Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Stockings
Maggie is using her Little Mermaid cell phone lip gloss. See following photo for how beautifully she applied the gloss.
Maggie smiles for me.
Can you see all the glitter lipgloss around her face. And her black tooth. Don't get me started on the black tooth. Erik says I'm too focused on it. He says not to photoshop it out though - it's part of her character now.
Crash
Poor Willie J is always crashing into things or hurting himself. It is just what happens as a toddler. He isn't quite aware of his own body in the world and crashes into things, trips and falls, and just in general isn't paying enough attention to his environment. As a result, he wound up with a few scratches and a bruise Christmas morning.
Opening presents at Mimi's
After our morning of opening presents, it was time to open presents at Mimi's house. We arrived late b/c of some water issues, but after a delicious meal of Prime Rib, we ripped into the presents. As always, Mimi & Papa Ralph were so very generous to us and everyone was super happy with all of their gifts. Some of the pictures are a little fuzzy or at weird angles b/c the children insisted on taking many of the pictures themselves with my new camera. It's interesting to see things through the eyes of the children.
Santa came to Nana's
Santa managed to find my mom's house and left presents for the children there too. We arrived at my mom's Friday night and after watching the news . . . my sister Katie had been contacted by the local news station in Johnstown to do a redecorating piece. She redecorated a room for under $1000 to inspire people to do their own rooms and was featured in a 2 minute segment on the news. Very cool! We watched her piece, ate lots of yummy food and the kids got to open their presents. They had a blast and loved everything. Will got a great ride on loader truck, Maggie got lots of doll stuff, and Walker got what we really really wanted - a watch - a John Deer pocket watch, which was attached to his sweatpants even today!
"Would you rather" challenge
We played a great game the 26th at my mom's house with my sisters and their friends - "Would you Rather" and Dan had to hold the Captain Morgan pose for 3 player turns to win a challenge.
It was lots of fun.
Woo-hoo!
Walker brought his new gas powered quad with him to Nana's and he gave Chris a ride. Chris actually was the navigator, telling Walker where to drive. They had a blast and were so adorable watching them ride. They loved riding circles around my mom's waterfall. We think they loved going down the hill next to the waterfall, but because the accelerator had a switch on it to control how fast Walker can go, we have it turned down to it's slowest capability. With Chris on the back, that little quad really had to work hard to get both boys back up the hill so they could go down again. It was a lot of fun to watch how much fun they were having. And for all of you wondering, there are very strict rules about how and when Walker is allowed to ride his quad. In fact, he and Erik are outside now doing practice drills. AND we did invest in a very good helmet for him. So far he's pretty happy just riding it on the driveway and occasionally into the flat part of the yard. I'm thinking I'm going to not have much grass this summer!
Will anticipates the day . . .
Will was watching Chris & Walker ride the quad and you could see on his face he is anticipating the day he is the one riding the "big" quad!
Walker naps
The children fell asleep on the way home form the outlets today after our trip to my mom's, then Buffalo, then back to Butler. They were so sweet.
A visit w/ our friends
We traveled to near Niagra Falls the 27th to visit with our dear friends, the Moore's while they were visiting family in NY. We had a blast getting to visit with them, although we were stuck in the house all day . . . The wind was gusting at 60 mph +. For a while, we thought some trees might come down on the house. We had a great time and were reminded of how much we miss our friends in day to day life. Walker got to play with his best buddy, Joshua, and was so sad to say goodbye. Now he keeps asking when we are going to travel to Illinois to visit them again.
Living Room
I stuffed my ferns inside the fireplace to hide the fact that it still has no floor - just sand - although I did take some of the bricks that came off the chimney outside and stuck them over the sand to create some barrier. Not much, but for now it works. We just hung a shelf on the fireplace to simulate a mantle, but we have a huge barn beam we'd like to put up someday. It's getting there!
My dining room
I wanted to take some pictures of the house decorated for Christmas Eve festivities. It's really starting to come together. A little more work (like finally getting the support post wrapped in oak, and coordinating the furniture a bit more and I'll have a cohesive look . . . finally.