Holiday Art and My Letter To Santa....

The kids reindeer made of feet and hands.. Thank you Darcy for your fridge o' inspiration on this one.
Gret's pic of an angel, Jeff, Fieldin, me putting a hat on a snowman, grandma in heaven and Greta, all under falling snowflakes.

A Reindeer with lots of pink eye shadow and eyelashes that I have to say I am envious of...

Our house with pretty glitter.

and a very special Christmas card that I will cherish for ever.

Dear Santa,

It is time to send my yearly correspondence, asking for my fair share. Hmmm... what do I want? What do I need? Nothing really, just keep my family healthy and happy. My gift's come daily and are never wrapped. They are simple and not purchased. If I can ask for one gift for myself it is to help me remember the moments of this beautiful season of my life. A hug from Fieldin with his adorable smile and his little voice saying" I love you". Greta's hugs and thoughtfulness. I want to remember the sweet faces of my kids and how much I love my Jeff. Memories are a good gift along with a bag of strong coffee beans..and some peanut m&m's...

Thank you for the gift's Santa.

P.S. Tread lightly; Fieldy is still a light sleeper.

Fieldin Was Here-Sunday

I always know where Fieldin is.... he leaves trails.

Little man loves tomatoes. He sneaks them and I find them everywhere.
Peeking over the island on a stool and helping with cookie making.

Every light switch in the house has some sort of stool under it. Lights on..lights off..off..on..off..on.

A practice present under the tree. He waited til' noone was paying attention then all of a sudden we found him in the family room with a toy. "it was devastation" in Greta's own words.

Poor baby. For some reason Fieldin always draws all over it. After this he attacked it with a red marker and it looked like something from a really bad horror movie from the 80's.

Important Mail

Fieldin's Santa letter (Written by Greta)

" Zhu Zhu Pet, Candy, Real Live Penguin"
"Zhu Zhu pet, American Doll, Stuffed Penguin Buddy, Nutcracker Ornament"
Written by Greta, age 5.

Edible Dwelling

This weekend we worked on our yearly ritual of making gingerbread houses. We started on Sunday and finished Monday night.This year, Greta and I did our Haus and then we also did a family one. Many thanks to Michel for sending the kids a kit this year! Starting to build.

Constructing the second house.
The fun part! Decorating and of course eating, and eating, and eating...

The finished results.

And of course, one must always sneak icing during construction....

Mistletoe

This weekend was spent celebrating the holiday. On Friday we made a trip to the Aquarium to see Santa and the lights, an old fashioned Christmas at a lighthouse, a little whale watching, a lighted boat parade, some gingerbread construction and Scooby Doo and a Nutcracker too.

F.Y.I.. Fieldin does not like Santa this year. Nuff said. "I no sit on Santa's lap. I no like!!!!!"

A little mistletoe fun before seeing Santa.

I love this last photo. I got lucky with that sparkle...

The Last Few Days In Pictures

A normal car ride. Greta is always prepared as a Girl Scout. For a quick errand she likes to pack us water, a picnic, or even just a snack. Her sleeping buddies and some toys usually come along too. I blame us for this. We took her on too many road trips as a child. On this excursion she brought a thermos, plastic plates and cups. She would ask"Does anyone need water or a snack, yet?" She served fieldy his fruit snacks on a plate.....
The kids made this map together. It is the way to find the abominable snowman. That is him on the map with the fierce jagged teeth as I was told. Our toy snowman came along for the ride for reference, plus he just looked cute there. Always up for an adventure, Jeff and me loaded them in the car. We headed on a drive with Greta yelling from the back" you are going the wrong way. We aren't headed to Multnomah Falls. He lives at the top!"
We had a fun little drive and found a lot of new cool places within 15 miles of our house but no snowman.... Greta said"next time we need to head to the hills..."

Mr. Harmonica Man. He giggles and does a jig.

December means Advent Calendar time. This year we are doing the lego advent calendar which is very fun. Our favorite so far, the lego snowman. I think Jeff has more fun with this than even the kids...just an observation.;)

A first attempt at toilet training. It may not be the perfect time yet. We will revisit this scene in another month. I don't think the strategies that worked with Greta will work with Fieldin, which makes perfect sense. I need time to revise my game plan.. then game on!

Kinder Reader

So, for the third day, I attempted to get a video of Sweet Greta Reading.

Something always happens and I can't get decent footage. Today it was Fieldin. He was climbing all over me shoving his little yappy play dog in my face "for kisses". I didn't want to distract Greta while she read to me, so I gave up on video or pics.

I am so proud of her! She has only been in school for 2 1/2 mths and she is reading so well. Along with her school work I sometimes slide old school Dick and Jane into her reading time. Today she read and read. So future Miss Greta, here is a passage from Dick and Jane that you read to me today, without any help. I am not sure if I was even reading this much by the end of first grade.

Baby Sally said, "Oh Mother. Sally is big. Sally wants to work.

Sally wants to help."

Mother said, "Run, Sally. Run to the car. Run to the car and help me. Big, Big

Sally can help me".

&

Jane said, "Oh, Father. Mother can jump. Mother can play."

"oh,oh," said baby Sally.

"Mother can jump and play. Oh,oh. Mother is funny".

I always said, if you were ever a "thing", you would be a book. So happy you get to explore your beloved books in a whole new way. Gold star sweetheart.