A little bit of December

This is a self portrait by Damon.  Maybe it's just me, but I see a striking resemblance to Mr. Potato Head.

Random note... I have been making all of my family's bread for about the past year and a half.  I've maybe bought two loaves in that time and they were both about a year ago.  Anyway, Arie decided she was hungry and decided to help herself to a brand new loaf!  *Sigh.  It's a good thing she is so cute.

I did some Christmas/grocery shopping while Damon was at preschool.  Can you find the one item that doesn't fit in?  Shortly after getting to the store, she curled right up and went to sleep.  I had to use some pretty awesome grocery stacking skills for the rest of the trip.  This is so atypical.  She never falls asleep anywhere but her bed.  I didn't quite know what to do!

See what I mean about the cuteness?  It saves her from getting into so much trouble.  Like, on an hourly basis.  Don't let that innocent face fool you.  She is very sweet and has a very good temperament for a two year old, but she is one big mischief maker.  And she makes mischief in order to distract your attention so she can move on to bigger and better plans of mischievousness.   And she is fast.  And I promise, I do watch her.  But lets just say, hypothetically, that she was returned to my doorstep by a police officer in December and that I lost her at the mall last Saturday.  Hypothetically...

(Okay, she escaped from the back yard while I was cooking dinner.  The older kids left the gate open.  Someone saw her happily wandering the streets and called the police.  Who then picked her up and started going door to door with her.  Then, the other day, I was doing a return at Children's Place when she slipped out of the store and down and around a corner, about 9 storefronts away, to play on some toys she had seen when we entered the mall.  Yes, I know, Mother of the Year award goes to me.  Did I mention we are going to Disneyland next week?  We may or may not come home with Arie.)

Church is exhausting.

Annual gingerbread house decorating at the library.  I'm so glad they do this.  Decorating gingerbread houses, or graham cracker houses in this case, is fun, but it's even better when all you have to do is show up and everything is there ready for you.