Santa Shoes

This was, of course, from a long time ago, but I had gotten out my slippers from their hiding place in the shed, and Mac was thrilled. She called them 'Santa Shoes'.

Letter to Santa

On December 9, we decided it was time to write a letter to Santa. I had Leiden dictate her list to me, and I wrote it down so she could copy it. She really balks at writing words just how she thinks they are written--she wants us to either dictate letter by letter the word she's trying to write or have it already written to refer to.

This is not the completed list, as it really took several days of her working on it to complete. It later included some new Polly Pockets, a Pillow Pet, and some licorice.

She might even get everything on her list--as a side note, we asked her if she'd like to include some things that Mac would like from Santa. She agreed, and came up with toy eyeballs and paper cars. What?

Gingerbread Houses

We've never done gingerbread houses in our family--I didn't do them growing up, and Brad recalls doing them, but we've never tried it out with the girls. We did on December 6, and they loved it!



Leiden was all about putting the frosting on the house to decorate with--yet another independence thing which she can't actually do herself.



Mac was just thrilled that there were bowls of candy sitting on the table--where she could reach them! We kept saying no, and so she stopped actually eating the candies, and proceeded to just taste the candies before putting them back in the bowl.



We finally convinced her to put a candy on the house instead of in her mouth.



Then she decided that was pretty fun, and so continued. Generally putting things where Leiden didn't want them, resulting in more saying no--this time from Leiden.



Aha. The candy tastes even better AFTER we've dipped it in the frosting on the roof.



Of course, I failed to get a finished picture of the house, but it's more fun to look at the girls. I think we'll do that every year.

Scrapbooking!

Love going out of town, because I am taken away from my sewing machine, (which hasn't stopped me from doing some hand sewing...) and my book repertoire is very limited by what will fit in luggage! Here are the latest three pages!

Mac's Hat

Mac has become fascinated with hats--she loves to put them on, and she'll even keep them on if it's cold!

Ward Christmas Party, December 5

On December 5, we had our ward Christmas party, which was great as we were leaving town mid-December. Here are the girls, eating far more treats than they should!

And then this is the result of said treats: my children rolling around on the floor...

and jumping on Santa's chair--DURING the program. My children are usually fairly well behaved.

Mac again refused to sit on Santa's lap, so just Leiden got to tell her Christmas wishes.

Thanks to the Johnsons and everyone else who made the party very enjoyable!

Christmas Dresses and Seeing Santa--Or Not

On December 4, I took the girls to the mall in their dresses to see Santa. Of course, we didn't get there early enough, so we had to wait in line for about 50 minutes. This means Mac did a ton of running around, and I did a ton of having Leiden hold our place in line while I chased after Mac. But they looked so cute in their dresses and jackets!

Mac talked a big talk, saying "Santa's lap?" the whole time we were in line, and then ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to go sit on his lap. So Leiden went alone, while Mac clung to me with a death grip. I couldn't even get a picture of her distressed little face, because she was holding on to me so tight. She was a lot happier about the candy at the end of the ordeal.

As is often the case, I took a bajillion pictures, so the rest for any who are interested are here.

Thanksgiving

I was busy cooking and cleaning on Thanksgiving, so only took a few pictures, but it was lovely. My family was here for 8 days over Thanksgiving--both parents and Mad! It's the longest we've ever had their undivided attention! It was so fun to have them here, and to have their help and company.

Here Mac and Brad are hanging out in the early afternoon, after a too short nap on Mac's part. She wasn't feeling well then, and she still isn't feeling her best.


Leiden came down with her first cold sore (yay, herpes simplex!) the day after Thanksgiving, so she was also not feeling her best. She NEVER voluntarily lays down and takes a nap! Bapa was obliged to join her.



Mac is funny, these days. As soon as you say anything about dinner, she rushes to her seat, climbs in, straps herself to it, and sits and waits. Here she is, and you can read her face: "Where is the food?"



My husband is a wonderful man, so thoughtful in so many ways, and he thought to get out the tripod and take a picture of all of us. A photography studio we are not, but it recorded the moment! (It also recorded how enormous I am getting!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Beauty Salon

Leiden has hit a ferociously independent stage. She wants to do everything by herself, and the things she finally recognizes that she can't do by herself, she wants to help me with. I think I made the mistake of praying for patience with Leiden a while back, and this appears to be the lesson in which I am to learn said patience. Well, this day she wanted to paint her own nails. She actually did a remarkable job, even when using her left hand to paint her right.

Ribbon Tree Shirt and Mac

Here were some funny ones from a little shoot I did on 11-11-09 for my shop. I sold out of my original Ribbon Tree Shirts, so I made another with different ribbon. People don't like it as much as the other, but that means I can do some sewing for myself!!

These are also a great visual example of Mac's crazy black (green) eye. She smacked just under her right eyebrow on a table edge. Super. Still cute, though. (And thank heavens, it's gone, now.)

Major Catchup!

Whew! I am so behind!! Here is a smattering of pics up to Thanksgiving or so, and we'll get there in the next day or two. We had pancakes on 11-1-09 for breakfast, and I neglected to clean up the leftovers and syrup after I had cleaned up the plates. That didn't appear to matter to Mac. She put a pancake on the table, and then attempted to pour syrup on it, but missed the pancake, syrup-ing the table, instead. (Our ghastly, dirty, OLD table. yum.)



When she realized she didn't have syrup on the pancake, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Or mouth.



On November 8, we had friends for breadsticks and ice cream cake. Breadsticks a la Brad, ice cream cake a la Coldstone. Delish.

My family was coming for Thanksgiving, and Leiden kept asking when they were coming. She wasn't getting it, so we made a chain on 11-9-09, which Leiden got to cut a link off of every night before bed. This was the first night.

Leiden with her child safe scissors.

This was 11-11-09. If you can't tell, that's a cheerio stuck to Mac's forehead. She had no idea and it stayed there for a long time. They must have been the multigrain ones that are slightly sweetened/sticky.

Hallelujah and glory be! We finally, after almost 10 years of marriage, got a new kitchen table. We 'inherited' a table when we got married, which was already old. We refinished it, but as you saw earlier in the post, it was on the downhill slide. Finally, we decided we'd get a new table in time for Thanksgiving.

Inaugural dinner!

Bunny Mac

The other night, Mac came out of the playroom just before bedtime, and this is how she looked. She came out saying, "pretty, pretty".


She also had on some stylin' shoes. She loves the dress up shoes and wears them all the time. Surprisingly, she can actually walk in them!

Mercedes' Birthday

Brad was very good to me on my birthday, and he gave me a new camera lens! It's a prime lens, so I'm still getting used to the whole 'unable to zoom' thing. Here is a cute one of Mac from the testing run!

More Leiden Drawings

Leiden loves to draw. LOVES to draw! In fact, she's drawing right now as I type this. Here are her efforts from 11-3-09:

An umbrella


R is for rabbit--even Mac looked at it and said, "bunny"


L is for Lion


T is for Tiger



ladybugs



self explanatory


daddy and a dog we don't have



a lionfish


She's really very good, and she'll do it for long periods of time at a stretch.