Christmas Tree Hunt Part Two

For Christmas Tree Hunt Part Two we went to a lovely tree farm in Petaluma. Everything about it made me love Northern California so much. It was a sweet little farm with animals and crazy varieties of trees (When my mom's friend saw our tree she said, "Did you get that out of your backyard?" Also Santa was there with tiny candy canes. The best. On the way there we ate at The Fremont Diner in Sonoma. Holy coolness. Everyone there was so cool and everything about the restaurant was so cool. I was just ridiculously giggling the whole time. I had chicken and waffles, of course.

Five-Year-Old Princess Pajama Party and a Much Overdue Update on Tyler Elizabeth Dunne

We had 12 little girls running around our house playing, eating pancakes and watching The Little Mermaid. Basically Tyler's dream. She love love loves to play with friends and eat pancakes and to watch shows. Yep, those are her favorite things. 

She also really loves:

•   Jesus. It is amazing to watch her learn more and more about who God is and how His world works. She prays sincere and beautiful prayers. Apparently your moral compass is set by age five (or was it 12 (how could anyone really know?)) I started to panic about this when I thought about it the other night, but, actually, I think her moral compass is a pretty good one. She has a solid understanding of our total depravity and of God's all sufficient grace which is though Christ Jesus. That seems like the place to start to me.
• Evangeline. She says, "Hi, baby girl!" and then goes onto sing songs about her love for her sister and how she never needs to worry and things like this about 7 out of 10 times that she sees her. (Song example: "All the love that comes from my heart goes out to you")  She often holds her for me so that I can cut bagels in half or find Fox's other shoe. She also picks her up when Evie is happily playing on the floor and carries her around until they are both sort of stressed out and then I have to stop what I am doing and take the baby before Tyler drops her. Less cute.  
• Pretending to meet fictional characters such as Tinkerbell, Spiderman and his amazing friends, Harry Potter. I am all of these fictional characters. 
• She is so social and told me the other day that she would like to just play at a friend's house all of the time except for when she goes to school. But then she changed her mind when I reminded her that she wouldn't be able to see her mom and dad very often. Also I am not very social, so it makes me sort of feel like I am dying inside when I have to figure out how she can see people nearly everyday, but it's worth it. 
• She really loves us.
• Fox. They fight like squirrels especially when I am trying to put Evie down for a nap, but she really does love him. Sometimes she'll look at me and say,"He is so cute!" 
• She wants to be a paint artist and a mom when she grows up. Sadly, no more crane operator Tyler.
• Her favorite colors are pink, gold, and silver.
• Side note: When she wants us to think "Oh, you are sooo cute" she makes these crazy I'm-a-tiny-newborn faces, but she ends up looking like a crazy newborn dinosaur. I'm not sure what to do about that. 

Party Aftermath 

Ty's School Party!

Napa Valley Nursery School is a pretty fun place to have a birthday. Everyone helps make you a pretend cake (Tyler chose gingerbread). There is a small parade around the yard and you get to wear a crown. Tyler asked me to make carrot muffins for her school party. This idea came form a Max and Ruby book that we read months ago where Max eats ice cream for breakfast instead of what Ruby tells him to eat which is carrot muffins. Apparently these muffins really resonated with. They actually were super good.

Up on the House Top!

Dancing and singing and playing guitar with Papa should definitely be a new tradition. They took turns playing the guitar and singing. All of Tyler's songs were original compositions and I am pretty sure my Dad didn't do any dancing. We will encourage that next year. Fox has also discovered Nick's mandolin which he calls "my tiny titar," and he played along when the fancy struck him.

Trader Joe's Gingerbread House

Grammie and Tyler made one. Did you? Gingerbread houses are pretty confusing for children. Usually when you take time to make things that involve candy and frosting and cookies it is worth it because you get to eat it at some point. Not so much with the gingerbread house. You have to practice patience and wait through multiple steps and then...look at it's cuteness. But Tyler adjusted to this idea fairly quickly and, of course, snacked on some sprinkles. 

Christmas Tree Hunt Numero Uno!

I titled this post "Christmas Tree Hunt Numero Uno!" for two reasons. First of all we went to a tree lot in town and unfortunately discovered that it was ridiculously (slight exaggeration) over priced and not a one of us purchased a tree there which led to a second christmas tree hunt. Secondly we got a chance to spend time with some really fun new friends who happen to be from Chile. And get this: They got married on a Chilean TV show like that one show "A Wedding Story" which used to be on TLC when I was in high school! What?! I used to watch that show everyday. But that is not the only reason I like being their friends they are both funny and also took some cute pictures of our family! Thanks Nick and Nelly!