Our Family Project

Being the crazy mom that I am, I forgot to continue to take pictures on Christmas. I did get a couple of pictures of Maryanne with her new hat and scarf that my mom made for her. (Aren't they adorable!) But, I didn't get any other pictures. This is all we got. Oh well. Here's Maryanne walking around in her cute tutu outfit that my mom sent her for Christmas. At first I was thinking that I'd have to wait until spring to put it on her ... but, I'm so glad I didn't! She is adorable! And, I'm sure those short sleeves will be so refreshing for Maryanne when we move to Arizona.

This year we were really slow about getting out our Christmas decorations. In fact, we didn't even get them all out. I found the box of stockings in the garage and got them on the mantel probably a week before Christmas ... and that was pretty much it. No tree even. I didn't want to go cut one down because I could envision Maryanne pulling the branches and knocking needles to the floor and then eating them. And, our small (4') artificial tree was in our storage unit, which we really couldn't get into because the door broke. So, there we were a week before Christmas without a tree. I was hearing "Bah Humbug" from every direction. I finally decided that I didn't want to get all the stuff out to keep it up for two weeks and then take it all down again. But, I did feel like we needed something. So, I came up with this: I just simply traced all the children's hands and cut them out of construction paper ... a lot of construction paper. Then, we made orname...

We've had quite the last two weeks. Last Tuesday was Maryanne's birthday. The year went by extremely fast .... hard to believe she is one year old and walking already! Because of Jon's work schedule, we celebrated her birthday last Saturday ... with Adam's celebration also. (Jon had to work late on Maryanne's birthday, and again tonight on Adam's birthday.) However, she did get to open a present from us and a present from her Nana on her true birthday. My mom has a tradition of making a name pillow for each of the children for their first birthday. Adam, unfortunately, threw up on his pillow a couple years ago so we had to throw it out. My mom was nice enough to make him another one for his birthday this year. Maryanne opened her pillow on her birthday, but when Adam opened his pillow, she wouldn't leave it alone! We even gave her her pillow but she didn't want anything to do with it, she just wanted Adam's pillow. Both Maryanne and Adam go...

These hats were white elephant gifts at Jon's recent company Christmas party. We seriously had to do some creative trading to take these home with us! The children loved them instantly!

Our preschool unit before Thanksgiving was "Food." Technically, it was the unit the week after Thanksgiving also ... which was my week. So, the Monday after Thanksgiving, I decided I had to do the craft that Eliza did when she was in Kindergarten. Each of the children made a Native American headband, vest (for the boys), and skirt (for the girls); and they each got to wear a Pilgrim hat (or bonnet for the girls). So, after they all got dressed up in whichever outfit they wanted, we sat around our "white" table (the table designated for Preschool) and talked about the kinds of food the Pilgrims and Indians ate at the first Thanksgiving. We also pulled out pictures of food from an envelope and talked about whether it was good or bad for our bodies. It was so much fun. But, I think the best part was when they all decided to be Indians and run around chasing each other. I have to say, I'm liking this preschool thing ... I love coming up with fun activities for th...

Dear Mom, I know I just talked to you on the phone, but I wanted to let you know that I love it when you call. It's a wonderful break during my day. Isn't it ironic that we both started crochet projects around the same time??? Here's the hat I mentioned to you. It was a free pattern I found on the internet ... only hdc. The flower I found on the internet too ... it's made of dc's. Just thought you'd like to see it. It looks adorable paired with the outfit Maryanne has on in the picture ... her pants are a cheetah print. I have plans to make a smaller flower to put atop the white one, but I like it just like this too. Also, I remember you said you'd like to see what I'd do with a wedding cake. One of my friends at church asked me to make her daughter's wedding cake ... so I practiced on my last cake of my last course. Here are the pictures. Love you, Ris