Holiday recap

I always have such a difficult time transitioning from the activity of December to the blah of January, and right now the absolute freezing cold temperatures don't help this transition at all. I have said before that January is my least favorite month, but I'm really going to try hard to embrace it this year. We are leaving the house as little as possible, however, so we are going to have to find some new, fun things to do INSIDE. All of the snow is beautiful and we'd love to spend the afternoon sledding, but it's going to have to reach above 10 degrees for any of us to venture out in it.

But before we move on to the new year, I need to give a quick holiday recap.

We had a wonderful Christmas - it really could not have been more perfect. The snow started coming down on Christmas eve, but my sister and her family and my mom were still able to make it to our church's Christmas eve service and to our house to celebrate. We had a delicious meal and our traditional Jesus cake. And then we let the kids open their presents from each other because of concern about the weather on Christmas day.
My sister and her family left and safely (thankfully!) made it home after an hour drive home in heavy snow. My mom stayed the night with us, which was such a treat for the boys! We tried to take our traditional Christmas eve picture in front of the tree, but it obviously wasn't going to happen. My mom tried to get some family shots. And then we lost Graham.
The boys put on their pj's and left some cookies for Santa, but not before they grabbed one for themselves. And then we checked on Santa's location before heading to bed.
Christmas morning was just perfect. Santa did not disappoint. The boys were so excited and filled with awe. It actually took us hours to open presents as the boys all wanted to set up and play with each toy before they opened another. We had to drag them back to the living room many times.
We were snowed in the rest of the day and not able to make it to my sister's house. This was the 10th anniversary of our Christmas day accident in 1999, and we didn't want to take any chances. The kids were disappointed, but thankfully they had lots to occupy their time. It was fun to have my mom with us, as she was snowed in also and had to spend another night at our house. Oh, darn.

Saucer Scramble, a game Levi had asked for, provided lots of entertainment later in the day. I'm not sure anyone ever caught a saucer, but we sure did try.
We spent the day after Christmas held up inside again, although the boys did have lots of fun sledding. I only have a picture of Ben, as Levi came inside before I sent the camera outside with Michael.
The next day we headed down to Wichita to spend a few days with Michael's family. We had a great time swimming, going to a movie, visiting family and just being together.
We spent New Years Eve at my sister's house, and we all had a blast. Spending the night there was such a treat for the kids. My boys just can't get enough of their cousins.
The kids stayed up way too late (so did the adults!) and played hard with their cousins the next day, which made for some very grouchy and tired kiddos. Graham fell asleep in the car on the way home that afternoon and when we got home Michael carried him up to his room so that he could continue his nap. Michael never came back downstairs so I went up to see what he was doing, and this is what I found...
I think we have finally recovered from all of the festivities, and we're ready for the new year. We have a lot to look forward to and many memories to make! Blessings to you and your families in 2010!

What happened to December?

I can't believe I haven't written a post since Thanksgiving. That's not because I haven't had anything to write about. There have been lots of happenings at our house this past month, and wow, have we had a lot of fun. Somehow I managed to finish all of our shopping early in the month, and I was able to really enjoy the season with the boys without running too many errands and having too many things to "check off the list".

We visited Santa...
We had class Christmas parties...
We watched an adorable preschool Christmas program of a little boy who we thought would be wild and crazy on stage but decided he didn't really like performing...
We took a carriage ride on the plaza...
Lots of decorations got broken (I can't imagine who did that!)...
We did lots of goofing off and posing for the camera...
We did lots of baking...
We made gingerbread houses...
We loved on a sweet newborn baby...
And the boys and I threw a Christmas cookie decorating party for 8 moms and 23 kids.
It has been a full and WONDERFUL month, and lots of memories have been made. We are more than excited for Christmas because I think Santa might make an appearance at our house sometime tonight.

Merry Christmas to all of you! We have such reason to celebrate, don't we? Not only of the birth of our Savior but of a Savior who lives today and who will one day return again. May His first coming remind us of His second coming and the HOPE we have because of HIM.

"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS, and IS, and IS TO COME." Revelation 4:8

My Cup Runneth Over

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving day cooking, hanging out with family and eating fabulous food. We spent the day at my sister’s house with most of my family. With 10 kids running around, ages 2-18, it was very loud and crazy but a lot of fun. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day and the kids were able to play outside. I love watching my boys play with their cousins. Levi and Ben had such a great time. Graham, however, has a bit of a cold and was attached to my hip for most of the day. Gotta love him.

I have much to be thankful for today. Here are a few things on the top of my list...

1. A God who loves me, has redeemed me, and is continually drawing me to Himself.

2. My hubby who works hard and loves his family well.

3. The smiles and giggles of my 3 boys. There is nothing better.

4. Levi’s new found confidence. I just love watching him play sports, excel at school, and be a leader among his peers.

5. Ben’s ornery spirit and sense of humor. He keeps me laughing and shaking my head. I just love that kid.

6. Graham's hugs and cuddles. He gives me about 15 hugs whenever I return home from somewhere, even if I just went to the grocery store. He loves his mama, and even though his stubborness drives me CRAZY, I'll cuddle with that sweet boy anytime!

7. My Tuesday night prayer girls. We laugh together, cry together, and most importantly, we pray together. I love living life with these girls. I have prayed for friends like these ever since we moved to Kansas City. It was definitely worth the wait!

8. A church that really is our family. Every time I walk in the doors I feel like I'm right at home, but I never leave unchanged.

9. My pilates pain specialist, David, who has allowed me to feel like a "normal" person for the first time in 10 years.

10. My life. It's hard to believe that our car accident was almost 10 years ago. I will never stop thanking God for sparing my life on that Christmas day and for everything He has taught me on this journey.

11. The chalkboard on my kitchen pantry door. I don't know why, but I just love it.

12. Ghirardelli peppermint bark with dark chocolate. There are a lot of desserts I can't have these days, but it doesn't matter when I can eat these. I’m just being honest.

13. My mom, who I talk to every day and knows something about everything. Well, not everything. She doesn't know a thing about what's on television or the most recent celebrity gossip, but she has great wisdom about everything that actually matters.

14. Three older siblings who have walked before me and help me to keep perspective.

15. A wonderful kindergarten year for Levi. We prayed hard for this decision, and for now, I know we are in a great place.

16. A neighborhood filled with boys!

17. Gluten-free pie crusts. That pumpkin pie was awesome today! It would not have been Thanksgiving without a homemade pumpkin pie.

18. The friendship of each couple in our community group. We are truly blessed by each one of them and love spending our Thursday nights with them.

19. The ministry of Young Life and all that God is teaching us as the committee chairs. Whew, it's been a tough year, but it's been amazing to watch God work.

20. Coffee. Enough said.

21. My hubby who can fall asleep with my lamp on when I'm staying up late reading or writing a post.

I think it's time for bed!

I hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving!

Superheroes

We had such a great Halloween weekend...it could not have been more perfect. We had lots of excitement, perfect weather, and the boys were healthy (even when everyone around us is sick!).

We did 3 pumpkins on Thursday evening, and the boys had a lot of fun. They were very proud of their finished products...
The weekend festivities began with Levi's school Halloween parade and party on Friday. Wow, was it crazy! There are 19 kids in Levi's class, and every single kid had a parent there, plus lots of siblings. Needless to say, the room was very crowded and full of activity. Here's a pic of his sweet class...
Friday night we carved a pumpkin and had my mom over for dinner. We picked up chinese food, and I had my first gluten-free restaurant experience. Our favorite chinese place has a great gluten free menu, and I was more than impressed!

Back to the pumpkin...Levi was very particular about the face - he wanted it to be very scary! I think he's demonstrating here...
Saturday began with Levi's last soccer game. He's so sad for the season to be over. Up next...basketball!
We went straight from soccer to our good friends' house where they had a fun Halloween lunch. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids had such a great time rolling in the leaves in their backyard. Our kiddos are deprived by the lack of leaves in our yard, so it was really fun for them.
The host had all kinds of fun Halloween goodies. I'm so thankful that I have creative friends who do things like this!
We headed home for the little ones to take a short nap and then put costumes back on to join up with all the neighbors for a big neighborhood party. Here's Batman and Spiderman...
Superman wasn't very happy about getting woken up from his nap, and he did NOT want to wear his costume. But just like any good mother, I forced him to wear it and then tried to ignore him during the next 30 minutes of grouchiness. He screamed, "NO!", whenever I tried to take a picture of him, but I was able to catch a few, although the shots aren't the best.
There were about 200 people at our neighborhood get-together. It was so much fun to hang out and just let the kids play for a couple of hours before trick-or-treating. They attempted to get all of the kids together for a picture. Wow, that's a lot of kids! Notice Ben on the far right holding some poor kid's pitchfork to go with his or her Devil costume. Ben ran around the neighborhood with that thing for hours! We never did figure out who it belonged to. The boys had so much fun with all of their buddies.
The boys were ready to go trick-or-treating by the end of the party so Michael and another dad took all of the boys while I headed back to hand out candy. I tried to take a picture of the 3 of them before they left, but this was the best I got... Here's Levi with his "scary" pumpkin...I thought Michael would bring back Graham pretty quickly, but he lasted a long time! This was the first year that Levi and Ben were into getting a lot of candy. Last year they were done after about 8 houses, but this year they could have gone for hours. They came back to the house and quickly began inspecting all of their candy. They were more than wired!
Hope you all had a spooky Halloween!