A Very Merry White Christmas!!!

I love family life, I love the anticipation and buzz that happens when we are all waiting for something fantastic, and Christmas around here creates double the buzz because it's Christmas and Little Daddy's brithday... when you couple these two events and you have four kids.. let's just say exponential may not cover it.


A success all around, cinnabon for breakfast, santa deliveries, skyped in grandparents and cousins, wii games, a light lunch and SNOW!!! inches and inches and inches of SNOW that is STILL falling.  Birthday presents, family movie, steak dinner with mashed potatoes, homemade birthday cake with Handmade candles. A few arguments.. one little lady has some boundary issues, and also really likes unwrapping presents that don't belong to her.


So the highlights of Christmas Birthday 2010...

10.  Cinnabon (we really only get it once a year)

9. Handmade Candles


8.  Shrinky Dinks being a big hit despite the doubts of Mrs. Claus

7. New Decals for the girls room courtesy of Sure Cuts a Lot software

6.  Little Daddy slicing his own birthday cake.

5. The fist pump followed by a hug when Little Daddy opened the gift Miss H had selected and purchased with her fair winnings. "This is the best ever"

4. The Mr. Not even suspecting he was getting to go to one day of the MASTER's this spring!!

3. Lil Bit chasing everyone with her play hypodermic needle saying, "Just relax dude.. just relax"

2. Snow!! 

1. The mock faint of a new four year old when he finally laid eyes on his new RECLINER!!

Also.. there was this miracle.. called Lil Bit took a nap...

It will take me a little bit to "remember" how to put a movie up so you'll have to trust me about the mock faint.


I hope your Christmas has been Merry and Bright!

can't hardly wait!!

So the preparations have been made,

the presents are wrapped, the cookies are out,

 the children are asleep, the birthday cake is frosted,

 and the Mr. and I are awaiting just the right moment to dash up to the attic (well he will dash!) and get out the Christmas. The season has been awesome, our joy was immeasurable today watching Miss H and Cubby play Mary and Joseph in our Church's family service, with Little Daddy bedecked as the awesomist shepherd you ever did see. Lil bit played her part well as an angel, and a good time was had it seems by all.

Perhaps the best time of this Christmas eve was a last minute visit (no not this one!)

One of these years I'm bound to get a hallmark version don't you think? 

 The visits were to two older members of our congregation, on which both my daughters offered to accompany me. YAY! Both visits were joyful, and reminded me again what a great gift it is to be a mother, to be a mother to wonderful people, and to have so much to be thankful for. As much as I am guilty of delight at things to be unwrapped, I am pleased to find myself contented and grateful for these moments I am able to spend with people, hearing about their lives and sharing their joys. Let us not forgot my family train is generally a circus, and I am always pleasantly surprised at those who welcome it in and embrace it.  I am delighted to have sons and daughters that bring joy to others and to me, children in whom I can see the desire to love others well. It is an amazing gift to be surrounded by people better than yourself, and to be able to claim them!

And little daddy will be four FOUR tomorrow.. can you even believe it!!

Here we are in our Christmas Jamma Finery wishing you the very merriest of Days! May the peace and love that came embodied as a  babe lying in a manger fill your heart and home and may the hope that He brings to this world light your path.

Much love!!

Christmas means crafting...

 We have been crafting and crafting around here.. Miss H received a candlemaking kit from our dear friends and after reading the directions I set her up with a rotary cutting board and tool and she went right to town. She made a selection of tapers and pillars, and then got the brillant idea to make some birthday candles for Little Daddy's number four birthday!

Then she embellished some of her candles.. She made a family of three... and then this..

I know.. it totally looks like it came right out of a magazine! I love her!

Although we have a stack of fabric that needs to turn into pajama pants I have been obsessed with a photo project I discovered around Thanksgiving.. you can see it here.. So obviously I don't have enough cash lying around to just fill my house with these treasures so I did a little google research and have been working on a few pieces.. I am not so pleased with the color transfer method, although I only did a paper version (and nearly rubbed my finger prints off!) but I think I could get hooked on the transparency method... I love the look alot more than simple decoupage, even though it is obviously more time consuming.. but I've not perfected it yet.

here's a sample..

It's beginning to look alot like CHRISTMAS!!

I can't believe that in SIX short days it will be The BIG DAY!!  Little Daddy will be F-O-U-R, and we will celebrate the greatest day of LOVE!

We've been baking! Gingerbread, and some treats that never made their photographic debut but were delicious none the less (Rice Krispy Wreath's especially)

She is not a great "helper" cooperative and enthusiastic yes.. but her output is just about nil.. 

The Mr. whipped up a batch of these... 

Hmm Buckeye Balls!! You'll notice that one is missing in this picture already.. I can hardly control myself around these treats, and The Mr. doesn't even pretend to try. 

 It Snowed!! We celebrated by eating the December snowflakes.. 

And with a freak commuter time  ice/snow storm we got a whole day off school, and was able to remember all the reasons I loved being a stay at home mom. 

We played Wii (did I mention that one day this summer I left the Mr. alone with the kids and when I came home we owned a Wii?)

I also took a hilarious video of Lil Bit and Little Daddy dueling it out in "SwordPlay" Lil Bit loses everytime, but one can't help enjoying her gameplay.

We cuddled in our jammas and opened Santa's workshop and ate homemade mac n cheese on this snow day.. if this post wasn't already so long I would post my recipe.. it's amazing.. but you can't eat it very often because it's terribly unhealthy.  (We usually balance it out with oatmeal at breakfast and collard greens and blackeyed peas for dinner)  Here is Lil Bit mashing up the topping.. She's not angry, her mouth is full of "friend in me" crackers (which is how she refers to Toy Story.  Our Mac n Cheese begins with bacon and is topped off with Cheez-It crumbles... and what comes in between is a cheese heaven let me tell you..

Santa's workshop opened..

The elves put in some serious time sewing pretty with Hello Kitty.. Miss H whipped out aprons, and burpcloths, and placemats in a truly impressive fashion. There was wrapping and singing and gift packing and post-officing as well..

Check out this fine cutting! HE's getting so grown up, although I'm not sure why he's cutting lefthanded. 

Can you guess who this is for? 

If you are reading this Abby, close your eyes.

Finally today at church we lit the 4th candle of advent... I'm sure this is where I should submit a mini talk about the meaning of the season.. but the meaning of the season was more than clear this afternoon watching Cubby, Miss H and Lil Bit caroling at the retirement community for some older members of our congregation. I love that we have found such a wonderful church home that provides abundant opportunities for us to share the Peace, Hope, Joy and Love that is brought into our lives through relationship with a Heavenly Father. 

Here are a few pics.. from the fourth Sunday.. Six more days and we will have four candles of a whole different sort!!