This Christmas season, part 2...

This Christmas season...

some highlights in photos...

These are all pre-Christmas day...more to come...

Merry Christmas

Gather 'round, ye children come

listen to the old, old story

of the power of death undone

by an infant born of glory

Son of God, Son of Man...

So sing out with joy

for the brave little boy

who was God, but He made Himself nothing...

*Lyrics from "Gather Round, Ye Children" on Andrew Peterson's wonderful Christmas album Behold the Lamb of God: the true tall tale of the coming of Christ

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Scrap Fabric Wreath

I made this pretty little scrap fabric wreath for the door to Piper's room.  I was inspired by ones here and here.  (I love Pinterest!)  It was an easy project - I selected fabric scraps that coordinated with the colors in her room and cut them into 1.5 inch by 7 or 8 inch lengths.  I pinked some of the ends, but not all.  Oh, and I didn't have a wire hanger for the frame so I just twisted together some floral wire. 

Even though this was super easy - cut fabric, tie a knot - it took me several weeks to finish and then several more weeks to get it hung.  Because I have two little kids and difficulty managing my time.  Speaking of which, there's a baby crying so I gotta scoot!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

p.s. because I know someone will wonder - that's not our tree or our house.

Deals of the Week

This week has been frustrating for me because I feel like I've accomplished nothing beyond keeping everyone relatively clean and well-fed.  Today I semi-cleaned both bathrooms and did two loads of laundry so I feel better. 

One thing I did manage to do earlier this week was get these deals:

The candy canes were free (paid $1.27, got $1.27 in extra care bucks), and the diapers were only $3.49 after sale, two coupons, and extra care bucks. 

Now I'm going to take out the trash and feel even more accomplished!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Hey, I put some new shoes on...

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend by obtaining shoes.  On the top row, Matt got me some brown no-lace chucks and my parents got me the brown boots (and my mom put up with my extremely bad attitude while shopping - thanks, Mom!).  Then I found the bronze and grey flats on the bottom on clearance at Target.  I'm very pleased with these purchases since after my pregnancy my feet seem to be a bit bigger and many of my old shoes don't fit so well.  We won't talk about the other items in my closet that don't fit so well right now, either.  9 months up, 9 months down, right? *wink*

A reminder I needed today...

Piper and I have had a hard week sleepwise.  The worst night I was up with her 5 times.  I've been worrying about my lack of sleep and what I would have to give to both girls during the next exhausted day.  Then, today, I read this about second babies...

"Those first babies do the hard work of breaking us in and smoothing off the rough edges of who we thought we would be as mothers. The babies that come after owe an enormous gift of gratitude to those first-borns, I think, because they weather our anxieties, worries, and insecurities. With the babies that follow, we know better than to waste time with worry. Once we get a taste of how fleeting the baby days are, we learn the importance of savoring each moment, drinking in the sweetness of the second."

Written by Megan of SortaCrunchy and published here.

Achoo! Snot-nosed blues and other tunes

This summer Matt completed an album of 10 original kid songs.  It's a process that started way back in 2006 when I asked him to do some "concerts" for kids at the libraries where I was working.  It's really great and I should have posted about it before now!

It's available for download on Amazon and Itunes.  You can also buy an actual physical cd from Amazon.  Also, you can hear it on Pandora - here's the Matt McGee and Some Lesser Fools station.

The "Lesser Fools" that helped Matt out with this include Benji Morris of Downtown Senate and Turpentine Shine, and Rick and Chrissy DePirro.

Turkey Hair Bow Tutorial

Cadence and I made this adorable turkey hair bow during Piper's afternoon nap on Tuesday.  It's really cute with a ponytail.  Want to make one?  Here's how:

We started with a small brown yo-yo.  Here's a great tutorial for yo-yos.  Normally a yo-yo would be more circular, I smushed two sides together and sewed up the middle to make more of an oval shape.

We added two googly eyes.  And from felt scraps I cut two feet, a triangle beak and a waddle.  I used plain old white school glue to attach these to the yo-yo turkey body.

I traced an oval a little smaller than our yo-yo on brown felt.  This is the backing and where you glue the ribbons.  To be able to put in a barrette (as shown) or alligator clip, fold the oval in half longways and make two little snips with your scissors.  That makes the slit for the barrette or clip to slide through.

Cadence dug through the ribbon box and picked out some ribbons I cut into 2.5 to 3 inch lengths. 

Then Cadence occupied herself elsewhere while I hot glued the ribbon ends together.  Then I just arranged the ribbons around the edge of the brown felt and glued them down.

Finally, I glued the yo-yo turkey body on top.  A cute turkey clip done in about half an hour!

I'm linking up with project with A Glimpse Inside's Catch a Glimpse Party, Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up Party, Ladybird Ln's Turkey Show Off Party and A Little Knick Knack's Everything but the Kitchen Sink Party.

Tummy Time

Taken Sunday, Nov. 7.

Sleepy Time

Or more accurately, wake-up-from-nap-so-you-can-eat-time.  Here, let me open the windows and take your picture.

sleeeeeep...

Our bedroom.  6 AM.

Me: Matt.  Your alarm is going off.
Matt: Grunt.
Me: Your alarm is going off!  Piper slept through the night!
Matt (sleepily): That's good.
Me: That's fantastic!  Now I have to go make sure she's not dead.

She continued to sleep until after 7!  I don't know what's going on except her naps were a little short yesterday and we've been stretching her feedings to every 4 hours so she eats more at each feeding.  I went to bed at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 6.  THIS IS AWESOME!

deals of the week

It's been awhile since I've posted a deal, but I got some good ones this week.  On Tuesday we hit the Halloween 50% off clearance at Wal-mart.  This bag of 20 playdoh containers and the bag of peanut m&ms were both just $1.24.  I got the m&ms for free plus overage since I had a $1.50 off coupon. The playdoh will help fill Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.

Halloween costumes!

Cadence has been saying for weeks that for Halloween she wanted to be a butterfly fairy, zookeeper,and princess, which pretty much covers all her dress up costumes that fit her well right now.  Believe it or not, we had enough events to go to that she got to wear all three! 

The butterfly fairy attended a costume birthday party Saturday before last.

The zookeeper went to the town Halloween event this Saturday.  (But it was really loud and crowded, and honestly a bit creepy - no where near as much fun as last year - it was moved into an old school cafeteria and we left after about 5 minutes.)

The princess went trick or treating on campus yesterday morning, accompanied by a bunny. 

The bunny really wanted to take a nap.  (I knit the hat using this pattern.)

Piper the bunny slept in the carrier while we walked all over campus and Cadie made out like a bandit!

She seems to really enjoy the chocolate.  And she was nice enough to share some with me!