o, christmas tree

It's the first thing B wants to see when he wakes up in the morning ~ the Christmas tree. And if the lights aren't on, he chants, "Ites... ites... ites...." until someone turns them on for him. (Or he will plug them in himself ~ yikes!) Em and Nick did most of the decorating, so it's a bit uneven ~ N hung everything in basically the same spot, LOL... but I guess that just gives the tree its charm!

Here are some of the pics we took of the tree last weekend. This first one was Marissa's idea ~ all of us (except B, who was napping), trimming the tree:
Benjamin, meet the Christmas tree!:

Another one taken by Marissa:

The finished tree (all breakable ornaments near the top!):

Ben isn't the only one who loves the lights and the tree. We keep the lights on most of the time, and we all enjoy spending a quiet moment by the tree. The kids and I especially love to sit and snuggle by it, reading Christmas stories or singing carols.

O, Christmas tree! O, Christmas tree... your branches green delight us!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas

Oh, man... it warmed up, and all of our snow is melting FAST! There are only a few little piles left. :( The kids are bummed, and so am I! I checked our ten-day forecast, and it doesn't look like we'll be getting more snow any time soon. Hopefully we will have some for Christmas....

I seem to have come down with some sort of stomach bug ~ yuck! This is such a bad time to get sick, too... I have tons to do! B and I did get some Christmas shopping done yesterday, but I have several gifts still to make, presents to wrap, cookies to bake, etc. I'm hoping this bug will be short-lived so I can get more things done!

Benjamin has been learning new tricks and saying new words every day, it seems. He now knows how to climb up onto the couch. It's a bit more difficult than the dining room chairs, I guess, but after weeks of trying, he finally mastered it. He's also learned how to "high-five", and it sends him into giggle fits every time! :) Here are some of his new words:

• up
• ites = light(s), especially Christmas lights, which he LOVES
• whoa! (This one sends him into giggle fits, too.)
• ps = oops (Also hilarious, apparently... LOL)
• zoom = airplane
• ch-ch = choo choo/train
• tr-tr (or just tr) = truck (it's hard to distinguish between his ch-ch and tr-tr!)
• sss = sock
• nigh-nigh = goodnight
• ha = hot

jolly old saint nicholas

Santa Claus, that jolly old elf... he really is a good guy. So why are little kids so scared of him? I don't think Nick ever minded sitting on Santa's lap, but I know Emmalie refused to when she was younger... and now Benjamin doesn't want anything to do with him, even though he doesn't mind other strangers. Since it is Photo Friday, I thought I'd share this pic, taken last Friday at our village hall. It cracks me up!:

(Maybe B just thinks he's getting coal in his stocking this year, LOL.) Santa was a very good sport, and posed for about 8 different pics. Here's another one taken that same night, along with Mrs. Claus, Em's friend, and Em:

Luckily, I did get this photo taken at a mall back in November. B wouldn't sit on Santa's lap then, either, but at least he didn't mind sitting on Emmalie's, next to Santa:

Emmalie has already written her letter to Santa. (She told him she wants American Girl toys, and since she knows they are expensive, he doesn't have to bring her anything else. LOL!) Nick is planning to write his letter later today. He mentioned something about wanting to get deer food... I'm not exactly sure why!

I can't believe there are only 17 more nights till Santa makes his rounds. I have soooo much to do before then!! Maybe if I were one of Santa's elves, I could get things done faster. ;) Speaking of that, a friend posted a link for a fun game called Elf Yourself. I tried it and came up with this... wish I had this much energy in real life!: http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=79bb89455eccd4ded3036ab_20061206 (Sometimes this site is very slow, but if you don't get into it the first time, keep trying ~ it's worth it!) Of course, once I showed it to the kids, they insisted that I make them and George into elves, too. I did, and we all agree that George makes a hilarious elf! :) If you want to see it, let me know and I'll email it to you. (I don't think he'd be very happy if I just posted it on the net, LOL!)

a winter wonderland

I am very happy to be inside on this cold, cold day (high of 14!), but I do love the snow and am enjoying looking out the window at it. (As I sit in here with the furnace blasting, warm slippers on my feet, and sipping a cup of hot Chai tea!) It's so beautiful, with the blue shadows of the trees streaking across the white snow, and rabbit footprints zig-zagging across the yard.

I have some pictures from last Friday to share ~ it's hard to believe that we've only had this snow for a week... it seems longer! Anyway, here is my little snowman, enjoying his first time walking and sledding in the snow:

Nick and Em, working on their fort (I guess this picture doesn't really show that they are about 4 feet above the street here!) :

And a few pictures of the house (yes, we know our lamp post is crooked! LOL Fixing it is on our list of things to do next spring....):

That is my snowman Christmas tree up in the left dormer window of our bedroom:

We went to Nick's school choral concert last night. Only the Kindergartners, 1st and 2nd graders sang. They were all so cute! Nick even got to play the finger cymbals for one of the songs. Of course I took pictures, but they never turn out very well at those concerts....

I've been working on making Christmas gifts this week ~ I've gotten several done, but still have so much to do! Guess I should get off the computer and get to work!

oh, you better watch out...

Benjamin learned a new trick the other day... he now knows how to climb onto our dining room chairs. Ack! We've been putting two chairs facing each other in front of the tv so that he couldn't reach the buttons while we're trying to watch something. On Sunday night, he climbed right up on one, changed the channel, and then stood up and tried to grab something breakable off the entertainment center. Oh, dear!

I took him down, and moved the chairs back to the table. Well, B went right over to a chair and began pushing it back toward the living room! Luckily, when he got to the carpet, he got stuck.... (I'm sure it's only a matter of time till he figures out how to get the chair up on the carpet!) I put the chair back and he fooled me by sitting down with one of his toys. I walked away for a few minutes, and by the time I came back in the room, he'd gotten up on another chair, and was helping himself to the platter of cookies on the dining room table! He is such a little stinker!

We put the boys' tree up in their bedroom this weekend, and also rearranged the living room furniture to make room for a tree there. (We hope to get one this week.) I finished addressing Christmas cards last night, and am hoping to write up our letter to go inside today. I also have some gifts to work on. It seems like there is always something that needs to be done at this time of year....


I guess I've been slacking off on my blog ~ I haven't had a Friend of the Week for a couple of weeks now, and I even forgot about Photo Friday! Ooops! So, I'm a day late, but this week's FOTW is... Rorie! Rorie is another IDOS friend of mine. :) She has an adorable son, Joey, who is about one month older than Ben ~ it's fun to "compare notes" with her and share the joys and trials of one-year-old boys. I was lucky enough to meet Rorie and Joey when I went to Las Vegas earlier this year:
Rorie is such a sweet, caring person, as well as an awesome mom and scrapper! (Oh, and she also has a fun blog, too!) I wish we'd been able to spend more time together in June ~ maybe I just need to go back to Nevada! :) I bet Ben and Joey would have fun together....

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

We got some more of our decorations put up yesterday, so it is definitely looking like Christmas at our house. (I still have quite a few things to put up, but I'm running out of places that Ben can't reach!) I'm not sure when we'll get our real tree yet... hopefully soon!

I took B, Em, and her friend Tori to our town's annual tree-lighting ceremony last night. (Nick didn't want to go, for some reason, so he stayed home with George.) We took B to see Santa and took several pics, but B did NOT want to sit on Santa's lap! LOL! He did take a candy cane from Mrs. Claus, however, and had lots of sticky fun tasting it! We walked around outside for awhile, looking at all the beautiful luminaries around the village hall, then helped count down for the tree lighting. B wasn't sure what all the fuss was about, but once the tree (covered in thousands and thousands of lights) was lit, he was in total awe!

I spent several hours at church today, for our annual Christmas luncheon. As always, there was a ton of delicious foods... I was wishing they had doggy bags to fill and take home! :) We had some fun entertainment afterwards, too ~ a dance troupe, a story teller, some music, and a very cute comedy routine.

I really need to work on some Christmas gifts this evening, and need to address some cards, too. I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We got a *bit* of the white stuff overnight... at least 8 inches, I'd say... and school was cancelled. Of course, Em and Nick were thrilled! It just finally stopped snowing a little bit ago, and now the sun is coming out. Everything looks so pretty with that layer of snow on top. I love snow... though I think I'd love it more if we had a snowblower! Man, that was some heavy snow to shovel.

We took Benjamin out to see the snow this morning. He wasn't too happy about having to get all bundled up! He loved the snow, though, even after tripping and falling face first in it! He had a blast running around in the snow and "sweeping" it with his hands. We put him in his sled and pulled it around the yard ~ he loved that, too! When I finally brought him in (it was soooo windy out there and his little cheeks were so red), he was quite mad and complained loudly for about half an hour, wanting to go back out! I told him maybe after his nap.... :)

Em and Nick got started on a snow fort. Since we live in a cul-de-sac, right next to where the circle begins, the plows push all the snow from our street onto the front corner of our lawn ~ a good place to dig out a fort! They're taking a break for now (and warming up!), but I'm sure they'll be back out there soon.

What a great way to start December! :)