Crafty Month

Since in the past 2 weeks the highest temperature we've seen has been about 34 and the lowest temperature was today when the high was 27, my babies and I have been getting creative about what to do in this tiny little house. Today's activity was teaching Boozle to sew. Every time I get out the sewing machine he's fascinated by it. When I made the flags for his room, he watched intently as the needle bobbed up and down and went across the fabric "like a train", he said. And since I had the sewing machine out to make my contribution to the pinwheel quilt for this virtual quilting bee I joined, today was the perfect day. He kept asking, "Now are you going to show me how to sew?" And so after I finished up this I Spy quiet activity kit, we started in on our lesson.

I pushed the pedal while he guided the fabric. He lifted the presser foot while I turned the fabric and in the end, a pillow for sleepy Mater Tow Truck's head was born.



and yes, Big Baby now has 4 teeth


my best buddies

January, oh January.

Where did December go? The lights, the smells of Christmas, the joy, not to mention the vacation from work that allowed this mama to have a co-pilot for these babies. It's like Monday: the readjustment to real life from the weekend. Only this is for months. The first day was rough and I took a 2-hour nap while the babies napped. Today, however, the task is to un-Christmasify the house in record time while they sleep.

Last year we bought our Christmas tree very early hoping to get the house decorated before the sweet baby came on 13 December. Sweet Baby had other plans though, and decided to come 9 days early, leaving our house undecorated. Luckily we had Marge coming, and she whipped this house into Christmas shape. Our tree came from the volunteer fire station just up the road. 2 nice old grandpas helped us load it up and were so happy to see their first customers that they gave Boozle 2 candy canes just because. The tree drank about 1/4 cup of water the entire month we had it and by week 2 was a fire waiting to happen. This year we hesitated going to the same volunteer fire station because we thought maybe the $20 trees were just not going to measure up with the expensive ones, freshness-wise. But after considering the convenience option, we decided to walk up there again to pick out this year's winner. After bundling up and securing Big Baby in the stroller and Boozle in the wheel barrow (the highlight of his life!), we headed up the road, only to discover that they didn't open until 1 December that wasn't for 2 more days. Back home we went. Two days later we repeated the same process and successfully chose our tree. Boozle was very confused and kept asking when we were going to find the Christmas tree since the trees were stiff from being tied up and didn't look like normal Christmas trees yet.

Now here we are, over a month later, and it's still drinking water. It seems a shame to chuck it out when the heavenly pine scent still greets us every single time we come down the stairs. I guess I'm just like Marge and I just won't ever give in to the fake tree.

Anyways, we had a great Christmas in Utah and here are some highlights:

trip to the Discovery Gateway Museum. had lots of fun and Big Baby even brought home a stomach virus for all to enjoy

some snow shoveling with Grandpa

fabulous tour of the fire station, courtesy of fireman Paul