Advent Calendar Day 4

Every year, our stake puts on a "Living Nativity" where a bunch of people act out the Christmas story. Somehow, in our 6 years here, we'd never been. I'm glad we finally went this year--it was such a nice way to bring the real reason for the season to my girls, when we're surrounded by so much commercialism.

Breanne was very interested in the story, and figuring out who the people on stage were as they related to the song she sang at the ward Christmas party. She was so funny when she realized that Christ wasn't a baby when the wise men found him--we had to talk that one through. It's so fun to watch her grow and learn, and to be able to try to explain things in ways she can understand. I love that she talks to Janey about things, too, so Janey is also starting to understand more about what's going on around her. My kids are pretty great. Especially when we're out of the house and I don't feel like I'm going crazy. :/

Advent Calendar Day 3

Day 3's activity was our ward Christmas party, complete with food, singing, and Santa. I made the choice to go to a baby shower for an old friend instead of staying with my little family, and though I had a lot of fun with my old girlfriends, I regret missing this. Thankfully, Cory took a video for me, and the girls refused to go see Santa. Breanne informed me that he was a fake Santa, here to help the real Santa, because the real one needed lots of help... what? who is this 4-year-old? Breanne's convinced the real one is at the mall, and she'll talk to him there. Anyway, I think the girls had a great time at the party (Cory's enjoyment was debatable, chasing 3 kids by himself all night), and I'm glad they went. I just wish I'd stayed. Here, for your viewing enjoyment, is a video of all our primary kids singing the Nativity Song. Breanne actually knows pretty much all the verses, but gets a little distracted. I'm so proud.



She told me just now that she was sitting because she was afraid she was going to fall. I believe her--she and Janey both seem terrified of heights. I'm glad we moved into our house, and don't live in our last third floor apartment... they panic every time we have to walk up there.

Advent Calendar Day 2

Today, our activity calendar contained "a message! A message, Janey! A message!" (I overheard Breanne excitedly telling Janey about the message...), telling us to make cupcakes today. And in the pocket calendars, the girls received these:

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the cupcake making process--toooo messy with two little girls wielding the knives. I did, however, snap these post-mixing shots:

(I promise, the cupcakes were IN the oven before I let the girls have the beaters. No mixing of germs there.)
We took most of the cupcakes out to neighbors, and enjoyed a few ourselves. Mmm.

New Siblings

So yesterday, I had a conversation with Breanne that went as follows:

B-Mom, do you know what my favorite stuffed animal is?
M-Your Zoey, of course. (she has a stuffed animal Zoey, from Sesame Street)
B-No, Mom! She's not a stuffed animal, she's my sister! Silly Mom! My favorite stuffed animal is my dog with a heart.

As of late, Breanne and Janey have become absolutely insistent that Zoey is their sister, and Elmo, Snoopy and Fairy (a pink bear, named by Janey, bless his breast-cancer-awareness-heart) are their brothers. There is NO convincing them otherwise. I find it quite comical, Cory's working on finding a way to convince them they're not really people. They're not buying it yet.

What 10 Months Looks Like

I can hardly believe Cailin is 10 months old today. This little girl just cracks me up with her big grins and giggles, and her odd little quirky things she does. She loves to gently bonk heads with me--I'll tilt my head towards her, and she'll tilt hers to me until we barely bonk, and then she'll burst out laughing. Very sweet. She also loves when I look at her and shake my head and say "no, no, no," to which she responds with an enthusiastic nod yes. When I nod and say yes, she shakes her head violently no, almost to the point of falling over. Practicing that rebellion already, I guess. :) She really is a sweetheart, and I like her even when she's grouching at me with her angry growly voice. We're still awaiting her first teeth, which I believe will erupt soon, and is much the cause of her grouchiness. Regardless, I sure do love this sweet little girl.

This is her newest trick, as of this afternoon. I am such a proud momma. Oh, and I especially like the part where she tries to swat at Janey, as if to say, "hey, stop trying to steal my thunder! I'm the new clapping kid around here."

Advent Calendar Day 1

So this morning I put up our Advent Calendar, and the girls were so excited about the Christmas decorations, we couldn't help but decorate the rest of the house.
My favorite nativity set is currently missing, which means it's either hiding in our basement, or I just didn't see it in our storage unit when I pulled everything else out. Either way, I'm bummed that I haven't found it yet, but I won't rest until I do. Anyway, that is not the point of this post.

Today, our activity advent calendar dictated this:
Which had these two "a little nervwous"
...but not this one, she was ready to take that fire head on.
...and laugh in it's face.
Fortunately, I was there to hold her back and entertain her.

Janey and Breanne wanted to take turns taking pictures with our real camera (as opposed to my phone, which I usually use), so I showed them how, and let them each snap a bunch. The picture of the fire above was Breanne's doing, and the next several were Janey's shots--pretty good for a 2 year old, huh? And check out Cailin's eyes--blue, blue, blue. I love these little girls.

Lights On Parade

So the other day, Breanne, Janey and I went to a quick parade (we actually only made it for the last few minutes, thankfully... it was FREEZING!), which was followed by the "lights on" ceremony for our city. Although we were all very, very cold, I think we each had a good time. If you ask the girls what they saw, they'll tell you--Snow Princesses (our city's royalty), llamas(!), a firetruck, and Santa. They were pretty excited about it all, and I loved watching the wonder in their faces as the city lights started to come on--this holiday season is shaping up to be so wonderful already. I love living so close to the center of the city--we were able to walk to the parade and party in less than 2 minutes (I had the girls in the double stroller so they couldn't wander off, also helped with speed... :)).



Funny story--on our way to the parade, we saw Zippy the Chipmunk (a mascot-sized chipmunk who is somehow tied to our city... I don't understand the connection, sorry) and two elves, who stopped and talked to the girls and shook each of their hands. Breanne was quick to inform me that we shouldn't talk to strangers, even big chipmunks, but I explained to her that in some cases, it's ok to chat briefly with them, as long as we're in a safe situation. Janey was concerned about the 6 foot chipmunk, too, but quickly got over her fear as well. When they were leaving, they wished us a merry Christmas. Breanne was SO excited that it was "finally Christmas!," so I had to explain to her that it's just the Christmas season, not Christmas day yet. She is so funny in all that she is starting to really understand, and what she still gets confused by.

If you care, here is a video of a conversation I had with the girls post-trip, while we were warming up and drinking hot cocoa. The bit between them at the end just cracks me up--I love listening to their little conversations. Funny, funny girls.

Advent Calendars

So that fabric?



It was destined to become an Advent Calendar.

(Oh yes, I did just hang that crookedy on my dusty blinds... I haven't figured out how to put it up somewhere more practical yet--that will have to come tomorrow).

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a meeting with a few women where we talked about starting up good traditions with our families. Mirjam, the woman who was leading the group, talked a lot about her family's advent calendars--she has one for each of her children, to be filled with little treats and toys, and then one for the whole family that is full of activities. I loved both of these ideas, and immediately started planning out how I'd like to implement them in some way in our own home. For each girl, I came up with a pocket calendar, in which I'll be putting little treats, toys, books, and other fun things. We already have a calendar I made a few years ago that is just a big Christmas tree with little ornaments you place on it--I plan on putting an activity we'll be doing in with each ornament this year, and letting the girls pick them out every day. Several days I have crafts planned as our activity--on those days, the treat in their pocket will be the supplies to do the craft. Lest you think I'm totally insane, be assured that some days the activities are very, very simple, like building a fire in the fireplace, visiting friends, and attending parties we'd already be going to, regardless of whether we had the calendars or not. It just gives me more motivation to do fun things with the girls, too, like making cookies, cupcakes, garlands and ornaments.


So, I've made 3 of the pocket/bag calendars, one for each girl. Actually, to be honest, it's currently 2.5, because after sewing something like 68 little pocket bags, my sewing machine jammed up, and I have no idea what's wrong with it, so it'll be heading to the shop tomorrow... sigh. But I'm excited to see how the girls like them, and I know that they'll be a wonderful thing for all of us--I am really looking forward to having something positive to do planned for each day. I do so much better at providing good days for the girls when I plan ahead a bit. I am hoping to really make some positive memories this year.

What I'm Working With Today

How Many Have You Read?

Do you ever think back to the days of memes? When everyone was constantly tagging each other? Don't you miss them?

Yeah, me either. However. I just saw this on a friend's facebook, and I know I've posted it on there before, but I don't think I've put it here, and I thought I'd bring it over. You know, because I like showing off that I've read some stuff. :) Too bad I don't care so much for Brit lit, definitely takes me down on this list.


Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this list. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (read the first three and lost interest. Been considering picking them back up again... we'll see).
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis (isn't this included in #33?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So I've actually read 25, and started or read excerpts of 14 more... not too shabby, right? Just gotta figure out a way to get into Dickens and Austen...