Layout | Wonder

Darrin snapped this picture of Annaliese during our Advent activity of sleeping by the Christmas tree, and I knew instantly it would be a photo I would treasure forever. It also became the photo I scrapped first in the new year.

I was inspired by this layout, printed the picture 5x7, and had some fun with white paint and glitter. And looking through all my patterned paper for shades that were similar enough to each other to use.

2015 Week One | December 29 - January 4

Wow. October 19.  Really?! I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but really?! Ten days shy of three months. Crazy.  My sister asked  me when home for Christmas if I ever planned on blogging again.  Always start the year with the best of intentions, so here we go.

In my paper version of project life, I'm using these digital files from Paislee Press for the title card of each spread.  This week's contains a picture of the winners of our first-ever Yahtzee game.  Annaliese rolled and Darrin played the strategy for their team.  

They won even with Ian praying against them as they rolled.  the second picture is his yell of "NO!" as Annaliese had the winning  roll.  

This week was the second week of winter break, and because of that, we were all home all week.  That meant some time to play with presents.  Ian, with some help from Darrin, put together his first project from Tinker Crate.  It was a small motor that used batteries and a magnet to keep a medallion spinning.  

Ian and I tackled a big project over break- sorting  his Legos.  He had them all in one big bucket. I figured he only played with the figures instead of built things because he couldn't find the pieces he needed. So we fixed that and got them all sorted by type of block.  

And when we weren't sorting Legos, he was building one of the seven different sets he got for Christmas.  The good guys and bad guys are preparing for an "epic battle" (his words) on his dresser.  

New Years Eve we spent having dinner with others at our church in support of Table Grace Cafe. They are a restaurant in Omaha that has no set prices or a cash register.  If you walk in the door and want to eat, they will feed you.  You donate as  payment- either with money or by volunteering your time in the restaurant.  This is the second year they've done a dinner for us on New Years and I've loved it both years. We learned from last year to bring things for the kids to do while we're there. Next year we may need to bring PBJ as Annaliese was not a big fan of most of the meal.  

This guy celebrated a birthday this week, and as always, didn't want anything.  So I made him chocolate cinnamon rolls because that's what I wanted to make.  

We met friends at the children's museum this week, though didn't get many pictures of the kids actually together.  Ian and Annaliese had the run of the play grocery store while  we were there.  

The  special exhibit was about farming.  Annaliese is moving the corn (ball) in to the corn bin. Ian took a turn at being a meteorologist and forecasting the weather for the week.    

There was also a new part of the museum that had an interactive projection floor.  Annaliese and Ian both had a blast playing on it.  There was a game where you destroyed bubbles, and then it morphed in to a piano.  I typed my journaling for this week's project life spread on the photo (which I just noticed a typo in...).  

December 26th

We spent the entire day the 26th with Darrin's family.  Ian and Owen played outside with Grandma while Annaliese was napping.  The snow wasn't great for making snowballs, so instead they used the chunks made when plowing and scooping the snow.

For dinner that night, Great-Grandma took us all out, and then it was back to her house to play with presents. She got Ian the game Gobblet Gobblers, which is Tic-Tac-Toe on steroids and is quite fun. He played with nearly every adult that night, and beat almost all of us.  Annaliese got two magnet 'paper' dolls and loved changing their clothes all night long. They both did take a break, however, to wrestle with Uncle Brian. 

Christmas Day

Christmas morning brought Christmas with my family.  We opened our stockings and got down to the job of opening presents. Ian was getting pretty tired of taking turns opening presents by this point; he just wanted to open all of his.  Annaliese and Oliver, after the present opening got started, used their waiting time to run around the house; they weren't as concerned with presents as Ian, so it actually worked out well in that we let Ian open more of his presents while they were playing. 

First things first, checking out what's in the stockings.

Grandma helping Annaliese with her paper.

Shake, shake, shake to see what's inside.

Two princesses to go with Ian's castle.

Ian's initial reaction was, "Awww, man, clothes" until he realized it was pirates.

Everyone listening to the Mickey Mouse Christmas story with Darrin and my voice recorded on it as a gift for Oliver.

Ian excited to open more of his castle accessories. After presents were all done, he attempted to knock one of the knights off his horse using the catapult.

Grandpa gave Ian Battleship because it was a game they could play on a table.  Ian has played it multiple times a day since he got it.

Annaliese and Oliver running from the kitchen into the living room. Forget presents, this was way more fun.

I found it interesting that after Annaliese had opened a multitude of gifts, it was my old Fischer Price Little People house that's always out at Grandma and Grandpa's that she wanted to play with.

Chrismas Eve Night

We spent Christmas Eve night celebrating with Darrin's immediate family.  We had gone to church, and Annaliese LOVED her new dress, actually, more accurately, she loved her fancy new black shoes she got to go with the dress. Every time she needed to wear shoes while we were home, she would want to wear those dress shoes. Pretty much everyone got a Nerf gun, or brought theirs from home, and at the end of opening presents, there was a Nerf gun war in the basement. 

Uncle Brian and Aunt Jodi call Ian "Frank" instead of his actual name, so this one was for him.

And inside was the Transformer Jazz.

Annaliese's Nerf Gun

Ian opening his Millennium Falcon

So happy I captured Owen's expression as he opened his car transporter from us.

Annaliese studying her Minnie puzzles.

Ian's Nerf rifle

Ian stoked about getting more Transformer stuff

Minnie Bowtique- we played with those shortly after she opened it.

Combing Rapunzel's hair.

Jazz transformed into his car.

Annaliese and Grandma Nerf gun fight (Ian and Grandpa battling in the background)

Ian thought the bathroom was safe, but Grandpa found him.

Christmas Eve Morning

We had our Christmas at home Christmas Eve morning.  Ian is just starting to understand when Christmas Day actually is, so he bought our story of talking to Santa and telling him he needed to come a day early so we could celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa on the actual day.

Ian woke up at 6:15 that morning and instead of checking out things downstairs, he came to our room concerned about where he could use the bathroom just in case Santa hadn't come yet. We let him use ours, and then he went straight back to bed.  Darrin and I actually had to get up a bit after 7 to wake the kids up.  I turned the tree lights on and paced a bit outside Ian's room, thinking it would wake him up, but we had to go in and get both of them.  Annaliese's bike was waiting for her by the tree and after checking it out, both were cooperative (if Annaliese was holding Snow White) in getting our annual picture in front of the tree in our new pj's.

And the presents were all hits. Ian got his Imaginext castle, a dingy and cave the goes with his Pyrates Lego ship, a Star Wars tent for his bed, and books. Annaliese got a Cinderella big-girl-bike, Princess backpack with a sleeping bag inside, furniture for her dollhouse, and books. I got my camera purse, laptop battery, and big envelope page protectors. Darrin got some more clamps for his woodworking projects, a Jawstand for his woodworking, and Madden Football 2013 and Mass Effect 3 for XBOX.  I'd say it was a great Christmas!

She's still a bit dazed. Only been awake about 2 minutes. We had trouble getting her off...

Annual family picture in front of the tree with new pajamas.

Ian opening his stocking. Battery on our external flash died, so we had to switch to the internal one. Inside were some Star Wars figures.

Annaliese with her stocking. Inside she had Ariel with an outfit she can change into.

Ian opening his dingy, with other additional Pyrates things to go with his large pirate ship.

To get her off her bike, we had to encourage her to open more presents to see if she got her backpack.

Inside her backpack was a princess sleeping bag, to which she said, "It's so boo-ti-ful."

The only time she took the backpack off was to change clothes. There was a huge tantrum getting in the car and realizing she'd have to take it off to get in her seat.  Here she's sorting out the book she likes from the ones she doesn't want.

Opening another set of books wrapped in the paper they painted. It's a lot thicker than the normal wrapping paper and so was a bit harder to open.

Dollhouse furniture

The last gift was the most anticipated- his castle. That got opened immediately.