It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Every year in December I start to feel all Christmas-Crafty. But I'll let you in on a little secret...if you're only half crafty like me and can't seem to come up with any original ideas and need to buy the pre packaged crafts to scratch your itch, December is way too late to get started. Craft stores are down to bare bones by the time the actual holiday season has come around. So this year I am prepared. I shopped in August for my Christmas crafts. Yes, I said August. And yes, that's four months before Christmas. After all I do have kids old enough to be interested in this kind of thing and I have motherly obligations to fulfill this year and if I had waited any longer all the more organized and better planned moms would have beat me to the punch.

This year we started the Christmas-Craft season by making the decoration that must be seen on every Christmas Tree - Candy Canes. The beaded kind. I knew J would get a kick out of it, but I didn't realize how coordinated M would be. She'd load up her wire with beads in no time, and dump them back off even faster. Because it's not the destination, after all, it is the journey. Who needs a completed candy cane when you can watch the beads crash and roll all over your tray?

Here she is taking a break to comb her hair.




Still working on the hair...


He even crooked it himself. I am constantly astonished that my kids are getting older so fast and can do, and insist on doing so much more by themselves.


Our grand total for the day.


They stood in as make-shift Christmas trees just to test the decorations out.


M is convinced she is touching her nose with her tongue. And did you notice her shirt is inside out and backwards. Not only has she been doing her own hair, she's been dressing herself too.


He's always willing to give me a pose.




And I really like this star and am showing it to you for no good reason at all. Besides, stars go along with the Christmas theme, right?

Anyone know how to bottle yummy smells?

What to do on a Sunday afternoon when you children are restless and have already helped you pick up toys, do the dishes, finish a craft and are still bored? Dry apples of course.

J LOVES the apple cutter and is suddenly old enough to use it by himself, well, besides sticking the apples onto the big ol' prongs, which I'm sure he could figure out, but I didn't feel like a trip to the ER today. Look at that concentration.


Then we dipped them in lemon water so they wouldn't turn brown.


Then we dried them on a dishcloth. M liked to help with this part.


Then she'd hand them to J and he'd lay them out on the tray.


Time to cut some more.


And sprinkle with cinnamon.


Six hours later...mmmmmm good! And, my house smells edible.

Haircuts

My poor, poor two year and two month old little girl still does not have enough hair to pull up into a real ponytail. We can do a little fakey pony on the top of her head that makes her look like little Cindy Who, but that's about it. What I'm trying to say is, it's short. I haven't wanted to cut it because taking off any length just seems like a mean thing to do. But as has been pointed out to me several times in the last few weeks, she just looks scroungy, ratty, and messy. So I finally gave in and we had Kristyn over today to give M her very first real haircut. She did a good job too. It really doesn't look any shorter, but it's definitely cleaned up.

She started out WAY excited to get her hair cut.


J was pretty excited too.


Look at that mop on his head.


M was really good and sat very still, for a while, but by the end was getting restless. We bribed her with candy and she held out until the end.


Ta-Daaaaaaaa!

She is actually sitting there all cute with her hands twisted together, but is obviously topless and is in her new princess undies, so you get the web-edited version.

Then it was J's turn for a chop.


And on another note...my sister-in-law Kayla got married this morning! We weren't able to get to Utah for it and am way bummed to have missed it, but I can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it. Nathan tried to call out that way earlier today, but I'm sure they are super-duper busy and didn't make it to the phone. We'll have to hear all about it later.

Heat Stroke

It's 104 degrees today and this is how my kids want to go out to play.




And in other news, I made a tutu for M and she won't wear it. She picks it up and twirls it around and fluffs it up, then puts it on me.

J took this picture and didn't even drop my camera. And no, the tutu made to fit around skinny M's waist does not fit around my prego belly, it only covers the front half.

And yet more news...I had my ultrasound yesterday and the only thing we could tell is we have a hyper-active baby. It was moving too much to see if it was a boy or a girl, so we'll try again in another 4 weeks.

Floor Bed

M is getting so old so fast. Less than a month after she turned 2 she started crawling out of her crib. She took a good 6 months longer than her big brother, which is funny because she is our little climbing monkey with no fear of heights. On this particular night I had put her back in her crib a few times before she settled in...she just hadn't settled where I thought she had. I found her with her pillow and blanket on the floor.

Brrrrr

I am finally feel a bit more caught up on life, so I planned some extra fun for the weekend. Well, don't ask Nathan if it was fun, he hates the beach. But if you ask M or J, it's all goodness. We went to Stinson Beach on a balmy 62 degree day and baked in the sun... or brought layers of warm clothes and blankets and screamed every time the icy cold water washed over our feet. J couldn't get enough of that freezing water. He'd even fall in the waves on purpose, crazy child.

We went with our friends Kristyn and Trent


and Kim and Nick.

Turns out Nathan is an expert muli-story sand castle builder.




M wasn't so sure about the cold water, but loved the sand...which she saved on various places of her body for days to come.

J's feet are getting so big.






A bunch of awesome jelly fish started washing in with the tide.


That's J's hand so he can remember how big they were.


The...


End.

I'm Back!

I haven't made a post for a million years! I've been crazy bad morning sick (did you know I'm 13 weeks pregnant?) so the camera hasn't been coming out of the bag all that much, then in the middle of all the feeling horrible my computer tried to up and die on me. Nathan, my knight in dorky glasses, has temporarily revived it for me, but it may be at the end of its busy life.

For a while there I was sick all the time and couldn't even keep my house halfway clean or get to the grocery store. And my kids loved the chance to run amuck and take full advantage of Mommy lying around on the couch. But life is finally feeling normal again. I'm so excited to be getting things done, like shopping for real food and playing games with the kids.

I went to my baby check up appointment today, listened to the heart beat, and found out that my thyroid is high (probably caused by baby hormones) which makes you extra morning sick. So I was glad to find out I'm not just a total wuss who can't handle something women have been going through for forever. So things are going good in that department and in four weeks we get to see if it's a boy or a girl!

Which brings me to the point of this post...exactly one month ago today the entire Hanberg clan was in town, including their new grandbaby. And what to do when your whole big family is in the same house and Jennifer is there for dinner with her camera bag? ...why take pictures of course. So it's taken forever and a day to get them done and I'm feeling horribly bad about that (I told them it would take a while to get through them while I was sick, but I didn't think it would be a whole month), but here are some of my favorites.





I love what all the smoke in the air was doing to the sun.




I think Johnathan took his "real" smile a bit too far : )


I love this one!


Then we tried to get some of the "grands" of the family, but that baby was just all tuckered out and fussy and you could see the sympathy in grandma's face.






And some of my favorites are of the kids just playing in the yard after we were done.




Now I took these way back when the fires were first burning and the air was super duper smokey. As we were leaving the sun was setting and the sky was crazy orange and colorful. Pretty.