Christmas!

Jingle bells and a tractor. Suitably Christmas spirited performance, don't you think?

A rousing rendition of Rudolph from the cousins...pretty cute number!

The faces of two year old trouble getting ready for Christmas!

Christmas morning excitement. Can't look away to the camera even for a minute.

Pre-Christmas Parties

Getting ready for Christmas this year was so much more fun than last year preparing to travel! Not to mention Stratton is definitely hitting his "peak" Christmas years. I think he just about maxed out his capacity for anticipation and excitment in the weeks leading up to the big day. It definitely helped bring back some of the magic for all of us. Of course, the extra time at home necessitated building an extra long ramp for our cars, shown above. With a little bit of Dad's duct taping skills, we enjoyed HOURS of car racing. It made getting dinners ready much easier.

In the month leading up to Christmas, we were lucky to have my sister visiting and Stratton loved catching up with Gabriella. Just as much, Dashell loved getting to know Noah, his cousin who preceded him by just 3 weeks 2 years ago. They definitely hit it off. Two 2 year old boys with a penchant for mischief...combining them spelled lots of suspicious giggles. We got to do lots of fun things in December with all the family around...a trip to Chena Hot Springs,a roller derby match, a dog mushing expedition and Stratton's first preschool Christmas party. It was a long, fun, holiday month.

In addition, Dashell celebrated his 2nd birthday at the end of a long week of croup. He would have been happy just getting his first gift...a boat from his grandparents. He opened the boat, and immediately began pushing it around the room with all the appropriate sound effects. We never lack for sound effects in this household. It took some convincing to get him back to opening his other gifts, but by Christmas morning he was all limbered up and ready to go.

We didn't bake him a seperate birthday cake this year on account of already having so many Christmas cookies and treats in the house already. I blame his glum expression on the croup, NOT the lack of cake, although I'm sure I will hear about it when he gets a little older. Don't all Christmas babies insist on major birthday productions? And I wimped out just the 2nd time around. Clearly my Christmas baby mother skills will need some work in the years ahead!

We are Back!

We are finally back...the holidays lasted forever this year! Having a family reunion tacked on at the end was a wonderful addition, but it feels like we haven't been keeping up with real life and routine for a very long time. Christmas, birthday, reunion, and normal life updates are coming in the next day or two. As always, I believe that a picture of all 4 of us together compensates for any gaps.

The Contractor at My House

Brigg and Stratton recently built me a rack for my skis in the garage, and Brigg has been trying to find a stud in the wall to hang it on, but since we don't own a stud finder and our other attempts have turned up empty, so far it has been alot of listening to walls. Yesterday morning while I was drying my hair Stratton came in to ask where his yellow wooden hammer was. I told him which toy box it was in and he came back with it a few minutes later to tell me that he needed it to find "stums". It took a few question to figure out that he was looking for studs in the wall like his Dad. So, he proceeded to systematically tap all the walls in the house, with Dashell the copycat close behind with his little red hammer. I peeked out of my room to watch them for a minute and heard Stratton tell Dashell, " Dashell, we are looking for stums. They are animals that live in the walls." I had to sneak back into my bathroom to have a good laugh about that. Later that night when I was telling Brigg about the "stums" in the wall, Stratton snuck out of bed and was listening outside our door. When we caught him, he asked Brigg " Dad, do stums have sharp toenails?" I don't know how he gets any sleep with the idea of sharp toenailed stums in his walls. And I think I'll still leave the repair work to his Dad until he figures out a few more of the basics.

Preschool Class Quilt

Last week I finished the preschool class quilt. Each of the kids got to draw their self portrait on a square and then I put it together with fabric that each kid had chosen. May I just say that firetruck fabric and pink flowers are difficult to put together in a way that isn't completely awful? But it turned out pretty well in the end. The funny part was Stratton. While I worked on the quilt, he loved looking at the drawings of himself and his friends. This is Stratton's picture of himself below. I think it is sooo cute and funny.

The really funny part came when Stratton said to me the other day, " Mom, I look a little sad in my drawing." I said, " Stratton, what are you talking about? Your smile is HUGE." and he said, " Yes, but look at my eyes. You can just tell from my eyes that I'm a little bit sad maybe." I laughed so hard! So take a good hard look...if you see somebody with eyes like these, they might be feeling sad, so give them an extra hug!

My most recent project...

I just finished this for a silent auctiona t Stratton's preschool. Hope one of the little girls in his class is feeling colorful!

Decorating the Tree

Putting on the star....twice, so that both boys can do it. Doesn't everyone put their star on multiple times?

Stratton was so excited to decorate this year, he could hardly stand it. We got our tree Saturday and decorated Sunday, but he kept sneaking ornaments out of the box and putting them on the tree early. We had told him we would decorate after church Sunday, and he had run in, changed into play clothes and started pulling out the decorations before the rest of us were even out of the car. I guess he has hit his peak Christmas years for sure this time!

Dashell got into it as well, although he wasn't quite as intense as his older brother about the whole thing. He can hang the same ornament 9 or 10 times in different places and feel equally pleased with the result.

It was fun to have the kids really get into it and help this year. Christmas gets better and better as they get a little older each year.