talking to Grammy on the phone

Self portrait

talking to Grammy on the phone

yeah, yeah, yeah, back to the trains

candy

Mommy sharing her gummy candies

7's sugar high winding  down

and...done

Wait, I still have a peep.

trains

Waiting for Thomas to come through the tunnel

Presents

Christmas Eve is finally here!

My lack of posts should indicate just how busy we've been these last few weeks getting everything ready for Christmas. Joseph and I have been busy shopping, wrapping gifts, making cookies, and taking time to go to St. Louis for a little early Christmas celebration. Last night at 11pm I finally retired my sewing machine back into its box for a long break. I have no plans to pull it back out until 2012!

I've spent most of the month hand-crafting my/our gifts, focusing on my side of the family, since we've distributed gifts on Joe's side already. I had no idea how long some of them would take to come together, and realized at the beginning of the week that I've spent the last 2 months sewing and crafting for everyone but Joe and Joseph! Oh the guilt.

I'm practically on a first name basis with the ladies (and one guy) who work at JoAnn's Fabrics, since I've been there more times than I'd like to admit this Christmas season. I thought it'd be cute to make my boys matching pajama pants, but had a hard time finding material that they'd both like. I had given up all hope, but on Thursday I had to make a quick stop to pick up some thread and found a cute Christmas flannel on clearance. I didn't think twice, bought a few yards, and then spent yesterday making them each pants. Of course, I managed to jam up my machine shortly after starting, which required a trip to the sewing machine store and quick prayers that they could get my machine in working order again while I waited. Luckily, it wasn't a big deal, and 20 minutes later we were back in the car with a fully functioning machine!

I continued sewing right through Joseph's nap, and finished up just before my 5pm hair appointment. At said appointment, I got a hairbrained idea that Joseph should also have a matching shirt.... so I thought and thought while being pampered and came up with a plan. I got home, put the finishing touches on the last gift I was working on, and then at 10:30 whipped up a quick appliqued shirt for Joseph. Nuts, I tell you! I got a chance to try Joseph's pants on him and they should fit fine, but since I was going with the "use and existing pair of pants that fit as a pattern" method, I'm just crossing my fingers that Joe's fit him as well. I guess you'll find out if you see lots of Christmas morning pictures on here and they match! :)

At least I'm done and get a day off to enjoy hanging out with the boys, making cookies for Santa and watching Christmas movies, going to Christmas eve church service tonight, homemade dinner and getting everything ready for tomorrow! Merry Christmas everyone!

Toddler Christmas Party

On Thursday Joseph and I hosted a playgroup with some of his friends from our Mom's Group. We had a few last minute cancellations, so the event was smaller than I had anticipated, but I think it worked out in our favor. We planned on letting the kids decorated Christmas sugar cookies, and I was excited to see how they'd like it.

After playing for half an hour, I made some frosting, gathered the kids and moms, and we started decorating. Joseph had a chance to decorate some cookies last week at a Christmas event held by the city, so he acted like an old pro.

I had put a variety of sprinkles in plastic spice jars so that they all had lids with small holes. I put the frosting in small cups and each kid had a paint brush to use to paint the frosting onto the cookies. Although the other kids didn't have much experience with decorating cookies, they caught on quickly!

Soon the kiddos realized that they didn't need to wait for the frosting to dry to eat the cookies, and better yet, the sprinkles tasted great by themselves! I was really surprised that the activity kept their attention for so long - most of the kids sat at the table for well over 30 minutes, and after playing for a bit, Joseph wanted to come back for more.

After everyone left, Joseph helped me finish decorating the remaining cookies. He also volunteered to be the quality controller as well, and as you'll notice in the picture below, checked almost every cookie individually. We had a great time getting in the spirit of Christmas. I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away now!

Christmas decorations

On Sunday we managed to stop at a local nursery and pick up a fresh Christmas tree on our way back from Clinton. Joseph hadn't taken much of a nap and was rather fussy, so we didn't spend too much time deliberating. Luckily, they had a good selection of not too expensive trees, so we were in and out, with the tree tied to the roof, in less than 20 minutes!

When we got home, Joe started putting the lights on, and of course, Joseph was quick to reprise his helper role. He was rather disappointed in how few strands of lights went on the tree, as opposed to the outdoor lights. Apparently, this tree is a little bigger than ones we've had before, as our usual lights didn't cover it fully. We thought about running out for more lights for about two seconds, then decided the "less is more" look was just fine this year!

Joseph was interested in helping with ornaments at first. We have a bunch of shatterproof ornaments from previous years with the dogs, so we let him help with those.

Although he seemed like he was going to help with more, he really just tried with a couple then decided to watch. Then his rocket ship and trains were way more interesting, so he had fun riding those around the house while Joe and I hung the rest.

The next morning, Joseph was checking out the tree and managed to break an ornament - I'm sure the first of many! Luckily, it was just plastic and broke into big chunks. Since then, he hasn't paid much attention to the tree, except for when we refill the water in the basin.

Instead, he's way more interested in the bin of Christmas books at the base of the tree. I gathered up our Christmas books, and added some from the church and county libraries. He discovered The Polar Express and it's become his new favorite book to read. Can't say I'm surprised by that choice!

I found a picture online and decided to replicate the staircase decorations. While we were shopping for our tree, I picked up a couple of fresh cut greenery pieces, and arranged them with sprigs of fake berries and some ornaments we had left over. I'm really happy with how they turned out! It adds just enough without overpowering the small staircase and bannister.

And since we forgot to post a picture earlier, here's the outside decorations! It's impossible to tell how good the magnolia trees look in real life, since the photo can't capture the twinkling, but this is the best they've ever looked. Joe did a great job and is already thinking about what he'll build to add to the display next year.

Crafty Christmas

This year for Christmas, I realized that I'd probably enjoy shopping and gift giving much more if instead of buying everyone's gifts, I made them. This is certainly easier said than done, but at least I started thinking about Christmas way early, like back in October. Hopefully that means that by the time Christmas actually rolls around in a few weeks, I'll have been hard at work for 2 full months making most of my/our gifts and will have come up with things everyone will enjoy and maybe remember a little better.

I started down this path after browsing around on Pinterest, where I love to spend spare minutes. Between that website and my usual favorite blogs, I found the book that started the ball rolling: Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love by Hillary Lang. I managed to check it out from the library and immediately was inspired. The first project I decided on was the "Margot" doll, a topsy turvy doll that is basically two dolls in one: Flip the skirt of the doll over her head and turn her around, and there's another doll in a completely different outfit!

I remember having a doll like this when I was a little girl, so my thoughts immediately went to Ruthie. I've never in my life attempted to make a doll from scratch, but I figured my 3 year old niece wouldn't notice minor imperfections and would hopefully enjoy her, so I went with it.

Because I still consider myself a novice sewer, reading through the pattern and directions a few times left me rather confused. I decided to just start, and once I got into the project, each step made a lot more sense. Although she was by far the most time consuming gift, I think I had the most fun with it, as watching each step come together was incredibly gratifying.

The pattern called for a "dressed up" side and a "dressed down" side. I was amazed at how much my skills grew once I had completed each step in making the doll, so one side was definitely easier and better crafted than the other. I also became much more comfortable working with patterns after making "Margot!"

The same book also inspired my gifts for Claire and Benton, as it had a whimsical stuffed giraffe. I made both giraffes right after finishing the doll, and they came together in a few hours, rather than days, which was a nice change. I had more issues with the pattern, however, and am somewhat convinced that either I didn't follow it accurately or the pattern pieces were drawn somewhat wrong, so I had to improvise a little with each. I opted to leave off the eyes and nose, knowing that I wouldn't be able to secure them as well as the tail and horns, and didn't want them to turn into choking hazards.

I also added some tissue paper inside the giraffes' necks to make a crinkly sound when they are held, just for fun. I had plenty of fabric left over, so I opted to make matching onesies for each baby. That  tested my skills even more as I had to freehand the giraffe head, and then figure out the best way to secure the ric-rac along the neck. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Ethan's gift took a totally different spin, but I knew I was going to make something like this for months. I first saw the Cozy Car Caddy on Homemade by Jill's blog months ago and filed it away in my file of fun ideas for little boys. With Christmas coming and the popularity of the Cars movies, I opted to steer away from trains, a no-brainer for Ethan, and try this out. I wanted to test my skills before making Ethan's, so I made one almost identical to Jill's for Joseph, just altering the size of the pockets to fit a group of larger wooden cars I found in the Target Dollar Bins. Confident that I could sucessfully make the caddy, I went ahead and added a few changes that I thought would be a little more fun.

Instead of a straight line road, I opted for a slightly curvy road, which gave me the necessary space to add a small forest of trees and pond with ducks. Also, because I had bought a "'Mater" truck and it wasn't going to fit in the standard pockets, I opted to combine two so that he could still fit, just sideways in the pocket.  The caddy folds up quite small, so that it can be stashed in a purse or diaper bag and ready to travel whenever a relatively small, quiet toy is needed.

I had a lot of fun making the car caddy, and Joseph's experience with his told me that he'd have fun playing with it in the car. The only problem is that his lap isn't very big, and we don't have a tray for his seat. Well, we didn't have one, at least, until the weekend before our trip to Detroit.

I had been looking online for a travel tray, but most were either too expensive, or got reviews that they were acceptable for older kids, but too big for 2 year olds. So I figured I'd try to make my own. I started with an old foam contoured pillow I found at a garage sale earlier this fall and had bought with this project in mind. I used the scraps from the diaper bag I made myself earlier this year to shape the tray, and bought a kids' placemat, complete with Joseph's name on it, to use as a flat, wipeable surface.

Because I didn't have a pattern or even a finished project to look at, I had to completely wing it. I started by chiseling out sections of the foam to reduce its height, and cut off pieces around the edges until I had a surface that would rest on either wing of Joseph's car seat, and not extend past his knees. Using the scraps, I built edge pieces that would help to hold cars, trains, crayons, etc on the tray and not roll off the side or forward.

I ended up making pattern pieces for most of the edges just to make sure I had the dimensions right, as I had just enough fabric to cut out each piece, with next to nothing left over. My seam ripper got plenty of use, too, but in the end I managed to get it finished in just a day and it fit Joseph's lap and car seat perfectly! I sewed canvas webbing on each side, so that I could secure the tray to the latch bars on his car seat, and used velcro so that I could pull the tray off quickly, if necessary. I also made sure that the placemat can slide out to be washed, but it helps to give the tray a bit more structure when it's in place.

 Turns out that while it was a great idea, Joseph wasn't really a fan of having it sit in his lap for very long. He colored on it for about 2 minutes and played cars for maybe 10 minutes total. Oh well. I'm hoping it'll get more use as he gets older, but even if it doesn't, it was a great experience in crafting something completely from scratch, using just my own ideas and no patterns or pictures to guide me!

Next up, the Parsonage side of the family's presents!

Thanksgiving Trip

Last week we headed to Detroit for the annual Jeppson family turkey week/end. This was our 4th year traveling to Joe's Dad's home, but our first time renting a minivan for the week. It definitely made the trip much more enjoyable and comfortable, and was still cheaper than flying (tickets were outrageous!). 

We left KC on Tuesday morning, and headed north through Iowa, so that we could stop outside Chicago for a visit to an outlet mall and a late dinner at Lou Malnati's before continuing on toward Detroit. This year we loaded a bunch of Disney movies onto the ipad, loaded the storage bins in the van with toys, books and snacks, and not surprisingly, Joseph tolerated the long hours stuck in his car seat really well. 

We stopped for the night in Michigan City, IN a little before midnight, knowing we'd need to get up and moving early Wednesday morning to finish the last few hours of driving. We had made arrangements with Linda to pick up her, Mike and the kids from the airport before heading to Joe 5's house.

We spent most of Wednesday afternoon visiting with everyone and letting the kids play before Thursday morning's turkey trot race. This year, Lisa, Dan, James, Ruthie, Linda, Ethan, Joe, Joseph and I all headed to the Cobo Center for the annual race. The little kids ran the Mashed Potato Mile, while Lisa, Linda, Joe and I had planned on doing the 10K. Since the weather was nice (for Detroit, anyway), we opted to bring Joseph and Joe pushed him in the jogging stroller. Joseph wasn't a big fan of being out in the race, probably due partially to waking up so early and having to sit still in the cold for so long. After the race was over, we let him run around for a bit and that seemed to cheer him up. 

Joseph really was not interested in being picked up and held for a photo, so this was the best one we got at the end of the race.

He and Ethan had lots of fun going up the escalator and stairs as we made our way to the top of the parking garage attached to the Cobo Center. The last escalator was turned off, so Joseph ended up climbing the entire escalator all by himself! And yes, we left him in his jammies for the morning, and just added layers on top to make sure he was warmed enough. He didn't seem to mind at all.

All that early morning exercise apparently wore them both out, because before long, they were both sound asleep:

 Mike stayed home with both babies, so I'm sure he was happy to see us all back home a few hours later. We spent the rest of Thanksgiving day lounging around, playing with the babies and the trains that Linda and Lisa both hauled to the house.

This was the first time the babies were in the same place together, and they were both so cute! They were old enough to be aware of the other and spent lots of time checking each other out.

Joseph also took a while to figure them out and decided that a tall perch overlooking the living room would be the best way to keep an eye on the whole situation. See his little head peering out from the top of the stairs?

 After he realized they weren't a true threat, he really warmed up to them and by the end of the trip, spent lots of time trying to give each one kisses.

Playing cars with Grandpa. Unfortunately, we don't get to see Grandpa Joe or Grandma Dianne nearly as much as his other two sets of grandparents, so it took a while for Joseph to warm up to them. By the end of the trip, though, he had figured out that Grandpa Joe was quite alright and enjoyed playing with him.

I think we've been bowling as a big group every year, and this was no exception. Although I think this was the first time we've needed three lanes to handle everyone! The kiddos got their own lane, complete with bumpers and the ball ramp thingy. Joseph really enjoyed his first game of bowling, even if he started to lose focus at the end.

Somehow, both babies managed to sleep through the entire event! They stayed wrapped up in their carriers all night, and both Lisa and Linda were able to bowl (and keep them sleeping) while they were wearing them!

At first, Joseph would sit right on the edge of the lane and watch Joe. Then he figured out that there was plenty of other things to do at the alley and wouldn't sit still for very long.

Ruthie took another approach to watching the games...

As I took this set of photos, Joseph managed to score his first spare! You can tell from Joe's expression that something big had just happened, but Joseph didn't really have a clue what was going on.

About 2/3 of the way through their game, the kids discovered the arcade games that were situated right behind the lanes. At that point, they were having too much fun playing with the games and so it took some convincing to get them to finish up with bowling.

Saturday we got dressed for family pictures and headed to Cranbrook. Joe 5 told us about this neat traveling bat exhibit at their science museum, which is situated on acres of beautiful land, along with schools, an art museum and apartments for staff/faculty. Luckily the weather was really nice for the entire trip, so we didn't have to worry about snow, rain or it being too chilly to stay outside. We found some neat spots, so I'm excited to see how they turned out.

After we met back up with everyone and toured the bat exhibit, we decided to take a few pictures of all of the cousins together, since we hadn't gotten a good group shot all week. There were a bunch of boulders that the bigger kids had lots of fun climbing and running around while we got the babies ready for the photos.

Apparently, when you add a couple of infants to the mix, along with chilly temps and toddlers who can't sit still for very long, group photo shoots take a while to get everyone situated and require lots of distractions in the background to keep all those little faces looking the same direction!

 Grandpa Joe walked us back out to our van, and I was able to snap a few cute shots of the 3 Joe's. I wish I would have thought to have Lisa take some with her camera, as ours just doesn't do a very good job when there's any action.

We managed to get on the road around 1:30pm, and drove all the way to St. Louis before stopping for the night. Thanks in part to getting a late nap and lots of running around in the fresh air, Joseph took a really long afternoon nap, watched Dumbo a few times (his new favorite movie!), enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel, and then fell asleep again for the rest of the trip. He was such a trooper the entire time, although I think the movies had something to do with that. Entertainment system in our next vehicle? Yes please!

All in all, it was a great week long trip, and we really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with everyone. Joe and Dianne were great hosts, even giving us run of their house while they stayed in a hotel, providing great food and entertainment, and a wonderful environment to visit and hang out. Looking forward to making it 5 years in 2012!