Christmas at Our House!

Friday night we had our Christmas & gift exchange. It was planned for Saturday night. But Hubby & eldest Son decided on Friday that Friday was better. Good thing all my presents were already bought & wrapped. But I wasn't done with Elianna's outfit. I ended up sewing right up until the middle of our dinner. See the finished product in the photos & previous post. It was worth it.

We missed Melanie and her family and my parents but I think everyone had a good time. The girls did really well even with the late hour.

My highlight of the evening involved Elianna.

Understand, our family passes presents out one at a time. Everyone watches while that one is opened. Then we pass out the next present.

This year my eldest son would pick a present from under the tree. He would read who it was for and then give it to Elianna to deliver.

Well, my husband received several presents in a row that were all clothes wrapped without a box. When he had every one's attention, being funny, he would squish them, act like he was guessing what they were, and then shout out "Socks!"

Finally Chad picked a CD wrapped like a CD. (no disguising this one) He gave it to Elianna to deliver to Glenn.

She walked it over to her Papaw with her hand on her hip and held it out to him. (Using that cute tone she has; that sounds as if to say "silly adults don't you know anything?" Must I tell you everything?)

Before handing him his present, she says,

"Papaw - This is NOT socks!"

Of course we all start laughing. Flustered, she turns around and says, "Well they're not!"

Elianna & Selah's Custom Outfits

All three of my grandaughters now have the custom Christmas casual outfits that I made this year.

A Child's View

I gave Elianna my camera to take pictures. Her choice of photos was quite interesting and gave me the idea for this blog.

Elianna's mom said it best when looking at her daughter's photos, "How would you like to walk around with your eye level such that you look at rears all day?" FYI: (For all those involved as models including myself)There are not any pictures of rear ends in this blog. They were all deleted. Especially after the comments about it being a good thing she had a wide angle lens for my rear photo. Thank You!

Ribbon Dance

Elianna & I were had taken out the Winter decorations for the buffet. Elianna was arranging the ice cubes. They were the last items to add when we heard a little voice say "WO...W"! Both Angela & I turned around from watching Elianna.

Selah had found this long piece of shiny ribbon left over in the storage bin. She was so excited when she took it out that she spontaneously started spinning around with the ribbon and dancing gracefully. You couldn't resist feeling her joy.

Ahh... to feel the joy & peace that a simple ribbon is able to bring to a child during this hectic season.

Aby's custom made outfit

Hi Ho, Hi Ho....

Elianna and her Papaw have a routine whenever he has to leave for work. They have been doing it quite while now, but today was the first time I thought to take a picture.
He gets down on her level and they hold hands. They look at each other and start singing in a very soft voice. Then they repeat the song very loud. Sometimes they sing the whole song together & sometimes they take turns singing different parts.

The Song?

It's sung to the tune of Hi Ho in Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs .

Hi Ho, Hi Ho
It's off to work I go;
To make the money
to buy you toys.
Hi ho, Hi ho.

Selah's a Cutie!

Selah has discovered this toy on the fridge now that she can walk everywhere. She can get up & down the steps too.

Doesn't she look cute in her overalls!

Fall Days

Today we just played outside in the backyard. It was a perfect Fall day and the girls were enjoying the leaves. So I snapped a few snapshots to post.

Elianna was kind enough to stop her 4-Wheelin' long enough for me to take this picture. She loved following the path her Uncle Craig made for his big 4-Wheeler in the back 40. She rode until her battery wore out.

Selah, our young botanist, intensely examined every single leaf within her reach.

G-Ma & G-Pa Visit

My Mom and Dad stopped by for a short visit while in town for another appointment. (All though it took quite a bit of convincing to get Elianna to understand that they had not come to take her up North to "Her Lake.") Check out my Mom without glasses. She now has 20/20 vision after cataract surgery!

It finally feels like Fall!

Today we went to storytime at the library as our usual Grandma Day outing. During the second book Elianna just got down and left the room. I followed her out and asked her what she was doing. She told me that she had already heard that story (she had) and wanted to go home. So we left. Then driving home, she kept telling me that Miss Molly (the librarian) was crying because SHE had left storytime before it was over.

We celebrated Fall today.

We read all my preschool Autumn books that I had retrieved from the attic.

Then we went outside to gather different leaves for our painting project.

I taped the leaves we had gathered onto a piece of paper. Then she painted over them by dabbing her paintbrush up & down. We removed the leaves and Ta-Da! leaf pictures. She was so excited she wanted to make one for Mommy too.

Errand Day

Today I took Elianna to Story Time at the big library today.

Then we went to Big Lots where she weaseled some suckers from me after we picked out wrapping paper for Selah's birthday present.

Next we went shopping at Meijer for groceries. Though Elianna told her mom that we didn't go shopping we went to Meijer. I guess grocery shopping isn't real shopping.

Lunch & Nap.

Angela came to get her and brought this surprise for Elianna.

Wasem's Fruit Farm

Today I joined Elianna, Selah and Angela on a field trip to the orchard with their MOPS group.

Tasting Different varieties of Apples.

Snacking on FRESH Donuts & Cider.

Our guide Grandma Judy explaining they each could only pick 5 apples.

Selah chowing on her apple.

Elianna took picking out her apples as very serious business.

Tomatoes Anyone??

It all started innocently enough. We were playing in our backyard when Elianna asked, "Can I feed Shadow?" I replied,"No, what are you going to feed Shadow?" "There's no food out here."
(In an attempt to stop her from feeding the dog her own food, we had been telling her for months that Shadow only eats his dog food and that people food would make him sick.)

I went into the house for water. When I came out, there were tomatoes all over the backyard.

Forgetting about her earlier question, I loudly asked, "Elianna, what are you doing?" As she picked a green tomato, she smoothly replied in her special duh! tone , "I'm getting food." Then I told her, "We don't pick the green tomatoes." Right away she grabbed a yellow tomato and asked, "How bout yellow?"

The big question is: Was she skirting the situation of feeding the dog after I had said no or did she really think dogs ate tomatoes?

But more importantly Shadow was wondering, "Why is this little girl throwing tomatoes at me?"

Abygail and a Pretzel

Abygail's favorite way to eat pretzels.

All the salt first.

Turning it like corn on the cob.

Base Beach

After lunch and naps, Melanie was feeling better and offered to take me to their favorite beach. I was more than ready even though it had become colder & windy. (and I hadn't brought a jacket)

Melanie and Abygail collected sticks, shells and sea glass.
Jaycob and I played "You can't catch me!" with the waves. We would let them get as close as possible then stepping backward quickly so we didn't get wet. Jaycob thought this was hilarious and kept laughing at every wave.

Aby & Jaycob loved chasing the birds. I was upset my camera was still acting up and I missed the greatest photo shot. Jaycob was completely surrounded by the flying birds.

Park

It was a gorgeous day and the kids and I wanted out.
Melanie finally agreed to take us to the park. (She wasn't feeling well.)

These Music panels were the most fun I've had myself at a playground in awhile. The bells especially were a blast. We found different size sticks produced different tones. Jaycob really got into the drums with the big stick. Aby's favorite was swinging.

Since the Park was on the water, we hiked down there. But it was clogged with red & purple seaweed. Jaycob was very upset that the beach was so nasty.

Garden

The one thing I had planned for this trip was to visit this garden. Melanie's blog of an earlier mom's group visit really interested me. We went on the perfect day. The sun shone through the trees creating a dappling on the cool shady path as we meandered along enjoying the day.
The Garden is such a gem. I loved it from the start.

A tribute to the Oyster Tonger, A Chesapeake Waterman

was the first statue.

Aby and Jaycob are examining one of the many benches through out the garden. Each bench represented a different type of tree. The concrete seat would have examples of that specific tree's leaves, flowers and seeds embedded in into it.

Every year the garden has a Public Art Project. This year's was titled "PILLARS: Wishes for a Better World."

Melanie and the children had colored recycled bottles at an earlier visit. They were very excited to find their bottle and some of their friends bottles in the display.

There was a side path called the Women Path. It had many statues of different sizes, shapes and ages of women. This is the one I found that represented me the most.