Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve was spent watching White Christmas and eating a yummy dinner of omelets, bacon and toast. My parents joined the festivities and we exchanged gifts as well. Of course, nothing could top the already gifted Utilikilt which was an early Christmas gift, but we certainly tried. ;)

Christmas morning was just the four of us. Ezra came down to all the gifts under the tree and exclaimed, "Oh, BOY!" in the cutest way imaginable. We opened gifts, had breakfast, and played.

The sword and shield were E's favorites and T could not get enough of the tambourine {that cost a whopping $1.50} we got him. That boy has some musical talent in him {which he did NOT inherit from my side}.

Evening was spent at my parents--having a delicious meal. I took a solid 2 hr nap during the afternoon while the boys did the same. Utterly exhausted! This Christmas season has been absolutely wonderful and full. It was truly merry and bright! But I'm sure I'll be paying for it with recovery for weeks...{doesn't help being 7 months pregnant either}.

We have a few more things to look forward to including our 5 year anniversary and a family trip in January. Hoping these will take the edge off of those "boring/restless" winter months post-Christmas time. January always seems to eek by after all that excitement.  Then again with the up-coming arrival, January could just blow by this time. AH! :)

Goin' To The Chapel

Over the past weekend, one of my cousins got married! Since it overlapped a bit with our visitors, only I joined my grandma and parents on the drive up to Sonoma. Within this coming year, all but two of my cousins {both sides included} will be married. Danielle and her long term boyfriend, Forrest, tied the knot at a sweet little chapel with about 80 people attending.

Her dress was gorgeous and she made a beautiful bride!

Wintery reception details...

{the cousins that were present}

My dad and his sister, Gayle. {mother-of-the-bride}

And can't remember the last time we got one of just the three of us.

We ate, drank and were merry before heading back home. I promptly passed out on the way home. Yet another family milestone to celebrate. We wish Forrest and Danielle nothing but the best on their marriage adventure!

A Very Merry Christmas

From us to you!!

Hoping you have a splendid day remember our Savior's birth and savoring time with loved ones!

xoxo,
W & J + three

Tour Guides

We had the delight of having our friends visit from Austin last week! The last time we saw them was when Isaac was only 4 weeks old and I got to carry him {while at the very end of my pregnancy with E} in the moby wrap! Hard to believe that was over three years ago.

 So the three Texans joined us for a full and rainy adventure in the city on one of their days here. We did a quick stop at Union Square to check out the giant gingerbread castle then the rain died down for us to play at Ghirardelli Square.

We walked from there to the Wharf and Pier 39. Some snap-shots of the rest of our adventure include:
silly faces, sword-fighting with umbrellas, ice cream in waffle cones, crepes, a CBS reporter interview, lots of wet wet wet rain, and good times with friends!!

We were so glad W could get the day off work and have a consecutive five whole days at home with us! My man in action: holding two exhausted boys AND taking a picture for a couple of tourists. Serious would be lost without him.

Bump Progression {31 weeks}

Slacker. I know it. I have yet to take one picture of miss Dulcinea's growing bump with my fancy camera. Oh yeah, I haven't even mentioned she has a nickname already. All thanks to my parents' trip to Spain. It means "the sweetest thing" and is the name a sweets bakery there. And of course it's stuck because they were in Spain when we found out and like to suggest girls names to us every once in awhile. 

So, in a last ditch effort to save Mama-face, I've compiled all the phone bump pictures I've taken so far. Here she is...

 Woot woot! 

I'm feeling ever so EXHAUSTED these days. I want to sit on the sofa with my feet up, drink a hot beverage and eat sweets. I don't want to clean, cook, discipline, or anything remotely work-related. Oh well. Not gonna happen.

I definitely feel less motivated to actually birth a baby right now too. And I'm acutely aware that this is a mental sport. :/ Please join me in praying for mental strength and motivation when the time comes. {Cuz I just did all this hard work not all that long ago, yo!} And that I'll magically bypass all the normal, horrible recovery {read: nursing issues} that I face each and every time for the following six weeks.

Other than that, things are pretty normal around here when a baby is just a few months away. Still loads and loads to do while time keeps ticking.

Seriously can.not wait to meet this little girl!! Praying for curls a second time around. ;)

Turning Three {part two}

So, I had these grand plans of hosting Ezra's first "friend/kid" party this year. I had a theme already picked out {polar express}, decoration ideas already pinned, etc. But then October flew by. Then November. And suddenly, each and every weekend of December was full between parties, out-of-town company, a wedding, and Christmas dinners and teas. I was stumped. To be honest, they make me hyperventilate. I so wish I had the talent of party-planning. I know some amazing moms who can do it in their sleep, love it, and the planning seems effortless. It stresses me out. Which may be why I continued putting it off?! Maybe. And I definitely didn't want to do a last minute party or half-way put together one. 

Instead, we took Ezra out on a "birthday date" to see the Train of Lights in a town nearby. Close enough to the Polar Express, right?! Our church rents out the entire train each year for a night so we got  discounted tickets. We left Theo at the gparents because it was a late late night {read: home at 9}. We all bundled up, brought a bag of homemade cookies and a thermo of hot cocoa, put on the glow sticks that W got earlier in the week, and arrived early to pick our seats. 

The train was so beautifully decked out in Christmas lights. It was such a magical sight!!

And we went for a ride and walked through the entire train: looking at all the decorations, hanging out with friends, and getting a candy cane from Santa. 

An instant hit. And for sure, another new family tradition. Ezra was really bummed that Theo didn't join in on the fun. Hopefully, it'll be all five of us next year! 

Three

How He Turned Three

Another rainy day for Ezra's birthday. Think that marks over half his life with a rainy birthday {1st and 3rd}. But that didn't stop us. We made sure to have lots of fun and make lots of memories!

Starting with... Winnie the Pooh at 9am while brother napped. Nothing like "breaking the rules" with a movie before naps. ;) Then we did lunch, some delivery errands, and visited with friends who we haven't seen in weeks! Then it was naps for both before heading to a cafe to meet up with more friends.  I made E wear his crown in order to open his gifts. {I sure hope baby girl embraces her crown for more than just a few birthdays. Yeesh!}

Afterwards, we were off to pick up Papa from work, grab birthday goodies from home, and head up to Gpa and Gma's for birthday dinner and cake. We had our delicious Cioppino {which has traditionally been saved for Christmas Eve}.

Then out came the cake and gifts. Ezra was so sweet and so so very excited! 

The bow and arrows were an instant hit and you could tell he felt so grown-up with them. Just hoping these don't mean an ER visit in our future... you know, that whole "you'll shoot your eye out" Mama thinking. ;)

More Advent

We did a few more activities this past week in Advent celebration style! More family traditions embraced. :)

We started with a family breakfast picnic "under" our tree last weekend. All in footed pjs because it was cold!

Then we popped over to Deacon Dave's a different night to look at the lights on steriods! 

Then we had our sweet McFarland {Swenson} family during the week as they were attending a wedding nearby. It feels like it's been forever since we've had guests so it was a delightful treat to host them. Especially so close after Thanksgiving so Ezra clearly remembered them. We made sure to delay our cookie decorating a few days so we could do it with them. It was so fun having more kids to participate and E loved having his cousins: constant playmates. He went through seriously withdrawals after they left!

And to balance the high levels of sugar before 10:30 am, they all gathered round while Alyson read a Christmas story!

Looking forward to more Advent activities this week!!

Merry Christmas! :)

Advent Lovin'

Sharing a bit about my love for Advent this year over at Newlywife this morning!!

Backlogged {Catch-up Post}

So there's was this holiday called Thanksgiving. :) And we did some cool family stuff then.

We traveled down south to spend it with W's family again this year. It's always such a short trip, but we enjoy the time. It's amazing how quickly the kids grow and how much they can change in even the 6 months that pass between visits.

We left a day early and used that last day before work to get into the Christmas spirit!

We had a lovely little talk post-nap/pre-decorating with Ezra about not peeing on the Christmas tree even though it is thirsty. Seems like my outdoor potty training tactics may have backfired there. We all got a great many chuckles from it.

We turned on Christmas music, built a fire, and got to work. 

We went with another small tree this year and let the kids help decorate it. We still have a majority of W's plastic dollar tree ornaments from when he was a bachelor. They come in handy for little hands. Our personal ornament collection still has lots of growing to do.

We also made it to our local downtown Christmas parade again this year. Ezra loved the bands and music. And the firefighters who threw out little rubber toys. So easily pleased.

It feels like our big thing in development this year has been Advent. We're trying new traditions, continuing old ones, and trying to focus on the true reason for the season. It's so fun getting to add more activities in, the older and more capable the kids get. I even had to google "Candy list for gingerbread houses" this year. Looking forward to that Advent activity.

This year, we've also tried to make more of our gifts. I think its about half and half this time. It took a bit more extra effort in deciding what to do, but I'm hoping those receivers will appreciate it. The extra planning also made sure I wasn't scrambling last minute. In fact, we're officially done spending and only have a few more touches left on homemade gifts before wrapping. Definitely a first for us! Yay! :)

{DIY} Advent Pocket Calendar

It sure was nice having a whole week between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I was actually able to prep a little for advent and be ready to go December 1st. One of the projects that I wanted to add to this year's list was an advent calendar. We had been using mine that I grew up with and loved, but I wanted something bigger that would eventually include all our kids and be more interactive.

I had pinned a ton of ideas over the year for advent calendars: ones shaped like Christmas trees, made from felt, paper envelopes or brown paper bags, etc. Then I stumbled upon this image a few weeks ago and knew this was the one.

 source

Buuuuut it don't come with a tutorial. So I fished around and found a few more images with the same modge-podged, saggy-pocket, rustic look.

 source

 source

 I bought a ten dollar 6 by 9 drop cloth {canvas tarp that painters use} from Walmart and got to work. {This is waaaay bigger than you'll ever need, but I want to make a tree skirt out of the same material.} All the "extras" I already had in my craft stash: buttons, ribbon trims, pom-poms, doilies, embroidery floss, fabric, felt, sewing machine, sharpie, and paint.

I cut and hemmed a piece of the drop cloth to measure about 36 inches long by 31 inches wide.

We have a little wall between our kitchen and eating are where our thankful tree was so I figured I'd hang this there too. So, I worked off the wall's size. I had several burlap squares leftover from my bubble burlap wreath project that I used for placement and pocket size. Then I just started switching some of them out for fabric and felt squares. And that's where the laborious, time-consuming part came in: decorating each pocket. Oh, the hours spent! And the mess that my kitchen table withstood!

I didn't plan ahead nor really tried to spend too much thought on any one pocket. I wanted it to look slightly messy and non-uniformed.

Once the pockets were decorated, I sewed each one in place. With the burlap ones, I went over them twice just to make sure wee lil' hands wouldn't tear them. I added three tab on top and stuck a wooden dowel through them. The last thing I did was tie some ribbon to each dowel end and hung it up!

Filling them was fun! I've been wanting to purchase a nativity set that the boys could role-play with for awhile. After some hunting, I decided on the Little People's set which has a bazillion pieces {make sure to get the one that has the shepherd!!}! I picked that up at Wally World along with the drop cloth.

I wrapped each nativity piece in some brown kraft paper and washi tape. I mingled the pieces with some chocolate and "activities tags". The tags are basically index cards that I added ribbon and tape to. I looked over this list and picked several that fit our family and the traditions we like to do during this time of year: Christmas lights drive, bake cookies, watch a Christmas movie, do a Christmas/winter related craft, have a picnic next to the Christmas tree, and make this year's ornament. I also tried to include a few "service"/acts of kindness type activities too. I was really inspired by this blogger's kindness project from a few years back. Hoping we can add more of these as the years go on and the kids are more capable!

I half-jokingly told W that this advent better end up as a heirloom after all the time I spent on it. It seriously took 3+ days to complete. Labor of love. But I love how it turned out and know it'll get many more years use out of it in the meantime. Our Christmas count-down has begun!