FOREVER LONG...

Well, I'm behind again... I'm really not sure how it happens.  Just poof, and we're a week later.  And in my defense, it's been a pretty eventful week.  And I've been sick.  So there.  :)

 

So where were we???  Ah, last Wednesday.  We kind of cheated on that day.  I knew I wanted the girls to pick out their ornaments for the year, but I also knew we would probably not have time to do it on Wednesday since we have AWANA.  But, we were out of days and had few options for switching things around, so Elizabeth just told them that it would probably not happen until Thursday.    The girls were fine with it.  We've picked out the new ornaments, but they aren't on the tree yet.  Have I mentioned that I've been sick?!?!?!

 

The next day was a fail as well.  I REALLY think they changed it.  There is an outdoor shopping center that does carriage ride, and I REALLY thought they did them Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Apparently they just do them Friday and Saturday.  Of course I didn't realize that until after Elizabeth had already told them about the carriage ride.  BUT, the advantages of being sick is that you can postpone things and the girlies don't get upset.  So, we just waited until Friday. 

 

Friday Elizabeth still left a message - Popcorn and a movie - but not just any movie.  MY favorite movie.  The girls like it too, and Josh tolerates it because he loves me.  He's a keeper!

 

Friday after school we headed to The Greene.  They have a beautiful tree out in the middle of the square so I tried to take pictures.  The first picture didn't turn out very well because Reagan's eyes were closed...

 

So this is what happened the next time...  That girl!

 

Finally we got a pretty one.  They are so patient with me as I snap picture after picture.  (The secret is to start early!  They don't know any better because I've been doing it since their birth!)

 

The handlers were super nice, and took a family picture so we were all in it.  The girls LOVED the ride.  Reagan waved like a princess the entire time.  Avery sat close to Daddy, but she was very brave.  Afterwards, she said, "That was AWESOME!"

 

Then we headed home to watch White Christmas and eat popcorn.  Bliss!

 

Another delay... Saturday we were supposed to make tons of treats... but I spent most of the day in bed.  Josh set up Elizabeth.  I told you... he loves me!

 

Sunday, Elizabeth brought us the supplies to make our teacher gifts.  We WHISK you a Merry KISSmas.  Yay for Pinterest!

 

I'm fairly certain this was my most brilliant idea ever.  With the down weekend, and me feeling yucky the house was a mess.  So, Elizabeth took a little detour and asked the girls to clean the house.  By 5:30 the house was a clean as it gets, and we had very little complaining.  We ordered pizza to celebrate!

 

Tuesday was SPA day!  The girls got to take a bubble bath (we found antibacterial bubble bath for Reagan - woohoo!!!), and I painted their nails.  We watched White Christmas again since I was sick before, and daddy was out with the guys watching The Hobbit!

 

Today is our 14th anniversary!!!  My how time flies when you're having fun!!!  For our *romantic* dinner the 4 of us will go to dinner before I have practice for the Christmas Eve service.  We're leaving a gift for the waiter.

 

So there we are, all caught up!  We are having fun, and it's made us a little more deliberate about spending time together and taking time for the important stuff.  I think next year I will add Bible verses to each day for us to read at night.  We shall see!  :)

 

6 days until Christmas!!!!!

Ketchup... or Catch Up!

Well Elizabeth has been at it again.  It was a whirlwind weekend, and hopefully things will slow down a bit now.  Honestly, except for our family things there isn't much on the calendar this week or next.  Small miracles, people!

 

Friday Elizabeth wrote all over the bathroom mirror and told the girls to do a great job at their Christmas performance.

 

 

This is the girls finding and reading the mirror.  They loved it!!!

 

Here is what it looked like.  I really hope and pray that when the girls are old and gray, or even just older than they are now, they know how much I love them, and how cool I think they are.  They are the neatest kids ever.  I want them to know I think so.

 

Elizabeth also wrote on the big pictures hanging on the wall.  Avery was NOT a fan of this at all!!!  She was much relieved when it was clean the next morning.

 

 

They were FANTASTIC during their Christmas program.  I was quite proud.  They are growing up so fast!!!  I keep asking them to stop, but they just keep right on growing!!!  Disobedient children!!!  :*)

 

Saturday morning the girls woke up to Elizabeth making snow angels out of sugar. 

 

In hind sight I probably should have used flour... because they just started eating the sugar off the counter.  Crazy girls!!!

 

She left us all the materials to make cupcakes.  They turned out so well!  Too bad I only took pictures with my phone... and I don't know how to get them to the computer!!!

 

Sunday we watched How the Grinch stole Christmas (between football games!) and made Grinch Pill Packets.  This is one of Avery's favorite things so she was super excited.  The teachers always get a kick out of it too.

 

Tonight is Game Night.  I went ahead and put the pictures on now because I will probably/ hopefully be so busy winning that I won't have time to take pictures.  :)

 

We're moving on along through the month of December.  How is it already 1/3 of the way through?!?!?  Time is flying by.  I hope we spend it wisely!

Moving on along

The past two days took some creativity as I was planning things that Elizabeth could bring because I knew we wouldn't be home. The church staff party was last night so our activity had to be quick, or something the girls could work on alone, and tonight we have church. I'm happy to report that the plan worked!

 

 

Yesterday's plan was to make homemade cards for grandparents, great-grandparents, and whomever else we had supplies for.  The girls loved this.  I'm hoping the receipents of these cards realize that the more stickers they have, the better.  They were VERY sticker happy!!! 

 

They worked hard.  I tried to make sure that they signed them, and wrote at least a semi-personal note, but that proved a bit difficult. 

 

Today's activity has turned out to be one of my favorites.  Reagan finishes lunch as Avery is coming in, so I emailed their teachers yesterday to see if Avery could leave a few minutes early so they were in the cafeteria at the same time.  Then they handed out candy canes to the cafeteria workers and custodians at school.  I was so hoping to get a picture of this, but I calculated the time wrong so I missed it.  However, the awesome part was that I had lunch duty today and one of the cafeteria workers, and one of the custodians made a point of telling me what a good job the girls did and how sweet it was.  I tear up just thinking about it. 

 

Goodness, I love those girls!!!

A Disappointment and a Success

 

Elizabeth came to visit on Sunday morning with money to put in Salvation Army buckets.  However, when we went out to find some buckets there were none to be found.  We saw a couple of the tripod stands, but no bell ringers.  A friend suggested today that perhaps they don't ring on Sundays to encourage people to go to church.  I'm hoping that's the case.  I tried to look up information on being a bell ringer, but finding info for Ohio is proving to be difficult.

 

Monday's visit promised a Wii family game night.  WOOHOO!  A HUGE success.  Tonight reminds me of why we do this.  I have to be deliberate about carving out these special times.  Otherwise I'm horribly guilty of having the best of intentions, but letting the time slip away from me by postponing the fun. 

 

It takes a very special man to play Dance Kids with his girls.  I would just like to say that it also takes a special mom to let him win so I can get pictures.  Just sayin'!  :)

 

Reagan bowling with attitude.  Each time she got up there she would do a little dance, and then if she did well she would do a big dance.  The game lasted twice as long because of her.

 

Avery likes to bowl with gusto!  You have to make sure you aren't in her path! 

 

Bowling is my favorite.  But I didn't post this because I won.  Nope.  I posted it because Avery beat Josh.  Legitimately.  Yep.  She's amazing!

 

So what does the Wii have to do with Christmas?  Not a single thing.  However, the four of us ate dinner as a family, and then played together for over an hour enjoying each other and encouraging each other and loving being together.  Do we always get it right?  Absolutely not.  But tonight was fun, and I will go to bed tonight without any regrets about our spending time together.

Look who arrived... with a little twist

Please Welcome Elizabeth!

Before I begin, if you are reading this and you do things differently, there is no judgement.  This is a judge free blog.  :)

If you know me well, you know that I am a planner.  When we went to Disney last year I planned every aspect... multiple hours per week from when we booked the trip in March to when we went in December.  And I loved every minute of it.

I also enjoy being creative, and coming up with cute things.  When we went to Disney we all had matching shirts - partly because if the girls got lost they could tell people that their momma was dressed like them, partly because it made the pictures fantastic, and partly because it was just fun.

Last year I really wanted to slow down and incorporate family and giving into our Christmas season. We started a new tradition where each morning there was a new card on the window. The cards would give an event or a chore or a fun thing we would do as a family. One was to drive through Bethlehem City, another was to have a family game night, and yet another was to cook dinner for another family. It made it a fun way to spend time together, to give to others, and to not get lost in the craziness of the season.

So this Elf on the Shelf thing was right up my alley.  Except for one thing.  We've never told the girls that they should behave for Santa.  I didn't want to fight the battle in January when Santa was *forever* away.  We've done pictures with Santa, and such, but we've never made they jolly dude a big deal.  So I knew that we wouldn't do the Elf thing until the girls didn't believe in Santa anymore.  Then it would be just a fun thing that we all enjoyed.

Well, Reagan in her thinking, and questioning, and remembering asked Josh straight up if Santa was real.  Funny thing about Reagan - you can't lie to her.  even in fun.  because she remembers. everything.  So he told her that Santa is a fun part of Christmas, but Jesus is the real reason we celebrate.  She made sure that Avery knew that as well, so at this point my kids no longer believe in Santa.  They enjoy all the Santa-ish things, but they know he doesn't bring gifts, etc.  There's a part of me that's very sad about that.  BUT, the good news is that we can do the Elf.  Yay.

So we did.  We didn't read the book because our elf won't go to the North Pole.  Instead, she brings our activity for the day.  She has some of the same rules.  They had to name her.  They can't touch her because then she might not bring the activity for the next day, and they can't complain about the activities.  Some are fun, and for them.  Some are for others, and the girls are just the delivery system.    Today our elf brought a new movie as a welcome gift, but don't worry.  We will be doing other things as well.  I I mean Elizabeth, can't wait!  :)