December, January, February... highlights and happiness

Hello blog! I haven’t had any time for you lately. I have dozens of posts to get written, but I just haven’t had any time to write them. I haven’t done a proper post on Nick’s Homecoming dance back in October, and last night he and Elizabeth had their Sadie Hawkins dance… more on that coming up.

I’m going to do a quick catch up of the big stuff I’ve missed blogging about.

Nicolas ran in the local Turkey Trot in November. This was bittersweet for me. I grew up with a picture in my room of my dad running the Turkey Trot. I’m not sure what happened to my picture (but I think I know) but it was bittersweet because I know how my dad would have loved to see Nick run the same race so many years later. I think I’ll run it with the boys next Thanksgiving.

And, I totally missed him crossing the finish line in all the chaos. It happened so quickly. He ran hard and missed his goal time a bit, but it was a good race and a fun way to spend Thanksgiving morning.

We had an at-home Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a peaceful, perfect day. We had a turkey feast and went to my mom’s for dessert later in the day.

December was wonderful – Christmas is always my favorite season.

My grandmother’s angel

Jilli Joy made me this ornament last year when we spent a delightful day covering our table, ourselves, and lots of ornaments with glue, glitter and paint.

Christian’s preschool ornament

My Aunt Terri gave me this mouse ornament Christmas of ’77. My Christmas Tree wouldn’t be complete without it.

When I was in high school my friend Matt gave me this angel ornament. His sister made it. It’s been on my tree ever since.

Mattie’s handprint 2012

Gabey’s Christmas tree 2012

The history behind all of my ornaments makes them so special to me. I absolutely love decorating our tree each year.

Gabriel turned 8 in December. My sweet boy is growing up too fast! The Playmobile Advent Calendar is awesome and he loves getting it each year for his birthday.

We had friends over for a day. Nick and I made a gigantic x6 size batch of peppermint playdoh. They loved it and played with it for hours, and then they split it up and played with it for another week or so. I should have started making playdoh years ago.

I had a great early Christmas with my mom and we had a really nice family Christmas dinner on New Years Eve. We spent 4 wonderful days at the Great Wolf Lodge over Christmas.

When we returned from our Christmas vacay, Elizabeth came to stay with us.

Elizabeth takes over Nick’s room when she is here and he gets the couch. When he saw his room the next morning she had a sweet surprise for him.

2013 has been a great year so far.

We kicked it off with physicals and shots – I just love our new family doctor.

Gabey got all the way to this and had no idea what was happening. His reaction was funny – shock and then laughter. Matthew nervous laughed and Nick and Christian just stood there.

For me, 2013 started out by welcoming a friend’s baby earthside – witnessing her birth was truly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. I’m so bonded to this sweet babe through that experience.

Christian and a friend have enjoyed the freedom of venturing off to the library once or twice a week. We’ve got them hooked up with walkie talkies and they check in along the way. Letting them go all the way to the library by themselves was a big stretch for me, but I have had lots of talks with myself about these boys growing up. It’s a slow process, with many tears, but I can’t keep them small forever and I often have to remind myself of this truth:

Library days are fun. It’s been pure joy to see these two faithful friends grow up together.

February started with Dad taking a week of vacation. We learned about the history and symbolism of coats of arms and family crests. We spent a couple of days working on making our own. I was so pleased with this experience that I framed them.

Yesterday was Sadies. Nick and I started the day off with a mother-son breakfast date at IHOP. He was very eager to get to Elizabeth’s house and we were running behind schedule, but he offered to stop and have a real breakfast on the way. It was so sweet that he was willing to take that time out, that he even offered to do it, to spend some time with me. We had a great time talking about a little bit of everything and he offered to take the check at the end of our meal. I didn’t let him, but it did make me all kinds of teary. I’m so proud of the man he is becoming.

I spent the day with Elizabeth’s mom. We went out for lunch. Then we went shopping. Then we went out for dessert. Then home again. Elizabeth’s dad made me cry… kind of awkward, but we had a great talk. Then Nick was eager to get ready and the fun started.

My uncle, “The T”, sent this awesome belt buckle that he won to the boys. Nicolas displays it on a small plate holder in his room. When he had it on, with 2 of his guns, it was such a fun surprise. Obviously he couldn’t take the guns to the dance, but it was fun and I love his sense of humor. He was sure to let Elizabeth’s dad know he was ready to protect his daughter.

They were gorgeous and it was so fun to see them off last night. I have so much to write about these two and the sweet relationship they are building. One of these days I’ll have more time and I’ll get back to writing about teens and dating. Over the past several months I’ve been focusing on living our lives intentionally, doing exactly what I would love to have us be doing, and it’s really been a sweet season.

Last week I had the privilege of spending some time with that sweet new baby girl. She’s tiny and loves to sleep – skin to skin is her favorite. She is perfection.

I came across this recently and I love it. I love Zooey.

I’ll be back with some book reviews and more