Please note Batgirl on top of the house. Even Barbie needs protection against evil doers.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Bake Sale
During nap the other day Jacob and I could over hear Charlotte reporting on the earthquake in Haiti from her bed. When the dog started barking and interrupted her "broadcast", we overheard her yell, "Come on man, I am trying to talk about Haiti here!" Guess there are worse people in this world to emulate than Ann Curry.
In effort to help, Charlotte's pre-school class decided to hold a bake sale for Haitian relief or as Charlotte reports "to build strong, tough houses for the kids". Charlotte made her special pink cupcakes with pink frosting for the sale. She was excited to DO something as I hadn't let her take a plane down to Haiti to build the houses herself. Here is her super cute class (and amazing teachers) as they have their bake sale set up. She is the one in the back picking her nose (awesome... want a cupcake??)
Seriously how could anyone say no to these faces begging you to help their friends in Haiti??
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 8:28 AM 1 comments
Friday, January 15, 2010
If i had a hammer, I would hammer in the morning....
While cleaning out my basement yesterday I found my wedding dress (supposedly sealed by the dry cleaners) sitting in water and molding away. I sighed when I saw it, cause I really loved that dress. But how come there was no crying? One Word: Haiti
Later that day I talked with Charlotte about the devastation (Haiti, not the dress :)). We looked at a couple of carefully selected pictures, talked about the people and what they were going through, prayed for them. A few hours later she came up to me (she had been thinking) and asked me for a hammer. I was confused and asked her why. She said, "so I can help build houses in Haiti."
Now that was worth crying over. So I did.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 9:48 PM 5 comments
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Claire Elizabeth
1 Samuel 1:27



















Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 9:15 PM 2 comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Life lesson
During our Christmas travels we somehow ended up in a Perkins for dinner on New Year's Eve. As we walked in Charlotte saw the Claw Game by the door. Its allure of stuffed toys immediately drew her attention and she wanted nothing more than to play. You know the Claw Game, the complete waste of money that NO ONE I even know has ever won, ever. So she turned to her daddy with her big blue eyes. He decided that this was the perfect time for a life lesson in risk/reward management. He carefully explained how the game worked, how difficult it was for the claw to pick up any toy and about risk. How they make it look easy and then take your money and you have nothing. Next he showed her the gum ball machine across from it and explained how if you put your money in the gum ball machine you would always get something. Fully confident that he had explained the evils and perils of gambling and pretty confident that she would either:
1. listen to her father and enjoy the bubblegum
2. go for the toy, end up with nothing and learn a valuable life lesson
He gave her the quarter, told her to choose and we stood back to watch...She discovered a 3rd option, and presumably a life of endless gambling with this experience embedded deep into her subconscious.... and an introduction to South Park, to boot. Parenting is hard.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 7:09 PM 3 comments
Papa
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 2:00 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Christmas in NY
We spent Christmas this year in NY at my parents house.
Charlotte and my brother's two boys spent most of their time outside in the snow. Riding around on my dad's lawn mower/kid cart...
sledding...hanging out with the neighbor's goats...
waving to the snowplow..
building a frosty...
and then warming up in the hot tub...
until our cheeks were as rosy as Santa's.
Christmas Eve we spent hanging out by the fire listening to my brother and Leah play some Christmas Carols. Leah is amazing at the violin, absolutely mind blowing. I love that this will be a new tradition now that she is joining the family.Stockings on Christmas morning
Claire bear totally loved this part
Santa apparently got Charlotte's letter and she got her "touch and brush". OK so lets take a moment and talk about the fact that she was more excited about the "touch and brush" than the dollhouse I made her. Yep she liked the dollhouse, but she LOVED the touch and brush.
3 minutes on the phone ordering vs. 1 month of hotglueing my fingertips and hand cramps from the tin snips
$19.99 vs. you don't want to know
And because this blog is documentation for future Charlotte to enjoy and understand just how crazy she really was, I feel it is necessary to add the next picture. This was the "outfit" that Charlotte wore almost the entire time that we were in NY. She usually likes to run around in nothing but her underwear, but we have a general rule that we don't do that at other people's houses (I even make Jacob cover up). So this was our great compromise. It's a blanket. And when it comes down to it and I think back on this Christmas this is the image I will think of, and smile.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 3:07 PM 1 comments
Monday, December 21, 2009
Dollhouse
I have been on Maternity leave since the end of October. While I have had a lot of amazing quality time with my girls I have also had a lot of well... time. I needed a project.
Meanwhile Charlotte's plastic dollhouse had broken and I wasn't interested in buying another one that would do the same. Christmas was coming, and I have really had a sense of wanting to do instead of just buy. So I did the math:
Extra Time + Christmas + need a project+ 2 girls = lets build a dollhouse
I forgot to factor in that I am not at all crafty and haven't really worked with wood since a puppy dog napkin holder in Junior High, and oh yeah Jake would add that I also tend to get in over my head with almost everything that I start. So mid-November I found a dollhouse "kit" online. I ordered it from a man named Frank who lives in Utah that puts together these kits himself. Below is what came in the mail along with 10 pages of instructions.WOW... in over my head much??? Seriously what in the world had I done? In my head I think "kit" meant snap together. This was going to take wood glue, nails, actual tools... I was not prepared for this. But I jumped in, how hard can wood working be anyway, right.
Finally a practical application for Abstract Expressionism (support for the wood glue to dry)
I worked in the basement (because Charlotte never goes down there) on the ping pong table. I would take Claire with me and we would chat, and she would nap, nurse a little. It actually was quite a lovely bonding experience for us, she is a great listener.
This is the point that I had the basic structure completed, and I got to add the fun details.
I love the roof.... but putting the roof on, was awful. I took tin snips and cut the corners off of each of these shingles prior to individually hot gluing them on. Along with hot gluing my fingers to the roof more than once.
Fast forward a month ...
We spent Christmas in NY. But the morning we left we got Charlotte up and told her that there was a surprise for her in the living room.
This dollhouse has crown molding, a vaulted ceiling with loft, glass in the windows along with shutters... basically the dollhouse is nicer than our house. Although we do have glass in our windows too, so its close. Charlotte had really wanted a "pink and purple" dollhouse (remember the letter to Santa) but I just could not do it. After clocking in this many hours building this dollhouse, to paint it pink would have made me sick, so I found a deep plum that I could live with. Jacob asked me after I told him there would be no pink on it, who the house was actually for? Clearly he didn't understand.
I also had a friend ask me if I would say it was from Santa. That I also could not do. That little elf man wasn't going to get credit for this one. He can get credit for the Touch n Brush, but this dollhouse no way.She loved it, although we had to leave it almost immediately after to head for NY. But I am sure there will be hours of play ahead of us.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 3:33 PM 9 comments
Nutcracker
When we were up in Wisconsin Jacob and I took Charlotte to an Art Museum in Oshkosh. During the holidays they decorate each of the rooms to look like a scene from the Nutcracker Ballet. She is all into Ballerina's lately so we thought it would be fun.It was lovely, in a "ohh that was nice, but probably wont ever go back type of way". This is mostly due to the fact that 3 year olds aren't really into looking at old stuff that they cant touch, and there weren't any actual ballerina's just decorated rooms. Bet she will love it in about 60 years. We did get to read the story
.... which was perfect because this weekend we got to go and see the actual Nutcracker ballet at the local University. This one had real live ballerinas and sugar plum fairies and dancing chocolate from Spain .... oh so much cooler.
We went with our good friends the Beachy girls and once the ballerinas headed into the Land of Sweets, Amy pulled out candy canes for the girls to suck on. Brilliant. Wish I would think of these things, but that is why I just go places with people who do.
This is the best picture I got with the girls. Yep after about 40 tries, a picture where you cant even see Charlotte's face is the best one. What did mom's do before digital cameras!?!?
PS. Charlotte has been unsuccessfully trying to twirl on her toes in front of the mirror ever since.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 3:08 PM 0 comments
Christmas Tree
2. a pink and purple dollhouse (stay tuned for future post) and
3. a Touch and Brush.
Posted by Jacob, Lisa and Charlie at 2:08 PM 4 comments

