Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Our presents are all opened. We've watched one episode of Star Trek from the collection of remastered episodes I gave Josh. Now we're watching Megan's new movie, "How to Train Your Dragon." She LOVES Toothless the dragon! We'll head out later this afternoon for dinner and more gifts at Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Bill's house.

Here's Megan with her new Tinkerbell nightown. She had to put it on as soon as she opened it.
 Josh with his new socks. Go Cardinals!
 Megan got an Elmo movie. (Don't tell her I picked it up for 75 cents at a garage sale this past summer.)
 Big kid puzzles!
 The long-awaited and much-hoped-for dragon movie!
 Josh got me a stylish new, thinline-style Bible, with my name engraved on the cover.
 Josh's Star Trek collection.
 Megan has a laptop just like Mommy's and Daddy's.
 Hildegard got a new toy, too.
 A laptop, lip gloss, and a Tinkerbell nightgown. What more could a girl want?
Here's Megan's first glimpse of the tree and all the gifts, along with the stockings and the empty plate of cookies we left for Santa. She told us there were still some cookies left.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Project Snowman

We got some snow this morning. More is forecast to come this afternoon. It's a very wet snow, and we made a snowman without much effort at all.
 
One of the rocks forming his mouth fell out right before I snapped the photo, but you get the idea, and Mr. Snowman should look a little cleaner and whiter once we get more snow this afternoon. He's also wearing a hat from Josh's alma mater, Truman State University. And Megan would be standing in this photo, too, except that the neighbors had just given her a bag of Christmas cookies and candy and she insisted on going in to enjoy her loot.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Cookie

Got this idea from Parents Magazine. They're peanut butter cookies with chocolate-covered pretzels for "antlers" and M&M's for the eyes and nose. We're taking these to a Christmas Eve gathering tomorrow hosted by Josh's mom's husband's family (Did you follow that?). That's all depending on whether the roads are passable tomorrow, though. The weather gurus are predicting several inches of snow. If these little cookies don't make it to the Christmas Eve party, they're coming with us the day after Christmas for a big celebration with our "adopted" family, Mike and Mary, and all their children and grandchildren.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Merry Early Christmas

Megan got several gifts this weekend from Josh's dad, including this art easel.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas clothes

My grandparents (my dad's parents) sent Megan this dress. She wore it to church today.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Snowy Day

We got a few inches of snow Saturday night and Sunday morning. Megan couldn't wait to play outside.
 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

O Christmas Tree

Here's Megan all excited about Josh setting up the Christmas tree. This video is a little older; I'm trying to catch up. This was Thanksgiving Day and we were watching the St. Louis parade while decorating, which is why the tv is blaring in the background.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Santa sippy

I couldn't resist picking up this Santa cup for Megan at Kmart last weekend.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

No love for Santa

I took Megan to our school district's Parents As Teachers holiday night this evening. They offer pictures with Santa for much less money than the mall, and we talked Santa up big time beforehand. She loved standing near him and gazing at him but was reluctant to get too close. I plopped her on his lap and this was the best picture we got before her face puckered up and she started whimpering and saying, "I want mommy." Afterward, she told me Santa was not nice and that she was shy.
Megan made some Christmas crafts, including a glittery pine cone ornament for the tree and a Santa face made from her hand print. She also decorated a cookie with frosting and sprinkles.
They had sensory tables with various fun things. She liked playing with these pom poms. And check out the static in her hair!
And the random tents - Megan called them the "jungle" - were a hit with the kids.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Cat vs. Squirrel

We have a squirrel that loves to perch on the stair railing just outside our sunroom door, and Hildegard goes crazy whenever he's out there. They squared off like this for about 15 minutes the other day.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Babies and Christmas

First of all, congratulations to my brother, Mark, and sister-in law, Kelli, on the birth of their son, Levi. He was born yesterday, weighing 9 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 21 inches. I leached this photo off Kelli's Facebook page, so it's small here.
On the home front, our Parents As Teachers educator came over this morning with all sorts of art materials. Megan made these:

Friday, November 26, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. We spent the morning putting up Christmas decorations at home, and we ventured out to Kmart because the idea of going to one of the few stores that's actually open on Thanksgiving is fun. Megan wore a turkey shirt she painted in her Sunday school class. We really like the children's ministry at church.

Shortly after arriving home from our Kmart trip, we got our first snow of the season. It was just a dusting on top of two straight days of rain, but still pretty. Megan immediately asked if she could go play outside.
Megan also was thrilled with all our Christmas decorations. She's a big fan of dioramas and model train scenes, so she loves my Christmas village. I'm glad to have a garden window/greenhouse window over my kitchen sink because little fingers can't reach up there. I was able to fit my entire village there when I realized that our dining room hutch was no longer a safe place this year. Megan likes pulling a chair up to the sink to look, and she still can't reach it, so it's a win-win setup for us. And yes, that is Ralphie's house from "A Christmas Story" on the far right.

Yesterday evening, we went out to enjoy a turkey dinner with Josh's mom, her husband Bill, and all Bill's extended family. Josh's siblings from Kentucky also drove in to join us. Megan's favorite food at last night's meal may have been the deviled eggs. She ate at least three of them through the course of the evening. Here she is "dancing like a ballerina and falling down."
Josh's siblings, Justin and Jami.
And a family picture.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Gobbler cookies

We're celebrating Thanksgiving with Josh's mom and her new husband's family tomorrow, and we made some whimsical turkey cookies to bring to the get-together. We made the same cookies for our church's Thanksgiving dinner this past weekend, and there were none left over to bring home. I gave Megan her own cookie to decorate however she pleased.
 Here are the finished products. Super easy to make, and fun for the kids to eat.

Pumpkin painter

We have never carved pumpkins with Megan because I prefer to hang on to our gourds through Thanksgiving and continue to use them as decor. Since we'll be bringing out our Christmas decorations this week, I let Megan have some fun with our pumpkins before we get rid of them. She really got into painting them last night.