What's Going On

What's going on is that I should be in bed. But I'm blogging. Because I don't want to forget life's funny and endearing moments in this noisy haze of mommy-dom. :)

Honey's personality is blossoming. She's a ham. Performing for herself in the mirror when I put her up here to change her diaper. Singing, batting eyelashes, cocking her head, the whole deal. Oh, and these are her new 'woof-woof' jammies from Aunt Natty.
Speedy was QUICK to get dressed Monday morning, we'd had our last Christmas with my folks and sibs the day before, and he had new clothes. Yes, shorts. Yes, it was freezing outside. I did get a long-sleeve under his new tee at least. The belt in his hand is one of my younger brother's from days past. Speedy put it on all by himself, yay!
Princess and Honey were going to sleep in their new tent (in the living room) from Uncle J. Speedy wanted us to move his BED into the living room so he could sleep in there too. Floor too hard? Anyway, Honey was all over the place, so Princess was scared and lonely in the tent, so everybody ended up back in their own beds. :)
Honey is a big girl, posing in the mirror with one of big sister's new hairbands. At one point all 3 kids had one on, but didn't catch a picture of that. Honey is in that vocab explosion stage, it's so fun to hear her try to repeat what we all say. But she still resorts to fussing when she's tired or doesn't feel good, which has been the last 2 days, so that's frustrating. But to be expected.
My sister made this cute boppy cover for Snuggle-Bug. Princess wanted to be in the pic, and just totally cracked me up when she put up her little bunny ears. Princess doesn't miss much anymore! She gets the jokes, she watches what other people do.

More holiday fun!

Here's our little reindeer on her first Christmas. She was so easy for us, sleeping through lots of noise and being drug to all sorts of activities!
The 2nd annual Wehrman talent show: Speedy wanted no part of it--until he saw the microphone, and he quickly signed up! We wanted him to tell some of his funny jokes, but he wanted to SING! Jesus Loves Me, then Hallelu, and he would have kept going, but there were other acts to perform!
Princess & Speedy sporting some new bib overalls from Daddy. He picked them up at Orscheln's (sp?) in the town we go to the doctor, while I had the baby at her 2-day check-up.
Speedy loves to wear his to go to the farm!

Christmas fun

I should really be working on Christmas cards, or folding laundry, or something, but catching up here is more fun. :) Here are some of our sugar cookies--it worked great to roll out and bake a bunch, then stick them in the freezer. We pulled out a few at a time to frost and decorate. These went in goodie bags for our neighbors. When we deliver, it's always fun to read 'A Snowy Surprise' by Amy Hest. It's about Sam the bear and his momma delivering cakes to their neighbors. This year we didn't have to tromp through snow, though. :)
Honey was in the kitchen with me (where else would she be??) and licked a chocolatey spoon. She was actually much messier than this, but wiped part of her face while I got the camera. She has a great 'cheese' face, and over Christmas developed a scowl, too. (no pic of that). When other relatives at the table asked her to use her spoon, etc., she responded with a scowl and looking down. She also has a 'shy' response--looking the other way when someone she doesn't know well talks to her or is in the room.
Princess (on the left) playing 'crazy make-up girls' with some cousins. They reminded me of the spice girls. :)
The fam filling up Hubby's classroom. It was so funny to see the seats fill up.
Three little Santa's helpers!

Evolution of a Family Picture

It's hard to know where to start after this blogging hiatus! I saw a funny post on another blog that detailed the trial of taking a large family pic. So I thought I'd copy. :) Here's a glimpse of taking a picture on Christmas of my hubby's 36-member family. Did I mention that 21 of those peeps are 7th grade and younger??

A couple people heard the call to come get lined up:
A few more trickling in: each sibling's family has their own color. (We're green.)
The blues, reds, blacks & whites are in position:
After a brief clean-up of 2 spitting babies, Umm...Uncle T. you're not in the picture!
Speedy, where did you go? We can't see you behind Papa.
So...now I'm leaning over to pull Speedy up to where he can be seen.
Uncle T, open your eyes!
Not too bad! :) Mission accomplished. This picture shouldn't be outdated for 9 months, at least! (since no one is expecting right now!)
Let's celebrate--we're done!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a great time celebrating the Savior's birth with friends and family. Here's a merry pic of the fam, and one of the newest member. She arrived early Saturday morning (the 20th) at 8 lbs, 3 oz and 21 & 1/2 inches long. That will have to tide you over until I have time for more details! :)

Christmas Sweets

Some holiday craft projects:
Shape Nativity from thrifty craft mama. Princess's is on the top, Speedy's on the bottom. I drew the shapes, then the kiddos colored and cut them out. I helped place them on the paper, then they glued. Honestly, I placed Speedy's in about the same place as Princess's! (And he also chose to exercise his own color judgement, see the star.) :)
Cellophane peppermints: this idea is one I saw on the community tree of our old town. I drew stripes on paper plates; let the kiddos paint them red, then we tied red cellophane around to look like the wrapper. Sorry for the dark picture, you can kind of see the stripes on the middle candy!
Some new books to go with it:
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett and
Can You See What I See? Christmas by Walter Wick.
Lastly, some gingerbread kids cut from grocery bags. (Pattern here). I helped Honey pick her items, put the glue on, and helped her place them.
The other two had free reign. (I was even out of the room for awhile, you can tell by the amount of glue on Princess's tummy.) Speedy's has the orange eyeballs. :)

Ho, Ho, Ho!

We try to keep Santa pretty low-key around here, but still let the kids enjoy it. They know he's somebody in a costume; yet they still ask, "Is there a REAL Santa?" Anyway, PAT had Santa visiting yesterday, so we went. These pics are actually reverse order:

Princess helping an unsure Honey stand next to Santa.
Princess with Santa--got my candy cane and my gift, gotta jet! Before it was our turn, she whispered, "Why does Santa have claws?" I said, "Not that kind of claws, it's his last name." "Oh."
Speedy was clutching my leg until it was our turn and then he almost ran up to his lap. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, Speedy replied: "a present." Pretty easy to please, I guess. :)
And it snowed again. And is absolutely freezing cold. The kids went out to play with dad after school and help clear the driveway of the powdery snow. Honey's hands got cold again. She is inconsolable after that.
Really, Speedy, is this good scooter weather??

Christmasy Activities

We haven't been doing much school-wise since Thanksgiving. Partly because I lack motivation to do it; partly because I've been on a mission to get gifts and such all done; partly because the kiddos have been having a pretty good time playing and pretending together, and I hate to interrupt that! We have a stash of Christmas and winter books that we have broken out, so of course we read some of those everyday. 2 different days, Speedy has picked 2 versions of 'The Mitten' for his 2 stories. We have the one by Jan Brett, and an older one with some different animals. Another fun one has been a compilation of Little House on the Prairie chapters about their Christmases. I found it on a garage sale, and Princess has been enjoying it.


Here's a couple activities:


Christmas Bow sorting and Wrapping Paper Patterning from No Time For Flashcards.
And these suncatchers, inspired by some of Hubby's old school artwork. His are on the left (the more faded tree and the green bell.)
I drew a shape on construction paper; had Princess cut it out (through 2 sheets of construction paper). Then used some of my scrapbooking tools (see, justified!) to cut circles or the wavy shapes out. We fit pieces of tissue paper over the holes, glued them on, then glued the 2 construction paper shapes together.

Speedy didn't make his till today, and I didn't get a pic; but he wanted to add a star to his tree. He had colored a yellow block on some white paper, and I used my star punch to make his tree topper. (and one for Princess, because of course she wanted one, too.)