A Few of My Favorite Things

One of the things that I love about Christmas is reminiscing about the tree ornaments. I am pretty nostalgic, so having an old shabby ornament with a great memory attached to it is better than having a shimmery, new, pretty one. I thought I would do a post about some of my favorite ornaments on our tree. Why don't you all do the same? Which ones are your favorites and why? What is the oldest ornament on your tree and how long have you had it?

This is an ornament that I painted and then decoupaged one of our wedding photos on. I made these for all of our parents and grandparents the year we got married.

I think Adaryll's Dad (Papa-G) got us this one. A few years ago we had it signed on the back by Montae Raegor when he was doing a book reading for kids at a Starbucks in Indiana. (he played for TTU and went on to play for the Colts)

This is one of the 2 oldest ornaments on our tree. It was made by my childhood friend, Kim, in 1983. She gave one to each of us in our Brownie Troop that year.

We got this one for Elias his first Christmas. I grew up playing with trucks, not dolls, so I'm not sure if this was more for him or for me. :)

Elias made this one last year in his Fours-Plus class at TPCA.

Elias made the baby Jesus on the cross in Sunday school at TPCC a couple of years ago. The sax was given to Adaryll by my Dad and Karen a few years ago. Elena tried to play the sax before she hung it on the tree Saturday.

This is the best "Baby's First Christmas" ornament I have ever seen. Someone gave it to Elias for his first Christmas. It is a book with real pages where you fill in who you spent the holiday with, what his favorite things were, etc.

This one is a marshmellow snowman on a Smore. We had 5 families in our neighborhood who we were really close to. We used to sit out in lawn chairs wrapped in blankets and cook smores in our firepits together. So the Millers got us all this ornament to remember those nights together. If anyone wants to come to TX and make smores- we still have the firepit!

This is a hand-painted replica of the chapel at our seminary. I got it at a craft fair we had on campus one year.

This is a little girl carrying a teapot. I got it for Elena her first Christmas since her whole room was decorated in teacups.

I think this might be the oldest ornament on our tree. E.T. came out in 1982, and I am guessing that is when we got this one. I remember hanging it on our tree every year growing up.

I painted this one a few years ago. And now here we are- back in the Lone Star State.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Despite the warm temps, it really IS starting to feel like Christmas! The four of us had a great Thanksgiving lazing around the house, eating turkey and stuffing, watching football, etc. Then we had one of our babysitters spend the night so that Adaryll and I could both hit the Black Friday sales. I can't say what we got because then some of you would know what you are getting, but we got some GREAT deals! The thing that we decided to get for all the grandparents and great-grandparents was on sale (limit 1 per person) at 4am. We got up at 3am and headed to the store to find a line of people already waiting to get in. Everyone was very friendly and we even convinced several of them to buy the item for us (with our money) so that we could get as many as we needed. It was great. We finished our shopping and were home at about 6:30am. Then we took turns napping the rest of the day.

We always decorate for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are both pretty big on traditions, and this is one we really enjoy. This year, the kids got really into it and actually put about 80% of the ornaments on the tree themselves. I saved some for me to add at the end since the top 2 feet of the tree was completely bare. :)

What's This?

Elias brought me a cassette tape the other day. By his reaction, I am guessing that he had probably never seen one before.
"What's this?" he asked?
"It's a tape. It has music on it like a CD." I answered.
With a questioning look on his face, he stared down at the tape he was holding. He kind of seemed doubtful. "How do you listen to it?" he asked me.
So I took him up to his room where he has an old boombox that he sometimes uses to listen to CD's or the radio while he plays. He didn't know that it could also play tapes! He was thrilled when I showed him how to put it in and push play. It was one of those tapes that goes with a book and dings when it is time to turn the page. We found several others and he spent the next hour or so listening to them.
Also, a few weeks ago I saw someone giving away a typewriter on a freecycle site. I emailed them and picked it up the next day. Once I showed Elias how it worked, he spent the next several days typing things. Being the perfectionist that he is, it was quite frustrating to not have "backspace". He has learned that he can X-out things that are misspelled and then try again.
Funny how something so "old-school" can be so entertaining!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Current temperature: 61 degrees
Projected high for today: 76 degrees

Thanksgiving in Texas- aaaaaahhhhhhh! So much to be thankful for!

(although we will miss the always-fun-and-loud Thanksgiving with the Caseys!)

SOLD!!!

Praise the Lord- we closed on our house in Indiana today!!!!!!! (deep breath) It has been a year this week since we put the house on the market. As much as I loved that house, I could not possibly be any happier for it to belong to someone else! YEAH!!!!!! (anyone want to go out and celebrate?!)

Wii Boxing

Here is a video of Elias boxing on the Wii. I love how Elena cheers for him and how he gets all out of breath. :)

Gitcho Shake On...

I did Elena's whole head in braids with little barrettes on the ends a couple of weeks ago. She loved how she could shake her head back and forth and feel them move. This is her standing on her "stage" (the coffee table- I know, what kind of parents are we??) and singing her "Dancie Girly" song...

Wordless Wednesday

I have really been slacking on the picture-taking lately, but I just came across this one from a few days ago. Leave your caption in the comments...

Thankfulness Garland

Remember how we used to make garland out of construction paper strips by taping them into loops and linking them together? I always loved doing crafts like that when I was little! My sister has been working on one of these with her son for several days, but she added a Thanksgiving twist. On each strip of paper, her son writes something he is thankful for. I love the idea of doing this over the course of several weeks and fostering the idea of thankfulness in the hearts of my kids. But since we only have 3 days left until Thanksgiving, and we had a full day today with nothing to do, we decided to do this whole project in one morning.

I used my paper cutter to cut strips of construction paper (which was super quick and easy!) and then asked the kids what they would like to thank God for. Seriously, I think they could have gone on and on and on forever. The only reason we stopped was that I ran out of glue dots. Some of their answers were really sweet and others made me laugh. After writing down all their answers, we linked all the loops together and ended up with a masterpiece.

If you have not already done some sort of activity like this with your kids this year, I would highly recommend this one. It was easy, fun, and now we have something to decorate the house with through Christmas!

So here it is- the grand list of thankfulness.

We are thankful for...

Summertime.

Paper.

Barney.

Aunt Sandra.

Music.

Restaurants.

Crayons.

My first basketball lesson in January.

God.

Time.

Papa-G and Gladys.

Blankies.

Going to places that are fun.

Wii Fit.

Honey and Raun.

Christmas.

AWANA.

Mrs. Blasig.

The Bible.

Ms. Horvath.

Grandma Jane and Grampa Morrie.

ABC's.

Elena.

Mario Cart.

Thanksgiving.

The Millers.

Birds.

The McCollums.

Classmates.

Grandma-Great.

Mr. Frog.

Kelii.

Mommy.

The Batistas.

Jaren.

Mrs. McGee.

Balls.

TV.

My backyard.

My bed.

Crocs.

Brent and Jenna Spears from Georgia.

GrandDad and Oma.

Hugs and kisses.

Daddy.

Jean and Jerry.

Mrs. Fones.

Toys.

Houses.

Sunday school friends.

The Himelicks.

My church.

Songs.

Elias.

Granny.

Hairbows.

Milk.

The Jacksons.

Books.

Downtown.

Holloway.

Mountains.

Pictures.

My family.

Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jeff

Craft.

Wii.

My brain.

Roller coasters.

Jesus.

Mr. Pig.

Friends.

Pajama days.

The zoo.

Ice water.

McDonalds.

The Pointers.

Coloring.

Babysitters.

Cousins.

Birthdays.

Bookmarks.

Candy.

Airplanes.

Breakfast.

Snow.

Long Time, No Post

Seriously, I really didn't mean for that last post about poop to be my latest post for that long. Really, I promise. Sorry for all of you who may have been checking for an update throughout the week and had to keep seeing that visual each time. But it WAS funny, huh?!
Last week didn't go quite as planned. Monday night I started feeling like I was "getting sick" and realized it was too late to do anything about it. Elias was also coughing up his lungs all night and then had diarhea in his sleep during the night. (Thankfully, there are no pictures of that!)
So, off to the pediatrician we went Tuesday morning. And off to the family practice office we went after naps. Long day. Turns out we both had sinus infections. Actually, he had finished his sinus infection antibiotic the Friday before, but it hadn't done the job.
After staying home from school both Tuesday and Wednesday, Elias was a little stir crazy and ready to get back into the action. After dropping him off at school on Thursday, I went back to the doctor to find out I also had bronchitis. Seriously, could we just get some antibiotics that work for us? :) But we already had a trip to Dallas on the schedule, so we packed everyone up that evening and drove up to the metroplex. And even though I felt like crap, it was such a great trip! We stayed with Papa-G and Gladys (Adaryll's dad and his wife) and it was so good to get some time with them. The kids just adore them! Adaryll had a conference to attend on Friday, so the kids and I spent the day with my sister and nephews. I just love seeing that somehow kids just know who their relatives are and they are so drawn to them. These 4 cousins (the 2 older specially) just LOVE eachother and are SO excited to spend time together!
Saturday morning we drive back early and arrived home just in time to attend Kelii's birthday party and a TTU vs. OU party. (we won't talk about that game. just know that we were mad. and then sad. and then disappointed. and then disgusted.)
And that finally brings us up to today!!! I think we are all on the mend and looking forward to the week ahead. Elias has the whole week off, so I have some fun crafts and activities planned. I will try to take pics and update as the week progresses!
Love to you all! :)

Surprise!!!

Have you ever had a REAL surprise? Meaning, something that you totally didn't expect AT ALL? This is probably completely wrong of me to share, but it is just so friggin' hilarious that I can't help myself. If you gross out easily, stop reading now. Click the little X on the top right of your screen and walk away.

You couldn't do it, could you? I know, me neither. A good surprise is fun every once in a while, right?

So here it is. This morning my sister was changing my 1-year-old nephew's diaper. We all know the routine, right? Diaper off, wipe the bootie, diaper on. Not often many surprises in the pee and poop department of being a mom (or dad, or grandparent, or babysitter). I am trusting now that everyone still reading has changed a diaper at some point in their life and isn't going to freak out at the photo I am about to post. Because this morning, there was a surprise in the diaper. (seriously, if you gross out easily- or even not so easily- now is the time to close your browser)

Thanks, Wyatt, for the funny surprise and the great, big laugh you gave me today! I especially like that the little lego man you swallowed is still happy and smiling after a 2 day trek through your insides.

Wordless Wednesday

I totally forgot that today was Wednesday! I guess that might be another clue as to the losing of one's mind- not knowing what day it is...

Oh, and the winners for last week are me and Adaryll. That is probably cheating somehow (even though there are no rules), but here are the comments:

Me: "Elena for president!"

Adaryll: "The eyes of Texas are upon you."

Here is this week's picture. I can't wait to hear your captions! (and I promise not to play or at least not to pick myself as a winner again)

Thankful (continued)

If you haven't read previous post, Thankful, you might want to start there to put this into context.

After having such warm, fuzzy, blogged-about thankful feelings this afternoon, I thought I should give an update. Lest anyone think that I have somehow got it all together, or that being a pastor's wife and mother of 2 incredibly beautiful kids is always "thank-filled", let me burst the bubble.

Although I truly am incredible thankful for both of my kids and their creative little minds (which is sometimes displayed in artwork), I am also incredibly thankful for my beautiful WHITE kitchen table. The combination of the 2 is not something I am too thankful for. I am about to scrub my table (and this is not the first time) with alcohol wipes in an attempt to get black sharpie off.

And in the midst of that, washing dishes (don't you love opening the dishwasher to find that you fully loaded it yesterday but forgot to run it? and now you have a sink full of more dishes that need to go in???), and cooking dinner- I discovered once again that I am losing my mind. I actually just found myself looking in the clothes dryer for a pound of frozen ground beef. I guess the one piece of sanity in that is that I didn't find any beef there.

Thankful

The virtue of the month that Elias is studying Sunday mornings is thankfulness. He made a list yesterday of people he was thankful for. He was writing sort of big and using a fat marker, but he filled both sides of a regular size piece of paper. What a sweet heart. It is so rewarding to see how many people have invested in his life. Relatives who he only sees a couple of times a year, but he knows they are part of his family so he values them as such. People who he isn't related to, but they have spent a significant amount of time and energy pouring love into him so he loves them as family.
I have read some things online today that have made me stop and thank God for my life. My days might seem hard sometimes, but I have a loving, supportive husband and 2 beautiful kids. We are part of a great church with a solid vision. We serve a God who is sovereign and above all things. For all of that, I am incredibly thankful. :)

End of Season

Elias has finished his second season of t-ball. This was his team, the Sluggers.

What a great group of boys!

Birthday Party

Elias had his birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese a couple of weeks ago. He invited his whole class, plus a couple of kids from another class and a neighbor. He also invited Jeff & Jenny who traveled all the way from Indiana for the event! (ok, the event was scheduled around their already-planned trip. still, it was really special!) I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time!

Wordless Wednesday

I post a photo, you post a caption.

Old and New

For some reason I thought of a random idea for a blog post a few days ago. This requires participation though. I am about to reveal something to you, and so you must reciprocate- at least with comments, preferably with pictures. :)

What is your oldest pair of shoes that you own? How long have you had them? How about your newest pair? How does the difference between those two pairs of shoes speak of the span of your life between them? Does that even make sense??

Here is a picture of my oldest and newest pairs. I have owned this pair of Berkenstocks for 16 years. That is HALF MY LIFE!!!!! Is that crazy?! I think I have had the hot pink crocs since May, so about 6 months. I guess that pretty much says that I have been kind of a tree-hugger type shoe-wearer for quite a while. 16 years to be exact. Which is pretty funny because I don't even recycle. I just like hippie shoes I guess.

Who Is He?

The Kindergarten kids got to dress up as a Bible character for school on Friday. Can anyone guess who Elias is? Leave your guess in the comments.