It's Well Under Way...

 

It is well under way...the gift making, the baking, the crafting and creating...yes, it's well under way...

 

The gift making:  During her visit my mom and I worked very hard on a special gift for the kids and Joe and I have a few other handmade gifts up our sleeves!

The baking: these pressed sugar cookies (pressed and sprinkled by the kids) were just the first of the season's baked goodies.  We've since made a few other treasts...with many more to come!

The crafting and creating:  here the kids were helping make our new Christmas candle holders.  The "snow" is actually epson salts and the kids loved pouring and playing with it and putting the candles inside.  We've since had to start using fake candles inside because I can't quite afford to buy 9 new candles every night (we have 9 of them up our windows) and because the candles were starting to cook the cranberries (a few of them even popped)!:)

There are so many other festive little projects that we have going and I can't wait to share them with you...I just love this time of year!

More to be thankful for...

If you read my "Thankful Tree" post you might know that we have been working on being thankful for our many blessings.  Well, I have one more to add today.  We got my latest pathology report back on Friday and my HCG hormone levels are down to 1.1... and my doctor is so happy with this that she may only have me go through one or two more months of testing (instead of the full 6 months)!  I didn't even know that this was a possibility (as I thought the 6 months was even pretty good...some people have to go through a full year of testing).  It brings me to tears really to think of it...maybe because it's just one small, unexpected blessing in an area of life that has just been so hard.  And because it reminds me of something that I honestly felt even in the darkest time...that God is good.  I remember a few mornings during that horrible week in August...waking up in tears and through the tears one of the first thoughts in my head was that God is good.  It doesn't make sense that I felt that way in those moments.  How could the first thing I thought in the mornings following the loss of our baby girl be that God is good?  All I can say is that those feelings came from somewhere outside of me.  In those moments of pain God was reminding me of this simple truth.  And  now, as I celebrate this happy news, I once again have tears streaming down my face and I find myself thinking once again...God is good...all the time...and all the time...God is good.

O' Christmas Tree

We headed out the day after Thanksgiving to find our Christmas tree (after mom and I got home from a little early morning Black Friday shopping)!  It was a beautiful day and the kids had so much fun throwing snowballs at G-Pa (I think that Lily may have been more interested in that than in picking out a tree)!  And we continued the tradition of cocoa and doughnuts after our tree hunting (this time at our favorite new local bakery). What a fun morning!

The Thankful Tree

It has been a difficult year for us.  And maybe that's why I thought it even more important that we take time to remember to be THANKFUL for the blessings in our life (because there are many).  So this year we did a "Thankful Tree" and it was so good for us and our kids that I'm hoping it will be a yearly tradition!  During most nights in November after dinner we each shared one thing we were thankful for, wrote it down on a paper leaf, and then hung it on our tree.  It was fun to see our tree fill up with blessings and it did my heart some good.  Lily loved doing it much more than I even would have guessed and both kids loved hanging the leaves on the tree each night. I was so impressed by how much thought Lily put into each thing she was thankful for and her leaves had so much meaning.  Eli still isn't saying much, but we would still ask him each night what he was thankful for and sometimes he would point at things (and other times we would just make something up for him)! Joe also insisted that Indy get leaves every now and then (so there are some really random ones) and my parents joined in a bit too while they were here!  Here are some of the many things we were thankful for this year (in no particular order):

• That we have heaven to look forward to
• For Grammy & G-Pa being with us for Thanksgiving
• Monsters (Eli loves monsters)
• That daddy gets to be home to eat dinners with us
• Lily
• Snakes
• That God is taking care of Baby Joy
• M & M's
• Cars
• That all the bugs are dead
• For the snowstorm we had
• That God helps us not to be scared
• For my two beautiful, healthy children
• That the snow came here
• For Lily & Eli helping to rake the leaves
• The ladies at church who bless people with their cooking
• Hand-me-down clothes and shoes for the kids
• Meatloaf pans (this was "from" Indy)
• That God gave us our hearts
• That we can help other kids that don't have toys
• Airplanes (even if they are slow)
• That God takes care of us
• Balls
• For grand kids
• Squirrels
• Good co-workers
• That God made us
• That it hasn't snowed yet
• For Brambleberry and soap making supplies (this was from my mother)
• For Food
• Teachers (at school and church)
• Pacifiers
• For Blackman Stream
• The wood stove
• Turkey
• For being outside
• That Lily's ear tubes are working
• Meat
• Nonnie & Grampy babysitting
• Table Scraps
• For Baby Joy
• That God is in heaven





Turkey Time!

We had a wonderful, relaxed Thanksgiving this year!

My parents were here so we stayed home.

We got a decent snow storm the day before so the kids spent Thanksgiving morning playing out in the snow, eating the snow, and building the season's first snow fort (which promptly melted a few days later)!

My mom did the vast majority of the cooking (thanks mom)!

After a wonderful meal we watched the Green Bay Packers win a good game of football against the Lions!

We were forced to wait just a bit longer for dessert because Joe got called out on a fire!

While waiting for Joe to get back we Skyped with my Grandma and Aunt Pam (those are the moments I love technology)!

The kids and I made a turkey out of fruit and cheese- which lasted only long enough to take a picture before the kids started picking the poor turkey totally apart!

The night ended with both kids on G-pa's lap playing games on the Nook!

We hope that your Thanksgiving was as fun and restful as ours!

Eli's 2nd Birthday!

 

 

Yes, we already had Eli's big birthday party a few weeks ago, but since my parents were here we had to celebrate again on his actual birthday!  There were a few plans that I had that just didn't work out.  My mom and I were going to make some special cupcakes, but my parents had some problems with their flights the day before and didn't get in until much later than expected...so the special cupcakes instead became a Dairy Queen ice cream cake!  We were also going to take Eli to the open gym time at our YMCA or to a jump house fun place in a city near us, but we got a pretty good snow storm on his birthday which canceled these plans.

 

But we did have balloons...lots and lots of balloons!

 

The night before my parents, Joe, and I blew up two big bags of balloons and filled the floor of his room silently while he was sleeping!:)

 

He wasn't quite so sure what to think when he first woke up (he wakes up hard...like his mama), but it didn't take long before...

 

he was having a blast with his room full of balloons!

And they had a great time filling up Eli's crib...

 

and jumping in themselves!

And there were some pretty fantastic gifts...

 

this spring horse from my parents.  I had one when I was little (his name was Petey) and I've been wanting to get one for the kids basically since Lily was born!

 

We can't decide what to name him...Lily wanted to call him Rosey, I want to call him Petey (of course), and Joe wants to call him Buck.  We may just have to wait until Eli can name him himself!:)

Mom and Dad bought Eli these cowbody hats too (and they were smart enough to buy two of them)...though Eli seems to think that the horse should be the one wearing the hat!

And this was our gift for Eli...a wooden toolbench!

 

I think this boy has some skills!

And this time around he was a little less intimidated by the singing and he was excited to blow out his candles (though it is hard to do with a pacifier in)!:)

 

There we go!

Happy Happy Birthday to the most wonderful two year old litle boy I have ever known!