The Ten Plagues Finger Puppets

You know your bible stories, right? Remember the 10 Plagues of Egypt? Moses and the rotten Pharaoh?


Someone thought it would be a good idea to turn the 10 plagues into finger puppets. For the kids, I guess. No, that's not my hand, and I don't actually have these. Someone else found these at a gas station.

Now that you've taken in those pictures for a few minutes (I'm sure you have. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to stare at those pictures for anything less than 3 minutes), allow me to point out a few things: everyone but Darkness and Death of Firstborn Son are smiling. It's like the rest of the plagues were just a party, but Darkness and Death of Firstborn Son are Debbie Downer.

I also like how Lice's fists are up in the air, like he's saying "I AM THE CHAMPION!"

And the Blood isn't even shaped like a blood drop. He's like a blood drop that's been smushed in a microscope slide.

Gingerbread Houses!

Last night Glenn, David, Peter, Leigh-Ann and Trevor and I all made gingerbread houses! Without gingerbread. I'm not that cool. But graham crackers did pretty well.

Despite some seriously lacking frosting (it was way too runny), we had a couple all-star buildings

Glenn had, by far, the best house/fort. Isn't that beautiful?

David made a car that was also pretty spectacular.

This is Peter's Art Deco project. Museum worthy, no?

Trevor made a snowman massacre. Those are killer fish in the pond, who somehow also destroyed the house.

Pay no attention to the woman with no make-up and no shower. Instead, focus your attention on the spectacular Kenmore refrigerator box in the dirt, with a dirty snowman. The top says "this side up".
And, of course, the star of the show! He made no contribution to the gingerbread house population, but he did entertain Leigh-Ann for a while. I promise Leigh-Ann was there, but she didn't make a house and I forgot to snag a picture of her before she left. She was beautiful, as always :)

Crafting and Christmas

What has Michelle been up to these days? Well, besides slathering lotion on the Attigator's newly diagnosed winter eczema (don't worry, it's never bothered him at all, it just freaks me out to see it), I'm been making THIS STUFF:

I actually started work on this a long time ago, but after refinishing the wood didn't work out exactly how I wanted, I bagged it and just bought a can of spray paint. The reupholstery work was super easy though.

Christmas countdown... 'nuff said.

We just got a Kitchenaid, and I wanted to try making fondant. I think these turned out pretty adorable and delicious, if I do say so myself!

I've also been getting into embroidery and cross stitching lately. I just made these Christmas curtains out of a couple of tea towels. Obviously they need to be shortened a bit, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!


I've also found that, since having Atticus, I need a place to channel... certain... aspects of my personality. Cross stitching is the perfect place (perfectly hilarious place) to say things that don't have a place in baby conversation.


Of course, I like to cross stitch pretty things too, and this is just super simple, but this cracks me up every time I see it.

Babies

I can't wait to see this! I love seeing the differences in parenting between cultures, but even more than that, I love seeing the similarities. Like the beginning and the end: Kids fight the same, no matter where they're raised; and if we ever left Atticus alone in the bath, I'm positive that Piper would come in the sneak a drink (her full water bowl is always her last resort. No, I don't know why.)

Best Christmas Lights Ever.

(click to enlarge)

The man who did this writes:

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after two days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that.

My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

Quality time with Photoshop

I recently found Photoshop Elements for an awesome deal (30$, sweet, right?) So somewhere between decorating for Christmas and trying to help Atticus get rid of a nasty cold, I've been playing around with it. Want to see what I've done?

I love the nearly blinding bright, contrasty colors!! Chris and Lorna, I hope you don't mind me posting this picture of your kids, but I love how bright Ian's jacket turned out.








I turned up the red a little too much in this. Atticus looks kind of like Rudolph.

Muted colors are nice too, sometimes :)

Mornings with Atticus

Mornings with Atticus are pretty great!

He always wakes up happy!


He loves to play with his toys after he wakes up, but his favorite thing to play with is whatever I'm using.

About mid-morning, he likes to just sit and quietly contemplate the pets...

... but Blake is just waiting for him to learn how to throw a ball.

This is one of the looks he gives me when it's nap time. "Are you going to put me to bed or not?"

For lunch, he will have the duck. With a side of milk.