Maddy and Sam

Oh Christmas Tree

See below for weekend post. Here is our pretty tree. Look at the lovely Smallkaramell at the top. Big, but fun to make

Long Holiday Weekend

 We've had a wonderful 4-day weekend and I'm not excited to go back to work again. It's been really busy, but we have gotten a lot accomplished.

Thursday was Thanksgiving at Molly's. It was much easier than I had thought. Maddy played with Hunter and Charlie the whole time (didn't eat anything) and Sam was happy just crawling around and chatting with people. Tim and I had a good time relaxing and eating lots and lots of good food.

Friday morning Tim woke up bright and early and headed to Target to buy a new TV. For those of you that don't know the Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday and it's a crazy day when all retailers have huge sales and open early. People really go nuts over all the deals they can get. Tim just bought the TV (and some diapers) and then came home. I shopped with my friend Allison later on in the day and finished all our Christmas shopping. Allison and I then went to a movie (New Moon) and then home for Pizza and a movie.

Saturday was relaxing at home and then we went to cut a Christmas tree. With the warm weather it felt a little odd, but easier with the kids not cold and crabby. Sam just sat in the wagon and took it all in while Maddy helped us find a tree. We had decided to go with a slightly smaller tree this year and finally found the perfect one.

Today we spent some time putting up the lights and Maddy and I decorated. It looks absolutely beautiful! While Sam napped Tim worked on putting up some shelves for the DVD player and digital receiver and Maddy and I went to the final rehersal for the Lucia celebration on Friday. Maddy decided she did want to be a part of it and walked nicely with Felicia, but did not sing one note. We'll see how it works on Friday. After that they played for a bit. Felicia has a very pink bedroom and all the Disney Princess dresses. Maddy kept going "Good bye Mermaid" since Felicia was wearing an Ariel dress. It was very cute. Apparently all my friends think Maddy is the funniest kid because of all her expressions. I agree of course, she's the best.

So that's all for now. Busy, but also relaxing.

A dream is a wish

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Sam can walk (sort of)

Sam is a quick crawler, but he is starting to get interesting in this thing called walking. I borrowed a walking toy from my friend Sarah and with a little prompting he'll get up and cruise. I wouldn't really call it cruising, but he's trying. The movie below seems like it loaded fine, but I can't get it to play on my laptop...

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I helped out at the Swedish Christmas Fair and it was fun. We were in charge of sandwiches, hot dogs and juice. Very busy and I think we made some money. Yeah!

Otherwise things have been nice and quiet. Super busy week at work, but I love it.

Maddy loves to sing like most of you know. She knows lots and lots of songs. Her favorite is A dream is a qwish from Cinderella. This is her version of it:

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fasht (fast) asleep
In dreams you (lou) lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you teen (keep)
Have face (faith) in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling smoo (thru)
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

So cute!

We also bought new stockings and promised mormor we would post a picture:

Hide and seek again

There was actually a reason I called the last posting Hide and Seek. Maddy has been playing this with us, both out and inside. It's fun and interesting. She counts to 20 and finds us quickly, but usually wants to tell us where to hide. And when she's hiding she tends to pick the same spot we just hid in. And can usually not wait until we find here, she sticks her head out and smiles.

Hide and Seek

Sometimes a weekend of doing nothing is just what our family needs. It's been a low-key weekend and I think we are all going to be ready for the busy week ahead. We've still had some fun with lots of time outside and a fun play date with my Swedish friends. And some de-cluttering, cleaning and laundry. I am getting excited for Christmas. I don't have much Christmas shopping left to do so I can just enjoy the rest of the time and put up lots of sparkles and candles. I'm sticking to my silver/white/red/green theme, can't quite get on board with the colored lights and pink and neon colored decorations, just not Christmas to me.

I was also having some fun with new things in the kids rooms:

Sparkly fairy pictures!

 

For those of you who didn't see our beautiful family pictures here are the two main ones I put on the mantle:

Two cutest kids alive!

 
 
 

Back to "normal"

We had a wonderfully busy week with my parents. We were all so sad to see them go, but so happy with how the week turned out. I think these intense weeks really help when we can't see each other very often. It's really hard to not be able to see them all the time, but I do feel that them staying with us or us staying with them helps the bonding process. Maddy is not the least bit shy with them. I do talk about them a lot and show pictures and now that she can hold better conversations we'll do more over the phone.

 
 
 

My parents visiting and a baptism (oh, and Halloween)

My parents are here. It's great. Here are some cute pictures from the past few days:

 

Baptism 11/1

Tim and I with Godparents Molly and Willy

With Father Tony, my parents and Tim's parents