King Of The Rats...

Sully had a fun party!

Him and his buddies (and cousins and lil' bro) had the run of a neat indoor skate park for two whole hours. They skated and scurried and climbed around until it was time for root beer floats and presents.

The birthday boy was showered with neat things but most importantly he had his fellow rats by his side to celebrate the beginning of his eighth year, which is bound to be great.

(Plus our gift bags went over very well:)

We are all on the brink of new year here aren't we?

We hope you are surrounded by all you love and that many special things are to come.

Have a safe and wonderful night tonight.

Wow, 2010...

It's bound to be great.

Favors.

We are getting ready for a fun day today!

I spent some time with my new sewing machine (tee-hee) making some little party favor bags for Sully's skate park birthday celebration.

They were so easy and a good way to get acquainted with my Viking. I basically just stitched up 10 tiny pillow cases and tacked a little tie (that I didn't bother to hem) on the back to gather and tie them shut.

Like I said, easy, even for me.

I had some help from Minna tucking itsy-bitsy skateboards and treats inside. As always I don't

know what I would do without those eager toddler hands to help me throughout the day. :)

Anyway, I hope these favor bags are used for other things by our young guests after they skate their hearts out and take their goodies home.

Check back tomorrow for all the skating, biking, root beer floatin', party goodness.

Have a great day!

The First Of Our Finest Creations.

Sullivan Paul is EIGHT today!

Eight years ago J and I were a million miles from home, just the two of us and all of a sudden we were a family.

Sully, you made us a family...

You were born in a tiny hospital under somewhat stressful conditions. You handled the whole thing with the grace and calm of a baby born very peacefully though. The nurse grabbed you seconds after you came and started to take you away before I could look at you. When she gave me a dirty look as I grabbed her shirt and wrapped my arms around you, pulling you back to me, you looked me in the eye, quiet, letting me know- "Don't worry about her Mama, I will be back soon."

Then when we couldn't find a comfortable position to nurse together in and we tried over and over and everybody was looking at me and telling me I just couldn't do it and needed to give you a bottle, you looked at me again saying- "Don't worry Mama, we will figure this out when we get home." Then you yawned and drifted quietly to sleep.

And later when another nurse tried to give you sugar water, you gagged and spit out that weird nipple. Then you cried for the first time in two days until they brought you back to me. You gazed at me saying "I showed them. All I need is you right now."

Then, after a bumpy trip in the car, we made it home. The three of us cuddled up and nursing was never a problem again. You were a teeny baby and you were right. We figured everything out just fine, together, as a family.

Sully, you and your brother and sister are the best things we have ever created.

But Sully-boy, YOU created me too.

You made me, a Mama, and I am so very lucky.

Happy, Happy Birthday.

Some Homemade Highlights...

We had a great Christmas. Hope you did too. Are you recovered?

The kids over here were lovingly showered with goodies and Santa was very good to all of us.

Sully now has his very own digital camera so I have a partner in photo-taking mischief. Colyer received a voice changing device that he loves so much that I actually found clipped to his pajamas when I checked on him in bed late Christmas night. Happy, happy kids.

The gift-giving highlights that brought me much happiness were;

A batch of Devil Dogs made by my Mom from her Mom's recipe. My grandma made them on special occasions and I hope we start doing that too. Welcome Devil Dogs! Who am I kidding with that fork? Nobody used a fork for these!

Then all the handmade cards and ornaments and handmade ornaments AS cards, so pretty! More and more homemade, lovin' it. Now what to do to save and enjoy them all each year? A holiday collage to pull out with the decorations? Hmm, any ideas?

And last but not least, meet our new addition, Miss Happy. I wanted to name her Annie but I thought that was too obvious with the short red hair, so Happy it is and we love her. She was knitted by J's Mom and is very special to all of us even if she was mainly intended for Minna. (I am kind of confiscating Minna's new tea set too.)

I must mention that I also received a beautiful new sewing machine that I have been up late playing with, sleepy eyed and very happy. I am looking forward to many sewing projects in 2010.

Hope you had some memorable highlights of Christmas 2009 as well. And before we start really prepping for 2010, we have something much more important than the new year coming up.

Our first born will be 8 tomorrow!

Whoa. It just hit me...Happy Monday!

sunday

saturday

christmas day

christmas eve

Clips Of Christmas Past...

Oh boy! We have years of these sibling shots-

hanging stockings and posing in front of the tree.

My absolute favorites are the years we are decked out in handmade jammies. The shot below is by far my number 1. Those night caps and gowns are so adorable. I wish I still had mine for Minna to wear. (Maybe Grammie still has the pattern?)

So very special.

Don't worry Kim, I didn't forget about you. You came when we were a bit older but we only remember what Christmas was like without you because of pictures like the ones above.

There you are below, pink dangle earrings and all.

The life of the Christmas party.

My fondest memories weren't about what we had or didn't have. They are of that feeling of antsy anticipation and sneaking out to see if Santa had visited yet. And those marathon games of "Mouse-Trap" with the 3, and later, the 4 of us in the middle of the night because we just couldn't sleep. Then counting down the SECONDS til 6:30 or 7:00am when we were allowed to wake our parents up, finally!

I hope you all have good memories of your Christmas past too. Can anyone beat those sleeping caps?

If you want to check back over the next couple of days, after your stockings are hung, then when presents are put away, I will probably have some special wordless posts to share...

...bring along some eggnog.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

That To-Do List Again.

Even though I have tried to make a lot of gifts this year, things still got a bit hectic.

I had list after list of "to do" "to buy" "to make" "to think about" and so on. Today we had whittled away most of it all and were working from yet another, little last minute list.

I got the kids ready to go out and came across one more thing that had been added on...

I stopped in my tracks. Leave it to my almost-8-year old to remind me of what should always be on our list anyway.

So, we got everything done...

...and thanks to that last "to do", remembered to have fun doing it.

Just Sit Back And Wait.

All there is to do is make one more little something and get some wrapping done, after the kids are fast asleep of course. We are ready!

Tonight we are going to cuddle up, dim the lights movie theater style and watch Jim Hensen's "The Christmas Toy". Does anyone else love that one as much as us? I think I may have married the only other person that watched it religiously with his family as a kid too. We have a tattered VHS copy from forever ago so Kermit is still in it. Just isn't Christmas without Kermit in his Santa coat.

Anyway, nice quiet night here before J is back to work and all the Christmas festivities begin.

Are you ready?

Good night.

sunday

saturday

late friday/early saturday somewhere

X-mas Card Cutting Room Floor.

Our holiday photo postcards are officially in the hands of the mail carrier.

We didn't send many this year. I think I probably took 100x more photos than we actually sent. I tell ya, photographing 3 children is a challenge to say the least. But oh so fun and hilarious!

I dragged the kids out a couple of weeks ago dressed in the few articles of red clothing we have in our drawers. They climbed a little and scrambled around in the hay and the grass. I tried to get them to "smile here" and "look over there" and "hug each other!" That one wasn't even met with too many grumbles. Ahhh, Christmas spirit.

Here are some fun or funny shots that probably capture my kids spirit better than the final cut.

We are sending these ones to you, right now!

HAPPY, HAPPY HOLIDAYS

AND WE WISH FOR YOU AN EXCITING NEW YEAR!

LOVE,

Natalie, Jeff, Sully, Colyer'n Minna

Have a great weekend!

The Swell.

Nothn' like seein' your handsome boy singing his little heart out.

And feeling that huge swell of holiday-school-concert-pride.

Can you guys guess which reindeer is mine?

Gosh I love 'em!

We are really looking forward to two weeks of having them all to ourselves...

oh yes.

Are you doing anything special for your winter break?

Holidays Are Like Wednesdays.

Wednesdays around here are funny, and busy.

I always feel like I should be crossing items off the to-do list left and right at this point, but it seems I am always adding more instead.

That is how the holidays are too. Especially this year because I want to make as much gift goodness as possible. I am kind of behind. Not in panic-behind-mode yet though. Yet.

I will be able to cross a few things of my list today. Yes!

While these three were putting their heads together and poking around outside with Dad,

I was inside putting stuff together of my own. It was fun. I was gettin' down and creative with old calendars (almost old, it is December), magazines, cool kid art and shoe boxes. I am two spiral bindings away from having a couple of journals for my boys.

I am going to sneak some special drawings in each book for them to find as they go along. I am going to package the books with some "grown-up" pens, pencils and good erasers too.

I think they will kinda dig 'em.

I hope so anyway.

*Steal Sully's skateboard calendar- check!

*Cut up shoe boxes-check!

*Compile journal guts- check!

Happy Hump Day!

Holiday Lamb.

Remember Charlie?

Well his Mama had another lamb this year and again she isn't producing any milk. Our neighbors took over feeding and warming duties which we love to help with.

Yesterday we armed ourselves with special lamb-y milk, boots and coats and wandered down to meet our new friend. (There are several little babies out here and I am constantly getting googly over them.)

We were half way there and Miss Min spotted some other lambs, screamed and threw herself on the ground. Uh. Minna was scared so weren't going to hop in the pen as we wanted to.

Colyer tried to console his little sis and that helped a little. We didn't push her.

I just went about feeding and Colyer patted a little milk covered nose.

Here is LuLu! She may be a messy eater but otherwise was very polite.

And look! Minna made her way over to say hello and even smiled! As we walked away Minna pointed, waved and said "LooooLoooo?". They are friends now.

Have a great day.

Another One Of THOSE Weekends...

Well, this poor family got the sicks, again. I am puzzled. We are so very rarely ill and here we are sick twice in a month. What gives?

Everyone has crawled out from under the covers to go to school, work and the grocery store so we are better. Phew...

None of the card sending, ornament stitching or Christmas card photo sessions happened as they were supposed to though. I was even too weak to pick up the camera around here!

Therefore, I am posting pictures of our last round of illness. Really, the scenes are pretty much identical.

Scenes like this one...

...and this.

Here's to hoping this is the last of the stomach upsets for the year and wishing you all good health too.

Now the stitching, picture taking and general merry-making can continue...

Happy Monday!