Face Painting

Hannah painted Genna's face, and Genna painted Isaac's face.  Genna is a butterfly.  Isaac is Batman.

The girls girls got face painting sets for Christmas per their request.  Can you guess what we've been doing with all our free time this holiday?

Although Hannah let Genna paint a little heart on her face one day, she really wanted me to paint her face.  This is the picture she chose from our online search, but I only agreed to one dolphin.  The dolphin kept getting fatter until he looked a little more like a whale than a dolphin, but Hannah was happy with it.  Paper is so much easier to draw on than stretchy skin.

Then Genna wanted me to painted her face too.  She picked out this cute shooting star.  It was much easier.  I changed the colors to rainbow colors for my rainbow girl and added a ton of sparkles too.

Christmas Celebrations

After Christmas Eve Mass we went to our friend's house for chilli and hot chocolate.  Then we came home to do our Advent reading and prayers. 

These guys were sick buddies for Christmas.

The kids eating the chilli dinner in their fancy clothes.

 Christmas morning, Brian gave me the wonderful gift of getting up with Drew so I could sleep till the big kids woke up.  Then I read our final chapter in Jotham's Journey...tearfully, I might add.  Then we read the Christmas story.  Time for gifts.

Christmas Excitement!

Drew really got into opening presents this time, so much so, in fact, he started opening presents that weren't his if we weren't careful.

Drew loved the hacky sack set we got him.  Simple pleasures!

Isaac loved his pirate set from Aunt Leah and Uncle Kent!

They all got really nice robes from their grandparents.  Isaac also got this combat set.  Hannah loved her FAO Swartz bear with PJ's.  Not knowing what FAO Swartz is, she named him "Fao" since that's what it said on his foot.  :)

Genna got this Brave doll from us.

I made hooded reversible capes for the girls for their other gift and  I guess we didn't get a picture of that.  They wore them to see The Hobbit today with Daddy.  I'll get a picture sometime.

We had Christmas dinner and cake at our friend's house.  It was delicious, and we were all stuffed.  A meal to remember, for sure.

This is a chocolate peppermint cheesecake cake for Jesus' birthday.

Here is the group picture, the only group picture that wasn't blurry.  Unfortunately, Drew is only represented here by his hands and the tippity top of his head.  Hannah is trying to hold onto him, but he wants to be free!

Merry Christmas!

We got a white Christmas!  This was just the beginning of the 5-6 hours of heavy snowing on Christmas Eve.

 We went to the 4pm Mass on Christmas Eve for the first time ever.  Usually we go on Christmas morning, and now I know why.  It was so crowded that they weren't even letting people into the parking lot half an hour before Mass.  We had to park at the grocery store and trek over through the snow.  Then it was standing room only, as you can imagine.  It was worth it though because it was a beautiful Mass and that is what Christmas is all about after all.

I am bummed we didn't get better pictures of the kids, but they were all tired and hungry at this point.  What really irritates me is that I didn't notice that Isaac wore the wrong pants and socks until I am setting them up for this picture.  He had matching black pants like Drew's, not the high-water khakis.  Let it go already!  I can't get over it.  :)

Looking forward to a relaxing Christmas day with our family and some close friends.  I am making a chocolate peppermint cake, sweet potato soup, sausage and apple stuffing, Reuben dip, a beer injected fried turkey and gravy to add to the feast with our friends.  

Here are some pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot.

Soccer Fan

Drew looked so adorable I had to take pictures of him during soccer practice instead of the hard working big brother and sisters actually playing soccer.  I couldn't get a good picture of them so far away anyway.

I was distracted by the cuteness overload.

He is a water thief!

I use the backpack leash for indoor soccer so I don't have to chase him around and I can take my eyes off of him to watch one of the three practices going on around me.  He handles it so well!

Drew's Ballet Dance

Drew loves to dance and the way he dances just kills me. He had a group of teenagers at a Church party in stitches because he started dancing like this when the music came on.

Update on the Griswold Family Christmas Tree

This was the before picture.  See how it is precariously leaning toward the window. 

After adding a sturdier base, a tree skirt, and blue lights.

After we decorated the tree.  We did this last Wednesday while Drew was taking a crazy long nap because he was sick.  We had a pajama day and this was pretty much all that got don since Drew was attached to me the whole day other than his long nap in the middle of the day.  The kids LOVED putting on the ornaments!

This is our new Christmas ornament this year with all our names on the stockings.

Now for the wrapping of presents and placing them under the tree.  I am testing Drew right now with just a few under the tree in the back.  So far, he is doing well with not touching the tree, better than I thought actually.  No gates have had to go back up yet.

And I found some creative ways to display Christmas cards all over Pinterest and tweaked a few to come up with this.  Although, in the end, I was most pleased with the over the cabinet ribbon method since it is a cleaner look.

These are hanging from a twine that I tied onto a "Hope" sign that I got at Michael's for a couple dollars.

The purple ribbon is just tied around the door.  Brian's first question was "Will the cabinet still open?"  He so underestimates me.

Gift Making

I made two baby blankets in the last month.  The first is for a baby boy and was inspired by this striped flannel blanket.  You sew the strips of flannel reverse of a typical quilt with the raw edges out.  Then you cut slits all around the raw edges and wash it.  This was fast and turned out so soft that I know I will be making more of these.  In fact, I was seriously considering changing Drew's name to Henry and keeping it for myself, but the spirit of Christmas won out and it is in the mail.

Thanks to my sweet son, Isaac for modelling it for me.

 The next blanket is for a baby girl, and it took much longer since it is made in the traditional quilt style.  I had to add a layer a flannel in the middle instead of batting and then I did my first "stitch in the ditch" ever.  Let me just say that is easier said than done.  My eyes were crossing trying to keep the top-stitching hidden in the "ditch."  It is still made with strips instead of squares which makes it a little faster than a regular quilt.  I got this idea from here.  Again I was tempted to change Drewy's name, but I resisted and it is also in the mail.  Possibly a couple mommies are getting a sneak preview of the gift to come if the USPS lives up only to my low expectations.

Thank you, Hannah, for modelling!

Performances at German School

Isaac's class did a small performance for the parents first.  He was less than thrilled to wear the silly headband.  He has become extra sensitive about appearing to be funny or the thought of people laughing at him over wearing or saying something silly.  Ridiculous if you ask me, but I am an adult and not a four year old so I'll cut him some slack as we work through this phase.

The girls were getting ready on stage here.  Genna's in the white hat and Hannah's in the fuchsia hat.

Their program was part of the whole school's program. 

Brian stayed home with Drew since this was an all  morning event and he is still napping in the morning.  I got to go watch Isaac's program first and then he accompanied me to the girls' performance.  Isaac had memorized several poems and songs in German.  I caught two on video below.

The girls sang Oh Tenenbaum and the video for that is below also.

Another Christmas Party

All those cookies are just like they are in Germany hanging from a vendors wooden set up at a Christmas market.  The cookies all have the kids' names on them.

 We have had a ton of Christmas parties lately and I have forgotten my camera completely at most of them.  Here are just a couple of pictures that Brian took at our 3rd Annual German Christmas Party.

Apparently my husband was also impressed with the hanging grill inside the Imbiss that his friend built on his deck.

We had brats, french fries, potato pancakes, kase spaetzle, gluwein, and Black Forest Cake.  It was delicious and the kids performed their German song for the group.  Good thing they're not shy or anything.  Our hosts even played the accordion.  Very authentic evening.  In typical German tradition we sat outside for most of the evening even though it was cold (not as cold as in Germany though).

Early Christmas

Christmas Love

Family Photo- I am not a huge fan of my shiny face in this one, but you take what you get when family photos are so rare since we have to have a seventh party take it.

This year our only local family is abandoning us to head for Texas, so we had an early Christmas this last weekend with my uncle and cousins.  I didn't get enough pictures, but that seems to be the way things are going these days.

The kids got these giant activity books and another craft each and you would think they struck gold.  Isaac has been begging me to let him paint and build his wooden car, and he wants to drag the giant activity book everywhere we go and "do it at every rest time!"  I love my children!

I made my uncle this tie wreath because he had mentioned needing manlier wreaths and someone had already made him one out of gun shells.  I found the idea on Pinterest and I completed it in two evenings.  The only time consuming part is the hand sewing the ties once they are wrapped up and in place.