sugarplum

merry christmas!

not the christmas i was planning

this week was supposed to be a great precursor to christmas. by last weekend, i had accomplished something for the first time since we've lived in this house: besides laundry waiting to be washed, every room in our house was in order at the same time. oh yes indeedy. and our calendar for this week was very empty, which meant that there would be lots of time to finally do some fun christmas-y things with the kids. there were christmas lights to see and christmas cookies to make and crafts to make and presents to wrap... and it is hallie's first christmas! which means lots and lots of pictures to take! yes, it was going to be a holly jolly week.

was.

instead, brian and all the kids got colds and fevers, and not wanting to be outdone, i got the flu. so i spent the last 3 days in the recliner or my bed, shivering with a pretty high fever at times, with a big ole bowl in my lap. brian did a great job holding down the fort (not feeling so great himself), and i am happy to say that we are all on the mend. these three sentences really do not do my flu experience justice, but i'm done breathing, thinking, and living the flu experience, so let's just say it was worse than my 30+ hour labor with ethan, and now we can move on.

now for the laundry. 'cause that was the part that didn't get done at my house last weekend. it was already piled up. a week ago. and now every single solitary thing in this house that anyone has touched in the last week must be washed. my dear mother came over today (who had originally taken off today to make christmas cookies with us), and we all sanitized and aired out and cleaned and washed till we dropped. we only made a dent in the laundry. but we washed our hands 8,546 times each. (do not let the picture above fool you. there is more laundry behind the coffee table and another good 5-7 loads in the foyer behind the tree!)

so yes, i will thankfully be over this flu by christmas day (i was beginning to wonder that 48 hrs ago)... but getting these germs outta my house and everything back in its place? that's gonna take me the next few days. it looks like christmas festivities will have to be put on the back burner again... until christmas eve.

this was not the way i'd planned for this week to go.

of course, this is all so incredibly trivial when i remember the hurting families in connecticut mourning the loss of their precious children and loved ones. this was not the christmas they were planning whatsoever.

and then i think about mary. giving birth to her Savior in a dirty ole' stable was probably not exactly what she had planned either!

so even though my plans for this week have not been fulfilled, we will still be celebrating God's Rescue Plan that was fulfilled in the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Lord willing, we will join our church family on christmas eve for a beautiful evening of lessons and carols.

we will have our little family christmas here on tuesday morning before heading over to brian's parents' for our first christmas in their gorgeous new house!

i think christmas cookies will become new years' cookies this year.

and we may even get to drive around and look at christmas lights before everybody takes them down.

so it will still be christmas. not the christmas i was planning, but a very merry christmas indeed. we have so, so very much to be thankful for, and there's nothing like a little flu-bug to flip your week upside down and give you some perspective!

if i don't reappear before 2013, don't worry... the laundry didn't really overtake me. i am just enjoying the christmas i wasn't planning.

what about me!?

hey! you can't have all this talk about teeth and not tell the world about my first tooth!!!

all she wants for christmas...

...is to lose her first tooth!


ohhhh my! have we been waiting for caroline's first tooth to fall out!!!

caroline has been anxiously awaiting her first loose tooth. ethan has lost several, and her cousin karina lost her first tooth this summer. when caroline's tooth finally became loose, it was such a big deal. i received hourly updates on the looseness of the tooth, including her running ecstatic into the living room one day. i thought her tooth had fallen out, but no... "it's LOOSER!" she exclaimed. yeah, this was gonna be a long few weeks.

it has been hanging by a couple of threads for a while now, but she was very insistent that i not pull it out. "i want God to pull it out," she would say every time i suggested that i yank it. she was going to the dentist on wednesday for a filling, and i told her that he could just pull it while she was numb and it'd be over. that really didn't fly with her Holy Spirit Extraction Plan... so we have just kept wiggling it and wiggling it.

on thursday night, after brushing her teeth, caroline had the idea to pop her tooth out with her flosser (SEE, DR. DENTIST!??! WE ARE FLOSSING!). not sure how her idea falls in line with God pulling out her tooth, but i just went with it. one little pop, and out it came!

and then she lost it. uncontrollable crying... with a big smile on her face.


by the time i grabbed my video camera, caroline had calmed down a little, but she was still pretty happy/upset. (warning: there is blood in the video!)


i am so thrilled for this big "first" for my first little girl.

blessed

we were blessed to have brian's family, my mom, and some dear family friends over to our house for thanksgiving lunch. it was kind of a last minute decision to host thanksgiving when brian's mom became sick over the weekend, but i enjoyed preparing for company and getting my house all "fall"ed up. (yes, it had been fall for a good two months already, but it just didn't look like it inside my house!)

plus, i had been saving this bib for hallie to wear since last year!


my adorable scentsy pumpkin warmer made the house smell like fall...


and everyone needs at least a dozen children's books about the pilgrims!


i went simple with the table decor. i love the fall colors with my new blue walls in the dining room!



i am thankful that brian's mom felt good enough to come over on thursday!


my mom made a delicious cinnamon cream cheese fruit dip and this cute turkey fruit tray. i also made my husband's favorite rotel cheese dip, but it was devoured before i could snap a picture.


a big thank-you to my brother-in-law, who was up bright and early that morning to smoke some turkeys... doesn't my grandmother's apron just fit him perfectly?


neil and jeff did the honors of carving the turkey...


and yes, it tasted as amazing as it looks!


speaking of turkeys...


we got all the food ready, and kristie and i were doing our usual thing... taking pictures of all the food! here is brian's mom's corn pudding with her grandmother's hand-written recipe. (this is my favorite part of thanksgiving!)


then glenda and martha asked if we could stop taking pictures of the food and eat it! ha! so we loaded up our plates and headed to the tables.

the men had their own table for politics and gun talk.


and we ladies had our own table to talk about anything BUT guns. :)


yum. double yum.


the funny thing is that martha and i came to the table first... i sat down and then got back up to get my camera to take a picture of my plate. martha didn't hide her chuckle as i snapped away at my mound of casseroles and meat. :) a few minutes later, kristie sat down with her plate... she picked up her fork and then paused, looked at me, and said, "did you get a picture?" i LOVE my sister-in-law. :) (and then martha laughed at both of us!)

hallie is thinking, "i have a feeling y'all are chewing on something with a little more flavor than this thing!"


the big kids ate their lunch earlier, which made for a nice quiet dinner for all of us. :) it wasn't long after we finished that they started asking for these cute little acorns that martha had made. (my little squirrel had her cheeks full!)


after dinner, everybody went outside for a little shooting and swinging.



brian's grandmother had some hallie time.


and then the turkey enzymes hit. (or EMzymes, as brian's dad says...)


my favorite memory from this thanksgiving is this sweet lady playing our piano.


our piano used to be her piano. then brian's parents' house burned to the ground. most things were lost. most things that weren't lost were incredibly damaged. Through this loss, God reminded us over and over of His protection and His provision. there was little hope that nana's piano could be restored, but they put it in storage anyway. fast-forward a couple of years later, and that piano has been restored! oh what a priceless gift this is for our family! the gift of music is a beautiful one within itself... the gift of a piano is a huge blessing... but to have this piano, this physical reminder of God's provision for our family? that is truly a reason to be thankful.

and i forgot to add that the piano sounds amazing!

brian's mom has had a busy and stressful few months, and it did my heart good to see her go over and just start playing. my mom, kristie, and i came over and sang as she played hymn after hymn. i hope this night was the beginning of many, many more nights of music in our home.

so this thanksgiving included old recipes, a new baby, a restored piano, precious friends, and sweet, sweet family. the top of the piano says it all.


praise God, from Whom all blessings flow
praise Him, all creatures here below.
praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

amen!

thankful

what shall i render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?
psalm 116:12

almost 6

i walked in the school room today and found this message on the chalkboard...



how has it already been a year since this?



and three years since this?



and six years since this?



we will be celebrating our sweet caroline tomorrow!

my backup

we went to another wedding today, and i decided to leave my camera at home and just relax and enjoy myself. it was a special treat for ethan and caroline to join us, and we loved celebrating with friends and family (and a candy bar). by the end of the night, i was wishing that i'd brought along our camera. my phone camera just didn't cut it, but i tried.

i tried to capture caroline chugging her 167th cup of punch.


and i really really tried to capture this sweet moment of my girl dancing with her daddy.


the photographer was also snapping away, so there's a (really) good possibility that i'll end up with a clearer picture of this... and if not, i surely have it imprinted on my heart...

a little taste

just got home from a dear friend's wedding... i was away for 5 days with hallie while brian held down the fort around here. it was a treat to sneak away with my baby girl and our new prime lens to spend the (long) weekend with sweet sweet college friends. i have hundreds (and hundreds) of pictures to sort through, but i couldn't resist posting these of lynsay and derek's beautiful and delicious wedding cake.



i was too short to snap this one myself, but i commissioned the task to lynsay's friend heidi. she captured just what i wanted! and a year from now, the mr. and mrs. will enjoy feasting on the top of this cake!


lots of blog posts are swirling in my head, but math and spelling and playing outside in this glorious weather are taking precedent these days! will be back when i'm back!

daddy's home

first day of school!

we had a wonderful first day of school today! caroline has been about to explode with excitement over starting kindergarten, so she was ready to go full-speed ahead this morning. ethan and i spent a good bit of the summer catching up on first grade work since we got a late start last year and we took a month off when hallie was born. so when his math time only consisted of one lesson today, he was overjoyed! :) here is our schoolroom full of my blessings!


take a goooood look at that table because it may not ever be that clean again! but oh what a difference a year makes! this time last year, the view into that room looked like this... (hence, the late start!)


so this year, MOMMY was about to explode with excitement over starting the year organized and on time! i must say that our schoolroom is one of my favorite parts of our house. anyway, indulge me as i post the kids' "first day of school" pictures...

ethan- 2nd grade, 7 years old. man oh man, this boy's face has gotten long and skinny in the last month.


caroline- kindergarten, 5 years old. oh happy day for this girl!


amelia- mommy's "helper", 3 years old.


amelia is not doing "preschool", just playing and doing puzzles and playing and dancing playing and reading books and playing and singing and playing. ethan and caroline will alternate playing with her while i work with each of them on reading/spelling and math, and then amelia will join us all for bible, five in a row, and probably science. she will most likely be hanging out in the schoolroom during some spelling and math, so i won't be surprised if she is walking around saying some of the phonograms by the end of the year!

ethan started his very first journal today... and as if i needed more evidence that he is his father's son... here is his first entry. i told him it had to be at least 2 sentences.


i don't know if i've ever written anything that was only 2 sentences! ha!

we had a special treat after lunch to celebrate the first day of school... apple smiles! caroline found this idea in a magazine, and she was super excited to get to make them today.




ok... not exactly like the picture, but as my supervisors in grad school hammered into my head, it's the process, not the final product, that is important with little ones and projects. :) this girl loved the process and the final product!


i agree... they were delicious and were a super way to kick off the school year.

i am so so thankful to spend my days with these kiddos. God has blessed me beyond measure. way beyond.


i will hopefully be back soon to catch up on august. yep, the whole month just pretty much flew by and was consumed by car and computer issues. hallie is still growing, despite the lack of updating on here. :) see ya here soon for some hallie lovin' and some august recapping!