Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Merry Christmas everyone! I got tools for Christmas. I'm so excited about them. Now, I'm ready to fix things :) The other night, I decided to record Natalee while we said the Lord's Prayer because I was wondering what all she did while we said the prayer. Now we know! At the end of the video is just a short clip of opening presents this morning. Brady is all smiles! (unfortunately, he didn't smile all day long -- getting teeth is an awful thing)

We visited the Buckles today. We had a fun time playing and making a craft. At one point, Lilly "stole" Natalee's hat and then started posing and being kind of silly. Brady just watched and took it all in. Then, Natalee found Lilly's had and they were silly together! The girls started playing the piano very nicely. Then, they gave us a grand finale!

On the way home from our visit with Jen & Lilly, we met Jesse at JB Tree Farm to see the Reindeer. Unfortunately, Rudolph was not home tonight. Natalee had a hard time holding still for a picture. This reindeers antlers were cut off. Jesse showed the kids how to give the reindeer treats. The reindeer started a show for us. They were fighting over the treats! The one without antlers is named Ollie and the one with antlers is named Chinook.

We pulled the Hungry Hungry Hippos game out of my parents basement for Natalee to play. One day last week, she rattled off the names of all the hippos for me -- I didn't know the hippos had names let alone that she knew them! But, they really are named. It's printed beside each head. She remembered them correctly, too. Then, tonight, she got her Gram, Aunt Kate, and Uncle Todd to play a game with her -- just not by the real rules!

He decided to spontaneously demonstrate to us that he does indeed know how to roll over! He could roll back to front from about 2 months, but just got mad while on his belly and wouldn't even try to go back. Last night, he decided to show us that he knows how to clap! Too cute. He's also getting 2 more teeth..... The past few weeks, he has decided it is NOT okay when Natalee takes his toys. He really lets me know when she takes things. He also lets us know when he sees something he wants. BTW, he loves hamloaf, as we discovered at Christmas dinner! Green beans are yucky, though.

We ventured out into the snowy weather today to go to the Yoder / Zook Christmas dinner. Except for the first picture, the pictures were taken on the drive to town. It was quite snowy on all of the roads, even the main roads. I think we may have totalled 9 inches at our house -- we were just on the fringe of the storm. Once on 655, we saw more buggies than cars.

We had a really nice visit from two of our dear friends today, Jen and Lilly. Even though it was short, it is so nice to get together with good friends to chat, play, create crafts, and laugh. What a wonderful thing! We cut out some salt dough Christmas ornaments with cookie cutters. After baking and cooling, the girls got to paint the ornaments. I found these washable paint pens to try. They are wonderful! Of course, the both wanted the blue paint!!! Meg thought they were real cookies -- she was sticking rather close!! It sure didn't take Natalee and Brady long to fall asleep after they left. Natalee loved wearing her dad's t-shirt (paint smock :) so much that she is still wearing it while napping! It was a really fun morning. Next, the kids have to rest up so that we can go see the Christmas lights at Lakemont Park. In case you want to know.... Salt Dough Ornaments 1 cup salt 2 cups flour 1 T. cream of tartar 1 T. cooking oil 1 cup water Mix the ingredients all to...

Today, Natalee and I spent some girls time together. We went to the Penn State women's basketball gave vs. Pitt. Before the game, Natalee got a poster autographed by players of the 2000 Final Four team, looked at Santa Claus (No pictures!!!), and posed in a Penn State uniform. She would not put on the shoes, though. The Nittany Lion came too close a lot :) Where our tickets are, it's hard to stay far enough away! Here are the ladies of the 2000 Final Four team. They were honored at halftime. If you look at the picture, the lady in the light blue vest is Stacey Brewer. Right behind the players, coming down the steps, is my cousin Deron. Yesterday, Deron proposed to Stacey at the Nittany Lion shrine -- and she said yes! I told Natalee, with about 12 minutes left in the game, that we would go get a milkshake at the University Creamery after the game was over. That was a mistake because she kept saying, "The game is over now Mom!" With about one minute left in...

Yesterday, I thought we were supposed to get some snow flurries followed by rain. Surprise-- we just got a little bit of snow! Only about 3 inches, but it still made everything pretty. On our way to Belleville, I had to stop and take a few pictures because it was beautiful. This is on East Branch Road in Huntingdon County. It also snowed enough to have a little fun. Natalee and I went outside to sled ride before church this morning. Of course, she had so much fun that she did not want to come inside to get ready for church!

It took me nearly forever, but I finally have some of my family pictures hung on the wall. When my sister-in-law, Katie, took the pictures way back in July, I was sooooo excited that I could not wait the 3-5 days to have them developed at the store-- I had to have them done in 1 hour. Then, I did not have any frames. And, I did not know what frames I wanted to get because I did not have an idea of how I wanted to hang the pictures on my wall. Then I got an issue of Better Homes and Gardens that inspired me. This was how they had them hung: They gave me this great idea of how to hang them so that we could get them in the right places. I just used the big paper that Jesse brings home from work and taped the frame shape on the wall where I wanted them. Jesse hung them up for me. And, I think they look really good!!!

Yesterday, we spent an afternoon in Belleville after my Connections group. While going in the house, we saw a great opportunity to jump in the leaves.... Sorry, I did a sideways video without even thinking. When I rotated it, it got distorted, so here it is sideways! Turn your head :)

Here are some pictures from from our drive to Belleville yesterday:

The other night after bedtime stories were read, we could hear Natalee really crying loudly (and obviously fake). Jesse went back to check on her. When he opened the door, Natalee said, "Mom forgot to turn off my light." She was fine after that!

This morning we spent a few hours outside. Natalee used her hoe with the leaves (yes, she does have a rake, but she prefers the hoe). And, Brady tried to eat them. There are not many leaves left since Jesse took the lawnmower to them.