Christmas Cookies

Our final Christmas activity with the kids was decorating cookies. I made my favorite sugar cookie recipe, refrigerated the dough overnight, divided it in half and rolled them out for Nate and Evie to cut out their own shapes. I made icing with powdered sugar and milk to decorate. Here's how it went:

 I put the icing in squeeze bottles this time because every time I let them use icing bags it just squeezes out the back. The bottles worked pretty well and kept them from putting too much icing on the cookies too. I need to get my icing a little bit thinner next time though. It was kind of hard to squeeze.

 I'll keep trying the bags occasionally until they're able to do it that way, but I like the squeeze bottle idea.

 They added some assorted sprinkles to decorate. I look forward to the day they're old enough to go all out with colorful icing and creative designs. 

So proud of the finished product!

Leaves

The kids have loved raking and playing in the leaves this year. Evie calls the pile of leaves her bird's nest. Silly girl!

A little help from Daddy.

Where's Evie?

There she is! The game that never gets old.

Nate doesn't look quite as thrilled to be covered with leaves.

Occasionally the leaves do get cleaned up.

Crispy Christmas Cottages

The thought of making gingerbread houses intimidates me. Maybe we'll tackle them someday when the kids are older and more able to help. So when I came across this Crispy Christmas Cottages recipe, I was excited. It looked very do-able, and it was! I made the rice krispie treats Friday morning, and the kids spent Friday afternoon decorating them. The only problem was that they wanted to eat them too. That's a lot of sugar! I'm usually happy just to use sugar to create fun things, but I guess there's not as much fun in that. :)

 The pre-decorated cottages.

New use for old things. We used some leftover Halloween candy to decorate.

 Taking their time to get their cottages just right. 

 The finished product.

 Our little village.

 And where was Simon during all this? Snuggled up in the Moby wrap so I could be hands free. Loving my Moby!

Visit with the Winklers

We were blessed by a visit from Elizabeth, Matthew, and Ethan last weekend. I realized after they were gone that we only took one picture with Simon in it. I completely forgot to take any with them holding him. I guess Elizabeth and I both have baby brain - she's expecting baby #2 in June! Can't wait to add another cousin to the bunch! Anyway, we had a wonderful time. It was so sweet to see how much Ethan had grown. He's such a happy boy and a good baby. I miss this family! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 Ethan with his big cousins. Evie insisted on silly faces for these pictures!

Plus Simon.

Evie with her Aunt Liza. 

We had beautiful weather while they were here, so Nate got some soccer lessons from Uncle Matthew.

 Sliding with Uncle Steve.

 Sweet boy!

 Love the gap in his teeth!

Sleep Deprived

When Simon woke up this morning he had soaked through his clothes and swaddling blanket, which really isn't unusual. I'm pretty sure he has peed and pooped through more clothes than Nate and Evie ever did! But when I went to change him I realized I had only fastened one side of his diaper in the night. The other side was wide open. No wonder he soaked through everything. I was feeling pretty silly that I'd done that, but Stephen was quick to console me: "At least you put a diaper on him." Yes, at least I put a diaper on him. So maybe I'm a little sleep deprived, but we're doing all right. At least Stephen hasn't eaten soap on his toast and washed himself with butter in the shower (thank you, Modern Family). Isn't it all worth it for this sweet little guy anyway?

Simon's First Thanksgiving

We remembered to take some pictures of Simon on his first Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we didn't get any other family photos, but we'll take what we got!

 Thanks to cousin Ethan for the incredibly cute Thanksgiving outfit!

Tired little turkey!

Simon: Week Two

I did it! I survived my first weeks alone with three kids! I have to say I feel like it was quite an accomplishment. Since Stephen only took two days off work I was forced to jump right in. It's been quite an adjustment for the kids and me since we're used to going and doing as we please. Since we can't do that right now, I've planned one simple outing for each day, and then we've spent the rest of the day at home. We've done this Thanksgiving packet, this turkey craft, this turkey craft, and yet another turkey craft, and made our annual pilgrim hat treats. We've torn the house apart, put it back together, and torn it up again. Nate has always been good at cleaning up, but Evie is getting some good lessons in cleaning up the mess you make. Anyway, we've survived, and I'm hoping we'll find a new rhythm soon. I think the transition from two to three is going to be harder than from one to two for us! Here are a few pictures from the week.

 Evie was the first to get leaked on. She was holding Simon and told us he felt really warm. When we took him from her a little while later we realized why. He peed all over her. She thought it was hilarious!

 They've also spent lots of time cuddling their brother.

l

 We found Nate just hanging out with him.

And it turned into this.

Welcome home, Simon!

We came home Sunday afternoon and are adjusting to life as a family of five. I'm realizing quickly that I was a little naive about how easy adding a third would be. Especially since Nate and Evie are older and we've been so active. I think it might be a while before we have a new normal. Real life starts back up tomorrow when Stephen returns to work, so we'll dive in and do our best to stay afloat! Here are some pictures of what Simon has been enduring since coming home.

Sweet Simon!

One of my favorite pictures by far! I promise we didn't tell her to do this for the picture. :)

 I love her silliness. Hopefully she'll teach it to Simon!

 Nate is exactly the big brother I thought he'd be - so concerned and gentle. He was trying so hard to calm him down.

 Our new crew!

Hanging out with his big brother.

Simon Timothy

He's here! Simon Timothy was born Saturday morning. His birth was a little more eventful than we had hoped due to meconium in the amniotic fluid and issues with the placenta releasing (again!), but he's here and he's healthy, and that's enough for us. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 21.5 inches long. So far he's a sweet, sweet baby and we can't get enough of him. Here are some of our favorite first pictures of baby Simon:

 Welcome to the world, Simon!

 Finally getting to snuggle! 

 Love at first sight! Nate and Evie's first look at their long awaited baby brother.

 The wait was worth it.

 Evie giving Simon kisses.

 Giddy!

 Day 2 with Simon. Can't keep our hands off him!

I pray often that my children will always love each other this much!

Trick or Treat

Today is my due date and I'm having contractions as I post this. So, hopefully the next post will be Baby Boy Blan's arrival!

I had great plans for the kids to be pirates for Halloween this year, but they didn't like my idea. Evie wanted to be a princess (in spite of reading "Olivia and the Fairy Princesses" and all my efforts to convince her to be something more original) and Nate wanted to be a soccer player. So Evie wore a Little Mermaid dress-up her friends Jack and Caroline gave her for her birthday, and Nate wore his soccer uniform. It made it easy on me, but I missed the creativity. :)

 It was torcher trying to take pictures of them. Nate was ready to fill his empty basket!

 So I stepped in and we got a couple decent pictures together. Evie picked out her striped tights and orange shoes to wear. I guess she gets the orange and black theme. They completed the costume!

 

Finished trick or treating! Evie got tired quickly, so she and I went home and sat on the porch to pass out candy until Stephen and Nate were finished. Stephen told them to make scary faces for this picture. If these are their scary faces ...

Then I'm not sure what these are! 

We carved pumpkins this year. Well, we as in I! They each picked out a design for their pumpkin and I carved them. Evie is sitting next to hers and Nate next to his. They had a lot of fun lighting them at night, so I guess it was worth it. :)