Randomness

I found some random pictures the last time I was uploading pictures from the camera. Here they are:

Lately I have been on a sewing bug. On my birthday I decided to not do anything other than what I absolutely had to do and the rest of the time I would spend doing what I wanted to do-sew. I made this little bag for Callie out of some scrap fabric. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Recently my sister-in-law Lori made some felt hair creations for her girls. When our family was together over Christmas she brought hair clips, felt, buttons and hot glue gun and we had a lot of fun experimenting. One of the clips I made for Callie is on the couch behind the purse.

I love this picture of Nate and Callie. He is a very proud big brother. He often says "She's my baby sister." I love the look on Callie's face too. She totally on to him.

An lastly, for Christmas Jeremy made me this stable for my Willow Tree Nativity set. I love it! I finally took it down and put it away today. The picture is a little dark. One of these days I'll figure out how to use my camera...

I sat down to blog, but decided to just post pictures from our Christmas. I figured they were a bit overdue. I of course posted them all backwards. I was amused to see how the pictures per event dwindled as the holidays went on.

Our last event was Christmas with Jeremy's family on New Year's day. I think we took 2 pictures. :( Here is the best of the two -Isaiah and Lydia.

The Monday after Christmas we took my grandparents (my mom's parents) and visited Matt and Heather. The 3 oldest girls each played their Christmas recital pieces for us. They did great! Ellie "played" for us also. :)

Ellie -almost 3

Chloe -almost 6

Moriah -10

Angel -11

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with just our little family. Christmas Eve we went to a live nativity put on by a local church. I think this is the 3rd year we have gone. The boys love it. We then came home and had hot chocolate and all but Callie slept under the tree. For some reason I didn't take any pictures.

Christmas day evening we had a couple in from church. Overall it was a good Christmas, but I did miss my family. Here are some pictures...

We bought a doll this year!! No doll was harmed in the making of this picture.

My unsuccessful attempt to take at a traditional "in pj's in front of the tree" picture.

At the live nativity

Callie's response to the donkey's "talking". I thought they were very entertaining.

Christmas on my mom's side is never complete without Grandma's cookies. What an amazing lady.

Callie in Pictures

The Pink Raggedy Anne Cake. Usually when I tint red icing it gets really dark so I decided I was not going to let that happen this time. I certainly did not let that happen. :( The cake pan came from my Grandma. It's from Wilton and I think it was made in the 70's sometime.

She LOVED eating her cake. This is her crying after I took it away from her.

Her Great-Grandma Esther gave her her first taste of ice cream. They now share the same love.

"But Mom, she looks so cute in there!" I think the idea was to keep her out of his stuff. Isaiah really does love her.

Playing Peek-a-boo. Notice the Duplo tree ornaments. Surly I should get some kind of Good-mother points for hanging Legos on my Christmas tree! What Isaiah, Nate and Jeremy don't know is that next years theme is going to be pink, pink, pink!

Behind

• I promised my mom last weekend that I would post pictures of Callie's birthday party, but I still haven't done it. Since they are all on the computer upstairs I guess it will have to wait at least another day.
• I took all three children to the dollar store today to buy gifts. I picked that store partly because I'm cheap, but mostly because it was just easier than constantly telling them what they couldn't and couldn't afford. I probably should buy Jeremy a gift certificate to the dentist to go with the gifts they picked for him. Callie is getting some cars that look like police cars because Isaiah says he always needs those when he's playing with his cars. Hmmm, I don't think the better to give than to receive concept is getting through very well. He also picked out a baby doll bottle for her so I guess it's not too bad.
• Tonight Jeremy and I are going to see the new Narnia movie. I hope it's good. We very rarely go see any movie in the theater (way too much money to have to watch a movie with a pile of strangers), however, watching a movie like this one on the large screen is hard to beat.
• Nathan asked me the other day what he was getting for Christmas. I told him it was a surprise. His response: "But I don't want fries!" Poor child. I wouldn't mind fries for Christmas, especially if they came from Dodies.
• I'm getting hungry

This and That and Nathan

I think Christmas is here. The tree is up and decorated. Christmas music is playing and believe it or not, most of our shopping is finished. I am proud of myself and I don't mind saying so. I always hope to have it done early, but rarely get it done. I haven't done any Christmas baking yet. I usually love doing it, but for some reason this year I'm not very motivated to do it. Probably because I'll end up eating it. :(

I'm taking the kids to our local Christmas bookstore in a little while to meet Bob and Larry. Callie will probably cry, but the boys should enjoy it -I hope. Otherwise dragging three children to a busy store on a Saturday morning will have been a complete waste of time and energy.

There's a new question posted on the Among Women blog. What question do you wish someone would ask you in order to understand you better? We would love your involvement.

I've posted pictures of Callie and Isaiah. Here are a couple of Nate. He is really growing up. This year Christmas is sinking in and he's getting it. He is very tuned into what is happening around him. He's quick to hear words on the radio that he recognizes like the word Christmas. I'm amazed at what he picks up on.

Nate showing Callie how to dream.

He is very determined.

It's working again!

The internet is up and running again so I'm happy. Here are just a couple pictures. I feel like most of my pictures from this Christmas were pretty boring. Oh well.

Isaiah the wise man. He did great. He was only one of the three to actually get his gift to baby Jesus. We were so proud.

Our time with my parents was very short. As you can see from this picture they made the most of the time they had with the boys.

Toy packaging

Have you heard the Sarah Groves song called "Toy Packaging"? I love it. We didn't spend a lot of money on our boys this year, but they didn't seem to notice. The favorite seems to be this Mr. Potato Head. I found it here (Amazon's movers and shakers) for $9.99. There are a lot of little pieces that could get lost, but the big container holds everything when we're not playing with them. When I say "we" I mean "we" the whole family (yes, even Jeremy and I) have spent time playing with this great toy. There are so many neat pieces. Isaiah loves it. The set came with one regular head and two babies. Nathan likes the babies.

Isaiah just walked up to me and said "If you eat your friends then you won't have any more friends". Hmmm... I think that came from a Bill Peat book I gave Jeremy for Christmas. (We're just a bunch of big kids over here. :)) Let me just say that I love Amazon.

Chex Mix

Here is a great recipe for party mix. It's very easy! Check out Joy's great idea for something to take to your neighbor's this Christmas.

Chex Mix

1 box of Chex cereal
1 bag of pretzels
1 bag of bugles
1 bag of goldfish
1 container cashews
1 box wheat thins
1/2 cup oil
1 pkg. dry Ranch mix

Mix Ranch mix and oil. Pour oil mixture over ingredients. Put in sealed container. Let it sit overnight (do not stir until the next morning).

This stuff is great. It never lasts very long

List

I'm accomplishing some things on my list!

-Jeremy hung the lights on the porch (the same day I posted the list I think!)

-I've read the Christmas story once,

-Made two batches of cookies. Isaiah helped with one.

-Started decorating. Isaiah helped me put up the nativity (probably my favorite decoration)

-We put up the tree last night. It's one of those pre-lit deals. We knew when we bought it that it might not last real long, but for the price we paid we figured it was worth a try. Plus, Isaiah was only a couple weeks old so anything easy looked very inviting. When we pluged it in last night the middle section did not light up. Oh no. Have you heard the Christmas song about the guy trying to hang Christmas lights? My dear husband was very patient and eventually got them fixed. I haven't put any decorations on yet, but even just the lights look nice. Isaiah helped us and absolutly loved it. He kept jumping around he was so excited. Nate was already in bed, but he well, er, a, did something in his diaper so I had to get him up to fix the problem so we decided to see what he thought of the tree. He was thrilled to say the least. He kept grinning and of course wanting to touch it. I'm a little worried about what he'll do once it's decorated. Maybe I won't put any decorations on this year. We'll see. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the last few days.

It is so much fun to watch Nathan explore the sights of Christmas. On the picture above notice his right hand starting to reach for something. (do you think he needs a hair cut?)

This picture doesn't show much of the tree, but it captures Nathan's excitement and wonder.
Here's the cookie bake. Notice Nathan behind me. Jeremy gave him a taste of the dough and he begged for more until we finally gave him a baked cookie. He spent most of the rest of the evening standing by the table begging for more cookies. :(