It's a...

 I was right...it's a GIRL.  Welcome Sophie Marie (5.5.11)!

"Christmas Shoes" (Not the song, but the kind hung by the chimney with care)

Last December Cory was asked to be a guest judge for a Christmas Stocking Charity event or as Phoebe calls them "Christmas Shoes".  When Cory came home he told me all about this neat charity event that raises money every year to benefit families of children with cancer by buying them gas cards or grocery cards.  Many families spend so much on their children's treatment they cannot afford to buy food for their themselves or they travel so far or often they spend all their money on getting to the hospital with no way of necessarily getting back home, so they created this benefit to raise money by auctioning of Christmas Stockings. We had been looking for something extra we could do at Christmas time so we participated.

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Cory had told me that the cutest stocking and the blue ribbon winners were stockings that had themes to them so knowing nothing else, except make a theme, I went to work. I found the most darling stocking pattern online and decided to make the theme Babie's First Christmas. I had one minor problem however. I got tons of cute items including a blanket, teething toy, baby keys, book of colors, links, & adorable stuffed frog, but only two items actually fit in the stocking. Cory helped come-up with an alternative of just tying the rest around the stocking and making a cute ribbon bow. It didn't turn out as I originally planned it to, but still pretty cute & I knew I got the right stuff when Phoebe cried and cried when she saw we were taking her froggy prince away.

When we arrived at the auction it quickly became apparent that we were out of our league and next year & maybe I better step up my game and get more creative. There were 100's of stockings, most of went directly to kids with cancer, but about 40 or so were up for auction including this Harry Potter themed "stocking"  which was actually a rubber galosh with one cut in half to resemble Hogwarts and the other boot full Harry Potter toys and topped off with a real talking sorting hat and sitting right behind it a Harry Potter Lego Land.  

In the end, 4 people ended up biding on our stocking and it sold for $40 so I was thrilled; there were some stockings that got 1 or fewer bids on them. We even ended up buying a "stocking."  It was not as cute as one we really wanted, but most of them were quickly bid out of our price range. The stocking we came home with was a green & reindeer themed "stocking" which really was a stuffed reindeer sitting in what was described to be a blanket, but when we arrived home we discovered was actually a dog bed (too perfect for Phoebe, she really wants a dog and play make believe that we have a dog & carries it all around or even lays in it herself). The bed also had a couple of kids reindeer books, a Shrek memory game & lots of candy.  

This was pretty fun evening and Cory and I plan on participating in it again next year and are even brain storming themes now; if you have any good ideas let us know!

Black Friday Fergy Style

Thanksgiving this year brought a lot of snow, how much you may ask...13 inches worth.  Our backyard was buried in the white stuff and the roofs had several feet worth of pretty ice crystals hanging from them.

With the day off and lots of snow Cory took the opportunity to take Phoebe out and build her very first snowmen.  Since we are lazy and don't love reveling in frostbite we took the easy way our and made snow men out of the snow in our backyard lounge chairs, which in my opinion with snow covering them always look like people are sitting in them anyways, so why now snow people.  Phoebe loved doing this and since we got her a monkey hat and gloves and grandma Potts got her a warm coat she loved playing in the snow and had be begging to make snowmen outside for days, she even got desperate to pray about it one night in her prayers.  The end result was so adorable I am sad that they ever melted away.

 

While daddy and Phoebe were shopping and playing in the snow I was cooking our own families Thanksgiving dinner, a tradition we started a couple years ago because we missed having a weeks worth of leftovers for ourselves.  The twins where happier this time for food and even enjoyed eating a bit & the Dr would be proud that Phoebe finally took part in the part of her new diet that required gravy to be poured over all her meat.

This meal wasn't as bountiful as was the day before, but it still lasted up for 4 full solid days of nothing but left overs.  The only change I would make for next year is a larger turkey.  I thought 9.5 lbs would be huge for us, but sadly I underestimate the amount of bones and water that factor into that weight.  Next Year nothing short of 12-15lbs with grace our families table.

This year in the Thankful Turkey we were thankful for:

Phoebe- Santa Clause, Mickey Mouse, Trains, Doggies, Princess', Mermaids, Cookies, Dress-ups, Cami & Josh, Mommy & Daddy, Turkey, & House ( I'm in my house)

Mommy- Daddy, Be a SAHM, Babies that Eat

Daddy- 3 & Soon to Be 4 Babies, Beautiful Music (little babies singing), Space Heaters

Turkey Day '10

For Thanksgiving we always eat at Grandma/pa Fergy's house & 2 things always hold true there 1. The food will be delicious & 2. The turkey that is served will outweigh Phoebe. This year we were mightier in numbers so to fit everyone in it was suggested that dinner be served in the garage.  Grandma bought a special area heater to heat the area, however, after 9 hours of running and outside highs of 19 and lows of -2.  The fan could only heat the garage to the 50s, so the party and to be moved to to a warmer area. The downstairs living room, which worked perfectly after all he couches were picked up and stacked in the sewing room to make way for people and tables

After the sitting was figured out all that was left was the food, which is always a trick of timing in of itself.  We ended up eating an hour later than planned due to  mis-functioning oven, but it was well worth the wait!  There was so much yummy food one large dinning room table couldn't hold it all, which always makes Cory one happy guy.  I have now decided I no longer plan to ever be pregnant for anymore Thanksgivings, because after one measly plate of food I was sadly full.

Speaking of sad the twiner who are normally happy hungry babies were both teething so little eating and lots of crying described their Thanksgiving festivities. 

Zack, Phoebe's 7 mo young cousin knows how o eat and I had to get this picture of him stuffing his face, literally with food, because once again Phoebe misses the whole point of Thanksgiving when we tried to get her to eat turkey and in protest she put both hands over her mouth and refused to anything.

At the end of the night after we stripped the twins down in order to cool off their little teething fevers we discovered that they both LOVE ice cream & Cami is a girl after my own heart and loves to lick the salt off pretzels (She snuck into the sacks off food on the floor and stole this sack for herself.)

After dinner and desert & before the traditional Black Friday ads were perused we did our traditional ornament exchange.  This years theme was Christmas Balls. I of course as always get my idea for what I will make in way be in the prior January of the year and have my ornaments made by summer.  I was especially happy with how mine turned out this year, WAY CUTE! 

After all the exchanges and ad perusing which had to be done quickly this year due to the lateness. It was time to pack up our cranky kids and head home to get a good night sleep before the next big day of shopping and cooking ahead.

A Sticky Situation or the Tale of the Quiet Play Time

In a another attempt to get our non-eater eating I tried something new, caramel dip with apples.  It had been working for a couple days...until it didn't. This is the crime scene of the sticky situation.

Phoebe had decided to do some finger painting with the caramel, although, I am not sure how it went from that to her new "hair gel".  Being the good sister that Phoebe is,  she just had to include her brother in all the fun she was having. 

When she came & found me to tell me her hands were sticky I assumed it was a normal amount of finger sticky from nicely eating all her yummy apple.  When I looked up and saw the total existent of sticky damage, I assessed that a bath, lots of soap, and shampoo would have to be involved to get this mess off their bodies and out of their hair.

Moral of the story: NEVER, NEVER believe that when your kids are quietly playing that anything good is going on.