All Couped Up

Its been cold. REALLY cold. I dont go out much. We are all couped up!
Heres a little of what we've been doing.



My Sewing Room

 This is my sewing room. Its where I practically live this time of year. My poor machine is practically smoking by the time im done with it. That list you see on the white board? Yah thats only half of it. Now, I cant show you any of the Christmas presents yet, that would just ruin everything, but I can show you a couple of the other projects ive been doing...



The Advent Calendar. Inspired by my childhood.




...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
I just finished making these.



patching clothes!!! The bad thing about the whole 'distressed' look is that they dont last as long,
The good thing? Very easy to repair!!!



Amoungst my projects i've had to keep 'stir crazy children' happy too. So we've been doing things like this!



Making sugar cookies!




Kael and Naveah had so much fun playing with the extra dough and using the "steam roller".




The cookies.



Christmas Decorations!




Kaels looks somewhat disturbing...
 Perhaps they should have thought of another color for Santa.




Naveah had more fun pressing the felts down so hard the tips would pop up inside.
 This WAS a blue felt...we dont play with these anymore.

 Its not only cooking and crafts the kids like to do. A big plus is that they LOVE to help me clean. So on a day that the house was way overdue for a good make over, I plugged in the Vacuflo and Kael and Naveah spent hours taking turns vacuuming. When they ran out of things to vacuum on the floor, they found other things....like the dining table. It was pretty cute.



Kael vacuuming the dining table!

 The kids are also really into Christmas movies right now. I dont think I can take much more of 'Frosty the Snowman'. So I bought Kael "The Polar Express". There is a constant rotation of those two, "Frosty Friends", "The Grinch" and occationally they throw in "How to train your Dragon". Movies were becoming so frequent for a while that as soon as the kids got out of bed they were plopped on the couch asking to watch a movie. So I moved the TV to our bedroom so it was 'out of sight, out of mind'. Its working so far. Now movies are only occasional and much more appreciated.


excited to all hang out and watch Frosty while I got some Laundry folded.




Who could resist that picture!

 Aside from movies another favorite time for the kids is Bedtime....???? Yes its true. We never used to read books to them at night. We sometimes got grief about it but it was just something that didnt work for us at bedtime. But since we've moved and have had a lot more 'down time' the kids have become quite fond of them. Because time with Daddy has been so scarce lately with his busy work schedule, reading books with him before bed has become an anticipated event. Kael reads one of two books every night. Either his "Discovery Space" book, or his "The story about Everything" book. Naveahs favorite right now is a Little People book I bought a couple years ago. She loves to look at the page that has the grocery store on it and scoop out food and treats from the pages and feed them to us and herself (and sometimes the monsters). I caught this picture tonight. Apparently Kael was reading THEM the story.



Kael reading them the "Story about Everything".

 We are loving Red Deer and its slow pace. So far I dont mind staying at home all the time. I dont mind not having something to do everyday because its given me the chance to focus on my family. Its amazing what you discover about your children when you're only interaction with civilization is them.

Naveah is such a strong nurturing spirit. She Loves everything. I sit back and watch her play with her toys and love seeing how gentle she can be with them. She rocks them all gently in soft blankets. She calls them "Hunny" and "Sweetheart" and gets incredibly upset if a toy falls on the ground or gets stepped on. Her imagination has gone wild lately. She scoops things out of books or out of thin air and is completely satisfied with whatever it is. She also has become good friends with one of the monsters in the vents and often I catch her feeding it treats. She has become quite taken with Jacek and tries to sooth him when he is upset. She loves giving him hugs and kisses. All of this gentle and caring behavior from her completely wipes out the fact that 90% of the day is spent whining, crying or screaming.



kisses and hugs for baby brother.



Kael is becoming quite the individual. He wants to do everything by himself. Getting dressed, getting something to drink, turing on light switches, washing hands, and shoveling the sidewalk! The stool gets carried where ever he goes so he can get what he needs. My help is hardly ever wanted anymore. We have also switched into overdrive when it comes to Tantrums. Man this kid puts on one good show. Many tantrums leave Evan and I holding back hysterical laughter. He says silly things like "My legs arent working cause theres no food left in them". Today when I asked if his lips hurt (because they are very chapped) his response was, "yah, my lips hurt cause I was trying to eat them". (I promise, we really do feed him, though his quotes appear otherwise!). He is so intuned with emotion I get excited to think about the caring Man he will one day be. He is always sure to check to make sure im happy. Hes first to give hugs and kisses when someone gets hurt. He tears up in movies when someone is sad and he always knows when you need a great big hug! Hes eager to make friends and will make sure no one is left out welcoming all kids to come and play with him. What more can I say? I love this little man!

.

Jacek is still too young to pin point exactly. His personality changes daily. What we do now about him is this; He loves to smile and giggle. Sometimes I think the only reason he fusses is so he can smile at you when you come to see whats wrong. He loves watching Kael and Naveah he observes their every move. He likes patterns with black and white and doesnt mind at all being in his carseat. Hes not a fan of being rocked or patted when he needs to be soothed but being in warm water will always do the trick. Even just turning the shower on will quickly stop his cries. He is loved by all who see him and I cant wait to get to know him more.



Mr Handsome Pants

 Evan has become an amazing Father and Husband. Despite the kind of day he has had at work he is always happy to come home and see the kids. He takes the time to call me daily to make sure Im doing okay and any spare time he has is spent with us or working on the 'honey do' list. I love that when hes home he is sure to include Kael and Naveah in whatever he is doing whether it be shovelling snow, running arrands, home improvements, or spinning records.
Red Deer has been such a good move for us. Our relationship with eachother as well as our relationship with the children has improved dramatically.