My old toy box

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...

but i'm glad for it.

A lot of my things have been damaged over the years, or due to the introduction of 3 (ahem) nephews who were a little rougher than I as a tot, but we are happy to have what we have.

I was devastated when this toy box was damaged, and we'd looked and looked for someone to work on it (for YEARS) and never could.  Recently, Eric was going to take on the task of fixing it, but life "got in the way..." and it sat in the garage--all sad like.

My cake friend, Misty, suggested a guy she knows in Lancaster--who literally has no email, voicemail, and she says has a rotary dial phone.  wow.  In October, we met up--he was a man of very few words, but was confident he could fix it.

After maybe 6-8 weeks, I got a call one day that the box was done.  I was so excited to meet up with him and see it working again, I couldn't wait to get it home and share with the girls.  

They immediately ran to sit on it, then lift and lower the seat, and next, filling it with bears, puzzles, sippy cups, and each other :) I am so thankful to mom for saving this relic, Eric for trying to save it, and Paul for fixing it--so that these girlies can enjoy it as much as I did.

Christmas morning!

I set my alarm for 5:45, but by a little after 5, I was up--good thing, because Amara wasn't long behind me. I got up in time to get some dishes loaded and the sausage rolls started, but shortly thereafter, I saw a little blondie on the stairs in footie pajamas--that when she spotted me, scampered back upstairs.

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!

She wanted to see if Santa had come and boy did he!

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 ;)

PEEK!!  Cora loved her Hello Kitty bath towel! that one is going in the washer STAT!

(Our attempt at a family photo ;) impossible to get all 4 of us looking in the same direction at the same time.  Merry Christmas!

Ms. Sarah's yearly wrap up

Cora's many hats

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.

Christmas quilt '12

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!

The girls aren't terribly impressed, but since I'm learning this on their behalf, to pay it forward as it were, I like to share it with them both as I work on them at home and when I take classes too.

Number 2 in the books!

Letter to Santa and Santa video

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.

All of a sudden, Amara decided she wanted to send a letter (and present) to Santa. She got to work crafting a photo, note, got her paper ready, and of course--envelopes.

She's been asking to write everything lately--we have notebooks and pencils stashed EVERYWHERE!

I am not sure she went the extra mile to think about mailing it, but she got it all ready and I was so glad and excited to see her get excited about Santa and his letter too!

Mommy Bean day

NOTE: this is out of sequence...this happened in August, but it was just now I realized it never posted :(

While Mrs. Sarah was in Africa, we got to do a lot of fun things with the girls.  That said, I try to do mommy-Bean days with Amara at least a few times a year, so we took advantage of one of these days and went out, just the 2 of us.  We kicked off breakfast at Panera--she loves to "eat inside" at restaurants...though I don't think she was thrilled with the bagel, she enjoyed the concept.

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.

We grabbed lunch at Chik-fil-a before going home and she really enjoyed the squeeze applesauce they just added to the menu. I think I bought 4 before we left for the day.

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!

I really enjoy my mommy-Bean days with this big girl--I know I won't always get them, but I'm doing my best to show her how much I  cherish her, always.