We had Christmas dinner at my parent's house this evening
Jeff and Henry playing
Oh, and did I mention that we reenacted the nativity scene? Here is my dad helping Jacob get dressed as a shepherd.
He looks pretty thrilled considering he spent the last 36 hours insisting that he was going to be dressed as a train (you can imagine how frantic that made Hannah). I chose not to publish any other pictures (except I didn't get one of Angel Hannah, blast), just picture a lot of towels draped about.
Helen with her baby bump!
Jacob really excited about his big nerf gun. 
Stephanie helping Jacob open a train and Jason, uh, apparently right in the middle of saying something.
This is my favorite picture this season! Hannah and Nana looking festive!
Amy and Eliza came over to decorate gingerbread houses with us and Hannah made a princess apron out of a coloring page. Huh.
Lucky for Amy and me, the kids tired quickly of the fun and began playing with princesses so that we could decorate how we wanted to! Yes, the houses are really just cubes but those peaked roofs are darn irritating to make! 
I have a new addiction and it is remodeling/decorating blogs. It is so very very bad. I have always wanted to put up Christmas lights and in 6 years of marriage I have never done it. Until this year! I put a lit garland around the door and then colored lights in the tree which look very pathetic but will be easy to top next year. I figure I will do a little more each Christmas until I have it how I want it. I also planted ranunculus bulbs ( my favorite flowers) with pansies on top in the pots on my porch!
I don't think I had changed my mantle display in over a year or maybe even longer, not sure. I know it is Christmas time but I am waiting for the after Christmas sales to get things for next year. ( I may be an addict but I can still be sensible). Anyway, I love these colors and it still needs work because it doesn't feel quite right yet (I think I need to lower the sign a little, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated) but it makes me smile everytime I look at it.
Here are the little buckets I made for Hannah's two teachers. A school themed bottle of hand cleaner, gingerbread candle, and a Christmas themed display tile. Oh and did I mention that I am redoing my bedroom and master bath? When I am finished I will post the before and after pics. I am willing to start a support group if there are any others out there with this same problem. we can take turns meeting at each other's houses ( and bring a paintbrush).
Ah, the Christmas tradition of pulling out Martin's baby swim trunks. These pictures have made me realize that I need to work on my photography skills. (Sorry about the missing heads). Usually I try to just take a lot of pictures and get lucky but I was having so much fun at our annual ornament dinner that I didn't take very many and I apologize to the innocent bystanders who may be inaccurately, blurryly, or incompletely portrayed on this blog.
Dad opening one of his ornaments.
Jacob passing an ornament to Uncle Brian while wearing his new Thomas pj's. My mom buys them new pj's to wear Christmas eve night but Hannah had a pj day at preschool coming up so the kids got them early.
Mexican food is always part of ornament night!
Me and the kids made gingerbread cookies and then decorated them. Lots of fun despite how serious Hannah is looking
Ta-Dah! but really not very tasty. I tried a new recipe and it wasn't so hot and personally, I just don't think gingerbread cookies taste as good when they are not plain. (but where is the fun in that?)
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, Vogue, vogue
Hannah has been improving in her spelling which is nice because I don't have to dictate letters for her all the time. (Like when she wants to write the grocery list for me, if I am not feeling like mom of the year I tell her to draw it with pictures). There is also the downside. The other day she asked for some tape so that she could hang a sign on her door and this is what I found.
Not one, but two No Jacob signs. The lower one also has numbers (kind of) which I thought might be a room number but she informed me it was her bed time (9:45? you wish girlie) and then demanded to know when she could have an alarm clock. For such a smart girl there was a glaring oversight in forgetting that: 1. Jacob can't read and 2. Even if he could, he doesn't feel too restricted by rules, laws, or forces of gravity.
It doesn't take too long after having a kid that you come to realize that your home is no longer just your own. Not only do kids need a lot of stuff but as they grow they start moving things, using things which they don't put back, and decorating. Sometimes this is very frusterating and other times it makes me smile. Like the time I came across this pleasant care bear lounging on my sofa reading... a care bear book.
As a thank-you for watching her cat while on vacation, Natalie invited me and the kids to a safari at her house! The pictures are a little out of order but when we first got there, there was a big tent set up in the living room with animal coloring pages for the kids while me and Nat finished up lunch. 
Then we had a picnic on the floor and Hannah hid animals around the house that we then gathered and brought back to the base camp.
Sweet Henry being adorable. 
Taking a well deserved rest at Base camp. Thanks Nat!
The day after Thanksgiving we ate at my parent's house and then went for a good walk (ride, for some). Hannah and Jacob are at a really good stage together where they both can play make-believe and Jacob is verbal enough to be able to communicate about it. Which makes for two happy play mates and a very happy mom.
The Fomby Family
This isn't a very good picture but in the other one I took Hannah looked bored and my dad looked mad. 
I decided to start a tradition of buying a new game each Thanksgiving because I love playing games. I wanted to get a grown-up game too but decided to wait until after Christmas for that as the one I was interested in was rather pricey. I picked operation. Jacob looks like he is practicing ballet but he would throw himself on the floor every time someone hit the edge of the game.
Hannah and Jeff
Pretty sure that using your fingers is cheating. I don't know the last time I played operation but my motor skills have come a long way since then because I was rocking that game!
Doesn't he just look so excited!
Doesn't she look fascinated!
Here is a not very great picture of Katy, my great friend, who works a lot, talks to me about being a more responsible consumer and to be more green, causes me to reseach what the heck she is blogging about ( Friedrich Neitzshe and P. G. Wodehouse lunching in the after life, come again?), gives me hope (Iran has a "if we decide to make nice" plan for tourism on the backburner- cool), makes me laugh, is a great mom, and is now living very close to me! Unfortunately for the second attribute of working a lot we don't get to hang out as much as I would like but this day we made it to the zoo with our boys.
Really weird picture. I don't know why he decided to bite the balloon but that is one of the reasons I love him so much is because he makes me laugh. when you are married, and have children that is a very very beautiful skill.
Here is Jeff making balloon animals for our family home evening activity that he was in charge of.
He heard Hannah coming down the stairs and decided to scare her. (How cool is it that there happens to be a UFO on the tv right then)! These are random pictures because his actual birthday was not quite as peachy as I had hoped. I had volunteered to help with a taster's table for a Relief Society night that ended up being scheduled that night so I was trying to do his birthday dinner, wake up the kids from their naps so they would go to bed nicely for Jeff since I would be leaving for the afore mentioned meeting, (they were screaming like banshees), and then make soup for the now twice afore mentioned meeting. Not fabulous and did not need any pictures to remember that evening. We are planning on going to dinner together without kids sometime this week and I am very excited for that.
Here is the official report on what the kids did with their candy:
Hannah promptly gave some to Mimi, Baba, and Jacob. Made a baggie of candy for Nana and Baba, and then made a treasure hunt for Jeff for when he got home. She used all her candy bars to make a trail from the front door up to his pillow.
Jacob opened up M&Ms and tootsie rolls to use as tender in his trains, then made a pile out of the rest of the stash for Percy to plow through.
My parents and Nat, Brian, and Henry came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. 
Does my lipstick look weird to anyone else? Why didn't anyone say something!
Nat and spooky Henry, before Brian arrived. Check out my new table in the background!
