briefly checking in

i SO want to be blogging about our wonderful christmas weekend!!!!! but instead, i have spent the last three days wading through the sea of new toys, new clothes, gift bags, and old laundry that are taking over the house. and in the evenings, i've been cramming in a bunch of online CEU courses to meet my SLP license requirements...due tomorrow night. ain't nothin' like waiting 'till the last minute, huh!? believe me, i'd much rather be blogging. oh yeah, and i've also been a little busy with these colored little blocks. every single day. with one very, very happy and occupied little boy.


this was definitely the year of the LEGO.

we did have a marvelous christmas, and i can't wait to share it with you.

merry christmas!

Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
His name is called Emmanuel;
God with us, revealed in us;
His name is called Emmanuel!

we were so excited to hang the most important ornament on our jesse tree last night!

"i bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. today in the town of david a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord." luke 2:10-11
merry christmas from our family to yours. (don't worry, caroline's fine and not at all stressed. self-timers capture the funniest expressions, don't they?!) we praise God for the gift of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. glory to God in the highest!

amelia is 11 months old!

our baby girl is so excited about her first christmas! ok, ok, so she has no idea that it's christmas. but she does clap on command, so we can make her seem excited about christmas! :)


i got a little nostalgic putting this sweet dress on amelia. it was just two years ago that another little girl (with a lot more hair) wore this dress in front of our christmas tree.


"mom, does caroline really have to be in this post? isn't this supposed to be about my 11 month birthday!?"


you're right, amelia. sorry. (i do have more pictures of both of the girls in this dress. click here to view them.)

it won't be long before we are celebrating amelia's first birthday! but until then, we have a Much More Important Birthday to celebrate... my kids can hardly stand it!

our jesse tree

there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
~isaiah 11:1
my most favorite christmas tradition that our family has started this year is our jesse tree. i have read several ideas on how to implement a jesse tree, but basically, it is a tree that shows the history of God's people and their need for a Savior. the name "jesse tree" comes from the prophecy in isaiah 11:1-2. the bible studies begin with creation and end with the birth of Jesus.

earlier in chapter 10, isaiah talks of destruction and desolation. verses 17-19 refers to forests being cut down and the fruitful land being destroyed. but in the midst of this destruction, there is Hope! a Shoot, a sign of Life, will come from the stump of jesse! God's people knew this prophecy and waited for the coming Messiah, for our Lord Jesus Christ. the old testament is so rich with prophecies of the Messiah, as well as types and shadows of Christ. i'm afraid that the old testament saints are too often presented to our children as simply "old testament heroes" instead of instruments of God who were pointing to Christ. that is why i have loved doing the jesse tree with our children. it is a daily reminder to them (and us!) that God's plan for redeeming His people began before the foundation of the world! when that reality is on the forefront on our minds as we celebrate christmas, it makes the birth of Christ even that much more glorious!

many of the jesse tree ornaments highlight Jesus' descendants, while others represent old testament prophets who spoke of the coming Messiah. each evening of advent, brian reads the chosen scripture and devotional for that night, and the children take turns hanging the ornament on our tree. this is the highlight of my children's day! they cannot wait to see what ornament is hiding in the red gift box! (and it's a great motivator to eat their veggies! whoever finishes first usually gets to hang the ornament that evening.) the jesse tree sits in the middle of our kitchen table, so it is also a point of conversation at breakfast, lunch, and anytime we are at the table to work on something.

i read about the jesse tree shortly before christmas last year, and i could not wait to begin this tradition this year. i kept my eye out for fitting ornaments after christmas last year, and i finished off the set right before the beginning of advent. obviously, some ornaments could not be found at target or hobby lobby, like joseph's coat or a golden calf cut in two! :) so we have quite the eclectic collection going on.

some of our ornaments are storebought...


some are handmade...

(it's a stone altar. or it's supposed to represent a stone altar. i've never claimed to be crafty!)



(this is a burning bush. not a turkey. i think i need to add some glitter to my flames.)


and some are gram-made! (my mom really helped with several of the ornaments! thanks mom!!)


i have had fun searching out ornaments for our jesse tree. i'm pretty picky about the ornaments for our family's christmas tree being vintage and classic, so i thought i'd branch out for the jesse tree. (get it!? branch out!? ha!) i found a few shimmering ornaments that are bright and colorful, and some would (in my opinion) be otherwise just downright tacky... but they are great for our jesse tree! here's a glittery globe to represent creation:


i have read about other families who have used pictures that they downloaded, mothers who have handmade every single one, or a variety of ornament sets can be purchased as well. there is really no limit as to how you do the jesse tree. some families use a felt picture of a tree, some use a small fake christmas tree, and as you can see, we are using a wrought iron tree that i bought after christmas last year. it's been a long 11 months waiting to use this tree!


i say all of this to encourage you... if you like the idea of a jesse tree, take it and run with it! make it your own. i love that our ornaments are 3D-- they're touchable! but if i were a cross-stitcher, i would probably love to make a set of sweet cross-stitched ornaments for our jesse tree.

i searched and searched for a jesse tree devotional resource. there are several online sources, and i found a few books available as well. after clicking through sample after sample, brian and i decided on one from jesse-trees.com, and i was truly excited about it. i ordered it the monday before thanksgiving, and i am sad to say that i have still yet to see it. 4 weeks later (and most of advent, i might add), and i am still waiting on the book that i paid $8 priority shipping for. don't worry...i've received a full refund, and the girl in charge of shipping verified that it shipped out over a week ago . this is not a rant on bad customer service, but rather a very very hesitant recommendation for this book. based on the online samples, it is exactly what i was looking for: concise yet complete. written for children without forfeiting theological fundamentals. however... based on their lack of response to multiple inquiries about my order and their very, very (very, very, very) slow shipping time, i would not order anything from this website for next year after july 2010!! i am still checking the mailbox every day for our book, and i know it will get here eventually.

but more important than getting in a tizzy about waiting for the arrival of our silly devotional book , our family is loving studying about those who were waiting for the arrival of our Lord. tonight, we studied zechariah and elizabeth, and we are excited to be getting so close to Jesus' birth! i won't lie, the kids are also waiting in eager anticipation to open their presents under the tree... but when our living room has been cleaned up of the chaos of wrapping paper and shiny bows, i pray that the children remember our little black jesse tree and our need for a Savior.

christmas fun around here

when we are not rescuing our fallen tree or re-hanging garland (which i have yet to do...), we do manage to have a little christmas fun at our house!


this adorable advent calendar of sorts is new to us this year. kristie and i found this string of mittens, hats, and stockings at world market last year after christmas. my mom made us a cute little baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, and every morning, we move baby Jesus closer and closer to the end of the line. it is a great visual for the kids to see just how much longer they have to wait until christmas!


ethan and caroline are LOVING learning christmas carols this year. last year, we spent most of december teaching them the first verse to "away in a manger". this year, they are learning at least a couple of carols each week. their eyes light up when they are able to sing along during worship on sunday or when they hear a familiar carol on the radio. singing over and over about the gift of Jesus' birth is helping the reality of Christmas become even more real in my children's hearts. they love to sing, and i can think of nothing better for them to exclaim than "Christ the babe is Lord of all! Christ the babe is Lord of all!"


i had to include this one... my poor floridian kids are dying to see snow. but this is about as much of a winter wonderland as it gets around here! any day that it is remotely cold and there is condensation on the windows, they beg to draw on them. we have GOT to plan a trip to see snow in the next year!!


everybody's oatmeal needs a little christmas cheer every now and then, don't you think!? this is the perfect breakfast on a cold morning...and when you stir in the sprinkles, they melt and turn the oatmeal red and green!


we've stuck to super simple christmas crafts this month. they had so much fun turning their hands into a wreath! we've talked about the meanings of these christmas symbols, like the circular wreath reminding us that God's love never ends and how the candy cane's red and white stripes remind us of Jesus' blood (red) that made us white as snow (white). (and don't you love my "aunt em's fruit cake sign"?!?! everytime i look at it, i think of my sweet niece who calls me aunt em!)


this stack of books makes me smile. every year after christmas, i pick up a few christmas books on clearance and pack them away for the next year. it's always such a treat to unpack our box of christmas children's books. oh, yeah. and the kids like the books, too. :) i am pretty picky about my christmas books, so it's exciting to find some that make the grade. :) i love curling up on the couch while our fireplace dvd is playing (ha!) to read the story of christmas to my children. it never, ever gets old.


another new tradition i started this year is framing a favorite picture from each christmas. as my collection grows, i know i will love looking back at memories from christmases gone by. here's a few i have so far...


and here is the debut of our stockings! we have not had a mantle (still don't), so we have not had stockings for the kids in the past. we do stockings at nana's house every year, but i have always always always adored these stockings from pottery barn. we may never have a mantle, but i just had to have these stockings this year. they hang perfectly on the side of our armoire, and you can see them as soon as you look into the living room. (ignore the tacky thumbtacks... we keep meaning to hang them by nails and have yet to replace the tacks!) ethan's and caroline's stockings are now already filled to overflowing with goodies, and they have not even noticed yet! i am shocked!


i can't believe it's now less than a week till christmas! the kids can hardly wait! our shopping is done... now if i could just get caught up on my blogging!

trimming the tree

this year, we bought our christmas tree super early. i knew that our thanksgiving weekend would be a busy one. i also expected that the next week would get away from us, and it would be the middle of december before we ended up getting our tree. we wanted to get all the decorating done early so we could enjoy it for longer and it would be worth all that work. (little did we know about the "all that work" part that was to come!) SO, we set out to buy a tree the night before thanksgiving. and wow! when you go that early, there are some beautiful ones to choose from! we were slightly paranoid about the mosquitoes from last year, but we also hoped that our bug infestation was just a fluke. i see my out of town friends' blogs where they go to a farm to cut down their christmas tree... ummm, yeah. we did too. lowe's christmas tree farm. that's where we went! it did not take us long to find the tree we wanted, and we were on our merry way! we waited until after thanksgiving to decorate the tree, so it was nice to come home and unload the tree without the pressure of getting it decorated that night!

here is ethan at "lowe's christmas tree farm"!


ethan and daddy checkin' out trees


the tree is HOW big!?


caroline got upset about something as we unloaded the van at lowe's, and she was pretty cranky the whole time. i was more aggravated at her for tainting our family-tree-outing with her crankiness than for her actual fussing, i think! at one point, the lowe's guy asked me if we needed any help, and i (joking, of course!!) asked him if he could send caroline through the netting machine. he surprised me by saying that they send new employees through that thing! ha!


caroline finally got distracted from her bad attitude when i told the two of them to run to some cones across the way and back. over and over. here are the kids "getting some injury out" as ethan says!


we have always shoved the tree into the back of the van. what were we thinking!? it was so much easier to put the tree on the car.


we got home with the tree, and yes indeed, it was a very full tree! we knew we'd need to trim it up a little to fit it in the corner, but i had an even better idea! we could just cut a bunch off the back of it so that it would fit snug in the corner. i mean, no one is going to see the back anyway! so here is our tree after its back has been sheered.


the next week, we had a wonderful evening decorating the tree as a family. disclaimer: you can see evidence of our dinner on our children's faces in almost every picture. i guess we were all a little too excited about decorating the tree to be concerned about wiping mouths!!! oh well, it must've been a good dinner that night. :)

here's a peek at the playlist that repeated while we decked the halls...


i probably attach too much sentiment and nostalgia to our christmas ornaments... each one has a story, and each one is special for a reason. (a few are special simply because they were 75% off after christmas! ha! but most of them do hold a special place in my heart.)


i am well on my way to passing on my love of christmas ornaments to my children. ethan could not wait to get these ornaments out of the box. he had his eye on one!


the kids were trying so hard to be patient as they waited to get started. it is so exciting every year to see the ornaments we've forgotten about since packing them away 11 months ago.


caroline found her favorites in no time.


i couldn't wait to give the kids their ornaments for this year! ethan's ornament is a cute little red toolbox. his love for all things tools has never wavered, so this was an easy pick.


both kids thrill on getting a peppermint when we leave certain restaurants, so i knew caroline would love this little basket of mints. i think she likes it, don't you!?


amelia's ornament sure was hard to find. i wanted to keep our tradition of a silver/pewter-type ornament for our babies' first christmas ornaments. ethan's and caroline's are from things remembered, but they have stopped carrying their nice silver ornaments. i finally found this one online, and i love it. it's hard to see what it is, but it's a wreath with little baby things around it. it also has her birthstone (garnet) to the left.


all my babies' first christmas ornaments... my babies may be growing up, but these ornaments remind me of those precious first christmases.


our family ornament for this year symbolizes the beginning of our homeschooling journey! i am planning on writing "2009" on this one when i remember to buy a white paint pen.


ethan and caroline truly enjoyed looking at all of the ornaments this year. they loved hearing the stories about them (good thing!), and i had a wonderful time sharing this night with them.

ethan found the ornament that brian's mom gave us for our first christmas together. it is a locket-style heart that you open to find our picture inside. ethan opened it over and over.


he also loved his ornament from two years ago.


caroline found her 1st christmas ornament... not sure if it was really meant to be rung over and over, but it survived!


the kids were determined to hang the ornaments all by themselves. ethan wanted to get it just right.


caroline worked so hard to hang an ornament. she would not accept one iota of help.


ten minutes later......"i DOOD it!"


ethan hung the last ornament on the tree, and he gave our tree a satisfied thumbs up!


after taking that picture, i put the camera away, and i went to the kitchen to make amelia's dinner. ethan was still perched up on the arm of the loveseat admiring ornaments. not 30 seconds later, i heard a loud crash coming from the living room. it was the sound of glass and ceramic clanging together and the sound of something very heavy hitting the floor. i rushed to the living room to find our christmas tree lying. in. the. middle. of. the. floor. the christmas tree that we'd just finished decorating. the christmas tree that had just received the thumbs up from ethan. it was definitely two big thumbs down now! praise the Lord, no children were in the path of the falling tree. praise the Lord, this did not happen when brian was at work. praise the Lord that we had not yet set up ethan's train underneath. but i was one. upset. mama. who knocked it over? how many ornaments got broken? how much water was pouring onto our carpet? why did this happen 5 minutes before the kids were going to bed? i was mad. you know i was mad if i didn't stop to take a picture of the disaster.

so as "rockin' around the christmas tree" played on, we lifted the tree back up to survey the damage. two ornaments did get broken, but they are repairable. (and are still sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for surgery.) we got the kids in bed, and we went to work. fixing the tree. again. i realize that if this is the worst thing that happens to our family this christmas, we have much to be thankful for. i realize that. but i really wanted to be snuggling with my husband on the couch as we sipped hot chocolate and admired our softly lit tree. instead, we were sopping up water (he'd just watered the tree) and engineering ways to keep the tree from tipping over again. we came to the conclusion that because we trimmed the back off the tree, the weight of the ornaments on the front made the tree front-heavy. who knew! the majority of our ornaments are pretty heavy, so this makes sense. we eventually anchored the tree to the wall, and it has not budged. it's always some kind of drama with our tree! the good news is that brian is pretty sure that if there were any bug larvae in our tree this year, the crash to the floor probably jolted them right out of the tree! so if you forced me to choose whether i'd rather have bugs in my tree or have my tree come crashing to the floor, i'd choose....... door number 3!

we finally got all the ornaments back on the tree, and it is officially a finished project! we have the tree in a different corner this year, and i am so happy with its location. i am trying to get over the fact that the arm of the loveseat is in every tree picture, but i do love that we can see the tree from the kitchen. i also love that it is easy to barricade it from amelia.

here's our cozy christmas living room!


and here's what it looks like when amelia is awake! (i took this at a strange angle... looks like the tree is leaning, but it's fine. i hope!)


yay for barricades!



more christmas decorations to come!

updated 2 AM: the tree fell over AGAIN! i cannot believe it. we had stayed up late and we were drifting off to sleep when i heard that faint yet familiar sound of ornaments crashing. brian didn't hear it, but he came out to check just in case. yep, tree down. at least this time, the barricade stopped it from falling all the way to the floor, so it wasn't as big of a mess. regardless, we have spent the last half hour reattaching the tree to the wall. just what i want to be doing in the middle of the night!