Dear Teresa,

please always and forever stay this cute and precious!

December

We have a long built-in cabinet along the far wall of our kitchen which I thought would look nice with nothing on it. Well that just doesn't work - it is now LEGO central. It has actually been named "Lego Station." So much for minimalism around here. :)

Buckets make great hats, don't they?




Oh and the LEGOs spill over to the kitchen table most days as well. I think Sean took this picture.

We have almost 2,000 square feet in our home, but usually everyone is within a 2-foot radius of each other. And wearing a turkey hat or a lei.

It's December but the weather has felt more like March! We've had lots of rain and no snow.

Nativity / elf / comics

The Presbyterian church/preschool had a live nativity scene the weekend before Christmas, so we went to check it out. Sean was excited to see the angel on top of the stable (and afterward had to go see how she got up that high) as well as the animals.

It was pretty chilly that night.




Here is Sean telling Schroeder, our Elf on the Shelf, what he wants for Christmas.

And Sean has recently become interested in the Sunday comics. He asks one of us to read them to him, and after each one he sometimes laughs but usually says, "That doesn't make any sense!"

Last minute touches

Note the ornaments start at 30" and up. Merry Christmas!

The Advent season begins!

The Friday before Thanksgiving, we headed to downtown Hamilton for the tree-lighting ceremony. We had heard that Santa would make a grand entrance, and that proved to be true. Santa appeared on top of one of the buildings downtown, then rappelled down the side of the building. Later he was seen cruising around the streets in a convertible.

We watched this for a moment or two, then Sean wanted to go see the train display at the city building. So, we actually missed the tree lighting, but that's ok.

We walked past Mehas Music, where Sean takes drum lessons once a week.




On our way back to the courthouse we hopped on the horse-drawn wagon for a ride around the block.

Catching up

I have been slacking on the blog lately, so here is my attempt at catching up a little bit.

We enjoyed a beautiful, mild fall and spent as much time outside as possible. Teresa is a little climber and loves the playground just as Sean does.

We also play around the house. Here they are being as nice to each other as ever.




So cute.




Little LEGO man. He comes up with some interesting and impressive creations.




More cuteness.




I love our house.




One reason to love this time of year - pomegranates at Meijer for $1! (Try them on vanilla ice cream - delicious!)





More to come....

Future pilots

Whoa. I just realized that I started this post a long time ago (October!) and even referred to it in another post but never published it. Well, here it is.

We went to the airport (Hogan Field) to help Grandpa with his office computer and printer. Ok, Jeff helped with that part. Anyway, Sean had been requesting a taxi ride in the Cub, so we started out with that in mind. We got the plane out of the hangar and tried out the seats (and Sean made sure to touch each dial and knob at least three times).

Teresa enjoyed sitting in the pilot's seat. Which reminds me, she gets very excited every time we hear an airplane fly over our house. And now that she points it out, I realized that there are a lot of planes over the skies of Hamilton!

Now Sean is pretty sensitive when it comes to loud noises, so I thought he would not like it at all and start crying. He got excited though when he could put the headphones on which blocked a lot of the noise, and later when the plane was moving, he could talk to Grandpa.

Off for a quick tour of the airport.




However, before we knew it, Grandpa and Sean were scheming over the headphones and all of a sudden we were taking off! Holy Toledo! (If you click on the picture to zoom in, you can see a little yellow airplane in the sky - that's us!)

We flew over downtown Hamilton, and Sean was excited to see the courthouse and his preschool (which he refers to as "The Presbyterian Preschool" every time - it's not just preschool!). We ventured further to go over our house but Sean had a hard time picking it out among the trees and other houses. Then we returned to the airport to take care of business.

Snack time.



Climb time.



Cute time.




Dog time.




Piper is always a good sport.

So there you have it. Sean's first real airplane ride (I don't really count airline rides because those just aren't the same). He enjoyed it!

New blog on the blog list

Our midwife, Sora, who helped deliver Teresa when she was born, is moving to the Philippines. She is documenting the journey here:

http://receivewithmeekness.wordpress.com/

Thought you might be interested....

Barn and Bunk

Sean had a class trip to Barn-n-Bunk a couple of weeks ago. We learned how to make a scarecrow, which was quite informative. Everybody got a turn stuffing the straw in (and we learned the difference between straw and hay, which I had been wondering about) which was fun.

The finished product!

I kept Teresa entertained with a snack in the carrier. She was not at all interested in learning about scarecrows but was keen on running around beyond where I could see her, so I pulled the Rice Chex card. Luckily that worked without too much squawking.

Sean's classic "camera smile."

There was an old corn crib that has been converted into a maze with a slide at the end. Sean did not want to go through it because it was too dark and he could not see where he was going, but then he figured out a way - he followed someone with light-up shoes! (So those do have a purpose after all!)

Sean did lead the pack during the corn maze. You can see him up front with the "Jeff" shirt on. I need to remember to not allow that shirt when he goes to school since it seems to cause some confusion. :)

I couldn't manage to get a picture of S & T together with their Notre Dame shirts on, so I just had to take two pictures.

Teresa was trying out fish lips for a couple of days. She gave up after a while.

Here's Mr. "I go at 120% until I crash and look like this for a day" Sean. Or maybe he's just trying to look dreamy.

Speaking of dreamy, the Prizm got a new paint job. Pretty dreamy, eh?

In the spirit of Prizm-ness, fun, and an appreciation for English rock, I voted for this to be painted on the hood:

but alas it turned out plain blue.

My new workout session is Priscilla's Yoga Stretches on PBS. (I never said I wasn't a nerd.) I mentioned it to Sean and he has wanted to try it a couple of times, but gives up after a few minutes claiming that it's too hard (despite the fact that I know he is in better shape and more flexible than I am!). I am going to find a yoga for children DVD at the library and try that next. Priscilla is not entertaining enough for a four-year-old's attention span.

They are both good at the relaxation pose, although take note that's not what Priscilla is instructing. My children march to the beat of some kind of drum I haven't figured out yet and probably never will. :)

That's all for now.... the next post will include airplanes. Stay tuned....

Science Girl