My little Artist!

So we are over the hustle and bustle of Christmas, as you can tell with all my postings in one sitting! But the wonderful hustle and bustle of everyday motherhood is never over! My sweet Miss Miriam got a huge coloring book from Santa that had crayons and servant of Satan's - a marker! I neglected to take the marker out and when she was suppose to be napping she got creative instead. This marker was not only on her wall, but on her bed, carpet, her new princess pillow and of course her hands and face. The really funny thing is when I went in her room to get her up from her nap I never even noticed her artwork. I did notice that she had a really stinky diaper. As I started to change her I was pulling out wipes that were just shoved in the wipey box that had blue ink on them. I had one of those exhausted mother moments where I just thought, "Huh, that's peculiar." and just reached in until I found a clean one. Theo asked me later if I noticed what she had done on the wall. I was completely oblivious, so I ran to her room and this is what I found. The red on the wall is from a previous artistic epiphany, but you can see where she tried to cover up some of the evidence from the blue marker. Good thing she is so stinking cute! We just bought some Magic Erasers tonight and I plan on standing over her with a whip as she scrubs it all off!!! Or she pretends to wipe the walls while I use some real elbow grease, just whatever comes first!

Dressed for Christmas

Here we all are ready for church the Sunday before Christmas. We were all matching with our black, red and white. Emma is in her Little Red Riding outfit. She has on a cape with a hood that really does play the part of Little Red. Miriam is finally growing more hair that I can actually attempt hairdos on! And boy does she love it! She is always saying how she is a little princess. Tobie is looking very handsome in his tie and vest! (He put the tie on all by his self!) I'm in my standard Christmas sweater and black skirt, and you can't really tell, but Theo's tie is all Christmas colors. I love Christmas and Easter because you have a reason to go shopping for pretty dresses and handsome suits and not feel guilty!

Gingerbread House

It has been a long tradition of my families to make gingerbread houses. The only catch is that they are made of graham crackers! It never bothered me that they were graham cracker houses posing as gingerbread houses until Tobie's friend, Evan, was over and decided to dispute the name of our festive creation. "Why do you call it a gingerbread house when it is made of graham crackers?" I had to pause and think about it. It has always been called that, and who am I to argue with tradition. I basically told him I could call it whatever I want since I made it and the arguing ended. Tobie did an excellent job on the snowman on the side of the house. And Theo added the skylight in case you were wondering what that was on the side of the roof. We actually did this for FHE the week before Christmas. It's a great activity and I recommend it for all. When I was younger we would deliver the houses that we made to friends. It was such a fun experience. When our kids get older and start making their own I plan on carrying on that part of the tradition. Right now with 3 little ones, I have just enough energy to barely get one made for us!

Oakland Temple Lights

Theo unexpectedly got sent to Hawaii again and we had planned to go to the Temple last night. Instead of saying "Oh well, maybe when he gets back." I sent out an e-mail to all my friends asking who would like to come with me. I am so thankful to Nathan and Cicily for taking me up on my offer. It was such a fun time that started with Fentons and ended with running it off in awe at the beautiful Temple lights!
Emma and their son Enoch in the booth at Fentons. The food was sooooo good!!! I got this ginormous sundae, but then Tobie had to go to the bathroom, so typical. So by the time I got back it had turned into a milkshake. But it was still good!!!
Tobie insisted on wearing his new Christmas outfit for church to the Temple. He wanted to look his best. He was such a handsome boy! Cicily was super nice and took Miriam and Tobie to walk around the roof. It was such a beautiful sight. Tobie looked over the edge down into the city and noticing the smog says,"There's a dust storm!". It did look very dusty!=)
Nathan took all these pictures, my camera wasn't being nice to me and all my pictures ended up being blurry. This is just a wonderful picture of the Temple and all the lights. I was really surprised at all the lights, it was absolutely wonderful! Thank you Nathan and Cicily for going with me!