The Twelve Days of Christmath

I just had to share this, while it's still the season.  It's just awesome.  (Kate and I both enjoy the song.   Especially the ninth verse.  "A funny-looking S!")

I barely speak Math at all (or Maths--that's for Helen) but I love Vi's videos--they're just fun to watch, and I find her voice kind of soothing and mind-boggling at the same time.

seven and three (birthday!)

Yes it's true--we now have a seven-year-old and a three-year-old!

I thought about getting balloons like I did two years ago, and then I realized--seven pink balloons and three blue ones--that's ten balloons.  I don't think I could fit that many in the car. So we were balloon-less.  But I did have some fun with Andy's new magnetic letters. 



We had Kate's friend Emma over for cupcake-decorating and pretzel-making. 






Kate put the candles in her own cupcake (rather haphazardly).



I still don't know how to avoid those reflection spots.  Anyone?





We sang Happy Birthday to Kate and then sang to Andy.  He seemed surprised when it was his turn.



Andy gets a little help blowing out his candles.



Messy!






More LEGO...



And a Littlest Pet Shop set from Emma.



Andy got the They Might Be Giants "Here Come the ABCs" CD and DVD set.  (He kept looking at it and saying "ABC!")




And a couple of Mo Willems DVDs.  (Pigeon!  Yay!)



Next... pretzels!




The rolling-out part is kind of hard for kids.  Something about coordinating the rolling and elongating motion.  We don't realize that it's not as easy as it looks.  Kate and Emma each made a couple of pretzels and then Doug and I finished off the rest.



We hadn't made pretzels for about a year and a half, and apparently forgot a very important point.  We baked the pretzels on parchment paper and they stuck something awful.  I wound up having to peel the bottom layer off each pretzel.  So they were a little unsightly, underneath, but still tasted good!  So if you're going to try this, remember: well-greased cookie sheet good, ungreased parchment paper bad. (At least if you do the baking soda bath... I think that was the problem. They were all wet and sticky.) Recipe here!

Happy birthday Kate and Andy!  It's been a great year.  Here's to many more!

"My last day of being six."

When Kate got up in the morning she said, "Today is my last day of being six!"  Which got me feeling all sentimental about it  (Noooo!  My cute little six-year-old!).

At bedtime I was sitting on her bed with her while she was drawing and telling me about dragons. We'd just been watching "Book of Dragons" (it's a new How to Train Your Dragon short) and she wanted to make her own Book of Dragons.  As I watched Kate,  kneeling on the bed in her new pajamas and drawing intently,  I thought, "This is the last time I'll do this with six-year-old Kate," and I had to go get the camera. 



My last picture of my six-year-old.



(This is what she was drawing)



And here's Andy on his last day of being two!

Christmas Sunday

With Christmas falling on Sunday this year, we didn't have the full three hours of church but just went for Sacrament Meeting at 9:00 (I remember the same thing happened back in 2005, for Kate's first Christmas). We let the kids open one present before church, and then did the rest after we got back.



So we have Christmas pictures in our Sunday clothes!



Unwrapping Andy's marble run.




Kate had been angling for a Wii, so Santa brought us one.  Doug got the unit hooked up the night before, and we wrapped up the controllers for the kids to open.




Of course we had to get a couple of games,  too.



More Pokemon cards for Kate.



And new pajamas!




Andy was completely captivated with the marble run and played with it for hours. He couldn't even leave it long enough to open his other presents.




This is the Discovery Toys Marbleworks (from my mom! Thanks Grandma!)




Trying out the Wii.



Putting together a new LEGO set.

I got a new scanner--it's shiny!  And Doug got another sword that hasn't come yet.

We had a nice church meeting and a nice day at home.  I think our favorite part was watching Andy play with the marble run--our little boy who doesn't talk much was moved to exclaim, "This.  Is.  Awesome."  Indeed it was. 

2011 ornaments

I sent Doug Christmas tree shopping by himself, and he came home with this noble fir that's about twice as big as the tree we had last year. It's really too big for our space (just a bit).



We have some cute new ornaments this year! My sister Betsey made these adorable little penguins for all the grandkids.



(Doug made me that camera ornament out of Sculpey a few years ago.)



We stopped by Cost Plus World Market--always a fun place to go at Christmas time--and picked out some ornaments there, too. I got this cute little bird.



...and Kate found a dragon!



We had a Relief Society activity where we made these ornaments, filled with strips of sheet music.



Kate made this one at school. I can think of a lot of possibilities for painting on these ornaments, but the fact that they're glass makes me a little nervous. We try to avoid glass ornaments, in general.