December Recap

 I was doing soooo good at getting posts cranked out and, on the last one, I came to a dead halt. I lost momentum. But, this did get done, just in it's own time. Like most things. I have other posts for December to celebrate Jayden turning 4, the Christmas school concert, the piano recital Payton was in and our Christmas at home recap. 

So, the month of December. I am just going to jump right into it: 

The church nativity. Payton wants a picture here every year.

Our tree. Last year after Christmas, Monte found a majorly discounted tree and we bought with reward cards. So a very new to us, brand new tree. We have never had one before as we went over a decade with a garage sale tree I got my first year of college at a garage sale. That tree went to a nice family that will continue using for hopefully years to come. In the meantime, we loved our new tree and it's super tall since we have high ceilings in our living room. 

A few years ago, we got matching shirts and they still fit. I am guessing one of us will outgrow for Christmas next year and I will cry when that time comes. But, we loved matching together and spending an afternoon Christmas shopping and hitting up Starbucks. We go so rarely we spend waaay to long irritating regulars while we figure out the menu and what we want. It's just the best time.

We have a ymca membership and went to spend some time playing in their game room a few times in December. We are very familiar with our Y as they offer lots of paid group classes we use (like football and cheer and yearly father/daughter dance) and lots of free events (gingerbread house making, free swimming parties, seeing santa, etc.) but this is our first time to hold a membership with them and utilize the building whenever we feel up to it!

No month is complete without some school scenes. Jayden worked on a preschool scene here. We read a book about Molly of Denali needing to create a snow maze as a fundraiser to earn money for her school's roof (snow ruined it). After, Jayden created his own snow maze scene and recapped the story.

On the way home from school drop off one day we saw pheasants! Right next to our house! This is huge as we hadn't seen them for about a year and were nervous they were no longer living here. We have seen them a lot since and believe it's a group of 5-6. 

With the kids in school, Jayden and I spend so much time together reading, baking, visiting parks, and playing Candyland (Jayden's current favorite game). Most of all, we just love smiling and laughing together.

Doing dishes

making english muffins

                                                          Watching the snow come down.

We love having everyone at home though and love having visitors on the weekends!

Grandma and Grandpa came one weekend:

Instead of creating gingerbread houses at the y (I really wanted to do this but was outvoted by my own children) we opted to make them at home while grandma and grandpa were here. I loved their creativity:

Then we celebrated sweet Jayden and his 4th birthday. I already posted about that but here are a few more pictures:

One of Jayden's gifts was  Christmas tree and Jayden opened that to paint right away:

With Christmas school break rapidly approaching, I threw together some simple gifts for teachers this year:

Christmas potpourri (which our house loved and used over and over again for weeks so I will probably make annually now) with an ornament, batch bomb, and a few Christmas treats. Sweet simple and the kids helped assemble it all.

I also made a trip on my own to my hometown one weekend in December to celebrate the life of my grandfather. It was so good to see everyone and spend some time at my grandparent's house (which will never be the same now that they are no longer there) and just find closure that comes eventually with grief. 

A goodie basket that went home with me (all goodies made by my mother in law)

My mom, my grandmother and me. We got to visit her in the nursing home and it was such a good visit.

Then, I made the trip back (it was such a short and sweet trip in my hometown) and rushed to get everyone ready for Payton's piano recital:

Then we went bowling after to celebrate!

Ah, then we found ourselves in the bliss of Christmas break. Such a treasured time with my family especially after a really crazy busy 3 weeks starting December. It was so nice out that we played outside A LOT and even ate a few meals outside. Of course the nice weather didn't hold but we enjoyed it while we had it.

Payton got a lip gloss making kit and daddy helped her make:

Above she is holding her prized lip gloss. She made one for each family member and we all wear them proudly!

We also got a new game and learned to play it, parcheesi (or pachisi):

Payton also worked hard on learning to paint nails herself:

The library sent us home with activities so we made fun little snowflakes one morning:

The boys (mainly Riley) really wanted to make pretzels. So, we spent an afternoon doing just that:

Then, for new years eve we celebrated with homemade punch and homemade rolls:

We really live it up through homemade goodies and lots of down time at home! We had a blessed Christmas and not a single one of us was ready to say goodbye to our break. But, the ending came. We spent most of this week with everyone back to routine and working our way through January 2022. I can't believe it's 2022! The tree and Christmas ornaments all got put away but I have a feeling we will be saying hello to December 2022 far before I am ready for it.

Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! May God bless you greatly in 2022!

Christmas Piano Recital 2021

 I am a few weeks behind but getting this posted nonetheless. I have actually done 3 posts this week and still have one more coming up which is A LOT for me since I normally do 1 post a month! Back to the topic, a few weeks ago we went and watched our daughter perform in her first recital! It was so fun to see her perform and so great to watch all the students. I have grown to really love piano music even more than I did before she started class. 

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon for a concert. I had been gone all weekend for a celebration of life for my grandfather. I flew back to my home first thing Sunday morning to get Payton ready and go with our family to the concert. Afterwards, we celebrated by taking the kids bowling (a personal favorite activity of theirs) and ate all the chips and cheese dip our hearts could take (also known as, as much as my husband would pay for!). 

Payton's performance video:

Picture prior to the concert:

Pictures we took at the recital:

And lastly, the one and only picture I got of us bowling afterwards to celebrate:

What a great performance and a wonderful time for all of us. We can't wait to see how much Payton grows for her next recital in the spring!

Christmas 2021

 Our holiday was another quiet one and just our family. We have spent many holidays this way, most recently due to the pandemic but before due to one of our children having issues with getting so sick so often. He has done so much better since being diagnosed with food allergies and getting the right medications and diet for him. But, then the pandemic started and continued on and on. 

In many ways though, I do like our quiet holidays. I soak up all my time with my children. They are growing so fast and I see that so clearly as we reviewed all of our yearly videos I have made (see 2021 video here). I feel like I cry every year watching our years play out. We started in 2016. I am tempted to try and create ones for 2013-2015 if I can find where my videos and pictures are from that time.

I put together a quick little video of our Christmas weekend, Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was so magical, as you know kids tend to make this season. We are so blessed and extra thankful for the birth of Jesus and the peace he brings us. 

Never have I ever felt more like a mom in an ugly Christmas sweater. Ha! It cracks me up. We played lots of board games (learned Chess and pachisi this year). We looked at so many lights and even drove quite a ways for some of them. We drank punch and ate way too much sugar. We took the kids to an annual lights in the park affair but landed on the wrong weekend, Woops! They were truly kind to us about it and had fun playing in the park playground in the dark as we tried to come up with a plan b. 

Santa was spoiled with a letter from Payton, cookies, and the reindeer got magical reindeer food left out for them. Payton hopes to become Santa's navigator next year!

We have spent the rest of our break together lounging and enjoying being at home. We don't know what day were are on 99.9% of the time. And, we got SNOW! Not for Christmas but a few days later. So, today we headed out to play in the freezing temps. We made it a whole 15 minutes before returning back inside where it's warm. 

'tis the season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

2021 In Review

 Today is January 1st. Happy New Year! What a year it has been. I put together a video (which is never short) of our 2021 in review. It's not short at all but I do hope it encompasses so much of what our year looked like. The big (concerts, birthdays) and the small (playing outside, swimming, just being together at home) things. All the things that truly represent a life. Our life. 

These videos are getting harder and harder to make. I'm not sure if my technology skills are just starting to lack or that the computers just don't sync together with phones like they used to but it's a real CHALLENGE for me to get these done. I ended up using the music my phone picked because I didn't want to lose all my work (it wouldn't have been the first time this round). So please, enjoy, know that this was a lot of time to do. It didn't turn out entirely the way I wanted it but it does still beautifully portray my children and how much of everything they bring to our lives.

I am so thankful for all we have been through this year. The doctor appointments (surgeries completed for my youngest child), swim lessons, soccer, gymnastics, piano, library story time, a million arts and crafts projects, and everything in between. We were sick, we were healthy, we were happy, we were sad. God called us to experience it all and that we did, all in one year! Here are some highlights for us:

1) We started piano. By we, I mean Payton. But, I am learning right along side her. And we (maybe mostly me) are LOVING it. I love piano music so much and that love has only grown. Payton is a true natural and plays beautifully.

2) We send our 2nd baby to school. Riley started school and it has been simultaneously sad and exciting at the same time. He loves school and is also my only kid who would stay little for me if he could. 

3) Our youngest completed all the loose ends we knew of at birth. This was huge for us and isn't talked about much on here but our son completed the surgeries we found out at birth he would need. 2 hand surgeries (both thumbs) done and done! One meant a 3 hour drive one way and I thought that was bad. Then, we were slammed with the news of going another state over for the next one (over 5 hour drive one way). Our first trip there ended up with our little guy getting sick for 24 hours. A few trips more and we learned he had an elevation/motion sickness issue. SO..... not much of our journey has been easy or simple but we are so very thankful this is behind us and we have a healthy, thriving 4 year old.

4) Our babies are growing so fast! We are ending this year with an 8 year old, 6 year old and 4 year old. We won't even discuss how old the mom and dad in this house are.

5) We tried 4-h. Another new thing we took on is learning and enrolling in 4-h. It has been so fun to pick and choose what is right for us and learning all we can along the way. 

6) Our garden is getting fancier. My husband made raised beds and we couldn't be happier. We gardened until our hearts were content this summer. We didn't harvest as much as we hoped but it's been such a fun learning curve for us. Our raspberries though have taken off and are about to take over an entire side of our shop. Life just stays so fun around here. 

7) Our side road has gone over a million miles. I said this as number 7 in 2016 (see here) that our side road had seen so many miles on it. By foot, by bike, by rollerblades, by stroller, you name it... but we live on this road. That hasn't changed since we moved here. If that road could talk it would tell so many tales about our life, dreams, hard times, and love for God!

8) Our kids completed cheer, soccer, and flag football. This wasn't a new thing (except actual flag football games for Riley as he's old enough now), but it was one of the kids favorites that they named. They really enjoy these activities and look forward to them all year long. 

Here's to 2022, may it be another good year to us!