Christmas Videos

I'm going to split the Christmas post into three or four entries today because there was SO much that went on and there are so many pictures that it would be easier to split. Here are a few videos we took this morning. The first two are Logan with her new, pink, retro kitchen that we surprised her with this morning (along with a shopping cart full of goodies for her kitchen) and the third is L opening her special talking pot that she's been using obsessively in the kitchen.

30 Weeks and Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! I'm also 30 weeks pregnant today! We had a Dr.'s appt. on Weds. and everything is looking right on track. He's laying really low which is so different from Logan who was always really, really high. It's hard to say whether it's nicer to have a baby smashing your bladder or one swinging from your rib cage. I feel great, still have a ton of energy, still am sleeping great and have had just a wonderful pregnancy with this little guy so far (minus the awful first trimester). Can't wait to meet him in about 10 weeks!

We spent the day doing a lot of family traditions from both sides. Most involved food. I think I will gain 10lbs this weekend--in fact, be careful, you might gain weight just looking at the pictures. Mike worked the 2-10:30p shift last night and then was out the door again this morning around 7, so Logan and I really hadn't seen him in almost 24 hours when we picked him up for church this afternoon. This made my cookie baking adventure a bit of a challenge. Logan did great helping with the cookie dough but things got messy/sticky when we went to roll the dough and I ended up having to change her onesie twice....and I wouldn't be surprised if she has a belly ache from the dough she kept sneaking.

I frosted the cookies while she was sleeping but she "conveniently" woke up as I was finishing the last few. She came in and was babbling away about daddy's cookies (they're a wonderful recipe from his side of the family) and keeping me distracted. As I was placing the cookies onto their plate she snatched one and tried to be really quiet about it until she started to eat it and then she couldn't help but scream, "MMMMMMMMMMMMMM good!" Thankfully, I had the camera near and caught her with her hand in the cookie jar so everyone could see:

Here's how the conversation after went:

mommy: LOGAN! Those are daddy's cookies!

Logan: cheese mommy!

Then for dinner we had our traditional Danish pancake balls. Logan loved them but I think she loved the syrup more. (um, yes, she is running her hands through the syrup and then licking it)

I have a few other pictures from tonight but can't get them to rotate so that they're vertical and it's late and we just spent 3 hours putting together presents for Logan so I'll figure it out in the morning. :)

Shopping and Silly Bands

Yesterday we went to one of the malls in Raleigh because we were out in the area and we needed to pick up a few last minute Christmas things. We popped into one of their maternity stores to pick up a few pregnancy necessities and I just had to share how wonderful the experience was for all THREE of us. Mike does not enjoy shopping very much, and while Logan enjoys picking out things for herself and pulling random clothing off of racks, she does make it difficult to shop when I need things for myself. This is what we found when we walked into this store:

They do indeed have an entirely closed off space full of fun activities for toddlers (mine chose to climb the table instead of playing with anything else) and a nice TV playing cartoons. What you can't see is on the other side of this TV is another TV playing sports center and two leather man chairs. So yes, I was able to shop and find everything I needed and not worry about boring the life out of my family! We need more places like this. (say, the grocery store? ;))

When Carolyn was here last week, she shared some silly bands with Logan. If you don't know what they are, look them up....they're just as crazy of an obsession as Furbies were when I was 13. (yes, I just dated myself like I used to make fun of older people for doing. let's just leave it at that, it depresses me a little.) Anyway, Logan loved Carolyn's and when we walked into a store yesterday that had some (on major clearance, mind you), she went nuts and wanted to be "like An Tare!" So we picked up a box and she's been playing with them NON-STOP since we brought them home. (She woke up this morning and asked where they were)

Showing them all off:

Please don't take this as a hint that we might need more of them...I'm already finding them in places like my pillowcase, my purse and Mike's socks. :)

Christmas Comparisons

I love, love, love clothing that can be worn two years in a row--especially Christmas clothing since it only comes around once a year. This is the dress Logan wore for Christmas Eve last year and since we've got our small group Christmas party tonight, I pulled it out for her to wear again this year. She wore it as a dress last year and is wearing it as a cute little tunic top this year. What's even more special? I wore this dress when I was a baby! She's been walking around all day saying, "mama dress" and pointing to it.

This morning Logan and I cleaned out her toybox in effort to make room for some of the new goodies she'll be getting this year. She also had a TON of baby toys in there that no longer get used so I told her we needed to make a pile of toys for her and a pile of toys to save for baby brother. She got very into it and I think she may have put away more toys for her brother than she actually realizes... She did want to experiment and play with each one before deciding, though:

Logan's got a light up Santa ornament that has her name on it, but we've used all of it's juice up and it no longer lights up anymore. Instead of spending $10 on batteries, she and I ventured out to Kohl's this morning and picked up a new one for $2. Next year I'll buy several of the Logan ones so that we don't run into this problem again. :) She calls it her "o-ment" (ornament).

Speaking of our small group Christmas party, Logan and I had some fun making some goodies for it this afternoon! We made these yummy cookie dough truffles (with safe, eggless, cookie dough). Logan was a big help rolling the cookie dough balls to be dipped until she gave me the puppy dog eyes (indicating she really wanted to taste it)...I let her have one bite and then realized after several minutes that she had devoured TWO of our cookie dough balls (and they weren't tiny!). At this point I gave her another job ;). Here she is showing them off:

(yes she's wearing her sunglasses backwards...we don't know why she does this)

Then, we made an igloo cheese ball. It had all of Logan's favorite things in it so she really, really enjoyed helping with this one and then getting to taste some of it. She's turning into quite the little Vanna White, isn't she?

Christmas Outfit #2

We were going to try and stop by the Christmas tree at the mall this afternoon to get our Christmas picture done but Logan was in desperate need of a nap so we knew we wouldn't get a decent one. Anyway, that's why she was dressed in her second Christmas outfit today, we'll see if we end up making it out to the big tree or not. I was nervous when I picked this one out that it might not fit her because it's an 18 month outfit and she's just about all in 24 months/2T but to my surprise and delight, it did! (I apologize for the quality of the pictures...our rechargeable batteries have bit the dust and I'm hoping to pick up a new camera for Christmas so I don't want to purchase any more without knowing how many/what kind I'll need...so these are iphone pictures again. I promise, I'll get some disposable batteries so the quality of our Christmas Eve/Christmas morn pictures will be better!)

Daddy stepped in on a few of the pictures to get Logan to cooperate. We bribed her with a Christmas ornament to get her to smile for the first one:

In the picture I took before this next one, Logan had her eyes closed, so I told her I needed to take it again because her eyes had been closed. I guess she thought I was telling her she needed to close her eyes:

She's pretty enchanted with her light up Santa ornament. She holds him and says, "OH! Sinsha (which is sounding more and more like Santa), ho ho ho."

Here she is telling us what Santa says:

Sweet smiles:

She thinks that the gift bags under the tree are all purses and will routinely take them and put them on her wrist and say, "buh-bye, shop shop." Oh dear.

Holiday Dresses

We love our little community sharing shop here at the seminary. When Christmastime rolls around you can find some really sweet little Christmas dresses. I've picked up a few in the last couple of weeks and so Logan will get to wear a nice little array of dresses that we didn't have to pay for. Then we can pass them on to some other little girl when next Christmas rolls around. The bow is a mommy original. Surprisingly, it's one that she doesn't even touch when it's in her hair. She likes having the "amas tree" (Christmas tree) in there. I'm going to try to grab pictures of her in her outfits but she's been a little anti-camera the last few days so we'll see how she cooperates. :)

We've had a lot of uncharacteristically cold days the last few weeks here and have already had three snowfalls this year! Last year, it hadn't snowed at this point in the year so we've enjoyed watching the snowflakes fall. We are crossing our fingers for a nice, white Christmas. Along with the cold weather, though, comes the chapped lips. They are a new phenomenon for Logan. She complains to me that her lips are "boke" (broken) and that I need to "frow them avay" (throw them away). This is until I pull the chapstick out, then she perks up and begs me to slather it on so she can lick it off and then she wants more. Oh the joys. :) She likes to carry around one of the tubes and pretend to put it on her own lips. Whatever keeps her busy and happy and out of trouble, right?

She also has quite an affinity for my camera and she carries that around, as well. The batteries are pulled out and she's extra careful when she's got it in her hands. But, this is why the quality of the pictures isn't very good--we took them with the iphone so that she'd cooperate.

Aunt Carolyn Visits!

Carolyn (An Tare according to Logan) started her winter break this week and came to spend a few days with us. It came at just the right time, too, because Mike had finals pretty much all week so it was nice to have some company and an extra set of hands to help wrangle our little toddler. We did a lot of shopping while she was here so I could get our last minute gifts checked off the list and we also did a lot of hanging around the house because it's been SO cold here.

Yesterday, though, we did take Logan outside for a few minutes to run off some energy. She thought the mud looked fun until it got her shoes messy and then she fussed about it until we went inside and threw them in the washing machine.

She did try to shuffle her feat through some of the leftover snow to get rid of it first, though.

Here are some shots before Carolyn left this morning:

(please pardon the pregnancy fluff...I only put this one up here because C and L look cute)

This is Logan ASKING to go back inside because it was so chilly out. This is the first time she's ever asked to go in.

See you in a few months!