Hunting For The Christmas Tree

Christmas Crack

Nikolas bearing the firstborn responsibility of carrying the saw.
He was quite proud of himself:)

Where's Lukas?!

Nikolas claimed this tree,
too bad it was too short for mommy's standards.

Talk about a happy boy!

The farm we went to has a little barn with two "reindeer", a llama and some other creature I can't remember right now. Nik liked them, but Lukas, our little horse fan, wouldn't even go inside the barn.

Nikolas helping to decorate the tree.

and Lukas as well,
though he would have nothing to do with the lower half of the tree.

The finished product!

Why is it that a tree can look perfect at the farm
but once inside the imperfections become glaringly obvious?

I'm going to just admit here that this was a bit hard for me to relinquish control of the tree decorating. I was given the task of decorating the Christmas tree when I was 15 and no longer had a brother or sister at home to help. (Not that I remember John ever decorating the tree...but maybe), so then when I married I happily took over decorating the tree to my own liking. After 8 years of marriage before children I had a system and a certain way I wanted the tree to look. Now that the boys are a little older and actually want to help I want to encourage that attitude of helpfulness, but it makes me cringe a little as they are reaching for the breakable ornaments or the ones of sentimental value. I know I don't have to let them hang the breakable ones, and I do steer them towards the paper and plastic versions, but I also don't want to be overbearing and make decorating the tree a stressful time. So I just repeat, "My boys are more important than things" over and over again......as the violin ornament my mom gave me when I played the violin gets dropped and bent.

My boys are more important than things.
My boys are more important than things.
My boys are more important than things.

My Christmas Craft Resolution

I started New Years early this year and made a resolution at the end of November that I would do a Christmas activity or craft everyday of December. I am happy to report that I have actually been keeping this resolution so far!

Here are some of our crafts we have done so far:

Tissue Paper Snowman

I just cut out the circles and attached the contact paper. They did the rest! (Though I did point to where Lukas should stick his carrot and hat) I think tissue paper crafts like this are my all time favorite craft. I always have the material on hand, they don't take much prep work and once I get the shape cut out and backed with contact paper I can move on to other things while they work on their creations for at least 15-20 minutes.

Cottonball Snowmen

Notice how the goofy looking one with the eye on its lower body and the hat upside down was created by the 4 year old. That is what the snowman would have looked like had Lukas not had me pointing to where things should go, but I figured that Nikolas would know where eyes belong and which way a hat goes. Apparently not. I like it, though, and next craft we do I'm leaving Lukas to his own devices:)

Hand Print Christmas Trees

I cut a tree shape out of paper bags and then had them paint their trees green. Then, while we waited for the paint to dry I traced their hands onto construction paper and then cut them out. They were in charge of gluing their hands to the tree.
I love how these turned out and they look really cute taped to our window. I'll be keeping these in their keepsake boxes for sure!

Reindeer Ornaments

This one is a pretty well known craft. They colored their sticks and then I put the hot glue on and they stuck everything together.

Hand and Foot Print Reindeers

This one is another keeper! I love their little handprints for the antlers:) Next time I would paste the hands behind the feet prints as then I could see their little toes as well.

We also did some easy Foamies crafts and have gone to look at some pretty fantastic Christmas lights as well as getting our tree the other day and decorating. I have a list of other crafts and activities I want to do in the coming days, and it's a good thing as Lukas has started asking for crafts now. He says, "We do crafts now, Mommy?" and then runs to my craft bins looking for things.
I really hope to stay motivated with this December resolution so if you have any cute and simple ideas for me to try let me know!

I found many of the craft ideas from various homeschooling blogs found here and here.

And In Everything, Give Thanks

Tone' has been praying with the boys before bed since he has been home and I just have to share what is being prayed for as it is just too cute:)

Tone' starts out by asking the boys what they are thankful for and that they can thank Jesus for these things. They both come up with different things like family, friends and their toys. So then Tone' starts praying and it goes something like this (I listened in recently):

Tone': "Dear Jesus, thank you for mommy and all the things she does for us, and thank you...."

Now here is where, every single night without fail, Lukas urgently interjects with, " that mommy gives us M&M's!". So Tone' has to thank Jesus for mommy giving them M&M's before going on, and once he does he begins again with, "and thank you...."

Then, Lukas interjects again with, "that mommy gives us chocolate chips!".

So, apparently, the way to Lukas heart is with chocolate.

Which isn't too far off the way to his mama's heart. I do prefer Dark chocolate, however....
hint, hint.

Introducing:

our baby girl:
Estella Erlene

An old fashioned name, for sure, but with significant meaning. Unknown to many, Estella Erlene was my mothers full name, though she went by her middle name, Erlene. My middle name is Erlene as well, a fact I was always embarrassed about growing up, but am quite proud to bear now. Estella was also my Great Great Grandmothers name (or was it just one Great?) and so there is alot of family history behind this name.

Our Little Girls Namesake:
My sweet mother who I miss terribly, especially now that I am having a little girl.
This picture was taken the last Christmas we all spent together in 2004.
She would have turned 70 last Friday, the 3rd of December.

Tone' and I have different nicknames for our little Estella. Tone' plans on calling her "Stella" which is actually quite popular nowadays, it's in the top 150. Apparently there is some movie I have never seen where the character yells, "STELLA!!!!!". So Tone' is down with that name.
I have a different name in mind and it happens to be after my friend, Estie. The same Estie who is just one week ahead of me in pregnancy. How coincidental!
All these names, Estella, Estie and Stella derive from the name of Esther, which means "star".

We don't know yet what Lukas plans on calling his little sister, but Nikolas has an entirely different name picked out. He is adamant on calling her, "Celeste".

Yes, that's right, Celeste. After Babar the elephants wife! The quite hilarious thing is that Celeste means, "heavenly", which is right in line with the "star" meaning of Estella.

Needless to say this little girl is going to be a little confused as to what her actual name is. She'll figure it out soon enough though as I will be telling her all about the wonderful grandmother she is named after, who was also named after her grandmother. And that is how it should be, generation after generation passing on the family history and keeping memories alive.

Two And A Half Months Till Baby!

I don't know how I haven't posted anything about me being pregnant yet, but somehow 6 1/2 months have gone by already. This is also only the second picture of me with child, which is in stark contrast to my other two. With each of them I took monthly pictures wearing the same outfit and standing in the same spot. Hmmmm, hope this doesn't foretell the attention this baby will be getting. Though, being a girl, I'm pretty sure she won't be neglected:)

Two of my friends and I planned a little girls getaway recently and left all our children with the husbands for two whole nights! It was marvelous. Uninterrupted meals, showers, conversations, SLEEP....to name a few. Well, actually, the sleep was interrupted for both my friend, Estie and I, as she is also pregnant and so we were taking turns getting up throughout the night as there just isn't enough room in our bodies to hold out all night. BUT, we weren't interrupted by any other children!

My friend, Rachael, joined us as well. We spent the weekend at my dads cabin in White Salmon, Washington. It's on a little lake, for now, as the dam is soon to be blown up within the next couple years. Then the cabin will be on a bog pit. Lovely. Thanks salmon lovers.

(notice how my belly covers most of Rachael?)

Rachael enjoyed taking the kayak out on the lake.

It is quite peaceful and glides smoothly through the water, unlike the rowboat that Estie and I were in. Peaceful and smooth would be the opposite words for that thing. Tone' actually built this kayak, which amazes me. If only he had made another one, but I really don't want to be a kayak widow for the 8 months it takes to build one.

Estie took a spin in it as well, and by the time we made it back to the dock it was dark.

We decided we're making this an annual or even a bi-annual event. Though next year there will be two tiny babies in tow. But since Estie and I are both having girls, it will still be a girls weekend!