Ornament Exchange

I hope you all have been receiving and enjoying your ornaments. I received mine and I just love it! Thanks, Christine! If you have not received your ornament by tomorrow and have not received an email that it is on it's way, let us know. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for joining us in one of our favorite holiday traditions...ornaments!

Holiday Recipe Exchange

The sisters are having a recipe exchange over at What's For Dinner? Jump on over to check out some yummy recipes and dig out your recipes to share.

This is one of the easiest recipes by far. This is, of course, why i chose to share it first. Because I am lazy. That and the children don't actually like to let me sit down...

Peppermint Bark

4 candy canes
White Chocolate Chips or that white substance that I can't currently remember the name of... You know the stuff, it's in the baking aisle with all the bakers chocolate and such. But, DO NOT buy bakers chocolate...that stuff is nasty by itself.

Now that we have cleared that up...

Put broken candy canes into a baggie and smash them up with a rolling pin or something of the sort.
Melt the white stuff over a low heat. Stir until smooth.
Pour onto a buttered cookie sheet and top with crushed candy canes.
Refrigerate until hardened
Pull off sheet with a spatula
Break into pieces
Enjoy with some hot chocolate or diet soda. Whatever you like...

Girls and Boys

This is a conversation that Alivia had with her 5 year old boy cousin today.

Alivia: Do you want to play home?

G: No.

Alivia: Do you want to play house?

G: No.

Alivia: Do you want to play babies?

G: No.

G: Do you want to play killing?

It is amazing to me the innate sense of gender roles that children possess. These 2 children love to play both Star Wars and house together. They play Transformers and Kitchen.

(And for anyone who is concerned...G went on to explain that the killing game he meant was like shooting in Star Wars.)

Tids and Bits

I know I have been absent from this here blog for a while. Partly, it's because I don't have internet access and it is difficult to get on other people's computers and sit down and compose. Especially since I seem to mostly get inspired in the middle of the night. That would be awkward...knock, knock. "I know you and your family are sleeping, but I was inspired to write some mediocre posts for my blog. Do you mind if I come in?" Even I am not that socially awkward...
There are lots of other reasons I have been absent, but I won't bore you with the details.

Here are some things I am thankful for as we go into this most blessed season:

Friends who will be there anywhere, anytime. Friends who allow me to talk or not talk when I need it.

My mom took my daughter to the Polar Express. I can't wait to hear all about their adventures!

So many people have come along side us and offered to help with our kids gifts this year. Far too generous, really. My dad and stepmom took our kids out shopping to buy Mommy and Daddy gifts. How thoughtful!

Christmas decorations! I love decorating for the holidays. It gets me in the spirit. Putting up the tree is probably the best for me. I love to wax sentimental about each and every ornament. Every one is special to me in some way.

Apparently my daughter has my innate love of Christmas tree ornaments. She has been taking one off the tree each day and putting it in her purse. She takes it to school to show her friends. She also likes to "decorate" other parts of the house and it isn't uncommon to find ornaments hanging from tables or dresser knobs or some other random location. When she discovers I have moved it back, she says in a really exasperated voice, "Mom, I was decorating for Christmas. That makes it pretty for Jesus." I can't really argue with that, so don't mind my randomly placed decor the next time you stopped by. I am more interested in cultivating my daughter's love of our Savior than I am in a house decorated "just so".

And the number one thing I am thankful for this season is a renewed hope at a time when it seemed hope was a long shot.

Thank you Lord for all the blessings in my life!

The Big Ten

10 years ago today, I stood next to Chris and pledged a covenant with our Lord. I committed that "your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." Today, I still mean those words to the core of who I am.

In honor of Chris, and in praise to the God who brought us together ~ 10 things I love about my man.

10. You are not afraid to admit when you have lead incorrectly. It makes me want to follow you more.

9. You are, without a doubt, one of the most committed people to providing for your family that I know.

8. You learn about what people are interested in, just so you have something to talk about with them. I love that you want to know what gets people going. What a great relational quality.

7. Your diet soda addiction. Sure, it may take you out 20 + years earlier than you would die, but at least I won't have to embalm you.

6. Your fake laugh. And the fact that I can identify it.

5. Your heart for teens.

4. The way you parent Addie and Brody. You don't just love them, you like them a whole lot, too. Nothing makes you more attractive.

3. You are a dreamer. And you do not let time diminish your dreams. I adore that about you.

2. You are quick to forgive me, and are very merciful.

1. Your commitment to the Lord, me, our family, ministry, and Star Wars.

I love you, babe. Here's to many more adventures!

Black Friday

I don't know if we have shared our love of Black Friday shopping. But, Timmarie and I claim it to be our favorite holiday of the season. I know, it's one of those things...you either love it or you hate it. I have never met a Black Friday fence rider...

I love it for many reasons but I think the biggest reason for me is that I love the thrill of the hunt. Knowing that they only have a limited number of items means you have to put some thought into it. It takes planning and strategizing to get to all the deals and all the stores in order to take advantage of all the best sales. Its like a real life game of Stratego. Or at least what I imagine that game to be like since I have never actually played that game...

I headed out at 11:15pm Thursday night to meet up with my bff, her hubs and her mom. (Timmarie was out of town celebrating with family. But, thankfully, due to their recent cell phone carrier switch we were able to share our experiences via cell phone. Yes, I am serious.) We scoped out the giant toy store but decided that we were way too late for any of those deals...We also hit the Mickey store and got some sweet princess deals. We figured we better cruise over to the Mart early because people take $3 pajamas very seriously! We were right. They opened the deals at 5 am. We arrived at 2:30am to stake out where the deals we were interested in were located. There were 2 ladies who parked their carts in front of the boy's pajamas. They were blocking it off and really talking smack about how "they were not going to let anyone in there until they got theirs, they had been waiting so long, they were just going to clear out this side of the pallet", etc... I was interested, but I was afraid that I might have to throw some elbows to get by them... All in all, I got everything I was looking for and got all my Christmas shopping done minus 2 gifts. I also only went $1 over my budget. A success indeed!

Oh, and the ladies from the boy's pajamas...
They each had like 3 pair in their carts when we saw them later.
Really?!? All that talk and waiting for a $9. purchase??

You've got to be a special kind of crazy to enjoy this day.

I should know.

Baby on the Brain - AGAIN

Babies are everywhere I look. I absolutely love it. I would love to have another baby in our family.

Chris is a different story. He is a total softy with Koleson. In fact, he has held Koleson at church the last 2 Sundays. I'd like to think he was warming up to the idea, but when our friends announced this weekend that they were expecting again, I casually mentioned that we should have a baby and he chuckled.

So anyone with a baby, please feel free to ask me to babysit. I love to snuggle and toddle and dream of having a third.