Christmas comes to our house

To vogue or not to vogue.

Thanks for humoring us on the last post. We were each gratified by more than one response. As most of you correctly surmised, Peter was indeed the creator and proponent of the outfit. He was also the one who wanted to put it in a blog post. I think my dad said it best when he posted this picture on our family website:
It's a catching trend.

Vogue?

One of us parental units thinks this outfit is just fine. The other doesn't. We've decided to put it to the blog audience to decide. So please, leave a comment weighing in on the fashionosity of this outfit. Also, you could venture a guess as to which of us thinks the outfit is just fine.

The Foggy Gloom

It's days like these that have me seeing Redcoats in the forest.

'Tis Better to Give than to Receive

It has come to my attention that there has been a shocking lack of Ivy in the last few posts, so here's an overdose. (notice three teeth in the picture above?)











First, here's my neat photoshop trick of the day: changing the color of Ivy's clashing yellow onesie without physically changing the onesie. It's very simple: select the offending clothing article, change the hue to your preferred color (pink in this case), perhaps desaturate a bit, and voila; she matches beautifully.

Next, enjoy the many facial expressions she has to offer:
And finally, this evening Ivy discovered the joy of giving. Namely, she found delight in handing me the turkey baster. We made it a bit of a game. Here is a video of the game. It's a bit repetitive, 'cause that's what babies like. Don't watch it if you hate babies and slightly embarrassing baby talk.

note: the banging at the beginning is part of the bedtime story Peter is telling the older children in the other room

Bursting into song

Calvin sang his way through the morning yesterday. Here are a couple of his songs. This is what happens when you trap a great big spirit in a tiny little body.

The Last Leaf

I wish. I spend all my spare daylight hours herding leaves these days. Enough already! p.s. Happy Birthday, Laura.
Me and Laura (she's on the right)

Allelujah

Our ward choir was privileged to sing at the Boston Trinity Church with the Trinity Choir schola last night for their (Anglican) Holy Eucharist service. The Trinity choir came to sing in our Sacrament meeting a little while back, and wanted to reciprocate the invitation. Their cantor (a nine year-old boy) is the son of our former Bishop.

What a wonderful way to connect with the community. I was inspired as I observed the devotion and sincerity of their congregation. The sermon was about putting down our proverbial rocks even when we are tempted to hold onto someone else's mistakes. The metaphor was taken from the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery who is about to be stoned when Jesus says, "he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

And oh, that organ! And that building! It was a beautiful evening.

*pictures from the wikipedia article

If I only had a brain

When Bryn started school this year I had to fill out fifteen thousand forms. As I waded through the paperwork, I whimsically checked that box that said I was interested in being a room parent, with visions of my own mother's stint and homemade cream puffs filling my head.

I guess I was the only parent dumb enough to check the box, and now I'm head room parent (and only for a while). Last Friday was the fall harvest party, and one of the four activities was making scarecrows.

I didn't know what to do for the heads, so I bought some muslin (that's a fabric, right?) at Joann's and hot-glued the facial feature I had cut from felt squares. The results were a little creepy, but oh well. There you have it: my craftastic disaster for the season.

Older and Wiser and Pinker

Bryn's umbilical cord was looped over her shoulder and became pinched in the birth process. She came out blue and with an apgar of 1 (they say that's not so good), and was whisked away by a team of doctors.
Six years later she seems to have turned out okay.
Snappy wardrobe furnished by her benevolent Aunt Laura

Isn't this a fabulous cake? This beautiful sculpture of fondant and buttercream with a cardamom cake interior was crafted by a friend in the ward, M, and generously donated to the birthday cause.

Bryn went berserk over it. After oohing and awwing over it, her first question was, "Mom, where did you get this cake?!?" She knows the boundaries of my talent could never include this. Perhaps some of you remember my alien skull cake from my teen years? Another post...

Happy birthday Bryn.