Category Archives: holiday

Taking a Break

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This morning as I was comforting a sick kiddo after  I rocked the baby back to sleep for the third time, I started thinking about blogging. Because at 4:15 in the morning, after being up who-knows-how-many times, that’s exactly what makes sense. Only not at all.

I mean…I thought of other things too…like how badly my knee ached from the giant rug burn I got from skidding across the living room floor while trying to run across the house to my crying sick kiddo after being woken out of a dead sleep. And no to mention that looming to-do list and all the things that need to be taken care of before Christmas.

I’m trying to not get overwhelmed by all the things. I’m lovin’ on my kiddos. I’m trying to soak up the family time that I know will go all too fast. Soon, my sisters will be in town and we’ll have all sorts of fun family activities to partake in…and hopefully some eggnog with a touch of Kaluah.

So, with all that in mind, and my aching knee, I’ve decided I’m going to take a little holiday break from the blog. Well, that’s what I’m saying anyway. If I find some time and feel like posting, I will…but I don’t want to feel like it’s just one.more.thing. that needs to get done.

But I can’t very well start my break with my last two posts being downers, so tomorrow, I’ll share what our holiday letter/year in review would have been if I would have got my -ish together long enough to send one out with our Christmas cards.

Our Advent Calendar

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Last year I had big aspirations for an Advent Calendar. Then Advent came…and went.

This year I was sure I wanted to get something done in time.

I’d seen and heard of a lot of different Advent style calendars…some homemade, some store bought…some activity based, some all about gifts.

I really want to make sure our girls know that Christmas is about so much more than just opening presents and Santa and reindeer.

Around the beginning of November I set out to make my own Advent calendar and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out…

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Rylee is loving it so far. Every day is something different. Some things are just fun activities. There are a couple of gifts. They all center around family time. Before we find out what the “activity of the day” is, I read a reading out of the book “Getting Ready for Christmas: A Daily Advent Prayer & Activity Book for the Family“. At the end of it all, it will double as a banner than says “Merry Christmas!”.

Here’s the daily breakdown:

  1. Deck the Halls!
  2. Go see the Christmas Story in lights & drink hot cocoa.
  3. Make Mistletoe
  4. Play the gingerbread dice game
  5. Make Clothespin Christmas Trees
  6. Go see Santa
  7. Family Movie Night: Watch Polar Express & Eat popcorn
  8. Assemble care packages for the homeless
  9. Choose name(s) off the Giving Tree. Go get a Christmas Tree!!
  10. Decorate the Christmas Tree
  11. Make a gingerbread house
  12. Snowman Pancakes for dinner!!
  13. Make a popsicle stick snowman face
  14. Go to Rylee’s Christmas Program then go get ice cream
  15. Celebrate Christmas with Uncle Hunt & Aunt Donna/Christmas activity book on the drive
  16. Go shopping for the Giving Tree & school teachers
  17. Make snowflakes
  18. Wrap gifts for teachers
  19. Make a Santa face with cotton balls
  20. Read new book (God Gave us Christmas)
  21. Go look at Christmas lights
  22. Make mitten garland & ornaments
  23. Christmas Baking Party!
  24. Write a letter to/draw a picture for Santa
  25. Celebrate!!

I’ve been taking daily photos and posting them on instagram…

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And the winner so far??

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Are you doing anything to prepare your kiddo(s) for Christmas? Do you do an Advent Calendar? This is our first year, and I’m already looking forward to making this an annual tradition!

All sorts of things to update

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So while I’ve already posted twice this week (here & here) I feel like I owe you an update.

We had some major stuffs going on the our household over the long weekend!!

First of all…the main reason for the long weekend. Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was nice, but kind of weird. We spent the day at Andy’s parents’ house. Not out of the ordinary, but this was the first year, um ever, that we didn’t go to at least 2 places. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom & brother the week before. My dad was out of town. And neither of my sisters came to town. So yea, in 11+ years of being a couple, we went to one place on a major holiday. Weird.

Rylee has started choosing her own outfits again. This beauty was what she wanted to wear on Thanksgiving. The original outfit did not include the long sleeve top. Brrr. But, what’s even crazier? The straight hair! AHHH! She saw me fixing my hair for the day and asked if I’d straighten hers. I indulged her, then instantly regretted it because holy teenager! I was not ready for that.

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There were plenty of snuggle naps over the long weekend. Watching this guy with our girls just melts my heart.

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The other night Ry asked Andy to draw her a picture. So he drew the one on the left. {apparently I felt the need to clarify that} She was so, SO proud of that picture that the next day she took it with her to school to show her teachers and friends. Then that night she drew one of her own for him to take to work. I mean…really…I just can’t even.

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And then there’s this one…this girl. Oh my. This is my new favorite photo of her. This was taken just before we headed into the doctor’s office for the 4-month check-up. She’s weighing in at 14 lbs, 12 ounces (70th percentile) and 25″ long (75th percentile). The shots seemed to affect her more this time than the last time and we spent that night sleeping together on the couch. Last night was better, but she still wasn’t her self. I hate seeing my babies in pain & not feeling quite right and not being able to help them.

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And oh yea…almost forgot. We bought a new car on Sunday! And not just “new to us” but brand! spanking! new! It’s our very first brand new car ever for both of us. It’s also the first car payment we’ve had in over 7 years. Ugh. But a new vehicle was, if you ask me, long overdue. It’s a 2013 Toyota Venza and after Andy drove it to work yesterday, he said “I now understand why people get brand new cars every few years. Wow.”  I’ll share more later but for now, I’ll just leave you with this little teaser…

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Ok…it’s officially OK to talk Christmas!

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OK…now that Thanksgiving is over, it is OFFICIALLY TIME FOR ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS!
And yes, I did have to all caps that -ish. I’m really, really looking forward to this Christmas Season!
It’s time for fires in the fireplace. Hot cocoa. Egg nog w/ Kaluah. Family. Food. Cozy slippers. And yes, candy cane PJ Pants.
So, to kick things off…a little Christmas Meme…a la myspace.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog. With Kaluah, pretty please.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I guess it depends on the size of said gift. But isn’t un-wrapping half the fun of gift giving!?
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? This is where things can get complicated. I’m all about the classy white. Andy likes the color. So, I compromise…every year, I pick a color “theme” (either blue or red) and the tree gets a bunch of white and one strand of the other color. Andy’s in charge of the outside lights, so he kind of gets his pick with those.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Never have…but this year Ry is going to be making some for one of our Advent Calendar activities.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Oh man…all of it? I mean really…the only thing I won’t eat is green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Everything else is fair game!!
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I always loved our family dinners. Grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins from both sides of the family would all gather at our house. OR, I always loved the night we decorated the Christmas tree. We’d all have egg nog in our own Christmas mug. Christmas by Candlelight would be playing on the stereo and there’d be a fire in the fireplace. Magic.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? To be honest, I don’t even remember.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. Well, actually, I guess that’s kind of a lie. It depends on our plan/schedule for Christmas Day and what family/houses we’re visiting.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We get a new ornament every year. The girls will each get their own. Andy will unwrap/hand out the ornaments and the girls & I will hang them on the tree. It’s pretty much just like when I was little, only my mom was the unwrapped/hander-outer and my dad helped hang the ornaments.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Meh, whatever. It’s fun for a few days. It would be pretty awesome to actually get snow on Christmas. So far, that’s only happened once in my lifetime that I remember.
12. Can you ice skate? Yes, I can. Can I do it well? Probably not.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The one that sticks out in my head the most is my bike I got when I was in the 5th grade. I also really liked that CD-alarm clock I got when I was in the 6th grade…I still use it to this day.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family…no matter how crazy they make me. And giving gifts…not necessarily the getting…just the giving. We love thoughtfully choosing a gift, then buy and wrapping, then the receivers reaction. Love it.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Yes please.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The Christmas tree decorating ranks up there. But, recently my siblings & I have been getting together a few days before Christmas to do an evening of baking. That has quickly become a favorite.
17. What tops your tree? A red star that I bought at Target for $9 my very first Christmas after moving out.
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I guess I kind of covered this one…but I love-love-love giving gifts. It could be for family, friends, or more recently, we’ve done giving tree things. I really could care less about receiving any.
19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum…though I never eat them.
20. Favorite Christmas show? Eh, whatever…Elf. Charlie Brown Christmas Special.
21. Saddest Christmas Song? His Favorite Christmas Story by Captial Lights (seriously…listen to it.) (for reals)
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? See above. (does that make me sick?)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
P.S. Totally borrowed this from Jess.

Obligatory Halloween Post

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Truth Bomb: I wasn’t really feeling Halloween this year. It kind of snuck up on me. We didn’t even carve pumpkins until the day before Halloween.

So I really have no awesome stories, just some semi-crappy, unedited photos.

Ry was not a fan of getting her hands dirty…

Carvin’ Punkins…

Reese was not amused…

Finished Product…

Practicing Up…

Little Clown…

Again, Reese was not amused…

Ry on the other hand was having a blast!

Scoping out the next house to stop at…

Reese decided to wake up to see what all the fuss was about…

Funny little monster…

Bottom line…it’s not about me. It’s about the kids. And they had a blast. Reese was a trooper. We ate pizza. We got tricked. We treated. And we have way too much candy in our house. The end.