Wordless Wednesday (Christmas cookies with Grandma)

Upon hearing the devastating news that even my mom only looks at the pictures, I've decided to take a cue from some other blogs I've seen and implement Wordless Wednesday...enjoy!

The Official Family Christmas Picture

This is the picture we put on our card this year, and the only one that Josie smiled for...photo credit to Dani, and her handy assistant Alan (who held Josie's jacket).

Surfer Girl

Liv finally got to see her room Christmas night....and it was mostly done. There are a few decorative things to put up-a shelf above the mirror, a magnet board above the cubical storage thing, some surfer girl decorations and lighting under the bed...and eventually we would like to get a rug for the room. But for the most part the room is done and Liv was amazed--she loves the desk area and sleeping in the 'tall castle tower' (what Josie calls the bed). Kevin worked SO hard to get the room done--many an all nighter at the end. And a big thanks to Teddy who spent 12 hours on Christmas Eve helping me paint!

After Liv saw her room, the first thing she did was get out a math workbook to do homework for fun--just to have something to do at her desk!! So cute....

I wish I had thought to take some good before pics--but the room before was green and she had a dark wood sleigh bed, so this was a complete change!

Catching Santa

I have many Christmas stories and pictures to share, but I have girls in the bathtub, so this we'll be quick. We were especially lucky this year because we got these pictures of Santa in our living room--AMAZING!! Soon, I'll have pictures at my parents house with the girls making our annual Christmas cookies--this was Josie's first year to be a real participant in the cookie making so that was fun. We also did Christmas with Kevin's family and I'll have pictures of that soon, too. I have already unChristmased the house, which is only exciting because with the tree out of the living room it makes the room seem huge for a few days...silly, right?

Gingerbread House Hunters

Liv's class started collecting gingerbread house supplies two weeks ago. Clearly the prep time was warranted--those kids had every type of candy and every color of icing in creation. Their teacher, Mrs. Greer, is a brave lady because I can not imagine the mess the kids made using the icing as glue to 'build' their houses and stick on the candy. Liv was so proud of her house that we're not allowed to eat it, so it's just on display now. Her house is impressive on it's own, but check out the 'yard'. When Liv ran out of real estate on the walls, she just moved to areas between the house and the side walls of her tray and she filled it up...especially in comparison to lots of the other kids houses that have nothing in the yard.

Friday was the last day of school, but during our break we have to be working on our Community Project...every 2nd grader has to pick a local building to build and matching costume for Community Fair Day--I think this is supposed to make them aware of their community and whatnot, but so far I am unexcited to use old diaper boxes to build a hospital (Liv's building of choice). But, I won't tell Liv that as I try to motivate her to leave her brand new room to work on a school project.....

Which brings me to the subject of Liv's room. We've wanted to redo it for a while and thought about doing it for her birthday, but we ended up being too bust with finishing the bathroom and patio and pergola. So, when Liv told me she didn't really have anything major she wanted for Christmas, the room redo seemed perfect. After much discussion and design book consultation, we decided to go with a 'surfer girl' theme using mostly pinks and oranges. My husband has built a loft bed, complete with wainscoting detail, a bookshelf with drawers, a decorative shelf and a surfboard mirror frame. He still has to build the desk and add lighting under the bed and trim the room with wainscoting and a chair rail and new baseboards. I've got the room painted and will be painting all the new pieces as they are deemed ready. Kevin took the rest of this week off to get everything done, but of all his attributes speed isn't one of them, so I'm hoping we can pull it off...Liv has opted to not see her room during this process, so her mattresses are on the floor of Josie's room and she hasn't seen anything that will be in the room. I'm pretty excited for her to see everything...because everything will be new! Pictures to come....

Jordan, watch out...my kid's got game!

Liv's dad has wanted her to play basketball since she was in utero, so after 7.3 years of waiting he is getting his wish. This is Liv's first time on an actual team, but she plays pretty regularly with her cousins and Dad. Our first practice was Friday night, Liv met her coach and was very appreciative that there was another girl on her team. Until now all of her team sports have been with just girls, so Liv had an adjustment to make with all those crazy boys around. At this level, the goals are lowered to 7.5 feet and they run side to side across a court instead of the long way. There are also specific areas to defend from and they play five on five just like big kid basketball. Liv was super proud of her shoes--white Reebok high tops with neon rainbow soles and laces (all she was missing was the Pump, but she doesn't know about that little gem from 1989). Her coach is really nice and actually has them running drills to practice dribbling, hand coordination and offense and defense with the team. After that all the kids shot around for awhile and then we were done for the day. As I am not the basketballer of the family, the only time I've seen Liv shoot this much was at last year's Field Day (where she was the only kid in her class to make every shot she took) and I must say I was impressed. She's a good shot! Our season starts January 9th, and I'm excited to watch her have so much fun!

Candance Birthday Lunch...

Candance's birthday was the last birthday of the year (along with Emilie) so we had a birthday lunch to celebrate. The boys were invited too, but not a single picture of them was taken because, well because their boys and they don't care about stuff like that. Restaurant of choice was Zocolo--a fine establishment that had something for everyone. Candi got pretty much everything on her birthday wish list--robe, rainboots, clothes, frames and house stuff. Whenever we're together we feel obliged to take group pictures...the guy with my camera clearly wasn't a pro at focusing but was a good sport for taking the pictures, so I guess we'll call it even. Anyway, I'm not sure whose idea it was to robot pose...but here's what that looks like...

In other news, things have been crazy around here--Liv has been evicted from her bedroom and it has since been turned into a construction zone. Liv knows we are redoing her room for Christmas and knows that we're using a surfer girl theme, but that's all she knows. So, for this month her mattresses have been moved to the floor of Josie's room and they are roommates. It's killing Liv to not see anything, but she likes the idea of being surprised (most of the time). Kevin is building her a loft bed with desk and cubical storage underneath. He is also building a bookcase and a million other things for the room. So, if you need him, you can find him in Liv's room. Josie saw Santa at school this week and when I picked her up the first thing she wanted to tell me was that she 'did not like Santa'...but later asked if she could still have his presents. Liv is making gingerbread houses and having a class party this week at school.

Looking forward to Liv being out of school and doing some Christmasy activities....

Family Christmas Pictures

I had high hopes for this year's family Christmas pictures (especially since this is the one time every year that we do family pictures). I thought surely this would be the year of having two cooperative children. Or at least I could bribe them with cupcakes in exchange for smiles. Wrong, for the most part. Liv did fine and was all for posing and staying in position just in case Josie accidentally smiled. In general these days Josie isn't up for anything that isn't her idea. So, if we wanted to stand by a bridge she didn't and asking her to smile was guaranteeing a frown. We waited until about 11 am to head to Norton Art Gallery. So, that means it had 'warmed up' to about 40 degrees. It was cold and jackets weren't optional. Luckily for me, the stress of positioning and cajoling everyone warmed me up. Dani did great (and I'm not even saying that because she'll read this) with tricking Josie into looking at her and creeping into position to snap pictures on the sly. Actually, she was a good sport for 'coming to town' so early and trekking out in the cold with us--so thanks Dan Dan (and Alan, who was supportive even if he didn't dress as a clown like I wanted for child entertainment)! In the end, we got a really great picture that will be on our card this year and several others that I love too...these are some of our outtakes. I especially like the bottom picture--Josie with her 'binoculars' on and me looking to the Heavens for some help...

Forget I mentioned a Thanksgiving post, we're skipping straight to Christmas, baby!

Thanksgiving was had, but since I was hostessing I got distracted from my photo taking duties...and now it's December.

We actually had our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, because our family didn't get together until Saturday and we got a smokin' Black Friday deal on a tree at Home Depot. We went with a Fraser Fir again this year--I like the short needles better than the long ones on a Douglas Fir. Anyway, as soon as most of the family cleared out on Saturday I got the decorations laid out. The kids (mine and my niece and nephew) went with Granny to see a decorated train downtown...which I still have little info about, but hey--at least it gave me a chance to get the lights, garland and balls on the tree before I let the kids loose on the ornaments. The kids had fun decorating, although they aren't great space planners yet. After I had the tree back to myself, I spread the ornaments out a little bit better. Also, I included a pic of our 'mantel'. Yea, I know it is just a shelf above the TV, but work with me here folks....anyway, this is where our stockings are hung with care. I'll work on getting a night time picture of our house because it is all lit up and a picture of the tree so you can see it lit up as well.

Dani is gonna take our family Christmas pics tomorrow, so hopefully there will be some funny outtakes to include here...but you'll have to wait until you get our Christmas card to see our official family photo for the year...

Almost forgot Grandparents Day...

Liv's school did their annual Grandparent's Day a few weeks ago. And while I am no one's grandparent, I am the room mom, so I organized the whole shindig. We had coffee, juice, donuts and I even made pumpkin pie bites. The kids sang and read poetry to their grandparents and made cards to send to our troops. Liv's teacher passed out awards and Liv's Grandma won for being the Early Bird. And afterwards, the school conveniently had the Book Fair scheduled so that unsuspecting grandparents could be suckered into book buying. It was a fun morning, and my kid has 8 more books than she started the day with...

Fire Truck House

I've been telling Josie forever that I would take her to her Uncle Rick's fire truck house. It's been hard to work out a time to go--it's way north of town, and I've got to work around Liv and Josie's school schedules and Rick's work schedule. Anyway, the stars aligned last week and the time was upon us. I picked Jordan up on the way, and away we went. Josie loved the trucks and would have stayed all day. Rick showed the girls everything...all the lights, hoses, cool firemen tools, and even the ambulance. Liv was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't a pole to slide down, but all in all the visit was a success. We ate lunch afterward at Oil City's finest...Gotta Pizza. Then we Gotta Outta there....

This week we did Thanksgiving and got the house ready for Christmas. You should all be on the edges of your seat waiting for that...

Funny Stuff

As it turns out, the picture of Robyn with her llama counterpart and Kingsley feeding the giraffe were too funny not too share...

The Fair...very belated

So, Robyn and I took the kids to the Fair, like a month ago and I was psyched to blog about it until I let a month go by...now I mostly want to have you fine folks look at the pictures and glean from them all the fun we had. The kids rode rides, we had snacks, and my personal favorite was feeding the giraffes. Sure, I have funny anecdotes about Josie's first unsupervised by a parent ride and how funny Kingsley and Josie thought feeding the giraffes were and finding the llama that looked just like Robyn, but the moment has passed...I'll just leave it as fun was had by all...

And, I'm gonna get back on track with the blogging. I was doing so good with the Halloween posts, then I just kinda fell apart...

Tomorrow I am taking the girls to Uncle Rick's fire station...fun, fun!

Because I'm artsy

Check out what my little point and shoot camera captured last week...sure my outdoor conditions were perfect, but still impressive I think. I especially love my background bokeh...

Happy Fall

Josie and I accompanied Liv's class on a field trip to the Pioneer Heritage Center last week. Because Josie couldn't pipe down (which is fine because she is just 2 and hasn't yet developed an interest in history), we spend the whole field trip outside while Liv listened to the guide explain things as they went from building to building...on the downside I didn't get to really do anything with Liv besides be at the same place she was, but on the upside I got some really cute pics of Josie in the leaves. This one is my fave...

Parachute

At Josie's MDO church's fall block party they had a parachute set up, sorta. They were gonna do rides but something with that plan didn't work out so instead they blew up the balloon enough for it to be full of air but not lift off the ground. We got to walk into the balloon--it's really big in there. Like bigger than the Denler Estate for sure, so we're looking into selling the house and moving into a parachute. In the meantime, here are some pics I got whilst trying to channel my inner photographer. Also, this is what we look like when we stand in a parachute-minus Olivia, who said standing in a balloon wasn't fun or cool as she ran back to the bouncy slides. As a sidenote, half an hour later Liv asked if I would go with her into the balloon....it was cool after all.

Trick or Treat

So, this is it--the last Halloween related post I have for you...finally! This year we (and especially Josie) trick or treated to death. Four times actually. Our first time was after Pumpkin Shine when we joined the Stewart family at their church for the annual trunk or treating thing they do. This is our third year there and Josie's warm up to perfecting her request for candy from strangers. We also went to Josie's MDO church for their trunk or treat, Josie also trick or treated during MDO....all of this before Halloween actually got here. By Saturday night, Josie was ready to go and had started to think that Halloween was a permanent state and trick or treating was something she was gonna get to do every day for the rest of her life. Saturday night we went with my niece and nephew, and thank goodness because Jordan spent a lot of time carrying Josie for us. Liv was with us for 2 of the trick or treating nights and I missed her in every picture....I'll do better next year. Josie was a big hit with everyone she met--and she especially liked the 'coyote' (actually a homeowner who answered the door as a wolverine, Josie howled at him and wanted to pet the coyote) and clown that gave her candy. Kevin especially liked the house that was passing out frito pie. Everyone wins. By the time we made it to the McKee house, we were all tired. We came in and rested and visited with Kris, John and Baby Lillian while Kevin retrieved the car. Halloween was a week ago and Josie still talks about going back to Halloween land....

Pumpkin Shine

I think, behind the revel, Pumpkin Shine is my favorite local community thing to do. It happens at Betty Virginia Park and there are about 1,000 lit and carved and painted pumpkins. Lots of the pumpkins are done by the kids at Southfield School--this year we saw lots of where the wild things are displays, and bumblebees are always popular. I liked the cloudy with a chance of meatballs setup, the monsters under the bed display and the pirate ship. We put the girls in their costumes because after the Shine we go with the Stewarts to their church's trunk or treat. This is your first look at my little bumblebee and candy corn witch. The pumpkins are set up around the path of the park so you just walk through but it is fun every year. This year was fun because I got to have a mini reunion with most of my lady friends (sorry we missed you Candance). My family, and Teddy, Alan, and Logan, and Kristen and baby Lillian, and Dani, and my mom all walked the park together.

I'm gonna try to wrap up my Halloween posts tomorrow with trick or treating...then we move on to the Fair!