Christmas Craft Day 2012: Mesh Wreaths

This year's Christmas Crafts were courtesy of Michelle, Zach's cousin's wife. She came up with the idea, bought, and brought all the supplies to our gathering in SEMO. I'm sure most of you have seen these wreaths on Pinterest, the mess wreaths with ribbon in them. Here is the link to the instructions we followed, complete with tons of pictures, so we knew what we were doing. The wreaths were actually very cheap to make, I think about $12 a piece. That's a lot of Christmas flare for not too much money. 

Supplies:

-One 10ft roll of mess. It takes the whole roll for one wreath to make it full enough to cover the wire wreath.

-Wire wire wreath form from Micheals. I hear they cost $2.50. 

-Floral wire

-Wire cutters 

-Ribbon of your choosing for the top. 

We followed the instructions on the web page, but also realized that we needed to do two rounds of the big mesh loops in order to make it full enough and to cover the wire wreath under neath. Upon further thought spray painting the wire might have been a good idea because even after two rounds of loops you can still kind of see the wreath under neath. We also added big bows to the top of our wreaths, which I think added a little extra bit of Christmas happiness. 

Amy and Michelle fast at work.

Aunt Kelly with her granddaughter Emileigh. They were a great cheering section and we did eventually get Kelly to work some on her own wreath as well. 

I am proud to say I had no rhyme or reason to how I placed my ribbon and it turned out great!

My final product!

After this wreath I am officially out of doors to put wreaths on, Merry Christmas!

Santa's Magical Kingdom

Today was the big day, we went to see Santa Clause. We have been reading Santa books, seeing Santa everywhere from our wooden Santa outside, to Christmas tree ornaments, and big blow up Santa's in front of houses and stores. Zane knows Santa is coming to his house, but "not yet, soon." We sing Santa songs and are currently immersed in all that is Santa and Christmas.

A few days ago we told him we were going to meet Santa today, as part of his big boy celebrations. This morning he asked about it and was excited all day, with random squeals of "Santa" through out the day. This evening on the way to Santa's Magical Kingdom, in Eureka, Zane even started a "Santa Clause, Santa Clause," chant and fist pump. I had high hopes that he would get it this year and actually enjoy his Santa visit, unlike last year when he had no clue what was happening, and was immediately terrified of the strange old man, with a beard, whose lap we were trying to get him to sit on.

Well, it went slightly better this year, but still not great. Luckily we got there early and were the second people in line to see the very secretive Santa (behind a curtain so you can't see him until it is your turn, probably not necessary). At first he was alright, but a little shy, shaking Santa's hand and telling him quietly he wanted more tools for Christmas. But upon further thought he realized that the bearded man was still scary and wanted nothing to do with having his picture taken with him. Zach and I didn't press the matter because the photo package was $16, so we were fine with it.

Not five minutes after leaving the curtained area Zane was asking to see Santa. I just think the old bearded man really isn't the picture he has of Santa in his head. He is thinking super happy, animated Santa, which we can't really recreate. We reminded him numerous times that he had seen Santa and that he really was a nice guy, not scary. Not sure that he is buying it. We settled for photos with the wooded Santa outside for our Santa pictures this year. It will do, and were totally free.

Then it was time for the wagon ride through the park, filled with Christmas lights. I was highly impressed with the whole set up. There was an elf village, a candy cane village, all sorts of lights, and different displays, all gorgeously lit with tons of beautiful lights. Zane thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the show. I had fun playing with the different settings on my camera. I do think I got a few good shots, verses last year when we went to a similar type of set up and none of my pictures turned out.

 I loved this huge ginger bread house. There are elves eating the huge Snickers, you just can't see them.

 My favorite were the little elf houses in all the trees. So stinking cute!

 Zane and mommy enjoying the show.

Zane continued to ask about seeing Santa all the way home, maybe we will try again before the end of the season. Maybe I will just take him past the big blow up Santa's which he enjoys just as much. I'm a little sad that it didn't live up to all his excitement, but there is always next year I guess. 

The Binki Fairy Commeth

Zane has been a binki baby from the start. I vividly remember his "I love daddy" binki that he had during his very first echo and then was promptly thrown away because it made me sad. He also has been a terrible sleeper ever since surgery, waking up multiple times a night up until a few months ago. My plan for getting him to give up his beloved pacifier has always been, as soon as he was sleeping through the night, consistently for a few months, then we would get rid of it. Well one year passed and we weren't even close. He was still getting up multiple times and taking long periods of time to go back to sleep, even with the bebe. Then two years came and things weren't much better so I didn't even think about taking it away. At two years we did make it only for nap and night time, which went over well, with little complaint.

I am hesitant to even say that as a maybe two months ago, post move to his new big boy room, and not letting him take a sippy cup to bed, he has been sleeping well. He goes to bed at eight and gets up between six and seven, a miracle in our book. We started talking about how binki's are just for babies a few weeks ago when he got his new baby doll that came with a binki. After much thought and fear, we decided that last night was the night for the binki fairy to come to our house. The timing of this was purely based on the fact that I would have three nights off in a row, for the only time until the beginning of next year, so Zach wouldn't be tackling the no bebe situation alone.

Yesterday, after picking Zane up from daycare, we came home for a binki hunt. I had bought a little box for them all to go in that we could leave out for the fairy. The hunt was a blast, as all hunts are, with only one binki missing at the end, the one he actually uses everyday. I couldn't find it for a long time, but finally found it, tucked between the wall and his bed. This I am sure was a last ditch effort to hide it, since Zach had talked to him about the fairy coming that morning. I secretively put it in the box as well, unbeknownst to Zane.

On his binki hunt!

 Here is the little box, all closed up ready for the binki fairy!

The evening went by without incident, with mentions of his big boy party today, seeing Santa this evening, and of course the fairy's impending arrival, but with reassurances that she would leave him a toy in exchange for his prized possessions. Bedtime arrived and the meltdown began. The poor little man screamed for an hour, his heart breaking at the loss of his favorite comfort measure. I stayed with him, singing songs, rocking, and supporting him through binki detox. After an hour he was exhausted and actually requested me to sing, calming down and eventually passing out. It was gut wrenching, but he was fine, sleeping until 5:30 this morning, when usually he would have gotten his paci and gone back to bed, but today he was wide awake. I'll take it!

Zach and I got up to go see what the fairy had left him. She had come and brought a Mickey Mouse fire truck, which was a huge hit. We gushed our praises of his great night and being such a big boy, which he ate up, proclaiming "No bebe!"  Now we just have to wait and see how nap time goes sans bebe. This evening we are going to see Santa to tell him what a big boy Zane is, BIG BOY PARTY 2012!!!

The fairy left him, a not so cute note, but he loved it.

 Here is the big boy himself, with his new fire truck! Oh happy day!

Ten On Tuesday

1. Upon further thought about the naming process of Rowan I have realized that among the numerous wonderful traits my father possessed, ranking high on the list was his ability to sleep. He could sleep anywhere for unbelievably long periods of time. During his life I found this pretty annoying, think your dad coming to visit you for two days and taking a four hour nap everyday, but I am now hoping and praying that little Rowan takes after his Grandfather in the sleeping department. I of course want him to inherit all of his Grandfather's many other wonder traits as well, but just saying a child who sleeps well would be greatly appreciated.

2. During Grandma's most recent visit Zane got to help make biscuits, one of Grandma B's specialities. This requires flour getting everywhere, to which Zane promptly proclaimed, "It a mess Grandma." But he moved passed it, here he is cutting out biscuits with Grandma, too cute.

3. This past weekend we headed South, in our new incredibly comfortable car, for Christmas with the Baker side of the family. I got a ton of wonderful pictures with my new camera. Here is Zane showing off the turnips he found during his morning ride out to see the cows with Papa. Zane loved Papa's farm, though it took awhile to convince him he was actually at the farm even though he couldn't see any animals. "I wanna go to the farm mamma." Guess what buddy you are there, surrounded by barns, tractors, woods, and yes even cows. He did tell Papa he needed chickens though, we'll see how that goes.

4. The big hit of the weekend, besides the farm, was the random baseball helmet Zane found in the garage. He, being a true neuro nurses son, wore it all day Saturday and love it. I questioned it at first, but then decided Zane could stand to wear a helmet and rolled with hit. Here he is wearing while the big kids played kickball (Uncle Zach might have sustained a kickball injury).

And you have to wear the hard hat on the CAT machine, obviously.

And on the hayride, just in case.

And don't forget helmet safety while playing the iPad before bed.

5. I love spending time with my nephews and niece. They are all getting so grown up I can hardly stand it. Zach got some great pictures of them on the hayride. I don't know what Levi was doing, I am guessing not sitting still, but here are the older three, looking too grown up.

Blaine at 8

Adeline at 5

Clay at 9

6. I am feeling very large as of late. I feel much larger at this point than I did with Zane and find that clothes I was wearing at the end of my pregnancy with Zane are getting snug. That can't be right, I have three months left. I have gained less weight with this one, but seem to be bigger, not good. I'm getting uncomfortable, which can only mean one thing, the third trimester must be just around the corner.

7. The most frequently heard phrase around our house as of late is, "It no Halloween yet, it Christmas time." Zane says this all the time and completely randomly. I am afraid he thinks if we can just make it through Christmas time then it will be Halloween again. I hate to tell him it is a long time until Halloween. He also asks if it is his birthday a lot as well, that's a life time away too my friend, sorry.

8. We are hopefully having a party of sorts coming soon after the binki fairy comes tonight! The next three nights are the only three nights I have off, in a row, until next year, so it feels like now or never. We have talked about it a lot recently and this afternoon we are going to round up all of the binkis for the binki fairy, who will leave him a present over night and leave him a gift. This could be a huge debacle, ending violently, but we are giving it a shot.

9. Due to these three days being my only string of days off in a row this month, we are going to Santa's Magical Kingdom tomorrow evening. I think Zane will enjoy it, but I can see him getting confused as to why Santa is there, but then coming to your house later, and why Christmas time is still far away. Oh well, the lights will be pretty and I'm pretty sure there is a train ride, win win!

10. Here is Zane's new favorite play place, Grandpa Blakley's cradle. He didn't spend much time in it as a baby, because he was constantly turning onto his left side, to try to breath, so then he would slide to one side. Since Grandma brought it back last week he has loved playing "baby" in the baby's room. He does put his baby to sleep in the cradle as well, but he enjoys "going night night" there as well.

 Zane and his baby in the cradle.

Christmas Trains 2012

In keeping with what has become a Christmas tradition for Zane and I, we headed to the Botanical Gardens Thursday to see the Christmas trains with Grandma. We had told Zane the night before and that morning that we were going to see trains and I am pretty sure he thought we were going to see big trains, per our usual outings, and was a little confused by the small ones, at first. They all run on circular tracks, so they disappear for a little bit, which was also initially confusing. But soon he caught on to the fact that they would come back around, and that they were carrying things, such as plants, toys, dinosaurs, and one even had Santa as the conductor, what fun. We went early so it was  just us and about four other three year old boys, leaving lots of room for Zane to run and explore. Our visit was dangerously close to nap time, which made the benches in the room quite the attraction as well. We weren't there for long, but we all had a great time, with a stop at the gift shop afterwards for some new Christmas ornaments. We made it out of the gift shop without breaking anything, which was a minor Christmas miracle.

Look closely, there is a dinosaur on the train!

This outing also marked my first experiment with my new camera. I did a little research, taking notes, during a night shift, but turns out I had no idea what any of the buttons meant. So Wednesday night I read just enough of the manual to get us through our train visit. I am happy to report that I love it. I could take pictures incredibly fast, catching tons of cute smiles, without spending lots of time frustrated at all the things I was missing. I ended the day with .tons of great pictures and even had to delete a few duplicates, I will take that any day over getting home to find Zane hadn't been looking at the camera all day. Here are the results.

This is the cute little Christmas house in the middle of the display. Zane thought Santa was sleeping in it. We tried knocking, but no answer.

TRAINS!

Time for cute Christmas pictures!

Christmas Dance Party 2012

Zane is absolutely loving Christmas music. We have quite the Christmas play list on our iPad, but he mainly enjoys the upbeat songs and not so much the hymnal/church songs. He knows his way around the playlist, skipping the songs that aren't to his liking. During Grandma's visit last week, while singing Christmas carols, Zane had an impromptu dance party. "Get up Grandma, dance, dance." "Come on mamma, come on daddy, dance." And we all joined in on the fun. Zane has a growing collection of dance moves, kicking his leg out, falling down and spinning (two year old break dancing), jumping, and his most recent addition, the fist pump. Of course all moves are done while running around in circles, squealing with delight, it's the essence of pure joy, just wonderful.

Here is the fist pump in action.

The break dancing move.

But the pictures don't do it justice, so I have included this priceless video.

And the name is.....

We have named our little one, after not a lot of debat. The list of names we agreed on had gotten pretty short when we were naming Zane and we only added a few more this time. The short list included: Solomon, but I know people would call him Sol which I don't like, Bennett, but thought Ben was a little too popular, Sawyer, but we both pronounced it differently leading to lots of arguments, and Isaac, a close second, but too popular with Zach's cousin having a boy named that.

So the winner of name search 2012 is.... Rowan Danny. I heard Rowan while in Ireland in college and had kept it in the back of my mind since then. Then I had a little boy in my day care class named Rohan (with an H because he was from India, but I still liked it.) It has no great meaning. It is a type of tree and a common sir name in the British Isle, complete with its own crest which is fun. It is currently ranked number 309 in US births, which means not common, but not unheard of or made up. It seems like a calm name to me, which was our main goal for the name of this child. I know there are girls named this too, but haven't met any, and think it could work either way, so I am fine with it. From very early on I felt like that wold be his name if we were having a boy and had referred to him as that in my mind/prayers from the time I found out he was a boy.

Prior to finding out we were having a boy I wasn't convinced I would use my dad's name as a middle name. However, when I found out we were having another boy nothing else felt right. I am of the belief that middle names should hold meaning, linking you to someone special in your life. No man is more special or near to my heart than my father. I feel his presence around me always, especially during difficult and trying times, i.e. pregnancy and parenthood. My dad's God given name is Danny, not Daniel, and we actually had conversations about how I could use Daniel as a middle name, but it wouldn't be after him. So this leaves no room for debate, dad.

I like that he has a name now. Zane can refer to him by his name and it makes him seem more like a real person and part of the family all ready. Zane can say it much better than I thought, leading to cute conversations about Rowan needing a stocking on the mantel, or Zane telling me I can come in the baby's room but "no Rowan." Sorry kid we are one in the same at the moment. Anyway, that's his name, Zane and Rowan, I think it fits perfectly. We can't wait to see him.