Grandpa's Surprise Party

 Next we celebrated GrandpaH's 80th birthday!

 Family managed to keep it a surprise!  

He thought he was going to someone else's party!

 Wow, Dad sure cleaned up nice!  : )

 Aunt Jana won Rebekah's "Aunt of the Day" award 

for feeding her chocolate cake and punch.

Rebekah spent the rest of the time entertaining herself...

Christmas Tea 2010

 The girlies usually go with me to the Annual Ladies Christmas Tea and this was no exception.  They don't actually go to the Tea, they go to childcare, but they enjoy going to the "ladies event" all the same.

 Mark helped serve and Lauren sat at our table.

 There was a full house with all 200 tickets sold.

 This is our table from the back side at the end of the tea.

 Suzanne & Coylene

 Lauren, Aunt Wee, Me

 A placed was saved at our table in memory of Momma.

 Daddy was there helping anywhere he was needed - 

in the nursery, in the kitchen, and

I think I saw him video taping the speaker.

My other family was at Grana's table.

It was lovely, as usual.

One Photo Christmas Card 2010

I am loving the Christmas card options at Shutterfly!  Look how cute we are!  (Photo by Aunt Laurie at Thanksgiving.)

I'm still working on the final card design... this is not my final card, but I love this design... and the colors!  I just need to use more photos!  : )

Celebrate Family Christmas Card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

December ONE

Wow, it's the first day of December already!

I started doing Month ONE posts in August & I can see the changes in the kids already!  A week & a half ago, this is what they looked like (haha):

Photo by Aunt Laurie

Happy December!

Well, it's obvious by the pumpkins that "fall" is over and "Christmastime" is at hand!  But first, I wanted to show our completed Thanksgiving Turkey.  And maybe I'll try to get a better picture today.  Hard to take a photo on the window during the day and be able to read it!  I was happy with the results.  We'll probably do this again.

One of my favorite things about Christmastime is our Little People Nativity - you never know who's gonna show up to worship Baby Jesus.  This year, we also had some excitement at the Thanksgiving Feast when someone showed up with this prize-winning tomato!

I think we are now all ready for Christmastime.  The decorations are scaled back a bit this year as (almost) everything that is breakable was left in the attic.  It was just too risky with Rebekah and the bouncy ball that's not supposed to be bounced in the house.  I didn't want my nativity scene that Grandmama gave me to fall victim or the blown glass fire truck ornaments...

We put the Christmas tree up on a little table to keep it more out of little hands' reach.  The star scrapes the ceiling, but so far little hands are staying in check.

Kinda looks like Santa's already been here and dumped his bag out all over the floor.  Don't be jealous.  And the kids think our Christmas tree is ginormous!

Our snowman family is on the mantle and we added another snowman this year to represent the one that's not here yet.

I still didn't get the stockings finished.  : (  So I gave in & hung the old ones.  I still have my sewing machine set up to work on them, though, so as/if they get finished I'll switch them out.

I have a little tree in the kitchen decorated with cookie cutters and one in the bathroom decorated with old toothbrushes (but I forgot to take a picture of that one).  And yes, I saved the kids' old toothbrushes one year just for this purpose.

My little poinsettia is out of reach also.  (This year is more challenging that keeping stuff cat-proof ever was!)

And I only had to return the kitchen rugs to the kitchen once... so far.

We're going to try doing "advent activities" in coordination with the countdown to Christmas this year.  In the past we've just done a countdown chain.  That was fun, but I wanted to try something different and I didn't want to have to provide a present every day, so the activity countdown seemed like the way to go.  I've seen some good examples of really cute countdowns here and here.  I'll post pictures of ours some day.

Yesterday's activity was putting lights on the playhouse!  Sounds fun, right?  We bundled up and headed out for the excitement!  After about 10 minutes of whining, complaining, getting Rebekah out of the barn, crying, wiping noses, keeping Rebekah away from the cat poo and the ant pile, and still not a single light on the playhouse, I brought them back inside.  Then I did it myself.  I know, I should have made it work

Anyway... here are the 2 versions of the picture for those who just won't believe that it's the playhouse unless they see it.  : )

Rebekah loved looking out and seeing it all lit up last night.  She kept saying, "Play!  House!"  Used last year's LED lights since Dad said I couldn't put them up on the rain gutter this year.  Tried 5 different strings of last year's LED lights before I found one that worked!  Is that common for new-last-year LED lights???  It was almost as annoying as all the crying and wining and chasing.  Hopefully the rest of our "fun Christmas activities" will go better.  Or we're going back to a simple paper chain!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I know.  It's Wednesday.

Rebekah is really talking a lot now-a-days.  And still getting into everything!  This morning, the third time I caught her getting into our stash of Yummy Earth suckers, I called her, "Rebekah Leigh!"  She stuck her hands up and shook her head as if to say, "It wasn't me, Mommy!" with a sucker hanging out of her mouth.

I took the bag and (finally) moved it to a different pantry location.  Then she repeated, "Share, Mommy; share, Mommy!"

Baby Blessings & Thankfulness

When I realized earlier this year that car seats expire (and that meant several of the ones we were using were expiring this year) I was a little concerned.  Then we were very blessed at our baby shower to receive new car seats for all four children!  (Gift #13) 

With such a blessing I hated to be picky, but the infant seat we received was a car mounted seat, and I was wanting one that could be carried in for those times when the new baby falls asleep in the car.  My SIL assured me that it would be ok to exchange it, so that's what happened on Tuesday.

In some realms, I realize I am an oddball who gets excited about diapers and car seats, but surely the Mommies out there can understand.  I was very excited about this car seat that I found and the fact that I had a $20 off coupon for it!  Isn't this beautiful!?!?!  (Gift #14)

I'm not really a pink person, so when I saw this gorgeous fabric, I fell in love!  And it came with a "winter boot" that fits over the toes for warmth or to keep little sox from falling out or whatever.  Here it is with the sun shade opened:

Every time people have asked me what we needed for the new baby, I would have to answer, "We don't really need anything, except the car seats and diapers!  But I'd really like to have a double stroller."  My goal was to accumulate gift cards or cash or something for the stroller, because those are pretty expensive.  And I really wanted a Joovy.  I've been entering giveaways for the stroller, but honestly, in the back of my head, I didn't think I'd ever get one.  Then I happened to think of Craigslist.

This morning, I am now the proud owner of a Joovy Caboose thanks to a wonderful family of 6 who used Craigslist to bless us!  (Gift #15)  It is not the latest & greatest model, it's not purple, but it is in immaculate condition and will serve the exact purpose that I wanted it for.

The seat in the front is where Rebekah can sit or the infant carrier can attach there!

And the back can be used as a bench seat for Elizabeth or Rebekah (with the seat belt) or as a standing place for Elizabeth if we're on an adventure & she's tired.

As soon as we got up & moving, I dressed the girls and headed outside to get pictures of it in action! Here's EB showing that she can ride standing:

or sitting:

David is holding the sun visor in this one.  So far it appears to be very easy to use and they're enjoying the novelty of the ride! 

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Every time David has trouble finding a letter on the computer keyboard, he says, "Someone mis-learned the alphabet!"

Time for a Shower

I wish my sister, sister-in-law, and best friend could have come in for the weekend to be with us at our baby shower, but that's just not possible, so here's some pictures and a review especially for y'all!  Keep in mind I haven't figured out what settings the new camera needs to be on.  Apparently it's not as automatic as I thought!

The shower was at Aunt Wee's house.  The table was beautiful and I love the polka dots!!!

Lauren did a great job making a polka dot cake!

And the strawberry cupcakes were deee-lish and very cute!

We had a good time visiting

and Elizabeth enjoyed helping opening gifts.

 This adorable footie outfit will probably be our going home outfit!

 We were blessed with new car seats, too!

(ours were expiring soon)

Elizabeth & Rebekah enjoyed using theirs to watch a 

Sesame Street video when we got home!

Belly Shot, 34 weeks

So there you have it.  I think she's dropped, too & getting herself ready to come out soon... just over a month to go!  This is Gift #13 in my list of 1000 Gifts.

How to Make a Pumpkin Pie