Outage

snowflake playdough

January is long.  January is dark.  January stinks. January usually makes me wish I still lived in a warm weather climate.  January makes me pull myself up by my boot straps and come up with things that will make me a happy mommy with happy kids that aren’t bored from being stuck inside.

So when I came across this gem of an idea, I went with it.  Having fun with playdough around here.  Snowflake playdough to be exact.

I went with my own variation (of course, because when do I ever really follow all the directions? :o) and we came up with this fun conglomeration of ooey gooey sparkly hands-on delightfulness.

It’s your basic salt playdough recipe (2 cups flour, 2 cups water, 1 cup salt, 1 T Cream of Tartar, 2 T vegetable oil – cooked at medium until it forms a ball and then let to cool on a heat proof surface.)  But this is where it gets fun….

Cool it a bit and then put it in a baggie. Add a bit of blue food coloring (because Anna wanted her snow to be blue) and a ‘goodly’ amount of glitter.  I also dropped in a bit of almond extract to make it smell yummy (it’s winter, I don’t have kool-aid).  Let your helpers wiggle, jiggle and shake that bag.  (After a bit, I put it on the counter and kneaded it thoroughly.)

Play and have fun.  Simple and enjoyable.

And now for the obligatory cute growing baby shots.

1/2 a year, baby

6 months old and blowing us away by your unconditional love everyday.  We are all enjoying every moment we get with your beautiful eyes and infectious smile.

This month you began solids; you like carrots, avocado and sweet potatoes best.  Mama had to ease you into apples and bananas by mixing it with oatmeal because for some reason, you just didn’t like those as well at first.  Meat is not your friend either (and do I blame you for not wanting to ingest gelatinous foul smelling baby meat?  Not at all.)

You had a fabulous first Christmas and a week full of snow – you didn’t mind the cold, but you didn’t like when snowflakes bopped your face.  You did, on the other hand, love to lay under the tree and reach for ornaments and lights.  You got your first cold and your first ear infection this month.  Mommy only knew something was wrong because you didn’t sleep well one night and cried.  You hardly ever cry.  So when you do, we know it is something worth making noise about.  You are quite adept at pretending you’ve taken your medicine.  You hold it in and when we least expect it, you push it back out of your cheeks – stinker.

This is Hadleigh in my Dad’s stocking – Dale.

Her middle name is in honor of him – Dalea.

This past month you’ve started to give kisses (oh, be still my aching heart!) by grabbing a face with two hands and opening your mouth and leaning in.  It’s one of the most precious things EVER.  You also rocked your first ponytail this month…you’ve got so much hair for a little babe!  I think even some adults are jealous of your wavy and shiny locks.

Your eyes are blue.  Definitely blue.  We think at the moment they are actually blue like grandmother’s, but for sure a lot like Daddy’s too.  Your cheeks are rosy like Mom-Mom but you’ve got the Engle chipmunk cheeks like your siblings.

You are developing the fine girly art of flirting (is it genetic? Because it’s not like we taught you!) and you love your toes.  You grab your feet at every chance and investigate those very interesting things that are often hidden by socks – much to your dismay.

We’re so excited to live life with you – and to grow with you and to love you more each passing day.

(*this post is brought to you following a severe blogging drought because of a crazy sick-y new year. 20 days down with someone sick wore me out!)

Tidings of JOY

From us to you…we wish you a Merry Christmas filled with the JOY of the Savior.

5 months–not possible!

Beautiful babe, you are five months today.  Impossible.  Really.  The time has flown and we are loving every moment with you.  That’s not literary license, that is the truth.  Even the tough ones (of which there are not many), we are truly thankful you were sent into our lives and our family.

You can now roll over both ways, giggle (which makes us giggle back at you), and you are babbling up a storm!  You still haven’t had regular food, but we have just begun to notice that you are taking particular interest when we are eating and drinking.  You like your hands and are very deft at grabbing things in your midline.  You even grab things in front of you when you are on your belly (with a little extra effort!).

You share your infectious smiles with everyone and your inquisitive eyes take in everything. It seems not much passes by you with out you processing what it was and how it fits into your world.  You stare at Mama when she is feeding you and study her face with intensity.

Thank you for loving us.  Thank you.

A “Mary” Christmas

Today was Anna’s last preschool Christmas pageant. (sniff, sniff…)  To say she was ecstatic when they chose her to be Mary would be an understatement.  She has been singing her songs to anyone that has ears and has been gently laying her dolls down in the manger to simulate her big moment.

We love that she has the opportunity to go to a Christian preschool were Christ really is the center of their days and of their lives.  We are insanely grateful for her teachers and Christ-like love that they lavish on the 3 to 5 year olds that are in their care.   Anna really loves preschool too.  (In fact, she just asked me 10 seconds ago when she would go back to preschool.  I informed her that she wouldn’t go back until after Christmas break and she made a very sad face.)

Mary and Joseph entering Bethlehem on the donkey.

Mary holding baby Jesus with care.  (She told me she was remembering to smile because at first “I was a little bit nervous because there was a lot of people Mama!”)

After the play and intermission, they changed out of their costumes and came back for an encore to present their songs they’d been working on.  The above is Anna praying for our snacks – too precious.

Anna had many adoring fans that came to watch her today ~ Marion and the boys, Grandmom and Ms. Dana all came to cheer her on while she performed.  She was delighted to have a fan section and waved sheepishly to us as she proceeded down the aisle.  We are so proud of her and the gorgeous heart on the inside of her little body – full of life, full of love, and full of the joy of the Lord.

outside and in

Christmastime is here…outside and in.  The little snowfall we had last week (followed by some 70 degree weather – wahoo!) was just enough to really get us in the spirit…and to just enough for Banana and Mommy to make a snowman!  It was just the right consistency, and baby sister was napping and it was too much to resist.

So trudging into our snow clothes we did go.

We made a snow man….caught snowflakes on our tongues….

and when we were good and (wet) cold, we had some hot cocoa.

Of course, when the tree is up and you want to sip hot chocolate, you need some cookies to go with it, right?  Who is this mama to argue when my kids want to bake with me…Hudson particularly has been set on making what he deems “christmas cookies” – to him, that means cut outs with icing and decorations.  Forget that I’ve tried to convince him that Christmas Cookies can be a multitude of different delights.  He is dead set.So that’s what we did  tonight while Daddy is at work until late…Wednesdays are our days that I intentionally plan something to entertain us all.  Anna and I mixed the dough early in the day and after our gourmet dinner of frozen pizza & salad, we got to the rolling, cutting, baking and decorating.   While watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, obviously. :-)

Homemade icing paint rocks.  If you don’t know about it,  ask me.  It’s the greatest thing ever for little cooks that love to decorate.

I do have to have a couple different kinds of cookies at Christmas…but am trying to make a tradition of a few particular ones. 

What cookies can you NOT pass up at Christmas?