And while the third attempt looked promising...

It ended up like the rest. With me holding Emma while she buried her head in my shoulder. But really, it did start off well because it was actually her idea to go see Santa. She wanted to after her friends Julia and Frankie said they wanted to see him. She waited in line with me then when it was her turn, she ran away then sat on the floor.



She did lift her head up just enough to mumble, "and a princess bike" to Santa.


Then her head was back in my shoulder.


Mackenzie on the other hand actually took a candy cane from him and even said "bye" to him before he left.

While I should be posting Christmas pictures,

instead I'll post this picture of Emma, taken this morning. Today's the first time it's snowed enough to play in (which is a first as far back as I can remember) and so we headed outside. All four of us, as I'm babysitting Caroline and Jack. I think it took a half hour to get all five of us ready (a 1-year-old, a 2-year-old and two almost 4-year-olds) and we spent about that much time outside. It's cold!

I did get this though. My new favorite picture of Emma.


My funny, sweet, smart, playful, silly, talkative, loving almost 4-year-old.

A slight improvement

As in sitting next to versus standing in front of Santa, like last weekend. Baby steps. We're taking baby steps. Although I'm positive it wasn't that she wanted to sit by Santa, rather that Santa had a present for her (a coloring book) and she had to sit there to get it. Hey, if it works...

(The very cool Santa and Mrs. Claus at Emma's preschool Christmas brunch this morning.)

Mackenzie on the other hand, had been over by a window while Emma and I talked to Santa. Next thing I know she's on the floor in front of us wailing away. It was the funniest thing. It's not like she had to come over near Santa. She could've stayed on the other side of the room, yet she walked over and proceeded to cry in total fear of the jolly old man. She's so strange.

Breakfast with Santa

This past Saturday was breakfast with Santa. Emma wanted to go because Lisa, Tim, Bree and Ava were going to be there. But she said she did not want to see Santa. When we walked in Santa was standing there greeting everyone. Emma made a wide circle around him and Mackenzie clung to my leg. She warmed up a bit when he let her ring the bells he had, but later when he visited the table she started to cry. And he wasn't even next to her, he was across the table by Emma and Bree!

I've probably mentioned this before, but Emma is really in to drawing and coloring. And she draws very well for her age. She's also gotten very good at staying in the lines when coloring. Hopefully she'll have more artistic abilities than her mother. She always wants me to draw things and I'm limited to a whale, a house and a tree. Oh, and those "v" birds.


Mackenzie was really concentrating.


After breakfast it was time to visit Santa and of course neither girl wanted to go. But I told them we had to so we could give Santa their Christmas lists. I filled out a list for each girl that included what they'd like for Christmas and how they'd been good this year.

Mackenzie told me she wanted (in this order): Dora, Diego, baseball, football, Minnie Mouse. She wasn't telling Santa though, Mommy handed him the list.


Emma said she wanted a princess bike, princess Barbie, markers and tic tac toe. Emma also wasn't telling Santa, in fact she wouldn't even look at him. He was a very nice and understanding Santa though.


After that, the girls worked on their crafts and I took some pictures for a mom who forgot her camera and her mom's camera's battery had died. Her children, on the other hand, smiled quite nicely for me!

We had fun. I love that our city does this. And Saturday, we're doing it again. Michael's baseball team is having a Breakfast with Santa fundraiser. Pretty sure I'll have pictures very similar to the ones above!

The winner is...

...2, Stephanie.

I don't know how to make the random.org box show up, but it picked 2. So Stephanie, email me for the code! Congrats!

Random scrappiness. Is that even a word?

On the off-chance you haven't yet been over to WCS this month, Write.Click.Scrapbook is taking a break from our regularly-scheduled weekly bloggers to bring you a month full of December-themed posts: card ideas, Christmas layouts, holiday projects and more. Fun stuff. Really. You should check it out. Last week this post went up about attempting to take photos of my girls for last year's Christmas card. Fun times. While the process was a tad frustrating at times, I love, love, love the end result.

This is my layout from the December gallery. I'm so glad I scrapbooked this converstaion. So Emma and I never want to forget it. (Click to enlarge.)


And today's the last chance to leave a comment and win a download of Ella's newest eBook:


Just go here and leave a comment telling me about your Christmas cards this year. I'll be posting a winner Saturday morning.

Emma...

Is slowly starting to feel better. Her latest fever started Sunday evening and hit 105.9 on Monday and 105.7 on Tuesday. We went to the pediatrician Tuesday evening (where she fell asleep on the examining table (wish I'd had my camera) she was so worn out. We finally know what's wrong and hopefully there will be no more crazy high fevers in the future.

Mackenzie gets hives when she gets a virus, and we just thought Emma gets super high fevers with her viruses. They've been steadily getting higher since June when it was 103.5, 104.5 in September, 105 two weeks ago and now the nearly 106 mark. She's got some tests scheduled for later this month and I'm praying those come back normal. I'm ready for her to be healthy, acting like herself and to not have to miss preschool and playing with her friends. I feel so badly for her. Plus, I'm ready for me to not see 105 on the thermometer. It's a little scary. Makes you worry. Wish you could fix it all. But she did go to school today and even though her fever was up to 103.5 this afternoon, I think we're on the down-slope. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, she's not contagious or anything, even with the fever.)

These two pictures are from the Winter Wonderland at our fitness center on Sunday.

Here's Emma with her two best friends, Caroline and Bree. She loves them. (Lisa and I did not plan on the girls wearing matching shirts, by the way!)


And on, well, I'm not sure what you'd call it. It was a bouncy house without a roof, just low walls. This was major. Prior to this she refused to go in a bouncy house. We knew she'd love it if she'd try, but she was always afraid. Of course, doesn't help that this summer our neighbors had a small one in their backyard for Jack's birthday and Michael put Emma in it. She was okay, not loving it but not freaking out - until the hose came out and it started to deflate and the kids started yelling and trying to climb out while it collapsed around them. Not pretty. Sort of funny though, I'll be honest. Anyway. She saw Caroline in it and decided to try it and loved it! She got off and got right back in line two more times. Yay! This is very exciting, people!


And making a snowman last week. She really wanted to make one where we cut out the pieces and she glued them on. He's quite colorful: Pink arms, orange facial features, blue buttons with a yellow haunted house stuck on him.

Know what a tree hitting your house sounds like?

I do. It's loud. Very loud. And it can make a mess of your deck.



And your roof. It actually hit the peak and went over the other side. My neighbor saw parts of the tree on the front of the house, plus there are some pieces in the front flower bed.



Anyone need firewood?

Have yourself a Vintage Hip Christmas...

by winning this:



Vintage Hip Christmas Crafts: 9 step-by-step tutorials for layouts, decor, gifts, and more by Margie Romney-Aslett and daughters Megan and Brooke.

Choose your own crafting adventure! Whether you're trying to get crafty between batches of cookies or you've got a whole weekend to revel in your creativity, we've got the Christmas project for you! Crafting rockstar Margie Romney-Aslett and her daughters, Brooke and Megan, have pulled together nine totally glitter-tastic ideas in Ella Publishing Co.'s latest eBook, Vintage Hip Christmas Crafts: 9 step-by-step layouts, gifts, décor and more. Put on your favorite Christmas album, brew up a mug of cocoa, and pick your crafting poison.

If you'd like to win a copy of Ella Publishing Co.'s newest eBook, leave a comment and tell me about your Christmas card. Do you make your own? Send photo cards? Do you send them early, or like me, have you actually sent some after Christmas? Ooh, I know, what do you do with your cards? Display them? Stick them in a basket? Throw them away, including the picture cards and/or pictures (cough, cough, Shelly, cough)?

While I only have one copy to give away, I do have a code you can use to get Vintage Hip Christmas Crafts for 25% off. The code is CRAFTY09 and it is valid through 12/13.

I'll leave the comments open through 11pm on Friday 12/11 and post the winner Saturday morning.

PS, if you haven't yet been over to Ella's site to check out all their great eBooks, you should! They've got some awesome titles by awesome scrapbookers for a really awesome price. Plus a monthly eZine, Scrapbook Ellaments. You can also sign up for their email list here for the latest news and updates.

Whispering Pines

We went and cut our tree down Sunday afternoon. We normally go the first weekend in December, but there's too much going on this coming weekend, (Go Chagrin! The football team is playing for the state championship!) so we decided to go early. It was nice though. Great weather - last year it was snowing and freezing. And we went with a new tree this year, the white spruce instead of a scotch pine. Just in case you were wondering.

There's a tractor hay ride out to the area of the farm that has the type of tree you want. On Saturday there are Amish horse-drawn hay rides which is what we had last year.

(I swear she was looking when I took this.)

Mackenzie really liked the hay ride. She's laughing. Honest.






We tried to get a picture of me with both girls. But only Mackenzie was interested.


Until Mackenzie's turn was over. Then Emma wanted a picture...on my back.


But Mac had to be in on it, too, of course.


My first attempt at getting a Christmas card picture. Didn't work.




While Michael was busy cutting down the tree, the girls were picking little leaves off the ground.


And rocks. Mackenzie was really into the rocks she found.



Second attempt. Not any better. Especially with that long piece of hair right down the middle of Emma's face.

(As soon as we started to move, Mackenzie started to cry and had to sit on my lap. Apparently hay rides are only fun on Mommy's lap. And she's still got the rock.)

After you get your tree, they have a fire and refreshments in the barn. They serve the BEST hot chocolate ever. Plus free s'mores and hot dogs to roast. Oh, and Amish baked goods for sale. We bought a big cinnamon roll - it was the size of a paper plate - and oh my gosh it was so good. We should've bought five.