Crashed Out Baby!

Akasha hasn't been napping much in the day but crashed out early today. I guess the holiday wore her out!

Merry Christmas

We pretty much sucked at getting any pictures this Christmas. Orion woke up before everybody else and rushed out to the gifts. My the time we wandered out, we only had the chance to get a few stocking photos.


The kids were pretty happy with all their new stuff! Action links, a Handy Manny construction set, a dolly that pees, a stroller, a shopping cart, play dough stuff and lots more!

More Cookies!

Tessi and Amma came for dinner and brought some awesome gifts. I can't believe I forgot to take any pictures though! Later on, had to get our shape cookies made for Santa! These were plain sugar cookies, so got out a bunch of shapes!
Busy busy busy!
I gave a bit of dough to Akasha to roll out on her own, and she did really well with it!
A done pan!
This one amused me because Candle in the Wind popped into my head.
Later on, we decorated. That was interesting lol. That is a reindeer on the lower left. Orion said it is the cross that makes him fly!

Happy Solstice!

Technically Solstice happened late on the 21st this year, but we had our little celebration on the 22nd with some friends. I made a dinner that included a Greek chicken dish with sun dried tomatoes and lemon and fudge and orange jello to represent the dark and light halves of the yedar. Here we are getting ready for things.

Each kid had their own votive to keep lit all night to help the sun grow strong again, which they had decorated with glitter glue pens. It was a pretty cute little ritual. When we thought about things we wanted to leave behind in the dark, there was talk of anger, sadness and of course, monsters lol. Then I read the story about the tired sun from Circle Round, and we lit all our candles and talked about the new year. We even had a few presents!
I got this thing for Kai that had a couple ramps and several cars. Daddy Brian saved the night by putting it together, and then it was a huge hit for quiet awhile, with only a little drama over the sharing of it.
What a cutie that Nicole is!
Cheers!
Nicole sandwich!
Three boys all in a row.
More playing . Akasha didn't want to wear the cute dress I had picked out lol.
A picture worth a thousand words haha.
OK, I look a bit more normal in this one, but dang I need to do something with my hair!
Later on and a few cute pics of the kids on their perch.

Numbers!

So out of the blue I found out Akasha is already recognizing numbers! Seems like it is much earlier than Orion did, but I guess they all go at their own rate. Here is how it happened: We were playing the Hungry Caterpillar game, and it has a spinner with numbers. Akasha and I were playing as a team, and she was doing the spinning. She took her turn and said, "I spinned a two!" I was like, Whoa! So I started asking her what the other numbers were, and she knew them all! Amazing what they pick up all on their own, eh? :)

Spoons!

One of Akasha's favorite things to do is get into the silverware drawer and collect all the plastic spoons. We have several different colors, so they are visually appealing I guess. She was holding a bunch the other day, and it struck me I needed to get a photo for all my friends who love The Spoon Theory.
OK, so one is a spork, but you never know when one of those will come in handy as well! :)

And finally, our tree!

Here is the beautiful tree we got at Corner Crest. I love the natural shape of it!

Looks kindof strange with the line of the neighbor's lights in the background, but this is the best one I got.

Is that a tree fairy I see?
Awww.

Gingerbread Cookies!

Today was gingerbread cookie making day. Last year I did them while Akasha slept, but this year I was brave and tried it with both of them. Akasha was so funny the way she would slam the cookie cutter down and remove it super quickly. It was hard to keep up with her and remove the shapes!

Flour forehead!
We made hearts
and snowmen
and stars
and of course little men!
Later that night I made some frosting up for Orion to decorate them with
and that was a HUGE hit. He totally outlined some of them and said they were clothes. :)

Holiday Express

I bought tickets for the Holiday Express train, and was planning on taking Orion, but he hasn't been getting enough sleep lately and didn't feel up to it. So I went with just Akasha, and she really seemed to enjoy it!

I tried to hold the camera out for a picture, but the backlight really confused it lol.
Cute little elf passing out candy canes.
This picture was an accident, but I decided I liked it anyway. It's an art shot lol.
Sarah wouldn't go near Santa, so I didn't bother taking any more photos of him.

The lights hung in some of the cars were really pretty!
And here is what it looked like from the outside. Got a shot of the next ride from the parking lot. Look at all that steam!

Another Pet Slug?

We have been getting slugs in the house all Summer, but I was surprised to see this guy in Winter! So I finally decided to take a picture of one. It really is the craziest thing. Apparently they LOVE dog food. Not even sure how this one managed to get in as not like we are leaving the slider open. Even in the summer, I would be surprised as Kona's bowl is usually all the way across the kitchen from the door, so I would wonder why I never saw them on their journeys - always found then on the dog dish! And they are always really big ones, so not like they would be easy to miss lol. One time I found one with its mouth on a piece of kibble. It looked like it was all stretched out around it. Kinda made it look like a lamprey or something! It was really a bit creepy.

Getting Our Tree!

We got our tree at Corner Crest Farm again this year. It was a nice trip, and Orion got to play with Logan for a bit, and didn't want to leave lol. We got an awesome natural tree, and Orion took a few pictures with the little camera.

Chattin it up with Craig.
Al and Paco. Orion actually took a bunch of them, but was really excited with this one since they were both looking at the camera. They are so sweet and cute!
I liked this one so much I had to crop it in!
Orion was pretty excited about the new sandbox Craig made. What a handy guy he is!
Pictures of tree coming later.

Treasures from California!

I try to bring home a few things that belonged to my mom every time I go to California. Here are some of the treasures that came home this trip.

This picture thing was not something she ever used, but I have always wanted something like it. I found it in the sewing room, which probably meant she intended to sell it, but I brought it home and got a bunch of pics developed to put in it. Kindof reminds me of a peacock tail!
One of the main things I wanted to get this trip... all the "cookbooks". These are photo albums with cut out recipes stuck inside. They are all falling apart, and probably won't have too many recipes I will actually use, but I am hunting for certain of the holiday recipes and will have fun going through them!
An idea of what they look like inside.
I also grabbed this three ring binder that had a whole copied book about household tips for this and that. Looks to be about from the 80s I think some of it, like getting stains out and such, might be really useful. But I also found it hilarious that the chapters were all like For the Kitchen, For the Laundry, For the Carpet, and then... For the Children! LOL, um OK, I turned to it with trepidation, wondering what horrors I would find, and honestly, I was mostly pleasantly surprised! I think the worst thing I found was in the Newborn section:
Actually, the first and third points have some good philosophy behind them, but PERFUME? Really? And used freely? Gag! Maybe something lovely like a diluted essential oil mist. :) And of course it makes more sense to just sleep with baby, but if you are going to go the other route, the heating pad does sound like a nice touch!

Some cute stuff in this one:
Better yet, put it in ice cream! We do this all the time! And a penny sucker? Is there still such a thing? LOL, great idea though!

Loved both of these! A laundry basket - what fun!
This by far was the biggest ROLF factor:
Oh, and about now I was getting annoyed it was ALL "he", but that is mostly how it was back then. :/ But still, what a touching, sweet thing to be advocating.

This was the second idea for how to deal with shampoo. Brilliant and fun!
I like this idea so much I might have to do it:
And last but not least... this lady totally has my vote after this one:
"respect for the little one". Respect for the little one?! Really? What a novel concept. I was just so surprised in a good way to see this phrase. I was expecting all kinds of crap about time outs and other discipline this and that, but it was nothing but love and fun.

Oh, and I snagged my baby book. It wasn't much kept up after the first few pages, but there were a few cute tidbits. Here is my picture from still in the hospital!
Here you can see my wittle bracelet and card that was attached to my bassinet:
The thing to note is that it was compliments of the Pet Milk company!!! Pushing homemade formula no doubt!

And I thought this was amusing:
Short skirts and long hair! Everything went one way or the other I guess. ;) That's it. Hope you had some giggles.