What Happens When....

...you realize it's been 2 weeks since you've posted and you really have no idea where the time went? It certainly isn't because you have lots of thrilling adventures to post about now.

**You post anyway about random boring bits of life.

...your computer suddenly refuses to recharge?

**You make lots of coffee, cookies and brownies to serve your little bro and thank God the super glue idea worked and saved you from purchasing a new laptop. True Story!

...you finally find a book that's interesting to the boy?

**You find him reading with a side of eggs and bacon. It must have been a pretty good book!

...a Mommy goes away for a whole weekend?

 **No one even notices that there is all manner of gunk on the bathroom mirror. And certainly no one can explain how people who can barely reach to turn on the faucet can manage to spit toothpaste way. up. there.

**And little girls who used to sleep in cribs are suddenly all grown up and ready for a big girl bed. The crib is dismantled and said Mommy is just a wee bit sad.

**Scrapbook pages are assembled with fervor, 41 to be exact.

 ...the Pintrest crafty bug meets the festive holiday mood?

 **Laundry, cleaning and meal preparations are postponed while the glue, and  scissors are put to work with the help of a coffee mug and flickering candles.

...little girls "do it myself, Mom."

**crazy hair cuteness!

...you find the perfect mirror for your decor at a thrift shop and you have NO IDEA whether your getting completely ripped off or hauling off with a steal?

** You check with Esther, the mirror expert! :) How much would you have paid for her? (she's about 18 inches tall and I think perhaps the frame is resin)

...little boys who are just learning to spell write sweet notes to their mommy?

**You ask them to read it to you before you assume it's a reflection on your bad habits. Ha! Ha! "O, of course you meant 'Dear' Mom!"


...he figures out he can read the whole way through his library book all. by. himself?

 

**You know he'll be busy for a good hour. And you're a proud as punch Mama but a little sad again. Do they all have to grow up? And why so fast?

...the Mister decides he can cut down that tree for less than the $500 the lawn care guy wanted to do it?

** You stay inside and watch from your warm kitchen and make a list of creative ways you could spend that $500 instead. :)

...you stay home a lot and keep plugging away those scrapbook pages?

**you can add another 24 to those first 41 and you start to envision your daughter actually having a scrapbook that is caught up...now about the other 5 books that are still 2 plus years behind. Sigh.

...you stay home a lot and ignore the grocery shopping for a couple of weeks?

**The list is frightenly long and you anticipate it to be an all day project. But cheers to getting back to the once a month shopping plan!

...when you get to the end of long random post?

**If you are not sound asleep and snoring peacefully, you are up to date on life on the funny farm!

He's FOUR

Somebody here turned 4 recently.

 This little guy decided to get in a hurry and showed up almost 3 weeks early. He was a tiny little peanut, only 7 lbs. (Well,  that's 2 lbs. less then some of his siblings so it seemed tiny to us.)

 

Trust me, at the time I didn't mind a bit, but I think he may one day suffer from "I'm the least important child" syndrome because of it. Every year I determine I'm going to remember to plan his party early but there is Christmas and New Year's and then BOOM all of the sudden his birthday is here and....

So we improvise. We had friends over for a football game, 

threw in a dozen balloons, served cake at half time and called it a party.

This is just so Ethan!

(Note to self: Clean camera lens before snapping pictures.)

******

I suggested a train cake. You'll see why in a minute.

If I had known what I was getting in for I may not have tried to be so convincing.

I think this may have been one of the hardest cakes I've made.

The 3D fire truck takes first place but this is a close second.

Food coloring.

Stacking.

Balancing.

Pasting together with icing.

Adding this and that, trying to make it recognizable to the untrained eye.

  He loved it and I was okay with it in the end,

 it just took

      way. to. long.   

You may remember this.

 

A few of the pieces showed up at Chistmas. 

A few still remain in hiding. 

The rest....

....were a big hit!

 With the birthday boy and the brothers.

*******

I didn't actually do a Birthday photoshoot.

 I have these from our Family shoot for Christmas cards.

They were a few weeks early, but I think they count.

 (oops, there's that neglected child thing again! He's a fourth child, what can I say?)

 

  

Happy Birthday Buddy!

********
 

Just one more nostalgic, sentimental picture.

I think this may be my favorite picture ever.

I keep it framed in my living room.

The big brother's are not always this adoring anymore.

Glad I captured it then!

     

 

********

My weekend starts early AND I get the weekend off! 

Yup, I'm a little teeeeeny bit excited!

Happy Friday to you!

Made Me Smile Monday

{a  snapshot from my week. with or without words. something exciting. something ordinary. something special. something silly. just something. that made me smile this week. a memory to brighten my day. to make me smile again. even though it's MONDAY!}

He's handsome.

He's sweet.

He makes me laugh.

He picked his own outfit.

He turned 4 this week.

(real birthday post coming soon)

How to have a Perfect Winter Day

We got just a couple of inches of snow over Christmas vacation. Just enough to keep the kids happy sledding and building a snowman but not enough to require much shoveling efforts from the adults. Perfect!

1. Watch with anxious anticipation as the snow falls. Bonus points if you're still in your pj's!

2. Curl up and color a picture or two. One from your sisters Strawberry Shortcake book will be fine. :)

3. Play a game or 7.

4. Dig out hats, gloves, boots, coats and snow pants (times 5.) Improvise when one child's "pair" of boots are two different sizes. Oops!

5. Add sleds.

6. Be really brave and learn to deal with it when you get snow on your boots. They're called snow boots for a reason dear child!

7. If you choose to pick a fight with Dad brace yourself.

8. And come up smiling!

9. Convince Mom to put down her coffee and drag her off the couch to come out too. Who else is gonna take the pictures??

10. She might even help you make a snow man. [Note to Self: Remember to by 'real' carrots in the winter time, baby carrots just don't make very good 'noses.']

 11. Take some time to enjoy the beauty and play with your camera.

12. Be Thankful for a whole day spent with the people you love the most!


I'm not a huge snow fan but the kids do have fun. This was great because I knew we wouldn't be making up school days in June. I'd be okay with one more decent sized snow storm yet and then it can just instantly be warm and sunny again!

 How about you? Are you praying for a blizzard yet or are 3-4 inches over Christmas more than enough to satisfy you?

Happy Friday!

Just a memory.....

  It came. It f.i.n.a.l.l.y. came and now it's gone. We are left with plenty of good memories, a few new toys, and only 355 more days to wait until it comes again.

 I got to go in and help make sugar rush on a stick fun Christmas-y crafts with one of the kids school classes. It's always fun to get to see what their worlds look like and interact with the people who's names I hear in the afternoons.

We went to our favorite Christmas Eve. service. Albeit  not on Christmas Eve. But Christmas Eve. Eve. was good enough for us. Below are all my little people spit-shined and decked in Christmas fancies for the occasion. And surprisingly enough all looking the same direction. Aren't they a handsome bunch?

 The only thing to do after a Christmas service is have hot chocolate, popcorn and cookies in our pj's.

We discovered a hidden treasure in our little town. A light show choreographed to music. It was pretty impressive for these parts and the kids loved it!

One very patient Daddy who spent several hours turning 4 bazillion pieces into someones Christmas gift.

We got just enough snow to call it a white Christmas.

Christmas Morning's sleep eyes, bed heads and stocking stuffers. I love how my kids get great thrills out of things like toothbrushes and chapstick just because they were wrapped up and put in a stocking.

We were pretty excited about our newly acquired treasures.

If that smile doesn't make a few hours of assemble worth it, I don't know what would. We also learned an important lesson about ordering from Amazon. Thankfully I ordered this one early. Two weeks later it had nearly doubled in price. Yikes! I had know idea prices vary that much. Take note for next year Mama.

If you read my post on my birthday gift you will now be even more convinced that I am old and boring but I got exactly what I asked for for Christmas too, even though I was only joking when I asked. I really did not expect the hubs to jump on it. I knew the day we moved in that our water had issues but the numbers they gave us when we finally got it tested were pretty ridiculous (metals and impurities 100x the recommended, yeah, for real.) When you hear that, there is really no way you can say, "No, I think we'll wait a while before we install that system you're selling." Feeling blessed to have options and ways to fix the problem and enjoy good healthy water right in my kitchen.

And in between all the excitement, gifts, spending time with family, relaxing, paper, ribbons, pictures and memories, we made sure we consumed ample amounts of this......

just because.

Good times were had by all!

Now is it Christmas?

We're having a bit of  holiday confusion at our house. First of all, there were presents and cousin time to go along with our deep fried turkey. Since the 'out-of-towners' who came back home this year, did so over Thanksgiving, we had our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration in one big happy day.

Then surely the arrival of the tree in our living room means Christmas is here, right? My kids sure thought so. I explained that we were just 'getting ready' for Christmas but land sakes, that tree is half dead already and it's STILL not Christmas.

Twinkly lights, lots of them. They look so cozy and pretty but even they don't mean it's Christmas.

And believe it or not there is even a few gifts under the tree. Santa never comes to our house so Mom and Dad have taken over. They may be from yard sales but who cares, they are presents just the same, right?

The cookies are baked. Good thing Mom isn't making us wait till Christmas to eat all of them. We should probably find some neighbors and friends to share them with since none of the presents under the tree look big enough to be a treadmill.

Our mailbox is full of pictures of people we haven't seen since last year's picture. We even managed to get our pictures sent out at the beginning of December this year.

If you didn't get a paper copy, We wish you a 

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

  too!

The candles are lit.

We've made sweet treats to thank people that we appreciate.

 {While the school boys wrote cards for their teachers the little ones wanted in on the fun too. I gave Kyra a card to write on and when she was finished she brought it to me. "Who is that for? I asked. "For Joseph," she said, I guess she's been listening to some of the story anyway.}

We're counting down the days with this fun project. A wrapped story for each day in December. Just remember, if you plan to use library books for this you should keep track of due dates. I may or may not have learned that lesson the hard way.

While we wait for Christmas to get here we pass the time by playing with our very own Nativity set.
And every time that sweet little voice says, "Mommy, can I play [with] my Jesus Loves Me?" (a.k.a. Baby Jesus)  my heart melts. 

I love the signs that my children are picking up the real meaning of Christmas. In the van today, one of them said, "Mom, this is the Baby Jesus song we sang at church, the one that says 'REmanual'."

 

 Wishing you and yours a Blessed Holiday!

{and if you happen to read a blog where the writer can't decide whether to write in first or third person, just go with it and try not to let it ruin your holiday spirit!}