Simply

It's January? Can we just pretend it's still December and I'm better about updating our blog? :)

Actually, I'm ok with being silent around here because it usually means I'm spending some quality time with my family. At least once a day I think "I should blog about that." But at night, the motivation is gone.

We had a great Christmas break with the girls! As the girls get older, the festivities just get more and more fun.  We made lots of Christmas crafts, did lots of Christmas baking, and just enjoyed being together as a family.  The girls have inherited my appreciation of watching Christmas movies in jammies, with a fire in the fireplace, and having just the lights of the tree on. I was going to post pictures from Christmas, thinking it was the least I could do.  But I haven't even downloaded our Christmas pics yet.  So, I guess THIS is the least I can do. :)

After New Year's, we hit the ground running.  Most of the time it feels like a sprint to the end of the day.  I've taken on more leadership roles at church and the school, as well as continuing with homeschool projects, fixing up things around the house, and just doing the day-to-day stuff.

With all the busyness, I crave order and simplicity.  I get into a purging mood at the beginning of each new year.  I'm learning that the purging can also mean activities.  I'm learning to say no.  I have no trouble saying "no" to my children, but I have trouble saying "no" to others.  I want to be involved. I want to be helpful.  Above all though, I need to remember that my priorities should be: God, family, others; in that order.  I'm praying that the Lord continues to show me areas that can be rearranged (or eliminated) to keep my priorities in the right place.  

I suppose you can call that a resolution.  I'm going to call it a goal.  :)  I want to reach the end of 2012 and feel like I did my best to keep things from turning upside down.

Will you help keep me accountable?

As a sidenote: There's a free kindle book on amazon right now that talks about simplifying your life.  It's right here.  And if you don't have a kindle, just download the kindle app to read books on your computer.

Tis the season!

I love Christmas!
The true meaning of Christmas, celebrating Christ's birth, is incredibly special to our family.  We have made it a point to explain the true joy of the season to our girls, but that doesn't mean we don't take part in all the fun that Christmas has to offer.

We decorate, and put lights up.  We buy a tree, and make cookies.  We watch Christmas movies and snuggle by a fire in our jammies.

We talk about giving and go shopping for gifts.  We listen to Christmas music.  Bailey sings "Feliz Nah-me-nah."  She says it's "Merry Christmas in Dora."

This time of year always puts me in a reflective mood.  I think of how much the girls have changed in a year.  I remember the fun times we have had as a family.

I am simply filled with joy.

The girls have odd requests this year and I'm cherishing their simplicity.  Reagan asked for a 3 hole punch. Skylar wants footie jammies.  Bailey wants ketchup.  :)  There are other things on their lists, but those are the most humorous.  I am cherishing their ages.  I know the time will come when their requests involve electronics that begin with 'i', but for now, they are easy.

It's hard not to be "busy" during this season.  I'm trying to take moments to pause and just take it all in.  We are done with school until January so now the real fun begins!

At our city's Christmas parade

Making CornFlake Wreaths

Holly-Days!

This lil' old blog has been quiet for a while.  But that just means we've been having lots of fun! Well, mostly.  Brian had surgery three days before Christmas but he's recovering well and already back to work.

The girls had a fantastic Christmas and now we are working to put things away (toys, laundry, Christmas decorations, etc.).  I haven't run in WAY too long and I'm starting to feel the effects, so I'm starting that back up again soon too! I don't know what it is about post-Christmas, but it always makes me want to purge, organize, clean, and decorate.  You can bet there will be plenty of that going on here as well.  Meanwhile we're enjoying the rain (and we've had plenty!!) and just staying inside.

I've been trying to jot down a few of the funny things the girls have said so I can revive the Friday Funnies, (look for a new year's edition soon)!

I can tell you all we've been up to, but I know you'd much rather see it!

 Reagan's classroom Christmas party:

 Mom's birthday a few days before Christmas (and a delicious chocolate cake made by my sis-in-law):

Walking "Christmas Card Lane" (and a rare family pic):

Delivering cookies to daddy's office:

Reagan and my nephew Dylan (best buddies). He was teaching her all about something called a "Nintendo DS" :)

 Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's house:

Christmas morning at our house. The girls all got a giant dollhouse to share.  Love Reagan's face (and the fact that she's throwing paper in her baby sister's face). :)

 Reagan REALLY wanted a globe for Christmas (something that's easy to find for cheap in August.  In December, not so much).  Thank you Craigslist!!

Skylar with her new Princess bike (complete with a baby seat on back)!

Skylar and Bailey wearing the slings that Reagan made for them!

Mom opening the quilt I made.  She's going to hate this picture, but I just love it!

The girls playing with their new dollhouse:

Matching Christmas jammies!

Our tree on Christmas night.  We have some crazy LED lights!

 

We hope your Christmas was blessed and your home is filled with warm memories! We are gearing up for a busy January (with every week/weekend already booked!), my return to teaching, and squeezing in some playtime too! :) 

Happy New Year!!

Holiday Happenings

You know it's been a while when my own husband says "you certainly aren't updating the blog very much." I know....I sound like a broken record.  We've been busy.  I've always said that I would not let the blog be a stressful thing for me, so when things get busy, it's the first thing to go.  So, here's a brief update of our holiday happenings!

A family picture taken on Thanksgiving at my brother and sister in laws house.

The next day was Brian's birthday so we took him out to dinner (and ice cream)!

Then, the Christmas festivities started! We picked out a tree...

Our dental office had a Christmas festival with a petting zoo so the girls had a blast petting the 3 week old baby pig.  

The girls decorated the tree...

This picture just makes me smile.  Bailey dressed herself and asked me to take a picture :)

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!! Reagan's last day of school before break is today so we're looking forward to 3 weeks of making cookies, watching movies, looking at lights, and staying in our pjs! 

Here's your sign

Tonight Skylar said, "You know what I would love to do more than anything tonight? I want to have the fireplace on, put a blanket on the floor, put a Christmas movie on, and drink hot chocolate.  With whipped cream.  Peppermint whipped cream."

We're raising that girl right.

*smile*

I'm trying desperately to be more organized this year.  I had a goal of having almost all my shopping done by Thanksgiving.  I'm not going to make it.  I've been waiting for a wonderfully warm but overcast day to take our Christmas card pictures.  I realized (after checking weather.com), that wasn't going to happen either.  So we headed out this week to capture what we could.

It was cold.  And windy. 

And sunshiny....hence the squinting.

Lots of squinting. So we changed directions.

And the wind was blowing in a different direction 

(Reagan's hair was in Baileys face for about 15 pictures).

Then Bailey started doing her "underbite" grin.  She's part bulldog apparently.

Then I would get two smiling.....and one not.  (and there's still squinting).

So I decided to work with the squinting and just go with sillyness! They loved making kissy faces!

So much so, that they just couldn't stop.

Then all sorts of sillyness ensued....

oy. 

We finally got *one* decent picture.  Decent, not perfect.  

I even took a few indoors.

Sometimes I think I need to have lower expectations.  I'm not a professional.  I don't have a professional camera.  My girls are not trained models.  Sometimes, you just have to take what you have and smile.  What I do have is 3 healthy, beautiful girls.  Girls that have tender hearts of gold.  Girls that indulge my need to take 150 pictures (or more) just to find a good one.  Girls that bring me so much joy! 

I pray that your home is filled with joy during this season too!

The most wonderful time of the year!

I {heart} the holidays.  Everything about them just fills me to the brim with excitement and joy.  I'm so thankful that my girls seem to share in my Christmas enthusiasm.  We've been watching Christmas movies since August, listening to Christmas music for at least a month now, making Christmas lists, planning where the tree will go, and as soon as the temperature dipped to "slightly chilly" the girls were begging for the fireplace to go on.  I, of course, obliged.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I start planning our Christmas cards....in July.  What are the girls going to wear? Will they match? or just coordinate? Will we do pics of just kiddos or the whole fam? (Let's face it, most folks just want to see the kids anyway right??) Where will we take the pictures? Then I get to start looking at Christmas cards and planning which one I want.  There used to be so few options available.  Now, it's nearly overwhelming.  There's also the cost factor involved.

My sweet friend Liz reminded me about Shutterfly's awesome Christmas cards! And they are truly on the affordable side.  The options are pretty endless too.  I browsed through their site and kept saying "ooh, I like that one. Ooh, no I like that one better!"

They have the fun 5x5 size

They have true "cards" where you can write on the inside (and they're great because they sit up for display!). You may notice I have a thing for the cards with three pictures.  It makes it so easy when you have three kids to get just ONE good picture of each of them instead of one good picture with all three.  Believe me.  

Of course they have options for just one picture (or two, or four, or eight...whatever you prefer).  

I loved the inside of this one (also named "the most wonderful time of the year, appropriately).  You can actually do a group shot on the outside of the card and then include a small pic of each family member with an update on them on the inside.  

(a pic of the inside)

They cover every saying, whether you prefer "Happy Holidays", "Merry Christmas", or even "Bah Humbug." Ok, I was joking about that one. Just making sure you were still paying attention.  I personally like the Religious cards.  Afterall, Jesus IS the reason for the season.  And I agree with this card.  Every good gift does come from above.  Especially my three gifts.

We are using Shutterfly for our family calendars this year 

(they happen to do invitations, gift tags, and photo books too!). 

The best part is that by being a blogger, I was able to get 50 free cards just for lovin' Shutterfly! 

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à here :) You're welcome. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some shoppin' to do....and I need to figure out what the girls are going to wear!