On the twelfth day of Christmas...

we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Today we made a birthday cake for Jesus and watched a short video of the Nativity. We tried to not only open presents but to remember Christ and think of all that he has done for us.

I am thankful for the fun we had as a family these past 12 nights. My focus was to bring us together as a family and to celebrate love. I hope to of started a new tradition in our family and maybe some of yours.

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

On the eleventh day of Christmas...

we made sugar cookies for Santa and us.




The girls had decorating the cookies and picking out a special cookie or two for Santa.

After that we did our annual telling of the Christmas story. Last year Andrew used our Fisher Price Little People Nativity set to help tell the story of the birth of our Savior. This year he read the story and let the girls act it out, Elanor with the little people


and Sophie used paper dolls that Aunt Beckie made for her (El has a set too, they were just scattered around from being played with). Sophie really got into the telling of the story (she knew that it started with an angel coming to Mary thanks to a board book we have from Grandma and Grandpa B) and would repeat what Andrew said.
I took a short video of her repeating and using her paper dolls.

the 10th day of Christmas...

Shopping for each other. Andrew took Sophie to the store to pick out a present for Elanor (I took her one day while Sophie was in school). Elanor and I spent some one on one time doing her favorite thing, looking at videos of herself and Sophie. Just a fun night, each girl getting some alone time with a parent.

On the ninth day of Christmas...

Snowmen stickers. We (mostly me) also made snowflakes but that takes stronger hand muscles than the girls had.



Sophie had fun playing in a tunnel Andrew dug out for her. Here are some shots of her playing in it.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

Today's activity was a Christmas mad libs. It took a little convincing for Sophie but we ended up having a fun time and a silly little story to tell.
Here is Sophie reading the story (Andrew tried to take a video but our batteries died and are currently charging).


And here are a couple of pictures of Elanor playing in the snow.

On the 7th day of Christmas...

Rudolph makings. It was fun and delicious.


Update on snow.
It snowed yesterday until 9pm, the total snow fall here was about 2 feet. The worst was when Mr Snowplow man came at 10pm last night and added about 3 feet of snow behind all the cars. Yuck for Andrew today.


The girls didn't last too long playing in the snow today. It is light fluffy snow so no snowman building but there are lots of mounds to climb.

On the sixth day of Christmas...

It snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and is still snowing. Blizzard 2009 has hit and it is white outside.

Andrew and the girls went out about 9:30 for the first shoveling. There was a good 8-10inches, luckily it was light fluffy snow and not too hard to shovel. The girls played, came in got warm, then went out again to play with friends. Andrew shoveled again several hours later.


Current conditions as of 5pm, did Andrew shovel, yes but he will have to again. It has been snowing non-stop since 9ish last night. The snow is pretty and we are lucky to have no place to go.


And since we would be stuck in the house all day we worked on our activity a little early (plus it took a little more work).

Fifth Day of Christmas

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Snowmen.

On the third day of Christmas...

Second Day of Christmas

Our activity for the day was singing Christmas carols. It ended up being just Andrew, Sophie and I because Elanor was beyond exhausted when it was time and she went off to bed. It was fun and Sophie really loves singing. She loves to find a song in the songbook, make up her own tune and then sing.

First Day of Christmas

I decided that for the 12 days of Christmas we will spend together each evening doing a craft or activity.

Today we made cardboard Christmas trees.
First I cut out the trees and had the girls paint them green. They were so excited to paint and both did a great job by themselves, especially Elanor.




We painted early in the day so the trees could dry. After dinner and clean-up, the girls started decorating their trees. Again, I forgot how much of a big girl Elanor is, she wanted to do everything herself. Sophie is a pro at crafts and had a lot of fun.

The finished trees and their makers.

Snow, I want to go play in the snow!

Yesterday was the first snowfall of the season, a bit early but enjoyed (by some). It snowed pretty much all day, the rain turned to snow around 8:30am and then snowed non-stop until the afternoon.
The first adventures outside were to catch snowflakes on the tongue. Here are the girls ready for the task.


Sophie caught a big one. They had fun but got cold quick, we hadn't pulled out the snow gear yet (or purchased some for this season either).



Take 2: Later in the day there was about 4 or 5inches of snow, and it was good packing snow so we went upstairs and found the hidden winter gear.

Ready for some fun.


The family went out, except for me I don't have anything that fits, and played. The first thing was to build a snowman with the neighbors.
The finished product. I came outside when it was finished with the camera, so no making of pictures.


Snowman didn't last long, he was destroyed.


Elanor had a lot of fun playing in the snow.


It was a fun day had by all, I enjoyed the warmth inside and the quiet while Andrew played with the girls. What a fun Saturday.

WARNING: picture of my finger to follow
Oh, and just a side note about Thanksgiving. We had fun, eventually spending time with friends. I had a little accident with a sharp knife that led us to the ER for several hours. Now a week later we can see what the damage was and not as bad as I thought. But that day it was bad, it wouldn't stop bleeding (which my pregnancy didn't help) and I just wanted a professional to look and fix it. A picture of said finger to follow, not too gross but still yuck. A lot of the red stuff is an artificial splint that I have slowly been taking off the last couple of days. I was also happy to see more of my fingernail than expected.

Sophie's big ideas

Sophie's imagination and vision are growing by leaps and bounds. Tonight she started us working on her vision of a family nativity play.

After dinner, Sophie was looking at pictures of the nativity and asked, "Dad, was the manger made out of wood?"
"Yes."
"Do we have any wood?"
"No, we don't really have any wood we could use."

Then she asks, "Could cardboard be a type of wood?"
Now I imagine trying to cut out and assemble a manger out of cardboard. Daunted and tired on a Friday evening, I ask, "Why don't we pretend the baby doll crib is a manger?"
Sophie gives me a look and says in a patient voice, "Dad, Jesus doesn't like the color pink."

We finally agree to cover the crib with brown construction paper and go downstairs to get started. As we're cutting and taping paper together, Elanor tries to help by finding a staple puller (I left the office drawer open) and ripping loose paper with it. Once the outside of the manger is done, Sophie says we need hay. There's only one piece of yellow construction paper, but she says its OK, because we can just color some white paper yellow. As we're cutting paper into strips for hay, Elanor finds a bag of googly eyes, presses one to her eye, and starts screaming, "I have a new eye! I have a new eye!".

During this whole process, Sophie is talking about the rest of the play. Elanor can be the angel and wear the butterfly wings, she will be Mary, and I can be Joseph. We talk about costumes (bathrobes, towels, etc) and then she thinks about animals. "Maybe my baby dolls can be the animals!" she says excitely. Then she muses, "Dad, do you think Mom can sew sheep costumes for my baby dolls?"

Finally it's time for bed, but Sophie is still talking about plans (now she's debating whether the playroom is an appropriate place to make a stable). I'm excited that she is using her imagination and thinking big, but I hope we can keep up with her!

Role playing

Tonight Andrew was reading the girls Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. We really like this story, the girls like to mimic the monkeys.
Sophie thought it would be fun to act out the story.

Here's a picture of Sophie sleeping before the monkey's take her caps.



Here's a video of Elanor acting out the story. I didn't have the camera when Sophie did it the first time and the second time, well she was being too silly and taking too long between parts. Anyways, enjoy the video.

A warning for anyone who sits near us during Sacrament meeting

This is for our friends who might sit near us during church services.
Almost every Sunday during sacrament meeting Elanor and Sophie sing along with the songs. Sophie will sit there with the hymn book open to the right page reading the words and making up her own tune. She will sing at her own pace and semi-loudly. It is cute. Elanor will sit there with the book open to any page, upside down and belt out (I mean you can hear her several rows away) some kind of gibberish to her own tunes. We find it cute, but sometimes a little too loudly.

An excerpt from something I wrote about 2 months ago...
'Today was no different except we sat in front of a man who was truly touched by the music of my 2 year-old. During the opening song Elanor was doing her usual singing along but loud, almost too loudly. I reached over to hush her just a little. The brother sitting behind me touched my shoulder. I looked back and he was crying. He said please don't have her stop singing. It is bringing joy to my eyes. Or something similarly sweet. I was touched that a grown man would be so moved by the "music" of my child. Andrew later told me this man told this story while teaching the men at church.'

Someday we will get a video of her singing but for now here is one of Sophie singing while we were in Oregon. It is a long video but so funny listening to her sing and play the piano. Enjoy.

Our week, in reverse order

Disclaimer: lots of pictures, so beware.
Happy Halloween!


Silly cat and silly witch.


We love our neighborhood. There are so many friends to play with and each Halloween the neighborhood holds a parade and then a potluck before trick-or treating.

Elanor with her friends.


Our neighborhood mummy and sometimes she thinks she's the boss.



Yes, I was festive this year also. This picture makes my tummy look small, I feel bigger than what you see.


The girls gave in quickly but Elanor was out once more to visit our neighbors for more treats. I don't think we had as many kids this year as last, maybe the sprinkling of rain scared some kids away.

10/30: Sophie's preschool class had a fun parade for the kids. All lined up for a picture.

and then off with most of the costumes for a regular day of school. I was in the class that day (it is a co-op so parents rotate when they are in the class, 3 parents each day). The kids were actually good. Sophie even had a job, she was the weather person.
Contemplating the weather (with her new bad habit, broke the thumb sucking for nail biting)

The class had made a pumpkin pinata and so now they are breaking it by shooting it into a laundry basket. Surprisingly all 19 kids had a chance to throw the pinata before it fully broke open. I think it started cracking around kid 15 but Mrs Rose kept sticking the prize back inside so all the kids could get a turn.


Mummies and Monster Fingers (I was trying to be creative for dinner one night)


The girls both love to help in the kitchen. Elanor is constantly moving the stool around so she can "help". Here we are making pumpkin pancakes, Sophie is reading the recipe to make sure I follow it to a T.


Last Saturday we had a very busy day. We ended it with trunk or treat at the church, which ended up being inside again due to rain. Elanor had fun doing the activities, Sophie not so much.
Elanor being curious.

And what truly made the day so long was van shopping. With baby #3 making her debut in 3 short months we had to buy a bigger vehicle, our choice was a light green 2009 Toyota Sienna. We are happy with our purchase and feel strange being a 2 car family again. We haven't had 2 cars since Arizona. Happy driving!