Gingerbread Creations

Osten and Piper spent one morning putting together a gingerbread house.

As it turned out, they had more fun playing with the icing and decorating their new cutting boards.

Somehow, all of the sugar made them a little hot . . . ??

Here are their fabulous creations! The blue one is Piper's, and the red one is Osten's.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Here are a few shots from the Christmas pageant this morning. Osten made for a rather unruly sheep, but he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Don't be fooled by the sheepish grin. Apparently, this sweet costume did not do much to contain his wild side.

Here's the renegade sheep, back in the fold!

Shark Bait

Osten broke in his new shark tent today. He took the bait just as soon as I pitched the tent, and he spent the rest of the afternoon nearby his make-shift campsite in the living room.  

Even FaFa hung out in the tent . . .

and Grammi crawled into the tent for story time.

We also got out Osten's sleeping bag, and he set up shop for a real campout minus the fire and the outdoors!

Dress Rehearsal

We had the dress rehearsal for the Christmas pageant at church this morning. Here's a picture of our favorite sheep sitting on the altar with the rest of the cast.

And here's our favorite donkey sitting backstage while his mama helps all the other animals, angels, shepherds, Mary and Joseph, the innkeeper and wisemen with their costumes.

Check out the chucks, I mean hooves, on that sheep!

I don't know about ewe, but I think he's the cutest sheep I've ever seen!  (PUNNY!!)

Reindeer in Our Midst

Osten noticed almost immediately after we moved into our new house that there are reindeer amongst us. Well this morning, Daddy and Osten saw three of Rudolph's friends in our very own yard. We should have known that Santa was nearby! He surprised us with an early visit during naptime this afternoon!

Marci seemed to like her drum and instruments.

And Osten got his highly anticipated choo-choo puzzle as well as a few other puzzles.

Hush Little Baby . . .

Don't say a word. Your brother's gonna name your piggie "Parker-bird." Okay, so I just added the "bird" to complete the rhyme, but Osten did pronounce "Parker" as the name for Marci's piggie. Coincidentally, Parker is also the name of Emma Grace's soon-to-be baby brother, and there has been much talk of him lately in our house. I guess the name meets with Osten's approval, and he's decided that we need a Parker of our own. It will be interesting to see if the name sticks, especially since Marci still isn't showing much interest in her pig!

Big Boys Don't Cry

I think we may have solved Osten's troubles with crying in the tub when having shampoo rinsed from his hair. We bathed him and Marci in our tub the other night, and the height of the faucet was perfect for Osten to stick his head underneath it for a rinse.

It's back to all smiles in the tub now for this big boy!