Snow time

The girls were a bit sluggish today, still recuperating from a rough few days.  But knowing that the snow will likely be gone by tomorrow, I was determined to get them outside for a few minutes to play.  So while Tyler took his naps today, we bundled up and ventured outside.  Claire was begging to go out from the moment she woke up, so she was all smiles when we finally set foot in the front yard this morning. 



Grace, on the other hand, spent about two seconds outside when she got upset about something, so Claire and I decided to move to the backyard.

After about 5 minutes, the wind picked up, so then Claire had enough and back inside we went.

When Tyler went down for his afternoon nap, the girls were a little more interested in going back outside as we decided to build a snowman (it was also snowing again).

Still not feeling 100 percent, the girls did not last long outside this afternoon either. 



Once again, Claire lasted a little longer than Grace.



But surprisingly, Grace was actually the one who wanted to go back outside to get a picture with our snowman. . .

Maybe next time we have snow, Daddy won't have to work so we can make a bigger snowman.  Because of course, when Mike walked in the door from work, he asked if we saw the neighbors' snowmen. . . did not even notice ours!

A White Christmas

When we awoke on Christmas morning, we were blessed to see we would be having a White Christmas!  Apparently this is only the second time in history that our city has had snow on Christmas Day! 

This picture was taken this morning because unfortunately sickness kept us all inside on Christmas.  Needlesstosay, the last three days have been interesting (and memorable) as a nasty stomach virus has sidelined all of us in different ways and at different times.  It seems (or at least I hope) we are past the worst of it.  Unfortunately, Mike is on call today, so as he spends the day at the hospital, the rest of us will be staying quiet at home.  And maybe by this afternoon, we'll be able to let the girls enjoy some time in the snow. 

Gingerbread house

One afternoon in early December, my mom picked up Claire from preschool and made a quick stop into Publix before heading home.  Claire loves Publix and the free cookie; and as they were waiting for the bakery to get Claire's sprinkle cookie, the decorated gingerbread house caught Claire's eye.  So as my mom said, "The free cookie ended up costing her $9 that day!"

The girls have been waiting patiently for me to get around to making the gingerbread house with them.  We finally sat down this past Sunday while Tyler napped and put it together. 

I was pleasantly surprised how good the girls were while we had to wait for the frosting to set.  Usually there's a lot of whining and complaining when we have to wait for anything :) 

The girls decided the gingerbread house should look just like the picture on the box.   I don't think we'll win any prizes for our frosting job, but the girls seemed to have fun nonetheless.

And of course, little hands were pulling off candy and mouths were chewing within minutes of being finished.



But they were definitely proud of their creation. . .

Straws

Tyler is by far the worst eater of my three children.  He will eat any fruit and starch, but barely touches any meat and veggie I give him.  Okay, maybe he will eat one veggie - Veggie Straws, that is. . .

And these "veggies" not only taste good, they even smell good. . .

Meet Alfredo

A new little friend arrived at our house on the morning of December 4.   Perched on our fireplace mantle, the girls did not notice anything different at first.  It wasn't until I directed their eyes in the right direction did they finally see the Christmas elf.  With excitement, Grace wanted to know who the elf was and where he came from.  Claire, on the other hand, just wanted to get back to what she was doing.

So to answer Grace's questions, we sat down and read the book The Elf on the Shelf. 

The book tells you that you must name your Elf.  So with Daddy's influence, our new elf friend has been named Alfredo!  He sits and watches the girls during the day from the same place and at night flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa if the kids have been naughty or nice.  By the next morning he will have arrived back from the North Pole and will be sitting in a new location.  Grace has bought into the elf's magical powers and is constantly concerned when she gets in trouble that the elf will report her as being "naughty."  She wakes up with excitement each morning, checks out the Elf's old location to make sure he is not there, and then looks everywhere for him.  I love the look on her face and huge smile she gives when she finds him again. 

This morning, the elf was perched on our wooden calendar keeping watch over the girls as they ate their breakfast.

Wonder where he will end up the next 18 mornings!

Decorations

It seems this year I'm getting our Christmas decorations out in stages.  The outdoor lights went up the day before Thanksgiving because I could not pass up the opportunity to hang lights in 70 degree weather.  Our family room tree and stockings went up the day after Thanksgiving and our dining room tree made it's appearance a few days ago.  Most of my other decorations are still in their crates, so we'll see if I can get motivated to get the rest up this week. 

Although Tyler loves to touch things he shouldn't, he has actually stayed away from our Christmas tree thus far.  I guess playing with the TV remote is more interesting than ornaments and lights. 

I cannot believe he's 13 months old now.  He's steady on his feet, but still not interesting in walking.  And as he shows below, his seventh tooth made it's appearance about two weeks ago. 

A new month already

Wow, I cannot believe November is over in less than one hour.  This month has been my worst at blogging, so I'm hoping to turn things around in December. . . okay, I might be kidding myself on that one, so maybe January I'll get back into the swing of things :)  I've simply been finding other ways to spend my time.  My house may not show it, but I've spent a lot of time cleaning out and have a lot of donation bags to drop off this weekend.  It also took me a year, but I finally set aside time and painted Mike's office this past weekend.  I also managed to paint our dinette area.  I have the itch to paint more, so maybe I'll tackle part of our living room and kitchen soon!  But since it is almost December, I guess I better get to our Christmas cards first. 

Hope to be back soon with more pictures of the kiddos!

Baptism

Tyler was baptised on Sunday, November 7.  My sister-in-law Katie is Tyler's godmother and Mike's uncle John is Tyler's godfather.  Katie and my brother were able to make it in for the weekend.  I had hoped that doing Tyler's baptism on time change weekend would help because he could get a nap in before church.  Unfortunately, we had to wake him from his nap to get to church on time, so he was definitely tired during the baptism.  He was at least well behaved!

No tears, but he did try to push the priest's hand away :)

I found this Strasburg baptismal outfit on ebay.  Tyler wasn't too thrilled when I tried to get a picture of him in the outfit at home.  He just wanted to get to his nap. 

Birthday cake

Tyler's first birthday was on a Tuesday last month and Mike just happened to be on call that day, so we postponed our celebration.  Since my brother and sister-in-law were in town for Tyler's baptism the weekend of November 6-7, we decided to have cake that Saturday, eleven days after Tyler's birthday.  Those were a long eleven days for the girls and they reminded me everyday that we had to get Tyler's birthday cake!

So without further ado, here are the pictures documenting Tyler's first cake experience!



Waiting patiently for cake and showing off his clapping skills.




Not too sure about the cake at first.





Finally, his first bite!



Didn't take long after that bite to dig in with both hands.




Then he had to make sure some icing got smeared on his head. 




A very messy pattycake.




Look at those hands!

And face!

Obviously not too happy we took the cake away.



So, of course, he had to smear more on his head!



Happy 1st birthday sweet boy!