Christmas time

Sunday pics a few days before Christmas

Christmas Eve- Jason got to meet our newest niece, Emma, she was born 1 month early -weighing just 5lbs. I was sick for 3 weeks and didn't get to meet her until she was almost 4 weeks old. She is so precious!

Nativity costumes- Trevor started out as a shepherd, but then really wanted to be a wiseman :) He loved taking the beads on and off, one at a time. Can you tell how excited Claire was to be Mary- so sweet!

Nativity cast + Trevor in the corner :)

Presents!
Quilt grandma vdH made for our little guy, in mama's belly.

Claire was absolutely in love with all her new dress up stuff!- After opening Christmas pjs mom made- You can tell how excited they were to take a pic...lol

I put out a lot less decorations this year, and I really liked the sweet simple message it brought this year.

Christmas morning! Claire was so cute and excited about every thing she got! Here she is opening her stocking presents, before dad or Trevor were awake. (I asked to put back the first two things she pulls out, so I could get her reaction on video. But she's not one to fake/re-enact it.)

From tradition on mom's side, we had to eat breakfast before opening any presents. Lucky for our little ones, Mom got up early (pregnancy sleeping joys) and stuck in our overnight french toast casserole in the oven.
One last try at our Christmas pajama-ed cuties.

Trevor opening up his stocking last

jan random

Claire loves her new princess bedtime story book! And Trevor loves to hangout too.

Claire's quilt+ snow

This is the main reason I didn't even attempt to make a Halloween costume for Claire this year. I was busy finishing a quilt for her. I hoped to finish it before her birthday, but finished it right after. That's okay, because she loved opening it up on Christmas. (see video below)

This was the first big quilt I've made.  Next time I will have to remember to use masking tape to hold them bottom sheet taunt, while I baste the layers together.   It was not a big deal, but I know it help with the quilting part next time.  The only frustrating part was breaking so many needles at the end.  I even had the big 90-14 needle in.  I think my walking foot has issues... it seemed to push my needle so that it would not go into the hole (down to bobbin), and would hit the metal and break my needle.  But without the walking foot I got four times as many pleats.  Its a miracle I finished!


This was the first snow storm! Usually this first snow is a really heavy, good snowman making snow, but even this first snow was so powdery and hard to form. But lots of fun to play in, because you don't get soaking wet.

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Silly kids
 
Mom and Claire went shopping for a gift for Trevor for Christmas. Claire was so excited to take the pennies she has earned in her piggy bank to the store.
 
After Claire went to her first friend birthday party



More silliness

Claire's birthday!

We celebrated Claire and Matthew's birthday at our place


I got some of those x-large cake tips at Walmart and then found a right coupler at Joanns and decorated some funfetti cupcakes for the party. I used the Our Best Bites tutorial to help. It wasn't as hard as it looks.


After dinner we played some games downstairs, then opened presents.

Birthday cousins- I love how Claire leaned closer to Matthew without prompting- They are such great friends


Claire's cute pose with her preschool crafts and Halloween candy



We had preschool at our house on Claire's birthday.  We were talking about Going Places that month, and she saw this idea to make a car in  a library book.  She told me that she would love a car like that more than her red fisher price one in the garage.  So we made these box cars for her birthday, she played with it for one day... probably because of all her other cool presents she got that night :)


Mom was tired from making the cake and we had a good coupon for our newly opened Papa Murphys, so we enjoyed pizza for dinner. Next time, I will remember to decorate the things in the middle of the cake before adding the things on the outside...but it all worked out.


The birthday girl and her castle cake. She loved her cake and told everyone about it for weeks!

Merry Christmas

van der Horst Family Update:

Jason and Lauren got to take an amazing trip together to Kauai.  Jason earned our hotel stay through a huge project at work.  We missed the kids but knew they were in good hands with grandma and grandpa van der Horst.  We are expecting our third child at the end of March!  We are excited to be having another little boy!  Claire (4) has been participating in a preschool with a few neighbors and loves it.  She continues to be the most helpful little one. Cleaning up toys is not exciting, but whenever I need something (like a box of kleenex), she is so quick to help me out!  She continues to be a most loving big sister and loves playing with Trevor.  Trevor (1.5) will be two years old a month after his little brother joins our family.  He is now able to eat a lot more, but still off dairy, soy, gluten, and nuts.  Fortunately he has never had an allergic reaction, just has tummy/digestive issues when he eats these things.  But he is talking, running, and getting into stuff- like most little ones.  He is still such a sweet little guy, and will be a great big brother soon!