HO HO!

 Thought I'd show off Brett in his cute Christmas outfit.  Grant loves this outfit too because the bum has Santa's face on it.  Whenever the bum is showing, Grant points to the Santa and says, "HO HO!"  It's so cute!  I'm glad he recognized Santa on his own.  Maybe this year he won't be afraid to sit on his lap, or even get near the guy.

"Look at how cute I am!"

"HO HO!"

"It's fun with this cool hat too!"

Okay, just for fun, let's look at one of last year's attempts at having Grant sit with Santa.  In the first picture we're thinking that maybe if I held him he'd take a picture of us standing next to Santa.  No way! He threw a fit and "accidentally" hit me in the face right as the camera flashed.  (I know I look pretty funny)  Look at Santa's expression...I think he'd had enough too!

"Oh brother, let's get the show on the road!" - Santa

Crying on daddy's shoulder

I'm remembering other attempts at taking pictures with characters:  

Not too happy about standing next to a big furry whale.

Poor Goofy

Pluto felt heartbroken

So we'll see how this year with the jolly old elf goes.  Wish us luck!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

My cousin is so clever.  She created a Thanksgiving character for each family member, at our delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and made them into magnets for us.  She also cooked almost all of the food.  And it was way yummy!  I wish I had a copy of everyone's funny Thanksgiving character.  There were some pretty funny ones.  I think Grant's expression looks great on his!

What's going on around here?

Well, time has just flown by since Brett was born.  He'll be 7 weeks tomorrow.  Aside from the occasional major spit up, he's doing great.  He's still trying to figure out napping during the day, but he usually sleeps very well at night.  I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that!  

Grant loves his brother.  He does get a little jealous sometimes, and he occasionally pokes Brett in the eyes.  Yesterday Brett was in his swing and Grant decided to sit in the swing too, right on top of his brother.  Brett had a very confused expression.

At this point I feel like we survive during the week and then we love having Keith home on the weekends.  This week should be a lot more fun with Thanksgiving mixing things up a bit.

Thumbs up at the park

Growing boy

Grant jumped in to pose next to his brother

A little excited

Helping with dinner

Family Home Evening "camping" outside (for about an hour)

What's camping without s'mores?

Baking Therapy and Christmas Shopping

Baking is so therapeutic to me.  I've been feeling slightly overwhelmed lately, so I did a little baking last week.  And it totally helped.

This is my grandma's gingerbread recipe.  It seems like she always has these at her house when we visit.  They are one of my favorites.  I think I need to roll them out a little bit thinner and make the glaze a little bit thicker and then they'll be just like hers.  I decided to cute them out in Christmas shapes.  I'm so in the mood for Christmas.  I realized yesterday that Thanksgiving is just next week.  And my sister is due with a baby girl the next day.  And then before we know it, Christmas will be here!  

I like to make my Christmas lists for my family throughout the year.  I like to put thought and purpose into each gift.  And then I try to get my shopping done early.  I usually do pretty well at this.  I especially like shopping online and having it come straight to my door.  No busy parking lots, no busy stores, no long lines, and sometimes when there's no shipping charges that's nice too.  

How do you like to do your Christmas shopping?  Early?  Closer to Christmas?  On Black Friday?  Don't like shopping at all?

My Grandma's Ginger Bread

Mix together: 1/3 cup butter

                      1 cup brown sugar

                      1 cup dark unsulphured molasses

Stir in: 1/2 cup cold water

Sift & stir in: 6 cups white flour

                     1 tsp each: salt, allspice, ginger, cloves, & cinnamon

Stir in: 2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 TBS water

Add: 1/2 cup more flour

Roll out on floured surface to about 3/8 - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into desired shapes.  Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes.  (Test like cake- by touching lightly & no print should remain.)

Frost, with a glaze made from powdered sugar, vanilla, & water, while still warm.  (Start with about 1 cup powdered sugar.  Then stir in a little water and vanilla at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Store in tight container between wax paper.

A few things

I picked up Cars 2 at Target the other day.  I also got 2 pairs of great boots while I was there.  I love that store!  I've been there twice since Brett was born.  Each time I felt like a kid in a candy store.  There's something about staring at the walls of your house for a month that makes a simple trip to the store more like a field trip.  

As you can see below, Grant was entranced by the movie.  He had his Finn Micmissile car with him the whole time.  Now that he's watched it one million times you can find this little man not only rolling his cars around the house, but now making them fly.

Notice the white armoire?  That's our TV's new home.  I found it on craigslist a while back and recently my brother and Keith spent a long days work on a Saturday to lacquer it white.  It's so nice to have a place for our T.V.  But mostly I love that I can close the doors and the T.V. magically disappears.  Oh, and I love that all of our games fit in the bottom cabinet.

In other news, Brett is getting bigger.  I went through his drawers yesterday and bagged up most of his clothes.  He barely wore any newborn sized clothes, and now he's starting to wear 3 month clothes.  Here he is modeling his favorite 3 month guitar one-piece.  Isn't he cute?

Halloween 2011

I had this Curious George theme idea for a couple years and Brett arrived just in time to add the finishing touch.  Keith- The man with the yellow hat (and shirt, and tie, and pants....it's funny how they only mention the hat.).  Grant- Curious George.  Brett- A Banana.  Me- One tired mom in a yellow jacket.  I was going to put a little more effort into my costume and at least wear a wig, but when I went to find it I realized that I'd packed stuff like that away when we made room for baby #2's bedroom.  Oh well!

Luckily I'd gotten the costumes for Grant and Brett a couple months ago.  And Keith pretty much took care of his costume with the help of my mom.  They found the clothes and hat at Goodwill.  Then Keith died them yellow all by himself and spray painted the hat.  I whipped up his tie out of some felt and hot glue that I happened to have on hand.  Ta da!

Grant had so much fun cruise'n around Grandma & Grandpa Jackson's neighborhood in a wagon with his cousin Jackson.  Doesn't Jackson make the cutest little nurse?  His parent's were dressed up as nurses too.

As cute as our little monkey and banana were, Keith got the most comments on his costume from other trick-or-treaters.  We heard lots of, "Hey, it's the man with the yellow hat!"  Not once did I hear, "Hey, it's the woman with the yellow jacket!"  I feel so overlooked!  ha ha ha!  :)

I think he pulled off the look very well, don't you?

Grant LOVED his monkey costume.  He loved everything about Halloween.  Well, except for the guy at one house that had a very scary mask on.  And the best part is that Grant doesn't even realize that all his loot is in a bag on top of the refrigerator & Mom and Dad are eating it.  He loves M&M's so I give him a few of those each day.  I think we'll need to get rid of it soon or I'll never lose the rest of my baby weight!

Hope you had a fun Halloween too!