Christmas close-up {2011}

Remember how your mom insisted on a Christmas picture each year?

It used to drive you nuts, right?

I get it now. I am that mom.

In spite of my better judgement, every year I insist on a sibling shot in front of the tree. The results include various levels of success:

{2010}     {2009}     {2008}     {2007}

I've learned a few important lessons: 

corral the kids immediately after church while they're still (somewhat) put together, release the notion of a perfect shot, remember that 2 year olds are wild cards, and let everyone have a turn behind the camera.

The results of our 2011 Christmas mini-shoot:

Not too bad, but I bet we can do better.

Big brother temporarily disappears, leaving a pair of sweet sisters.

He's back! And these two are old pros. 

All together again...

I didn't know it at the time, but I think this one is our winner!

(Mady wasn't letting go of that notepad...someday it will remind us of her "tenacity" at two)

Cutting my losses. Time to move on.

Daddy always makes us laugh, but Mady wants OUT. Now.

Dylan's turn as photographer.

Mady's turn.

And Ella catches a sweet moment.

Until next year!

{Linking up to party of four's Christmas picture party}

insta.life {art & crafts}

The holiday season is in full swing.
It was a week filled with parties, ornaments, crafts and early bedtimes, along with some first-half-of-first-grade artwork thrown into the mix.

1. D's Reflections.

2. D's Peacock.

3. Can't wait to put this in her stocking.

4. Kids are in bed. Coast is clear.

5. A chocolate-y advent tradition.

6. Make your own reindeer cookie.

7. Ella's reindeer food.

8. Paula Deen's monster cookies.

9. DIY bird nest necklace. {tutorial here}

10. D's red birds.

11. Aunt Katie gets out the glue gun for her favorite Spartan super fan.

12. Small group ornament gifts. {inspiration here}

Linked to: InstaFriday @ Life Rearranged.

Christmas Break To Do's

I'm a little rusty at being a full-time mom to three kids now that Dylan is in school full-time and Ella is in school part-time.

It is with a mixture of excitement (lazy mornings! cuddly kids in fuzzy PJ's! no schedule!) and trepidation (bickering! cabin fever! no schedule!!) that I approach this year's Christmas vacation.

I'm not really a "project mom" but I'm willing to make an extra effort in the name of surviving - and enjoying! - our extended time together.

Thank you, Pinterest, for sponsoring Christmas Break 2011/12.

On the docket:

• Homemade bird feeders
• Christmas-themed reading and writing
• Gingerbread houses
• Easy Christmas crafts
• Paper snowflakes
• Sun catchers

And no worries, we'll be lucky if we accomplish one thing off this list but there's no harm in aiming high.

How will you be spending your extra kid-filled hours?

five.

When I look back at Ella's baby-hood, the thing that sticks out to me is that she wasn't really a baby for very long.

To start at the beginning: we got off on the wrong foot. She crossed her legs and refused to move during her 20-week ultrasound. This fact, plus an unfriendly ultrasound tech, reduced her very hormonal mama to tears.

For two days.

I eventually recovered just in time for a semi-traumatic delivery. My doctor's direct quote the next day: "I was so glad to see a pink baby." The trauma was enough to scare all of us: my doctor soon after stopped delivering babies.

So I was left sitting in a hospital bed holding my baby girl (shocker! I was sure she was going to be a he) with blue eyes (who knew?) and we were both lucky to be alive.

We went home. Life was good for the first two weeks. I was actually a little worried because she slept so much.

And then she woke up.

And she cried. And cried. And cried.

And I cried.

We swaddled, shushed, swung and soothed. {thank you, Dr. Karp}

And she still cried.

My mom told me one day (over Ella's cries): just wait, you'll see, she'll be the sunniest toddler after this.

I didn't believe her.

They tell you it will stop around 12 weeks - which is a small consolation when you are on week four - and like clockwork, at four months old, she stopped crying.

She refocused the energy she had previously put into screaming and put it into smiling, finding trouble, winning our hearts, and climbing on tables.

She crawled at 7 months, stood up and walked at 11.

She chased her brother and wanted to do everything he was doing. They are two years apart in age, but in so many aspects I've always said that they seem more like one year apart.

She's my baby that really wasn't a baby. There wasn't a lot of cuddling or coddling. She never slept between us in our bed because she wouldn't stay still long enough to fall asleep. She's either been mad or on the go, and she's a hard one to keep up with.

Her birth order and sunny personality (yes, my mom was right) mean she goes with the flow and doesn't demand a lot from us.

It was just finalized in our school district that Kindergartners will switch to an all-day, every day schedule next year. I understand the reasoning and I knew it was inevitable. Ella will be fine - she's old for her grade and smart as a whip.

It's me I worry about.

Our little blonde-haired girl is suddenly growing up way too fast. Sometimes it seems like she's five going on 13.

And I just want to keep her little.

Can you blame me?

insta.life {slim pickin's}

It's been two weeks and although the Instagram pickin's are slim,

we've been keeping busy.

1. Things are about to get Pinteresting.

2. We like to spell phonetically around here.

3. What could be better than decorating the tree in Christmas PJ's?

4. Our halls are officially decked.

5. Craft night success.

6. A great bottle of wine for a great friend.

7. Mady is sporting a new hat.

8. Food drive helpers.

InstaFriday @ Life Rearranged.

Craft Night {yarn wrapped ornaments}

Another Craft Night went off without a hitch. Word travels fast and Theresa was gracious enough to host our largest craft night yet complete with some amazing details.

Below is a sampling of the crafts that were completed - the theme was ornaments, but it is always an option to bring something outside the theme:

salt dough ornaments

yarn stars

Mod Podged monograms

clay stamped ornaments

pine cone elves

felt Christmas trees

yarn-wrapped bottles

I decided on monograms and stars and worked with two of my favorite crafting mediums: Mod Podge and yarn (not at the same time, of course). The yarn-wrapped ornaments {tutorial here} took the prize as my favorites, both because they were easy-peasy and because I love their warm and fuzzy feel.

The way women's eyes light up when you talk about craft night makes me realize that most of us are craft night deprived. I'm not sure if it's the actual crafting we are after, or the community, laughter and the sense of actually, physically accomplishing something in this virtual, high-tech world.

If you'd like to try your hand at starting up a craft night, here are our tips:

• Pick a craft or a theme. Either way works - you can pick an actual craft complete with a supply list if you have a lot of first-time crafters who would appreciate the extra guidance -or- you can pick a theme (yarn, ornaments, Mod Podge, etc.) if you want to give people a little more freedom.
• Pick a date. Choose a day that easy to remember - the first Monday of the month, for example. We start at 8pm which allows most of us to help our husbands get the kids to bed before we leave...happy husbands don't seem to mind craft night :)
• Invite your guests. You can start small and see who shows up if it's overwhelming to think about a big group in your house. Or take the invite-everyone-you-know approach and sit back and watch your worlds collide. Either way, find an easy-to-use on-line invite system - we use Facebook and set the Event settings to Invite-Only to keep the Wall more private.
• Start a group Pinterest board. Create a new board on Pinterest (select Me + Contributors to allow others to post to it) and add your guests' names. This is a fun way to collaborate leading up to the event.
• Make a snackage plan. The hostess usually takes care of the drinks, everyone else brings a snack to share. Keep it simple. 
• Rotate hostess duties. After each craft night, follow-up with your friends and see who would like to host the next craft night. It's important to keep the ball rolling and it's nice to have a variety of hostesses - it keeps things fresh and spreads out the responsibilities.

Consider yourself warned: women will show up in droves. Craft on!

{Craft Night: Let's Get Clippy}

{Craft Night: numero dos!}

fitness goals {year two}

In the spirit of keeping things fresh, it's time to make some Year Two fitness goals. $20 in a jar got me through Year One, but I'm going to need some extra motivation to make it through another 52 weeks.

Year One brought us these new adventures: yoga, lap swimming, cross country skiing, a pair of 5K's, a 10K, track workouts, water aerobics, road biking, paddle boarding, hill runs, an outside-the-box mud run, and a 15K.

Year Two promises to be about continuing the adventure: pushing, strengthening, growing and refining what we learned in Year 1, as well as looking for new (crazy?) ways to stay fit and have fun.

Year Two Fitness Goals:

• Try five new forms of exercise (including a spin class, a suspension class, indoor rock climbing...plus two others).
• Swim 24 consecutive laps in Lake HHS (I'm up to about 12 right now but there is a lot of pausing and gasping for air between laps).
• Master that darn flip turn. Not because I need to know how to do it, but because I want to say I can do it. And to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
• Run with our church's running group.
• Attend a running clinic.
• Improve my 5K and 10K times.
• Run a race longer than a 15K. I know, right?? This is crazy talk, but I really believe this is within my reach - I'm going to start looking for a nice half marathon for 2012 (and girls, you know this means you're committed too!)
• Complete a sprint tri.
• Share the love - encourage other moms to get (and keep) moving.

seven.

Dylan at seven years old is serious and sensitive - his teacher tells me almost every time I see her about Dylan's character and his good heart. At conferences, she told us that she had the kids fill out a form listing (among other things) a few of their friends. Dylan's name showed up on almost everyone's form - he is a friend to many and an easy kid to like. He has befriended one of the least-liked, hardest-to-love kids in his class and we couldn't be prouder.

One of my favorite parts of my day is when the kids come home and empty their  backpacks out on the kitchen island. I love looking through their papers and hearing about their days.

Dylan is at the phase of learning where he can read pretty well (he had a slow start but now he's doing great!) and he can spell...kind of. He spells phonetically (knife = nif) plus he spells the way he speaks (let's = yets). All of this adds up to a very adorable / hilarious paper review time around 4:00 pm each day.

Matt refers to it as a special language but I think Dylan's writing is pretty readable, as long as you read it out loud. It's a bit like playing Mad Gab. If you get stuck, you just keep repeating the phase until it suddenly dawns on you.

11-2-2011 story

I wut to Mexxukow and I wut to the besh and I wut in the wodr and I wut lucken fo fish with my dad. We soll vere lill fis the coll wus vare sipe but I wus saf cus I hoold my dad had.

[I went to Mexico and I went to the beach and I went in the water and I went looking for fish with my dad. We saw very little fish, the coral was very slippery but I was safe because I held my dad's hand.]

Writing prompt: That is it

seid my mom no now fiden

[said my mom, no more fighting]

Persuasive writing letter

Dear Mommy,

Will you git a wotrrsliyd for me and Ella. We will tak kr uv it. We will play on it owly win yowr owsiyd so we don git hrt on it.

[Will you get a waterslide for me and Ella? We will take care of it. We will play on it only when you're outside so we don't get hurt on it.]

I love you Momy.

I love you so mush.

From Dylan

Love Dylan


I sure do love this little boy. He holds a very special part of my heart and I can't get enough of his big brown eyes. I'm excited for him as he learns the gift of reading - there is so much out there to take in - and proud of him as he learns to communicate his thoughts on paper - he has so much in his heart to share.