Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Pictures (with music) from this past year: This is the picture slideshow that I put together a few weeks ago to give to family members for Christmas.  I tried to compile videos and pictures from the past year and put them on a DVD.

Christmas Day, the kids did not get up until 8:30.  They were extremely tired from all of the Christmas Eve festivities.  Plus, they are like their mother-- they like to sleep!  Brady came out from his bedroom and was complaining that his legs were "still sleeping."  I decided that he must have had sore muscles from our hike yesterday? This year, we gave the kids three gifts each-- to represent the three gifts that were given to Jesus by the Wise Men.  Of course, we did not give them gold, frankincense and myrrh! Don't worry, between what they opened yesterday with extended family, they got plenty!  Plus, our tree had lots of other presents under it because Grandma and Grandpa sent quite a few presents to us. Brady got a "new to him" tool set.  I think Natalee was equally as thrilled (perhaps more so)! Brady got some new Thomas accessories this Christmas.  He loves putting together trains and train tracks. This is what Meg was do...

 Christmas Eve morning, we drove to Belleville to eat breakfast with Todd, Kate, Mom and Dad.  Of course, opening presents followed. I think this was Natalee's favorite toy that she got for Christmas-- a wand.  And it was just an "extra" that came with some pajamas that she received. Natalee RIPPED through her presents.  Then, she wondered why Brady had more presents than her.  Of course, he did not have more presents-- he just took longer to open them.  MUCH longer! Brady opens presents just like he eats-- very slowly!  That's okay, though, because he was savoring the moment. Natalee was thrilled with this dress up outfit she received from Uncle Todd and Aunt Kate. Brady received a Buzz Lightyear costume.  He loves Buzz, but for some reason he won't put it on.  Natalee tried to get him to put in on by putting it on herself.  It didn't work.  Maybe later, because the goggles are neat. We went on our "a...

Now that Christmas is over, I can publish this post of some Christmas presents we made. First we made white chocolate covered pretzels for several lucky members of our family.  We dipped them in chocolate and put sprinkles on them.  I thought they tasted delicious.  Of course, dark chocolate would have been even better! We also made Meg some white chocolate dipped shredded wheat.  We use shredded wheat for her dog treats, so white chocolate made them extra special. With the leftover melted white chocolate, we made some peppermint bark to share. Brady thoroughly enjoyed smashing the candy canes.  He was ALL smiles! The kids were quite busy making presents this year.  They also made bracelets and hand print towels.  I didn't get those moments in pictures, though :(

This afternoon, we invited Kelly and Will over to our house to make gingerbread cookies.  While we did have fun and enjoy making the cookies, we learned several things today.  Or perhaps we re-learned them? 1.  Roll out the cookies.  Then, bake them.  When ALL of the cookies are done baking, invite the kids back to decorate.  Do NOT attempt to have 3 kids decorate with squeeze out icing while one adult is supervising (and the other is baking the cookies) 2.  Bake cookies in the MORNING when adult patience is higher and child attention span is greater. 3.  Putting on glaze icing with paintbrushes works MUCH better for the kids than squeeze out or spread icing does.  This is especially true when the young child to adult ratio is not in the favor of adults.  Then, put on the sprinkles. 4.  When chaos ensues, take a deep breath and laugh. What a cheesy boy.  I told him to roll out his dough so that I could get a picture...

On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Lady Lions basketball game.  Before the game, we saw that Santa was at the game.  I asked the kids if they wanted to get a picture by Santa and they said, "Yes!"  Wow.  That was weird.  Either he was an extremely nice looking Santa ..... or they saw a basket of candy canes beside him! And, they sat on his lap! I just missed it, but Brady gave the Nittany Lion high five here.  Later in the game, NATALEE actually did not hide when he came around and gave him high five!

Brady is trying to understand all the words that describe a person and their relationships, e.g. male-female, man-woman, brother-sister, person-people, boy-girl, etc. Tonight he randomly said at dinner: "Dad, are you a woman?"  After Jesse choked down his orange slice he responded "No, I am a man."  Brady: "Am I a man?"  Jesse:"Someday.  Now, you are a boy."  Brady: "OK" Jesse:  "What else are you?" Brady:  "I'm Brady Edgar" Jesse:  "What else are you?" Brady thought and then said "I am a male."   Jesse:  "What else are you?" Brady replied, "I am a MAILBOX!"   (male-box) I almost spit out my orange slice.

Tonight, we went to Holiday Lights on the Lake at Lakemont Park.  We try to go once every year before Christmas.  The kids like to have a picnic in the car while we wait to get into the lights.  Plus, it is really special to be able to sit in the front seats with Mom and Dad.  The lights are really nice, plus there is a huge model train set up inside one of the buildings.  I laughed because Natalee insisted that we needed to enter this one back room-- they had a display in two back areas last year.  However, they just had the one room set up this year.  She is now at the age that she does not forget ANYTHING.  One nice thing was that Natalee was tall enough to see everything without me carrying her!  She's getting too big!! This is always my favorite part of the drive.  It is stunning.  I actually took this picture last year, but it still looked exactly the same tonight.  I just realized that I never posted some cute vid...

This evening, we had a birthday party to celebrate the birthday of Jesus (a little early).  We wanted to celebrate with a fun evening that was like a real party.  I tried to point out that this is the reason for Christmas and that this was how we were starting off the celebration of Christmas. We joined Kelly and Will for our special party.  I told the kids that we had to have Jesus birthday party a little early so that Will could go spend the real birthday with his grandma.  Then, we would celebrate with our family during the Christmas holiday weekend, too.  They all liked the idea of having a birthday party early. We decorated some birthday cupcakes. Brady's decorated cupcakes Natalee's decorated cupcakes For supper, we had a picnic by the Christmas tree.  We ate pigs in a blanket, cheese and crackers, clementines, apples, grapes, and Fritos. I forgot to take the candles... oops.  The only candle that we could find was this #3 c...

On the way to the Penn State basketball game this afternoon, we told Brady and Natalee that they should be quiet and rest on the way to the game.  We had told Brady before we left the house that his attitude needed to improve if he wanted to go to the game. After quite a few reminders of, "You are supposed to be quiet and rest for a while", Brady finally was quiet. After about two minutes.... "I took a nap!  I have a MUCH better attitude now." I couldn't help but laugh at that one!  (And then, he finally did fall asleep-- for real) *********************************************** While the kids don't particularly want to ever give the Nittany Lion a high five or anything, they did decide to walk up to the Nittany Lion today--  so they could get a candy cane!!!

We made some ornaments for our tree.  It was really rainy outside, so I decided it would be a good day to do this.  The kids LOVE it when we get out the rolling pins and cookie cutters! Brady was much better at cutting out this year.  I guess that I forgot to take pictures of the painting process???  Oops.  Well, we were fortunate that Jesse decided to forego afternoon hunting-- which meant he was home from camp just in time to help us with the messy part!  Yay!!!  The kids did a really good job painting the ornaments.  They added dots, stripes, and other various decorations to the ornaments.  There was a lot more variety on our ornaments this year. We saved one tree for all of the salt dough ornaments. While they look like cookies, and the process is like making cookies, Meg did not even ONCE try to enter the kitchen.  How did she know they were not really cookies?  Wow. If you are interested in the salt dough orname...