Happy New Year!

Okay, I was going to send out a New Year card because the Christmas card was just not going to happen. Now I think the New Year card will not happen and so instead of delaying and sending a Valentine's Day card I'm just going to post the New Year's card for everyone to see. I know this is incredibly lazy of me and to those of you who sent us cards-they were sooo... appreciated an fun to get in the mail. Anyway here are the three prototypes--which one should I have mailed out?

The fate of the yellow blankie--

When we had Ian we did not know we were having a boy. (We didn't think we were having a girl either.) It was just up in the air due to a very old and fuzzy ultrasound machine. One of the advantages to this was we received many "neutral" colored gifts of clothing and blankets. One of the blankets we received from Dave's cousin Natalie was a pale yellow fleece blanket. When Ian was about 3 months old we discovered he was attached/in love with this blanket. They have been inseparable ever since. (Picture Linus and his blankie and you'll get the general idea.) Ian still at 4 likes to have "yellow" close by. Well, last week he and yellow were in the kitchen and Ian thought it would be a good idea to grab a candle that was warming at the back of the counter and pull it forward spilling warm (thankfully not hot) wax all over the floor, cupboards, yellow, and hands (once again thankful it wasn't hot). Ian was not hurt, but yellow is now covered in green pine smelling wax! We are going to try to iron it out, and save him-any other ideas on how we might salvage him would be helpful. Ian is recovering, but when Dave told him yellow was dead we had a major breakdown (what was Daddy thinking!) Santa might bring a Spider-man blankie for Christmas or we might cut yellow into smaller pieces for Ian to carry around in his pocket, like in the book "Owen".

Ginger(salt)bread Men

Here is the finished product!

This year Ian and I decided we needed some more decorations for our tree. We have up-graded to a larger tree and even with all the decorations on the front-none facing the wall-our tree looked a little bare. We decided to make salt dough gingerbread men to hang on the tree. Ian did a great job rolling and cutting out the gingerbread men. We put cinnamon in the dough to give the men a nice brown ginger look and it also made them smell yummy! They baked all day and smelled so good. Ian was confused as to why we couldn't eat them. He would have broke his teeth on them they were so hard. We sprayed them with clear spray paint and glued on buttons and little pieces of scrap material-they look so cute. I'll have to post a finished product. Ian had a great time with this activity, but both he and Dave are now demanding the real thing! Dave came home with 4 jars of molasses the other day hoping to move the process along-so I'm off to make gingersnaps/gingermen.

'

Birthday Buddies

Miles is 1! He had his birthday a few weeks ago, and I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. Miles and Dave share the same birthday and Dave always calls Miles his birthday buddy. For their birthday's this year we had a little birthday party with the grandparents. Ian was probably the most excited of all. He got to open every present while Miles played with the wrapping paper. Ian and I had made a vanilla cake and decorated it with blue and yellow stars. I put it in the fridge so the frosting wouldn't melt and all day long Ian kept opening the fridge and asking if he could touch the cake. We also made a pumkin cheesecake for Dave. Here's to hoping that Miles' second year is as easy and fun has his first was. Happy Birthday cutie.

Trying to be a photographer

A couple of weeks ago we came home from pre-school and the weather was so perfect I thought I would try to take some pictures of the boys. We have a really big willow tree in our yard and all the leaves were bright yellow and that warm bright Indian summer sun was just casting a great glow on our front yard. I dumped Miles in the leaves and just started snapping-thanks to digital I can take as many as I want right? I was snapping fast but out of about 50 shots hardly any looked good. He was so wiggly and so fast! I turned my attention to Ian-"Look at the camera-Smile-hold still-no look this way!" You get the general idea. Ian was just as bad as Miles and as I was shooting each picture he would start to run towards the camera to see the picture on the screen on the back. All I have to say is - Marissa you are so talented, we will be calling soon to get some family shots done.