Happy Heart Day!

We've had fun counting down to Valentine's day with our little advent calendar.  Each envelope has something simple in it for the day, such as "on the 2nd day of Valentines, be a love bug and give someone a hug" and "On the 8th day of Valentines, think of someone on your street and take them a special treat."

It's also our countdown to baby Asher.  Originally, the c-section was scheduled for tomorrow, but will be next Friday instead.  If I go into labor on my own before that, the doctor will let me try a vbac.

We wrote these to each other one night as part of our advent.  

 And Samara has been making Valentine cards for us all month.

We put new labels on hand sanitizer for our teacher gifts.  Labels found here.   They are super cute and simple to make.  However, next time I'll make sure not to get the bottles with the orange spouts. 

I  got the fishbowl printable and matching game from that site as well.   I heart free printables!!

Does staying up late with a blog-stalking addiction qualify as creative talent?  Perfect.  I will keep working on growing my talent.

My brilliantly creative friend Malia designed this template and let me alter the colors and backgrounds to create the girls' valentine cards.  I'm really happy with how they turned out!



Once the card was printed, we used "scratch off" heart stickers to hide the words.

Lizzie kept asking to hold her "valen card".  One day I found her on the island putting stickers on herself.  I yelled at her to stop and really startled her.  I really need to be less uptight and let them help with the the projects that I do "for them".  I felt so sheepish when I saw how well she put the stickers on and realized all along she'd been asking for her card because she wanted to put the stickers on.


Samara was very happy when she came home with a mailbox full of valentines.  I loved seeing all the kids' collection boxes when I dropped her off at school.  They were so creative and fun!   The red chevron-striped fry box with licorice was my favorite.  It has red vines in it and says, "I only have fries for you."  I'm saving that idea for next year.  

After watching the Peanuts valentine special, Samara wanted to find "heart-shaped shaving lotion" for Ben.  In that episode, Violet wants to buy some for her male teacher.  Samara settled on shaving cream but insisted it be a valentine-eve present because "we give presents on Christmas Eve so why can't we give presents on Valentine's eve?"

We had a nice family dinner and these baked pink donuts for dessert.  I sure love my sweet valentines.

Ben has a contact in the nutrition department who was able to "can" his valentines treats for us.  We all loved them!  All he had to ask was "can?  can?"  Such a clever husband I have. :)

I may have a new favorite holiday.

The Year of the Snake

Since Asher will be born in the year of the snake, we had to have a proper celebration.  I have to admit that I'm disappointed he'll miss being a dragon baby by just over a week.  If he's not as successful in life as we think he should be, we'll know why. :)

The girls were THRILLED to get new undies and $1 in their hongbao envelopes.  I will miss this season when they are young and so easy to please.  But maybe when they are older they will sleep in later and then there will be enough light outside to get decent pictures.

We had a snowy first day of the lunar new year.  The girls were excited to dress up for church.

A few simple crafts

One of the highlights of the day was a short visit from some friends who brought hongbao for the girls and pan-fried wontons from their Chinese restaurant.  The wontons were so good!

We had some over for dinner and it was really fun to celebrate with them.  They brought yummy red velvet cupcakes and snake mud pie for dessert. 

I found pomelos at the grocery store and had to get them for our Singapore friends.  Mandarin oranges are also a traditional gift/treat so we stocked up on those as well.

We hope the year of Snake is prosperous and finds you all well and happy!

Two and a Half

I've had this in my drafts for ages and want to get some things recorded about our little 2-yr old because she is now 2.5!  Our baby Lizzie won't be the baby come next month.

Second Birthday

Elizabeth is at such a fun age.   I love two-year olds and I wish I could bottle her up so I could always have my two-year old buddy around...minus the outbursts. :)  She is a delightful little tease.  We never would have imagined she'd grow up to be such a ham/character/cheeky little girl because she was such a serious and somber baby. 

Here are some things I want to record.   This is really for own journaling and I'm sure there are a lot of typos (in addition to the ones that are on purpose to show how Lizzie's speaks) but now it's at least written for me/her to remember.

You love your daddy.  Some of your first 'sentences' were "Daddy come home!" and "Daddy hold YOU!"  You get so excited when Daddy comes home and are so affectionate and sweet to all of us.  Though sometimes your affections can be a little rough.

You love to eat but can be picky about what you will eat.  If I'm not prompt with getting food, you take matters into your own hands.   Some of your first words were, "I do it."

As a matter of fact, you take a lot of things into your own hands.  You put on 3-4 pair of shoes by yourself while we wait for your sister to get on one pair for school.

You adore Samara and your cousins and love playing with older kids.  But you don't like when I call you Samara.  The other day when I called you Samara and you said, "Don't call me dat.  I'm not Samara.  My name is Elizabet!"  You know your whole name and it's so cute when you say it.

When you are excited, you can barely contain it.  You crinkle your nose and squeeze your fists together and say "Otay!  leeeet's do it".  It makes my day every time.

You love poo-poo and potty talk, tell knock-knock jokes, "read" and tell stories.  It's adorable when you say, "once upon a time" then proceed to tell a story and finish with "dee end!"

You are polite and are good at remembering your "please and thank yous" without being prompted.  You mostly repeat only nice things.  When we went to the store a while back and Samara wanted something you calmly told her, "not today darling."

You'll often tell us, "oh dats nice.  Good job."  You went through a phase where you told me repeatedly about anything new, "I'm not afraid to try."

Your imagination is growing all the time.  You had the following conversation with yourself after ringing the doorbell on the play house, "ding dong.  tome in.  how are you?  I'm fine.  My friends are toming over tonight.  Oh, dats fun."

You readily agree to things but then are quick and have a very rational reason for not doing it when the time comes.  When we went to take these pictures (soon after you turned two) we talked the whole way about how you were going to cooperate and let me take your picture.  You did not cooperate at all and when I asked why your reply: "betause I wanted to det in the water."

When I asked asked why you threw your banana off your tray and made a big mess, your reply: "Betause I don't want to eat a banana, mama."

When we were at the store and you started throwing oranges from the cart and I asked why on earth you'd do that, your reply: "Betause they look like balls."

When asked to sing a song in the car, your reply: "no, I'm too tired to sing today."

You don't say your k's and g's and I think it's darling.  We thought only buckwheat from the little rascals said, "otay".  You often add in words like probably and anyway when explaining something. 

You have so many expressions!

You went through a little "owie" phase, where you always wanted a band-aid and thought you were hurt when we took it off of you.  You were always asking for "new owies" if your band-aid fell off.

Last week you had a bad ear infection and kept asking for a band-aid for your ear.  You did not want to go to the doctor and when I told you we were going so she could look in your ear, you said, "I'm all better.  My ear don't hurt no more." (even though it had ruptured that morning)

Your baby goes EVERYwhere with you.  You love babies--both pretend and real.  You tell me about your baby, "This is my favorite baby.  She loves me so much."  And you tell her, "c'mon darlin" when you want to go somewhere.  Our friends were kind enough to let you hold their new baby a couple weeks ago and you didn't want to stop holding her.  You kept saying, "she's a sweet baby."  Then you asked, "can we take it home with us?"

You also love your dreamlite and the little butterfly goes almost as many places as your doll does.  The other night I came up to check on you and found you asleep with your dreamlite on and your baby resting on your chest.  So sweet.

You don't like time outs but are getting better at understanding why you are having one.

You are not afraid to let us or anyone else know when you don't like something.  When we went to the doctor you kept saying, "I don't like it here.  Go away.  I'm all better so we can go home."

You love going to the "moo-z-em" and make the cutest super hero.

And last but not least, you almost have enough hair for pigtails, which are adorable but you won't keep in.

December 25th: Christmas Day!

Growing up, my siblings and I would often have a sleepover on Christmas eve and then wake up at 4 AM to open presents.  I can't believe my parents put up with it!  Admittedly, I was up several times in the night wishing it were already time to wake up.  The curse of not sleeping...

Lizzie loves doll strollers.  At nursery and anytime we go to someone's house, she goes straight for the stroller.  When she saw the stroller under the tree, she said, "Oh.  A stroller?  Is dat for me?"

Samara wanted Stompeez for Christmas last year, but they were all out online and at the north pole.  This year stores were selling them so we made sure to snatch a pair back in November.

Lizzie enjoyed opening her presents but the stockings were her favorite.  She ate half her goodies within an hour.  Do you love how she shoves her sister out of the way to get to her stocking?  I didn't even notice until I watched the video.  She is serious about her snacks.

Lizzie loves Signing Time DVDs.  She calls them "baby.com DVDs".  She exclaimed, as she opened it, "It's a new baby.com.  A new one!  Can I watch it?" 

 Samara made Ben a spiderman magnet in art class.  Both girls get so excited whenever they see anything spiderman.  I have a feeling many of Ben's gifts through the years will be spiderman/super hero related.

We planned on getting a trampoline this spring but found a great deal on one decided we'd get it for Christmas.  The trampoline will be nice to have in the basement for the winter especially once the baby comes and we don't get out as much.

I love the magic of happy kids on Christmas morning!

After a visit from Grandma and Uncle Kenny, it was off to Ben's brother's in the afternoon for sledding and a delicious dinner. 

I had to chuckle when I saw the video because everyone came home complaining of sore tailbones caused by the "big jump", which doesn't look so big on film.  :)

My SIL is an awesome cook and we throughly enjoyed dinner.  As my niece was saying the blessing on the food, Samara leaned over and whispered, "and say thank you for the delicious turkey.  I love turkey!".  Christmas was a wonderful and full day.  I literally fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas wherever and however you celebrated!

December 24th: Magic Dust

'Twas the night before Christmas, excitement ran through our house.

Santa's milk and cookies were set (secretly out for my spouse).

We had food for the reindeers, they wouldn't need to steal,

And when the first star appeared, we enjoyed a festive Slavic meal.

Later that night, Santa's extra cookies, we did eat.  Making the girls wait to open their Christmas eve presents was no easy feat!

The Magic Dust

Since this summer, Samara has been asking for magic pony dust that turns her my little ponies into real ponies.  Luckily, our neighbor has real ponies and was gracious to let me borrow one for a few hours.  While Ben and the girls were out delivering goodies to neighbors, a package containing the 'magic' dust was delivered.  

Samara sprinkled the magic dust, which she expected "to be more sparkly and not just look like cut up paper."  She said the magic words and we waited five minutes, per the instructions.  Five minutes later, we went outside in search of the pony.

The girls were so surprised to find the dust was not phony!  Their reactions were adorable.  After a few minutes, Samara said, "maybe our neighbor brought the pony over.  No, she's out of town.  The dust must really work!  But I did think the real one would look more like Princess Celestia." (see picture above of play pony)

I had horses growing up but it has been a while since I've actually handled them.  I did not expect the little pony to move SO fast or be so strong as I walked him over.  It was quite the sight.  I felt like Santa, with my jolly round belly bouncing as I tried to keep up with the pony, not slip in the snow, and balance the hay bucket.  I giggled as I thought how funny I must look.   I expected to go the back way and was so worried my family would see me on their way back from delivering goodies.  Ben actually did see me coming up their street onto ours and was able to turn before the girls noticed me.  Phew!

After feeding the pony a carrot and fielding questions about the dust, we read/acted out the nativity (each having multiple parts) and then it was off to bed for the babies.

While sweet dreams danced in their heads, stockings were filled, gifts set out, and the pony returned.

Today marks a year since we "moved" into our house.  Needless to say, this Christmas Eve was a tad bit more relaxing than last year.

On the walk home, my heart was full of gratitude for all of our many blessings and the miracle of a babe born so long ago in a stable, perhaps not unlike the one to which I'd just returned the pony.  I am so grateful for Christ's birth, life and mission, all of which make it possible for me right my wrongs and be with my little family forever.

December 23rd: Christmas Card

We LOVE getting cards in the mail so I don't know why I've never made it a priority to send one out.  

I did get one made yesterday after Jeanne snapped a few pictures of us...just in the knick of time.

  A digital one is a start and maybe next year a printed card will actually make it in the mail!