Angry Bird Bowling

Heart-warming Christmas cards

Today Emily decided to make some Christmas cards for people using some old ones I had in a box.  It's very interesting what can come out when a kid starts drawing pictures!  Here is the card she made for Austin.  It's a picture of him coming into her room in the morning to wake her up.  How sweet!

Here's the card she made for me:

 

Here's the backstory: There is a CD player up on a shelf in the living room that we often use to play kids' music.  Sometimes I put it down lower so Emily can push the buttons to find the specific songs she wants to listen to.  Lincoln just likes to push buttons.  (You can already guess where this is going.)  This morning they begged for music.  I told them I would put it down low as long as they didn't fight over it.  Of course, that lasted less than three minutes.  This picture is Emily's version of what happened next.  I'm shaking my finger saying, "No, No, No!" while Emily is teasing Lincoln saying, "You're neeeever going to get it!"  Nice.

More Christmas tree decorations

Our Christmas tree has an interesting combination of decorations this year that changes based on Emily's whims.  I thought I'd share a few additions since I originally posted pictures.  The first is a "popcorn" string Emily made at preschool out of packing peanuts and beads. 

Next are the random headbands nestled deep in the middle of the tree. (Emily rarely wears the navy and light pink one). 














Then there are the candy canes.  Emily brought a candy cane home from preschool one day all excited after learning about "J" for "Jesus".  She remembered from a very vivid experience last year that she does NOT like the taste of peppermint at all.  However, she forgot that you should leave the wrapper on.  She, of course, broke it in several pieces attempting to unwrap it so she could hang it on the tree.  After shedding a few tears, I promised we'd get some new ones.  We received a few when viewing the live nativity scene at the church where Emily's preschool is located.  I happened to buy a box of Jolly Rancher ones at Wal-mart the same day.  Emily was very generous in sharing them with Lincoln when hanging them on the tree.  It soon became evident, though, that all the candy canes needed to stay up high.  I think Lincoln broke three of them in the first 24 hours after taking them off and banging them against something. :op

Advent Dinner

I hosted a table again this year at the Women's Advent Dinner at our church.  It was pretty similar to the table I decorated last year.  This year's theme was JOY, so I changed up the centerpiece a bit.  This year was even more fun because my table was full of people I had invited!  We also heard a great message from Tara Thomas of KWWL News and enjoyed beautiful music and drama.  Thank you to everyone who made the evening great!

And a special thanks to my great table decorating helper! :o)  She wanted to go back at night for the dinner so bad.  She even said, "Mom, I'm dressed fancy enough!"

Here is a slideshow of some of the other decorated tables:

Tea for Two

What do you do on a dreary December day?  You have a tea party!  This entertained both kids for quite some time and Lincoln by himself for at least a half an hour more.  They had so much fun pouring out water from the tea kettle and drinking it out of the cups.  I'm not sure how many times they refilled in the bathroom.

Nativity Scene

Emily's drawing of the Wisemen

It was Nativity day at preschool where the kids dress up and act out the nativity scene.  Emily said she got to be the "head" angel this year.  I think she was secretly disappointed she wasn't Mary, but it was a promotion from Shepherd last year! ;o)  As expected, as soon as she got home, Emily wanted to recreate the nativity scene again.  We didn't have the same cardboard as last year, but we re-used the farm scenery from earlier this fall.  Emily drew a stable roof, drew and directed me in cutting out doors and windows and added a blue "star" at the top.  Then she recruited all the stuffed animals in her room to be the characters in the scene.  I asked her if she was going to dress up, but she said she didn't have to because she was the narrator.  Here is the cast and crew:

Angels

Pillow Pet as Mary, Big Bear as Joseph and Baby Jesus in the manger

The Shepherds

The Wisemen (Emily insisted the lamb be a Wiseman and not a sheep)

Animals (or aminals as Emily calls them) in the stable

The whole scene

 Emily as the director, producer, set designer, casting director, costume designer and narrator

Hidey-hole

This is a common scene in our house these days.  Emily uses blankets, pillows and cushions to build a "hidey-hole" almost every day.  It has doubled as a classroom, a restaurant and tunnel, as well as a hiding place.

Making tracks

During the living room project, we moved most of the toys & books into Lincoln's room.  He had never really had anything in his room before.  I decided not to move everything back.  One of the things I left was his little wooden train set.  He has spent hours putting the tracks together and moving train cars back and forth with great sound effects.  This is a picture of a track he proudly made all by himself (I only helped get the sloped pieces from the bridge in the right way).

It's nice to have another room/area for the kids to play in, but it's sometimes a battle to get Lincoln away from the trains and into his crib for naps and bedtime.

Playing trains is apparently hard work.  Especially when you skipped your regular nap time. ;o)

Christmas Decorations

I am a "no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving" person.  I am also not a Black Friday shopper.  The day after Thanksgiving is for decorating!  This year we had to hold off on the tree and mantel decorations until the living project was done.  Here are some pictures of Christmas from around our house...

I love having an artificial tree that you can store in the basement with a sheet on top and pull it out all put together and fully lit each year.  I let Emily decorate the whole tree all by herself (minus the lights and bow on top).  I also got a foam ornament kit to keep her busy and to add to the collection of unbreakable ornaments.  She was pretty proud of her work!


I'm still trying to decide whether or not to wrap some gifts to place under the tree or just wait until the day they are going to be opened like I have in the past.


I have dreams someday of putting up my snow village again and having a blue & silver themed tree in the foyer, but for now the Little People Nativity set will suffice.

The Jesse Tree is one of the highlights of Advent/Christmas for Emily.  She can hardly wait until after supper to hang up the next ornament.  Luckily, Lincoln isn't fighting her to do it yet.

Emily also made a new "Mommy" and "Emily" person with a Christmas tree instead of a turkey on the shirt.  However, she was quick to point out that we're both wearing sandals.  I told you she was in denial about winter!

Cozy living room

As you might have noticed in Emily's monthly picture, we have made some significant changes to the living room!  It was our latest remodeling project.  Ironically enough, one of the only things we didn't change was the wall color.

It started on November 8 when we had a new picture window installed.  The old, original one was drafty, and the side panels were already caulked and painted shut when we bought the house.  This meant there was no way to clean the cobwebs off the screens inside them, plus the ventilation in the room was not the greatest.

The same day the window was put in, Austin took a vacation day to install new recessed lighting around the perimeter of the room.  It didn't go quite as smoothly as we had hoped when Austin hit rafters on three out of the six holes even after carefully measuring and plotting them out.  But it all got patched up again.  Austin also moved all the cords and wires hanging down from the the TV/Dish/DVD player into the wall.

Next on the list was a new gas insert fireplace.  The previous owner had put a gas log in the wood-burning fireplace 20 years ago.  I only got it lit twice the first winter before it died altogether and I used packing tape to seal the glass doors closed.  Before the new insert was installed, Austin re-tiled the surround and hearth using the same tile as in the foyer.  It replaced green swirled marble and chipped hearth tile.

The final step was new carpet.  The old carpet was solid off-white.  It held up fine for 20 years in a house with an older couple, but didn't stand a chance with two young kids. :op

I am pleased with the results.  It now feels more like a warm and cozy family den instead of a cold (literally), old-fashioned living room.  We will spend a lot of hours curled up in front of the fireplace this winter!  Below is the transformation in pictures. (Many of the "before" pictures are not the best quality because they were taken on my old 35mm camera to use up the film.)

Old window from inside

Yucky cobwebs

Old window from outside

 Big hole!

New window from inside

New window from outside

Helping Daddy drill holes

Eager helper

 Before & after fireplace

More "helping"

North view before

North view after

West view after

South view before

South view after

Fireplace before

Fireplace after