Living: Christmas 2013

Guess who woke up at 4:30 this Christmas?  If you guessed Clara you'd be wrong.  If you guessed Paul, you'd be wrong.  How about ME?  I am the biggest kid in this house!

Ever since I was little I could never sleep well Christmas Eve.  Too much excitement.  This year I was just sure that the kids were going to wake up and run in to me during the night.  I didn't want to miss their expressions.  Ha, ha.  No, they slept.

 

When Paul woke up at his usual 5:30, it took him a few minutes to realize their were lots of presents now under the tree, and they could be opened.  Once he realized that, we had to wake up Clara to ensure that she would get to open hers.  In other words, Christmas this year could best be described as "chaos."  (At least when it came to opening the presents.)

The big gift was an indoor teepee with sleeping bags.  The kids really love it, and they slept in it two nights in a row.  It is really big (over 5' in each direction), and so I am trying to figure how to rearrange their room to accommodate it.  (Should have thought of that beforehand!)

Paul got lots of books - especially tractor and farm-related things.  Clara got lots of pony-related things.  They both couldn't be happier.

We went to church in Demopolis after present-time.  I never grew up going to church on Christmas day, always on Christmas Eve.  But the truth is, I really was glad to take time on Christmas to go to church.  It helped me to not focus the whole day on presents and food, which is how it usually goes.

  

But there were plenty of presents and food - especially once we drove up to Gram and Pop's.  I was reminded of a part of How the Grinch Stole Christmas where the Grinch describes the Who's: "And they'll feast, and they'll feast, and they'll feast, feast, feast, feast!"  That was exactly how it was - and man, was I stuffed!

 

One of the neatest presents was a quilt for Leah that Ann made.  She had been gathering old clothing from all the family members to make it.  It turned out great, and it was fun to identify everyone's clothes.  It was a very Merry Christmas.  Of course, I wish that I could have spent time with my family on Christmas, but soon enough we will all be together when Baby #3 arrives!

Family Photos at the Wedding

The big day has come and gone, and Brooks is now a married man!  

The wedding was at our church in Faunsdale, with the pictures taken on the grounds of the church.

I tried to take a few photos of the kids and get a nice family shot while we were there, but children are not always cooperative, and seven-month-pregnant-moms-in-heels can only do so much.  So while I am anticipating some much nicer shots from the professional photographer (especially because Clara was really hamming it up for him the whole time), here are a few shots of my kiddos in their wedding attire.

With Clara and Paul as the flower girl and ring bearer, I really wanted to make Clara a special dress.  This was by far my most advanced sewing project I've tackled so far, but I had a wonderful time making it!  I actually took a beginner's heirloom sewing course to show me how to do the lace work (which I had never tried before).  I'm happy to report that working with lace is not very challenging!

Paul's suit was purchased.  I wasn't feeling ambitious enough to sew a little man's suit.  All I did was hem the pants.

 

The weather was absolutely perfect despite being early November.  We had planned for Clara to be barefoot walking down the aisle, and she was.  She did such a wonderful job throwing the petals.  Paul decided to pass on being ring bearer that day, but Clara performed like a pro.  Thank goodness!

  

As you can see from Paul's expression, he wasn't so sure about this whole wedding thing, and he wasn't so sure about smiling either.  This is the best shot we got as a family.

We came back to the church a few days later, dressed in our wedding attire, and we tried some photos again.  I didn't get any shots of the kids together (that would be asking too much).  But I did get a few good ones.

 Of course by that time we were all trying to get over stuffy noses, so our coloring and our attitude was still questionable.  But picking berries off the bushes seemed to be perk the kids up.

I love this shot.  It's not actually a great picture of Paul, but it looks like he's modeling menswear for a catalog.  If I hadn't cropped the photo some, you'd see he has one hand in his pocket.  (I did not pose him that way... like I could if I wanted to!)

And let's be honest... a little bribery helps every photo shoot!

Progress: 30 weeks

Here I am at 30 weeks (actually just a day or so away from 31 weeks, but who's keeping track?).  It's not a very glamorous photo, but you can see that I am indeed pregnant. 

I am feeling well.  I think I am starting to waddle around  :-)  Overall, I am grateful that we have made it through numerous birthdays, a bridal shower, and a wedding.  We still have Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Christmas before Baby #3 arrives.

There's not a ton of preparation to do for this third child, especially when you already have little girl and boy clothes.  In the next few weeks I'll pull out some of the newborn clothes and give them a fresh laundering.  It's getting time to pull out the baby toys and accessories out of the attic and pack the hospital bag.  I need to order a skinny car seat (so I can fit 3 car seats in the back of my car instead of buying another car!).  Yes, another dreaded car seat!!

Partying: Paul's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Paul's second birthday yesterday -- my how the year has flown!

As I said last year, this year I was not going to give myself fits getting his party ready.  Thankfully his love of tractors and farm equipment gave me a lot to work with that was readily available.  Hello, barn party!

We used one of the barns on the farm that stores hay.  It conveniently had both round and square bales already there.  I soon discovered that the hay barn is a very convenient "indoor" playground.

Pat drove a tractor down that morning and parked it in the barn. 

The indoor foliage you see is actually poison oak (eek), but it was in the right colors, so we went with it.

We used the square bales for seating (covered with a little fabric), hung a few balloons, and set up the food.

The party started off with presents.  Paul (and especially Clara) couldn't wait to start opening!  Paul got a lot of different tractors, which suited him just fine!  He also got some farm gear - boots, overalls, and an Auburn shirt (it's Alabama's ag school!), along with a nice set of truck books.  Of course all these fine new toys meant that he didn't have time to eat!  I think he did eventually slow down long enough to nibble a piece of fish and shove down some cake.

 

And last, but definitely not least, he opened the 1:20 scale combine.

 

So what did we eat? (Let's get to the important stuff!) 

Let me translate some of it: silage = coleslaw, "diesel fuel" = slightly sweet tea,  and moo juice = milk. Haybales = rice krispie treats and the dirt on the dirt cake was chocolate butter cream frosting with crushed chocolate animal crackers on top.

 Singing "Happy Birthday" went off without any tears (and yes, I'm referring to your 2nd birthday, Keri).

You didn't think I could just make a plain chocolate cake now, did you?

 

 The rest of the time was spent playing.

 

 We got a few cute posed pictures suitable for framing, too...

Check out the end-of day tractor line-up.  Quite a haul!

 

Happy Birthday to my big little boy, Paul!

Halloween 2013

At almost four years old, Clara is old enough to enjoy Halloween.  She really wanted to dress up as a "My Little Pony," so here is my best attempt.  There is a really good step by step tutorial at this website.  I didn't make my own sweat suit -- that came from Wal-Mart, but I did the embellishments.  It all came together very quickly, with very little head ache (unusual for one of my projects).

 This is our version of the "Twilight Sparkle" pony. 

It was almost too hot to wear this sweatsuit -- you can never predict Halloweentime weather!  Clara got to wear her costume to a little "harvest fest" they had in town.  They had all kinds of candy (including cotton candy), inflatables to jump on, and face painting.  She was so sweet and excited the whole time, which just made the evening special for both of us.

 The next night she went trick or treating with her older siblings Patrick and Leah.  She had a wonderful time and came home with GREAT candy (lots of chocolate).  Sadly, Paul was not in the mood to wear a costume at all, not even long enough for a photo op.  Oh well... next year!

Partying: A Recipe Shower for Audra

 

Another occasion for a party!  Brooks (one of Pat's older children) is getting married in only a few weeks. With some help from Gram and Leah, we threw his fiance a little shower focused around food (what else, right?).

Audra with long-time friend Elizabeth

Audra has not met many of the extended family, so the idea was to keep the shower within the family (give or take a few).  Guests were to bring a favorite family recipe, because, let's be honest, the majority of fun family times are while eating!

So what food did we have?  Gram made her delicious yeast rolls (which we stuffed with ham), and Leah made teacakes.  (Teacakes, a family recipe from Grandma Susie's Grandma, was the unanimous family favorite.)  I made some mini strawberry-peach cheesecakes.  We had veggies with blue cheese dip, grapes, and mixed nuts.  On the cake stand we had a cheese "cake" -- stacked cheeses (cheddar and baked brie) that resembled the traditional wedding cake.  Clara made chocolate-dipped apricots, and I made a citrus punch.

The decor was corals and pinks, keeping the color theme from the invitation.  We had paper lanterns and tissue pom-poms, a "Bride to Be" banner,  and of-course, flowers.  I had so much fun arranging the flowers.  Dotted throughout were references to the many years of dairying - the punch bowl and silver pitchers were actually cow trophies from years past.  Ribbons from cow shows hung under the mantle.  (Blue ribbons weren't included because they didn't match the color theme, but Pat wants me to be sure to let you know they won many blue ribbons!)

I only purchased the Snapdragons and Lilies - the rest were from Gram's yard!

We didn't play the traditional shower games.  We did a trivia game with questions from family history.  I knew Audra wouldn't know many answers, but it was fun to test the Rankins, talk about family history, and spark some conversation.  Kay was the winner!

We talked about the recipes, Audra opened a few gifts, and we enjoyed each other's company.  It was great to get everyone together.  I wish I had more pictures to capture everyone who came.

Madaline, Leah, and Julianna

These two girls had tons of fun playing during the party.

The parting gift was a bag of cornmeal, ground from corn grown here at the farm.

Now on to the wedding!