Merry Christmas

The stockings are hung, the baking is done. The gifts are all wrapped and some family is here. We hope you have a Merry Christmas wherever you are. May you find joy as you celebrate the birth of Jesus, wherever you are.

A trip to see Santa

This week I took the kids to visit the friendly local mall Santa.  It's always been an experience trying to determine Meghan's mood and approach to Santa, and now I have two different ones to contemplate...  Meghan this year walked right up to Santa with a little prompting from my part and told him she was hoping for a Tinkerbell costume.  Thankfully we have dispensed with the desire for 'real wings that can fly'.  Even though she told us numerous times that Santa and his elves can make anything, we have informed her that his presents have to be real.  Anyway,  she had a nice little chat with Santa Claus being that there was no one in line (a miracle).  Talked about how hard she's been working in school reading, etc.  Nathan on the other hand was not overly fond of Santa.  I tried my best to sit on the stool while Meghan was chatting away and let Nathan warm up to the fellow, but he would have none of it.  Finally when someone did show up in line and the employees were indicating it was time for our photo, I sat him down in Santa's lap (er... the stranger in a big red suit), and Nathan proceeded to scream.  I indicated for them to just take the photo, screamer and all because that's how it is this year, and next year who knows, he may refuse to sit in his lap as Meghan did at 2 years old.  So, here you have it, this year's Santa photo.  Of course, our visit was not complete until the friendly photo employee loudly proclaimed to all in earshot range, after that Santa looks so thirsty he could die.  I nearly fainted and was glad that Meghan did not hear it and could not yet spell d-i-e because I turned to the lady and tried to nicely say (spell what she had said because she had forgotten how she phrased it) she needed to watch what she said around the kids because who knows what nightmares might ensue if Meghan thought Santa was going to die.  Geesh... and I didn't even get a free photo.  Parched Santa did get a drink of water though.

Preparing for Christmas

I love Christmas. The decorations, the baking, the Christmas carols, the food. It is even more exciting to have two beautiful children to share it all with. We've started our holiday traditions out with a little decorations, a fun preschool Holiday program where Meghan belted out Dashing through the snow and I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. We have also decorated Gingerbread houses, started baking cookies (Cranberry biscotti of course), and picked out our tree. We're well on our way... Here are a few pics from our adventures lately.

Nathan turns 1 year old

Today Nathan is 1 year old. I can't believe the time has flown by so quickly. He is a busy boy. Yesterday took 2 steps on his own and is climbing up every chair in the house, and loves the mini-slide to climb up and go down all on his own. He says Mama, Dada, and a version of 'Hi'. He has the cutest giggle imaginable, and is in general a super sweet boy. I particularily enjoy the fact that he sleeps 12 hours straight at night.. 7 to 7. He loves to copy Meghan... yesterday we took out playdough for the first time and I couldn't believe he only tried to eat it one time. He just sat there watching big sister and playing with the cookie cutters. He also loves to sit at the table and color with meghan. He will only use crayons or pencils, and not those nifty 'first crayons' that are out there... he wants the real deal. His favorite toys are balls. He will make a straight line to get one anytime he sees it. He is also an avid signer and just this week mastered the concept of 'more' and uses it often. We're so blessed to have him in our family. :)

Finding Fossils

Meghan is currently studying dinosaurs in her preschool, so last weekend we went in search of some local fossil sights. Michael found one about 1.5 hours away that fit the bill perfectly. The kids were in heaven in a massive sandbox, and we even luckily found a fossil. Luckily I say because I just looked down and there one was. I told Michael I honestly had no idea how to look for a fossil or find one, so Meghan was thrilled to have one to take for show and tell this past week. We now have a book on fossil hunting so as to read up on the procedure. At any rate, the kids were thrilled and really enjoyed the family time

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to everyone out there. While we haven't yet gone trick-or-treating there have been several occasions lately for the kids to get decked out in their costumes. We had a great neighborhood party where we all dressed up, and then Meghan had her preschool party and parade yesterday which had an abundance of superheroes and princesses. Meghan decided to be a princess-butterfly, and sometimes is a fairy. Nathan is a dragon, and I was the fairy Merriweather from Sleeping Beauty... (Originally Meghan was to be sleeping beauty and then we would have all matched a theme, but that's okay!).

Some Good Old Fashioned Fun at South Mountain Creamery

We spent this past weekend at the South Mountain Creamery enjoying their annual Harvest Festival. It's a free event and full of fun for the kids... including hayrides, visiting the baby calves, a drainage pipe slide, homemade ice cream, shake your own butter tubes, and a gigantic barn full of ride-ons for every age, an 1800's musician, and a grind your own cornmeal machine. It truly is every kid's dream, and the food is pretty good, too. In short, we love to go there every year and have a lot of fun. Meghan entertained herself at the cornmeal station for about 45 minutes. It was entertaining watching the children figure out the machine to remove the corn from the cob and then grind it up. Nathan enjoyed his first go round on a ride-on... first backwards, and then forwards. We all enjoyed the fruits of Meghan's shaking (Nathan helped a bit, too) as she made some tasty butter, and the ice cream was pretty good, too

We also enjoyed the musical entertainment. This man acts out the part of an expert musician in the 1800s Gold Rush. He has numerous instruments and plays them all amazingly well, including the spoons and various drums, etc. It's a great opportunity for the kids to listen to a different type of music while shaking their butter tubes or riding around the barn.

And yes, we do get our milk from the creamery. We have milk delivered every week and it's so yummy, as is the apple cider, egg nog, cheese, cream cheese and everything else we've had them deliver. Check it out of you are in the D.C. area:
http://www.southmountaincreamery.com/home.php

Nathan in the Leaves

I'm currently enjoying my new 50D Canon camera that Michael bought for me. Also learning how to use some fill flash, and taking in the beautiful fall color. I had the opportunity to take Nathan out this past week for his 9 month photo shoot (Of course he's almost 11 months now, but hey I got a session in for him sometime!). Here are the results...

Meghan is reading

Meghan has learned how to read basic 3 letter words in this past week. It's very exciting to see the pieces click together and she is thrilled... Sounding out words all over the place. She has been practicing reading lessons at her school recently and brought this one home this week.

Nathan's First Haircut

Today, we had a family day out at for hair cuts. Nathan had his first cut and of course we had to take pictures.
Meghan was 22 months when she had her first haircut, and was able to sit by herself, but since Nathan is still so little, Daddy had to hold him and he did quite well. When he started to squirm, the store owner grabbed a broom and a paper cup and proceeded to keep him entertained. Who needs cartoon cuts when you have such a great family oriented location. We all had a blast and Meghan had her lollipop, of course.




And, for comparison, here is a shot of Meghan on her first haircut... since I didn't have a blog back then. :)