Update on the Elves

Last night, Brennan and I were picking up the house when Brennan asked me about elves again.

Brennan: How can Santa be everywhere at once?
Me: He isn't... he has elves watching you wherever you go.
Brennan: Someone in my class said that elves live in the cupboards. Is that true?
Me: Well, they have to live somewhere...closets, cupboards, under beds.
Brennan: Well, I don't think they live in our cupboards... there is too much stuff in them for the elves to fit too!

Just as a side note: Brennan has been ACTIVELY looking for elves everywhere we are/go. I'm thinking of leaving "elf scraps/poop" somewhere for him to find. Any ideas/suggestions for what to leave?

Santa's Little Helper

Nolan helping to put out Christmas Decorations.

Projects

So usually I post about my super (crazy) kids or my hubby, but this post is going to be about me (and my projects). I rarely get to toot my own horn, but I think that the projects I've been working on for Christmas are super good~ at least for me. They would probably drive my mother crazy because they aren't perfectly square or centered, but I think that for doing them all by myself, they turned out pretty well!

Over the last couple of weeks I have embroidered 58 kitchen towels (for Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), 19 bathroom towels, 7 winter hats, 3 white Dr. coats, and 2 baby blankets along with sewing 5 baby blankets, a soft baby book, and a big Razorback blanket for Don.

Here are a few of my favorite:

These are Stephanie's Christmas present (and yes she's seen them). I really like the way the colors go together and how everything lined up so well.

These are the Halloween Towels~ Super cute!

These are Nolan's new blankets for his new toddler bed. They were supposed to be one blanket, but they wouldn't sew together straight, so they became two instead!

"I want to be an Elf"

Interesting morning we've had here...

Brennan was full of questions about Santa~ how old is he? is he magic? how do you get to go work for him?

That led to his new fascination- ELVES! Are they real? Why are they so little? Are the my age? How can they be so old and so small?

I answered the best I could based on the movies (sad, I know) that I know he's seen and could compare them to. I think he seemed content with the answers I gave.

Then, as I was making him put on his coat, hat and gloves to catch the bus, he said the funniest thing..."I want to be an Elf." He walks over to me with his beanie tucked behind his ears, making his ears all pointy! "I'm going to be an Elf today." He was so proud that he'd figured out how to make himself look like an elf that I just smiled and nodded and sent him on his way.

Such sweet childlike faith...I want to be an Elf too!!!

I'm A Big Kid Now!

This past weekend, we purchased Nolan a toddler bed to try and transition him from the crib before the new baby (still un-named) arrives. When we were setting it up, Nolan was having a blast climbing all over it. You could tell that he was loving the fact that there was actually a bed in the house that he could get on himself! We found a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bed set (his absolute favorite thing in the world...it's ever surpassed Baby Mozart!) to put on his bed and I even finished the blankets that I bought to make for him months ago. We assumed that everything was ready....

I know, I know... don't assume anything. The first night was insane. He cried for over an hour! Eventually, he figured out that we weren't coming in to play with him and he fell asleep on the floor next to the bed. So Close! Nap time the next day was worse. Since there was light, he could play with the few items we left in the room (blankets, diapers, wipes, books, the garbage). When I went to check on him after about 15 minutes, he had dumped out the garbage, knocked over the lamp, pulled out all of the blankets, opened all of the dresser drawers and tipped over the dresser. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, although he did manage to get out all the creams that were in his top drawers and line them up on the end of his bed. I should have taken a picture of his face when I walked in and found him in such a state. He looked at me and looked around and said (in the sweetest little voice) "Uh, oh." After a quick clean-up, Nolan spent the rest of his nap time in the crib.

The last three nights have been good though- After Don fixed the dresser by adding the drawer stops/latches, Nolan really hasn't done any damage to anything. When we put him to bed, he cries for about 5-10 minutes in front of the gate by his door and then crawls back into his bed and goes to sleep. It's been kind of nice- the only new issue is that Brennan isn't getting as much sleep as he should, but hopefully, the worst is over.

I had to throw in this other picture of Nolan. He is really into stacking and lining things up lately. Usually, it's the biggest on the bottom, but lately he's figured out that you can stack them from smallest to largest. I think he's getting too smart~ If only he would start really talking!

Them Crazy Cousins!

Brennan and Nolan loved having their cousins come to visit for Thanksgiving.

While Nolan was a little reserved at first, he soon took to Marissa and would follow her around the house playing. Nolan was even affectionate with Marissa, giving her hugs and kisses and just sitting with her watching TV~ not acting at all like my little stinker! It took a couple of days, but he also took to playing with Micaela.

Back in the day, many moons ago, Brennan and Marissa used to fight like cats and dogs over everything. I'm extremely grateful that they have both outgrown that stage of their lives, because now they play like best friends! They spent the weekend playing on the play set, shooting hoops, playing air-hockey, playing boardgames and just messing around. One of their favorite games was to pull each other around the house on a blanket. This game eventually evolved into wrapping each other up like a mummy- doesn't Brennan look so silly?

While we may not live close, it is wonderful to have such fun cousins!

Happy Thanksgiving!

or should I say "over-abundance of turkey" day?

This year, instead of driving to Little Rock or farther beyond, we decided that we were going to host dinner at our house, so we invited Heidi and her family to come to visit and eat, and eat, and eat! When she arrived Wednesday night, we got right to work making pies- 1 apple, 1 cherry, and 4 pumpkin pies. It was VERY reminiscent of growing up.... except that I was missing about 10 more pies! After having a few issues with the apple pie (too much filling) and the cherry pie (not enough filling) and a few trips to Kroger, we finally got everything figured out.

Thursday morning went great... I've decided that I love my double oven! The turkey went in at 8, the homemade rolls went in at 11, followed by the ham at noon. The mashed potatoes, cranberries, salad, and sweet potatoes were done at 1- the only issue came when we were trying to make the glaze for the ham and the gravy at the same time. It took about 15 minutes longer than anticipated, but dinner was ready and on the table by 1:30. All of that work for 20 minutes of eating! But it was really, really good!

The funny thing is, I cook like my mother... way too much food for one meal! We had leftovers Thursday night, Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Even as I am writing this, there is still a bag of Turkey and 2 Pumpkin pies sitting in my fridge right now! Oh well, as my mother used to say "Better to have too much than not to have enough!"

So, I would have to say that for my fist attempt at cooking a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, it was quite successful!