Magic Christmas Donuts

Hi There Blog Land,

Yes I know it has been a very looooong time since I posted anything. But a certain 18 month old and not to mention being outnumbered 3 to 1 has left me feeling too tired to keep up with it all. So while I've missed blogging I've had to pick and chose my battles where to focus my energy.

We have an Elf on the Shelf.... This wasn't planned but several days ago my First Grader worriedly asked "Why don't we have an Elf on the Shelf?" And began citing his classmates by name who all had an Elf at their house.

I had enjoyed seeing other folk's creativity and normally would love to do this but it wasn't something I wanted to invest my time, energy, expenses into. However Santa sent one wrapped in a beautiful gold box with a bow and left him at our door with a note explaining the weather had been bad at the North Pole and our Elf who is New in Training got lost!

The kids are loving our Elf they named Alex and I must admit he is getting us in the Christmas spirit.




Last night Alex left us Magic Donut Christmas seeds. They only work at Christmas time. You have to leave them out before bedtime and sing Christmas carols loud. And if you have enough Christmas spirit they will grow into a big donut! We made sure to sing several songs and sure enough it worked!



Alex moved to a higher spot during the night to keep an eye on the kids in the morning. He's a little skiddish around the baby so he likes to stay up high.

Speaking of the baby she enjoyed some bites of donut for the first time. Thankfully she sampled a few nibbles and moved on to yogurt!

The Master was not feeling so swell, he has a cold. Therefore no entusiasm but he did want 2 donuts which are both still mostly untouched.

Stuntwoman was thrilled with the sugar rush and had frosting off 2 donuts, thankyouverymuch!!!

Thanks Alex for the yummy breakfast. We sure enjoy having you here for the holidays!

(Turns out I remember why keeping up with blogging has been so sparse. The baby has tried to tear the office apart 3 times. Since this is not a kid friendly space we try to discourage little people from being here. I think it took me three times longer to get this done! Whew, off to go have a donut!!! Thanks for visiting.)

She keeps me hopping!

Hi Mom! I'm cute right, do not notice the mess I'm making.....

So I had a spare moment I thought to visit other lovely blogging gals and peek into happenings in their corner of the world. But little Miss has other ideas. Like attack the bookshelf. And three times I pulled her away and like a wind up doll she crawled right back over and got into the jewel cases. Daddy would be very upset if he knew. Little Miss is thinking "But it's a jewel case, right?"

Off to crawl away with her catch. Notice the drool on her chin and red knees from crawling all over this house. Not to mention that cheeky little grin!

Spring Break

Wow, has it ever been a blogging drought. I miss posting regularly but my babies keep me hopping. I just had to post this lovely family photo we just had taken while we were visiting with family in Nashville over Spring Break. Hope all you lovelies had a wonderful Spring Break too!

(and yes, those bags under my eyes are because my youngest still likes to wake up waaaay too much every night.... insert loud sigh and yawn here!)

Pictures with Santa

Our littlest Elf got to meet the big guy the other day. And that led me on a trip down memory lane. I looked up the photos of big brother and sister and their first visit with Santa.

I thought she would cry immediately as she doesn't like to be held by anyone but me these days, darn seperation anxiety. She surprised me by doing okay but after a minute she was not cool with it anymore!

Stuntwoman looks dazed and confused by her first visit with Santa. And she did not cry for the record!

Here is young Master meeting the big guy at 11 months old for the first time and he was dazed momentarily then lost it. If you look closely I'm in the upper right hand corner peeking from the back of Santa's chair upon them.

Gotta love those crying Santa pics, I bet Santa sees alot of that!

Busy with Travels

My what a busy summer it has been! I know I have been far too absent from blogging but 3 little ones are keeping me on my toes. Hubby took a 6 week sabbatical from work and we traveled 4 of the 6 weeks! So I have lots to chat about and here goes.

Yes that is me crazy enough to travel back to Canada with a then 2 and a half month old baby. we are at the airport ready for takeoff! I am happy to report the kids did great flying.

Hugs in downtown Toronto in front of the CN Tower.

We took several trips within the trip and here we were on our way to Niagara Falls. We had stopped for a lovely picnic by Lake Ontario. I just adore this picture of my sweet girl and her flowers!

Snug as a bug in the Moby wrap!

I was having a good hair day, so here's another shot of the crew!


We never made it to the Greek festival, "Taste of the Danforth" when we lived in Canada but it was going on so we checked it out. Man was the food ever awesome!

How cute are these 2?

Lastly we made it to Cottage Country were we had the opportunity to rent a previous co-workers family cabin. It was really beautiful and relaxing there.

They sure have a nice place, we enjoyed staying there!

So Peaceful!

Refreshment!

The family who owns the cottage keeps art supplies and encourages you to decorate a rock and add to their garden. (Do you see the Gene Simmons one Dear Hubby did?)

I added a smiley face later. It's my legacy for whoever sees it to "Have a Nice Day"!

On our way back to Toronto we stopped at Santa's Village an amusement park and I couldn't resist showing our little elves. Love the mischievousness!!!

Here's the cutest elf of all!

More travel updates as little elves allow ;)

Hopes and Dreams

We have had a very busy summer and have been traveling and are planning to go on one more trip in 2 weeks. So, I haven't really had time to update my blog or visit others. The travel and kids have kept me super busy.

I'm not sure why this first day of school picture is so small. I'll try to repost for Grandma's when I can get a lesson from Hubby. I'm not liking the new computer, or maybe it's not liking me!!!

This week or oldest started Kindergarten! I have had such mixed emotions about letting go and trying to control everything. Finally today after a week of dealing with new routines and adjustments I have some perspective. I have worried every day over things like is he getting enough to drink and eat and is he happy? Also not feeling like I understand the school routines.... After all isn't it a Mother's job to worry? But today the spirit prompted me with a gentle reminder that worry is a sin. So I am letting go and Trusting in God. I wish I had more time to expand on this post but want to follow up with a love letter to my son. For now his Daddy took him to school and I have two baby sisters needing me, one wants juice with breakfast the other wants Mommy milk! I need a shower and a pile of laundry and housework awaits. Dear Reader, I have a request that you say a quick prayer blessing our family with the fruit of the spirit and for Me to have Peace! Many Thanks!!!

Grandpa's Masterpieces

So ya'll remember the fun art project we did last week at the park right? I can't believe I linked to it and if you scroll down it's just a couple posts before... anyways. So Grandpa had a Birthday this week. And what do you get a guy who has everything? Well you give him original artwork from his Masterpieces!

I found the abc stickers in the dollar bin at Target, woot! I used the same technique spelling out the word and framed it off with masking tape. I started off trying to get the kids to paint the wording but it wasn't working. Turns out I had to sponge it on quickly so as not to shift the letters. I had some cardboard underneath for protection and to keep it level of course. I only managed to get the baby's footprints, because 2 month olds curl their hands up + paint = MESS!

After that dried I sectioned off the back with more masking tape and let the kids paint more original artwork on the back. If you try this make be sure you put the older kid the direction the shirt will be worn, he started painting roly poly stick people upside down! You can see if you look close at his part. Then he added an ant parade. You can see that the younger one had streaks of design very "Jackson Pollock"! So if I'd placed her at the top it wouldn't have mattered that she was painting upside down because it would look good from any direction.

We finished off with a custom decorated designer shirt box for our unique Birthday gift. I think Grandpa will be one stylin Dude with a priceless gift. In fact I think I want one of my own! Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend friends.

En plein air

Today we did art outside, which the French refer to as "en plein air".
And while it was nice to be outside it was nicer to contain the mess factor. I absolutely adore how this project turned out and bonus the kids had a blast.

The proud artists displaying their work!

I think it would be fun to do your name, holidays phrases, fun words... shapes.... you get the idea right? I see us making some of these as Christmas presents this year. For the how to instructions I discovered them here at explanation required . I discovered her delightful blog after looking at another project she did that was featured on One Pretty Thing another favorite blog of mine. I heart you, internet!

Oh Canada

Happy Canada Day!

We had pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast, yummmm. Kraft dinner for lunch followed by donuts as a special treat. Now if only we had some smoked meat sandwiches and poutine to round out the day, eh?

More on Babywearing

Hi Mom!

Here is my new baby wrap.

Isn't it a pretty color?

It's super comfy.

5 week comparison

This is my firstborn at 5 weeks. He was my scrawniest babe. Had horrible reflux and colic.

Child number 2 was my biggest babe and nursed great and grew great. I can count only a handful of times that she spit up (like 3).

And here is my sweet youngest babe at 5 weeks. She also has reflux and has to sleep in a bouncer and wear bibs, except when Momma is taking a picture. We are making progress with spit ups down from 3 bibs a night to one.

I found it interesting to compare how my little ones looked each at the same age as an infant.

Babywearing

I have discovered the moby wrap and am loving it! A friend lent me hers and I have one coming in the mail this week. I would have a dozen more babies if I could babywear all of them!!!

Awww, snug as a Bug!

Sorry for the tiny pics. I can't figure out how to use this new computer or my iphone which I used to take these pics.

My 3 Ring Circus

Hello All, Welcome to my 3 ring circus and step right up to juggle life with 3 kids! If you aren't supervising the middle child very closely with her markers she'll decide she wants full sleeve tattoos on her arms cause that's what all the cool hip 3 year olds are doing in Austin! She proudly showed me her work and announced it was her name!

The kids adore their new baby sister!

They love getting to hold her and help care for her.

Things are going well if you don't factor in sleep deprivation and an overabundant milk supply which makes Mommy very uncomfortable with engorged udders, Mooooo! It has also been hard to help baby not be so gassy if she gets to much foremilk, she has some spitting up when she gets too full of milk as well. Some days are better than others but overall we seem to be getting into a rhythm.

On a side note if you plan to have a baby make sure your computer doesn't die, you car doesn't act up (headlights wouldn't turn off - bad fuse) and that sugar ants don't show up to join your household. All of the above explains where I've been and what I've been up too lately.

~

I haven't figured out how to use the new computer yet to upload pics and use the new Windows 7. Hopefully my tired brain and body will get functioning and I can happily blog as time allows. Wish I had more time to visit blogging pals, but know that I miss you and cherish your lovely comments. Smiles, Jennifer