dolls.  She was really excited and proceeded to play all day long trying on all of her new stuff on her dolls.  (It was quite the validation to see her love them so much!)

Luke was excited but wasn't really into sitting still long enough to check out his stuff.  He ran around and around excitedly.  But, then, when we helped him open his main gift - a car track/ramp - that slowed him right down and he wanted to be dad's assistant and help to assemble it.

I love these pictures:  Adam looking at the instructions and Luke trying to figure out where each ramp connector goes.

(You just might be on to something, Luke...)

Luke was excited to start playing with it and had a blast when it was finished.  (More validation for mom and dad for choosing wisely!)

It was a fabulous day!  Can't wait til next year!

Such a Hypocrite!

It's time for a bit of a confession.

Everyday, when I log onto the Internet I have a very predictable pattern of what I do and where I go.  First, I check my email.  Then I come to our blog and check our blog list of blogs I like to visit to see if there are any new posts.  After I do that, I usually head over to a couple of news sites and read up on any big stories that might interest me.  Sometimes I'll head over to Pinterest and see what's up there.  Sometimes I'll go to YouTube and look up some favorite videos or music videos there.  And that's pretty much it.

Now, I realize there's nothing scandalous about that.  Not scandalous enough to qualify as a confession, at least.  What qualifies this as a bit of a confession is that whenever I visit blogs that I like to frequent and find that there is nothing new posted I get bugged.  It's true.  I totally get bothered that the author of the blog hasn't posted anything... and most of the blogs that I go to are very regular posters, like they make a living as bloggers, which usually means at least one post per day, sometimes more.

It doesn't take a genius for anyone to guess why I am calling myself out as a hypocrite.  Just take a look to the right and see my track record for how often I actually get around to posting!  So, I figure I can no longer get bugged at the authors of my favorite blogs for their lack of new/frequent posts when it's been almost a month since my last post!

Along these lines, I just realized I haven't even posted anything about our Christmas.  We had a great time.  It was a wonderful holiday and so much fun to watch the kiddos get so excited by the lights, the treats and the festive music.  The official beginning of the season started for us with a day trip to Dawnette's house.  Audrey really wanted some play time with Talea and they had a blast together... even tolerating Luke being a bit of a tag along.

Here they are in front of the tree.

I'm so glad that Audrey and Talea are such good friends.  I hope they'll always be close!

Christmas Eve was a wonderful night.  We read "The Night Before Christmas", followed by the Christmas story as found in Luke 2.  We sang a couple of Christmas songs and then we opened one gift.  One of my favorite traditions growing up was the one gift we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve.  It was always homemade pajamas from my Grandma.  We'd open our new snuggly pjs and then change right into them to sleep in that night.  I thought it was so neat.  And we've continued that tradition!  (Although, I do not make the pajamas - I'm afraid I'm not exactly gifted in the sewing department... maybe someday....)  Anyway, this year Audrey got a Mulan Nightgown for her Christmas Eve pajammies.

And Luke got Spiderman pjs for his.

We were all in hysterics because Luke seemed to receive some inspiration as we helped him into his new pjs. I think he might have thought that with the outfit came added climbing prowess because all of a sudden he was climbing everywhere on the arms of the couch, on the ottoman and then he tried his hand at scaling the bookshelves.

It was pretty funny.  Audrey was cute because I think she really felt like a princess and wanted her picture taken over and over again.

And, in the meantime, Luke was still trying to figure out how to successfully deploy his spidey-web to aid in his climb to the top of the bookshelf!

Christmas Eve was a ton of fun... 

A bit about our Christmas Day later....