Goodbye 2010 Books

• James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
• A Bride Most Begrudging - Deeanne Gist
• Keys to the Demon Prison - Brandon Mull
• Same Kind of Different as Me - Ron Hall and Denver Moore
• Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary - Brandon Mull
• Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
• The Girl Who Could Fly - Victoria Forester
• Grip of the Shadow Plague - Brandon Mull
• Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
• The Candy Shop War - Brandon Mull
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
• The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter
• Persuasion - Jane Austen
• The Star Garden - Nancy Turner
• Here Lies the Librarian - Richard Peck
• Rise of the Evening Star - Brandon Mull
• Fablehaven - Brandon Mull
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
• The Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan
• And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
• Life of Pi - Yann Martel
• Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
• The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts - Richard Peck

2  23 books. A tie with 2009! 

I   I intended to do some more reading over Christmas break, but found myself too occupied with family partying, goodie-plate eating, game-playing, movie-wathcing and over all merry-making.

   The Fablehaven series was a fun one to read with Ben this year. He is almost done with the 5th one right now. I like having a series to talk about with him. 

   Richard Peck is my new go-to author for a really quick, funny read. His books do not fail to make me laugh and have such a homey, simple feel to them somehow (like comfort food, except books). 

   No big stand-outs this year, but several that I enjoyed very much.

More on Afton = two

Two years old. (Sporting supla-cute outfit from Troy and Dan.) When do we have to stop calling her our baby? My mom still calls me that. So I guess never.

She used to say her name like "At-dee." Now she says "At-don." I want her to still say At-dee.

She says "Oh, I'm sorry" all the time, in the correct context or not.

She gives kisses. Oh so many kisses.

Her favorite thing is baby dolls.

She got this little baby bed for her birthday. Grandpa Cruze made it for Aunt Rachel when she was little. Rachel only has a little boy, so she wanted Afton to have it. At-dee loves it.

Merry

Leading up to Christmas (the rest of the hints that it's close it's close)

We put the tree up. Right after Thanksgiving like we always do. We did not have a chance to trim it for about a week though. That did not stop the kids. They found plenty of things to decorate with.

Okay, here we go...the real deal. Afton loved putting the ornaments on more than anyone this year. She would race to put hers on the tree and race back to me while I unpacked them from the boxes asking for "Nother one? Nother one?"

We went over to Dillsboro NC on a rainy Saturday with all the Cruzes for hot chocolate, and quaint ornament shops and candy stores (the latter of which featured music and singing-a-long which got us in the spirit).

The Cruze women swapped cookies. It was delicious. I didn't win this year. That's okay, I wasn't trying to (but look out in 2011).

Santa came to preschool.

Afton and Trey shared a birthday celebration. Two and eighteen. 

Followed by the annual nativity pageant with all the [edit:] local Barber cousins. The cast is seriously cute.

And finally, our milk is good until Christmas Eve...it's practically here!

Who likes winning?

I hope Leanna does.

Because she did.

Win, that is.

Lucky comment #103! (Thank you, random.org)

Kitten #1 - Last Christmas I ate a ball of yarn.
Kitten #2 - Really? What happened?
Kitten #1 - I had a litter of mittens!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, your humor made it so much fun to read all the comments! See you in May!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Have you heard? It's Giveaway Day over at Sew Mama Sew...when they post links (so many!) to giveaways all over the blogosphere. The links are so bountiful that the event goes on all week so you can take your time browsing the wares and sign up for your chance to win on as many items as you'd like. Check it out.

Oh, and by the way, I'm in on the fun this year. So here's my contribution to the giveaway madness: 

One "Love Is Spoken Here" pillow cover.

Gray corduroy, blue and charcoal felt letters. Fits any 12x12 pillow form (available at your local craft/fabric store). Did I mention that Design Mom digs it?

To enter, just leave a comment on this post, a funny one would be nice (this blog is rated G by the way, please and thank you). Giveaway is open until Friday, the 17th. I'll pick a winner randomly and post about it on Saturday. This giveaway is open to US residents and Canadians too.

If you like what you see, you are cordially invited to visit my etsy shop, Amme and Neb. 

Unfortunately, SMS Giveaway Day is a little late in the month this year, so today (Monday the 13th) is the last day I can accept  I can no longer accept custom orders, and Saturday the 18th is the last day before I put the shop on vacation mode for the holidays (I need to put the sewing machine away once the kids' Christmas break starts...you know, family togetherness and all that). But it will be open again in January, so stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Christmas is coming...

We found it at the Fantasy of Trees.

We love lights.

We love carousels.

We love gingerbread renditions of Hogwarts.

We love spinning till we're sick.

We love Children's Hospital, so we were happy to send some money their way while having a great time. (And you never know, we may need to visit once we've finished all our spinning.)

Thanksgiving talent show

This was our entry this year. Each of the three big kids chose a favorite song, and we went to work...taking 460-some-odd photos in all.

(Here's the link if you need a refresher on A-Ha's original video.)

P.S. I don't know why it says "large" in the corner. The best I can guess is because I chose the "large" option when I saved it on imovie. Weird.

I only took two photos the entire day of Thanksgiving

But they seem to tell the story well enough.

P.S. Guess whose plate it is.

Kids pray the darndest things

In her bedtime prayers the other night, Lydia entreated for these blessings:

"...that the songs we sing won't come true in real life..."

"...that we'll be safe in all our adventures..."

"...that when we make our escape we'll be safe..."

Have I mentioned Josh is our first kid to play football?

One of the main reasons he wanted to play was because he'd be the first. He wanted to do something that no one else had done. He was also attracted by the prospect of following in his old man's footsteps. We find it to be a good fit for Josh. Plenty of running and jumping around with frequent rest periods in between. He's scored a couple of touchdowns and extra points. And if they gave more points for enthusiasm, he'd be leading the league.

Do you love calico bags? Do you hate cancer?

Then I've got the auctions for you.

You know you've been a fan of Cally's fabulous bags for awhile. Now you can get one and show cancer who's boss too.
These four bags are all up on the block until Wednesday, November 10th. Right here on ebay.
Why? Maybe you've already heard about Chelsie (who has been cancer-free for five years) and her siblings running a marathon to raise money for cancer research. If not, check it out at Five in Training. They're going for $25,000 and they're almost there. Bid, bid, bid!!

Ben had a party

Throwing a Harry Potter birthday party is a cinch the second time around. We more or less repeated Emma's party from back in January. Except 9 year old boys are a whole different animal than 10 year old girls (any down time turned into a scene from WWF). We spent more time in Defense Against the Dark Arts this time too. For some reason the only thing I took photos of was transfiguration class.

Waiting for their instructions.

Dragon

Harry's glasses

Flying car

And yes, we left the candles on the ceiling up the entire 9 months between parties. We used to vote on it during dinner, whether to leave them up or take them down. The 'leave-them-ups' always won. I guess it's time to move on now...