Random December Stuff, Part III

 ...and here's the last round of pictures, from December of more fun stuff we did:

I made some hairbows (as a surprise--I never got word on whether or not she likes them) for Elisa with her name on them, courtesy of my new sewing machine!

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Ian's bus drivers are so nice! They gave him several small gifts, and these awesome, silly Christmas tree sunglasses are one of them.  He has since lost them, unfortunately.

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This is Elisa's Christmas dress from last year (it still fits!), of which I added red back ties to create a more fitted look.  I love this dress on her!

She wore it to her class Christmas party, December 20th or 21st: 

A close-up of my pretty Eesa

All the kids in the class were asked to give a little toy or some candy for each kid in the class.  We gave out cute little 3D animal erasers, the same for Gabe, too. 

Making "snow"

Dec. 21

Elisa had a really fun class party! I didn't help out this time, I just sorta hung around and watched.  Ian came with me, and enjoyed some treats, and some kid even gave him a little hot wheels car! Elisa came home with a bunch of little gifts and a lot of sweets.

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Dec. 22

My cousin's (on my dad's side) fat baby turned one and I took Ian and Elisa to his birthday party, at the last minute.  I wasn't sure when Lisa and her family were coming, so I didn't RSVP.  They came later that same evening and I needed to clean more, but we just needed to get out of the house. I didn't have a gift so I found a toy of Ian's at the bottom of the toy bin, which I found at Goodwill. Gosh I'm so glad they will never read this blog.  But hey, he's just one, what does he know?  Haha.  At least I came, right?!  We arrived a little bit late, and were the first people there and were the only guests for such a long time, that I wondered if I had gotten the date and time wrong! It was mostly family that came but a few others did trickle in, later.  Elisa had fun munching on food, beating the piñata, and she especially enjoyed watching the fat baby smash his cake.  I think we all did! 

Dec. 27th

Ian too this picture on one of his picture-taking spree.  He's the only one besides myself who takes pictures of me!

Dec. 27th

This silly girl.  She couldn't find the top to her pajamas, so we she went into my craft room, and make herself a top to match! Silly girl.  I hope I can teach her how to sew someday!

Piano Recital

Here are the pictures from my December (15) piano recital.  I have a nice enough baby grand piano that I can have a recital from my home. I only had 4 students plus Gabe and Elisa so it was a short recital.  I usually play, but December is so busy that I didn't have time enough to practice as much as I would have liked.  I should have played anyway, oh well.  The recital went smoothly enough, and the children played well.  Afterward we chatted and ate brownies, banana bread, and lots of ice cream!

Gabe was super reluctant to play (let alone practice), but we made him do it anyway. Here are some videos of Gabe practicing his songs that Erik took. Erik was trying to show Gabe what he sounded like.

First up, Allison. She played almost 100% perfect!

Hannah, my oldest. She did well, too. I didn't get a picture of the boys, whoops.

Gabe's performance.  He did okay.  He's played better, but his amount of practice did not make perfect.

Elisa's performance.  She did pretty well.  I had to convince her to play the Guinea Pig song I made for her.  She's worked really hard at piano and it shows!

Random December Stuff, Part II

 Here are more fun things we did in December!

This is actually from April 2017, but I discovered it in December and I took a picture because it's just so funny! I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. I need to interview Gabe to see what he meant by this!

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Dec. 8th

Erik booked tickets way in advance for the Jim Gaffigan show in Comerica Theater in downtown Phoenix. We had a little trouble finding a babysitter, but it all worked out in the end. Gaffigan was really funny! Some of the material I had heard already, but there was some new stuff too. It was a hassle trying to get out of the parking garage, so maybe next time we'll park on the street. It was nice for me and Erik to have a date out together.
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December 11th

The cub scouts put on a little musical performance at their pack meeting. I usually don't like going to these, but Erik was working, so I went and was treated to this goofiness.

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A silly picture of Ian and his 'do just before catching his preschool bus

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My sweet, snuggly boys on my bed. I love these cuties!

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Dec. 12th

I found some polyester Christmas plaid for only $5 a yard at Joann's and I bought 4 yards of it because I planned to make both my niece, Aaliyah and Elisa matching/coordinating dresses out of the material. I make them matching dresses at least once a year, and even though December is super crazy busy, I still really enjoyed making these dresses.  I made them both a size 7 and I let Elisa choose for herself which dress she wanted.  She chose the first one, which is fine by me because they both turned out adorable and either one would have been a fine choice.  The dress that Elisa chose features a big, gold bow in the back and a collar and a pleated front.  Aaliyah's dress is more traditional and fitted, in fact it reminds me of a dress one of the original American Girl dolls would wear for Christmas.  I wish I had a better picture of Aaliyah's dress. 

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After waiting an entire year, I finally purchased a battery for the Barbie Jeep that has been sitting in our garage, waiting. I wanted Elisa to ride her jeep before she got too big! Also Aaliyah was coming for Christmas, and I thought riding in the jeep would be a fun thing the girls could do together. Ian had a blast trying to figure out when I first put the battery in it.  Elisa drives that jeep all over the neighborhood, with Ian as her passenger. Even Ian has gotten much better at driving the jeep! I hope to take better care of this battery than I did the other one. Even though the batteries are pricey, I'm glad I finally bought one because the kids have sure enjoyed it, and their friends, too!

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So, I can't wear my hair in a ponytail.  I have too many flyaways and it looks ridiculous.  So I decided to make an expression to match.

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Elisa worked really hard on her piano lessons and earned herself a large squeezamal! She was so excited to have a reindeer, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that its actually a giraffe.

Polar Bear Palooza!

 Dec 7

My friend/neighbor/ward member let me in on this free event for Ian! I would have had no idea about it if she didn't tell me.  Fortunately, it was on a Friday and he had no preschool! Unfortunately, that Friday happened to be on a half day so we didn't get to stay and take pictures with Santa, but we got in all of the other activities, so it didn't matter too much. 

We had a good time! I forgot that I was supposed to bring cans of food to donate.  Whoops! There was a free pancake breakfast, story time with Mrs. Clause, crafts, soccer, bounce houses, free popsicles, bicycle riding, face painting, and even snow! And the best thing was Santa: Santa arriving by helicopter! Ian talked about that for months after! Another great thing was free stuff! They gave away lots of little things like pens, candy, stickers, but the biggest and best things they gave away were bicycle helmets for all the kids! Polar Palooza was a preschooler paradise, and I hope we get to go again next year! Here are the pictures I took:

Ian at Mrs. Clause's story time.  She was a great, talented storyteller, but I was sad/mad that she didn't pick Ian to play a role in her story time.  She picked (literally) every other kid but Ian, and some kids twice. Boo. I was angry and wanted to say something, but I didn't because there were plenty of other fun things to do, so we simply moved on.

Ian asked for the entire alphabet to be painted on his arm.  The painting lady and all the other adults watching/waiting thought he was a hoot, but none more than I!

Ian enjoyed kicking around a soccer ball while his friends rode bikes (he refused to ride bikes)

Ian making a reindeer.  You can see his alphabet arm clearly.  He had a good time making the crafts, but I do remember some grumpiness going on with him for a short time during crafts, but I can't remember why he was upset.

Ian took off his shoes at the bounce houses and wouldn't put them back on.  So we went to get a free popsicle in socks.  He's standing in a dry spot because it was raining that morning.  By the afternoon, it was unseasonably warm. 

Perhaps the best thing we experienced at this event was Santa arriving by helicopter! It was really neat to watch.  While we waited, we were served surprisingly disgusting hot chocolate from McDonald's, and Ian didn't waste anytime spilling ut all over the front of his shirt.  The kids loved seeing Santa get off the helicopter, and he sure drew a crowd.  We had to leave before we could get a chance for Ian to sit on his lap, but I think watching the helicopter land trumped any sitting on laps. 

And the second best thing (a very close second!) was playing in the snow (manufactured, but the kids don't know the difference!).  Ian had a blast, except I didn't bring any gloves and he begged for gloves until some random mom let him borrow some.  Whoops.  It would help if I would plan ahead for once! It was hard to get Ian to leave the snow to go home!

Random December Stuff, Part I

 Here are some pictures of stuff we did in early December. December is hands-down my busiest month of the year, but still it fun to step back from all the crazy present/decoration/planning stuff that goes on in that month, and just enjoy the little things:

Dec. 1

An adorable picture of Ian and daddy, at a volunteer project.  They did yardwork at a school across the freeway.

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Dec. 4

I made Ian an adorable vest.   I don't have a good picture of the vest itself, but the inside lining is train fabric I had leftover from some older projects, and it turned out really cute with the lining.  Here is Mr. Ian modeling the vest.  He is such a stud. I wish the lighting were better.  I love these pictures of Ian!

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Elisa Stylin' in her new outfit!

Gabe with no shoes

3 cuties for the pickin'

So pretty!

Also December 4.

I took some pictures of the kids in the back of our back yard, just after they got home from school.  I mostly wanted to get Elisa in her new mommy-made outfit, but it was great to be able to get cute pictures of all three kids.  November 2018 was usually warm, but still nice weather!

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December 5

Here is Ian waiting for his morning bus to pick him up and take him to preschool.  I took this pic for no other reason other than he's so adorable, especially in that coat and hat!

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Most of the month of December (multiple dates)

Ian found a new hobby: taking Mommy's phone and taking pictures of everything. And by everything, I do mean EVERYTHING, from his toys, hideous pictures of me, to his turds in the toilet.  He took probably a good 300 or more photos on my phone, the vast majority of which I deleted.  I did make a little collage, just to get an idea of the silly things Ian took pictures of.  It's amusing to me to have a toddler's point of view, via my phone camera.  I almost got Ian his own (kids, V-Tech)camera for Christmas, but instead I ended up getting one for his birthday instead (we were over the limit of Christmas presents for Ian), and he loves it, of course!

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December 5

2018's Christmas card.  I decided to send real cards out this year, not like the pseudo-cards we sent to a select few last year.  Erik had me order 80 or something around that amount, and it was just too much.  We sent them to everyone and their dog (okay, not their dog); basically we sent cards people that really shouldn't be on our Christmas list at all, and I know I'll never hear from them again in my entire lifetime, but now we know for next year to order less. I think the cards turned out cute enough.  I know their not the fancy photos taken by a professional outdoors, photoshopped, and cost $300, but so what.  I used the kid's photos from our last JCPenny Portrait visit, and one from our Sedona visit, which worked out for me since I was able to avoid another visit to JCPenny portraits.

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December 6

Some random pictures of cute Elisa just before catching the bus before school. Isn't she adorable?! And this isn't even a great picture of her! I posted both pictures because I couldn't decide which one--she's just so cute in both!