Fun With Friends

Brooke brought Keagan this morning while she took Kellen to a doctor's appt. Nolan was still asleep, so HK had Keagan all to herself! He was a pretty good sport, humoring most of her shenanigans!

"Look Mommy! Keagan is sitting on my lap!" She was pretty excited that he did humor her so much. Brooke called me about an hour after she had been back home. She found a toy thermometer and 3 spoons in the back of Keagan's shirt!?!?! Oh Hallie Kate...one day these boys are going to be more than you can handle!

This evening we had dinner with the Slaters to celebrate Christmas. We went with finger foods and fondue instead of "regular" dinner. I'll have to say it was all good and quite filling!
HK and Kellen seemed to enjoy the chocolate.

There is never a lack for excitement when we are all together. The spout fell off and tea was going everywhere. We were looking for the spout and it was in Brooke's cup. It was all good for a laugh!

Keagan also ENJOYED the chocolate!

While we finished dinner Karsten put on this old school kids Bible songs video. The kids all LOVE it. It's so funny because Kellen likes to sit and watch it...
while HK tries to do exactly everything that the kids on the video are doing.

Then the kiddos exchanged their gifts. They were very excited. The other day I was so embarrassed when we were at their house. HK said, "Kellen I know that there is a present under your tree for me!" Oh my goodness!!!

HK was so excited to get the Thumbelina dvd.

Oh and what a note to end the evening on. Kellen lately says he wants to be a pirate when he grows up. It seems as if HK wouldn't mind to join him in this adventure.

Merry Christmas Slater Family! We are so thankful for your friendship!

Distractions Spell Disaster

Christmastime brings the makings of Gingerbread houses. It is something that Hallie Kate has come to love. Last year her Nana helped her. Now I know why we waited until a day that Nana was here to do it. When I brought the kit home HK was so excited. So we started it after "rest time" that day.

Lesson learned...Gingerbread house making is something that you cannot multitask! It is something that needs to occur with NO distractions. It is NEVER a good idea to 1) try a new recipe 2) have a 1 yr old boy in the area and 3) make a Gingerbread house all at the same time.
Mistake #1...If you notice the roof on the left side, I put it on upside down. This I did not notice until one half of the gingerbread house was complete.
I then tried to turn it around. HK's face shows the doubt I was feeling at trying to tackle all of these things at the same time.

HK didn't seem to mind that her Mommy was in the midst of a three ring circus about to pull her hair out...

Ring 1) gingerbread house with sliding roof

Ring 2) 1 yr old wanting out of the highchair

Ring 3) new soup recipe going in my deep skillet because I haven't bought a new pot to replace the one I threw away.

We needed Nana!!!

So when Nate called to tell me he was on his way I home I unloaded all of my frustrations and my disappoint of not waiting to do the gingerbread house until a later time.

When he got home he asked if I took a picture of the house. I said that I did earlier when it looked halfway decent. He said...No, I mean the way it is now. NO I cried. He said you should take a picture the way it is now because that is life....sometimes the roof falls in.

Isn't that the truth...sometimes the roof does fall in. Things don't always go the way we want or turn out the way we want. You can mope and cry about it or...
Just eat the roof!!!! I think she enjoyed that the most anyway. If you know my daughter you know that she likes to eat. All she could talk about the whole time was eating the house. So I guess she was probably happy that the roof fell off...because then Daddy said she could eat it.

Well to make up for our failed attempt at Gingerbread house making, we tried another festive project today. When Nolan was asleep this morning we read this very LONG story. It's this Mickey Mouse Christmas book with stories that are minimum 15 big pages with pages that are ALL words. Then at the end they have craft ideas that go along with the story. The story we read this morning had a recipe for ornaments.

So we made the dough...flour, salt, and water. She was very excited.
Wearing her apron

And her sparkly Santa hat. I tried to remind her not to eat it because even though it looked like cookie dough it would not taste like it (1 cup of salt)!

She had fun making the dough for the ornaments!

We brushed some tea on them to give them a brown tint.

Making the ornament shapes

This is the book that spurred today's activity. We baked them for an hour and let them cool. Then we are going to paint them! It was fun and much more enjoyable focusing on just one activity! No distractions this time!

Miss Photographer

Have I mentioned that HK likes to take pictures?

She randomly picks up my camera and asks to take pictures.

The other day she said, "Mommy, may I please take a picture of Bubby eating?"

Not too bad!

Then she moved on to the little tree on the table.

Back to Bubby! He enjoyed her taking his picture!

Then she said, "Bubby let's take a picture together!" ...and held the camera out. Not too shabby, but that one needs some work. I think her arms are going to have to get longer before that one improves!

Maybe she is going to be a photographer one day? She does enjoy it for now. Maybe she will inherit my camera when we hopefully get a new one soon!!!

One Year Pics

I took Nolan the week of his birthday to get his one year pictures taken.

Brooke was gracious enough to let me leave HK with her, and I am so glad that I did.

We waited for almost 30 minutes. The photo shoot itself was fast and sweet.

However, it took me forever to pick out what I need for us and family and stay within my budget! Nolan was an angel while it took me so long.

Thank goodness for Goldfish!

We also had his one yr check-up the Monday after his birthday.

He was a big boy and we got the shots over with as quick as possible!

Head circumference: 19.29 in = 97.8% (sorry Buddy for the big nogan...but I think it's cute!)

Weight: 23 lbs 10 oz = 64%

Height: pushing the 32in mark = 93%

I had to have some Santa pics to go with HK's when she was little. These I will use every year to decorate at Christmas time!

Cookies & Santa

Today was a day full of fun!

First we hung out with Brooke, Kellen, & Keagan and made/iced sugar cookies.

I guess this has become a tradition for us. We decided next year that they would have to come to our "new house" to make Christmas cookies.

Kellen & HK's handiwork. The ones that are drenched in sprinkles would be Hallie Kate's...or today she was Angel Cindy Lou. That is why she has her Tinker Bell dress up outfit on because it has wings. She even slept in it last night because she wanted to be an angel.
Trying to get into the beloved sprinkles.

"Ohhh Kellen don't put that knife in your mouth!"

"Ahhh Hallie Kate you should try it...It's great!"

Then Daddy surprised us and got home a bit early tonight. So we went to Moes for supper. Then we went and ordered Nate some new glasses...FINALLY! While we were picking out Nate's glasses the sales lady asked HK her name. She actually told the lady her name is Cindy. Nate and I couldn't stop laughing. We had to tell her she couldn't go around telling people that she didn't know that her name was Cindy-Lou. She was so serious when she told the lady. So she then told her what her real name is. After we ordered Nate's new glasses we went to visit Santa. We were in line behind a little girl that had a cute shirt with Mr. Grinch and his dog Max on it. I had to ask them where they got it because it would be perfect for HK (especially since she calls Nolan...Max). They found it at Patti's. A little too far to get this year! When we finally got to have our turn with Santa, Nate snapped lots of pictures.


I had to hide behind the camera desk so Nolan wouldn't scream and cry. He did get his lip quite puckered out.

He wasn't quite sure what to think about all of this.

Oh...there is a smile. The lady in front of the camera was pretty crazy.

Nolan was definitely checkin' Santa out. We are pretty sure he did not care for him too much.

He was even reaching for the lady in front of the camera to take him.

HK was a very big girl this year. She even gave Santa several hugs. She was bouncing everywhere she had so much exciting energy by the time we had our turn in line. It was a fun outing!

Thank you Santa!
Here is the picture that got our money.