Happy 3rd Birthday Carter!!

OMG, are we done yet? No...here's Christmas

Oz decorates the tree.

With Santa. Obviously neither of them was thrilled.

Making red velvet cake. What a fiasco. This is not something I'll be making again. The cake didn't rise. I only made two layers because I didn't want it to be huge, but both layers ended up only being the size of one layer. We dyed it green because I didn't want Carter ingesting all that Red Dye 40. Heather tasted a little bit of it and said the crumb tasted like cake. We made the frosting and Heather and Carter frosted it. That's how nice it looked. Then we set it aside. Directions didn't mention refrigerating it, but upon tasting it the next day Heather and I were both struck by the thought that Shirley's is always cold. The caked tasted like rancid cardboard and the smell was really just icky. We ended up throwing the entire thing away. Ick.

Ta da! Christmas pj's.

The Loot.

Andrew gets underwear.

The aftermath.

Andrew reads about the greatest human to ever walk the Earth, also known as Chuck Norris.

Heather cleans up. This was very appreciated by me.

Picture by Carter.

Opening gifts with Grandpa.

St. Nick

Oswald's Janky Teeth

Carny tooth.

Fangs.

Both adorable, but I was a little afraid those middle teeth didn't exist. Fortunately he's cut both of this upper front teeth now so he'll look normal soon.

Oh Hanukkah, oh Hannukah...

I had wanted to celebrate Hanukkah last year, but didn't get the menorah finished in time. I put it away and told myself I'd finish it in time for Hanukkah 2008. And guess what, I didn't. It was the first night of Hanukkah and it wasn't finished. I sewed my little heart out and had it done around ten or so. Carter missed lighting the candle the first day, but on day two we just lit both.

Carter finds his gelt.

Lighting the candle.

Since Hanukkah coincided with Christmas this year we chose to only give one gift on the last evening of Hanukkah. Carter got gelt each night and then on the eighth night they both got gifts. Here they are waiting for them.

Carter tears into his.

Oz eats his.

A piggy bank! Yes, I do see the irony in giving a piggy bank for Hanukkah, but I knew he'd really love it and found the perfect size one just before Christmas so I just went with it. Good thing we're not Orthodox Jews huh? Oz got clothes for his gift since he doesn't care how practical and boring his presents are.

How do dinosaurs visit museums?

We met Auntie Heather in Chicago the Monday before Christmas.

Carter was ready to go. It was a bitter cold day so I gave him a choice of two sweaters. He chose the one with 'colors'. Heather said he looked stupid. At least he stood out when he started to wander too far.

Trilobite eyes Andrew.

Trilobite eyes Auntie Heather.

Carter first sees some dinosaurs. This was the whole reason we went to the museum. Carter is WAY into dinosaurs right now (which I am enjoying much more than the train fascination). He loved seeing them all and I think we spent nearly an hour in that room.

Hanging with the apatosaurus.

In the apatosaurus footprint.

I have to say, having never seen real dinosaur fossils before, movies had led me to believe that dinosaurs were much bigger than they actually were. Thanks stupid Jurassic Park.

The baby gets eaten by a dinosaur.

Us grown ups actually learned quite a bit. The history section contained quite a bit of information that 17 years of school seem to have left out. Like the fact that there have been multiple mass extinctions (dinosaurs were number four). It would appear that we're heading into another mass extinction now per the above sign. Unfortunately it does appear that you only notice these things after they happen. Mass extinction number three lasted something like 5 million years.

With Sue.

Oz sleeps.

Both kids fell asleep on the way home and then were up sort of late that night. It was cold and there was a potential parking fiasco that was thankfully avoided so all in all it was an awesome trip.