Some Christmas Pictures

Santa!  Brooke asked for a Barbie.  Nathan totally didn't get it but sat happily on Santa's lap because Brooke was doing it. 

Christmas program!  Brooke was the loudest child in the choir.  I taught her everything I know about singing:  pitch and tone?  Whatever.  It's all about volume, baby.

 A super cute baby Jesus.  :-)

Christmas traditions are kept alive and strong around here.  Especially edible ones.

Not sure where Nate will play when the tree is gone.

I actually did something I saw on Pinterest.

If you're looking for something cool and crafty you are SO on the wrong blog.

A few weeks ago I saw a page on Pinterest about how to entertain toddlers, and one of the ideas was to paint the bathtub with watercolors. Since I have a couple of toddler types running around I decided to give it a try. 

Be sure to give a good scare-the-tarnation-out-of-them speech.  Tell them: repeat after me, "DO NOT PAINT ON THE WALLS!!!"  Look serious and mean and growl.

Then strip 'em to their scivies, throw 'em in and go for it.    

 

Verdict: this was perfect!  It really wasn't that messy, they thought cleaning the tub was fun (HA!) and we got the bath over and done with after the painting.  It took a good hour and a half or so, start to finish. 

So...clean kids, clean tub, morning of entertainment. Not too bad. 

This 'N That

I'm already into my third trimester--can you believe it?  I'm 27 weeks along and looking like this:

Note the little blond head in the bottom corner. You can see how much privacy I get in the bathroom.

Nothing blog-worthy happening lately.  It's getting cold and getting close to Christmas and we're loving it!

I found a cool tip on Pinterest telling how to take good pictures of your Christmas tree:  put your camera on manual, crank up your ISOs as high as you can and drop your shutter speed down to 1/30 or so.  You should also really, really use a tripod because the shutter speed is so slow.  I really really didn't, so it's blurry.

But I liked the way it made the Christmas tree look so bright.  Maybe I'll try again.

This morning we got to have a lazy, in-our-pj's-all-morning morning.  Every now and then aren't those fabulous?  They recharge the soul or something. Things started out nice and calm.

Then things got all wrestly.  They usually do. :-)

Blue Thanksgiving

A few months ago our pastor did a sermon about being joyful.  On the big screen he showed a small yellow dot surrounded entirely by blue.  What does your eye immediately go to?  Even though 99% of the screen was blue, your eye immediately went to the one, little yellow dot.

I think about that visual a lot. How often is my thought process like that?  Instead of thinking of all the blessings that surround me everyday, I focus on the "yellow dot"-- whatever happens to be going wrong in life.  Some days the "yellow dot" is bigger than others, but still, the "blue" is always there.  Lots of blue.

I am thankful for so many things.

I'm so thankful for the kiddos.  The upcoming holidays and the opportunity to soak it in. 

My husband. The family we'll visit for Thanksgiving. 

My friends.

Health.  A growing, 26-week belly that moves and shakes with the little boy I'll hold in just three short months.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ballerina Girl

About three seconds after the ultrasound tech told me Brooke would be a girl, I imagined a little preschool ballerina dressed head-to-toe in pink.  Dance recitals.  Tap shoes. One day that would be my child.

Oh yes, that would be my child.

The day has arrived and I'm pretty stinkin' excited.  And don't you know when "parent watch day" rolled around at Brooke's ballet studio I was on the edge of my seat, camera in hand.

Yipee!! 

 I think she likes ballet.

A lot.

She smiled through the whole class. 

By the way, when do kids get the concept of personal space? Not at four. 

Anyway.  I'm in heaven. :-)

A Best Friend and a Trip to the Zoo

This weekend my very best friend brought her family up to see us.  So exciting!!

The weekend kicked off with a big man hug.  Is there a better way to start a weekend? 

We got to go to the zoo.  In the middle of November.  Can you believe it? 

We hit the butterfly house first.  You know I love butterflies. 

So much for little eyes to see. And what beautiful little eyes they are. 

This picture makes me smile. :-) :-) :-)  

I only took a couple of pictures of the animals.  But really, who wants to watch the animals when you can watch kids watching the animals?

 

Even though 2 out of the 3 little stinkers boycotted sleep for the weekend, it was so good to see my sweet friend and her family.  It was fun to finally get the kids together, too.  I'm so glad they braved the trip and I can't wait to see them again and SOON!  

Fall Leaves

I love red trees in the fall.  And taking pictures of things that stand still every now and then. 

I haven't taken many tree pics this year, but I finally took a few before it was too late.