What we've been up to...

What we've been up to...
November

I've been moving through the house cleaning out closets.  I've been avoiding the hall closet for as long as I could because it is our catch all!  It was so crazy how much came out of it, I'm a little embarrassed, but I had to take a picture.  All of this stuff somehow fit into the little space below.  It looks much better now!

 I've been wanting to learn how to make pies, my family has never been the homemade pies for holidays type, and I've always loved the homemade pie tradition with Matt's family.  I finally decided to take a class.  It was two nights to myself, learning about baking, and I came home with my own apple pie to bake and eat with my family.  It turned out pretty delicious!

 We found this note to Uncle Chunk inside one of Matisyn's notebooks.  It must have been dictated by Matisyn and written down by one of her older cousins or my friends' kids.  I thought it was pretty cute.

Uncle Chunk just informed me that this letter is actually to Chuchy, Matisyn's long-time imaginary friend, not to him!

 Not sure what look Emilyn is going for here, but she often decides clothes are in the way.  At least I didn't have to clean the lunch off of her clothes!  She has been taking her diaper off all the time lately.  She takes it off in her bed and then pulls clothes out of her laundry basket and redresses herself, usually in dresses and nightgowns which are her favorite.  She was peeing in her bed so often she started telling me as soon as I walked in to get her, "I peed in my spot mom."  I was changing a lot of sheets until we finally brought the duck tape out again.  She is really loving the potty right now.  I wish I could tell if she was really ready to potty train or just thinks flushing and wiping is cool!  She has at least gone in the potty a few times now, although she climbs up and tries many times a day.  This morning before she went she told me, "I'm going to go pee pee and then you will cheer really big, ok Mommy!"  She loves my big cheers for her potty accomplishments!

 Matisyn had her first spelling test in Kindergarten for a spell-a-thon fundraiser for her school.  I was so proud of her.  She knew how to spell can at home and was having a hard time with here, so I'm not sure how they switched during the real test, but she got all but one right.

 Matisyn's self-portrait from Kindergarten

 Emilyn has been very into phones lately.  She even had to have one at the dinner table the other night (frustratingly like her Daddy!).  She talks to everyone from her Mommy, Daddy, and Grandmas, to all the different princesses.  Dinner time is always an adventure at our house these days!

 Emilyn is in heaven if we let her cook.  Sadly it is messy business and I'm not always up for it.  But when I am she is so, so happy!

 I'm not sure what possesses our impulsive little Matisyn to do some of the things she does, but this was her latest infraction.  She decided it would be a good idea to write all over our car.  She wrote on the leather seat in front of her and all over the roof/ceiling of the car.  We were so not happy with her.

In the same week we found Emilyn with scissors and hair in front of her.  Matisyn said Emilyn cut her hair, but it later came out that Matisyn cut Emilyn's hair.  The rest of the story was fuzzy, but I think they went back and forth cutting each others hair after that.  They both have crazy hair now when I try to do it.  It falls out all over when I try to put it up and falls funny in the front with all the little short pieces that stick up now.  Later that same week we found hair stashed behind the play kitchen in the playroom.  We're not sure how many times she's up to, but I'm thinking Matisyn has cut her hair around 6 times.  Someday she'll grow out of it...right?!!!

 This was while we were having a serious talk with Matisyn about the writing on our car thing.  I don't know why I took a picture, I just happened to be holding the camera, and she actually looked concerned.  I think she might have actually been listening to us, and I wanted to mark the moment!

Matt taught Matisyn how to make a realistic drawing of a hand.




Matisyn has been really into crafts lately.  She will sit down and create with whatever materials she can get her hands on.  She is especially fond of glue, scissors, and beads.  She is not allowed to use scissors or ball point pens right now though for obvious reasons mentioned above!

 I've been so proud of Matisyn and her school work.  She seems to be picking up on things easily, and loves to read and write.  This was a homework assignment to write a word for each of the letters in the word Thanksgiving.  She sounded out and wrote almost all of these words by herself.

 We have a lot of noise, yelling, and fighting in our house between these two little girls, but they also adore each other.  I had to capture this quiet, snugly moment between the two of them.  They both love to be near the Christmas tree too.

 More art from Matisyn and projects from school

 Matisyn's Christmas list to Santa Claus:
Make-up
Koo Koo Birds
Ariel Dress
Ariel Playset
Dessert Tray (American Girl Doll Stuff)
Castle
Tatoos
Shell Necklace
Make-up (again, she said she messed up on her first page)
Koo Koo Birds (again)
Candy
Play House

 Christmas presents have been arriving in boxes on our door step.  The internet is my favorite method of shopping these days.  Emilyn doesn't need the toys, just the boxes!  The girls spent tons of time this week taking turns spinning each other around in this box and climbing in and out.  Emilyn's favorite game was to crawl in and close the top and then jump back up yelling "Pop".  She also liked me to try to find her hiding inside.

 Emilyn and her buddy Lillie.  My friend Ashly and I have been taking turns on Fridays working in our kindergartners' classroom and watching the little girls.  Last week I had the little girls, and they are so funny together.  They crack each other up, and always have to be sitting next to each other!

 Matisyn and Emilyn have been having pretend sleep-overs all over our house and in our backyard.  They pack up all their favorite things and collect their pillows and blankets.  Their favorite spot to pretend is out on the trampoline, but it's starting to get too cold for that.

Emilyn has learned tricks from the best.  I found this art work on her Emilyn chair the other day.  Matisyn had left a pen out and Emilyn didn't want to leave an empty canvas!  Not sure what to do with these little ones.

 Another huge closet undertaking was in our room.  We (as in mostly me!) went through our master closet, our dresser drawers, and our shelves.  We had a huge D.I. pile by the time I was done.  It feels good to clean out that space.  It is coming up on the end of the year and I have almost successfully completed going through every closet in our house.  It is organizational therapy for me, which I have to admit I enjoy a little!  Too bad it's time to start back at the beginning again though!

I've been doing a meal exchange this month with Kelly, Alisa, and Amy.  The idea came from my friend Jana who is doing it with some friends where she lives.  We are three weeks into it, and so far I'm loving it.  On Thursdays I cook four dinners, one for my own family, and three for my friend's families, and deliver the dinners cooked or uncooked depending on the day and the food to each friend. Then on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I get dinner delivered to me.  We set up a menu so there aren't duplicates and we have variety.  It's been fun to try new recipes and to have my kids try new things.  It is a little stressful and time consuming on your day, but I've found cooking to be a lot more enjoyable when there are more people to eat it, less items to consider on the grocery list, etc., so overall much less stress involved.  The hardest thing is probably that the food is SO delicious I am eating way TOO much!  For some reason it makes it feel like there is so much more time in the day.  I've spent time working on my closets projects, snuggling with the girls, and tonight we made a gingerbread house, all instead of cooking dinner.  I would call round one a huge success!

Emilyn Quotes:

"Let's watch Boots and Zerf."  Lion King filled our house for the first of the month, and Toy Story has been the favorite for the last few weeks.  She likes all three, even the scary 3rd one.  Emilyn's favorite part is when Buzz Lightyear has his head knocked off by Zerg in the beginning of Toy Story 2.  She cracks up and calls them Boots and Zerf!

We have a hard time getting our little homebody to go places sometimes, even if they are places she will like once she gets there.  She is just pretty content to be at home.  I was trying to convince her of how much fun she would have at the gym daycare.
Me:  But you always have fun.
Emi:  I don't want to have any fun, I want to stay here.  (Said emphatically!)

"Eat your food Charlie or you will go to timeout."

Said often around here:
"I have a question. . ."  Usually followed by a statement or thought of some kind.
"I don't understand somefing."  Usually followed by another statement or long, silent pause.

P.S.  When I was doing Matisyn's hair this morning and it was sticking up all over the place I couldn't resist asking her why she kept cutting her hair if she wanted to grow it out like princess hair.  I'm feeling a little guilty about her answer.  The first three times she cut her hair was when she was pretty little, and the last three were recent.  After the third time I made a big deal about how she wouldn't have long princess hair if she kept cutting it, so the next time she needed a hair cut she refused to go.  I had to explain that hair can actually grow faster when it is trimmed and healthy.  So today when I asked her why she was cutting her hair again, she answered that it was so it would grow faster and she could have long princess hair.  Whoops!  I guess I didn't clarify that enough.  I think we are finally clear that chopping our own hair randomly off does not have the same benefits as a trim!