Look What I Did!!!

I made curtains! This is my first attempt and while I realize they are not perfect I am very satisfied to have taken on something new. I think they look pretty good. I'm pleased as punch to have pretty curtains (at least in one window- three more windows to go).


I took this picture when I finished them last night. The colors seem a little more true to life in this one.


This picture is from today when the sun was shining (sort of, it's pretty cloudy) outside.

Incidentally, I'm trying to decide which way to face the finials on the curtain rod. Each one is facing a different direction in these pictures. What do you think?

By Request

Apparently I need to post more pictures. This was not so subtly revealed to me by Erin. So here are some pictures. Some I will be adding to the posts where they belong.

This is Christmas Day. Everyone around was opening presents, but Lily was busy giving her baby a bath.

Lily is sitting in the baby doll tub giving baby a bottle.

Jay's dad schooled him in [Wii] tennis. Apparently he played in high school and was quite good.

More tennis on the Wii.

Just about everyone got a turn.

I think Zach and Ryan are bowling.

This is Ryan playing his favorite game another day. Can you guess what it is? Take a look below...

Here Lily is wearing the bunny shirt. Later that day we got a package from Miss Jodi, Uncle TJ's girlfriend, she sent all the kids crocs. Lily has been wearing hers quite a bit. She really seems to like them.

This is just a cute picture of Lily:-)

Ah Wan Bunny

Lily is growing up so fast. Today she picked out her own shirt for the first time. We were all sitting around in our PJs this morning. Lily saw the shirt she wanted to wear, picked it up and brought it to me. "Ah wan bunny." (literal translation- I want bunny.) I asked if she wanted to wear her bunny shirt. A huge grin spread across her face as she nodded furiously and said, "Yes!" She is very happily wearing her "snuggle bunny" shirt right now. It is however covered up by the life jacket she found and has decided to wear around the house. She is something else our Lily. She has been putting on her shoes at random times for no other reason than she wants to wear them. If she puts on her shoes and her coat she is definitely sending you a message that she wants to go outside. Once she gets her hat and mittens on you'd better be ready to hit the door;-) She loves going outside. We really enjoyed all the mild weather this week because she got to go outside and I didn't have to freeze!

Sometimes it's hard to keep up with her. She recognizes and says most of her letters now. She can count to ten and recognizes even more numbers in books. She often points out letters or numbers on signs. She now walks up and down the stairs on her feet. She can jump off the ground and do a forward roll by herself now. She amazes me every day.

I often get comments from people who have seen her in action with other kids. Most of them have to do with her not putting up with any funny business. She never really gets in trouble, but she does stand up for herself. At home it's a different story, she does get in trouble;-)

Things I Learned this Christmas Season

-Getting all my shopping done before Mid-December is a great idea.

-No matter how prepared I think I am something will slip through the cracks.

-The traffic from people shopping the last two weeks before Christmas will make it so my usual drives take longer, even if it is a 5 minute ride to preschool.

-Putting lights on the tree in a way that looks good is harder than I thought, but it is enjoyable enough to make it okay.

-Lights that are nicely rolled and wrapped are much better to work with than a jumbled mess. Thankfully Jay did a good job putting the lights away last year.

-Taking the lights off the tree is also hard and not enjoyable at all. I can see why some people just throw the lights in a box in a tangled mess after all the annoyance they caused coming off.

-Puns still make me laugh. There was a sign at the Christmas tree shop that said, "Real trees make scents." It made me chuckle.

-Hosting a get together to spend time with friends is an oxymoron (I realize this is a bit of a stretch on the term, but you know what I mean). You spend the whole time in the kitchen while everyone else spends time together.

-It's fun to buy the gifts, it's fun to watch people open the gifts, but finding a place to put all the new stuff... not so fun.

-The Wii is fun for all ages...Well, Lily is a little young, but she likes to "help" drive.

-Getting all the Christmas stuff to fit nicely in the same number of boxes, even with all the new stuff, is very satisfying.

-I love traditions. I think they help us feel connected and part of something bigger than ourselves. In that vein we give each of our kids an ornament every year. This year Ryan was very worried about putting his ornaments on the tree because I might forget which ones are his. This, along with some other chance happenings, gave me an idea. I covered Composition books with some Christmas scrapbooking paper and wrote down the ornaments they got each year(I had to guess on a couple of them), who they were from and if they have a significant meaning. Like this year I got Ryan a Charlie Brown Choir ornament because he discovered the greatness of the Charlie Brown specials this year. He even spent the whole day of the first snow with his tongue out trying to catch snowflakes like they did in the Charlie Brown Christmas. Lily got a Tinkerbell ornament because she was such a cute Tinkerbell for Halloween. Incidentally I was going to get Ryan a Buzz Lightyear(he was Buzz for Halloween), but the Disney store was sold out and I couldn't find them anywhere else. That's when I started looking for Charlie Brown. I'm really glad it worked out the way it did because I think this way is more meaningful.

-I really enjoy it when everyone takes turns opening gifts so I can see what they got and their reaction.

-Sometimes the Advent wreath just catches on fire during dinner and no one knows why. Also this reinforces the don't leave candles burning unattended rule for me.

-Something is bound to not work out according to plan. Like your daughter will not take a nap during your son's preschool time the whole week and a half before Christmas even though that's when she has always napped. This of course is the time you had planned to do all the secret wrapping for Santa.

-Chuck E. Cheese closes early on Christmas Eve. (see above)

Little Mommy

Lily got 2 dolls for Christmas, one from "Santa" and one at our family party. She was so sweet with the dolls- feeding them bottles, pushing them around in the little stroller she got, giving baths in the baby doll tub, etc. No one told her or showed her what to do it was like she was running on instinct. She was so cute.

Last night after dinner Lily had pudding for dessert. I was in the kitchen when I noticed her spooning pudding on her place mat. I started toward her"No, Lily. That is not what we..." and that is when I noticed she was placing the pudding very deliberately on each of the Sesame Street character's mouths. I had to turn around to hide my laughter. It was cute, but I didn't want her to do it again. There are about 15 characters on her place mat, so it was quite messy. I don't know if it was me telling her know that triggered something in her brain or what, but it was this point when she realized she had made a mess. She gets upset when things are messy, especially her hands. While she was pointing out the mess to me, "Mesh! Mommy, isa MESH!", she dipped her hand in one of the pudding piles. She got very upset and needed a napkin RIGHT NOW! Oh boy was is a mess. We got it all cleaned up and it was cute how she fed all the characters, but I think we might flip her place mat over to the side with more shapes than characters for a while.