Christmas 2009

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. You can check out a few more of our pictures on facebook if you are interested. We had a lot of fun!

Vance's birthday

Vance had a lot of fun celebrating his birthday. Thanks to everyone for wishing him a happy birthday. He was feeling loved.Here's a sign I made for him. I put monkeys on it since he wanted a monkey cake.

Here's the monkey cake I made. I found the idea on the internet. I'm not sure why Vance wanted a monkey cake, but he did. At least he didn't pick something more difficult.
Vance was so funny yesterday. He insisted that I sing happy birthday to him several times throughout the day and he'd pretend to blow out his candles, but when it came time to sing for real he hid his head. We did get him to blow out his candle.

Tanner wanted to help unwrap the gifts too.
This is a Leapfrog Clickstart computer from my parents. So cute and both boys have had lots of fun with it already. We have toys everywhere and Christmas isn't even here yet!

Weekend

Stephen's parents were up for the weekend so Vance was able to open his birthday gifts from them and we all opened our Christmas gifts from them as well. What fun!? Also this weekend one of my friends from Zillah got married and Stephen and I went to her wedding. Doesn't she look beautiful? Oh, I feel so huge and then I see pictures of myself and know that I am huge. I know I am pregnant, but does it have to show so much everywhere besides my stomach? Haha, oh well.
Oh, I also got my haircut.

Vance's b-day video

Here is a slideshow I put together for Vance's fourth birthday which is next Tuesday. We are busy, busy, busy with things going on around here so I figured I would post this now since it is finished and before I forget too. I chose a song that was popular around the time. It's called, "Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy. I also think it fits since Vance refers to himself as Dance.

Tanner at lunchtime

This is what happens when you decide to get up before 5:30 in the morning.

Child/Budget Friendly Christmas Decorations

Welcome to our home's decorations. Since my children are 4 and 2 I stick with child friendly decorations and since we don't have a surplus of money I don't spend a lot on decorations. We may not have the most extravagant looking house during Christmas time it is a lot of fun!

At our front door we have a little sign I made with my Cricut Machine (which is how I do a lot of my decorating). Also, the most fun thing here it the Origami Wreath my husband made. He is very talented, as you can see.
Our tree is looking a little bare currently because most of the decorations that go on it will be made by our children and I throughout the month. The star on top is an origami one done by my husband. We give each child an ornament each year and sometimes we get them as gifts, otherwise everything on our tree is handmade.
I made the Santa and Reindeer in the shadows with my Cricut Machine as well. Our nativity set is the Little People Nativity Set. It is great because my kids can play with it and I don't have to worry about any of the pieces breaking.
Our stockings were made by my mother-in-law. Aren't they awesome?

We also have snowflakes hanging in our window to make it feel wintry.
This is a Christmas Advent I made to do with my boys. You can find out more about it here. Here is another advent that my mother-in-law made for my boys this year. It has a present to unwrap each day until Christmas.
This wall is also looking a bit bare. This is where I will be hanging up art and craft projects throughout the month.

Life

You forget how confusing life can be until you are trying to explain things to your preschooler. The other day I was trying to explain to Vance the purpose of Christmas. I thought it'd be easiest to tell him that Christmastime is for celebrating Jesus' birthday. Vance got very indignant at this point and said, "No, it's my birthday!" Well, as a matter of fact his birthday is three days before Christmas so he has a point.
We've casually talked about how I have a baby growing in my tummy. It's become easier now that I am showing and a lot of times Vance brings it up himself. However, a lot of times he tells me that he has a baby in his belly too and I try to kindly tell him that just Mom has a baby in her belly. Well, this morning he brought up the fact that I have a baby in my belly and told me that he did NOT have a baby in his. This made me happy. Yes, we are getting somewhere. Then he informed me that Baby Jesus was in my belly. Yep, still laughing about that one whenever I think about it.
Cute things I just have to mention since I'm typing: This morning the boys crawled in bed with me and made me sing songs with them. So fun. Also, Tanner loves to have me sit next to him at the piano and play and sing songs from the Children's Songbook. Today Vance joined us and put his arms around me and Tanner as we sang "I Am a Child of God". So sweet, nearly brought tears to this pregnant woman's eyes.
We are super excited because my sister finally had her second little girl this evening. Congratulations to Holly, Sean, and Jillian! They are naming her Chloe. :) I told Tanner he had a new cousin and he nodded and said, "Yep." like he already knew that. When I told Vance he repeated her name and then said, "I love it." Ahh... then he informed me that Chloe was his baby. I told him that she was Holly's baby, but he still insisted that it was his. I'm thinking that her parents will disagree.