Nativity Story; Take One

I collect nativities. So far I have about 12, the Willow Tree set has taken me a few years to collect. I love getting them out each year - on Black Friday - and finding the perfect place to display them. (last year I posted about them, here, here, here,here, and here.) I've added 2 news ones since last year.


I also have 2 boys with very big imaginations.


So each year, since Gage has been a little baby he has had a few kid friendly nativities that he can play with as well. Each year he likes to arrange and re-arrange the nativity story in his own words. This year I thought I would document it.

Nativity Story; Take One

It only took a few hours for this to occur. Mary has her head on backwards. Joseph does too. Gage said that Mary was a ghost. Baby Jesus is taking a head dive out of his manger. Yes, he also has blue paint on the back of his head and bum from last year when we lost him behind the changing table for a few weeks.

Hands

Our tummies are full. Our shopping is done. (had fun this morning mom!) The music is on and the decorations are coming out now.

Our poor hands though. We just can't catch a break.



Wade came home from basketball Wednesday night to get the insurance card and head out to the emergency room. He dislocated and has a small fracture in his pinky finger. Just a week after a knife attacked my thumb.

So now off to visit an surgeon if he decides to fix the fracture. I think next time I'm pregnant I won't allow him to play sports when I'm close to my third trimester. Last time he broke a bone in his foot (click if you want to see the cool pins).

Darn - his hands are worth a lot more than mine. Literally.

Happy

10 things I am thankful and happy about this week.

1. Pictures like this one. Gage drew it this week and it's hanging up now. It cracks me up every time I see it. (At least he didn't make his traced circles into his mommy's big belly!)



2. Washington "winter" I could really get used to this. I smile a little each time inside when I hear it is snowing other places in my "blogging friends" world.


3. Gas prices. I know my friends back in Iowa will scoff at this (they have the cheapest gas in the nation) but gas finally fell below $2 a gallon here. We filled our van at Costco this past week for $1.89 a gallon. It only cost $33!!!

4. Zoo visits. (Refer to number 2 for making this possible) We had a fun time Friday at the Point Defiance Zoo. It reminds me a lot of the Des Moines Zoo in size, minus the train, but with a carousel and a view of the Puget Sound that is awesome. It's always a bonus when you get to see Gage's cute Primary (children's church) teacher, who works there and let us in free!

5. It's almost that time. That's right. I don't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I did break down and listen to some music this morning. I got my Christmas boxes from storage at my parents house and it's been fun to peek inside. I can't wait! Plus, two of my sisters will be here for Christmas and we have a date to see Twilight.

6.Christmas cards designed and already printed! (Please send me your address if you have a new one or I might not have yours: mailto:ywadeanddebbi@gmail.com)

7. No more bugs. After living here for 4 months and fighting bugs the whole time, we have finally gone a whole 10 days without seeing any more or finding more bites on Gage. I know 10 days doesn't seem like much, but it is! I know I haven't blogged about this, because I didn't want to be a complainer, but I am so happy now. (Side note: in case you were wondering, it has been the biggest pain, we've had to leave the house numerous times, get chemical sprayed numerous times, cleaned everything we owned over and over - we couldn't really just move out to solve the problem for two reasons - most likely we would just take the problems with us and two we don't have a lease here, and it's very hard to find anywhere that we don't have to sign a lease)

8. It's finally Thanksgiving week! I can't wait to eat all the yummy food!

9. Reading our thankful lists. We each have a list and write something we are thankful for each night before bed. I laugh out loud at what Gage and Noah tell us.

10. Peeking into my Christmas decorations I remembered I bought some stocking holders on sale last year. What a blessing it is that by next year we will have all five stocking holders full! We are getting very excited for a new baby around here! I am blessed everyday because of my husband and cute kids.

So what made you thankful or happy this week?

thumbs up to meatloaf

I was doing so good today. Noah was down for a nap. Gage was having quiet time. The laundry was getting done. The house was cleaned up. I decided since we would be having meatloaf for dinner I could prepare it during the afternoon and then just pop it in the oven before dinner. I chopped the mushrooms, then the onions. Then my thumb.



Wade was home, and thought it was too deep, so now I give my favorite meatloaf recipe a big thumbs up and three stitches award.



The insta-care took 2 1/2 hours. If only Wade had lidocaine at home I would have totally let him do the stitches for me, then we could have got on with our Monday and had our meatloaf supper. I guess there is always tomorrow. I will have to get someone else to do the chopping.

Swedish Meat Loaf Supper

(Pampered Chef - SO yummy I give it a Thumb UP!)

(Also I cook like my mom, so this is my version, sorry if you are an exact kinda cook!)

1 can mushrooms drained and chopped

1/2 cup onions, chopped (watch your fingers!)

1/4 cup parsley

1 cup rye or white bread crumbs (I use seasoned)

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoons ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice or nutmeg

1 pound ground beef (I use turkey)

1 pound lean ground pork (I use a sausage variation)

Preheat oven 350. Mix chopped mushrooms, onions, parsley bread crumbs, milk, egg and seasonings into bowl and mix well. Make sure your fingers, thumbs and for that matter - all body parts stay away from all cutting utensils.

Crumble meat into bowl and mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape mixture into loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15-20 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting and serving. I like to make real mash potatoes and gravy to serve along with this.

~~~

I have to admit the only reason I posted this is that Wade said I should. He said I post about everyone else in the family but myself. Probably true. So to make double-extra-whammy points with Wade and so I won't have to post about myself for another couple months, here is a pregnant picture for my scrapbook. I am 26 weeks. I am not disclosing what I've gained, but the Dr. said it is too much and I need to lay off the sweets and the carbs. I've got told this before. Gage's Dr. told me to "stop hitting the holiday candy so hard." I should probably listen.

Instead I think I will finish this post and go have a couple cookies of the cookies that I made last night.

Thumbs up. Hope you had a good Monday.

I eat it cause I like it

"Noah, why are you eating sand?"

"I eat it cause I like it."

You have to love 2 year old wisdom.

Yesterday we headed out to Westport and Grayland Beach for another beautiful Saturday spent with friends. It was perfect weather, jackets were optional, and the only sad part of the day was that we couldn't fly the kites that we brought.

Noah loved the water -as long as it didn't touch him, or someone was holding him. We had a couple close calls. It wasn't strong enough to really hurt him, or drag him out to sea - the worst wave would have pushed him over. He was so sad after the time I didn't get to him fast enough and (GASP) the water actually touched him!
He finally decided to stick to the beach collecting shells and throwing sand and rocks.

Kim and Nate

Nick and Lisa had just celebrated their 5 year anniversary the day before our trip. We had to capture a couple romantic pictures of them on the beach.

Then we had to show them what 8 1/2 years and counting looked like!

Gage and Nick playing chase

My hero Wade, chasing a flock of birds. He is such a big kid at heart when we go to the beach. He loves playing in the waves, water and sand, I think more then the kids!

We drove through the town of Westport on our way home and climbed the lookout tower. Anyone need a fishing charter?

On our way back through Olympia we attempted to find, from memory, the park we saw the salmon spawning 4 years ago. After 30 minutes of driving around we finally found it...the only memories we had to go off of were that it was on the south side of the street and we thought maybe it was off a certain highway, but we weren't sure. We both agreed we could remember the exact outfit baby Gage wore 4 years ago. (a red Old Navy hoodie and jeans, he rode in the snugly) Strange.

Anyway, we got to the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail right as they closed the gate, but they said we could hike up to the park (only 1/2 mile). So we did. It was really close to dark by the time we got to the creek and the trails and we did see some really big salmon spawning. There was one biologist still left in the park we could talk to. It's such an interesting thing to learn about, or maybe just to us? (Apparently you can take the biology job out of Wade, but you can't take the biologist out of him.) I wish it would have been lighter because my pictures of the salmon in the creek didn't turn out.

You might remember we saw the salmon earlier this season {HERE}. They are at the end of the line - literally - now. It's part their life span to come back to the same creek they were born in, lay their eggs and then die. Noah kept repeating over and over on our hike out of the park, "Big fish die. Big fish die." Pretty funny.

We ended up the night sharing a good seafood dinner with Nick and Lisa at a new local place we found, the boys playing a little Halo, and the girls chatting. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday. We will really be sad when all our visiting friends have to go.

Boat Ride

Saturday we took a little trip and rode a ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. It really was a perfect fall day. We went with our friends the Youngs (read about their day here) and the Hugentoblers. It's been really nice this month to have friends visiting other programs in the area.

Never let go Wade, Never let go. (Name that movie...sooo easy!)

We attempted to get a family picture. Gage was more interested in being in our friends Lisa and Nick's family. Each time we tried to take a picture for them he would run and jump in their picture. He really does love them and it's been fun to hang out with some friends from DMU this month.

When we got home that night I had to run to the store for a few things and I left the boys at home with Wade. When I got back I found out just how much Gage and Noah had loved their ferry ride....they had built a ferry with blocks and were driving their cars on and off it. They even had added some American flags and a captain at the top! What silly boys I have.




They are really obsessed. Their bunk bed is now a ferry - not a boat, but a ferry. I think we will have to do this activity again!

Thankful for

Turkey hats. I love them. You've got to love the pout on Gage's face in the second picture.

Happy Birthday Noah

Our baby Noah Lowe turns two years old today! What a sweet spirit he has brought into our house.

He was such a calm content baby. We all love watching him grow and develop. Now he is such a busy (still little to me) big boy. He makes us smile and laugh every day. He is such a talker surprises us every day with is vocabulary. A few weeks ago he actually woke up one morning requesting a "root beer float" for breakfast. Now how do you refuse such an itty bitty boy asking for a root beer float at 6:30 in the morning?

Saturday we had a small pizza and cake party with my parents and our friends the Youngs for Noah. We had a special train cake mold that Wade's mom gave us that we had been waiting to try out and thought this would be the ideal opportunity. When I went to turn the cake out of the mold it didn't come out very smoothly so I was a little sad. Wade stepped in and saved the day by decorating the cake and making it work.

After an hour of decorating, Wade picked up Noah and showed him the cake.

Wade: Noah, look at what Daddy did! What does it look like?

Noah: Cake!

Wade: Yes, but what does it look like?

Noah: Ummm......(pause)........CAKE!

(It's my favorite that he actually says, Um and pauses)

Wade was a little devastated that Noah didn't get train right off, but I thought he did a great job!

Noah is such a Daddy's boy. He loves Wade and will sit in his lap every chance he gets. Our last month in Iowa when we only got to see Wade on the weekends Wade would come in the door and Noah would run over him, push him, yell WRESTLE and then fall on the floor.

Noah loves to help and cook. He will pull a chair up to the counter to even if I'm just boiling water. He loves to help throw the laundry into the machine. He will try to fold dish towels and loves to make his bed like his brother. He loves school time, knows some of the Pledge of Allegiance, sings the ABCD (he adds D) song with gusto and brings something to the table for show and tell every day.

He has started to get excited about the new baby. He said the other day he was going to sleep in the crib. I asked where baby sister would sleep and he answered crib. When I asked him how that was going to work he answered, "I hold it." He will make an excellent big brother.

You can see his birth-post by clicking HERE.

We love Noah Lowe. Happy Birthday to our little Mr. Twister.

Cutest Halloween EVER

Ok. I have not been good at commenting, but I have been reading and looking at all the Halloween posts this past week. Someday I will get around to commenting.

However, tonight, I have to say my sister in law Chandra has everyone beat, hands down. This picture may even be cuter than my own kids, who wore their underwear on the outside all day.

She calls him, "Blackula."

Chandra, seriously! You crack me up! Keegan is the cutest kid Dracula I have ever seen. I wish I could have seen this in person.

(Really - so cute I didn't just comment, I had to post about it!)

If this picture doesn't make you smile and laugh, then I don't know what will!