festival of nativities

after church today, danny took us to see the festival of nativities. it was a very neat set up. there were different themed rooms: little bethlehem, joseph's workshop, living rooms, and the cultural hall had over 600 different nativities displayed. they've been doing this for 10 years up here and this is the first time i've gone. it was pretty amazing, i'm really glad that we went!


this is little bethlehem, it's an activity center for the primary kids. they get to dress up like characters from the christmas story and there are a ton of activities for them to do. there is a little manger, a story tent with a sweet little grandma reading christmas books, puzzles, puppets, toy nativities. it was so much fun!

ellie dressed up like a little angel, so sweet, she was adorable! i tried to get abbey to wear an angel costume, too, but she was dead set on being the camel!

this is the little manger they had set up. i was pretty impressed with the decorating going on in here. you can't tell from the pictures, but they went all out. all the walls were covered with fabric painted like stone walls or night scenes from a village and the ceiling was covered with dark blue fabric with stars painted on it and twinkle lights stuck underneath it so the sky glowed. it was really, very cool.

the girls playing in joseph's workshop, which was a little wood working and craft area. there were blocks to build with, a table to make ornaments out of popsicle sticks and buttons, and a cute old grandpa sat in the corner and did wood carvings.

i wish i'd gotten pictures of the "living rooms" and the nativities in the cultural hall, but there was a lot of glass and i needed my hands to keep the kids away from it. it was absolutely beautiful, though. if you're anywhere near vancouver next christmas, you should definitely check this out!

pancakes and belly buttons

today was my six week postpartum checkup (and my LAST visit to he mfms!). everything's normal, everything's good, and i am done with doctors!

now, on to the important things: pancakes. things have been understandably busy around our house the past six weeks and we haven't had a lot of opportunities to spend time all together in more than 10 or 15 minute chunks. usually danny and i juggle the kids and trade back and forth, everyone's schedules just aren't synced up yet. so, since we were all in the car (for my appointment), danny took us out to brunch at ihop! it was so much fun to go out as a family and relax and have fun without feeling rushed because we're late for something (which we usually are). thanks, danny! you're the best daddy!

side note: i am seriously in love with ihop pancakes. seriously. i've actually had a copy of the ihop pancake recipe for months, but i've been afraid to try it. what if i make them and they taste just like ihop's pancakes? then i would make them twice a day, every day, and we would all turn into pancakes.

also, henry is six weeks old today. but he doesn't look six weeks, this kid looks like he's pushing three months (i might be exaggerating a little). he's growing so fast! where did my baby go? i feel like abbey was a baby forever, but not henry. maybe it's because there's three kids now and my days are only about six hours long (and the nights are even shorter).


and now, a short ode to my son's belly button:

my baby has the cutest belly button i have ever seen. i love his belly button.

baking with my big girl

while danny, ellie and henry took a nap after church, abbey and i made cookies!

since we never know how long henry will sleep, i thought we'd make cake mix cookies. there's only three ingredients so they go together fast. and you don't really have to measure anything, so there's only a bowl and a spoon to wash. perfect.

i pre-broke the eegs and beat them in a disposable cup so that abbey would be able to dump all the ingredients in without any help. she mixed a lot on her own, but i helped her a little toward the end (the crisco makes the dough pretty stiff).

she loved rolling the dough into balls, she said it was like chocolate play dough. she got extra excited when she found out we were rolling her balls in powdered sugar. abbey's a big fan of sugar.

being the mean mom that i am, i made her help me clean up the kitchen while the cookies baked. i told her it was part of the fun of baking, and since she's only 4, she believed me. abbey washed off the counter while i washed the dishes.

the cookies turned out great, nice and chewy, and abigail was so proud of herself! we both ate 3 (!) with a big glass of milk. i miss having abbey be a baby, and it makes me sad that she's growing up so fast, but i really enjoy all the new activities that we're able to do together now that she's a "big girl".

a trip to walgreens, i mean, the north pole...

santa took a break from preparing for christmas to make a special trip to the walgreens that's down the street from my house. since he was in the neighborhood, we threw the kids' duds on and took them down to see him. we didn't tell them where we were going, we thought it would be a really fun surprise to walk into the store and see santa, ta da! not so much...

the girls were terrified of that jolly old elf. abbey wouldn't even take the candy cane he tried to give her. luckily, there wasn't a line, so we took our time and chatted with santa a little (giving the girls a chance to warm up to him) before we took our picture. abbey didn't want to sit in his lap so she stood next to him. ellie didn't have that luxury, i plopped her down on his knee and she lost it. it was so sad. we made silly faces and encouraged them to smile while santa's helper snapped pictures. abbey didn't cry. ellie tried not to cry. henry screamed. it was a memory.

once we were done and out of the store the girls were finally excited about santa. abbey was a little worried that she didn't tell him what she wanted, but she turned down my offer to go back in the store and tell him. we decided to write him a letter instead. on the way home we stopped at mcdonalds (yuck, but the kids love it) and got happy meals (which we haven't done since last spring).

even though it was a little traumatic, it was still a really fun day!

mmm...waffles

happy december 1st! i'm so excited that it's christmas time again, i can't wait to celebrate with my kiddos. my goal for this month is to do something christmasy with the girls every day. i think that it will be a fun way for us to get ready for christmas, but also a good way for me to spend some time with the girls sans baby. so, this morning, we celebrated the first of december with these bad boys:


they're gingerbread waffles. are you jealous? you should be. these taste gorgeous!

they were a little bit more involved than i expected (i didn't read all the way through the recipe before i made them) and they took a little more effort than i like to put into a 7am breakfast, but, oh, they were so worth it! i can't say enough how yummy these were! we ate them hot with whipped cream on top (if you hadn't already guessed that).

we enjoyed these so much that i want you to enjoy them, too! find the recipe here, make them for your kids, enjoy the taste of christmas and a special memory. oh, and don't forget to come back and tell me how much you love these. ;D

happy thanksgiving!

i hope that everyone had a great turkey day, filled with wonderful family, delicious food, and long naps! our thanksgiving was pretty low key, just the way we like our holidays.

we all piled on the couch in the morning and watched the macy's thanksgiving day parade. ellie didn't have the patience to watch too many balloons get drug down the street, but abbey really enjoyed it. i was actually pretty surprised that she was so attentive for so long. both of the kids were really excited to see santa pulling up the rear, they (especially abbey) are so ready for christmas.


about three quarters of the way through the parade i got up to throw the pies together and get them in the oven. unbeknownst to anyone, ellie also got up three quarters of the way through the parade and got chummy with an orange highlighter. after she had decorated her entire body, she came to show me how pretty she was and relinquish her pen. i was still baking when she did this.



dinner turned out really well. the turkey was amazingly moist, the best my mom has ever made. (great job, mom!) and we all ate more than our fair share of potatoes, stuffing, rolls, green beans, sweet potato casserole (NOT candied yams), and deviled eggs.


oh, and pumpkin pie. don't forget those yummy pumpkin pies i made while ellie was beautifying herself. abbey got a little excited about the pie and stuck her fingers in it. she was so happy with how yummy it turned out that she confessed her crime to congratulate me on making such a delicious pie.

happy thanksgiving, everyone!

a wet 4 weeks

henry turned 4 weeks old yesterday (he's technically not a month old until saturday). we celebrated by having his first real, fully submerged bath. i know, i know, it took me forever to do. but this is my first little boy and i wanted to make sure everything (ahem, down there) had healed before i plopped him in the tub. was i being slightly anal and a little silly? yes, i can admit to that, but that's just who i am. ;)

he was pretty angry with us as soon as we stripped his clothes off, but as soon as we slid him into a sink of warm water he settled right down. (yep, he's taking a bath in the sink, i have not gotten around to ordering his tub yet, someday i will.) he did really well sitting in the sink while i scrubbed him, until i got his head wet. that was not a hit, and he let us know. but i was quick and as soon as we pulled him out he settled down. it's so nice to a have a sweet, freshly bathed baby to hold.

3 weeks and shopping

danny and i took advantage of his day off today and stimulated the economy. that's right, we started (and nearly finished) our christmas shopping! i was hoping that we would be able to get it all done, but we got close enough. we still need a couple of things for henry and stocking stuffers, but after that we are all done buying (but not done making)! i can't wait to get everything wrapped, in the mail, and under the tree! my goal was to have everything done by the 1st, but with as busy as we've been, i don't see that happening. i think that the 14th is a much more realistic goal (especially considering how much sewing i still have to do...), so we'll aim to be done then.

in other news, henry hit the three week mark on wednesday. isn't he adorable? i love him!

2 weeks already

we took henry in for his two week check up today and he's doing great! he weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds 8 ounces and is still 19 1/2 inches long. he's in the 50th percentile for his height and his weight but only the 10th percentile for his head. (that, ladies and gentlemen, is a bier head, not an egli head!)

abbey was very concerned about whether or not henry would have to have a shot. i was a little worried that she may have tried to fight the nurse off her brother if she got near him with a syringe. luckily, he only had a pku heel stick, but abbey was still very upset that he got poked and was crying. she sang him a sweet little song to help him feel better.

picture update

just pictures tonight. one week old.

1 week

henry is one week old today! (i can't believe it, time is already flying!) to celebrate his first big milestone, his ugly umbilical stub fell off and left behind this adorable belly button! he also smiled his first big smile today! (gas-shmash) i wish i could have been lucky enough to have a camera in my hand, but i wasn't, so you'll just have to trust me that it was melt-your-heart-adorable!

happy halloween!

wow. today was busy! and i am tired. so this will be a short post, but at least i'm posting!

this morning was abbey's very first primary program! she did an amazing job, i am so proud of her! and she's awfully proud of herself, too. she was pretty shy about the songs she didn't know very well, but she absolutely belted out the one's she did. it was awesome to watch. i'm so glad that we had henry when we did so i didn't have to miss this!


after lunch and ellie's nap, the girls carved pumpkins with daddy! abbey went right to work on hers and cleaned out her pumpkin faster than anyone i've ever seen. she did a great job drawing her face on, too (dan was very careful to carve it exactly the way she drew it). she made a "spooky" pumpkin. ellie used her spoon to dig the guts out of her pumpkin and then put them in her mouth. gross. we tried stopping her several times, but eventually gave up. really, it's squash, it's not going to hurt her. danny carved her pumpkin into the surprised face ellie makes, because trying to carve out the scribbles she drew was just a little tricky.

henry and i had a postpartum appointment at the hospital this evening. a doctor's appointment at 5pm on a sunday? yeah, i thought it was weird, too. but they said it was important, so we went. and wasted 90 minutes. we did get to weigh henry while we were there, though. he's 4 days old and already back up to 6lb 11oz, only 1oz shy of his birth weight. way to eat like your mom, little guy!


we rushed home from the hospital to dinner in a pumpkin (yum. i could eat this every day.) and trick-or-treating. the girls actually went trunk-or-treating last night and had an absolute blast, so they only went to one house tonight. our next door neighbor, a sweet little grandma, wanted to see the girls, so we got them all dressed up and danny ran them over. it worked out really well, because abbey really wanted to t-o-t on halloween, but it was way too close to bed time to go out. it was a good compromise that made everyone happy.

oh, a note about costumes. abbey was "not a scary" witch. ellie was supposed to be her little black cat, but we lost her costume. we looked for it everywhere, could not find it. "renaissance princess" was the only costume in her size at target. the only one. so, that's what she was. she was cute, but they didn't match. i hate not matching... henry was going to be a bat, but i didn't make him a costume in advance because we weren't sure when he would be born. we got home from the hospital friday evening and let me tell you, i just didn't feel like sewing a costume two days after having a baby. weird, i know. so he wore his pumpkin tush suit, which i think worked out just fine. ;D

hm..so much for a short post, huh?

he's here!

after a very short labor (my water was broken at 7pm, i was 4cm. in less than an hour i was at a 10) and one push henry elliot made his debut at 8:04pm on october 27th! he weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and is 19 1/2 inches long. his apgar scores were excellent and he is perfectly healthy! we are all so excited that he is finally here and doing so well. thank you, everyone, for all the help and support we received during this pregnancy! it was a little tough sometimes, but very worth it now that we're holding our baby.

false alarm?

well, more of a slow alarm, rather than false. i've been having a lot of contractions the last few days (5 minutes apart). yesterday afternoon danny finally convinced me to go to the hospital. everyone reading this probably thinks this should have been a no-brainer decision. what you have to understand is i've been having contractions since i was 13 weeks. and since they were the same contractions i've been having for 23 weeks, i didn't think it warranted a trip to l&d, but i still went.

after 7 hours and being monitored and 3 hours of walking, or rather waddling, the halls (no small feat when you're 8 months pregnant and contracting), we got to go home. the doctor said that while i am officially in labor, my progress is slow enough that i didn't need to stay at the hospital. so, baby is on his way, but we have a few more days to get everything ready for him (and find a name...) before he gets here. <3

a trip to the pumpkin patch

i could never find a pumpkin patch in idaho or utah, so we always ended up getting pumpkins from the grocery store. not very festive. this year is different. this year we're in washington. this year i know right where the pupkin patch is.

we packed the girls up this afternoon and headed over to bi-zi farm for their first trip to a real pumpkin patch! they had an absolute blast! and we got to make some really special memories together before baby makes his debut. <3

as soon as we got there abbey scaled the hay bale pyramid. i was really surprised that she went all the way to the top all by herself (she didn't know that dan was right behind her with ellie). as soon as she got to the top that batteries in my camera started to die, so i missed some really cute shots. :( for some reason, anything battery powered (cameras, computers, remotes) hates me lately. it was irritating having to keep shutting the camera off and flipping the batteries around, but i eked enough power out of the thing to get pictures of our whole day.


the hay bale maze was a lot of fun. as soon as we said "go", abbey grabbed ellie's hand and they ran through the thing as fast as they could. it was hard to waddle fast enough to keep up with them ;D we also made a stop at the "corn bin". a huge hole full of dry dent corn, sort of like a farm version of the ball pit at chuck e. cheese. abbey had a lot of fun making corn angles and filling up the little tractors. ellie didn't like it at all, her feet kept sinking into the corn and she couldn't move, until dan sat her on her tush and showed her how to fill up the tractor, then she had fun, too.


the petting zoo. the girls could not get in here fast enough. as soon as we did abbey got a little nervous and didn't want to pet anything. ellie isn't old enough to be afraid of goats that are three times bigger than she is, so she was chasing after the animals and wanted to touch everything. abbey warmed up after a few minutes (and getting to feed a bunny) and tentatively enjoyed herself.


taking pictures while we waited for the hay ride to take us out to the pumpkin patch. i love that ellie is screaming in both our family pictures. she didn't want to sit still at all, there was way too much to do!


the girls had a blast getting to pick their pumpkins out of the field (so much better than the grocery store parking lot). it took us a little while to find pumpkins that were small enough for them to pick up. apparently we went to the wrong end of the patch, while we were driving away we found a mecca of baby sized pumpkins. even though it took a little looking, the girls still managed to find some pumpkins that were just the right size.




after you get off the hay ride with your pumpkin, you get to give it a "bath" with old fashioned water pumps. even though it was getting a little cold and the girls took the liberty to get a little wet, it was a lot of fun to scrub our own pumpkins (and it made mommy and daddy very happy not to have to put muddy pumpkins in the car). after the pumpkins were squeaking clean, we warmed up with hot chocolates before we headed home for dinner. it was a really fun day, i think that dan and i had as much fun as the girls did ;D