pretty in pink

Cannot imagine my world without this precious girl.

Christmas #2 and a great snow day

We celebrated our second Christmas on Saturday w/ Gramdma and Grandpa (Oscarson). They came over here and we had a great time. Then on Sunday it finally snowed - and was so cold and windy that they actually cancelled church. Audrey's Sunday School teacher called with the news so we stayed in our PJ's and had a snow day. Gingerbread house, Chex mix, football, playing in the snow, sugar cookies, another family game of Life and lots of Christmas music! Can't think of a better way to spend the day.

fantasies

It's amazing how my fantasies have been altered by age and motherhood. My fantasy today? Ten uninterrupted hours to clean and organize my house. Cleaning in bits and pieces takes twice as long and is not nearly as satisfying. I just got the bathrooms done while Ethan napped, and the playroom has been destroyed by the big kids. On the other hand, I'm sure someday down the road when I have a clean, quiet home and more interesting fantasies - I'll miss these days of noise and chaos. So perhaps I'll just choose to enjoy today. I won't stop cleaning (my in-laws arrive tomorrow!) but I'll not get so bothered by the mess.

visit to santa

This morning we made our annual visit to Santa. Big kids had a ball. Ethan's scream was heard all the way to the food court. But it'll be a memorable picture. After I removed Ethan, the kids had fun sharing their letters with Santa.

fun christmas weekend

We're getting the season off to a great start with a fun, busy family weekend. Saturday morning we each went on "dates" with the kids - something we try to do as often as possible. Patrick and Liam went to the Rocket, their favorite bakery and then did some Christmas shopping. Audrey and I then went to a craft fair and to the Grace Cafe for a yummy treat. Then all off to Haggen where they had an area set up for making gingerbread houses. I was a little sicked out by the germ factor, but the kids were quite content to make the houses and not eat them! Then we decorated our tree in the afternoon which was very fun. It's in the playroom this year since the big kids are old enough to not hurt it and Ethan is not yet moving that much! Next year will be a different story, I'm sure. After dinner and bath we piled into the car - kids in jammies - and looked at Christmas lights. This morning we had church and Audrey had play practice for the Christmas recital next weekend. She's VERY excited. We're even thinking we need to break down and buy a camcorder for the occassion. We'll see. Wrong time of year to be spending money...so we'll see. Patrick put up more outside lights and did some household stuff this afternoon and we played a family game of Life. Busy, fun, productive. Restful - no - but we can sleep in January!

that's my guy

My wonderful husband, Patrick, just celebrated his birthday this past week. He is now 38 years old. He's the backbone of our family and I realized I haven't written very much about him. I'm amazed at the fact that such an amazing man chose me to be his wife. I'm not the easiest person to live with (as my siblings know!) but he patiently just accepts me. He works extremely hard so I can stay at home with our kids. He supports me 100% in my job as wife, mom and homeschooling teacher. He is the most faithful, selfless man I've ever met. He sacrifices daily for his family and hardly ever complains. He is the spiritual leader of this family and leads us to church and in prayer and in teaching our children about their Creator. He loves us unconditionally and we are so blessed to have him. So happy birthday honey! May God grant us many more years together!!

'tis the season!

The "official" Christmas season is finally here! We've been playing Christmas music around the house for several weeks now so we feel like everyone else has finally caught up. Patrick got our outside lights up yesterday. Yippee!! Next weekend - the tree. And my favorite radio station is already playing Christmas music 24 hours a day! What could be better??