Three months of LOVE...

Please note Batgirl on top of the house. Even Barbie needs protection against evil doers.

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??

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.

Claire Elizabeth

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord."
1 Samuel 1:27

Fresh Art Photography
1 week old

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.

Papa

Papa praying at our wedding with Nana in the background

On the morning of December 30th Jacob's Papa quietly left this world, and went to be with his Savior. Since that day I have been in almost constant thought about him. This was at first strange to me as I would not say that we had a particularly close relationship. I have a handful of very pleasant memories and infinite amount of respect. But as a granddaughter in-law (is that a word?) in a VERY large family who only spent the normal Christmas/Thanksgiving time with him, the fact that my mind continued to dwell on him after his passing was, to be frank a little odd to me. But here is the thing I may have only known Papa briefly, but I know his grandson intimately, and that connection made the difference. The values that Papa clung too: family, hard work, prayer, honesty, generosity... I see in his grandson at a very deep level daily. Papa was a hard working cranberry farmer who loved the Lord. He would share the Lord with anyone who would listen (and even those who didn't). He was generous to his family, but he was also generous to strangers. If you picked Papa up from the airport after one of his many travels to the Ukraine, he was always luggageless and holding his pants up with his hands, cause he had even given away his belt. He loved his family deeply and worked very hard to provide, protect and care for all of them. He showed Paul who showed Jacob how to love his family as well as his neighbor. He modeled hard work, loyalty and honesty even when it wasn't fun. But mostly he showed Jacob what being a man of God meant. Because of that Papa will continue to impact myself and my girls much more than those handful of memories. So I guess it really isn't strange that I am in such a reflective mode regarding him, and obvious why I will always be grateful.

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.

Bathroom appliance vs. Childhood heirloom
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

Never mind I don't want to think about this anymore, and I am going to let it go. But when the mighty Touch and Brush breaks in 2 weeks (which we all know it will) if she cries for its loss I am really going to need some help.

Mom and Dad's pretty little grandbabies on Christmas morning
Our family has gotten big enough that the "kids table" has finally made its appearance.
Over Christmas we also celebrate any winter birthdays. Charlotte helped Nana decorate Jake's cake this year. With "butter cream roses" which she was thrilled about. Any Max and Ruby fans out there??

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.

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.

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.

Christmas Tree

Downtown St. Louis has horse-drawn carriages that (for a fee) will give you a ride around town. Charlotte goes bananas every time she sees one wanting to get on, and we always say maybe someday... well that day finally came. The park near our house has a Christmas light show and you can ride in a horse drawn carriage as you look at the show. She was giddy.


Claire is actually in this picture but you cant see her because she is under 5 blankets (poor new-born baby!)
After we then headed over to the local tree lot to pick out our Christmas tree.
Jacob is my "light man", he is really good at putting the lights on. Growing up in a family that pretty much just throws them on the tree I had no idea regarding the art of lighting a Christmas tree. He wraps it around the trunk and gets is deep and even. Perfect. I however am the "put Christmas away in January girl", and well...
Fortunately Claire helped him out.
We decorated some Christmas cookies while Claire and daddy figured out the light situation.
And magic. I am a huge fan of a colored Christmas Tree. Pretty much the more color the more Christmas in my book.

Charlotte wrote her first letter to Santa that we mailed (we actually had to mail it due to the fact that her preschool let her know that letters have to have a stamp on them or they wont go anywhere- that's it no more education for her. I want my 44 cents back). She is very clear about what she wanted in the letter.

1. a princess barbie
2. a pink and purple dollhouse (stay tuned for future post) and
3. a Touch and Brush.

Yep you read it right, a Touch and Brush. If you have watched any TV in the last 6 months you know what that is. And I know it has been on TV for 6 months because every time it comes on TV she will drag Jacob or I or whoever she can find to the TV to show them the amazing innovation that is Touch and Brush. Info-mercials must have built in kid magnets in them.
Claire however, just wants some eyes that work for Christmas.