Photo recap!

Tell ya what - when the kids are bored and it's 5 degrees outside, here's a way to liven things up... bring a couple of twin mattresses out into the living room. Fashion a tent above them with a king sized comforter, chairs, clips and other various objects. Blow up balloons and let the kids go crazy.



Poor kiddos. They always look like overstuffed pillows in their winter duds. They love sledding, though -- and lest you think I outfit my boys in helmets for run of the mill snow fun, fear not - we were downhill sledding on a hill where a young girl actually passed away after hitting a tree a few years back. :( They really can move in this stuff, promise.




COOKIES!

My hubby's creation:

Deep in the heart of Alaska!

These snowflake clings are really fun and easy to make, just use dimensional fabric paint on wax paper, let it dry, and then stick 'em up.

Another super easy craft even for littles, puffy scrapbooking stickers on clear ornaments. Voila!

This one is a bit more labor intensive. We loosely followed these instructions.

They turned out really pretty!

I can't get enough of the view above!

Photo evidence of why the sliding glass door is NEVER clean.

Where's baby Jesus?

We're having a most merry Christmas season!

How did three months pass me by?

Seriously. The days are long but the years truly are short, huh?

In the months (wow!) since I last posted, Chickie and I went to visit my best friend and her new baby girl in Texas. Chickie started crawling and is now standing for a few seconds on her own. (Sniff! My baybee is totally growing up. I'm sad.) She's got a super toofy smile, with 6, or is it 7 now...? little pearly whites in there. Bug is reading (!!?) and writing (!) and doing it all without much instruction or help from his mama. We find outselves leaning more toward unschooling every day. He self directs and retains so much... and he's so curious and bright. I don't want to squelch that spirit with what the curriculum dictates any given day, so we tend to meander and follow his interests. Monkey is very much 2, going on 3... I seem to recall three being worse than two with the Bug. Yikes, I am so in for it.

We're gearing up for Christmas with some serious craftin' round heyah'. The boys have been making ornaments and all manner of snowflakey-inspired items, we've had our fill of hot cocoa and Christmas movies, and I'm totally jazzed for the big day. We got the kids some things I'm really looking forward to enjoying with them and watching them enjoy. Christmas is so much fun as a mama of littles. I don't think it was even half this much fun when I WAS little. The anticipation is so fun to experience through their little eyes.

I'm working on several things.

• My diet/health. I had some allergy testing done and discovered that I react highly to wheat, corn, and dairy. :( I also joined a gym and have been working out a few times a week.
• Frugality/financial solvency. We switched to a cash only budget (again) a few months back, and it's a fun challenge for me, but I've realized how often I went shopping out of boredom. Not doing that has been difficult. I used to stop by a local department store or the new Target once or twice a week. Now I never go. Good for the budget, but my boredom meter is ever rising. Trying to find new things to do with three kiddos in the deep winter is interesting. Seeing the savings account grow is encouraging.
• The art of homemaking. I'm trying to devote time to making my house our home, and doing those things I really love; decorating, scrapbooking, sewing, cooking...

Anyway. Next up, pictures!