more creepy crawlers

We found this spider in the backyard. (actually it was two webs the dark spot is another spider on another web right behind this one, both were eating something too!) Since spiders seem to be more terrifying than other bugs to Aurora we took some time to talk about the good things spiders do, like catch flies, mosquitoes and other bugs that bite.  

 Aurora used our old pocket camera to take some pictures too.

 Gideon is getting so close to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks but is not quite ready to take a "step". He's been really fussy lately too, He's probably got a tooth coming, poor guy. Thankfully it seems to help to put him in the snugly backpack and go for walks, he really enjoys that.

My handsome boy

Finally took some time to photograph my little handsome yesterday. Here are two of my favorites. :) To see more check out my photography site

www.lilypondphotography.com

3 months!

Wednesday brought a wonderful answer to many years of prayer.My dear friend (who happens to also be married to my husbands youngest biological uncle- his mom is from a BIG family with 10 biological kids and 5 adopted ones) had a baby girl. She and her husband have a 5 year old son (almost 6) who came after many years of prayer as well.

For the past 4 years they have prayed for another (and I prayed specifically for a daughter for them :) ) Sweet little Abigail is the answer to all those prayers!! 

It was so fun being pregnant with our babies together, both Allison and I have struggled with infertility and are now both blessed with a boy and girl. 

I am just so thrilled for her and her husband and son and can hardly wait to hold Abigail in February when we visit. 

This is something I made for her, I hope she likes it, I've been playing around with watercolor painting lately. I have a few other gifts for her that are on the go but being December time kind of got away from me so those will have to get mailed later. 

 This week Gideon turned 3 months old! In some ways it seems like he's been with us for so much longer but it also seems like it's gone so quickly

 snoozing together Wednesday morning.

 his facial expressions always make me laugh

 We found a new game at the Bible book store. We haven't played it yet, We are going to wait and play it when Caleb is off work and can play with us. We did have a look and it looks pretty cute!!

 Here is Aurora with it, It's called Bible Snap. It looks like you could use it for Bible lessons as well. and flash cards. Very useful game! :)

 Saturday m mother-in-law is doing a small party to celebrate Caleb's promotion. Aurora and I made a present for him today using an idea I found on Pinterest from I am momma hear me roar one of my favorite blogs.  Aurora drew a picture of him on parchment paper (It's supposed to be freezer paper shiny side down but I didn't have any, i think it would work better with freezer paper the parchment paper doesn't stick when you iron it) then I cut out her drawing and used it as a stencil

 Turned out pretty funny I think. I love the crazy little drawings toddlers do!

 And she made him a card while I was doing that.

 While we were doing that Gideon was chilling in his sassy seat...

 Then this afternoon Aurora worked on her puzzle. This is a pretty big deal, she's never been interested in puzzles before and has done this one completely by herself, probably because it's princesses...

 and here he is sleeping again, he likes to hold his hair while he sleeps. :)

family prints

Now that we are a family of four and our sweet boy is here, I wanted to create something with all of our hand prints on it. I love all the different sizes of our hands right now. A's hands look so big now when they seemed so small only weeks ago.

Originally I wanted a long short canvas and do all of our prints in a row, but I couldn't find one the right size at our local art store (or anywhere else that has them) So I came up with plan B which I am quite happy with actually.

So, first off, prime the canvas (the two small ones are for another project, I have quite a few on the go at the moment) and let it dry. I primed mine a couple days ago and just finished off tonight.

One blue hand print from hubby and a burgundy one from me...
Let it dry... (doesn't take too long for acrylic paint to dry)

 Paint up A's hand, remind her to hold very still and spread her fingers and not to move until I lift her hand off. Remind her again, then push down her hand. (she obeyed quite well)

Then the tricky part, getting a newborn's handprint... ya, if you've ever tried you understand. They like to clench their little fists and are surprisingly strong. I was quite successful when A was a baby and a little less so this time but oh well.

Hubby helped by holding G, we tried while he was asleep but when the cold paint touched his hand....well he obviously woke up, but still he did pretty well. Not the best hand print ever but it will do.

(sorry for the crummy pictures, it's dark out so my natural light is gone)