Advent 2013

For me, there is no more exciting time of year than the Christmas season. I've always loved Christmas and do even more now that I'm a mom. Watching your babies experience the magic of Christmas - from Santa, to snow, to the miraculous birth of Baby Jesus - is like nothing else in the world. It gives me some serious warm fuzzies! So you can imagine my excitement each year when it's time to start the countdown. We celebrated Advent for the first time last year when I felt like Carsen was big enough to start understanding that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Of course, even this year she is a little young to grasp the notion of a savior, but I'm happy to start with the idea that we're celebrating his birth.

Last year, I made an advent calendar using some pretty winter cardstock I had on hand, and some leftover Christmas ribbon. You can read the how-to along with our list of Advent activities here. It was really cute, but it got on my nerves a little with the way it was assembled. So this year, I decided to simplify the calendar itself. I still wanted it to be reusable for future years, though, so I used a piece of foam-core posterboard and a pad of sticky notes. I started by making a calendar grid on the posterboard {it was 20" x 30" so I made 4x4 squares and left a 1" margin on each side of the 30" length}. Then I wrote each of the activities on the back of a sticky note - 23 total this year. Since certain activities are better for weekends or some are better for earlier/later in the month, I used our Google calendar to plan out what activities to do on which days and stuck them on the Advent calendar accordingly.

Once all the sticky notes were in place, I just used silver and black Sharpies to write the countdown numbers on them. I personally like to do the numbers as a countdown, although I know a lot of calendars count up to Christmas. To hang it, I placed a command hook upside down on the back of our basement door. Then I hot glued some ribbon to the back of the calendar and looped the ribbon over the command hook. Voila!

 Originally, I had my heart SET on red sticky notes. In my mind, they were everywhere for the holidays. I mean, they're sticky notes... how else would they capitalize on the holiday season?? In reality, I could find them nowhere. It got to be a few days in when I finally decided to just use blue and go with a "winter" color scheme. They're a little too electric blue for my taste, but I feel that I did the best I could with the resources that were available. I did find a pack of Post-Its that were more of a dark blue and they would have looked better, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $8 on a 6-pad pack when I only needed 23 stickies. UGH. I'll begin my hunt for red {or even a nice true green that's not neon!} for next year's calendar promptly on January 1st.

In the mean time, here's our list of activities for this year:

• Decorate the tree and our house together


• Read "The Story of Christmas"


• Make cards for soldiers


• Write a letter to Santa {Carsen dictates, mommy writes. Save it in her baby book!}


• Visit Santa {at the mall}


• New Christmas jammies


• Christmas movie night #1 - Carsen's pick


• Make ice cream cone Christmas trees with cousins


• Learn about the symbols of Christmas


• Make paper cone Christmas trees for decorations


• Visit Valley View Farms {Carsen LOVES looking at Christmas trees in the stores, so this is a huge treat for her}


• Make brown paper garland {like this} for decorations


• Christmas movie night #2 - mommy's pick


• Make gifts for grandparents


• Make & decorate cardboard "Gingerbread" houses


• Go see Christmas lights in the neighborhood


• Read "The Night Before Christmas"


• Make ice bubbles


• Christmas movie night #3 - daddy's pick


• Hot cocoa bar {like the one in this post}


• Make a birthday card for Jesus


• Bake cookies


• Make {prep} a special breakfast for Christmas morning

Some of these are repeats from last year and some are new. As Carsen {and eventually Reagan and any future siblings} gets older there's more she can understand and participate in, so I'll change and adapt what we do each year accordingly.  Some things will probably always be on there like decorating the tree and house together as a family, Christmas movies, baking cookies, and making gifts for grandparents. In the future I'd like to add more service-related activities like volunteering and gathering food, toys, clothing or household items for donations {right now we usually do that around Thanksgiving}.

So far, we have... decorated, read "The Story of Christmas," made cards for soldiers, written a letter to Santa, visited Santa, and gotten new Christmas jammies.

 

 

 

Season of Thanks

Every year at this time people start posting all of the things they're thankful for in their lives on Facebook. I've never participated in that. It just doesn't feel like me. But I do like to put my gratitude out there, so I usually write a blog post. It doesn't change much year to year I guess because I'm a simple girl with a pretty simple life. There's of course much more I'm thankful for that isn't mentioned here, but that would be a much longer post than anyone would care to read. Here we go...

I am so incredibly thankful for every piece of my life. I'm a big believer that all the parts add up perfectly to the whole. I wouldn't change a moment, even the icky ones, because I want to be right where I am. I'm thankful every single day for the people in my life- from my precious little family, to my great big family, to our amazing friends, to those people who pluck my last nerve. They're all part of my life and who I am, and I'm thankful for them. I'm thankful for our health. We don't have to look far to find someone struggling with a chronic illness, who can't seem to catch a break, or who's fighting for his or her life. There's not a day that passes when I don't consciously acknowledge how incredibly blessed we are to be healthy. I'm thankful for our home. I don't love it, but it's ours. It keeps us warm and sheltered. It welcomed our girls home from the hospital and has been the only home they've ever known. It has taught us many lessons that will weigh heavy when we buy our next house, that's for sure. It has been  a place of fun and laughter and family for us- squeaks, creaks, leaks and all. I'm so thankful for our income. In a time when many seek work and can't find it or work half a dozen small jobs to feed their families, we have steady income. And it's enough to afford me the luxury of staying at home with our girls, snuggling, playing, adventuring, teaching, and making memories - where I know I belong. That is something I will never take for granted and never stop thanking God for. I am beyond grateful for the sacrifice of every member of the United States Military and their families. Our lives are what they are because they do what they do. Above all, I'm thankful for God's love and mercy. To live life knowing God's love is a gift I can't describe. Words will never be able to express how thankful I am for a loving, forgiving God.

While a blog post about what I'm thankful for is nice, just like all the posts on Facebook every day, what better way to show gratitude than to give back and pass the blessings on? Each year we kick off the holiday season around the beginning of November by collecting things we no longer need or use and make a huge donation. We take some things to Goodwill, some to a local transitional housing shelter, and some to the food bank. Not only does it feel great to clear some things out of the house that we no longer need or use, but I can't put in words how great it is to know that someone else will be warm, or fed, or clean because we made that donation. We are very fortunate to have parents who love to spoil us and our girls at Christmas. As a result, we always have older, lesser used items we can pass along to those in need. This year, Carsen is 3 1/2. While she doesn't have a concept of what it means to be needy, we did encourage her to help us pick out some of her toys and books she doesn't play with as much, and told her we were going to give them to children who had no toys. She was totally on board and didn't make a peep about the toys getting boxed up.

Donating to local charities and helping the less fortunate in our community will continue to be a part of our holiday season as the girls grow up. In today's world of 7-year olds with cell phones, I refuse to let my children be consumed by a materialistic culture and lose sight of what the holiday season is truly about. Of course, as they get older they'll be able to participate more and will certainly understand more what it means to reach out to others. Hopefully it will help to instill in them a sense of gratitude for what they have and compassion for those who go without.

 

How are you showing your gratitude this holiday season?

The 4th and a First

We got a new car. Our crossover was maxed out with 2 cars seats in the back and a stroller in the trunk. We got a really good deal on this one and so far we super love it. 

Our family photo from the 4th. I was kind of impressed that we're pretty much all looking at the camera. Small victories :)

You can't celebrate 4th of July without some water fun. Squirt guns with her cousins.

My little tiny baby trying to grow up on me

Her first play date with friends of ours from VA. Their interaction was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. They actually cooed back and forth at each other. It was adorable.

Lazy Sunday - I love it when she wants to play "happy nap."

Welcome, Christmas!

'Tis the season to get excited about Christmas! Since we have one 2-year old around here who has been excitedly talking about Christmas since before Thanksgiving, I decided to make an advent calendar this year full of activities to help us celebrate the first advent of Jesus Christ all season long! I have to say, I was extremely excited for C's first Christmas, and last year even more so since she was older and more able to participate. But this year, she is old enough to be aware that we're celebrating a very important birthday and her thrill over the whole thing has me on warm & fuzzy/proud mama overload! I wouldn't trade a second of it :)

The calendar I made is SUPER simple. I used some shiny red ribbon left over from a past Christmas project, some Christmas cardstock that I also had on hand, paper clips, duct tape, and a sharpie. Total cost = $0 = win! All I did was cut the ribbon into five strips long enough to wrap around the front of our basement door and secured them with duct tape on each end. Then I cut circles out of different pieces of cardstock, made smaller circles on white cardstock and numbered them, and then glued those together. Then I used paper clips to hook each finished circle to the ribbon. I also used my word program to write up 23 activities to clip on the back of each circle (this way nothing is permanent so I can easily change-up the activities from year to year as our kids grow up). It took several days to complete only because I didn't have a decent chunk of time to sit down and hammer the whole thing out, but if I had worked straight through it might have taken about 2 hours. If you're awesome and have those fancy shaped paper cutter gadgets, it would take you even less time. I am not awesome and cut all the circles out using a standard pair of scissors, same ones I cut my wrapping paper with. Imperfect, but a homemade look for sure :)  Each day we'll take down a circle and complete the attached activity until we've counted down to Christmas eve. I'm a little worried that the countdown will make the days fly by, but maybe having activities every single day will make up for that by helping me to feel like we made each day matter. Maybe? 

As for the activities, I took a lot of inspiration from Pinterest as well as from some friends of mine. I tried to make a mix of learning, service, cooking/baking, crafts, and family fun. Like I mentioned, C is aware that Christmas is to celebrate baby Jesus's birthday. We have been reading books and discussing baby Jesus and how we give Christmas gifts in honor of his birth. The whole concept of salvation and Jesus coming to save our souls from sin is of course still a little above her head, but I felt like we are at a good point to at least emphasize that Christmas is not about us, or Santa, or presents, but rather about someone very special named Jesus. That said, our advent activities are pretty elementary this year but we'll definitely adapt them as she and her siblings grow up. 

Here's the list of what we'll be doing between now and Christmas!

- Listen to Christmas carols (the real ones of course)

- Visit Santa

- Go see the Symphony of Lights

- Watch a Christmas movie as a family

- Make gifts for Grammy & Poppy

- Make gifts for Nana & Papa

- Bake Christmas cookies

- Make a birthday card for baby Jesus

- Take silly Christmas photos

- Make Christmas cards for soldiers

- Have a hot cocoa night

- Make a handprint Christmas tree

- Prep a special breakfast to pop in the oven Christmas morning

- Make rice krispie trees

- Learn about the symbols of the Christmas season

- Read a Christmas bed time story

- Make ice bubbles

- Read "The Night Before Christmas"

- Make candy-cane playdough

- Visit Valley View Farms

- Make a hand/footprint reindeer

- Make ice cream cone Christmas trees with cousins

- Have a snowman lunch 

- Watch a Christmas movie as a family (yes, this is listed twice)

We have 23 activities since official advent begins today. In other years that number will be different of course. Like I said, not all of our activities are 100%-Christ centered, but I wanted to focus on doing things together and celebrating together with things that would be toddler-friendly and toddler-understood. I'm doing these things for her, so choosing activities that are above her understanding wouldn't make sense. Some of those great ideas I found but decided C was too young for include...

- Write letters to soldiers, family members, or Santa

- Make paper snow flakes

- Shop for siblings or cousins

- Lots and lots of other crafts C is still too young for

- Helping parents decorate the tree or house

- Volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens

- Making donations of food, clothing and toys

Anyone else make or have a fun advent calendar? Doing any exciting advent activities? Tell us about them! And don't forget to stay tuned for pictures of our advent fun over the course of the month :) 

Fast Forward

I feel like my life has been in fast forward for almost 2 months now. Every time I think about the week ahead of me, it seems to include the start of a new month. It's not a feeling I enjoy in most cases, but for blogging purposes I am also going to opt to "fast forward" through the month of November, at least until Thanksgiving. Suffice it to say it wasn't a great month. In fact it was sad and difficult and no one would enjoy reading about it. I would also not like to write about it, so we'll just pick up at Thanksgiving and move on from there.

This year we spent Thanksgiving as we usually do - doing the tour of our hometown where both of our parents still live. Before heading there though, J and C watched the Macy's parade (C was mesmerized) while I did some cooking and prepping for the two dinners we were about to partake in. We hit the road stopping first for dinner with J's family and then on to my Mom's for dinner there. It's a tough life :)

Homemade cranberry sauce - so easy & so good!

Chillin

Doing some baking of her own

Pushing her 25-year old uncle around the house on a toy car

Uncle J and Eli relaxing with a good book :)

J went out shopping on Thursday night with a friend to pick up a season on DVD. He was home by 1:30. Then he got up and went into work on Friday morning only to get a call from his dad who wanted to go shopping. They had a good time out in the madness while C and I shopped online from the comfort of home! I didn't get any spectacular deals but I also refuse to buy things not on my list just because they're a deal.

Friday night we had "Friendsgiving" with J's college roommates - a tradition they've carried on every year since college. Saturday we put up our tree and then went to J's brother's house for their annual post-Thanksgiving football game. We arrived after the football portion was over though due to C's nap time.

She was excited to help me put "necklace" on the tree

We had a usual quiet Sunday and celebrated my nephew's 5th birthday.

Then I did a little more shopping online today. Christmas shopping to me is one of life's great joys. C has been talking for weeks about wanting two things for Christmas - a "Christmas bicycle" and a "Christmas Barbie." Today the bike was delivered and I can hardly contain my excitement. The anticipation of her reaction when she sees it has my mommy heart just ready to burst. J is equally as excited of course and told me he "waited his whole life" to put together his baby's first bike for Christmas. It's just one of those parenting moments, I guess. We're ecstatic :)

Browsing the ads

Between now and then I'm also really excited to teach C all about Christmas through advent activities. I'm going to make our calendar tomorrow. She has been very excited about Christmas this year so I know she'll get a kick out of a countdown with Christmas activities each day.

While I know our Christmas season will be busy and will likely pass by faster than I'd like it to, I'm really hoping it doesn't go by in fast forward like the past two months have. I'm also hoping (perpetually) that I'll be able to document our fun here on the blog.

Anyone else have fun activities planned for advent or the Christmas season? I'd love to hear :)

Wishful Blogging

Things have not calmed down any since my last post, and consequently my hope that lots of happenings would lead to lots of blogging has been dashed. That was wishful blogging on my part. Oh well.

So after J's sister's wedding it was Halloween. That was a fantastic day! In the morning we got to go see our tiny little pumpkin for the first time in 12 weeks at the 20-week anatomy sonogram. Everything looked great and healthy. Much to our surprise, we found out that we'll be welcoming another baby GIRL in March! Given the track record in my husband's family we were just shocked to see a baby girl on the screen. C went with us to the appointment, so she thought it was pretty cool to see the baby "on TV" and was excited to be getting a baby sister. We chose her name right there on the table (we had it narrowed down to 2 anyway) - her name is Reagan. We haven't picked a middle name yet, but we felt like we had a little more time to think about that anyway.

Growing up with a sister who I'm very close to, I am just tickled pink to raise two little girls. I can't wait to watch them bond and become the best little friends. Even when they don't get along, as my sister and I didn't always, they will always be sisters and that beats anything else any day. Another fantastically convenient aspect to having a second girl is that it will make for the easiest transition ever. She will be born in the same season that C was so all of the baby clothes we have will be appropriately sized. C's current bedroom (the smaller of other 2) is already set up to be a girl's nursery. The crib and changing table are still in there. The walls are pretty purple, and all of the bedding and accessories go along. Furthermore, we had already set up C's new big-girl bed in the other bedroom and told her it was her big-girl bed. She is IN-LOVE with it and goes in there to see it every time she passes by. Literally all we have to do is paint C's big girl room and put her clothes in the closet. Had the new baby been a boy we would be designing a boy nursery for the bigger room, moving the crib and changing table to the bigger room, and moving the day bed into C's current smaller room. Not to mention we'd need new crib bedding and changing table accessories since those are all covered in purple flowers. Oh, and a whole wardrobe of boy clothes. Whew.

After the sonogram we came home for nap time and then went to my sister's house to go trick-or-treating with her kids. We've done this every year but this year was the first time we had C walk up to doors and collect candy. She thought that was great fun. Every so often a group of kids in scary costumes would get behind us and when she turned around to walk back down the sidewalk she'd see them, gasp, and freeze. It was kind of funny, though the mama bear in me wanted to yell at them for scaring small children. I refrained from doing that, reminding myself that Halloween is for bigger kids too. She was pretty much the cutest Yoda ever, and was so so excited about her costume.

Everything since Halloween has just been more insanity. It needs its own post, so I'll leave it at this for now. I'll also say that although I disapprove of retail establishments decorating for Christmas in mid-October, I have enjoyed a couple of gingerbread lattes at this point and even used a Christmas mug at home this morning. Now that Halloween is actually over I feel more ready to transition into the holiday season. I've said before that I'm really not much for fall, but I do love the holidays. More on that later also. For now, goodnight :)

Let Freedom Ring

This year we celebrated 236 years of freedom and independence. Two hundred thirty-six years since so many gave their lives in the name of limited government and limited taxation. Two hundred thirty-six years since our Founding Fathers signed the document that officially made the British Colonies into the United States of America. The birth of a nation is a pretty big deal. And even as we celebrate with family, friends, and fellow Americans 236 years after the fact, I can't help but reflect on just how blessed I feel to have been born here. I'm a strong adamant believer that the United States is the greatest nation to ever rise up on the face of this planet. The Founders had it right without a doubt. They were geniuses born of an oppressive, intrusive, over-controlling monarchy. Thank God they had the courage to do what they did. Thank God they put it on paper and made it official. Thank God that 236 years later we are still adhering (for the most part) to their genius ideas. Thank God that countless men and women over the past 236 years have believed those ideas are worth giving their lives to defend. And thank God that the rest of us simply get to enjoy the benefits of it all by living here in the United States.

That's how I feel about the 4th of July anyway. Here's how we celebrated...

Friends of ours got married on Tuesday night, so we kicked off the holiday at their wedding. C might have stolen the show a little by pairing her irresistible cuteness with some hot dance moves. We literally had to drag her off the dance floor at 11pm to go home.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYmyFNctJUc]

On the 4th we cooked out at my mom's house with my sister and her kids. My brother, SIL, and their little one were away at the beach with friends. Usually we all head up to my sister's area (about 45 minutes north of us and a bit more country) to watch fireworks and let the kids run around and play together. The threat of storms and the long drive convinced us to head back home and try to catch fireworks near our house. Luckily although it was late, we did find a good spot on the roof of a parking garage at the mall. Fireworks were being set off across the street from the mall so we were a little distance away but still had a great view. C was a little tired by 9:30 when the show started, but she enjoyed them still. For me, 4th of July is just not complete without fireworks. It's like a birthday party with no cake or presents or singing.

I hope you also got to spend the 4th doing whatever it is you do to celebrate and reflect on how blessed we are to be here, safe and free, in this amazing country!

Happy Fathers Day!

We had a lovely Fathers Day spent with J's family at his parents' house. We pretty much enjoyed the beautiful weather, swam in the pool, and picked crabs! Well, everyone else picked crabs. I like crab meat but I am not into the picking. If you have to remove your food's lungs and clear out its gut before eating, I'm out. I had kebobs though, so it was all good :)  C and her cousin ran hard all day so she was totally wiped out by the time we got home around 8:30, which is her bed time anyway.

Earlier in the week C and I (or, just I) made J a little picture holder for his desk at work. I love a home-made gift, especially from kids to parents. There's something sweet and sentimental that just makes it better than anything in a store. Here's a quick explanation of how we (or, just I) made it...

I started out with some chip board letters (found at Hobby Lobby) and a few sheets of decorative scrapbook paper. Much like another craft I did at Christmas time, I simply traced the letters onto the paper, cut them out and glued them onto the chip board to make them pretty. As you can see here, I also used 2 paper clips and some hot glue to make a little stand at the bottom of the letter so it wouldn't fall over, and also a photo-holder at the top of the letter so a photo can be easily displayed.

Our final product looked like this! He loved it :D

Just so you know we spent more than $3.49 on him for Fathers Day, we also got him an awesome pair of sunglasses that he had on his wish list :)

Some photos of our fun at J's parents' house. I only wish I had gotten one with J's dad. What was I thinking?

I hope all the dads and dads-to-be out there had a wonderful Fathers Day too! :D

Memorial Day Weekend

What a weekend! For us it was a weekend full of celebrations- a wedding, Memorial day, and our own six-years-in-love anniversary. Yep, six years ago we woke up one morning and just knew that we were officially "a thing." It was Memorial day weekend also, and we spent the day appropriately wandering around D.C. and Arlington holding hands, snapping pictures, and generally being smitten with each other and this brand new adventure we had just decided to begin. Such a great day with such great memories, not to mention the happiest six years of my life to follow :D So we had lots to celebrate this weekend! Here's the recap in photos...

Saturday afternoon we attended the wedding of our good friends Jon and Beth

J was the officiant, so he is presenting them with their official signed marriage certificate

Sunday we had our usual dinner at Nana's (my mom's), but we did a big cookout and it was amazing... burgers, dogs, corn on the cob, beans, broccoli salad, and it's not officially summer without peach pie (not in this family, anyway ;) Somehow we always end up putting together incredible holiday meals. De-lish!

Ready for fun in the sun with her cousins!

Monday we went to J's parents' house in the morning to hang out, swim, and have some lunch. We could not get over how enthusiastic C was about swimming! She was literally trying to push us off of her so we wouldn't hold on to her (in 3 feet of water, so letting go was not an option). I'm pretty sure if we would have had a vest for her she would have been paddling around on her own. Guess what we'll be trying next time? 

Since Monday was also our 6-years-in-luuurve anniversary, we celebrated that and our amazing men & women in uniform with some yummy cookout food :D

It was a little busy, but such a fun weekend. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family that we get to spend so much time with (isn't that the best way to spend a weekend?), and especially blessed to live in America where there are incredibly brave men and women who defend us so that we can enjoy our lives in peace and in freedom. 

Thank you to every veteran, especially those who have given their lives!

[PS- Tomorrow is a big day around here, so check back to see what we were up to!]