New Baby Decor

With a new baby on the way (less than 3 weeks now!), new decor is in order for his/her room.

Here is the fabric I chose for the curtains.  I love the country feel.

I sewed on sheer ribbon to tie the curtain up and made a cute balloon valance.

I put a colorful light bulb in this decorative birdcage for some fun lighting in the room.  Look at the pretty pattern it creates on the wall.  I need to figure out  how to hide the cord (if there is a way without drilling into the ceiling and wall).  Any ideas?

Here is the sleeping corner.  I'd like to get more hoops to add more fabric to this wall.

Our friends at church made us these precious wood cut-outs.  I think I will add more here, but I'm not sure what, yet.  I love these praying children.

I still have some more re-decorating to do before this little one arrives, but this is what we have so far!

Preschool Christmas Program

Here is a video of Finn and Cadence's Christmas program.  Sorry for the shakiness and big head in front of me.:)  As you'll see, Cadence is very serious and concentrating on the words and what's next.  I love to watch her.  Finn seems a little distracted but is so stinkin' cute!

The Nutcracker

 Sunday afternoon, Cadence and I got to go on a little date to see the "Nutcracker" ballet.  It was the first time for both of us!

Cadence loved it and thought everything was very pretty.  She wanted to know why there weren't any kids her age dancing (the youngest were around 7), because she wanted to dance with the ballerinas.  Thankfully, I read the synopsis to her before the ballet started so I knew what was going on during the performance when she asked, which was every few minutes.:)  The only thing that scared her was the crashing cymbals during the Mouse King fight.  She really enjoyed clapping whenever the audience clapped.

At the end, she thought that the main character, "Clara", and the nutcracker were going to get married.  Very cute!

A fun date and a fun way to celebrate this time of year!

Trim the Tree

Last week, Cadence and Finn decorated the tree!  They did a great job. 

 All I had to do was hand them the ornaments and they hung them on the tree.  Of course, they could only reach half way up the tree, but Brad re-distributed the ornaments later.

When Aria woke up from her nap, she walked out into the living room, saw the tree, and said "Wow!".  Then, we had to keep our eye on her because she kept trying to take the ornaments off.  She did get a hold of two ornaments, an Irish blessing ball and a Broncos ball, and bashed them together.  The Broncos ball won the battle.  Her favorite ornaments are the pug ornaments.

What wonderful little elves!

Dancing Cadence

Here is Cadence's dress rehearsal for her dance recital, a few weeks ago.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Squared

Last week, we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for all the college kids before they headed home for the break.  They are always a fun group to have around.  They are very gracious, helpful and full of life.  

They easily devoured a 22lb turkey, but they weren't as ravenous for the other side dishes.  

The kids gobbled up the "Fruit Turkey" feathers.

Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you have a group comprised of mostly boys.  Just give them meat!

I really do love all the planning and cooking, I just need a few more years of practice to really get the timing down of when you cook everything so that it's all ready on time.

Thankfully, a lady from church made these pies for dessert.  Yum!  Pumpkin and apple pies.  I made a walnut chocolate chip pie, as well.  Every holiday needs some chocolate.

To celebrate the actual Thanksgiving holiday, Brad, the kids and I just hung out at home.  It was nice and low key.  

We went out in the morning and took a family photo for our Christmas card picture.

Then, I made Brad go and lie down (he had a fever of 101) and the kids and I went out front to roller skate, ride bikes, push strollers, and race!  Aria really liked being a part of the races with the big kids.  She liked when I'd say, "Ready, set, go!".  She definitely needs a baby stroller for Christmas.  (Brad came home early the next day and let me take a nap.  What a guy!)

While I finished getting dinner ready, Brad and the kids drew and colored their Thanksgiving place mats.

These are Cadence and Finn's Thanksgiving turkeys from Sunday School.  They wrote what they are thankful for on the hand print feathers.

The kids didn't eat much food (Finn's eating his utensils in the top picture) , and I found myself thinking, "I wish they'd eat more so that we didn't have so many leftovers."  I know there will come a day, though, when I'll be wishing they didn't eat so much.

I made sweet potato pie for dessert.  My favorite!  My pie plate is too shallow, so I made it in this casserole dish.  They are thick slices of pie.:)

We have quite a bit of turkey leftover, so my mission is to find new recipes to use turkey in.  Last night we had Turkey Taco Soup.  It was pretty good.  I'll probably make Turkey Enchiladas one night, but that's as far as I've gotten so far.