Dressing up at the children's museum

Some Christmas pictures

We spent Christmas with my parents, my sister, and my grandma. The kids had so much fun. My girl got her first doll house from my parents and she loves it so much. My boy got one of those robot dogs that do what you tell them and all kinds of fun stuff, also from my parents. They got lots of other wonderful things from everyone that loves them so much but most of all we had a very relaxed, beautiful day.

Merry Christmas

The kids are in bed. We are in the mountains at the condo. There is snow outside. I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. So, I am going to get the stocking filled, the presents under the tree, and off to bed for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. It is a good reason to celebrate.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Colds, Waiting, and Kids

We all got the winter cold. It is not so bad except for my daughter. She is so grumpy and it is making it hard on all of us.

We are in the waiting stage of our adoption. We are ready to be placed with a child but we just have to wait for one to be matched to us. I think this has been the hardest part. It is hard when there is nothing for us to do. We just sit and wait. I am glad that we have Christmas to keep us busy. It helps to keep our minds off it but it is always there in the back of your mind.

Today is my husbands last day of work until after New Years. I am so excited. The whole office will be closed so it will be a real break without anyone calling him or needing him for anything. We are looking forward to some good, quality family time.

The kids are just, well, I don't know how to say it... busy, loud, funny, frustrating, crazy, loving... Everyday is a new challenge and a new joy.

I am looking forward to this Christmas. We do not have a lot of plans but we are going to go to Tahoe and stay up there for a few days. I actually found some presents that I think my husband will like and the kids are both just so excited that it is rubbing off on us.

I feel so incredibly blessed this year and it is hard not to kind of feel guilty when others are having a hard time. I like to think that God wants us to use our blessed times to make others hard times a little easier so I will be looking for ways to do that. May God use us all in all times of our lives.

Only one week until Christmas Eve!

I cannot believe that it is almost Christmas and I have not even written anything about it yet. The reason this is so shocking to me is that I love Christmas. It really is one of my favorite holidays. I like holidays in general but Christmas is extra special. I was sitting in our living room with the Christmas tree lights on and just loving the feeling. I think a tree makes a home feel like home. We decorated our house and tree last Sunday. I love pulling out all of the Christmas stuff and how excited the kids get. No matter how many times you do it, it is still exciting every year.

Some of our traditions are:

We get the kids an ornament each year. My mom and dad did this for me and my sister and when I moved out I got to take mine with me. I can remember each one and when I got it. I am hoping to do the same for my kids.

We do an advent sock thing. It is 24 baby socks hung up in a row and in each one is a piece of paper with something for us to do that day written on it. Things like do a puzzle, color together, movie night... things like that.

We bake Christmas cookies. This year we are doing it with my mom, sister, and grandma. I am looking forward to baking with everyone else.

One night we all get in the car with popcorn or some snack and drinks and drive around and look at Christmas lights. This is also something I did with my family and I love doing it with my kids.

We read as many Christmas books as we can get out hands on. The library is a good place to get these but we also are always adding to our own colection.

We read the Christmas story (the real story) before we open presents on Christmas morning ( also something my family does)

We listen to lots of Christmas music.

I love traditions so I am always excited when I can make them with my own family. Some years we do other things but these are the things we do every year. I think it is so important to build memories and whatever you do as a family is building memories. I want my kids to look back and remember this as a good time that we had as a family. Not a stressfull time but a time that was about family. I hope that is what they will remember. And that we had a lot of fun!

What we will be doing tomorrow...

We are so excited about tomorrow night and attending this fun event.

This is the latest thing that my husbands business is putting on and we think it should be fun.

Birthday pictures

Happy Birthday

To my first born son,

You turned six today. I can hardly believe it! Six sounds so old. I do not know how it happened so fast.

This year you was the first year that you wanted an all boy party. So we invited six boys over and had a fort party. You and your dad built forts all over our house. Then you guys played with dart guns and silly string and ran around like boys should. You were so excited about the whole thing. The friends, the cake, the presents, the fact that it was all for you.

You are becoming your own little person. You have your own ideas about how things should be and you are always wanting to learn. I am having a lot of fun teaching you this year. You are so interested in everything that it has made me get excited about leaning along with you.

You are a take charge kind of guy. You can enter a room and just make yourself comfortable. You make friends easily. You also have a strong sense of justice and can get very upset if you see a wrong being made.

I love that you still like to sit with me on the couch. You like to be read to and you like to cuddle. You are so sweet. You take me on little dates and you really like to spend time with people. You enjoy going to work with your dad and being grown up and you like to talk "business" with the guys.

You are an amazing big brother. You really look out for your sister and you truly love her. You are proud of her when she does something for the first time. You care when she gets hurt and you laugh when she is funny. You guys play with each other really well and I love watching your imaginations grow. You play king and queen, mom and dad, cooking, and cars and trains.

You are also our neat freak. Your room is always pretty clean and if I want to do and organizing project you are right there with me helping every step of the way.

When we ask you what you want to be when you grow up you say with no hesitation " I am going to work with daddy" You love to build things and are always coming up with new ideas of things to make. You really are our little builder.

This is the year that you stopped believing in Santa Claus because things were just not adding up for you. You still love Christmas and actually you enjoy every holiday.

You are our first born and so that means that we have had to try things out on you and see what works. I hope that has not been to hard for you. You are a good sport and I know you know we love you. I am looking forward to experiencing year six with you and seeing how you change and grow this year.

Happy Birthday my wonderful boy

Love,
Mama

What music is playing in your day?

I read a post by this girl and I loved the concept. The idea is that instead of a schedule your day has a rhythm. I have been thinking about it a lot lately and I will think in my head " what is playing right now? Is it classical music, rock, smooth jazz, worship, hip-hop, R&B?" I do not know if that is exactly what the girl meant when she wrote the post but it is how I have imagined it. I also like the idea of not haveing a really strict schedule but that there is some "rhythm" to our days. There is a flow and it may change some days and some days are a faster flow and some days are a slower flow but there is some reason to what we are doing and some thought to our days. When things feel like they are getting out of control and I am going to go crazy with the noise I mentally turn down the volume and figure out where our rhythm is out of line. I really like this concept and I think it just explains life so well. It is something I can really understand and put into practice in our lives.

Things I am enjoying

I love this website. It is great for Christmas presents or just for yourself.

This is a blog that I am enjoying but I also am reading this book and loving it so far.

If you read my blog about coffee you know that I like the stuff. I am dying to try this coffee and I think you should to.

I am liking this one for food ideas. Every mom can use good ideas.

Seven Years

Today I have been married to my wonderful husband for seven years. I cannot believe that it has been that long and at the same time I can barely remember what it was like before he was a part of my life. We have decided that we want to change our anniversary date because December 4th is just a very busy time. Our sons birthday is the 10th and there are other family member birthdays and then there is Christmas so we are moving the date to sometime in the spring. We have not picked a date yet. All that to say that we are not really celebrating today and postphoning it until later.

I know that it is easy to get used to someone and then only noticing the things that maybe bother you or get on your nerves. I want to take this opportunity to say that I am very thankful for my husband. He treats me really well and he puts up with my crazy moods. He makes me laugh and he is a great father.

All I can say is that I am thankful that I married well.
He is a real catch!