Cutest Little Shepherd EVER!!

Last week Sean and I both helped set up for the Festival of Nativities that the local stakes [for our church] put on this year. It was on a much bigger scale than we have ever seen before and we were quite impressed. We went Friday night and Ethan was kind of a stinker from the moment we got there and didn't really want to do anything or look at any of the nativities. Sean managed to hold his attention a little by having him look for the baby Jesus in each of the nativities. Of course, there were "Please Do Not Touch" signs everywhere which makes it even harder for little ones. This was one of my favorite nativities and I think they said it came from Israel. Beautiful.
This was definitely the most abstract one. Never seen anything quite like it.
Then we attempted to go into the kids room. Ethan, not knowing it was the kids room, drug his feet the whole way to the point that I had to carry him in! Finally, we got to another table of nativities with a sign that said "Please Touch". I told Ethan that these ones were all for touching and he immediately jumped down and started playing with all the kid-friendly nativities. In this room they also had a story tent and a dress-up tent. I asked Ethan if he wanted to dress-up at all and he was quick to respond "no!" Told you he was being a stinker! A little while later Sean and I asked again and he was pretty quick to say "no!" again. Then he thought for a second and said, "a shepherd." Awesome! We took him right over to the dress-up tent where they out-fitted him in 3-year-old-sized shepherd attire and I was very pleased to see that they had a fresh hair cover for each child before any head pieces were put on. Yay! No stressing over lice. Ethan didn't really like the "hat", so it came off pretty fast, but he agreed to put it back on so we could take some pictures - thus, the crooked headpiece with lots of the blue hair cover showing. Oh well, he was still a dang-cute shepherd!

First things first, he had to hold the baby Jesus.
Then we had to get a picture of the shepherd by his sheep.
Then the headpiece was off again and he was back to playing. Although, the rest of the costume stayed on for quite a while.
There was also a nativity scene photo-op with face openings for Mary, Joseph, a shepherd and a wise man. This time, Ethan went with a wise man.

The next room was also kid-friendly: Joseph's workshop. Ethan enjoyed building with the wooden blocks and I was quite impressed with his tower. One of those developmental accomplishments that parents pay attention to!
And then Ethan was able to do a little baby Jesus in a manger craft with some help from mommy. I have to say, the lady directing us needed to chill a little. You had to draw your own face on the wood bead that was being used for the head and she first corrected him when he drew on the top of his head and then again when he just scribbled a little where the face should be. Um, he's three. And you're asking him to draw a face on a round bead the size of my thumb. I, his mother, am more than happy with the scribbles instead of a face. Why aren't you?! Then, the only glue they had for the halo part didn't dry very fast and the halo immediately fell off. Ethan put it back on, but a little crooked and the lady said [a little rudely], "well, I guess baby Jesus will just have to have a crooked halo." Seriously? Again. He's three. Relax! Luckily, Ethan didn't even notice and was all smiles and perfectly pleased with his creation. Exactly the outcome and positive reinforcement I was hoping for!
As we were leaving, we asked Ethan what his favorite part was. Without hesitation he said, "the please touch room!"

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, our house has been decorated for over a week and I am very much enjoying it! My evergreen candles burn every night and I have a cinnamon and cloves scented oil thing. Not to mention the heavenly aroma from our Christmas tree! There is many of our family that won't ever see our home during this holiday season, so I thought I would post some pictures of the decor...

"The Mantle"
This has been my favorite spot so far for our Nativity. It looks even better in person with the white lights. Very simple, very neutral colors. It really is the focal point of the room.
Added bonus: Up high and out of temptation of little fingers!

Decked out halls/walls. With our stocking hung by the couch with care!
Love that picture from Ethan's first Christmas.

Outside.
The village scene was hand-painted by my grandma Sandy and has white lights in the all the windows.

Side table and Christmas books. The new one should be here tomorrow!

The tree!
And partial view of the room as a whole.

It took a bit of furniture re-arranging and the better part of a day, including a massive headache, to figure out where to put everything since this is our first Christmas in this house but I am happy with the outcome and the three of us have enjoyed the reminders of the wonderful Christmas season.

When craftiness and thriftiness collide!

My brief and not-really-very-helpful evergreen swag tutorial.
1. Start with several leftover evergreen boughs from when you trimmed the bottom of your Christmas tree. Tightly wire them all together at the branch end. Cost so far: free.2. Add some holly cut from your own backyard and wire into place. Cost so far: free.
3. Add some red plastic berries you just happened to find in your Christmas decorations box and have no use for by themselves. Wire into a group of three berries and then wire into place with the holly. Cost so far: free.4. Keep your toddler entertained with watercolor painting. You may have to paint a tree for him to add ornaments to. Cost so far: free.5. Add some gold jingle bells that you had yet to find a use for in decorating this year. Cost so far: free.
6. Frustrate yourself trying to follow the poor bow-making directions on the ribbon spool. [Use wired ribbon.] Decide to do it your own way and make a pretty-decent bow for the top. Curl the dangling ends of the ribbon. Cost for 1 spool of ribbon: $1.00 plus tax [in Washington].7. Create a hook with heavy-duty wire by making a loop and wrapping the ends around the top to secure. Cost so far: still only $1.00 plus tax.
8. Marvel in your own craftiness and thriftiness. Cost for step 8 alone: free.
9. Hang your creation on the front door. Total cost: $1.00 plus tax
10. Take a picture, making sure the toddler mentioned in step four is peaking out the front window!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We decided to try something new this year... rather than buying our Christmas tree from a lot at 8:00 at night {Yes, that late! Remember, we used to have crazy work schedules including over an hour commute for Sean.} we decided we would cut down out own tree. We actually live just a couple of miles from a tree farm, so we headed out Friday afternoon.

Of course, Ethan loves any excuse to run around and be wild and there's lot of room to do just that at a tree farm!

He's such a goofball!

After much searching, we found the tree.
Sean cut our tree down for us. Pretty sure that's in the husband/father job description! {Funny side story: Ethan was so anxious to go, he kept telling me we didn't need daddy to come with us! To which I replied that daddy most definitely had to come with us because I would not be cutting down the tree!}Then we tried to do a family picture {and a quick one of mommy and Ethan} in front of the tree. Yeah, we didn't have much luck!
Anyway, we paid for our tree, had them shake and bale it and headed for home.

I love seeing a Christmas tree tied to the roof of our car!

And I love this picture I caught at just the right time! My boys, the Christmas helpers.

Would you believe...

.... I just swept/mopped behind this couch not more than a month ago?! Yeah, I probably wouldn't either. But it's the truth!
Today's treasures included:
* 9 matchbox cars
* 1 Duplo car
* 1 plastic car
* 1 toy monster truck wheel
* 1 play kitchen spoon
* 2 plastic blocks
* 1 marker
* 1 ornament box
* Duplo box lid {I've been looking for that}
* 1 sample mascara {which I knew had accidentally rolled under, but hadn't had time to go fishing for it!}
* dust bunnies, goldfish, a few pieces of popcorn and various other crumbs

Yep, this is what happens when you have hardwood floors... everything slides under the couch way too easily!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

Our Thanksgiving weekend started with our road trip down to Oregon Wednesday afternoon. We made a quick stop to pick Christine up from a friend's house {she hitched a ride from some friends at BYU and got to squeeze in a car with 4 other guys as they traveled through a snow storm!} and then decided to also stop in Salem for Five Guys burgers because we were starving!

Ethan on the drive down.

* Thanksgiving Day *
Mom and I had stayed up late finishing up some of the dinner prep {I made grandma Sandy's rolls for the first time ever and had to shape them and put them in the pan and then leave them to rise overnight} and then Sean had some acid reflux issues and then Ethan woke up early plus my dad couldn't sleep {I think he said my mom was snoring} so NONE of us really slept well. It was a good thing no one was coming until 2pm because we were a little sluggish. Anyway, the first order of business was figuring out the table arrangement in the living room so we could all eat together. We ate with my mom's side of the family: 11 adults, 2 teens and 3 little boys. As expected, the food and the company were equally wonderful! After dinner {my rolls turned out great, by the way!} we had our now-traditional game of Bingo. Followed by couch lounging and goofy picture taking. * Friday *
Lizzy, Christine and I braved the cold, the crowds and the crazies to do some Black Friday shopping in the wee hours of the morning. We started at Target for DVDs, a hair straightener for Lizzy and a few other things. Next we hit up Walmart for a Shark steam mop for Sean and I {and a sunglasses pic w/ my sisters}. There was NO LINE at the check-out!! How is it that on BLACK FRIDAY, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, I don't have to wait in line and every other time I have to shop there the lines are horrible?! What's up with that?!
After an egg mcmuffin and hash brown breakfast run to McDonald's {where we got a good laugh seeing this in the parking lot and chained to the bike rack}we headed to the mall to see what other damage we could do! At the last store we went to, Lizzy pointed out this adorable hat she'd been eyeing. Of course, she had no money with her and asked if I'd loan her the $5 since it was half-price. I agreed and told her to grab me one while she was at it. Well, Christine saw it and decided she had to have it too! So we all bought one. Ha ha!!Seriously, we got so many compliments on our hats from random people!! One chick was even outside the restaurant we ate lunch at and tapped on the window to get our attention, point to her head and then the hats and give a thumbs up. Our second to last stop was Old Navy where we ran into both my mom and Grandma Sandy! Grandma treated us all to lunch at Mucho Gusto and it was fun to spend some time with just the girls. By the way, Sean more than willingly agreed to stay at my parents house to watch Ethan {and sleep in} while I got up to catch the sales. After we got home and after several failed attempts, Lizzy and I finally figured out how to curl her hair with the straightener. Granted, we had to sit down in front of the computer and watch the online tutorial while I tried to mimic on Lizzy's hair what I was watching on the screen but I only burned her once... maybe twice. And it was SO CUTE when we finally got it! That evening, halfway through the Oregon Duck football game we decided to go out to Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Chuck's house to watch the 2nd half of the game since they have satellite TV and my parents do not. Oh, and Sean and I also decided to stay one more night.

* Saturday *
Got to sleep in thanks to my mom and Sean. I was exhausted. Limited, non-restful sleep on Wednesday night and lack of sleep Thursday night led to me falling asleep on the living room floor with Lizzy Friday night. Once everyone else was finally going off to bed, though, I got up and re-crashed in bed and slept oh-so-well. :)

In the afternoon, we ventured out to go see Tangled, but the first theater we tried sold out of the showing we wanted while we were waiting in line. No worries. We killed some time with a visit to Santa {Christine was in stealth-mode and snuck this picture of Ethan chatting it up with Santa}!Then headed to the other theater to catch a later showing of Tangled and LOVED it!! Great movie. Highly recommend it for boys and girls, young and old.
And that's about it. We had a great Thanksgiving weekend and have much to be thankful for.

My Cookware Set Arrived!

There is always great excitement when the UPS or Fed-Ex truck rolls down our street. Usually it's for our neighbor, but today... Today that Fed-Ex truck was for us! Ethan and I were busy listening to Christmas music {probably a little louder than necessary, but I knew our neighbors happened to be gone!} and deciding where our Christmas decorations should go {since this is our first Christmas in this house and we no longer have a mantle} when I heard the truck coming. My fingers were crossed when he stopped right in front of our house and pulled out a huge, obviously heavy box. I knew it had to be my cookware! Of course, all decorating had to temporarily stop while Ethan and I opened the large box and examined the contents. Yep! All 13 pieces of hard-anodized pots, pans and lids were there. Yahoo!These babies are heavy-duty! And oven safe. I always see the cooks on Food Network taking their pans from stove-top to oven and I've always been to chicken to try it.And, of course, how gorgeous is brand-new cookware, void of oil splatter burns, water spots and other stains? Although, anything looks prettier when it's FREE! {And I just noticed that I forgot to grab the steamer when I took these pictures... oops!}

Once everything was unpacked, Ethan got busy playing with all the cardboard and the box. The cardboard pieces all became roads and building for his cars and the box was just something to play in!
Oh, and I have to show you this cute shirt we got on clearance at Target a couple weeks ago. Ethan spotted it, but it was not in his size. We dug a little deeper and found the only other one like it was a 3T, still a little short, but we couldn't pass it up!

Ethan was convinced that when I tilt the camera to the side, he also has to turn his head! He he he!!

Uncle Ryan/Dr. Southworth... This picture's for you! :)

Family, Food, [Black] Friday and a Flick

We are having such a fun time down in Oregon! I can't wait to post about our adventures...

* First attempt making grandma Sandy's yummy rolls.
* Thanksgiving dinner with most of the Grahams [my mom's family]. Beautiful turkey, yummy side dishes and pumpkin pie. Not to mention our traditional Turkey Day Bingo!!
* Black Friday shopping with my sisters... left the house before 5am! Got some great deals, though.
* Going to see Tangled w/ my mom, sisters, Sean and Ethan.

I will post soon.... Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner w/ family, friends and good food!!

Hurried/Distracted Mom Moment of the Day

Yesterday was busy. And I was rushed. Ethan and I were leaving for a last-minute run to the grocery store at 12:15pm. Maddy was coming over at 1pm. I grabbed my concealer and dabbed a little under my sleep-deprived eyes. As I was dabbing, I thought, "gosh, this is a little sticky," but I dismissed it as just being cold because my make-up bag had been in the car and it was freezing outside. Then I took a second look. It was not my concealer! I had just dabbed Shy Beige lip gloss under my eyes!! Oh, boy. In my defense, the tubes are the same size and it is a very light shade of lip gloss!

Lip gloss on top, concealer on bottom.

October Recap

I just realized the other day that I had yet to do October's recap! Almost three weeks into the month and I just now notice. Ay-yi-yi. What can I say, I am a busy mom! Anyway, here it is...

* Date-night-movie-of the-month #1: Yes, you read that correctly... we actually got to see TWO movies this month! The joys of baby-sitting trading. First up we saw Grown-ups in the cheap theater. Hilarious! The cast worked great together.

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month #2: A couple weeks later, we were able to have another date night and decided to see Hereafter. It was... not what we expected. And a little weird. Way more artsy than we were expecting and I wouldn't recommend paying full-price to go see it. Also, it moves pretty slow, so if you can't tolerate artsy, slow films - this is so not the movie for you. I'm even a Matt Damon fan and was still not all that impressed. Oh, and the beginning is sad. I'm pretty sure I just killed this movie for all of you. Sorry! November's movie was awesome, though!

* Zoo: $2 Tuesday is now $4 Tuesday at the Zoo - still way cheaper than paying full price, though. After last May's horrific ordeal just to get in {over-overflow parking, shuttle bus and over an hour to get in}, I was determined to get there early and park at the zoo. Ethan and I were up early and out the door sometime after 8:30am. We got to the zoo just after 9am and there was hardly anyone there! Front row parking, we walked right in and it felt like we had the place to ourselves! I think it helped that, besides being early, it was cold and was supposed to be overcast/rainy. It was also the first time we attempted no stroller and just used the monkey-backpack-harness thing. I hate to use it, but in a big place like that, it sure helps and it worked great! Since there were so few people, must of the time I just tucked the leash-thing in the back-pack, but when it got crowded it helped to still give Ethan some freedom without having to worry about him running off or being snatched up!
There was an awful lot of walking that day. I'm used to it, but it wore Ethan out pretty good. He didn't complain until just a little bit at the end. Other than that, he was a trooper determined to not need his stroller!And, as you can see, it was actually a beautiful day! Cold, but sunny. And, yes, I did let him play in the giant sandbox {like I promised him clear back in May} to his heart's content. I think we were there for a good half-hour, plus!

* Play dates w/ Maddy: We have Maddy over now at least every other week, if not on a weekly basis. They play well together and it's so funny to watch some of their interactions together! Like, in the top right picture, Maddy convinced Ethan to dance with her.They love to do arts and crafts, especially painting. Ethan had already painted his monster mask, so he worked on a ceramic magnet while Maddy painted her mask. They are seriously so cute together... when they are getting along!
[Funny side story about them and male/female interactions. The two were playing outside and Maddy decided she wanted Ethan to come sit by her. Ethan was oblivious and running around with his arms outstretched, calling himself superman {and Maddy decided she was superman pink}. So Maddy calls out, "Come here Ethan! Come sit by me!" as she tapped the spot next to her. Ethan, still oblivious, says, "I'm Superman!" Maddy, not skipping a beat, says, "Come here, Superman. Come sit by me!" as she tapped the spot next to her again. And, of course, all of this was said by Maddy in a sugary-sweet voice. It was hilarious!]

* French dip sandwiches w/ homemade oven fries:We had some potatoes that needed to be used up, so I tried my hand at homemade oven fries and they were so yummy! Just cut 'em into wedges, tossed 'em w/ a little olive oil, salt and spices and threw 'em in a super-hot oven for about 20 minutes.

* Warm, sunny day: We had some beautiful weather here in the pacific northwest in October, but one day in particular it was warm enough that Ethan wanted to be outside, playing in the water!Now, compare that to less than 2 weeks later when Ethan played outside in the water.Yeah, quite the difference!!

* 4 miles walks: As much as we can, Ethan and I try to get out for a walk in the morning and pretty much go four miles every time we venture out. It was especially nice in October and, as I've mentioned before, we admired the changing colors of the leaves each time we went out.
* Oldest nephew's baptism: Our oldest nephew, Jonathan, turned 8 in October and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, because his family lives clear over in Pennsylvania, we weren't able to be there for the big day. We were with him in spirit, though. Jonathan also got the amazing opportunity to be baptized in the Susquehanna River, where Joseph Smith was baptized. {I hope Amy doesn't mind, I stole this picture from her blog.}
* In case you missed it... events of October already covered:
- Pumpkin Patch
- Halloween
- Oregon visit