Busy Christmas Season

I'm not posting alot, and the pictures are pretty much scarce, but I'm thinking about Christmas and I'm feeling fairly frazzled because I have so much that I WANT to get done but I don't know if it is going to get done. Here's for hoping. But, I have one thing to add to the Thanksgiving Holiday Blogging and one for the Christmas Holiday Blogging.

I had a friend ask for this recipe, so I'm just going to share it with everyone.
Thanksgiving - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (soft cookies)
2 c. brown sugar
1 c. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. cooked pumpkin (I just add a whole can)
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 stp. salt
1 stp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
4 c. flour
2 c. chocolate chips
(other options I don't use)
2 c. raisins
1 c. chopped nuts

Compine sugar, oil, and vanilla. Next the pumpkin. Then all of the dry ingredients and then stir until smooth. Next add the chocolate chips (or other options). Bake at 350^ for 12 to 15 minutes (I bake mine for 10 and they are done, but I like mine not so done so I bake it for 9 minutes).

Next, I love this tradition. This is to help the kids to remember to be good this holiday season and that Santa watching. This tradition reminds the kids every time they see an elf hanging around your house. Check out this blog - Elf Christmas Tradition

It's Not Fair

Sunday when I was making dinner for my family, Emily comes over with a chair and stands next to me by the stove. "I want to help," she says. I love having a little helper, and she really is just a joy to have around in the kitchen, but I had just burned my finger so I just wanted to get dinner done so I could sit down and keep my finger in freezing cold water (I got it pretty good). So I said, "You would help Mommy most if you would go sit down in your chair." Well, Emily wasn't happy with that answer so she says, "It's not fair. I want to help." I couldn't believe she said that. It's not fair? Where did she get that. I finally remembered where that came from as I was putting the DVD into the player. The Evil Magician on "Frosty the Snowman" says to Santa, "It's not fair. Evil magicians have to make a living too." The positive side of things, Emily getting better and better and being able to carry on a conversation.

Christmas

Wow! I was checking my Aunt's blog and found this cute widget (see right side) that is the countdown to Christmas. Let's just say, it's making me just a little bit nervous. I still want to get my 25 days of Christmas Scripture Study done. That's a lot of work, and I only have 11 more days until we start that. So much to do, so little time. Is anyone else starting to feel the crunch? There's the ward Christmas Party, then there is a piano recital, all of the crafting I'd LIKE to get done before. Black Friday should at least take care of all the rest of the presents I need to get. I think that is plenty to get done all before December 25th.

Christmas carols have always been sung early in my family. We couldn't help it. My mother was a piano teacher and as soon as the Halloween recital was over, her students began their Christmas music. So early November is quite normal for me to be singing Chirstmas carols. Of course, the Christmas decorations didn't go up until the day after Thanksgiving (even if we begged :). You know, maybe one time we did decorate after we were done with Thanksgiving dinner. ??? Nathan and I have been singing "Christmas Bells are Ringing" from the Primary Songbook with Emily for a while now. She's getting quite good at it, and the girls love the little bell bracelets that I made for them to use while we sing this song.

The Chicken Story

My girls, of course, LOVE nursery. I think that is the most helpful thing while we are getting ready. If Emily gets unmanageable I just say, "Do you want to go to nursery?" And then I tell her what she has to do in order to go to nursery. Like get dressed, or sit still, or put on her shoes, or even that she can't cry. Meredith is such a good little girl during nursery, she listens really well to her teacher and doesn't wander around (at least from what I've seen).

Emily's favorite part of nursery is the chicken. Her nursery leaders think this is just so funny. When they get out the toys they will hide the chicken sometimes when they don't feel like having Emily cry when she has to put away the chicken before we leave. I thought that by now she would be over this because for a while she had to have her bear and her camel go to bed with her. She hasn't done that in a long time so I just figured it would be the same with carrying around the little chicken EVERYWHERE with her in the nursery. She holds that chicken during singing time and snack time and through the lesson. Now that I think of it, we had a chicken just like that. Is that our chicken? Maybe I'd better check, LOL.

Funny Counting Stories

I have been working with the girls on their counting. My Mom bought Emily a little counting book for her birthday and I realized that I definitely should be teaching her how to count. So we've been counting ALL the time. It's actually saved me a couple of times too. Like when I'm making the girls their sandwiches. What 3-year-old or 1-year-old do you know that is patient? I tell them, "Ok, I'm making sandwiches. Let's count to ten. What's first?" Meredith likes the game the best so she starts it out. "One." Of course, Emily is not about to be outdone by the one-year-old so she says, "two." And then so on until we finish to 10.

Meredith at one point was in trouble for something (like I could possibly remember ALL of the things these girls get into or get in trouble for :) so I said, "I'm going to count to three." (I can't even remember what she was supposed to do by three.) "One...Two..." and then Meredith says, "three, four!" LOL. She says the cutest things.

Last night when we were picking up Nathan at the school (we don't do this very often) Emily and Meredith were pointing to the cars saying, "Look, cars" So Nathan says, "See all of the cars. Look, one car, two cars, etc. So this morning I told Emily, "let's count". Emily starts out, "One car..."

Meredith is really pretty good with her animals and their sounds. When Emily isn't there she says them all so fast, but when Emily is there she has to say it really fast so she can beat Meredith to it, so Meredith doesn't do it when Emily is around.

Nursery

Meredith has been going to nursery for about a month now. It started when Nathan could no longer keep her quiet during Sunday School (I of course am in primary playing the piano for both hours.) Luckily when I got the calling the Bishop's wife told me she would watch Meredith during the last hour while Nathan went to Young Men's since we didn't want her to make learning for the priests any harder. So, when Nathan took her to nursery he stayed during the first hour and then the Bishop's wife checked up on her from time to time during the second hour. Now, she is just in the nursery and she LOVES it and I love it too. I can actually go and see my baby now and spend time with my girls. I go in during the nursery singing time with the music chorister. Meredith was SO cute. They asked her which song she wanted to sing, they do this by showing the pictures, and she points to a picture and says, "that one." They were pretty impressed by the words she was saying, including me. I'm awed at how much she says especially because Emily just prefers not to say anything. Emily must have got that from me (not that I'm like that now. For those that know me I talk WAY too much.)

I baked snowman cupcakes for the girls. They couldn't wait, but I made them take a picture first. They said "cheese" just to get the cupcakes (LOL).

Nathan took this picture. I just thought it was cute. Meredith loves to go for a ride around the house. Nathan was running around with the stroller with her in it while Emily was baking with me. (you can see her in the back.)

Meredith wasn't being very cooperative when I wanted to get her picture of her very cute hair. No smile, but it's cute. I LOVE doing my girls' hair.

Cute Fall Hair bow pics

I just wanted to do this post because of the picture. I dressed the girls up to take pictures of the hairbows but this was the only picture I got (the camera died. Need to get a new camera.) I was chasing them and they turned around just perfectly in unison and I took the picture at just the right time (boy, that doesn't happen often :) So you can see the bows on top. I tried a new style of bow with the little curly ribbon I baked in the oven. Picture and instruction link (plus my modifiers) coming up.

Painting and Talking

This is really the first time I've let Emily color with a paint brush and with very messy paints (painting is messy, these really aren't any messier than others). She LOVED it. And I think she could have spent at least 30 more minutes sitting there painting (now for a 3-year-old, that's something.)
Emily has pretty much gotten over the "terrible two's". We only have a moment here and there. Can't really think of one for this week and that is something. But Meredith...I'm afraid it's only just begun. Meredith does some absolutely adorable things though. Like this morning.
Me: Do you want socks?
Meredith: Yes, please.

She has lots of words down, and she is pretty vocal. She uses please quite a bit which is definitely a plus. Like, "shoes, please. shoes, please" until I put on her shoes. Or eat, diaper change (yes, my little 17-month old has been asking for a diaper change for a couple of months now. And no, it's not because she sits in it for a while. She asks RIGHT after she does a job. Now all I need to do is have her tell me about it BEFORE and we're good to go :)

Cooler Weather

The weather is BEAUTIFUL here. Which means the rest of the people I know are freezing. Sorry about that, but like my Mom said this morning as I was talking to her I DESERVE it. And so do my poor kids who have been cooped up in a house WAY to long. We withstood a cold Utah winter and then just as the weather was turning beautiful moved here to the HEAT. Talk about bad timing. So now it just feels so cozy (like fall for everyone that isn't in a dessert) and I LOVE fall. It is my Mom's favorite season and when I was growing up it was probably the last on my list of favorite seasons (Favorite #1 Winter, Favorite #2 Spring, Favorite #3 Summer which always rotated to being #1 just before changing to that season and for the first part.) But while fall was definitely beautiful I don't know that I every claimed it to be my favorite. And now that it is "Fall" here (it's in the 60's for the heat of the day, I call that fall in a way) I'm ready to start baking. See -


Baking hairbows! :) Now that Halloween has passed I'm making the girls Thanksgiving and Christmas bows. Here's part of one idea.

Cousins

The girls have one more cousin. It's a girl! Yay! So now the girls have 3 cousins. 2 girls and 1 boy. So for Nathan's family that is 4 girls and 1 boy. Maybe we'll have a boy next to even the odds a little more (or a girl and we'll just make it a girl family :)

Halloween Party Pinata

The girls enjoyed the pinata that was at the party. Emily enjoyed taking a wack at it, and then the girls discovered the candy afterwards. Emily wanted to just get all of the boxes (nerds). I'm not a really big fan for 3-year-olds and 1-year-olds with candy and even less of a fan with candy that makes bigger messes (ex: nerds). So, I started pointing out other candy to her.

Meanwhile, Nathan had Meredith. He told her to pick it up and put it in her bag. She was doing it like she was just cleaning it up. Then we went inside and Meredith saw someone eating candy, so she ran over there. It took Nathan a little bit to show Meredith that there was candy in her bag, and as soon as he did, she took her bag and dumped the contents on the floors to eat the candy. So cute.

Halloween Pictures (Yay!)

Happy Days are Here Again! I've got my camera cord. Ready, set, post!

Nathan came home from school and said that someone was having a party that started at 5:30. Of course, he told me this at 5:00 and it takes 20 minutes to get there. So, I threw in a pizza and dressed the girls. I had been working on a red cloak for Meredith, but it didn't work out. I was in a rush, and you should never sew in a rush if you want to doing everything right. (One more reason that makes me a terrible seamstress.) Luckily we had Emily's costume that she wore 2 years ago.

My happy girls (after the party).

That serious face means that she is really enjoying herself :)

Hopefully next year we'll be able to go to the ward party with the trunk-or-treat. The girls were sick this year (wonderfully timed cold). I'm not a big fan of trick-or-treating unless we go to people's homes that we know, and since our ward is pretty scattered that wasn't very convenient. I'm glad we had a party to go to instead.

Baby Crafting

Here's what I've been up to. Crafting! I go through these phases. I go through crafting, reading, playing the piano, singing, baking, blogging, etc.

This was the first go at a wipes case cover. There are definitely some things I'll do differently next time.

I made a nursing cover as well. I know I can't use it right now, but someday (just to clarify, no, I'm not pregnant :)

I actually bought a pattern on ebay when Meredith was born so I could make one, and it was a horrible pattern. This pattern was free and it is fabulous, it's just like my bebe-au-lait cover and better yet, I made it myself and it is just perfect. I added two little corner pockets with the (insert the right word here since my mind just freezed) towel-like cloth :) That part wasn't in the tutorial. You can find the tutorial to the right in the sidebar under tutorials. I also made a baby sling to match the set, but It just looks like a piece of fabric unless it's on me, so maybe I'll add a picture later. It was fun, fun, FUN to make all of this stuff. And of course, I've made a ton of hairbows, but I'm not going to add pictures of all of those.

Posting and Picture Famine

I do realize that I haven't been posting a lot lately, and that pictures have come to an all time minimal, so tomorrow (or Monday) I will make up for it by posting what in the world I have been up to :)

Halloween

We had fun for Halloween. We went to a party instead of trick-or-treating. Of course I'm well known for forgetting my camera, but I remembered it. But, I didn't have a memory card in it, so we used the internal memory. It was full, I thought there was a memory card and that we were deleting the memory card, but we deleted the pictures that I couldn't take off the camera. I can't remember all of the pictures that we deleted, I can only remember one that I could just cry about, so I really don't want to remember what else was on there. It wasn't very much because the internal memory is minimal. So now I've got a cord coming for my camera dock (since the original one got lost) and I should have some Halloween pictures up. We also went to the zoo today with my family. It was fun. "Pictures?" you ask. Well, we won't mention the fact that I forgot my camera, but my parents have pictures. When I get the pictures from them, I'll post them.