Merry Christmas! (A Recap)

On Friday night we attended the Christmas Eve service at church. I sang with Ensemble so Joe was in charge of the kids in the pew (with help from the rest of the family). This year I made up a little goodie bag with a new sticker/coloring book, some candy trail-mix, a couple of toys and a little beading craft to hopefully keep Luca quiet and busy. According to Daddy, she devoured the snack and ignored everything else but Isaiah enjoyed it so it wasn't a lost cause. Court is a music man and stayed fairly attentive during the songs (I could have sworn he was looking straight at me for some of it!) and had his bottle during the speaking. So we've had our first successful concert with the kids! (Successful in that no one ended up chasing after a loud/fussy child in the back hallway.) After the concert we went to Yaya's and Papa Deux's for our annual hors d'oeuvres buffet and games. And then on the way home we drove through the Sheridan neighborhood to see the lights and luminaries....a great start to the Christmas weekend!

***Right here is where I would put a picture of Luca in her adorable Christmas outfit if I had remembered to take such a photo. I may re-stage it, she was cute. (Court wore a standard Sunday outfit, nothing very special caught my eye this year and he's so naturally cute it's ok. ;-)***

On Christmas morning Court and I were the first ones up, I gave him one present to open. He thought the whole experience was great.
Then Luca and Joe joined in and we opened stockings...Luca shared her new sparkly bracelet with Court...
After stockings, we headed to Grandma's in Fremont...
Court is just sure he can get into the tinker-toy tin by himself...
Henry was a good dog and didn't eat any baby snacks...
Luca found a use for old giftwrap...

Monday we did Christmas at Yaya's and with all five cousins. It was a noisy, fun bash!
Court may have been more excited about Isaiah's gift than Isaiah was....
Luca and Isaiah (just a wee bit sugary) were dancing in the hallway but as soon as I turned on the camera it turned into this. Are you exhausted now too? ;-)

A busy, noisy, wonderful Christmas weekend!

Christmas and a Crawler

Christmas decorations and a little boy who just learned to crawl are a bad combination. Lights, garlands, ribbons, wrapping paper, it's just too tempting. This year I will be packing everything away earlier than usual!

The Nights Before Christmas

I found a "sienna" setting on my camera and couldn't resist posting these. Now Luca and I both can have our tree of choice, her's of "all the colors" and mine in classic white. :-)
This little nativity set is one we had when I was little and this year I put it out for the girls to play with. It's sturdy and made of some sort of resin or wax so the only worry is; will baby Jesus get lost? It has been played with a lot and normally at the end of the day I gather the pieces and set them in their places like this...
But today, I left them alone. I think Luca had it right:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Philippians 2:8-10 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul?

When I was sinking down,
Beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
Who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on;
I’ll sing His love for me,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Crafting Towards Christmas...

I had a grand if not well executed plan for this December including an advent calendar and complementing activities/crafts for each day...I thought I could be one of those Mom's. ;-) Perhaps next year. This year I did a simple version. I found 25 winter/Christmas books (most I own but a few are from the library) and wrapped them and numbered them so that Luca has a book to open and read before bed each night.
Luca loves this. Each night she sits on the couch holding the wrapped book and says "I don't know what one this will be!" and "I don't know what color it is." and then as she sees the cover, "Oh! I really like this book." even though 90% of the time she's never seen it before. I also had a list of "activities" to do every day that went along with the books or were just fun (like baking cookies and sledding) but I will admit that only about half of them have happened. These are some of the half that did:

Snowmen at Night has been one of Luca's favorite books and as it was opened in the first week of December, we've read it a lot. She can almost recite the whole thing with me! It's a very cute story and it rhymes which makes it one of my favorites too.
To go along with this book we made marshmallow snowmen on black paper to be our "night". Many marshmallows were eaten during the course of this craft and may or may not have had glue on them. Our neighbor friend Noah was here that evening so he made one too!

Another snowman story that was a big hit with the little people in my house was this one:
On this day we tried our hand at "snow" playdough which is regular playdough without food coloring but with lots of glitter. We made hats out of pom-poms and scarves out of strings and a whole bunch of little snowmen.
Later that evening, Luca pulled out the "snow-dough" again and this time made a giant "monster snowman" who's name if I recall correctly, was John. And "little trees in a heart cookie".
Jennie and the Black Stockings is a book I've had since I was a little girl, it's always been one of my favorites. In this story Jennie and her brother Frank get into trouble while playing among cotton bales during the family's harvest and the consequences alter their Christmas celebrations. It's a sweet story that teaches how the Lord loves us and takes care of us. Although not terribly well written, the illustrations are great and there's something intangible because this is hands-down Luca's favorite Christmas book too.
On this day we made cotton ball "snow" for our front window.
And another snowman activity to end this post...
Caution: black frosting is messy.

The Proof...

Crawling! It is still only utilized to get to the most important things such as electronics, food, tiny choking hazards dropped by Big Sister, etc. Little Man also pulled himself up to standing beside the coffee table yesterday but his balance is so bad that he immediately fell over. He is constantly moving (just as he was in utero)!

Baby Workout

Just a glimpse into a Court morning...

Starts with cuteness, a little lounging in his diaper...

Then he moves on to playing with something he shouldn't...

After that, it's time to exercise!

He's an accomplished "planker"

Pushups? Can do them all day!

He's the strongest baby in the world!

A Little Bit of Christmas

This year I decided to let Luca pick the lights for the tree...so of course, we have multi-colored. Or as Luca calls them "All the Colors Lights". Putting the tree up and hanging all of our ornaments I felt as though the tree from my childhood ended up in the living room, made me a bit nostalgic. I will admit that I was rather hoping she would pick white or red or...something else but there's always next year I suppose. In the meantime, I am embracing the multi.

A peek at Luca's personal tree and the ornaments I found on it after naptime...

Also new this year are outdoor lights! We took advantage of the beautiful Thanksgiving weather; Joe got the ladder and expertly wrapped the front tree while I dug out the eight strands of icicle lights from our wedding reception (nine years later and they still work!) and draped the shrubbery.

I love it. Especially in the snow...

Big Sister - Little Brother

Luca is a very good big sister. She loves Court and although she may sometimes be a little too enthusiastic about showing her love (what exactly is this "gentle" word you keep using?) on the plus side, Court will probably be pretty tough. She is top-notch entertainment when Little Man is bored or when he's hungry but Mommy isn't at the ready. She is happy to share with him (I foresee this changing as he grows an opinion) and she is always looking out for what "might make him sad". Some sib-love pictures:

Sharing the tinkertoys
Luca made Court a "nest".