December

Ry had to work pretty much every single hour of December, so we tried to fill up the month with lots of activities to keep us occupied. :)  

Logan hopped right up onto Santa's lap this year, had a good, long conversation, and then fretted over if he had said exactly the right things for the rest of the day.  Funny kid. 

Mia took one look at Santa, burst into tears, hid behind a giant ornament and shouted, "Go away, Santa!", all while throwing punches at the poor man.  Oh my Mia.  I told her once when she was being naughty that Santa and his elves were watching.  From that point on, every time she was naughty she would run to the door, punch it, and yell, "Go away, Santa!"

We were making cinnamon ornaments, but Mia just wanted to make snakes.  It really just looks like she is holding a big piece of super sparkly poo.

Mia and her buddy Ellie making their "snakes"

She loved them.

How I find this kid 80% of the time.  My little bookworm. I'm not sure how much I will see of him once he actually learns to read the words!  :)

What happens when Mia "helps" me. :)

They really are the cutest. 

Different day, more flour.

Logan is finally getting to the point where he actually does help.  He cut out lots of sugar cookies for me this year!

And another day... with more flour.  

Projects

Thanks to pinterest, I recently became obsessed with the diy play kitchens all over that site.  After convincing Ry that it would make the perfect Christmas present for Mia, we set off to goodwill to find our supplies....

Before

After!  A few days, lots of cutting, and a couple coats of paints later and we have a play kitchen!  And  I couldn't wait to give it to Mia... so, much to Ry's objection, I gave it to her right away. 

And she loves it.  Best $20 ever.

My new advent calendar.  The kids try to climb the wall to get to their treats everyday. :)

Mia's new hairstyle.  She says that she is "Frozen" when she wears it.

How is she this big?!

Naughty little thing found my lipgloss.  She always finds my lipgloss. 

Gingerbread houses!

Logan was way into it this time.. he decorated for at least an hour!  And we found this great new way to stick the graham crackers together... you just melt sugar.  Nothing else... just melted sugar.  Then you dip and stick.  It works amazingly!

Mia helped by making sure we didn't have any extra candy laying around.

Logan convinced me to make him blue frosting so he could give his house "a lake."

I'm pretty sure he just wanted to eat it.

Blue is his favorite.

We had some friends over to make gingerbread houses with us. Yeah for friends!  And check out Ry's amazing gingerbread snowman... he pieced that thing together with tiny little pieces of graham crackers so the balls would be round.  A few blistered fingers later, and wahla!  A gingerbread snowman. :)

Oh Christmas Tree...

Maine has tons of "pick your own" Christmas tree places, and we had heard about one called Old Christmas Tree Farm.  It was super cute, with wagon rides, marshmallows over the fire, and hot chocolate.  We were so excited about it all, since it was all free.... until we got to the buying-the-tree-we-had-already-cut-part.  Old Christmas Tree Farm also has very expensive Christmas trees.  I miss Nevada. :)

Logan, among the trees. :)

We found "the one"

Mia's "snow ghost"

Logan helping dad carry the tree up hill.

Logan and our cute little neighbor.  They are best buddies.

What happens when you pay more attention to decorating the tree than you do to your two year old...

And what is a Christmas post without a naked baby in front of a tree? :)

Let it snow...

Moving to Maine, I thought for sure that we would have a guaranteed white Christmas.  For a good while, it looked like my prediction would be right.  One night it snowed and snowed and snowed... it snowed so much, in fact, that it knocked down the tree in our front yard.  I was pretty happy, since it was the ugliest, deadest tree ever..but it did happen at 11pm and blocked the road.  Luckily, we awoke at 1am to a chainsaw and saw our city tax dollars at work.  Talk about efficient!  

Mia trying to catch snowflakes.  And mommy learning a valuable lesson about large amounts of snow  on super tall trees.  Not safe.  Not safe at all.

Thanksgiving morning... perfect way to wake up.

Mia had trouble walking in the snow... so she crawled.  She told me she was a snow snake

The snow snake in action

I showed Logan how to make a snow angel.  This is him showing me how to make a "snow human." 

Thanksgiving!  Since we were so far away from family, we invited all the other familyless residents in Ry's program over for turkey.  We missed our family, but it was fun!

Shorty after it snowed, we were given the opportunity to experience freezing rain.  I can't quite decide if I love or hate this stuff.  It turns everything... including my whole back yard.. into a skating rink.  Which is fun to play on... not fun to try and drag two kids across when attempting to get places.  Since that huge snow dump, we have only been getting this... so I guess we will at least have an icy Christmas!