365 days....and counting...

Monday, he turned a year.   In an effort to keep him a "baby" I am not referring to him as a one year old, but instead by number days, like we do when they are first born.

We had cake.

And fun gifts.

He is working on his fifth tooth. He weighs about 21 pounds, his official check up is not until later in January, but last week at urgent care, he weighed in at 21 pounds.  That's right, he is all boy!  Last week he crawled outside and in a matter of a couple of minutes, found an ant hill; the small, red, biting kind.  He didn't have a reaction, thankfully, but did have several bites over his head, face, neck, arms and hands.

He also will find a dirt pile faster than lightening!

Merry Christmas

A very big MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!

Did you get our card?

No?

Oh...that would be due to the fact that they are still sitting here untouched.  But if you check the blog you have more of a traditional Christmas update than what the cards will contain, if/when they get sent out...first made (although I did find a box of cards I could use) then addressed, sorted, you know the drill, they will be a basic greeting.  However, since the 12 days of Christmas have only begun...I have about eleven days to tackle that task.

 Apple cream pie. We made in honor of Jesus's Birthday, and sang Happy birthday a couple of times to him.  Yummy.

Love Love LOVE this time of year...we do our best to not get caught up in all the hurry hurry hurry, endless work/group parties, or the shopping till we drop.  For the most part we carry on as normal...then we hit Christmas and just stop.

We stop and just hang out as a family.  We don't go anywhere, unless we want to.  Wednesday we hosted a soup supper and caroling around the campfire for friends...it was a small intimate group and that was wonderful...we also didn't carol around the campfire, disappointing yes, but also okay.  I had too much soup and food prepared, but we had expected close to 20 more to show up in addition to the 8 that did.  While Kjetil and I were late to our own party (more on that another time) the evening was meant to be a chance to sit back and relax, enjoy ourselves and our friends, and that happened!

Thursday was a great day at home, we made ginger bread cookies and went to church.  We treated ourselves to supper at the Village Inn --they were wonderful hosts, then went home and opened a few presents.  The kids are wonderful and at the great age that they LOVED everything, every gift was their FAVORITE they took turns and really got into it all.

Christmas morning, sock puppets were completed and the show was given all before 10AM

While I thought we were going to have a pajama day, CJ couldn't stand the idea of staying in her pjs all day, plus she had new tights to wear.  Laurelei stayed in her new Dora pjs...all day.  We opened a few more presents...again each one they loved and was their favorite.

Ginger bread cookies were decorated.

 

Big shipping boxes played in.

So here we are today, playing, reading books and just hanging out and getting in our cuddles, snuggles, and giggles. I may be a stay at home mom, but I really love the days we can just stay at home and not worry about outside obligations.

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.

Joy

In this season of joy, let me share with you something that has brought us much joy over the past couple of months.  We joined a produce food co-op.  Twice a month we get various produce at an unbelievable price! Such simple joy, and it fills our bellies.  Let me show you.

 

Those are honey crisp apples!  Each basket we get contain at least 6 different veggies and 6 different fruit for a mere $15.  Bountiful Basket Saturdays, we eat lunch late in anticipation of what we might get.  Most recently we got sweet corn.

Because lunch was late, or because it was such a treat, she ate one whole cob before it got cooked.

We all got into it.

Big sister felt the need to help a bit.

I need to start juicing some of our oranges.  CJ eats the kiwi right up, and one night Laurelei kept sneaking out of bed to sneak some spinach (I was making a lasagna for the next day) ~how can I yell at her to go back to bed if she wants to stay up to eat spinach?

The girls love to see what we get each time and are eager to help put away and try out the new produce.  I love that they are eager to know about the food we eat and to try new things.  Unless it is a specific produce I need, I no longer buy produce when I'm grocery shopping, that saves me time, money and most importantly - sanity!

Find a garden share or produce co-op near you!  See what joy it can fill your life with.

Christmas Break

This afternoon was the children's Christmas program.

We had an angel

A Chicken, who at times wore part of her costume, and other times, none of it.
And one very good self entertaining little boy.

That's his pacifer he is tossing and chasing after.

CJ did a great job with the mass of angels, and they intentionally put the littlest ones as chickens with the idea that chickens just wonder and do their own thing. I had very good intentions to tape the entire 8 minutes and 72 second program....but let me share what I got taped.


As I turned off the camera and set it down, Kjetil attempted to get Gloria to play a duet with him...he got a few bass notes played before I got him pulled away. Laurelei did join the program for a bit. This is what happens without an extra set of hands.

Pastor Allen led the program reminding us that Jesus came as a baby, so that the children could learn the story and share it with adults who need reminding, what Christmas really is all about.

So much time, effort and passion is placed into these programs, by adults, and ultimately handed over to the children, who always just do it as it needs to be done, regardless to the adults in the room. Merry Christmas everyone, we will be having cake to celebrate Jesus's birth on Friday!

Can I admit that the past 7 to 10 days has been really tough, emotionally and spiritually? Besides being busy, like normal, we have had family and friends have health concerns and in general we wish we could be closer to help out and comfort. We have had school concerns to deal with and we all had stuffy heads with colds. We have gotten good sleep recently and I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks with very little on the calendar! I think we have reached the half way point and we will be busy with Christmas and birthdays for the next couple of months and most importantly, re-balancing our lives. I am grateful for the opportunity and look forward to our break and beyond.

Sweetness

Officially, she no longer naps. However, once in awhile it gets the best of her and she falls asleep mid-something, this time playing a computer game.

Recently while driving to town, Laurelei informed me that she needed new feet. "you need new feet?" Yes, mine hurt. "Why do they hurt?" "I need new feet". Okay...I told her I would keep a look out for new feet for her. She wasn't wearing shoes that time..she tries to never wear shoes. A couple of weeks later I was getting new shoes for CJ and watching her get her feet measured Laurelei stepped right up to have her's measured --not something she is typically willing to do. Well mark another mark for me on the "not going to win mommy of the year" side. I was confident that she was a six, maybe a 7 for 'certain' shoes. She's an 8. Not close, but fully a size 8. No wonder her feet hurt and she refused to wear the size 6 shoes I kept putting on her!

Her new obsession is her Dora, wait I mean, D-D-Dora pajamas. She'll put them on at 3pm and declare it dark out and time for bed. I often have to peel them off her in the morning. One morning she got dressed without a struggle and then told me her Dora needed to be washed. I'll admit, I didn't realize that there would NOT be another viable option for sleep ware, and had not gotten it washed. I didn't even put it into the washer until after bath time and it became an issue. I assured her that tomorrow night she could wear it. As she watched the washer spin her precious Dora around, she told me to stop it and get it out for her. Later, I heard her roaming around, but was ignoring her...she popped around the corner, with Dora PJs in hand and a big smile, "other" pjs already off. I protested..."they're wet" she replied, "they're clean". Okay...I turned them right side out...she put them on and went to bed. I'm very happy that we'll have a second Dora option after Christmas.

However, the pajamas have not made actual bedtime easier.

We are also preparing for the Christmas program that is this Sunday.

Inside decorating

Watch out.

While CJ is still searching for our chimney, we do have stockings hung with care.

While snow, snowmen, candles, lights and pine cones adorn our half wall, my favorite of all is our nativity scene and the hours upon hours all the kids play with Baby Jesus, and the music to my ears, most of the time is that they play with it all very well together.  

Ninety six please

Getting ready for school CJ said she would like her hair in braids.

Ninety six of them (her new random number for everything).

I said, we don't have enough time.

Okay ten.

I got six sectioned out and done before it was time to leave and her sitting skills began to run low.

And here is a picture of one of her recent writings she brought home from school.  As you can see this is a letter to Santa.  I saw that the teachers did a translation on most of her classmate's lists, this one requires no translation...well not if you know what she has been obsessed with for the past year that is.

First off, I have been very impressed with her writing and how close she typically gets to writing the word correctly.  At home she always wants to write words correctly, so I slowly spell out each letter for her, but I know that at school they are encouraged to sound it out...So, have you figured it out?  It says:

I WNT (want) A TRANPLA (trampoline --I'm guess she just quit writing and figured Santa would know.)

She works it into any conversation she can.  Such as, "mommy after your meeting are you going to go to the store to get my trampoline?" Or "when it's my birthday and I get my trampoline....." Or in talking to her sister or brother, "you have to take turns and be very careful when you jump on our trampoline so no one gets hurts, and you can't wear shoes" --said only when she knows that either mommy or daddy can hear her. She will let anyone know who asks.  She's good.  She's not getting a trampoline for Christmas or her birthday.  I'm hoping the pink guitar with flowers and other fun things smooth the issue over.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh christmas tree......

sorting out the branches --matching colors and sizes, very educational!

lights layer by layer...a very wide tree 1.5 -2 strands of lights per layer!

An hour into the process and the 2 little ones put themselves down for a nap...this is his great escape to sleep.  CJ is upset that I won't let her put ornaments on yet, still.

playing with the camera was more fun than fluffing branches

It really is a beautiful tree. The girls like to move the ornaments around so now we have a few bare spots, but they are enjoying Christmas and that is all that matters.

This was Grandma Linda's tree, then we had the great tree swap.  I love it.  I do understand why she always had her sons and others with long arms help her put it up.  I thought it was a pre-lit tree that she added lights to (it's not pre lit).  I have lots of lights....but I would not have had enough for the tree had she not included the lights in the exchange.  THANKS!!!

I'm sure all the kids will decide it's nap time when it comes time to take the tree down.

Pancake Breakfast Peformance

In the past month the girls have performed 3 times.  In the last performance CJ went from 1 dance to three dances.  Laurelei's class went from crying and running off stage to having everyone attempting to perform part of the song...and that includes Laurelei!  She did such a good job chugging her arms, doing the claps, and even waving through her turn.  At one point she noticed a "boo boo" on her hand, walked to the front of the stage for me to kiss it...then returned to her dance.

Cap on backwards, making her own statement...and moving as you can tell from me having the camera on the wrong setting and the picture blurry.

She did her circus act and added a tap routine to Jeepers Creepers and mom still didn't realize camera on wrong setting.
And the finale!  The little ones were never taught the dance, but included anyways.  Laurelei who wouldn't wear any other hat during dress rehearsal had no interest in wearing the Santa hat for the finale during the performance.  CJ's mom didn't get the memo to change from tap shoes into ballet for the finale, fortunately, CJ didn't mind.

And what does a little brother get stuck doing during all these performances?

He just hangs out....

Okay he hung out in the stroller and only enjoyed part of the show...this was his big sister emptying out the drawers and having a little fun...she didn't fit as well.

Winter

Advent is here!  We have simply decorated the outside.  I should get a wreath for the door, we'll see if I get that done, and it would be fun to have some other outside decorations to put out, but if any of you know me...I'll wait till after Christmas or stores start having their 75-90% of Christmas sales, so it could be something I share next year.

The 9.5ft pre lit Christmas tree that I got on sale after Christmas last year, is outside.  Our house, sadly has 7.5 ft ceilings, and during the house hunt, Eric was not interested in measuring out ceiling heights for me.  Apparently the logic used when buying a house does not involve, will our Christmas tree fit?.  Fortunately, outside, the sky's the limit! 

We are slowly getting the inside decorated.  Slowly because I told the girls we must get the toy room and their bedroom in order first -and I am insisting that they help and I not just do it all on my own.  Slowly because I know of one little guy who will be enchanted with it all.  Slowly because I know that it will help pass the time till Christmas is here and once up, the endless stream of is it Christmas yet? will start.

guess who's been teething, he's up to 4 teeth now

Speaking of Christmas, here is a funny from school.  On Tuesday Ms Jessica was discussing how it is now the first day of December, the last month of the year.  One little girl said in a very upset manner, "I missed Christmas? I didn't get any presents!" To which CJ responded very concerned and shocked, "you were on the naughty list?"  Ms Jessica said it was very sweet, and funny, and that she assured all the children that no one had missed Christmas.

 

Birthday parties are fun...new toys to walk around with, balloons to toss and CJ was the big helper in unwrapping Jayden's gifts.

I do have some terrible news to report.  After three years of living south of the Mason Dixon line, I have, *gasp*, acclimated.  Yes, a couple of weeks ago, I was busy making bread, doing the laundry, chasing kids, wearing jeans and a layered long sleeve t-shirt, when I noticed I had goose bumps and was a bit chilled.  I wondered if I had crazily put the thermostat at 65 degrees or something and went to check.  Nope, it was at a reasonable 68, but the actual house temp was 73.  I-hang-my-head-in-shame.  Please note, that you are more than welcomed to come and spend winter holidays or the seasons with us, we may save our travels north to the 'warmer' months.

Advent

Let me put out here a public THANK YOU to my husband and mom.  Eleven months ago was a busy and exciting time at our house.  On December 27th I bought a new Christmas tree at an after Christmas sale, and I put it up.  On December 28th, I gave birth to our wonderful baby boy.  For the past eleven months I have heard about how I left 2 Christmas trees to be taken down and put away, along with all the other Christmas decorations.  My mom and husband tackle the task with zeal and had it all taken care of before I was released from the hospital.  THANK YOU.  Along with that, they even helped me to prepare for this year!  

Today marks the beginning of Advent.  The season of lights and preparing for the birth of Christ.

To celebrate the season, I have a Christmas count down calendar.  But for even more fun I wanted to start a new tradition, and I knew this last year.  Mom and Eric, individually wrapped up the Christmas books as they put them away!  I know they thought it was the morphine talking, but they also know how I love to plan things out ridiculously far in advance.

So this year, I was very grateful to pull out the books to start off our Advent season, and they were already wrapped!  Each day, now through Christmas we will unwrap a "new" book to read and to prepare for the coming of the Lord.  I felt a load lifted from me as I found the books to already be wrapped!

On another note, I have publicly acknowledged my gratitude for their help last year.  This year is pay back, as I have 2 trees to put up, with three small "helpers" and to take down with three small "helpers", or also known as by myself.  Can we be done with the ribbing?  At least you two had each other and me to blame.

I am thankful that I can see

When we moved in, our great room had one ceiling fan fixture.  The room is approximately 17ft. by 22ft. and one light source just didn't cut it.  We now have lights!  We moved the original fan to one side of the room and put a second one on the opposite side.  Then we had 4 can lights put in, on each side, controlled separately.  Creating two distinct spaces within the same room.  That put us at 10 lights!  But we weren't done!  We also put 3 smaller can lights above the breakfast bar area.  The room now has 13 lights, and possibly thirteen switches --I'm not sure.

North side

South Side

hmmmm.... I know I turned this picture...these are the bar lights, on the ceiling.

Not quite done, we added two lights in the garage as well, and they also make a huge difference!  Now I can actually sort through things and see what I am doing!

We added a security light to the backyard as well.  And let me add, as I say we, I do mean we, Eric did most of the cutting for the can lights and hooked up the ceiling fans. I helped wrangle kids at Home Depot and during the installation --and for anyone who has attempted to do that, or herd cats, know what I am talking about. We did have someone who knew what he was doing, run the wiring and connect it all safely and correctly!  THANKS TYSON!

Thankful for the opportunity to own our own home.

As a side note...I fear this may mean that we'll be able to actually see the dust, and it may be expected that I dust more often.