All About that Bass Pro Shop

So, I read somewhere that Bass Pro Shops has a lot on display for Christmas.  I wasn't really expecting much, but it was worth trying anyway. Plus, I have this weird obsession with camping gear. I love camping gear. I want to buy it all. Do I camp? No. Do I want to own a queen sized cot and three room tent? Yes. And also all the gadgets. All of them.

So, even if the Christmas displays were a bust, I could always enjoy browsing the camping section. 

Well, they were so not a bust. We had a great time. They had games and carousel rides and pictures with Santa (Max and Isaac were not interested in sitting with him.) And all of it was completely free. Amazing. And fun. I didn't even have time to make it to the camping section. 

Isaac's Blessing

Well, he's only three months old, but he weighs in at about twenty two pounds so we were lucky to have so many good friends and family join in his blessing to heft that chubby baby in the circle.

There was no way he was going to fit into Max's blessing outfit, which Max was really too big for at six weeks. So we put him in the blessing gown I wore as a baby (and Charlotte and Ella). It is decidedly a dress. But if dresses are good enough for the Catholics, they're good enough for us. 

Richard and Jess, Paul's brother and his wife, are now in the same ward as we are due to some boundary changes. There have been fewer mixups than I expected sharing a name with someone in the ward, although they are not nonexistent. Mostly we are just glad to be so close to family, and it does make church convenient when Jeff and Susan visit.  Plus our kids love each other, and it's fun to see them excited about seeing each other at church each week.

Because of the recent formation of the Carrollton 4th Ward, many of our friends joined us from other congregations (our last ward was scattered between three wards). This group has representatives from all three. 

In order, by family: Bass, Graham, McNeil, Christensen, Wilde, McGee

Nativity

Ella and I made a nativity today. She sketched the characters and I cut the wood on my scroll saw. She sanded (some of it) and I wood burned the faces she drew on. It was my first time using my wood burner, so I didn't let her try it, but I think next time I will let her do it.  It is (very) hot, but not really complicated to maneuver.  

All in all, it was a fun and not terribly time consuming project, so that is always a win. If it takes too long, it rarely gets finished.

Incidentally, I do take full credit for the elephant, which was not originally part of the manger scene, but I worked on that today, too, and it does kind of round things out.  Plus, he doesn't have any friends to be with yet. 

I love power tools. 

Thanksgiving

We started our Thanksgiving with a lovely hike through the hill country. And ended with a soak in Carolyn and Tyler's hot tub. There was a delicious dinner in between. And it was a marvelous Thanksgiving.

Pie

I made an apple pie today, and the kids decided they would like to make their own pie. So they used my leftover dough and did a pretty nice job. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is that they are old enough to do this completely independently. I sat in the living room and wasted my time on the Internet while they assembled the pie. 

Life is good. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Char.

Someone obviously needs to teach this kid how to do a duck face so her selfies can be more trendy.

Charlotte is at a delightful stage right now. She is enthusiastic about pretty much anything and revels in her ability to be truly helpful. She is learning how to read and is successfully blending letters, so she is well on her way to being independent. 

I think he looks like Ella.

I mean, not exactly like her. But more than Charlotte or Max do. And that means he looks like me, too. Because we all know that Ella and I are intergenerational twins. 

Cousins!

We finally got a cousin on my side of the family. We love Soren and Tate, but I have been ready for Laurel to have a baby forever!

Hooray for baby Abbi! Isaac got to attend her birth. The nurses loved having a big baby around and no one gave me a hard time for toting a two month old around labor and delivery. Isaac and Abbi are two months apart to the day, and we're sure they'll be best friends. 

Toothless: take 2

We were not expecting Charlotte to be anywhere close to losing a tooth. She is just barely four and a half. So when she informed us that her tooth was loose, I admit I was pretty skeptical. (I was sure that it was all in her head.) But in fact, it was loose and it did come out and I don't think there was injury induced. So she was visited by two tooth fairies, because I didn't expect Paul to remember and I got up in the middle of the night after nursing the baby, so I didn't spend a lot of time messing around under her pillow. 

My friend recently told me that her tooth fairy growing up requested that teeth be left in a cup on the kitchen counter. Brilliant. Well, I tried to get Charlotte  to do that, but she said, "No! Mom, that is so silly! On the counter!? We out it under our pillow!" And so, we are stuck with the pillow tooth fairy forever more. 

So he's chubby.

No surprise there, really. That's how we make them at our house. But I never really get over the chubbiness. 

Isaac has recently become a lot more smiley. Which is super fun, of course. But today he stopped breast feeding to smile at Charlotte. 

Um, how is he going to maintain that physique if he cannot focus on his food? Seriously.