Not so long ago, Eli looked like this.

Tiny.

Precious.

Brand-new.One year later the dude is now a roly-poly bear cub.

How did this happen?

When did this happen??

I love roly-poly bear cubs.

I love to squeeze them.

And hug them.

And tickle them until they are laughing too hard to laugh.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, DARLING BOY!!!!

A lion cake because Eli growls all the time. The doctor asked me if Eli was "babbling." I asked if growling counted.

Mom, what in the world is this crazy thing? I must hit it and chomp on it and sit on it. Then I will dance because it makes music.

I like this new weird thing, Mom.

Glad to hear it, Mr. E.
Happy birthday again. I'm so glad you're part of our family.

Boys

Two short Cowen stories.

1) When we bought our tree and were waiting for Timothy to put on the lights, my children grew very anxious. They fidgeted, they fussed, they sat around the bare tree and whined. I told them we had to wait for Dad because putting on lights is hard and Mom doesn't do it. Cowen said, "I have a better idea. Why don't we sling them on?!"

2) Today I was out shoveling with Cowen. The girls were outside also, but first Miriam slinked off around the corner hoping I wouldn't notice that she'd left the yard and then she found the tricycles and repeatedly rode them down the icy driveway to see if she could seriously damage herself. She didn't. So Cowen and I were shoveling and I was behind the van when I heard Cowen calling me frantically. I went to see what all the excitement was about and Cowen said in a hushed and reverent tone, "I want one of those for Christmas." It was our neighbor's snow-blower. Hmm, I think I now more fully understand their popularity. Something about a certain chromosome.

PS Blog2Print doesn't have a picture limit anymore, just a 400 pg. limit for their hardback books. This means I can put one whole year of my blog in a single hardback book instead of trying to break it up because I have too many pictures. Yeehaw.

PPS Guess who's having a birthday today!!!

Nutcracker

It was that time again--Miriam's favorite day of the year--the annual Nutcracker date. What a beautiful duo. I was a little nervous this year because instead of paying the big bucks for the Utah Ballet Company, I just sent them to the Egyptian Theater in Ogden where a local ballet academy put on the Nutcracker. Fortunately, Miriam was still thrilled. Timothy said he liked it better because he could see how hard it was to do the dancing--whereas, the professionals make it look easy.

This year was extra exciting because Timothy's mom got the girls fancy coats and Miriam was convinced she was a living, breathing American Girl Doll. All our girly hearts are in love with the coats. (Not to mention the green and brown coat Beckie got for Eli--oh my, it's adorable! And he doesn't have to wear Emeline's old pink one.)

Cowen was pretty thrilled that it snowed. He likes to shovel the backyard. I'm not sure why, but I don't mind as it keeps him occupied for hours. He and I are both ready for some serious snow. At least this pretend snow forced me to double-check that I had boots/gloves/coats/hats for all children. Check. And check. Snow now, please.

Christmas Dresses

Ahh. Christmas dresses and Christmas ties (all purchased for Lindsay's wedding in February. Still, double duty is always a bonus).

Wowser.

The Goose is Getting Fat

I begged, pleaded, whined, cajoled, and everything in between and eventually I wore Tim down. He's one of those "no Christmas decorations or music until after Thanksgiving" kind of people. I, most emphatically, am not. Thanksgiving is a day. Christmas is a season. A season that starts August 1 --ha ha--okay, yeah, that is when I start to fixate on it, but I'm trying to be reasonable in this here blogpost--November 1.

Timothy said we could hang up the stockings precisely one week before Thanksgiving. It was as much as I was going to get so I took it with a smile.

Thursday was exactly one week before Thanksgiving. Timothy had forgotten all about the stocking promise by then, but I reminded him.

Aren't they beautiful against the gold? I just love them.

While Timothy measured and whatnot, I handed the children the new Shleik nativity I got for them. They were enraptured. Even more so when we found their other nativity in the Christmas box.

They're still the hot toy items almost a week later.

Eli with a wiseman.

Cowen's wound (his word) wasn't nearly as dire as the bandage makes it seem, but he was bleeding all over the place and regular bandaids kept falling off. I took drastic measures to protect the carpet.

Timothy only agreed to hanging up the stockings. He did not agree to putting out additional decorations. So I'm not sure how that got onto the computer hutch.

Or how that wound up over the kitchen door.

And, by golly, how did that thing get there? It must have been a Christmas miracle.

Bee-Boppin' Bug Show

Our homeschool singing group (which includes my children, Julie's two children, and Lindsay Ann's two children) performed their Bee-Boppin' Bug Show twice last Wednesday. The first performance was at an assisted living center. The kids did awesome and the audience loved them. I think their favorite part was when the performance ended and our kids went around and hugged them all and thanked them for coming. Lindsay Ann passed around Eli so everyone was able to hug a baby and enjoy the youngsters.

Cowen wanted to wear just a loin cloth and his spear and shield, but I nixed the idea.

Above: the children singing "The Golden Plates." We ended with that and "I Am a Child of God."

We've been studying Indians for homeschool, so we added "Running Bear Loves Little White Dove" to the line-up despite it having nothing to do with bugs. Miriam was the lead singer. She rocked--no fear at all, loud, and on tune. Fabulous!! (Lindsay Ann needs an etsy shop to sell her Indian hair accessories!)

More Running Bear. The kids did little actions during the verses, but then during the chorus they rocked out on various instruments (and Miriam sang). Emeline developed this incredible passion for the drum during practices--enhanced a great deal by the cool drum Julie made for the performances.

In fact, just this Saturday when I helped the kids write letters to Santa, Emeline wanted "a drum, and a drum." Duly noted.

Cassidy thought it was a great show. She just forgot she was supposed to be in it.

Bug songs.

After the performance at the assisted living center, we went to Timothy's grandparents' house and sang there. I invited two dear friends of mine, Helen and Marsha to watch, and Marcielle (the other great-grandparent alive on Timothy's side of the family) came as well. Kenny (Tim's dad) even showed up although he had no idea a performance would be going on. Good timing, Grandpa!

The kids did great there, as well, although they were significantly more hyper and whiny. We appeased them with cupcakes and veggies with dip and sent them out to play.

It was a good day.

Busy, busy

Lindsay Ann came over to help me out last week with a variety of tasks. One of them involved paint. Did you note the name of the paint on the can? You should.

Lindsay Ann noted it. She smelled it. She breathed it in (it really got to her, apparently). She helped me put it on my walls. (Disregard the lack of paint on the paintbrush--I forgot to take pictures until after we were done.)

It all started when I went wedding dress shopping with my baby sister Lindsay, and while waiting for her appointment at a dress shop we ducked into Anthropologie. I'm pretty much in love with everything about that store . . . except the prices.

I saw this quilt and it was destiny.

I abandoned all pretense to thrift, frugality, and a budget.

But something of such exquisiteness could not exist in a boring room. It would be unfair to the quilt. And me. And the world at large.

I took matters into my own hands--along with a paint brush.

See how boring it was before?? Blah. Blech. Neutral.

So now, I have a beautiful orange room with a perfect bedspread and a whole bunch of ideas for the bare walls. Once my checkbook recovers and I can act on those ideas, I'll post some pictures. For now, just smile to yourself knowing that I live in a world of orange and green and gold.

Lindsay Ann didn't just help me paint. She helped me make all the props for our singing group's Bee-Boppin' Bug Show. I KNOW that's an Indian headdress. We also sang "Running Bear Loves Little White Dove" because we've been studying Indians for homeschool.

This little cutie (cue Emeline's outraged voice, "I not cutie, I just Emeline!!") is modeling her post-Halloween Saver's special. Don't you love it when thrift stores have half-off sales?? I do.

My children love it too.