Homemade Christmas

This year we ended up having a type of homemade Christmas.  This was in part due to necessity (toys are so expensive in Brazil!) and partly because we wanted to do something memorable.  

The day began with homemade cinnamon rolls. Mike made the rolls and I made the frosting which meant that Mike was the one who got up early.

Two days before Christmas, Mike made a bunch of blocks for the girls.  What made them extra special was that they were made from some leftover wood from the former mission base.  

 He even whipped up a box for them from other scraps we had laying around:

 He also altered the girls' doll house that they had gotten last year in order to fit their Barbies (it had three floors instead of two).  This is how it looked after he varnished and painted it:  

I got inspired and decided to make the girls some Barbie clothes.  These took me way too long (mainly because my old sewing machine kept jamming), but I think the girls liked them.  

Shower robes

A dress, a skirt, and a top I made from some old material I had.

There may be more pictures to come.  Since Christmas I made Barbie a pair of jeans and we're working on making them some hammocks!  

I have to brag about two of Mike's other projects (in addition to the cabinets he fixed for me for Christmas).  It's great having a hubby who is handy!  Last Saturday he made me this cabinet for above our bathroom sink.  It still needs to be varnished and doors/mirrors, but I think it's going to be great!  Ones we saw in stores that weren't even very nice were over $200!

  

He also made this swing for the girls in about a half hour from some scraps he had.  The girls are always begging us to push them.  The only problem is that he might have to make another one!  

So, that was our homemade Christmas.  We'll see if we are this motivated (or frugal) next year!      

Emily is 4!

We now have a four-year-old.  How is that possible?  In case I forget that Emily is quickly growing up, she is always ready to remind me that she is a "big girl now."     

She really is quite a big girl already.  She is learning to read, helps me crack eggs when I'm cooking (with amazing success), and will be starting pre-school in a few weeks!  

December 5, we celebrated her big day with some friends and the traditional special birthday cake. 

My favorite picture of Emily with her cake.

I thought about doing this cake last year, but Emily wanted a Thomas cake instead.  So, this year, I talked up the castle cake for a while.  Little did I know that this cake would take me forever!  First I had to make the cake and buttercream frosting from scratch.  I did buy the fondant which saved some time.  However, I was still up until 5:00 in the morning making it and that was before I put on the cone towers!  


One thing that took so long was that the fondant kept melting because the humidity here is way up now that it's rainy season.  I ended up having to put the fondant back in the fridge every little bit so that I could actually work with it.The next day we stopped at four places around town looking for the ice cream cones.  One place wanted to charge $1.50 for each cone, then we found another place that sold them for about 8 cents.  I even colored the sugar to coat the cones, which was a first for me.  So, anyway, here is a close-up of the finished product!  

The cake!

Blowing out the candles.

Family picture.

Emily, our quiet girl that isn't a push-over.  We are proud of how far you've come this year.  We can't wait to see how you will grow as a person and in knowledge of Jesus this year.  We love you so much!  

Lydia is 2!

My baby girl is 2! I can't believe two years have already passed since Lydia was born. She's been through a lot, including surgery on her skull at 12 weeks, 15 months of helmet therapy, but she's doing great now! She's our social butterfly, always ready with a smile.

For Lydia's second birthday I made a flower bouquet cake. This was actually one of the easiest cakes I've made. It would have been even easier if I had just used a ceramic pot instead of making one of out of cake. Overall I think it came out pretty well, but I was glad that I assembled it right before we ate it as it was a heavy cake!

My favorite picture of Lydia and her cake got out of the 100+ I took!

Lydia blowing out her two candles.

Family picture.

Lydia with Emily and her friends

Thanks, Lydia, for a great year.  We're looking forward to what the next will bring.  Hopefully it won't go by too quickly!