Christmas Decor

Since Thanksgiving was so late this year, I decided to put up my tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, the week I normally put it up.  So, I dragged everything from the top storage rack in the garage which was a feat in istelf considering how stuffed our garage is on the "main floor".  I couldn't get the ladder close enough to the bag o' tree, so I had to step up past the warning label of DO NOT STEP HERE OR YOU WILL SURELY DIE. And I had to use some stick-like apparatus to grab the bag's handle to get it close enough to me.  After letting everything drop from the top level to the floor, I got down and pulled everything into the house. 

Before I could even start putting up the tree, I had to remove one of the end tables and all the piles of books and extra bags (we seem to acquire a new tote bag every time we leave our house!) and straggling toys that were caught underneath.  When I was finally done with all that, I plugged in our meager pre-lit tree and zero lights were working.  They were all burned out.  I wasn't too surprised because we've had the tree for several years. 

I put a string of the outdoor garland with large, colored lights on the tree hoping to fill in the gaps between branches (I did say meager, didn't I?).  After I wrapped it all the way around, painstakingly ensuring that it was even and trying to be patient with my five-year-old who was "helping", I plugged it in.  About 50% of the lights were working.  Yahoo, that's improvement! 

So, I ended up taking it off altogether and tossing them in the trash.  Let's face it.  They're outdoor lights, for OUTSIDE the house, and we all know that's not going to happen with how our schedules work out normally.  So, they were tossed.  I vowed to hit Menards the next day and get lights.

Well, I did get the lights and I even bought a few extra strings to put up in the front windows.  But it still took me a few days before we got the lights on.  In the meantime, the kids were oh-so-impatiently waiting for the ornaments to be hung and I kept catching them opening the ornament box and trying to hang them up.  One night, I was watching my friends' kids that are close to my kids' ages and they just love playing together.  They were in the playroom playing with music stuff and cars and superheroes, just having a grand ol' time.  I walked to my bedroom for about a minute and when I come back, they're all at the tree trying to hang up the ornaments! LOL!!  The youngest one was bouncing the ornament bulbs on the floor, probably expecting it to bounce back to him like a ball. 

It's a great thing that I'm too cheap to buy nice, glass ornaments because that would've been a fun trip to the E.R.  It was pretty funny, though, and I would've loved help putting them up but I had to wait for the lights to be up first, so I just thought it would be such a waste to do double work.

Finally, we had the lights on and Benji helped me with the ornaments while the little kids were in bed.  But it still took me a couple more days to get all the other clutter out of there so the tree could have elbow room and not have to share the limelight with my dusty junk.

The meager tree in all its glory



We've been reading The Advent Book before bed most nights

The boys love opening the doors on each page of the Advent book every night.  I'll show some photos of the pages in another post. 

Our "mantel" (the shelf above the TV) was still decorated with pumpkins and gourds:

So, I threw them out and packed up the rest of the decorations.  Here's how it looks now with the Disney ornaments that my grandma had for a few decades (at least) on a "photo" tree I won at a white elephant exchange last year:

Aren't they cute??

After I took these photos, I received some awesome-smelling cinnamon
potpurri in the form of pine cones and decorative balls, so I stuck those in here too.

After having read the first half of this post, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, Wow, the quality of these photos could not POSSIBLY get worse!! Well, you were wrong!  Don't worry, it happens to most all of you us.

This is our front entryway area.  I put some decorative stones in the bottom of the hurricane and filled it 3/4 of the way with water.  Then, I gently put the candle on top.  I looks cute in person.  Just pretend like you can tell from these horrid photos.

I tried. I really did. I even put new batteries in our Canon, but it just will not power up for some reason, so I'm afraid we're stuck with these blue-tinted android photos. Boo!

But, I won't let that ruin our Christmas cheer!  This weekend, we had snow, so the kids and I went outside and played in it and shoveled the driveway.  They insisted in cleaning off my car (I promise!! Don't call the Child Labor Department!):



What a fun effect - Is my camera doing this or is Blogger adding it for me??



We didn't get any pictures of us playing but I did shoot a short video of when we first went outside.

The Aftermath - I love this mess

By the time this post is published, we will be on our way home from what looks to be an awesome weekend at the Dells with our family and some good friends.  I'm so excited to be together for a whole weekend without having to rush around to do anything.   Hubs has been working nights the past two weeks, so we're both exhausted! Speaking of, let me just give a quick shout out to all you single parents out there.  Raising kids is hard enough with two parents but to have to be on call 24/7 with no relief (except to go to your job during the day) is a major challenge physically, emotionally, and mentally.   So, props to you, single mom, single dad.  You are a great blessing to your kids every single day!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Father's Day Creations

It's always so difficult to get a nice picture where everyone is genuinely smiling.  See above photo as evidence.  

But, what's not difficult, is to get my boys to be creative.  And especially when they're making it for someone else.  Every year, it's difficult to determine what we should do for Hubs for Father's Day because he doesn't wear ties, he doesn't golf, and he has enough tools (except a new drill after one unnamed child accidentally threw his other one away).  So, when I saw these picture frames at Joann Fabrics last week on sale, I knew this was it.  They're nothing fancy but the boys had a lot of fun painting them.

The frames are just raw wood, so they're great for painting.  We only had fabric paints and finger paints at home, so we used a combo of those.  Since I can't really imagine a scenario in which the frame would get washed, I figured the washable finger paint would hold up.

They didn't come with glass, so we'll have to find some to put in them.  They decided to paint the paper in the middle, too.  At least they're thorough. 

We're going to pop in a picture of each of the boys and the frames will go on Hubs' desk at the church.  The boys were very proud of them and that's the most important thing about these homemade gifts; all the love that went into them.

What did you give to the fathers in your lives this year?

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Happy birthday Calah Joy!

7:55 AM.  The exact time that our little girl was born last year on May 22nd.  I can't believe it's already been a year since she came into our lives.  She is such a sweet, observant, fun-loving, emotional, smart, and beautiful little girl.  She came into the world with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck four times along with a knot in the cord.  She had to stay in the NICU for about five hours while the nurses monitored her oxygen levels.  Nobody told me about this until I was in the recovery room and rightly so because I would have freaked out and that wouldn't be helpful since I was numb from the abdomen-down and always get nauseous right after the c-section.  Hubs was sitting next to me during the surgery but I could see his eyes looking at the doctors and at Calah, trying to stay calm at least on the outside so as to not make me anxious and emotional.  He knows me so well.  I heard her cry and knew she was at least breathing which is the hardest part of the whole thing.  Waiting to hear that your baby is breathing. 

Once I got to recovery, I started dry heaving (TMI, sorry!) because of the morphine and was having a hard time dealing with that about every 20 minutes.  Since they took Calah to the NICU, Hubs got to come sit with me in the recovery room which was very nice.  He filled me in on the situation during a moment of stomach-calm and assured me that she's fine.  A wave of terror and then relief quickly came over me.  The doppler had always indicated that her heart rate was very healthy so I didn't understand how the cord could be so mangled at the same time.  Praise God for a healthy baby and today she has become a healthy 1 year old!

  

Name:  Calah Joy Knowles
DOB: 5-22-2012
Weight: 8#
Length: 20"

Ready to go home from the hospital!

Proud family!

Calah at 1 month old -

She was a binky girl for sure - at least for the first couple months.  All newborn pictures are from this angle, aren't they?  Laying on the bed or a boppy with mom taking aerial shots.  That does not help avoid the shots of the double chin, does it?? At least it's cute on a baby.

Calah at 2 months old -



"Whoa, Mom, watch out! There's a dead animal on your head!"

 





Finally wearing NB cloth diapers w/o drowning her legs



Calah at 3 months old -



Reg. size cloth for the 1st time - still a little big



Tummy time on the boppy

"You'd better back up off my Fruity Rounds!"

Calah at 4 months old -

First experience with cereal

She sat up at four months old!  If she fell over, she couldn't get back up but she was very steady in a seated position.

The brothers trying to run away

Calah at 5 months old -



Tinkerbell!

 

She got her first tooth at 5 monts.



Calah at 6 months old -

Thanksgiving pictures - things always get interesting when we try to get all the great-grandkids together for a photo op.

Calah at 7 months old -



Going for the Hitler look



She started army crawling at 7 months.

Calah at 8 months old -

Calah at 9 months old -

Calah at 10 months old -

Hubs sent this picture to me while I was at Hearts At Home

She started crawling on her hands and knees while I was at the conference just before she turned 10 months old.
Calah at 11 months old -

She started pulling up and cruising at 11 months and takes steps when you hold her fingers.  Her balance need some improvement but stands pretty well with little help.

It has been so exciting to watch her grow and learn this first year.  She seems to get a new tooth every other week and LOVES to brush them.  She is really observant and keys in on people's moods and emotions and is very cuddly when she is scared or upset.  She likes to pat you on the back and comes in hard for a kiss.  She can say mama, da, Bop (Benji), Jojo, more, and good.  She can sign milk, more, again, and please.  She loves to dance and tries to sing along with the music. 

She was not in our original plan, but God knew she'd be here the whole time and we are thankful that she is.

Happy 1st birthday baby girl!