Nativities and Bible Lessons

My dream of dreams is to have the complete Willow Tree Nativity. I love the whole Willow Tree line, and this nativity just touches something inside of me like no other one I have seen has.

For now however, this is the nativity we have here in the Crazy Carroll Compound ...
Yes, it's a Little People Nativity. I got it at a garage sale and I have to admit, I love it to death. It is just soooo cute, as the girls would say.

Our Bible lesson this Christmas was for the girls to learn that Jesus was born on Christmas, and that his mommy is Mary and his daddy is Joseph.

Me: "Whose birthday is on Christmas?"
Maddie: "Baby Jeeeeeesus."
Katie: "Id's Kadie's birday. I need cake." (Pause, after a look from me ...) Then she says, "Baby Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus!" and collapses into a fit of giggles.

They both know Mary and Joseph, too. Excuse me while I go pat myself on the back!

Busy busy busy

The last few days have been a whiiiiirlwind of activity for me!

I can't decide if I want to do this ...

... or this ...

I will write a new post soon - I am juggling about 22 different things right now - I'll be back!

In need of a silver pen

So I ordered our Christmas cards through Shutterfly and I was so happy with the design I chose. I wanted it to be different from the previous years ...

Christmas 2006 ... I loved this card. I loved their dresses, I loved the circular space to write in ... just loved it all. It was our first "picture card" and I felt like I finally belonged to that exclusive little club! hehe

Christmas 2007 ... I liked the horizonal look a lot. I liked the bright white, too. Also, since it took us about 3 hours to take this picture and I still wasn't 100% thrilled with the results - I included some closeup shots of the girls from different pictures, which everyone else loved, too. Their dress came with a black velvet bolero but when we put it on them it just looked like they had on a black dress, so I took it off of them.

So I did the red - and I did the white - so I thought ... "green would look nice this year!" I also dressed them in a non-traditional Christmas dress. They are ivory and teal and magenta. A very small paisley design on an ivory corderoy jumper and a long sleeve ivory onesie with a cute collar. I bought them at Janie & Jack for like 90% off on clearance when they were only a few months old. I got it in a size 3T - and lucky for me it just fits Katie.

So looking at only green cards, I found one I really liked. I don't want to post it here because I want my relatives to be surprised when they see it for the first time. Here is a sample of the card, just to show you the color ...

Pretty green right? Well it printed up about a thousand times darker. So dark that my black Sharpie doesn't even show up on it! Here is what it really looks like ...

BUT DARKER! I couldn't even get it to look as dark as it really is without going into black - which it might as well be. And the pictures printed really dark, too. I used a shot of them in front of our tree and didn't use the flash to get a nice glow - but it just looks like I used a bad picture.

Not a big deal, I know - there are much worse things in this world. I'll just go out and get a silver pen. And I'll remember to compensate for brightness next year. But it's just those types of little things that drive me nutso.

Make me feel better. Tell me something that drives you nutso even though it's really not a big deal. You'll feel better! PROMISE!

Santa Land

We went to Santa Land today! We heard about it from a friend and decided to check it out. It is an indoor/outdoor Christmas themed park. Inside you meet Santa and outside there is a nice little playground for the kids to run around and climb. To meet Santa, you stand in line in front of a 50-foot mini-village of different Christmas scenes. There was a carousel, a train that went around the whole village, a waterfall, a castle, and more.







The girls were PE-TRI-FIED of Santa - but Katie came around when he gave her an apple. She loves herself a good apple. Ate almost the whole thing - skin and all - on the ride home.

Tried to get a picture with Grandma in front of the tree - t.r.i.e.d.

After that debacle, we let them loose on the playground and they had a great time.

It was a short excursion - which was fine for this age. Everytime we do something like this I think ... it will get easier when they get older ... and take a deep breath.

And I wasn't kidding about that apple.

How to make a really big mess in under an hour

We decided to make sugar cookies with the girls this afternoon. I looked and looked for my Christmas cookie cutters, but no luck. So we just used a round glass and it was great!

We had sprinkles and candy in little bowls. The girls had parchment paper to work on. The cookie dough was nice and cold.

Then Maddie started eating the M&Ms off the raw cookies. Katie ate them right out of the bowl. Sugar rush ensued!

Batch one in the oven!

Yummy!

Even Daddy got in on the act with his "KM" cookies.

Messy messy table!

Then came the time to chow down.
You couldn't walk one step without getting nonpareils on your socks! Andy swiffered for the next hour!

Now that I think about it, it wasn't that bad! It didn't take too long, really. It was the perfect after-nap activity!

But we are still stepping on nonpareils.

I did it!

My 100th post! I actually followed through something without giving up halfway through! In August I was having a hard time personally and I didn't blog for about three weeks. I almost stopped completely - but it was my aunt who encouraged me to start again. She was the one who got me started blogging in the first place.

I was thinking about what I could blog about that related to the number 100 - and I drew a blank! So instead, I'll show you the Playdoh idea I got from Parents magazine. I let them use Playdoh outside this summer and was not happy about letting them use it indoors over the winter. My cousins with kids told me the horror stories about picking it out of the rug, off the furniture, "let it all harden and then sweep it all up!" Ugh. Well ...

All I do now is have Andy save the small boxes that the bottled water comes in! The boxes were a slippery on the table, so I used a little tape to hold them down. Definitely helped! (Flipped the tape into a loop.) The playdoh stays in the box, and whatever little pieces don't make it back into the round container are easily dumped into the garbage can. I am going to try finger painting with them using these next week. The possibilities are endless!

See those nice colors? Bright blue and sparkling red? Now they have congealed to a dull mottled purple. Playdoh memories ....

Thanks for being here for my first 100 - hope you'll still be here at 200!

PS - My wallpaper is yuck. I am thinking of stripping it all down and painting the walls a nice light pink. Andy'll flip.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

From Twice as Nice

Twins in Tutus

Maddie

Katie
(poor little thing had a 102 degree fever when she went to bed - came out of nowhere)

Christmas Cat Cousin

Katy - this is for you! Daisy, December 2003 ...

Five years later and she is still doing it - give in to the obsession! :)