Thinking about 2012, Dad
Just a quick entry from me to recap some of the highlights that my poor memory can recall. Fortunately for me, my family does so many wonderfully "highlight-able" things, they're easy to remember.
Cora
I can't believe how you have grown - not so much size but as a little person with a huge personality. I mean, heck, within just these last few days of the year (literally, since Christmas), a switch went off and you're talking non-stop now ... not just your traditional, adorable, "can't quite make out what you're saying" talking - full-blown repeating understandable words and stringing together things like "Morning!", "No, I not like that" (usually directed toward your sister). I call you "our bright light" - you are absolutely a joy and you keep us sane. Your laugh is infectious and the faces you make - what a natural entertainer! I honestly don't know that I can pick one single moment that stands out, but if I had to pick - it'd be recently, when I bring Amara in with me to get you out of bed in the morning - you pop right up in your crib, squeal "Hi!" and run to the rail of the crib to give your sister a huge hug (complete with a few pats). You can't even imagine how amazing it makes me feel to see you unconditionally love your sister like that. What I'll really take away from this year is just your unbridled good spirit and how your faces, laughter, charm, and warmth just make life all the more special. I love you!
Amara
You are such a special soul. Your wit and intelligence are greater than I could've ever imagined ... sometimes, that gets both you and me in trouble, and you challenge us to the max. But, clearly, I wouldn't change anything. You are SO beautiful and I can only hope that you are able to understand, even if only partly, how I love you to the moon and back - a million times over. It's precious how you call your sister "sweet - heart" (two, very separate and enunciated words). You are such an amazing big sister and Cora looks up to you so much. There's no way you can know this yet, but she already tries to be like you in so many ways. If there was one thing that everyone else in the world will remember about this year, it'll be 1 word : Eric. You insist on calling me that at least 75% of the time, instead of Dad or Daddy. And, especially when you do it in public, everyone within hearing distance completely cracks up. I'll also remember the times, partially due to you trying to charm me to stay with you longer at bedtime but also partially due to your living spirit, you put you arm around me and call me your little angel and the way you turn your cheek toward me so I can kiss you. I'm so lucky to have you to keep me on my toes and to be able to be your dad. I love you!
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Micki
My bride of over 5 years now. Another year full of reminders that I owe you my life. We certainly had our challenges this year - family drama, me being a head case, a "gloriously infuriating" 4-year-old ... but through it all, it's clear to me that we are both "all in" for each other and our family. Just like with the girls, it's impossible to pinpoint the one most memorable moment. But, the party you threw for my 40th birthday certainly comes to mind quickly. I mean, a food truck?! Who else in the world would do that? And, that was just the most obvious part of that party, but everything about it was perfect. But for me, when it comes to you, it's less about the monumental occasions but more about the everyday stuff. That's not to sound mundane or routine, but it's a highlight of how you make every day special. The baking, the treats, making sure we get one-on-one time in the evenings, the projects we take on, the way you wonderfully take care of our girls, ... That said, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I have to call out your new-found love of quilting. I love seeing something give you so much joy - you deserve it. The quilts you have made for us are amazing, and I am so honored to be associated with you, when you use your passion for others, like the Childrens Hospital quilts. Anyway, roller coaster or not, we've got a great life and I'm thankful that you're at my side. I love you!
My bride of over 5 years now. Another year full of reminders that I owe you my life. We certainly had our challenges this year - family drama, me being a head case, a "gloriously infuriating" 4-year-old ... but through it all, it's clear to me that we are both "all in" for each other and our family. Just like with the girls, it's impossible to pinpoint the one most memorable moment. But, the party you threw for my 40th birthday certainly comes to mind quickly. I mean, a food truck?! Who else in the world would do that? And, that was just the most obvious part of that party, but everything about it was perfect. But for me, when it comes to you, it's less about the monumental occasions but more about the everyday stuff. That's not to sound mundane or routine, but it's a highlight of how you make every day special. The baking, the treats, making sure we get one-on-one time in the evenings, the projects we take on, the way you wonderfully take care of our girls, ... That said, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I have to call out your new-found love of quilting. I love seeing something give you so much joy - you deserve it. The quilts you have made for us are amazing, and I am so honored to be associated with you, when you use your passion for others, like the Childrens Hospital quilts. Anyway, roller coaster or not, we've got a great life and I'm thankful that you're at my side. I love you!
Amara and I love to do crafts, but they stress Eric out ;) true story. I saw this sleigh idea on Pinterest, and thought it would be super fun to do for both Amara's class and to take to Mrs. Sarah's for her party there too!
Eric and I did a test run on them, and they came together quite quickly. A red solo cup, candy cane rudders, cotton balls to cover the sharp edges, and fill with candy and smiles. We topped ours with the ornaments we had for her teachers (an art project from Jonathan Alder art class courtesy Haylee that everyone loved!)
Amara liked the gluing part till her fingers got stuck on the hot glue a few times, then she moved to cotton ball duty. (The whole time, all I kept thinking about was the movie Elf, where he eats the cotton balls at the doctor's office).
The best part is the filling! Amara did a great job selecting a mixture of suckers, chocolates, and hard candies, and we even marked a few of the sleighs 'nut free' for a few special kids in the class. She was SO proud to take them in the next day--she just about knocked the kids over handing them out, and best of all, everyone loved them and said they are doing them as class projects next year!! High praise for Bean and I!
When I decided last year to pick up quilting, I knew I was serious about it, but as I learned more about quilting, began to see that it can be time consuming. Add to that all the shirt making, other mending and projects, and our Children's hospital quilts can sometimes take a back seat.
Over the course of the fall and winter, the girls helped me select flannel, cut, assemble sandwiches of fabric, and lastly sew the quilts together.
Not that it made it in time for Christmas, but we did get a little storm on the 26th. Amara got to play with some of it the teachers brought into her room at school, but it was too chilly for them to go out in it right away.
Cora was at mom and dads that day, so she wasted no time getting right out in the fluffy white stuff! Mom said she loved it, even though she wasn't really dressed for it. Mom improvised with rain boots and socks for mittens and I'm sure it worked just great!
Cora jumped right in behind big sis and bagged a bowl of the fresh snow for a taste test!
We all went to a close-by sled hill for a few runs as another little squall was coming through, but it was pretty short lived overall. They are so enjoying running out and catching flakes when they fall here and there, I hope we get a few more storms to enjoy together!
Cora wasn't as big of a fan of the sledding--but loved chilling with dad and watching the comedy of Amara coming down the hill.
Shortly after, dad showed up to snowblow the driveway and Amara got dressed and grabbed her shovel to help him. We watched from inside for a quick second, but after deciding to all go out, I tossed a blanket on Eric and Cora and we all enjoyed the beauty from outside too.
Nothing too awfully special to report out on Amara's pics, but we love them! (and love sharing them ;) 
One part that was kind of neat though about the prepping for the photos was that I took Amara shopping to pick out her outfit this year. We went to Target and Amara picked out this cute outfit that was "designed" by her favorite character China from A.N.T. Farm, her favorite Disney show right now.
She was super excited to get her outfit with China on the photo and even more to get dressed the morning of her pictures. She was really proud of them as we picked them out and when she sees them, always remarks that she loves them too.
Cora was very into the geotracks train set...
and both girls loved helping us hang the giant ornaments from the loft upstairs!
We had 6 inflatables in all, he put lights on the ornamental tress in back--then of course our monster tree inside, and on and on. We didn't put out anything fragile, but Amara loved pinning our Christmas cards to the entry way doors as they came in, and we all played our little part in enjoying the decorations for the month of December!
Mom kept a lot of things for me from my childhood--I'm sure a product of having a full basement attic, and children who are packrats...
Eric and I caught her and gave her a hug--she was pretty groggy...getting up at 6 will do that!
Eric and I caught her and gave her a hug--she was pretty groggy...getting up at 6 will do that!
It seemed like forever till 7:15 when the Jahn's came and then 7:30 till the Young's came. We started on stockings first, since Amara just couldn't wait--and then she was all too eager to dig into the presents as soon as we green-lighted her.
She certainly was the most interested in presents this year--but still not crazy ripping into things like the boys always did. Cora opened a few too, but quickly the novelty, noise, and commotion caused her to retreat upstairs for some quiet time.
The grandparents enjoyed their gifts too, and we all had a great breakfast before Amara started in on her crafts.
Cora loved her big gingerbread hello kitty doll, no real surprise--i love watching her drag those big animals around!
Cora went on a bit of a hug rotation and got to everyone without falling over, that is a pretty good record for her ;)
(Our attempt at a family photo ;) impossible to get all 4 of us looking in the same direction at the same time. Merry Christmas!
Cora is a hat girl. If there's a hat around, she'll find it and wear it...hers, Amara's, daddy's, doesn't matter--it's all fair game. We can't refuse her, especially if it's cute...thus we end up with an exorbitant number of "disposable" hats--for comic relief in our house, cars, diaper bags, etc.
The good news is that Amara went through the same hat phase at around the same age, so we are pretty well stocked, but they aren't the same hat size in the same season, so we are still adding to the collection. The summer hat scene Amara stole has been replaced by the winter hat trend on Cora's plate.
Her favorite right now happens to be anything she can grab on to, with flaps, tassels, braids, that hang down, and she pulls it down as hard on her head as she can, till her bangs push into her blue eyes and make the scene even funnier.
She doesn't discriminate against warm-weather hats either. If she can find them, she'll make them work. If I had to guess, the number would probably near 30 hats...and IF I could locate all of them, which in itself would be a miracle. Some people find socks in odd places, for us, because of Cora, it's hats.
So, here's to you Cora. Thank you for your Fadora-wearing, winter hat grabbing, summer bonnet working hat styles and your sassy attitude and flirty smile that always got with them. Keep on working your hats and you've got this world in your pocket lil sis.
After taking the quilting ABCs class from Quilt Beginnings in Whitehall in Winter last year, I took it again this fall. I wrapped up in November and brought it home and I was proud of myself for having the forethought to do a Christmas design so now we have a Christmas quilt!
A friend of ours told us about Portable North Pole (PNP) which is a service where you make a video for Santa with pics of your family, children, house, etc. We watched it last weekend and I think Amara watched it like 4 times in a row.
NOTE: this is out of sequence...this happened in August, but it was just now I realized it never posted :(
Next, getting our nails done. Amara wanted to do both fingers and toes and picked out a sparkly silver color. The gentleman working on her had 2 daughters of his own and put rhinestones in the flowers on her designs. She absolutely loved it!
I was able to sit close enough that I was near, but far enough away to give her space. She watched her DVD and she and the gentleman chatted away most of the time.
To wrap up the morning, a little crafting at home. She was painting canvases and decided on a bright blue. We mapped off the heart with contact paper and when she was done, she was so proud of it!.JPG)
