more christmas

bubble santa beards

helen presents.... our little tree :)

this angel is made from the fabric of my wedding dress

christmas in november

i love this picture!! the tree decorating from jillian's perspective :)

getting out the stockings

i believe this is the earliest we have ever decorated for christmas! well, considering we leave for the states on december 18th - i thought we better enjoy a few weeks of christmas in our home. last night we put up our little artificial tree (normally we get a "real" tree) and a few decorations.

i think the kids are really confused though... we hung up the stockings last night and the kids said this morning - did sinterklaas come last night and fill our stockings? i said no- sinterklaas fills shoes and santa claus fills stockings :)

Night and Day

Graham completed another unit in school... this unit was about the differences between night and day. Helen enjoyed the "performance" too :)

Graham is wearing hat with a moon on it... some classmates had the sun and other classmates had the earth. they did a cute demonstration where the sun and the moon circled the earth.

His unit on night and day also included a walk during the day to listen, watch, and smell their surroundings and a walk during the night to listen, watch, and smell their surroundings

Helen Piet

Helen made this "Piet" hat at her school. She was called "Helen Piet". I have provided a link from Wikipedia below for the story behind Sinterklaas in the Netherlands.

The children have been putting their shoes out most nights and the other night Helen received a piece of coal in her shoe (coal is given to "naughty" children)..... unfortunately as Helen's personality goes... she was very proud of this piece of coal :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

sinterklaas

On Saturday we went to the town of Zwolle (where Ross works) - to see Sinterklaas.

Sinterklaas also visited our house last night to bring a few presents to the kids. It is a tradition in Holland for the children to put their shoes out each night from around the 15 of November until Sinterklaas leaves Holland on his birthday, 5 of December. Sinterklaas may leave a present one of the nights - but not necessarily every night.

I will describe the "traditions" of the Sinterklaas holiday in detail later this week!

my hollywood girl!

while visiting my parents in texas last month, jillian had her pictures taken... little did i know - she would become famous!

first of all - i have to thank Candice at Candice Thomas photography - her work is AMAZING!!!!

http://www.candicethomasphotography.com/site/#/portfolio/children/

second of all - jillian is wearing a necklace made from Lillian Eve Designs (an etsy shop). the owner liked the pictures that Candice took and asked to feature them in her shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LilianEveDesigns

you can also follow them both on facebook - Candice Thomas Photography and LillianEveDesigns

9 months!

it's bath letter time!! i think these are the best little bath toy invented! (you don't have to worry about them collecting mold like the squirty toys.... or the kids drinking the water from the little stacking cups) and educational at the same time :)

splashing in the tub!

here's the typical "mom - would you please take the picture while i give you this half-hearted smile!"

how can it be? jillian is 9 months old today!

i know i've said it about a thousand times... she's such a happy baby.... so easy going... always smiling (no teeth yet!!)..... never napping in her bed 'cause we're always on the run to get the other kids..... blue eyed.... blonde hair.... she's my sweet baby jilly! we love her so much!