Christmas Break...

I am taking a little break from Blogging to enjoy the Holidays...I will be back again soon to share all our Christmas memories...

~

One evening to pass the time, we pulled out our trusty tri-pod to get some fun shots of the kids and I in our Christmas pj's! We discovered that James is the next up and coming photographer...he was the shutter-button guy...he would press the button then run and sit down while doing some pretty huge smiles right at the camera. As soon as the flash went off he would run over the camera, press the button on the back to look at the picture then press the shutter release button again! We took many, many pictures that evening!

Have a happy New Year...

Merry Christmas...

Every year at Christmas I like to look back and reflect on the past year...this year seemed to slip by so fast. Someone once told me that when you have Children your days are very long and the years very short and fleeting...I cannot agree more! How is it possible that Elsie is now 4...James is 1 {and a half}...and Jon and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in a few weeks!

This past year has been a quite year for us...no big changes, trips or events. A perfect year for embracing Family and just enjoying the little things in life with each other.

We look forward to what 2012 has in store for us... 

Friday Phone Dump...

Friday already...this week has sped by!

1. Our little town...hard to see in this picture but I was trying to get a picture of all the Christmas lights and the fact that we have NO snow...we live in Minnesota...no snow for Christmas is un-heard of!

 2. A hug from daddy makes everything better! {Just once I would like to get a good shot of Jon!}

 3. A walk through the Christmas tree display at Menard's is a very magical thing!

 4. We have been busy making cookies...all with plenty of sprinkles! Tomorrow we will be making some Danish Donuts to eat on Christmas morning...yum!

 5. We have our Reindeer food all ready and waiting to be sprinkled on the ground Christmas eve...

 6. With Jon gone on 2 week tours our weeks get very long...and sometimes Mommy just needs a little break...so we ordered some bar food and got a Red Box Christmas movie. A fun evening...

 6. Ummm...sorry, neighbors if you see a little hiney in the window every now and then! James prefers to be naked most days...I require that he at least wears a diaper!

 7. A few days ago Elsie had the little aunties over to play...and Ceara and Braylon came over to play. Not sure what was going on here...but it is a very funny picture! Braylon just laid there very serious looking.

 8. Elsie mostly just washes her hair by herself in the shower...but every now and then we wash it in the sink...and when we do, our kitchen is the Salon and I get to play the part of the Salonist {as Elsie calls it!} And to be a good Salonist one must wear high heals. So I wash her hair in my heals. Oh, and I must talk like a Salonist...meaning a very high bubble-brainish way. I am really not sure what kind of Salonists have inspired my daughter!

 9. My tattoo! It did not hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would! And now James can say "tattoo"...makes me happy!

Our week in Phone pictures. I am linking up with Life Rearranged again. Click the link for many more fun phone pictures!



The Making of the Gingerbread House...

When Elsie was quite little, Jon and I decided that part of our St. Lucia tradition would be making a gingerbread house. This year St. Lucia was on a Tuesday and Jon was out of town...so we made our gingerbread house the Sunday before. It is always Jon's job to construct the house...this year we made 2 houses, a Christmas tree and Santa and the reindeer...more like a little village!

 Elsie was studying the box...while patiently waiting for Daddy to hurry up and put those little houses together!

 James is Jon's little shadow...

 Jon is a patient kind of Daddy...and he loves to make his children happy...even if it means building a gingerbread house and keeping his frustrations and swearing to himself when the walls and roof keeps falling off! We eventually took the hot glue gun out...with enough glue and frosting our Gingerbread houses were ready to decorate!

 James thought the tray of candies were really just for eating...after he would chew on a piece for a bit he would take it out of his mouth and put it on the house...and get very upset when it wouldn't stay on the house. If I used a little frosting to 'glue' the candy in place he would pluck it off the house and lick the frosting off! Such a big helper!

 As usual, Elsie took the decorating very seriously. That girl has patients like no other when she has a vision!

 Don't think for one minute he is decorating...he is stealing candies off my gingerbread house!

 Even with all the stolen candy, complements of James...our little gingerbread village looks wonderful.

 We have our village set up on the counter...complete with fake snow and even a few shakes of glitter over it all...because when it comes to Christmas one can never have enough glitter!

 A fun family filled afternoon of making and decorating gingerbread houses. My hope is that when my children are all grown, every time they see a gingerbread house it will bring back a flood of fun childhood memories of Christmas time...

St. Lucia Day...

Last week we celebrated St. Lucia Day...with a lovely breakfast in bed, with candles lit and everything looking lovely. The night before St. Lucia day the kids were so excited...so to make it even a little more magical we lit the St. Lucia wreath candles and fell asleep by candle light...how perfectly lovely is that!? Don't worry, I stayed awake because {for the most part} I know better than to fall asleep with candles burning!

 Soon after waking up I brought the trays of breakfast food in...mini pancakes, home made apple fritters and pineapple...and cereal because some people do best with the same routine every morning.

 Elsie is very aware that it is traditionally the responsibility of the oldest daughter to be the one serving everyone...but she is still a little young to be the server...she still though she better put her crisp white shirt on so she looked a little like St. Lucia. I am sure someday Elsie will very possessively take over the serving part just fine!

 At the Children's request we did a timed picture with me in it too! Now everyone can see how lovely I look when I wake up in the morning.

 I will be honest...I didn't really think breakfast in bed would be a good experience this year...thanks to a busy little guy...but to my surprise he did beautifully...he ate his breakfast and didn't make a huge mess! I am glad I didn't back out on our breakfast in bed tradition...

 This picture is funny...makes me laugh. We had a lovely St. Lucia breakfast in bed...the kids have warm fuzzy memories...love traditions! {another plus to breakfast in bed with kids is a change of sheets...slipping into warm clean sheets at bedtime makes it all worth it!}

 See...not too messy...but just messy enough for clean sheets! Breakfast in bed...a perfect way to start the day...

Bell Ringing...

A few weekends ago we participated in the Salvation Army Bell Ringing. Every year I make it a point to give Elsie money to drop into every red kettle we see while out shopping...so this year Elsie was super excited to be able to be a bell ringer! Ted and Ceara were the ones who were doing the ringing...but the little aunties, Colter and Elsie all wanted in on the fun too...and Ceara and Ted were more than willing to have all the helpers!

 Elsie, James, Jon and I only stayed to help bell ring for about half an hour...just until we got good and cold...all the others stayed for the full 3 hour shift.

 Emma is a firm believer that if anyone offers her a sip of coffee she should really take advantage of that! Emma loves to do anything possible to be just like one of the "big kids"...

 Grandma B. gave Elsie some money to put in the red kettle. I always tell Elsie the money in the red kettles is given to people who don't have any money...she asks lots of questions and we talk about having no money, being really poor and our job as Christians to do our best to be giving and show compassion. She has a very big heart so this concept is not difficult at all for her to process.  

 When my sister and I were the Education Directors at our church we would bring groups of kids bell ringing as a service project. I find it interesting that Ceara's future husband, Ted, was one of the kids we always brought bell ringing...so it is neat to see Ted, now part of our family and still bell ringing with us!

 I am hoping to make this an annual tradition in our family...

 We had a little reindeer man bell ringing with us too...{with a sticky face and a hat found in the "too small" bag!}

 But he didn't want to stand outside in the cold...so he stayed in the entry area. He got lots of smiles because of his cute little reindeer ears...and a couple candy canes even...makes me want to go out and about with reindeer ears!

ASL, Santa and Tacos...

Last week got to be a crazy week and I didn't even get a chance to blog! We were busy enjoying the Christmas rush...last minute shopping, baking, wrapping...and blogging was not on my mind. I am happy to say we have nothing left to do this week except wait for Christmas. Just maybe I downloaded a Christmas Countdown app on my phone...and I harass my mom by telling her constantly just how many shopping days she has left to complete her long list. {I think she loves it!}

A few weeks ago my sister, Laura was signing some Christmas songs in town for a little event. Laura is taking the ASL course at the local college...and this was a little thing her class was doing. It was neat watching her sign...she looks very graceful while signing. I am sad to say I know very few signs...I think Elsie knows far more than I do!

 My mom and the kids also went...

 My Children found the craft table! It amazes me how much Elsie took in from watching the signers. I thought she was just busy colouring...but now every time we hear certain songs on the radio, she will stand up and start "signing" it...she just mocks all the motions she saw everyone doing. Elsie has always been very intuitive.

 When the signers were taking a break James spyed Santa in the corner! He watched him for a little bit...then he came up to me and took my hand so we could walk over to Santa together. He is so sweet! He even shook Santa's hand...

 He still wanted nothing to do with sitting on his lap though! But at least there were no tears...

 As we were leaving my mom asked if we wanted to join them at Taco John's...and even though we had bbq ribs and baked potatoes waiting in the crock pots, we accepted. Who turns down the opportunity to eat tacos with Grammie and the aunties!?

 The kids all sat at their own booth...Elsie felt very grown up sitting there with the aunties! A little side note...because Elsie is a very independent and broad minded 4 year old...we had to stop at McDonald's and get fries to bring to Taco John's...because she really didn't feel like eating tacos then. Gotta love her little mind!

James was pretty happy to have his own taco! He was also pretty happy to throw potato olays at the kids sitting across from him!

 Proof that my mother was really there! I know she is going to hate me with a vengeance for posting this picture of her...but I think it is important to have at least a few pictures of her on my blog every now and then...I wouldn't want people thinking I get my good looks from just my dad!

 By the time we got home our house smelled yummy with the food from the crock pot...And Jon was almost home...a perfect way to end the week...