Happy Birthday Big Guy! Love this picture of my funny kid with his hair in a pig tail. We finally got your hair cut on Saturday, so this hair is just a memory :) You told me this morning that you wanted today to be perfect since it was your birthday. That’s a lot of pressure for one day but I hope it comes close! So glad Dad was able to make it to your school lunch today to surprise you. We love you and are so glad you are a part of our family! This has been quite a year for you and you have worked really hard and we are so proud of you! Happy Birthday !!

C is Seven!!

C is seven. It's important to have super cool cakes and super cool gear and super cool dinners with the fam. We love this guy and can't imagine our world without him. Love you Big Guy!!

2013 ???

Hmm...I can't believe it's February already. I don't think my children went to school a full week in January. Between being sick and then have weird days off and add in the craziness of school cancelling for pretty much any snow flake to hit the ground...and yep it's been one long weird awesome break pretty much since the middle of December. For Christmas my husband surprised with a gift. It's one that has jolted me into the era of smart phones. I have joined the crazy people that walk around with their phones attached to them. I no longer get on my other computer unless I sincerely have to. I'm up to date on emails, texts. I take pictures constantly cause I can. I actually instagram too. It's fun and it's all stuff I swore I would never need. It's nice to be part of the conversations that have been going on. I will say my kids may feel a bit neglected so I do have to occasionally just step away from the phone. Here's what we have been up to while not it school

Went to a water park with some friends, started ballet, won the pinewood derby, started basketball season, got some awesome Dora press on nails, had some ceilings fixed and better lighting put in, had someone try and buy our house, and K and I took a little trip to Williamsburg all by ourselves thanks to my awesome in laws! Now for February.......

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas..........From Our Home to Yours!

Gentle Giants

We had just gathered the children tonight to have a quick Family Home Evening. All of us have some form of sickness going on or recovering from so I knew it would need to be quick. I thought maybe a quick Christmas story about the birth of the Savior. We sang a Christmas hymn and I started to get ready to read the story. C was struggling to get quiet because he wanted to share something he had made at school. I thought for sure, my story would be much more meaningful and I tried to put him off. He continued to be impatient so my husband said "Let's just let him share first." It was interesting because there was this piece of paper that said "The True Meaning of Christmas" by C. Brown with a scan code on it for a smart phone. We scanned it and the next thing we hear is C's voice. He talked about how the true meaning of Christmas was loving our family and friends and treating them well. Then he says " I wrote a poem about it and then starts singing the primary song I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. He sings the chorus part: Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought, For these are the things Jesus taught. Hilarious that he took credit for writing the primary song. I must say it brought a little tear to my eye that he sat there and sang that song about Jesus to his teacher. When he thought about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, he didn't even mention Santa. Hmm..maybe we are doing something right. Either way, awesome C...just awesome. Each week C is supposed to share a book that he has read. Make a small puppet about the main characters and use it to retell the story in front of the class. We have been reading a lot of Christmas books at home so he chose The Three Trees to share. He made little puppet trees and told his class about how much each tree wants to be something special. He told me that when he told the kids that the first tree got to hold the baby Jesus, all his friends got so excited. C's best friend is not a member of our church. He told his mom that he wanted to go to church with C so he could see C and get closer to Jesus. I think it's true. Children help us get closer to Jesus if we let them. How often one of my small children will grab my face with their little hands just so I will pay attention to them. In the wake of the horrible tragedy in Connecticut, I find myself just staring at my kids, listening to them, cuddling them more, wanting them close, praying for those families who won't get to hold their little ones. Our hearts and prayers are with you.

Hurry and Help!!!!!

My dear friend Cindy is doing an awesome thing. She is trying to help a little girl's dream come true by personally delivering 10,000 letters to Macy's so they will donate that money The Make a Wish Foundation. Please please help!! Write as many letters to Santa as you can and email them to my friend at CindySantaLetter@yahoo.com and she will put them in an envelope and get them to Macy's! Her note is below....She is taking them TOMORROW!!! So write them TODAY!! Thanks and loves to you all!! "There is a girl named Gabriella in our community that has inoperable brain cancer. She is the family friend of one of Bridger's therapists. Gabriella is collecting letters to Santa to deliver to Macy's, who will donate $1 million dollars to Make-a-Wish if one million letters are received this Christmas. Gabriella wants to personally deliver 10,000 letters. Bridger's therapist requested that I help them. I made a goal to collect 500 letters by next Tuesday. This supports me as I feel this is a way to return the love and devotion that this therapist has shown to Bridger. It is a way to comfort the therapist's daughter, who is a friend of Gabriella. To give the letters to this daughter, who can then pass them along to her sick friend, is helping her feel the power of being a "Sam" and how, despite the grief she feels for her friend, that she can carry her friend when she can't carry her ring. I created an email account to receive the letters I will present to her in Bridger's therapy session next Tuesday. Email letters to CindySantaLetter@yahoo.com. Type the text directly in an email or scan the letter and attach it to the email and I will put it in an envelope. Letters can be from old or young and need not be anything beyond simple."

Holiday Evidence

If you look at this blog then you might think we are still walking around with Halloween costumes. You might think Thanksgiving never happened at all. You might also think that surely we haven't moved on to Christmas merriment. Well...here is some evidence that we have moved on to Christmas merriment. Lots of it. We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my parents, sister and cousin. We took family pictures that day that turned into our Christmas card this year. I will post that later. Our tradition is to always put up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night but since we were at my folks house, we ended up putting up my parent's tree. Little T really, really wanted to put the ornaments on but grandma wasn't up for that much. Either way it was a great ending to a great day. Since then we have been putting up Christmas decorations to the very delight of our little girl. Every time she sees any Christmas decoration around town, she yells " I just saw Christmas!!!" and gets so excited. She actually saw Santa in the mall today. You could tell her little brain was working. She stared at him for awhile and then said "He hasn't come to our house yet Mama." Perhaps if I gave her a chance to get closer, she would have given Santa a scolding. I assured her it was too soon.

We continued our tradition of having two trees. It was funny when we went to buy the real tree, our boys kept going through the tunnel of trees saying it was like going into Narnia! The fake tree has all the shiny bulbs and the fake one has the homemade ornaments. I love having them and wouldn't even mind adding more. I love white lights all around the house. We cover the front porch with the lights and Christmas wreaths in all the windows. I like how it looks. Very calming. The one thing we didn't have for the first couple of days was an advent calendar. For whatever reason, we have never really bought one that is wooden, or homemade. We just get the ones filled with chocolate for a couple of dollars. This year K surprised me with the biggest one filled with amazingly yummy German chocolates and there are two chocolates for every day. It seriously cost as much as our real tree! But so worth it!! We have two holiday parties this weekend. The Brown Family Christmas weekend at the lake the following weekend and then on to the real thing the next thing. I know it goes by way too fast. K and I like to light a fire as many nights as we can and relax while sipping some yummy hot chocolate. He even indulges me and watches some sappy holiday love stories on the Hallmark channel. Here's to hoping you can feel the joy of the season :)