And Breathe

Christmas break is here!

After Thanksgiving, we had just three weeks of school as we charged full speed ahead towards Christmas.  Now that it is the first official day of break, I can sit down, relax a bit, and share some of what we've been up to.

I decided to try something new this year.  I used a Pinterest photo as inspiration and crafted our own advent tree.  

The pouches were filled with various activities to complete each day.  I'll admit there were some days we just didn't get to whatever activity we had planned, but it was something to look forward to this December.  In the future, I would love to include advent verses leading up to Christmas Day.  Here's what we had this year:

• Make “Grinch cookies” and watch “How the Grinch stole Christmas.”
• Make salt dough ornaments.
• Decorate ice cream cone “Christmas trees.”
• Write letters to Santa.
• Make reindeer food.
• Red and Green dinner.
• Go to the Live Nativity - Dec. 14th.
• Bring cookies to neighbors.
• Make footprint reindeer.
• See Santa.
• Write notes to each other and put in Christmas stockings.
• Drive and look at lights.
• Winterfest - Dec. 7th
• Go sledding.
• Go Christmas shopping.
• Have hot chocolate and watch the “Polar Express.”
• Decorate cookies.
• Make paper snowflakes.
• Make Thank You notes.
• Make a snow angel.
• Make a cotton ball Santa.
• Make glitter.
• Wrap presents.
• Christmas Eve service at church.

We've also had various Christmas activities here and there for small group, junior high, etc., middle school concerts, a dance recital, and a teething four-year old, the latter which has made for some rough nights this month.

Greatly looking forward to our time with family soon as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Thankful

So many things to be thankful for.

We are thankful we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with both of our families this year.

We started the holiday the weekend before with Steve's family.

And we were able to travel to my grandma's house in Iowa on Thanksgiving day to celebrate with some extended family.

The only drawback of our travels?  As we were driving the 3+ hours back to my parents' house Thursday night after being in Iowa, I realized I had forgotten to give Toby, our cat, any supply of accessible water while we were gone.  Eek!

We had planned to be gone Thursday morning through Saturday night and didn't want to come home to a dead cat, so I decided I would just make a quick four-hour round-trip Friday morning to deliver water.   When Friday morning came, Steve thoughtfully volunteered, and all was good.  Until...he called me about 45 minutes into his drive with a blown tire.  So he waited a couple hours on the side of the road while my dad made some calls to get a new tire.  They worked on that while I took my mom's vehicle to Stewartville.  I had a grateful cat.

And we all made it back to my parents by 2:45 or so.  Just in time for the kids to wake from their afternoon nap, and Christmas tree decorating to begin.

And a Beauty and the Beast puppet show.

Steve even caught the Auburn-Alabama football game. As I said, thankful.

Megan and Cody

"Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a mom just like you."

Heart. Melting.

"And I'll name my babies Megan and Cody."

Span-ese

I remember as a child, one of my friends told me that when we were babies we all spoke Chinese.  Children must have this notion of foreign languages simply being gibberish sounds and vice versa.

This theory has further validation now from my dear daughter.  She has recently started saying things like "paka" and saying it means, "pack" in Spanish-Chinese.  Huh?

It kinda reminds me of how my older brother used to insist that "elephant" in Spanish was "elefant-O," just to annoy me.  :)

And this is Maggie's artistic interpretation of a cat.  They don't have bodies because, "I don't know how to draw a body."  We also had to count Toby's feet to make the correction from 5 feet in the pink picture to 4.

Nervous Nelly

In trying to think of a fun competition for the middle school's assembly today, Steve decided to channel the show Minute to Win It.  He attached a pedometer to an arm and leg of two participants from each grade level.  The students' job was to be a "nervous Nelly."  Whoever had the most combined clicks after a minute was declared the winner!

First Snow. Since May.

We escaped an October snow this year, so we'll actually have had five months with no snow in 2013.  June, July, August, September, and October.  But our first snow of the season arrived yesterday morning, and Maggie and Bode have been in heaven.

No More Perfect Moms

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Hearts at Home conference in Rochester for the second year.  This conference is a time for moms to get refreshed and renewed!

I was able to make it back to Rochester from my all-day professional development day in Maple Grove just in time for the Moms Night Out at the Civic Center.  I met up with Evie, who drove down from Isanti, and the other Stewie gals.  We enjoyed worshiping through song, laughing with a comedian, and just being out!

The next day after our mandatory Caribou stop, Evie and I made our way back to the Civic Center for a full day of speakers and workshops. (I also got to see my good friend, Becky!)  The theme for the event this year was "No More Perfect Moms."  We were challenged to take off the mask and not compare our insides to others' outsides.

With perfect family photos, tales of adorable children, amazing vacations, and picture-perfect home decor being blasted at us through Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media outlets, it's often a temptation to compare ourselves and think we are not measuring up.  Guilty.  I love Pinterest, but can find myself getting very discontent as I browse all of the wonderful meals, homes, and educational activities I wish I had time for.

And I'll be honest, I often post photos and stories of our family's good times.  This is not necessarily because I want to hide the junk in my life, but because, really, who wants to hear about all that?  I, for one, don't really care to document my less-than-ideal days on the internet.  And I reserve the deep stuff for face-to-face conversations.

Anyone that really knows me knows my life is often chaos, but in the spirit of full disclosure, here are some photos of my house from Sunday.  But let's be honest, they could be from any given day...

On Saturday I attended workshops called "Boys R Us," "Killing the Spider," "What Your Man Most Wants You to Know," (Shaunti Feldhahn) and "The Magic of Parenting Preschoolers."  Some good info!  Candance Cameron closed out the event.  Even though things got a little wishy washy doctrine-wise, I really did enjoy the conference, spending time away with friends, and being encouraged.

Steve and the kiddos survived with minor injuries.