Changing

Hmmm... methinks I've been a little bit lazy about posting this week. I guess I've just been doing a bit of relaxing after all the "Christmasness".

Anyway, back to Christmas Eve. Doesn't Courtney look so grown up sitting there in her very own chair?

In that package was the diaper bag plus individually wrapped contents that she's checking out below.

Josie seemed to like the tissue paper bed nearby.

Refolding a baby wipe:

Checking out the Butt Paste to see if it was real:

But Grandma assured her that it was only 'pretend'.

Here she is all set for an outing with her baby! (And pulling on her lip... special pose for the cameras going off, I guess.)

Below you can see how carefully she changes the baby's diaper.

And at that point Grandma had to stop the camera to give a little further instruction on getting that tricky diaper on right. ;-)

(You parents out there always put the baby wipe back in the pouch when you were done wiping with it, right?)

Oh, Josie...

Now I can show you!

This is my latest sewing project:

Yep, I'm still a bag lady! Can you guess what kind of bag it is?

It's a diaper bag! For Courtney. To use for all her daycare babies.

The pocket on the flap will work for a bottle or her cell phone (yes, she does have her own cell phone... a play one) or whatever. And of course you have to put things IN a diaper bag:

We have a pouch of baby wipes:

And a changing pad:

See? Just the right size:

And what would a diaper bag be without diapers?! Here's one:

Complete with velcro tabs to hold it shut:

Modeled by our sweet little baby:

The bag also contained a tube of 'pretend' Butt Paste for when baby gets diaper rash. For those of you out of the baby business these days, there really is something called Butt Paste. See here. It's good stuff... just ask Courtney!

I came across the tutorial for the diaper bag here awhile back, and I just knew it was the perfect thing for Courtney. She loves it, and she had to go to work on a baby right away Christmas Eve. More on that later......

Only the beginning

Here's how our celebration began Christmas Eve.

Hope your Christmas has been a great one. Ours was, and I'll be back with more details later!

A fun Courtney project

Courtney had part of her Christmas already last weekend... with the "H" side of her family. She brought along one of her gifts to share with me. We had fun making something pretty!

I didn't think to get the camera out right at the beginning, but just picture in your mind a little clear plastic container of cylindrical plastic beads and a plastic pegboard.

Courtney chose the design and the colors. I told her where to place the beads, and she did most of the placing. And then when I did think about the camera and tried to take a picture, she decided to hide our work (a new phase of teasing has arisen, methinks).

Okay, teasing over (for the moment). Here's what it looked like.

Closer, even:

But, it's not done yet! We had to put this special paper over it (hmmm... hidden again)....

.... and then iron it (with Grandma's "vintage?" 40-year-old iron).

That moose came along for the ride. They seemed to really be eyeing each other.

This next picture slipped in here just because it's cute. :-)

Viola! Here is our finished product, after the iron melted the beads together. Plus there are a couple of items made by Courtney and Mommy previously (a caterpillar and a bumblebee, in case you couldn't tell).

Cute, huh? And very fun.

And on that note, I'm going to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I shall be back sometime after Christmas Day. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget the real reason for the season!

Waiting for Santa?

Courtney and I saw this little cottontail in the back yard last Tuesday.

I hope he's got a warm spot to hide. We're supposed to get several more inches of snow today. White Christmas, indeed.

Before the blizzard...

... I took these pics. See him?

Look closer:

I wonder what he had in his mouth.

He wasn't very cooperative about getting his picture taken. He moved around a lot. Here's another shot, though:

And a closer look:

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

I haven't seen him (or any other birds, except pigeons and crows, come to think of it) since the blizzard. Can't say as I blame them for not hangin' around.

God's decorations

Yeah, I have to admit, there is beauty in the beast of winter.

Here's our poor miniature lilac bush next to the house. It got pretty battered last winter... I wonder how it'll look by this spring. But, it's pretty now.

Evergreens full of snow are always lovely looking.

And look closer... quite the shapes, huh?

Below is some frost on a window, shot from a couple different angles.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

If I can't make it go away (I really can't, Dale!), I may as well find something to enjoy about it!

It's looking TOO MUCH like Christmas!

Like Christmas last year, that is! Whodathunk we'd already have this much snow again so soon? It did make for pretty pictures yesterday morning, though, after the sky cleared and the wind calmed down somewhat. I guess. If you like looking at a lot of snow. Again. So soon.

I never imagined Courtney would have such snowbanks to slide down again this year. They do look like they could be a bit challenging... but fun!

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Well... Mark, Cindy, JHRME, Gwen... all you peoples in the warm climates... enjoy! At least then somebody will.

Yesterday

Yep, they predicted a blizzard for yesterday, and that's exactly what we got. It seemed to be even more powerful than the one we got last Christmas, plus it rained a little and left a thin layer of ice on everything first.

Here are a couple of videos to show you how it looked from my perspective, cozy and warm inside the house. Grandpa and the rest of the guys had to work outside (or in the barns) in it all day, of course, because none of the employees could get to the dairy. If you turn your volume waaay up, you can hear what ironically came on the radio just as I was starting the video.

Can't see much, can you? And that was in our somewhat sheltered yard. Out in the open, you could see even less. Grandpa said it was a looong trip to the dairy in the morning, because visibility was zero. But, thankfully, he made it.

Below is a shot from my kitchen window. The "stripes" down the right half are actually reflections from our living room windows. You can kind of make out an evergreen tree, our LP gas tank, and lilac bushes on the left. If you click the pic to enlarge it, you might be able to make out our yard light pole. Or not.

I don't think the cats enjoyed their view much yesterday. Pretty boring.

Here Josie was even EXTRA bored!

She was sleeping. Or faking it. (?)

More pics tomorrow morning......

(I don't know why everything is all scrunched together. I can't change it.)

Santa Rocks, part 3

This next video is for Grandpa... to teach him how to properly sing "Jingle Bells". Courtney told him he wasn't doing it right on Tuesday because he didn't have the "Hey!" in there. Here ya go, Grandpa... now you know!!

And their final number:

Program's over... time for a big wave!

I must say, I think the preschool staff did a wonderful job with the kids. They behaved very well, and they knew their songs and sang out nicely even without accompaniment. Way to go!

I may be terribly prejudiced ("may"???), but I definitely think she was the cutest child in the bunch. And I loved that she had her own headband Santa hat so we could see her whole face instead of having it halfway hidden under one of those other Santa hats.

Santa Rocks, part 2

To be continued......

Santa Rocks, part 1

Courtney had her preschool Christmas program today. They performed at a local bank. It was so cute, and Courtney did really well.

I've been trying for hours to upload the videos I took, but so far have only been able to manage one. Any further attempts just end up with error messages. There are some family members who weren't able to attend (or weren't getting the videos they thought they were) who are probably anxious to see the program, so I'll just go with this first one for now. I have 5 more, and I'll post them when I can get them uploaded, so check back for more!

Enjoy!

(In case you didn't realize it, if you click on the box with the little arrows in the bottom right corner of the video, you can see it in full screen. It's not as clear, but it's much bigger! Press your Esc key to get back to regular size.)

I AM on the table

"There was a bug on the light, okay?"

"I couldn't help myself."

"I'll do penance and clean the table for you."

"And now I'm NOT on the table."

"I'm on the chair."