I'm Dreaming...

Everybody wants a white Christmas. I think this year we will have white before and white after, and icy rain on the day! Yuck. So here is my white Christmas video for those of you whose lawns are still green, three days early.

Concert Time

Invasion of the Cookie Snatchers

Some people look like criminals, and some don't. Or so we think. Looks can be deceiving. Take the little girl in this picture. She doesn't look like a crook. But look again. Look closer...

Baby Smile

I told my parents that trying to capture Leah Carole's smile on video makes me feel like Steve Irwin or Jeff Corwin, stalking some elusive but beautiful wild creature. Maybe if I climbed a tree and used a night vision camera I could get something better. I also need to get around the problem of how difficult it is to hold the baby and the camera at the same time. Anyway, here is our best attempt so far. Focus is off, but the baby is sweet nonetheless.

David's Gingerbread House

David got a gingerbread house as a gift, and had a really good time assembling it. Benjamin helped with making the royal icing, and the girls "helped" with the decorating. I think they were mostly in it for the windfalls, but everyone seemed to be having a good time anyway. They were all singing along as David worked, not caring a bit about getting the lyrics right, and I thought I might be able to record them without their noticing. Who ever decided to put a chime on the digital camera anyway? "DING! I am about to take your picture!" The video ended up pretty authentic to their original behavior, only I notice they keep sneaking looks at the camera. Must be hard dealing with the paparazzi.

The Twelfth Day of Christmas!

The kids are learning this song for the church Christmas program. Not sure what it has to do with the story of Christ's birth, but a fun song for the season. While there may be a very few of you who would like to have heard the entire 37-minute recitation of the song from very beginning to bitter end, for the purposes of this blog we must keep it short. I have also been forced to leave out all the false starts, however hilarious, and just put in the finished rendition. Katie is a bit harder to understand than David and Rachel, but I am sure, in her mind, she knew every word. At the end of the video, Rachel leans forward and starts to ask if she can do it all by herself next time. She did sing it, but not on video. They had used up all my memory.

The Salt Dough Party

If you know us pretty well, you know we love to make Christmas tree ornaments at this time of the year. On Thursday, we had another homeschooling family over, and we rolled, cut and painted salt dough ornaments. Art class!

My Pie

I was so pleased with how this apple pie came out, I decided to put it on the blog! We gave the pie to the Dearborns for Thanksgiving. I hope it tasted good. It's my mom's recipe, only slightly Dare-ized.

Baby Leah Doing Nothing But Still Looking Adorable