Christmas in Portland

Thanks so much for the wonderful presents Grandma and Grandpa Whisler and Grandpa and Grandma Warth! Grandparent presents are always favorites ;)

How do we know exactly who is the Mommy pony and who is the Daddy pony? Well, since you asked... these ponies are extremely anatomically correct. I discovered that as I was picking out a "family set" for each girl at Target (chosen for cuteness with blatant disrespect to breed.) I picked one up and said, "Oh this can be a Mommy pony!" On closer inspection I realized that... THAT particular pony could certainly never be a Mommy. Gabriella also discovered this interesting fact so we've had lots of fun conversations about it.

Jingle Bells with flair! Note that Gabriella has changed out of her Christmas jammies into more fitting elegant holiday attire.

We had a very nice, quiet... Ok, maybe not so quiet, Christmas with just our little family in Portland. The girls were so excited and I heard the words "Thank You!" more times than I can count which is always a bonus.

Camels are so Old Testament

I don't know about your nativity set, but at our house the wise men use a Fisher-Price mini van for their trek to see the infant Jesus.


"Which way was that star pointing anyway?"
"Don't worry! This thing has GPS"




We wish you a very Merry Christmas. Hope and reconciliation entered into our world in the form of an infant. Today that hope is still living and active. This Christmas may you rest in the peace of God's love.

A certain twinkle in little eyes..

Christmas is coming.

Baby, it's cold outside

What mammals do best

Dinosaurs have invaded our house. To be truthful... it is kind of a fun break from princesses. It started with Juliana's discovery of a dinosaur book from Jonathan's childhood. She looked at that thing over and over for days. So, we got some more dinosaur books at the library, and then more dinosaur books at the next library trip and then lo and behold... nice big plastic dinosaurs showed up in the Target dollar section. We "adopted" four of them and Anna the deinonychus, Trudy the tricerotops, Ted the stegosaurus and Larry the apatosaurus all found a loving home in the Whisler house.




Juliana loves to include the dinosaurs in play with the dollhouse. One day she was playing out a little scene where the dinosaur arrived at the house and roared. This seemed to scare the dollhouse baby so the baby tickled the dinosaur and that seemed to start off a friendship. The baby then rode the dinosaur all the way to the couch where Jonathan and I were sitting. Evidently, all that riding had made the baby a bit thirsty so Juliana announced, "Dinosaur nurse!!" and put that little baby right underneath the dinosaur much like a baby calf would drink. Gabriella came along to observe this and with a rather reproving voice announced, "Juliana!, dinosaurs are not mammals!"

So there you have it. Dinosaurs can play with babies, but not breastfeed them.

Haircut

I have been in a state of hair desperation for months. My straightener died at the start of summer. Thus began the summer of the long poufy ponytail. After several failed attempts at actually getting a haircut I finally had an appointment and nothing was going to stop me. Nothing... except the fact that the car would not start. As Jonathan messed around with the car I called to cancel my appointment and tried to choke back tears. When to my great surprise Jonathan was actually able to get the car started (even though he never figured out what he did to do so) I said, "Whatever you do, don't turn it back off! I am GOING. I can always call someone for a ride home!! See ya!!" I'm pretty sure he tried to argue with that, but I was out the door before he had much of a chance.

After an hour of quiet, child-free, head massaging bliss with a miracle worker named Brianna I emerged a new person. And, the car even started. When I went to work the next day an eight year old boy said to me, "Natalie, I really like your new haircut!, but when you walked in I thought you were one of the teens." Remind to to forgive that blessed little boy the next time he attempts to drive me up a wall.

I asked Jonathan to take a picture of my new haircut. He said he would do it if he didn't have to get out of the chair he was sitting in. This is what I got:

Not the best picture of my face ever, but the hair looks pretty good. I guess it doesn't take much to beat a long frizzy ponytail.