Let's See How Far We've Come

We hope you will enjoy this lastest installment of the Kyrie and Lariska Show. Of importance to note is Kyrie's outfit. (Yes, she dresses herself these days and I have begun referring to her as Punky. I cannot convince her to match her clothes, despite the fact that she seems to understand what matches and what does not.)



In case you are worried that I have forgotten Christmas, fear not. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of photos I have from a particular event (or bonanza as the case may be) and it takes me longer to decide what to do about it. Rest assured, I believe I will get to it...someday (hopefully soon).

Three Questions

Every night after Kyrie is in her bed and her "Twinkle Star" has finished being sung she asks Matt and I if she can ask three questions. Here were tonight's three questions:

1. How did God make ears?


2. Who was the first person God gave ears to?


3. How did God make lips?


4. How did God make the water and milk?


5. How did God make himself?

Obviously, that was not three questions. But, Kyrie declared that the second question didn't count as one of her three questions (I guess it was a subsection of Question #1 or something). And then she slipped number five by us with the magnitude of the question. I mean, haven't philosophers been asking that question for centuries. It makes me wonder...I bet philosophers haven't so much been asking that question for centuries as they have been trying to answer it for their curious children for centuries. Ach, we poor poor parents being outwitted by our children.

1st Christmas Present

Kyrie made Matt and I a Christmas present at preschool. She brought it home today, told me that under no circumstances could we have this present until Christmas Day, hid it (literally) in the Christmas tree and proclaimed that this was so that if Santa comes he won't think it is for him.

Poor Santa.

Movie Night

On Friday, we served dinner in front of the TV to our first-ever showing of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Can you believe the girls have never seen this before? Well...I can, because I was the one who didn't let them see it. I was concerned the Grinch was a little too scary. But, I think it helped that we showed the cartoon version rather than the Jim Carrey version. They definitely enjoyed it and when we were at Target on Saturday just had to purchase the book. We have read it every naptime and bedtime since!

Christmas Cookie Decorating

Tyler enjoys eating the frosting more than spreading it.

Oh, and scraping it off the cookie!

Check out Lariska's cookie. Can you say "sugar sprinkles"?

Amelia cuddling up to Nana.

Attempting to share a chair.

We'll figure this out eventually.

Jackson also prefers eating to decorating, imagine that.

When Kyrie got home from preschool she was quite excited to decorate some cookies as well.

It's important to concentrate when decorating cookies.

Ummm...yeah...again, check out the cookie. This one will be showcased on Christmas morning.

Lari, back at it after a little break.

Yup, knew we could do this.

Christmas Cookie Baking

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, Lariska, Kyrie, Nana and I baked a ton of cookies. We exchanged some of them with Cathy and J.J. (see Cookie Decorating photos) and we plan to give lots of the cookies to our neighbors while attempting not to eat them all ourselves!

 

Here, Lari helps us by unwrapping 40 peanut butter cups. And, she didn't even eat a single one! (Until they were in the cookies, that is.)

Bizarre Occurence #43

Or some number close to that I am guessing. Matt is taking down the wallpaper in our downstairs bathroom (soon the entire house will have a fresh coat of paint...okay, it will probably take awhile still) and needed to get the mirror cabinet off the wall in order to remove the wallpaper behind it. He asked for some help, to which I lovingly obliged (ha!). The screws were in the wall pretty tight and he even dropped the screwdriver once - it landed in the sink, no problem. Then, he held onto the mirror while I did the final screw. I also dropped the screwdriver. It bounced out of the sink, onto the toilet top and...you guessed it...splash. Into the toilet.

I laughed so hard I literally fell down. Matt didn't find it as funny.

Catch Up

Your preschooler will love this joke:

What did the Mommy tomato say to the little tomato? Ketchup.

Kyrie's ballet/tap class final evening:

As much of the class as I can fit in the photo.

Kyrie getting ready to dance.

Afterwards, we gave a flower to each of the girls. Kyrie was thrilled with hers.

Kyrie and her teacher, Miss Natalie.


Yea! We got our Christmas tree up - the day after Thanksgiving, even!:


Thanksgiving at the Berrall House:

Lari being silly.

Lari being silly with Uncle Jim.

The female Berrall cousins (as of 2008) - Kyrie, Amelia, and Lariska.

Nana and Pop-Pop's Christmas card?
Amelia (19 mos.), Jackson (3 years), Kyrie (4.5 years), Tyler (16 mos.), and Lariska (2.5 years)


The Elf on the Shelf makes a return:

Kyrie is very excited when a package appears under our tree shortly after Thanksgiving.

The girls are happy to see that Crispy has come back to our family.


Making gingerbread houses at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Mommy, can I eat this? And this? And this? And this?

Hmmm...where should I put this candy? How about in my mouth.

Will, hard at work.

Lariska loves any kind of art project and attacks it with zeal.

Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas card:
Kyrie (4.5 years), Carrie and Drew (7 mos.), Will (2.5 years), Lariska (2.5 years) and Kelly, Mark, Mike, Linda, and Matt

HP Widget

Hmmm...I thought this would go on my sidebar, but it automatically placed itself as post, so I guess this is where it will be. Guess I don't understand how these widget things work...

Pregnancy Brain

I wish I had kept track of all of the crazy things I have done or that have happened since I have been pregnant these past few months. I clearly remember a few of them, which I feel I must share, but sadly there were more than this. I don't know where my brain is.

I first realized I was pregnant when I was driving home from church one evening and suddenly found myself on Good Hope Rd. I don't really know how I got there. I am pretty sure I thought I was turning on Lisbon, as I normally would, but instead I turned two entire intersections too early and found myself on Good Hope. It was a bizarre feeling and I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm pregnant." Up until that point I had convinced myself I wasn't, but after that I was pretty sure.

About eight weeks along in my pregnancy I was making bacon for a casserole. I had the bacon in the pan and had turned on the burner. I went to the sink to clean some stuff up and when I heard the sizzling behind me I thought it meant all was well. A few minutes later I went to check the bacon and was surprised to find it still raw in the pan. The sizzling was coming from the bacon that was still in the package sitting on the other side of the stove on top of a different burner than the one I had meant to turn on. Fried bacon, melted plastic, chaos. How did I not notice the smell? I nearly lost my lunch trying to clear the air in the kitchen.

Probably a few weeks after that I was making a hot dog in the microwave for Lari for lunch. I remember getting close to the microwave and feeling the heat coming from the vent in the microwave. All I felt was that heat and I came the closest I ever have in a pregnancy to throwing up. It was the most violent reaction to a smell (that I had yet to even smell) that I have ever had. I spent the next half-hour running from the bathroom to the kitchen trying to cut the hot dog up for Lari. Linda was on her way over to watch the girls that day and we had not told anyone we were pregnant. I was panicking about what I was going to do if I was throwing up when Linda walked in. Luckily, by the time she got there I had everything under control.

And finally, yesterday I went to get a tupperware container for the leftover beans from dinner out of the cabinet. I saw that there was a container that looked a little funky, so I took it out. On further inspection I discovered another set of leftover beans in the cabinet from a past meal that were way past their prime...being stored in a cabinet and all. I can only assume that I had meant to put them in the fridge and somehow put them in the cabinet instead. So bizarre. I have no recollection of such a thing. All I could do was laugh and laugh...and then throw the entire container away.

I'll keep you posted on any more bizarre occurences, but I hope they are finished now that I am out of the first trimester!