Crafting!

I bought the kids these cute little wooden gingerbread house kits the other day. Real gingerbread houses gross me out-- they are such roach magnets! Yuck. These, though, are super cute!

The kids had a great time making them.

The little dude even put together a backdrop made out of construction paper for the houses to sit on.

How lovely are your branches

After we got the tree back and in place on Saturday night, I strung the lights and Emily and the kids decorated it before Grandma and Gramps left. I think they enjoyed watching the little ones get excited for Christmas. Here is the kindergartener in front of the fully lit tree this morning before school.

It's always nice to ready for Christmas.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadow put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

New Rug!

A couple of weekends ago I ordered a rug that was on an unbelieveable sale (like, so good that I texted Eric while he was grocery shopping so I could go ahead and order it)! It finally came in the mail today... and we all love it! Yay!!!

The little guy is coming home from kindergarten exhausted, so we've had two very relaxing evenings this week. They watched a Daniel Tiger tonight, took a bath, and then went to bed.

Big Project

Our pastor came over to have dinner and help build a cornice for the living room window... now all we have to do is rehang the blinds, add trim, and paint it white.

The baby spent the evening carrying wood glue around and glaring at everyone (two GREAT activities for a 19-month-old).

The little guy was a wonderful helper while the menfolk (ha) drilled and sawed.

And here's the somewhat-finished product!

Please ignore the multi-patterned couch... stupid incontinent dog.

Romance

We had a candlelit family dinner to celebrate Valentines Day, and the little guy loved it so much that we've eaten by candle light every night since! 

It's been kind of fun and very relaxing to have such a nice ambience for our evening meal, although looking at these pictures makes me think I need to buy new tapers soon.

Girls in the house

It's fun being a dad. But I don't really know anything about little girls. As most of you know, I grew up in a house with all boys and Silly Goose came along as yet another male in my sphere so having baby girl stuff around is a little weird. Emily laughs at me all the time because I am mostly in charge of getting her dressed and I guess I don't do as fantastic a job as she expects. The poor little fuzzball ends up with a top from one outfit and a bottom from another.  If she's luck she gets socks. Every now and then I'll remember to put a bow in her hair.  At her age she is still fairly androgynous so a bow helps.

Well here is where a couple ended up tonight.

We haven't found a salon yet, so my hair is getting a little unruly.  I have discovered that the bows can be quite utilitarian while being a nice accessory. At least Fire Chief still wants to hang out.

Fuzzy got a bath tonight too so here is a cute picture of her in a newly handed down bath towel.

Stickers

I don't know what the little booger is so excited about in this picture, but it might have had something to do with the stickers on the back of the white chair (you can see them on the wood).

He loves stickers-- we currently have a Thomas the Train glued to the back of the inside of our washing machine, more trains all over the laundry baskets, and assorted other stickers on various pieces of furniture. I think it really classes up our house.