Ornament Exchange!

Check out my sister-in-laws post about our family's Christmas Ornament exchange with pictures of all our ornaments.  I think it may be my favorite Christmas tradition :-)

Amy's Ornament Post

Oy, the cuteness!

 Last week Ella had her Christmas concert with her pre-school.  The 4-year-old class is the oldest in the school thus, they get to do their concert at night (ooOOOooo) and they get to have a wardrobe change and present the nativity scene.  This was new and exciting after 2 years of a daytime show with no nativity story (they're lucky to get the 2 and 3 year olds to stay on stage when the sing, let alone act out Luke 2!) 

I had anxiety fun putting together Ella's sheep costume in the preceding days.  I ended up finding a furry, white hat with ear flaps that was on clearance for $3.59 and even though it was 18-24month size, it fit her!!  She has lots of hair but apparently a tiny little head (or as my MIL suggested, the hat was on clearance because the size was mislabeled!).  Ella was not satisfied with the hat's flaps so I made some felt ears to pin onto it, pinned a tail on a white, velour jogging suit and she was ready to Baa! 

As expected, the concert was heart-meltingly cute and the kids were hilarious-including the one who belted out the lyrics loud enough to carry all 30 kids, the one who put his sweater over his head for most of one song, and one of the "3 kings" who was wearing a Burger King crown.  I'm so glad I have another kid who will allow me access to preschool programs for years to come-it's great, free entertainment! I always leave smiling :-)

 Ella and a few of her best buddies from school

 Check out Ella waving to us!  So cute!

 Ella's class plus the other group of 4's

 Ella's cheering section :-)(Notice the row of parents in the back with cameras ready-that was only about a third of the cameras in action in the room!)

 

 My little sheep is in the front row!

And here's a video of one of the songs they performed.  My Aunt said it sounded like herding cats so take that into advisement :-)  To a mother's ear it sounds wonderful :-)

Belly Buttons!!

 Christmas time means belly-buttons!  We've been making these for years and they're a really good kids-can-help project.  And, they're SO tasty when they're done :-)

1.Start with some Hershey Kisses.  Almost always on sale around this time :-)

 

 2.Employ a small child to unwrap the kisses.  Ella chose to wear gloves "just in case" she had germs (they were later abandoned once she realized her dexterity was minimalized). 

 

3.Try to move quickly to the next step before the bowl of kisses empties as people mill around and distract you while sneaking your chocolate out of the bowl.

 

4.The small child can be put to work again spreading out square-shaped pretzel snaps (or round ones if you can find them, they tend to elude me in the stores lately).  Then place 1 kiss in the center of each pretzel. Use an oven safe container with sides (they slide off too easily on a baking sheet sans edges).

5.Bake the kiss/pretzels at 200 degrees for 5-8 minutes.  When they're ready they'll be shiny and soft enough to easily press an MnM into it.  DO not let them cook too long.  If they're burnt they'll start to crack and get hard and smell really bad (can you tell I've made this mistake in years past?)

6.Gather some MnM's.  Peanut are the ones I originally learned to make them with but do whatever you like.  This year I tried Peanut Butter along with some Peanut and Chris loved 'em.  I prefer the crunch of the peanut but, to each his own :-)

 

 7.Carefully press MnMs into the softened chocolate!  Let them cool and enjoy the sweet, chocolatey, salty, crunchy, smooth goodness.  Mmmmmm.

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Pirate Baby

Let's just say Sadie got in on the action at her cousin's Pirate themed party... (don't call Social Services!)

Christmas Prep!

We've made gingerbread houses and people 3 times now with different friends!  Loving it!

I LOVE how Chris gets into the action :-)

We made a "Countdown to Christmas" paper chain.  Cutting, writing numbers and stapling are some of Ella's favorite things right now so it was the perfect craft.

Not a Christmas prep pic but isn't it freaky how you can see Chris and Ella behind the Hannukah candles!

Some Beautiful People I know...

In Sadie News...

My poor baby has been sick :-(  She's been congested for literally 2 months and then in turned into bronchiolitis (the dr. could hear wheezing in her lungs which is enough to qualify for that diagnosis).  That led to nebulizer breathing treatments at the doctor's office, an inhaler with a spacer and mask to give her treatments every 4-6 hrs, and MANY days and nights of watching her breathing praying she didn't become "distressed" in which case we were to go straight to the ER.  Ugh.  Sick babies are enough to break your heart!  Though it took almost 2 weeks, she was deemed wheeze-free at the doctor last friday (I'm becoming quite friendly with everyone in the office there since I'm there all the time!)  She's still been a little congested but has seemed almost normal for the last 2 days.  Whoohoo!!!!  This whole time she's been happy and never had a fever so though it's been tough, it helps that she hasn't seemed miserable or cranky at all!  Praise the Lord for such a sweet, content baby-and hopefully a generally healthy one from now on too!

She's quite a little giggler now!

She's big enough for the bumbo seat and actually starting to like sitting up!  She's also become an exersaucer fan in the last few days.

She's been getting in on the Christmas prep too!

Put on your Yarmulke, it's time for Happy Hannukah!

Happy last day of Hannukah!!

We've enjoyed celebrating this year and Ella, over the years, has become a candle lighting pro.  This year she even got into trying to pronounce the Hebrew words in the prayers we say before lighting the candles.  I'm so glad to be passing on this tradition from my half-Jewish heritage which so easily fits with our Christian faith-remembering God's miracle and praising Him for it?  Yes please! And for some Hannukah levity....a little Adam Sandler below :-)

Christmas Card Pics Fail

S: Camera?  What's a camera?  You want me to look where?

The hair has overtaken the baby!

Still only one kid looking...and one...sleeping?

Slightly to much like a head-lock

E=strained, sad smile and S=deer in headlights

E is finally smiling naturally!  Just have to get S onboard...

This was a result of Daddy dancing for them behind me.  Natural but too much tongue...

Clapping?  Ok...we give up.  We'll try again later (maybe with a better bribe for getting a good picture!)

Sadie and Noah-4 months old!

 I'm slightly in denial that Sadie is already 4 months old so I'm posting this somewhat begrudgingly.  Her babyhood is going way too fast!  There is no part of this I'm ready to give up yet!  She's so sweet!
 We had her 4 month appt a few days ago and she's 12lbs 13oz (30th percentile), 25 inches (75th percentile) and her head measured right at the 50th percentile.  She's doing well!  She's much more coordinated and reaching for toys and holding onto them quite well!  She's playing in the exersaucer and can sit up in the bumbo seat, both for short periods of time.  She still loves to just lay on her back and kick around.  She's rolled from her stomach to her back (once) which is 2 months earlier than Ella did! The main difference I notice between her and Ella so far is that Ella would cry out of boredom and need entertainment.  Sadie is pretty content most of the time. She usually cries if she's hungry which is easy to preempt most of the time.  Her smiles continue to melt my heart daily :-)

This pic is a little blurry and you can't see all of Noah but she's smiling and stretched out so you can see how HUGE she's getting!

Kisses for Noah!

Two Day Thanksgiving Extravaganza!

Thanksgiving was really good this year!  A relaxing, smallish Thanksgiving with Chris' family on Thursday and then we hosted my family and some friends on Friday (25 people in all).  Friday was a bit of a zoo but I learned my lesson after overdoing it with Ella's party so we had plenty of everything but I didn't do or make everything I thought of (or that looked cool online!). Hence, I wasn't stressed and my extroversion had a heyday with all the people around all day!  It was great to be able to invite friends who don't have family in the area.  Definitely a perk of hosting.  That, and the leftovers :-)  It really was a great celebration sprinkled with many conversations and prayers about all we're thankful for.

Miss Cree helping Ella squeeze a lemon for a cream cheese pie at Chris' familiy's annual Pie Night (30+ pies get made the night before Thanksgiving!)

Luke was a cheese ball fan at Pie Night!

I made some maple roasted carrots and fell in love with how the peels looked in the collander!

I LOVE the colors of Thanksgiving!

I let Ella get in on the peeling action and she did well!

We found a craft where you make turkeys out of gumdrops and toothpicks.  Even the adult attempts didn't quite resemble turkeys but the kids had fun!

A friend who joined us at my in-laws' house requested we make these "belly button" cookies and we were happy to oblige :-)

Ella and her two older cousins (the younger ones were out of town) spent at least an hour coloring pictures after the meal and hung them up to make an "art show" for the adults :-)  It was SO cute!  And super relaxing that they had so much fun while all the adults got to just chat over coffee and pie :-)

Nana, Chris' mom, the great leader of all things Pie Night and Thanksgiving.  She worked HARD to put together 2 great events!

Ella showed some interest in Aunt Stacy's project after dinner and got a little knitting lesson! Day One Done.

Friday after Thanksgiving was my Grandmother's 92nd Birthday!  We're SO thankful for her!

The early crew for Thanksgiving Day Two, Part 1 :-)  I was too busy having fun to take pictures of part 2 when 20ish people were there including 3 infants and 5 kids between 1 and 5.  Whew!  Great Day.

Leftovers!!