Merry Christmas!

Christmas energy is in the air today! It's a blustery snowy white outside and the kids are home from school! (We're expecting 8-12 inches, incuding "thunder snow.") We have tunes playing and are preparing for our family's "mini-Christmas" tomorrow morning. Since we're traveling to Dallas for Christmas we decided that Santa ought to drop off any slightly larger gifts to us at our home! (You know some airlines are charging for EVERY bag now!) So our kids are sending messages to Santa in their hearts to let him know we are waiting. We are even hiding the Christmas pickle late tonight!

So an early merry Christmas to everyone!!

A Christmas Carol

This fall Daniel was asked to play a narrator and 5 parts in an abridged version (written by a ward member) of "A Christmas Carol." He'd have to memorize all parts but the narrator. He'd have a variety of costume (more like prop) changes. He'd be practicing at least twice a week, more when the performance got near. This would be performed at the ward Christmas party as a dinner theater.

Well, he did it!! The production was so well done! They had spotlights, a sound guy, a great set, costumes, and fantastic acting! We have had lots of fun watching every version of "A Christmas Carol" we could get our hands on in anticipation of the event. Andrew was so proud of his Dad--beaming and hugging him after the play. I was proud of him too--he memorized a lot and wowed us all!

These are the best shots I could get in the dark with Eliza climbing all over me. Clicking to enlarge may help. The video clips I took are not worth posting (dark, hard to hear) but luckily the Bishop did a better recording he'll make copies of.

Here's Marley visiting Scrooge

Daniel as the ghost of Christmas present

Scrooge and the scary ghost of Christmas future
Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and a happy, changed Scrooge.

Kohl's Christmas!

Every year Kohl's does a "Big Event." For several years before we were here they had a day at Great America (six flags). I think they might have rented out the whole park...anyway, definitely a "big event!" This year they made their Christmas party their Big Event. We were amazed.

Huge heated tents went up in the parking lots--they hosted many festive activities. To name a few: ornament, cookie, frame, and stocking making/decorating for the kids. Puppet shows, singers/bands, magicians, story-tellers, jugglers. They had kid-food and lots of great big-people food. They had a "Rockefeller Center" tent boasting this amazing ice sculpture. It also held a real ice skating rink! At the rink they had free skating, free lessons, as well as ice hockey and figure skating demos. Outside they were making snow to ensure the kiddies had a place to build snowmen and forts. (The 10 foot snowbanks from a previous storm were a natural draw for the kids.) A horse-drawn carriage was available to take you from tent to tent (or just a shuttle for those who didn't want to wait forever). Santa was even there--though we were too busy playing to see him.

It was a great day--On the way home Abby was bursting with excitement over what fun she had--we all loved it!

groupies

Saturday afternoon 4 friends and I went out on an all girls excursion. We hopped in a minivan, headed West, and soon showed Madison, WI how fun a bunch of Mormon Moms are! First we went bowling and I scored in the area of 88. Impressive, I know. We had some great entertainment in the next lane. She was blond, about 90 pounds, perky and probably 16. (and there with a boy) Every time she went to bowl she heaved/dropped the 8 pound "barbie" pink ball. Thud. Every time. We are pretty sure she still beat half of us with her stellar technique.

After the bowling we went to Applebees and ate up! Then we headed to a bar/lounge place (smoke free, how nice is that!?) to listen to The Lucas Cates Band. We had a blast!! We had some good laughs as we realized how much we stuck out with our hot cocoas and waters. We even had a few glorious moments out dancing!

Though a couple of the girls are devoted followers, this was my first time hearing The Lucas Cates Band. They are from Madison and do a bit of touring. They are really good! I loved hearing them live. Their instrumental solos were incredible. Really talented guys and great songs! Live music is the best. And watching a band like this is so fun with a bunch of girlfriends!


We hopped back in the car at 12:30am and I was back home in bed by 2:30! I haven't stayed out that late in a l o n g time.

One of the girl's husband gave her "permission" to see the band as long as she didn't come back a groupie. Well...I don't know...I think we're all planning on seeing them in Milwaukee in January!

Check out pictures at my friend, Emily's, blog!

the feast

2 cooking ladies (one who did a lot more than the other)
2 helping Daddies (who took all the pictures and didn't get in any!)
7 goofy kids
How many Nintendo DS's? (Thank you Kim, now my kids want them for Christmas!)

Lots of happy faces.

One amazing meal!!
One gallon of punch concentrate (this was my only job--bring punch. we did not know it was a concentrate recipe! eeeewww. just add water.)

Thanks Kim and Jason for hosting! We have so much fun with you guys!!

this morning

9 degrees.

Really?

phone notes

I remember when I was a kid and Mom was on the phone, if I really wanted her to answer a question I had, I'd write her a note and have her check the appropriate response.

Today I just received my first phone note. It's from Abby.

"HeP Me Pes MOM I CAN't recH ttHe MAGNit oN tHe fijG"

too much music

I just need a minute to complain. But first I will say that most of the time I honestly do not mind living in this apartment. In fact, it's been very nice to us.

But

A month or two ago two boys (early 20's?) moved in downstairs, directly beneath us. They are musicians. At first I actually found it cool when I heard them playing their guitars while I was downstairs waiting for the bus.

But

Not cool anymore. This guy can sing at a normal volume OR at screaming yelling singing volume. And has done so at both 12:45 am and 2:30 am. AND his voice is bad. Bad. Horrible. Off key. Scratchy.

And

He has a temper. Amidst some drumming/playing the other day (and once in the middle of the night) I heard occasional outbursts (yelling, swearing) of frustration when there was a mess-up.

And

During most of his songs he really only switches cords twice.

And

Did you notice "drumming" up there? Yep. Real genuine drums right below my living room.

Complaining over. Thanks.

First Snow

This morning we were surprised to wake up to two inches of snow! The energy in the house was palpable. I remember, those were the best mornings in the neighborhood when I was growing up. Good timing too, late last night Daniel and I had all the Christmas presents out--dividing them up, seeing what we needed, what we didn't. We were remarking how it felt like Christmas Eve! And lo and behold, it should have been!

Waiting for the bus...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

My mother is Earth friendly. She's so good at using up what she has, reusing what she can, and recycling what's left. Even to the point getting a laugh--Mom was caught reusing a Hershey's syrup bottle as a water bottle! And of course I thought of Mom as my Abby decided to wash out a parmesan cheese bottle and use it for water! So, maybe this time it wasn't for the Earth, but you gotta admit, containers are fun!

Birthday Dress

Well, I want to eat her up.

curtains are up!

These lovelies make the apartment feel more like a home...

My baby turns 3!

If you've read the previous entries, you can see we've been busy with celebrations around here!

My little one turned three last week! Because of my brain was nearly fried I wanted to plan an easy (but still fun) birthday celebration for Eliza. Pizza hut took care of the lunch for me, the kids and Daniel covered game ideas and prep, Daniel put up the streamers, and I did the cake.

Pin the crown on the princess (Andrew's idea):

...turned into transforming the game's crowns into wearable crowns...
The little girl in blue next to Eliza is Grace. Grace and her sister Hannah (in yellow) lived below our apartment for a while and we love their family! Every time somebody mentioned how Eliza was turning three, she'd say, "Like Gracie!!"

For the cake I did a cool tracing method my sister taught us years ago, and took a picture before I transferred the picture onto the cake...just in case I botched it. (By the way, her face is under the peach frosting and shows up when you flip it.) I'm a little bummed I didn't take a picture right after the transfer because it worked great! By the time we had cake and ice cream the black frosting had bled somewhat into the yellows.

Daniel turns 32!

Dude, that's a lot of candles!! I really wanted to celebrate Daniel's birthday right this year. Last year we had moved in just ONE day before his birthday. So, we celebrated among a mess of boxes and his cake was the free slice at a local restaurant. So, with help, I cooked up a little surprise. I originally wanted to have him come home to a surprise party. BUT it was nearly impossible to come up with the right times/people/scheming. Instead we brought the surprise home to him! 3 families from church showed up Sunday afternoon with balloons, party hats, a birthday banner, and even a cake! It was so fun! BUT since we don't really do parties on Sunday, we called it a "Birthday Fellowship." heh heh. We played a couple games, had cake, ice cream, and apple pie. Yum.

Trick or Treat!

Better get this on the blog before Thanksgiving, eh? Here is our Halloween excitement!

Strawberry Shortcake. Here's Abby's complete look. Can I just say, I had a lot of fun putting these costumes together this year. So... we opted out of the striped shirt (how many hours of shopping would it take...) and instead I ironed on a picture of Strawberry we found on some fabric. And by the way, every strawberry on that hat was ironed on by yours truly.

Strawberry Shortcake's little sister, Apple Dumpling. This outfit we modified to reduce stress. I thought it turned out pretty cute! I added the gingham collar and ruffled cuffs around the pants as well as the apples to the yellow outfit. And did the hat...

The full view of the hat. Here's Yoda. With ears, a hooded cloak, and six fingers in all. Basically I modified (widening arms, adding the hood) a robe pattern. The ears were fashioned after a dog Yoda costume I saw. And I have to send a shout out to Debra who helped with a lot of the searching and ideas for the costume details!Carving time. Eliza immediately told me she wanted a SCARY face! This face!

After trick-or-treating...

First Trophy

The kid couldn't have been more proud!

Mask sales tell all!

So, I mentioned to my family in an email that Daniel had heard this: Whichever candidate sells the most masks for Halloween is the candidate that always ends up winning the election. Well, looks like both masks are out and Amazon.com is keeping tally. To get your election prediction check out their hourly updated meter HERE (that's a link) or on their home page.

Who's mask would you buy? heh heh

My newest sister

Meet my good friend De Ann Green. We are the same height, the same build, have similar hair (but I just cut mine), both wear glasses, and have big smiles. I've also noticed our basic taste in clothes is pretty similar. And I do believe we're just a couple years apart in age.

We're both also newer to the ward. The Greens moved in a few months after we did. Since then we've had people confused. Little kids in the ward get us mixed up. People stop and ask me or ask her if "our sister is in town". This has happened multiple times. Someone at a ward activity said it was so nice that my mom was in town. De Ann's mom was there. We went to women's conference together at the stake center (where De Ann knows people--she lived in another ward here about 5 months prior to moving to ours). 5 or 6 people randomly told us we looked like sisters. They were genuinely surprised that we weren't! We were dying.

So, before the end of election day I want to hear what YOU think! My huge band of readers. Look to the right of the blog and take the poll! Let your voice be heard!

Parnell Tower

So, you want to check out the fall colors in Wisconsin? Visit the Parnell Tower! Wow. After a short walk through the woods, and a few (ok, many) stairs, you are overlooking a gorgeous view 25 miles in each direction.

The bear birthday

In honor of Grandma Stewart's great bear hugs (she loves to give and to receive) we had a "bear" party for her birthday. Did you know you can still have "kid" parties, even when you're a grandma?

We played "bear, bear, hug" (duck duck goose), a Stewart party must. We played a bear-themed guessing game. And lastly, we played "hibernation." It's our very own invention (surprise, surprise) where we are the bears and have to store fat for winter's hibernation--this is accomplished by stuffing our oversized shirts full of balloons, of course! Check out this video...

And here's the bear cake. It actually looks really good compared to what it looked like coming out of the oven! Flat. The cake seemed to bubble over the sides of the round pan and just cook flat. Barely got it out of the pan alive--definite "marks" where it stuck. The the cupcake ears. Flat too. Scary. Overcooked. I couldn't get one out alive. So, I peeled two tops off and thanks to "concealer" frosting we rescued the bear cake! And it acutally tasted great!

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Grandma Stewart Visits!!

Daniel's mom, Debra, came into town to visit while her husband was off in Austrailia (!) on a long business trip! Oh my goodness, did we have fun.

The day after she arrived was Saturday and we all went out to Milwaukee to see some sights. We took a ferry boat tour up the Milwaukee River, which turned around in Lake Michigan. So, we saw the city on the river, and saw the gorgeous, enormous lake at the end. Notice the lighthouse. Lighthouse? Aren't those for oceans?

Next we stopped by the Milwaukee art museum. This huge white structure is newer and was added onto the original museum, which is very boring on the outside. It definitely draws the crowd and is just cool (and there's not even art in it!). We probably saw 4-6 wedding parties taking pictures while we were out.
Inside the museum

The art museum from the side
From the front entrance. Those "wings" or the "sail" or the "fin" are made from many white beams that acutally close up toward the center at night. Funky, huh?

Then, there were halloween cookies

Eliza's signature cookies: blob of frosting, shake of sprinkles, and handful of candy corns (that she would later pick off).
Grandma and the kids played board games, did puzzles, and dressed up in tutus. She even went to help out in Andrew's class one morning and got to go chaperone Abby's field trip to a play!

Just before she left, we took Debra to see the Kohl's headquarters. So, here's a look at it!

The cube

Well, when Grandma wasn't busy with the kids, my Mother-in-law and I got projects going! We shopped for curtain and pillow fabric (another "before and after" to look forward to), found a few living room accessories, and shopped for the many pieces to the kids' halloween costumes. We zipped around town like crazy women and got a lot done! With her lovely assistance, I even painted that kitchen wall on her birthday! (And had the tape off before dinner.)