they are playing together!  building a tower together! no one is knocking it over!

Cade is so proud to be building towers like his brother.  Ignore the junk on the couch, that's what we do when we vacuum, and Dane parked his "work car" up there.

Dane helping me with a Christmas gift. Really only the edges and sides needed painted but he was such a good little helper it was fun to work on it together.

The last bit of dough leftover from making cookies.  I let Dane have at it with the rolling pin and cooking cutter, not hovering at all.  After several tries he actually was able to get one more little guy cut out.  We baked him in the toaster oven and Dane got to eat him.  It was a proud moment :o)

Cade looking on, while Dane had all the fun, next year little buddy, next year

Decorating a gingerbread house.  Every year growing up my mom made houses from scratch and we all decorated our own.  Good intentions fell short, but wanting to keep with my favorite tradition I ran to Target and bought a ready made kit, fortunately they were already marked down a little!

Mustaches and Baptism

No they have no correlation except that they seem to be two of Dane's current fascinations.  About a month ago we were able to witness the new Uncle Ryan (my sister's husband, not my brother) get baptized.  It was the second baptism Dane has witnessed and he has really gotten a grasp on the word 'baptize'.  That is he has used it in every context imaginable, from baptizing his french fry in ketchup to Cade sneezing in Mo mo's face and Dane saying "We just got baptized".   He has shown me how when he takes a drink he is baptizing his mouth or tongue.   The other day I was spying on him playing and he was baptizing his little people, pinching their nose and laying them down flat, then bringing them back up in pretend water of course.  He realized I was watching and said "I just baptized my guys.  They trusted Jesus first."  He has told us that in a few years he will trust in Jesus, when he is bigger, he reassures us. I love how he is fascinated and slowly putting some of the pieces together and starting to understand bits and pieces.

Now on to the mustache segment.  The other morning Dane woke up super chipper and ready to get dressed for the day.  We enter his room and he excitedly tells me "First I have to put my mustache on!"  I say "OK" curious as to why he has even thought of doing this. He runs over to his little table and grabs an imaginary mustache and goes through the motions of attaching it to his face.  Then he gave me one to put on.  For the last week or so, throughout the day he periodically put his mustache on before doing something, usually when he is getting dressed, but I haven't quiet figured out what or where he got the mustache fascination.

One more thing since I am writing about some of my favorite Dane moments.  Fairly consistently when asked what he wants for Christmas he will say "paint, so I can paint the walls when I get bigger." I still don't think he quite grasps what is going on with all the gifts and presents.  Though I bet it all clicks once he starts tearing into the presents Christmas day.

he built this giraffe all by himself. (it's the one pictured on the front of the bag)

And to wrap this up, I just wanted to remember how sweet and funny my little three year old Dane can be.  We hit a rough tantrum phase a while back, but I am so glad that that has passed.  Well until the next tantrum phase hits of course.  Lately he has been giving me the sweetest little neck rubs and being my best little helper. One of my favorite moments every day is when he climbs in my bed in the morning with me to 'nuggle'.  Sometimes I will lay there for awhile knowing I would be better off using the time to get ready for the day, but not wanting to miss out on my 'nuggle' time, so I wait till I hear those little pitter patter sprinting steps to my room.  Who needs to shower anyway?

Dane isms

The other day while playing pretend, Dane had this conversation with Aunt Mo Mo
Dane:  It will take three days time.  (to get wherever they were going)
Aunt M :  You have been watching too much Veggie Tales
Dane:  No, it's from Tangled.



The boys and I were at the mall with my dad running some errands and we stopped for a few minutes and watch the Christmas train and figurines moving around.  When we started to leave Dane piped up, "wait, I want to see that guy in the red!"

the little changes

I decided to switch up my curtains since I found two packs of two 84" curtain panels for less than $5 at Target a couple of months ago.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with them and this week I decided I need to switch up my curtains in the family room.  The previous curtains had been made out of painter drop cloth, I loved that they pooled up on the floor, but I was starting to worry about the curtain rod getting yanked out of the wall since the boys were always sitting or yanking on them and it was starting to bow quite badly in the middle.  I  thought it was perfect that I had the extra panels so I could add on a few inches so they would still reach floor to ceiling, but as I ripped out the original hem, I realized that they just might be long enough without adding on some more fabric. I tried it out with the curtain rings and it added the few extra inches that I was needing!  Perfect that project only took about 25 minutes!
Now what to do with the left over curtain panels.....so many options, though I worry about it being to busy of a print to put it in more than one place.

before

After

almost to the floor

What we have been up to: photo edition

 I just remembered that the last couple of years I have been a part of a December Photo Project, I am usually late jumping on the bandwagon and of course my pictures, well, are just for my own memories.  So I thought I would post a few pictures of the Christmas activities we have been doing.  Dane asks every morning if he can "look at that house thing and find the paper behind the door".  Speaking of getting a late start on things, I didn't even get my Advent calendar filled until the 4th, and I copied a list one of my friends posted on her blog, with a few changes and additions to fit our family. I am lazy and I have friends with great ideas.  Here are a few of the things we have done this week:  Also does anyone have a great little kid versions of the Christmas story or do you just read the the KJV version out of Luke? :o)  Seriously though I have tried a few tactics to tell or read the story to Dane, but haven't been able to capture his attention.  Looking for suggestions.

Not in chronological order, our activities from the week so far:

We rode the train at the mall.  Yes, we as in me and the boys.  Cade knew something fun was going down and he was not about to be ditched in his stroller, putting up quite a fuss I might add.

you can barely see Dane in the blue car.  Cade started giggling and shouting 'daddy' every time we circled around and saw Andy.  Fun memories.

Jolly Holiday Lights: Andy wore his ugly sweater so it would seem more festive.  Dane now thinks he is an expert at driving.

homemade play dough.  it was a huge hit.  same stuff we made when I was little

It kept them busy for over an hour this morning.  I think this is D's stack of pancakes.

And just because I like how this picture turned out.  He actually called Andy while I was trying to take this picture.

Christmas season is here!

well the tree is up, for some reason I can't bring myself to put a topper up there on that crooked branch., maybe because I don't have the right one or maybe I like it without.

 I decorated the week after Thanksgiving, after we unburied from the wedding extravaganza.  So it has been up for about a week.  I have had big dreams, the past 2 years, of having a thick, wispy, evergreen garland around my front door, maybe the columns wrapped in lights, a Christmas tree on the porch and all sorts of pretties out there and then being minimalistic inside the house.  Someday... maybe next year I will be able to make it happen.

love my moss covered reindeer I found at a thrift store this fall

pretty excited about this shed my cousin brought for me, all I had to do was ask!

My front porch:  leaving a lot to be desired but I have dreams of making it look pretty, some day when it is warmer out and my fingers won't freeze.

maybe if my porch looked a little more like this or this or this  it would complete my vision.