Birthday Fun!

It was the 4th Anniversary of Sean's 29th birthday on Friday and since his mom was in town we thought we'd celebrate with a double birthday party. We had Penny's 2nd birthday party on Sean's 4th, 29th. It was a lot of fun and a small group.

We had a little obstacle course for the kids for them to do when they arrived and they had fun making 'the circle' from the end of the tunnel back to the beginning of the obstacle.

Penny could not give Scottsen enough hugs. She's going to be a great big sister.

After we ate, we painted lizards and snakes. Penny loves to paint and since it was a small group, this was the perfect activity to buy 20 minutes before cake and ice cream.

Penny's brush got a little out of control. Thank goodness she missed her new Minnie Mouse underwear!

Singing Happy birthday. She kept telling us all week, "I'm gonna have a birthday party and sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME..."

Digging in. This girl loves her "ice cream and cake, and cake and cake"

Every present she opened she said, "Thats for meeeeee!" Thank you everyone for all your generous gifts. We've been playing with them nonstop since Friday.

These crayons came from Brody and were a huge hit. I love them too...they are super slick and vibrant colors (must color in the high chair because the pigment on them stains).

She won't put this Moosey down. Its a puppet and she puts her hand in sometimes, but she really just likes it as a stuffed animal. They have really big eyes which make their faces super love-able. This is the next morning, hence the bed-head.

Her new outfit from Brody. So cute, so cute.

She's turning into a little girl....... we are so blessed to have little Penny in our family and can't imagine it any other way. She's grown so much in the last 2 years and I am amazed daily at what she learns new. She has us all on our toes and her presence brightens the room. We sure love our Penny Poo Poos.

I told him I was taking a picture and this is what he did. Good one Sean. Happy Birthday! I'm so happy to share my life with you....and to watch Les Mis 10th anniversary DVD daily for the rest of our lives. I love you.

THANKSGIVING

We didn't think to pull out the camera and get a picture of all of us at the table with our spread of Thanksgiving goodness. We had TONS of food and I won't have to cook for weeks. It was ALL so delicious, and the company was great too. Here are a few before and after pics that were fun.

Gma learning how to sword fight on the wii. She did pretty good. =)

Panoramic of the aftermath. Michele and Gma Penny are in the kitchen starting to clean up and Anandi and Penny are playing with toys while the rest of us take turns on the wii. Penny moves pretty fast so she's also talking to Dominic in this picture. Pretty soon after, the triptophan started to kick in and people got sleepy. It was a perfect, relaxing Thanksgiving evening.

The masked man in our house, how many times can you spot him?

Penny likes to randomly give the baby hugs and kisses. She keeps asking when the baby can come out so she can "hode him and luf him"

I am so thankful for my blessings and trials. They have shaped me into the woman I am today and I love my life! My favorite part about Thanksgiving this year was having everyone able to share it with at MY HOUSE. I've never done that before and it was a lot of fun to entertain in the comfort of my own home. =)

What was your favorite thing about Thanksgiving this year?

Vacation

Our Thanksgiving break is 2 weeks long this year. It has been a lot of fun to have Dominic home with us during the day, though....I find that I'm still taking pictures of mostly Penny. =)

After trying on her brand (ADORABLE) new jacket that we bought at the end of last season on clearance..... she decided that her nails needed to be painted too. Too much quiet is never a good thing unless children are asleep. Luckily, there was no lasting damage. Her fingers were pretty darn cute all painted up to the first and second knuckle. She was so proud of herself.

Lately, she loves to try on my shoes.

We did a PONY in her hair. From the front, it looks like she has no hair, but from the side and back it is yummy.

She likes to hide in my closet and brush her teeth. Yup, she's a closet brusher.

Penny LOVES, loves, LoVeS, twistie piggies. If you ask her to show someone her piggies, she puts her head down like this so that the person can get the whole effect of her hair. I wub her twistie piggies.....

She loves doing the dishes lately and this activity can buy me up to an hour of time to get something done. She turns her hands into the wrinklies little raisins ever.

She and Dominic have been doing pullups with Daddy....I didn't get out in time to get a picture of Dominic, but Penny was still going strong!

Dominic bought this mask the other day at the craft store. He wears it ALL THE TIME. It is a pretty cool mask. I laughed hysterically when I found him reading with his mask on.

He has absolutely no shame when he's eating ice cream. He's in his own world when he's eating it. It gets EVERYWHERE on his face......but I love it because it just means he's completely enjoying his treat.

So this was our pre-thanksgiving post. Will post our festivities after tomorrow. Can't wait for all that deliciousness. We have so much to be thankful for this year. I love my life!

Mary and Joseph Advent Calendar

I've been working on making some advent calendars for my siblings that have little kiddos. I think they are cute and bring the Christmas spirit and anticipation of Christmas day right to where it needs to be: on Christ's birth.

Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem and Baby Jesus comes down from heaven and is put in the manger.

They start in Nazareth and make their way, day by day, to Bethlehem. This is missing the trim on the bottom (just a gold trimming..any will do), but you get the idea.

There are a lot of pieces to these, but you can cut out two at a time and do it with a friend (takes about 2-3 hours from start to finish). Use a hot glue gun to adhere all the pieces. Make sure you SEW the "hook / teeth" pieces of the velcro to the donkey and to the hay behind Baby Jesus before you glue the rest of the pieces onto them. The pieces of velcro that make up the journey are glued then sewn on. Use as fine point a marker as you can to write, this one was a little fatter than I'd have liked. Enjoy! Pattern to follow


Here is the pattern:

It is hard to see on this pattern, but there is a piece of velcro for Mary and Joseph before day 1 by the word Nazareth, as well as a piece for Baby Jesus in Heaven and another just above the manger for when he is born. So, all together there are 28 small pieces of the "fluffy" velcro glued, then sewn, onto the "MAP".

Pumpkin Waffles

These are my favorite around the holidays. The syrup is what makes the so divine, but the rest of the waffle is pretty delicious too. Its worth the work and your palate will thank you. Just thought I'd share:

Pumpkin Waffles:

2 cup flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

mix above ingredients and then add:
4 egg yolks (save the egg whites)
1 cup pumpkin
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup melted butter

beat the 4 egg whites and until they form stiff peaks and fold into the batter

Makes about 15-20 waffles

Buttermilk syrup

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup

Bring all ingredients to a boil and remove from heat. Add 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vanilla. Stir until mixture settles.

THESE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT!

All things Dominic

Dominic was playing with his bionicles the other day and decided that they were cool enough to stage his own pictures. There are tons on my camera, including several of the blurry "spin fighting" bakugan. I love boys....I love my boy.

He has my double jointed fingers. Can you tell?

We went and watched The Wizard Of Oz play put on by a local youth acting organization and IT WAS REALLY GOOD. Just as good as the real thing in fact. The witch, monkeys and even that evil lady at the beginning flew around when the time was right. It was absolutely perfect and Dominic loved it. We happened to watch the cast that had his friend KIKI in it from his class last year at school. That was really exiting to look for her throughout the play.

Thanks for a great date Dominic!

Just a fun picture of Dominic and I waiting for the play to start. We wanted to take more goofy ones, but the camera died.

Penny Candits

No nap this day and she finally just crashed, mid-show by leaning forward out of her chair at about 4pm. I love her bottom lip and the little bit of drool forming.


She went poopoo in the potty on Sunday (something she has yet done consistently) and was so proud she wanted everyone to see it. She had to look at it like 10 times before she was ready to flush it.

She loves twistie piggies in her hair (this is what I mean by frazzled hair-do's by the end of the day)

She needed to go potty but she couldn't get the lid up on the toilet and discovered the bottle of powder behind the seat and decided to just play instead of ask for help. Sean heard her jabbering from out in the garage and came in to see her covered in powder (as well as the toilet covered in powder).

I'm sure it felt nice and fresh as it was GOLD BOND MEDICATED POWDER...lol

She loves and cuddles on her kittie constantly. Dominic's new thing is to do this whenever he is playing on the floor. I remember doing that ALL THE TIME when I was little and sometimes, I still do.

We got a CAT

Our kids have wanted a cat since we started visiting the local pet stores in the last year. At first Sean and I said NO, NO, NO. It just won't ever happen. About 4 months ago I told Sean that I'd been softening my opinion and wouldn't actually mind one because the kids are so smitten by these cats we go visit. I loved the interactions they had with these cats and wanted that interaction in our home.......BUT, I told him that I would never pressure him into letting us get one. I was letting him know my opinion on the matter. If he ever changed his mind about NO CATS, I would be okay with getting a cat but it would have to be his decision because I didn't want the guilt trip for the following 14 years about the cat.

So we're standing at the pet store on Monday, Sean is watching the kids play with cats and he buckled. Oliver won him over and he told Dominic we could get a cat. So the next day, we came back and picked up Oliver. He's 2 and house trained already (phew..I don't think I could have done a kitten) and he's really really sweet. GREAT with kids and affectionate, but not overwhelmingly so.

Penny and Oliver absolutely adore eachother. She is all over him all day long and he doesn't just endure it, he likes it. He'll come up to her and nuzzle up against her or lick her, ready for more. She loves it and its fun to see them interact. See some of the videos to truly understand what I mean.

Dominic is just awestruck that he actually, finally has a pet of his own. He's been "waiting for this day his whole life." He cleaned out the cat litter without my telling him today. Love it!

In this photo Penny said to Oliver "lets take a nap All-love-her"

They were trying to catch his tail because he kept moving it left and right. Dominic is so happy to have a cat....its his favorite animal, so he says (a dog would not suffice).

Penny's new boyfriend "All-love-her," as she says it.

Taking Oliver Home. Don't mind the ALMOST birds and bees lecture or the WHOA'S from Penny as we rounded the long corner to get on the freeway (my eyes weren't on the camera at all, I was just holding it.



Playing with Oliver. He really likes this mouse, but he was kinda pooped by the time I got the camera out.



Penny, loving and playing with Oliver. She's funny.

My new favorite way to DO Penny's hair

Penny has challenging hair. I love it, its beautiful, but its a challenge to have it be able to look decent all day long (perhaps that is the challenge for all little girls?). Its curly and it likes to do its own thing and so does Penny....unfortunately, some of the things Penny likes to do (like roll on the floor, use her head as a sliding mat, and hide under blankets) wreak havoc on a hairstyle ...... no matter what hair type you have. Add curls and you've got yourself a great hairstyle for crazy hair day at school. So on many days out of the week this is what Penny looks like by the end of the day (or right after she wakes up from naptime)

But, when I do her hair, its so angelic and sweet I could just stare at her all day. The curls on the side of her head make the perfect ringlets usually. I just love it.

This is my new favorite way to do Penny's hair. Her hair is actually down to her shoulder blades and getting quite long.

She's making a silly face here.....her favorite thing to do is make a silly face for the camera and laugh at it when she's done.

I didn't put a clip on her bangs, I usually do.....it looks better with a clip, but you get the idea. So curly and sweet.

Randoms

I love light jacket weather. Penny wanted 'glubs' too but they weren't really needed. We played outside for a few hours the other day just enjoying the sunshine and our friends that we had over. After the soccer game in the driveway and bike riding, we walked up the street to a grassy field and played some more soccer. The boys had a blast and Penny learned how to go potty in the great outdoors.

I love these big brown eyes

We have 6 nativity finger puppets and Penny's favorite is the baby Jesus. She adores this little baby Jesus and carried around with her everywhere for about 4 days. She slept with it and cuddled with it and just loved on it. She's going to be such a good big sister.

Dominic thinks its a treat to sleep on the beanbag. He's only pretending to sleep here. He's such an amazing little guy, I just love him to pieces.