Christmas in Virigina

Every time I look at a map of the US, I am still surprised by how far east Wisconsin is. We are only 15 hours from New York City, 12 hours from Washington DC, and 15 hours from Williamsburg, VA. So when all of Paul's other siblings decided to visit his sister who lives there, we joined in the craziness and headed east. Gratefully, roads were good since we left after the storms hit, and we took a southern route through Louisville, KY. 

The week was full of all sorts of fun...Christmas Eve we went to the Yankee Candle store so the girls could sit on Santa's lap.

Later that evening we went to colonial Williamsburg where they have this awesome celebration as they light up the Christmas tree.

 

 We were all given candles which the kids loved...especially since the mild wind would occasionally blow them out. They loved helping light their cousins' candles and sharing the fire.

Uncle Michael read everyone a Christmas book or two.

My mother in law made these little elf dolls for everyone to open on Christmas Eve. My girls love them.

 With the children nestle in their beds, the adults had a party of their own...a root beer party. I don't know why, but Iversons are obsessed with root beer, calling it the celestial drink. We all brought some fancy root beers from around the country and battled out which was best.

Milwaukee's own Sprecher was in the top 3, along with Abida, and another one I can't remember. Paul is glad we live in a place were when can buy Sprecher at Costco :)

Christmas morning...

The great thing about being at someone else's house for Christmas is that there are more toys for my kids to play with, but we don't have to bring them all home!

And Erika's kids got a bounce house, which was the highlight of the rest of the vacation.

Aaron and Tandy made their kids a rabbit cage, which Nora loved and guarded.

The rest of the trip was spent having fun with cousins. The girls always ask when we are going back to Virigina.

Baby Graham!

Little Daniel explores the fridge...

 And no visit to Williamsburg is complete without visiting Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg

  

And Erika's fam has an awesome New Year's tradition...where aliens come and decorate the tree with underwear and socks!

Thanks, Erika and company for an awesome visit!

S'Winter

Call me crazy but I love the winter. The hot chocolate. The warm sweaters. The fireplaces. The festivities. Staying indoors a lot and being more creative with my kids. Playing in the snow. I even love getting all bundled up to go outside. I can do without the slippery roads, but gratefully it's been a mild winter so far. Here's some of the fun we've had:

 Making cakes for no reason

 Even though they have a playroom, they prefer the closet

Snow time...they always want to go out when we have fresh snow, even if it's less than an inch

Yes, they are in dresses. At least they let me up leggings on them.

Niels is jealous...he just stands and watches them

Tupperware city

One day Hattie decided to "experiment" with food dye. Completely on her own, she dyed the apples all different colors, and did a decent job of not making a complete mess.

Lots of painting and other art projects

Hattie has really taken off with her writing. She made these one day after watching Winnie the Pooh. They are hard to see, but they say "Robin," "Pink" for piglet, "carrot" for Rabbit, "toy train," and "honey pot" for Pooh.

Then there's this boy who gets cuter every day. He is a master at climbing up stairs...but has yet to figure out going down. So in a tri-level house, it's REALLY hard to keep an eye on him. We need 4 gates to truly keep him safe. As much as we try to teach him, he isn't picking it up.

 Naps...he is folded over in half, but somehow is still sleeping...the flexibility of babies.

 And we often find the girls asleep together...we're glad they love each other so much.
 

Much to Paul's happiness, we have discovered a couple who is fanatical about board games as we are. During November and December, it wasn't uncommon to play games 2 or 3 times a week! We would put our kids to bed at their house (or they would put their kids to sleep at our house) and stay as long as we could stay awake! (in this picture we hired a sitter so that we could go out to dinner before playing games). This month, due to Paul's work schedule, our fanatic game playing has slowed, but we are happy to still get a game in about once a week.

And one of the most exciting things for me was an early Christmas/birthday/anniversary gift...an electric piano! I've been doing pretty well at playing almost every day, and I'm amazing at how quickly I feel like I am improving. The kids love it too and like to take a turn every day.

Next post: Christmas in Virginia!

Real play-doh

Five years ago, Christmas 2007, we went from Utah to Oregon to spend Christmas with my family. Hattie was only 3 months old. My mom hadn't asked me what I needed/wanted for Christmas, so I knew it would be a surprise. It certainly was...a wheat grinder, along with 4 barrels of wheat. To be honest, I was less than thrilled. Although I knew it was a nice grinder and very practical, it wasn't very exciting for a Christmas gift.

Once I got back to Utah and made my first batch of 100% whole wheat bread, I was hooked. I have rarely purchased store bought bread since. I love making bread and comparing recipes with other bakers. And I see that Christmas gift as one of the best gifts I have ever received.

So on Monday, after 5 years of bread making experience, I was making bread here in Oak Creek and something happened that never had before - my bread didn't rise. I'm not sure if I made the water too hot and killed the yeast, or if my cold Wisconsin house wasn't the friendliest environment for yeast growth. Either way I found myself facing flat bread. I was so disappointed. I finally understood how making bread can be frustrating, since I had never had problems before. I've always heard people say that they can't make bread, that it never works for them, etc, and I always assumed they couldn't follow directions (aka they weren't so bright). But here I was, having done the same recipe I have done a hundred times, with bread that was going no where. I called my mom, my aid in every cooking disaster, to see if I could somehow salvage the bread. I had already let it rise in a warm oven, but to no avail. She suggested I fry a bit up to make a flat bread, and then just let the girls play with it like play-doh. What followed was the most fun my kids have had in a long time.

These are all of Anna's snakes

Punching the dough

A birthday cake

A baby

Hattie's snake

Anna's snake

A couch



They keep asking me to make more bread that doesn't work so they can play with the dough again. It was out on the counter for the whole week and finally got too dried out to play with. I'm sure they played with it more than 10 hours total. So, if you are ever at a loss for how to entertain your kids, just purposefully make a bad batch of bread!

Sick little boy

Poor little Niels has a head cold...nothing serious but he is a constant snot factory and has been far more snuggly than usual. The other day I was trying to keep him awake for 2 hours before putting him down for a nap so that he would hopefully nap longer. Instead, Hattie came running to me saying that Niels had fallen asleep on the office floor. Poor little guy...and this from the boy who refuses to sleep anywhere but in his crib.

He also managed to fall asleep in Paul's arms at church (which he hasn't done in probably 8 months) and on his chest the other night. Although it's sweet he is giving such great snuggles, I hope he feels better soon!

On another Niels related note, I finally made a baby bumper for him. Yes, his birthday is next month. But he was in the pack and play for the first 4 months in Lubbock, then we were moving/travelling for 2 months, then when we finally got to Wisconsin in July and he was 6 months old, making a boy baby bumper was the last thing on my list of things to do. I would have just bought one, but my sister in law Julia showed me this easy tutorial and I figured it was easy enough and that I would like it more in the end. So the girly, flowery, pink bumper is now in storage. Next on my list: buy a brown sheet so that the pink polka dot one can join the bumper in storage.

One question...should I paint his room now? If so, what color??

Recap: November

Somehow, with all of December's busyness, November was forgotten. Here are some highlights:

Niels has mastered the art of his baby walker (which we got for free at a rummage). He cruises all around the house and loves his freedom - and chasing his sisters. After his first tumble down the stairs (!) we quickly installed a gate and he is now relatively safe...unless one of his sisters forgets to lock the gate. 

One of autumn's greatest pleasures...jumping in leaves. Especially since we can't throw them in the garbage bin here, the only purpose of raking them is to jump in them.

Thanksgiving with the Elder Beech, Elder Harmon, and Paul's parents and brother. It was wonderful just being at home and not travelling.

The kids opened Christmas presents from Paul's sister Erika right after Thanksgiving...Christmas pajamas and a bunch of Christmas book! A great way to start off the season.

 And Erika included some $1 post-Halloween costumes...dress-up is always a favorite at our house.

And my chubby little Niels. He is growing so fast. He is crawling everywhere and wants to grab everything. He knows exactly how to turn on the iPad and I think he truly understands the sign for "all done" at dinner time. I can't believe his birthday is next month already!

Quilting, again

2012 marked the sixth year that I made a quilt for one of my siblings for Christmas. And it's also the last year. I need a break. Although I love making them every year, it gets hard and harder to give them away! I am ready to make one for my family now...it has been too many years!

Hattie's Christmas Letter