Spreading a little holiday cheer

We live in THE best neighborhood.  Yeah, yeah, I'm sure everyone thinks that, but I seriously have hands down, THE best neighbors and I would enter them into a best neighbor contest if I knew of one.  I could go on and on all day about how great they are.  I am so thankful God placed us in this home just so our family could experience what a neighborhood is supposed to be like!

Anyway, Christmas seemed the perfect time to let our neighbors know how much we love them.

 

We loaded the wagon up with more cookie jars like I had made for LD's work party and we were off.

 

 

The girls were really into dropping off the jars and it was a perfect afternoon for it.

 

Though I was incredibly nervous about them dropping....how sad we all would have been (especially ME!)

They took turns knocking on the doors and waiting for people to answer, but sadly, only a few friends were home.

This is our sweet neighbor Beth who we LOVE!!!  Beth has adopted our girls as grandchildren and she watches them a few days a week while I have church work to do.  The girls LOVE spending time at Beth's house with her and her husband Billy.  We are incredibly spoiled by Beth and her love for our girls.

 

Our last stop was a special surprise for the girls!

Our sweet neighbor Melanie had some presents for the girls, so we went in and opened up lots of fun things.  Melanie has 3 teenage boys, so she loves buying girl things and we love that she is so sweet!

The girls got all sorts of princess loot!!!  Such a fun kick off to Christmas break!

 

Ready or not - 6 weeks to go!!!!

This Wednesday will mark the 6 week countdown until our sweet little boy arrives.  I say that with certainty because ou doctor will induce on my due date since I am known to have big ole babies :) 

The last few weeks I have been telling myself I cannot do anything baby related until January 1st.  The nursery is painted and we have all the essentials (crib, car seat, bassinet, etc, etc), but everything is a HUGE mess.  The closet cannot be opened without risk that you may be harmed in the process.  I just keep piling up clothes I pick up or am given and anything blue that enteres our home.

But the fact is, our sweet little boy is coming and we cannot wait for his arrival!!!  I am so excited to be the mommy of a BOY!!!  I have been told by so many friends that everyone emphasizes the father/son relationship, but that a mother/son relationship is so extremely priceless. I am so blessed both LD and I will have the honor of experiencing both!

Tomorrow I head back to the doctors so see how many more pounds I have piled on now that we are in full swing Christmas season, and also hear our sweet little boys heartbeat. 

Oh, sweet boy I cannot wait til you are here, but please let us get through this holiday season ;)

Dinner Party!!!

This weekend we hosted our very first dinner party for LD's team at work.  I have been wanting to have his team over to get to know them and their spouses and since we now have more space to accommodate everyone LD agreed!

 

Last week LD was out of town, which was a great time for me to get to work on preparing some treats to send home with our guests.

 

Of course the cookie jar idea and recipe came from Pinterest, but I love how they turned out and the cute little labels I made.

 

The morning of our party, our sweet elf named David (named by Clare at age 2) left us super sugary Christmas treats for breakfast.

 

And my little sweet tooth girl LOVED it.  Elle was ok with it, but she wasn't too into all the frosting first thing in the morning :)

 

Clare went to her very first drop off birthday party and LD took Elle Christmas shopping and out to lunch, leaving me to clean and prepare.

I absolutely love stuff like this, especially when I can focus and work without being interrupted, which doesn't happen often with my peanuts.  So it was a treat to set it all up.

 

LD wanted to move our dining room table into the eating area so all 11 of us could sit around one table and enjoy conversation, and it honestly worked great.

A few Christmases ago my mom bought me winter dishes and with the added charger they were so pretty!  Also, LD had gotten me actual SILVER ware when we got married in a set of 12 and I had put them away and totally forgotten about them!!  After 8 years of marriage this weekend was the first time we've ever pulled them out.  They are so pretty, I am so glad to be reminded we have them!

 

 

It was so fun setting up for an adult evening, which to be honest does not happen..um...ever!!

 

 

And I had been doing Christmas baking over the last few weeks and freezing batches of cookies, which worked out perfectly.

 

 

Another great Pinterest idea were these centerpieces, which is dollar store vases, epsom salt and little ornaments.  I decided to risk it and leave them on the table through the holidays.  Hopefully they will survive!

 

 

 

And then we sent home these yummy cookie mixes with our guests. 

 

I have to say LD and I are a pretty good team!!!  I'm glad we don't do stuff like this too often because my 34 week preggo self was mighty tired when all was said and done.  But we had a great time!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving and early Christmas!!

Oh my heavens this blog post has stressed me out.  After 4 years of blogging, I reached the limit of photos I could add to my blog.  The only way to continue was to start paying (which I wasn't going to do).  So...I had to be creative and erase early blog posts of Clare's birth and save them in a word document so I could move on.  All the to say....I can finally blog about our trip and upcoming fun holiday season!!

 

 

There isn't much of a way to blog about 10 days in Michigan, a 11 hr car ride, seeing my newly married sis and bro in law after 8 months, and celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with two families (sigh) without a lot of pictures.  So....here goes our adventure!!

 

This was a first for my dad, but all 3 of his daughters were at Dundee Baptist Church with him on a Sunday morning to be a part of his congregation.  It was a sweet memory for us all to be together.

 

 

And who would have thought, but Michigan weather was CRAZY warm while we were there.  We hit temps in the high 50s!!!

So we enjoyed lots of time outside!

We even went to the Toledo zoo to see the lights one night.  It was a fun experience and the girls loved seeing the animals at night.  The lights were great too.  But I have to say if it hadn't been 50 degrees I dont think we would have attempted the adventure.

While we were at Grammie and Papa's the girls really get to do anything they want.  Things that mommy won't let them do they totally get away with...like eating breakfast and watching tv every morning, and drinking hot chocolate whenever they desire.  It's the simple things in life!

And my dad surprised Clare wih a sweet cross necklace (its hard to see in the pic) to help her remember her decision to ask Jesus in her heart!!!

We also did lots of baking...

 

And playing...

And decorating..

And more decorating!

Since we celebrated both Christmas and Thanksgiving we had a LOT of good treats, which didn't end up working out so well for this very preggo mama.

We really pretended like it was Christmas complete with new jammies from Grammie!

 

I was so lucky to meet up with these sweet ladies from high school and their kiddos!!

At LD's parents Clare got to go to preschool in style with her Aunt Lynnie.  I mean who would have thought this was Michigan mid November!

But I think all 4 of us can agree the highlight of our trip was just playing with cousins

And more cousins...

And more cousins...

 

And more cousins...

And more cousins....

 

We are SO blessed by two great families between LD and I.  I am so thankful the girls have cousins who love to play with them, both young and old.  It is SUCH a huge treat to be able to head home and spend time together with family!  To think the next time we head home we will be a family of FIVE - oh my!!!















 







 













 

Clare's first school concert

This post is dedicated to family and those sweet friends who are dedicated to our girls.  HA! 

I have been REALLY excited about Clare's little concert at preschool.  I have just felt like it was her first school function to show off all she has been doing.  And she has been singing these songs to us for weeks so I was looking forward to hearing her perform. 

She did great!!!  And she loved it.  She is not a shy girl and I have a feeling stage will be a familiar place to her throughout life.  I know that sounds so ridiculous to say about a child so young, but that girl puts on shows daily during her rest time.  Her new favorite thing to do is sing into a microphone in the bathroom mirror while standing on a stool.  I mean this girl loves to perform!!

So...enjoy the show ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sriaqLu1F8

And the angels rejoiced!

I always knew there would come a day when my children came to me and asked questions about Jesus being Lord of their life and I have so anticipated that day.  Never did I think it would be at the young age of 4, so I was a bit taken back when Clare consistently asked me how Jesus could get into her heart all week last week. 

I think at first I tried to almost avoid the question or explain it to her, but not give her an opportunity to make a decision because I thought she was too young to truly understand it.  I wanted her to be able to remember the decision to know Christ and remember inviting him into her life.

And then after talking to both LD and my mom I realized that God desires us to come with faith like a child.  Christ created us to feel unsettled until we have placed our lives and our trust in Him.  I have no doubt that even at Clare's very young age she was feeling unsettled about her unanswered questions.

A lot of Clare's questions about heaven and how to get there came about earlier than with most children because she lost her very sweet friend Joey last February to cancer.  Joey's absence in her life forced us to have conversations I would have never anticipated having that early.  Being so young, Clare asked blunt questions "Where is Joey?"  "How is he going to get back?"  "Why is he in heaven?"  "When can I see him?"  And those questions have not faded over time. 

Just last week Clare asked me at least 2 times per day without any prompting from me at the most random times, while I was cooking or picking up her room.  "How does Jesus get into my heart?"  The sweetest part was after I explained all you have to do was ask him to come in, she said "And then he'll just fly across the street and come in??!"

So last night before bed LD and I asked her if she wanted to pray to ask him into her heart.  We prayed the sweetest and shortest prayer ever and she repeated after us.  It went like this. "Dear Jesus, Please forgive me for the wrong things that I do.  Help me to make good decisions.  Please come live in my heart forever and ever because I love you.  Amen"

Clare smiled and said "And now he's there forever?  Do you have him in your heart too?"

I have no doubt we will answer a lot of questions for Clare in her lifetime about the decision she made and how hard it can be to follow him in this dark world.  But my prayer for her is Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it." 

She is forever a member of God's family because of her sweet little 4 year old decision and the angels in heaven rejoice knowing her life will be dedicated to serving Him!

And this mama's heart could not be fuller!

Halloween 2012

We seriously had THE best Halloween!!  We celebrated all day long, which made for some sleepy kiddos last night.

 

I was asked to help at Clare's Fall Party at school and of course jumped at the opportunity.  Once this sweet boy arrives I know I won't be able to do as many fun things like this for a while.

A friend watched Elle, so I got to hang out with Clare for the day, and since they had a lot of parents I got to be a floater, so I was able to go to Clare's stations with her.

They had all the 3 year olds in one big room with 6 different stations for either making a craft or doing an activity.  Clare looked through dirt to find spider rings and got her hand painted (she is not a fan of face paint!)

Then we ate a pizza lunch together with her friends!

After naps Elle was ready for a party!!  The girls and I ate spider cookies and watched Barney's Halloween Party before our friends arrived.

Then the real party began!!!  Clare had her sweet friends Jayden and Lelia over for dinner and trick or treating and they got to eat in the play room.

Elle's little friend Mae also joined us and after a yummy dinner of chili, corn bread and apples...we were ready!

I found these random pink fuzzy coats in the girls closets and since it has been so chilly, it was the perfect princess coat :)

Mark stayed at home to be in charge of the candy while we were on our adventure.

The little girls started in the wagon, but quickly opted to run and keep up with the big kids...and be carried between houses.

Everyone did SO great.  Our houses are pretty far apart and the big kids were running the whole time.  We did about 3 cul de sac's before the little girls were ready to head home.  My favorite part of the night was when Clare asked if we needed to talk to all of her neighbors and ask their names.  I told her that would be polite if she wanted.  Not too long after I heard her say "trick or treat, um, whats your name?"  I think Halloween will always be a favorite holiday of Clare's because she gets to talk to all the neighbors. 

Rene cuddled up with the little girls who were wore out and enjoyed a lollipop while the big kids carried on!!

Elle was really proud of her stash...she did pretty good!

Clare and LD just kept on going and hit every house in our neighborhood which is about 75!!  I was impressed.  And now we have WAY more candy than necessary.  I'm hoping I can quickly learn self control!

 

Hope your Halloween was wonderful!!