Journal (12th edition)

TODAY

Out my window: Sunny.  Cold.  Supposed to be mild(er) today, and then get cold (relatively speaking) tomorrow and into the first part of the week.

Clothing myself in: Aw, do I HAVE to??  Grey sweats, tank and navy sweatshirt that is too big but I wear it because it is comfortable even though I don't particularly like how it looks.  Yes, this is my life.  And I'm getting a cold sore.  Bummer.  It has been a long time since I've had one, I mainly have them under control it seems through diet/supplements, but alas...  Bleh.

Around the house:  Christmas decos are mainly up.  Advent has been nice so far. Trying to just slow things down and focus on what's important.  "People before things," in the wise words of my spiritual director.  As easy as this sounds, it's not always.  Trying though, and Advent has provided a great time and motivation to really focus on this.

In the past few weeks I successfully completed the mail merge and printed envelopes with addresses and return addresses for our Christmas letter (this is always a miracle in and of itself, I only do a mail merge once a year and I never quite remember how...pins and needles until it's actually done).  THEN, I finally decided to buckle down and write the letter.  Starting out is always the hardest part.  Once I did that it took about 10 minutes, a day to sit on it and tweak, printed it.  Got the pictures ordered with a really good deal from Shutterfly.  Got some professionals done of the kids (now I'm out of order on when I did all this, but I'm too lazy to go back and correct myself).  Folded, stuffed, stamped, SENT!!!  Whew.  Don't ask how many.  (115).  Seriously, I have tried to cut our list and I just can't.  Do I have a problem?

Hoping to tackle gift wrapping this coming week.  Done with shopping for the most part.  

Wow, that was all very random.  Sorry.

 

The baby: Is rolling now.  He had been going back to front for a few weeks (although I just actually SAW him do it for the first time earlier this week).  Just this morning he figured out the front to back thing.  Now I have to watch where I leave him!!  And the floor is just such a safe spot with an almost five and almost three year old in the house.  OH dear...

 

The kiddos:  

I'll start with Kolbe...HE DID IT!!!!!  I am ready to call "The Great Potty Adventure of 2012" a SUCCESS!!!  We haven't had any accidents for over a week, and only a few "false starts".  AND, I don't have to remind him to go.  He heads into the bathroom and does his business all on his own without being told.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!  He is still in diapers at night, and I've a feeling he probably will be for awhile, but by golly we've got days down!!  The big success was celebrated with a package of "Thomas" underpants from St. Nicholas.  

Yes, St. Nicholas.  He visited this week bearing adorable chocolate Santas, holiday t-shirts for the kids, some Xylitol gum, hair-things for Gemma, patron saint prayer cards and the aforementioned undies.  As tradition holds we read this book, and the kids watched the CCC St. Nicholas story (I DVRd it from EWTN) several times in the past few days.  Gemma was so excited for his arrival (and Kolbe too by default) that she wanted to put her shoes on the fireplace first thing the morning of the 5th.  I had to remind her she would actually need to WEAR them that day, and she could put them out at night before bed and it would be fine.  It's fun seeing the kids look forward to these traditions in our family.    

In the kitchen:  Chicken Linguine, Meatloaf (I really should blog the recipe, my neighbor brought it to us after Clem was born and it was awesome.  It's my new favorite meatloaf recipe), TACOS for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, maybe Salmon Noodles (from my Betty Crocker cook book), but I may change my mind by Friday on that one.  As of now I'm not feelin' it, but that's what the "menu" says....  I'd also like to make some parsley pesto (loosely following this recipe), a neighbor (different one) brought us some parsley from her garden and I've found this to be a great thing to have in the fridge.  And while I like basil pesto better, the parsley stuff is definitely more versatile.   

Crafting:  My kind neighbor (another one yet...we have the greatest neighbors) is letting me use her serger to finish the edges of a blanket that Kolbe will be getting for Christmas.  I tried it out the other night on some scraps, and plan to take the actual blanket over to finish some night next week.  It is fleece that I got on a SUPER good deal on Black Friday.  So excited about this!!!  I have some other sewing ideas bouncing around in my head, we'll see how soon they come to fruition. 

Learning:  Mainly Advent activities.  We're using this Jesse Tree book as part of our morning prayers, and while we're not actually doing a Jesse Tree, I printed these coloring pages out and Gemma is coloring them to hang on the cabinet as we go.  It has been a really good opportunity to immerse the kids in Scripture a bit more (we're also reading the stories from our Children's Bible) and talk specifically about Salvation History and God's covenants with His people.  Still plugging away with reading lessons.  Gemma is making some great progress.  This week we will start working on our Salt Dough Ornaments.  We will. 

Reading:  I recently finished Unplanned.  The story itself was really remarkable.  I think the thing that resonated with me most though was its testimony to the power of prayer.  Very powerful.  

Bringing me joy: A clean oven, thank you MOM.  Yes, I have the coolest mom ever.  She totally cleaned my nasty-gross-gnarly-I'membarassedthatsheevenlookedinit-oven for me and it looks AMAZING.  It was a complete surprise too.  Long story but I went to put a lasagna in the oven for dinner on Monday and had to do a double-triple take.  I thought I had somehow been crazily transported to a mystical world where they have clean ovens. 

Some time away with the baby and hubby.  Aaron had some continuing ed about 3hrs away from home last Fri./Sat.  And my dear parents (yes, the same ones who cleaned my oven) took care of Gemma and Kolbe while we were gone.  It was their first night away from home (aside from when Clem was born) so it was kind of a big deal.  They had fun, my parents had fun, and the baby and I got some uninterrupted shopping time in the "big city" while daddy was in class.  Plus getting to visit with Aaron uninterrupted in the car was kind of amazing.  AND we went on a date to a restaurant where someone else cooked and cleaned up after the meal, AND they had live jazz music.  Who knew such things existed?! (haha)   It was relaxing, but as cliche as it sounds there really is no place like home.  

Advent.

My squishy baby.

Kids who play well together (no, it's not always this way, but boy when they do it is WONDROUS).

The music on this CD.

Thinking about: How long this post is.  Congrats if you made it to the end!!!  Any thought that I've had of late is probably summed up in the above paragraphs, so I'll spare you any more insights into my wacky head. 

Pictures to share: 

The kids in their St. Nick shirts.

 Clem.  Always amused by his older siblings.

Kolbe drew a person!!!

We did a "photo-shoot" with Max the dog one day when we were playing out at the park. 

Snow day

This past Monday we had our first snow day of the season. Gemma was very excited to see the snow, and Kolbe even joined in on the excitement. I'm not sure he knew what he was excited about though!! I was finally able to pull our "snow" books off the shelf to read. And even though I had a list of errands I would have loved to get done, it ended up being a nice day to just stay indoors. It's days like this when I'm really grateful for our basement. We had a lot of fun playing...Kolbe seems to discover and enjoy new (to him) toys each day. This day it was the shape sorter. Of course Gemma had to "help". And some pictures of Gemma-goo, on her LAST day as a two-year-old!! Trampoline fun! Dancing! (She got a new haircut, I LOVE it!!) Playing in her box house And then came the crowning moment of the day...getting to play in the snow with daddy while he shoveled the driveway. She talked about it all. day. And despite being freezing (temps in the 20's or teens) and windy, she was out there for every bit of an hour. She had a blast, I was really happy for her.

So proud of her snow gear! (I was rather amazed we got her to dress in all this in the first place, this is the same girl who rarely will wear a coat.) She loved it (much more than her first time to play in the snow last year)!
The perfect (night before her) birthday snow! She ran all over the yard. Look at those cold, rosy cheeks. With daddy, wiping off doggy kisses.

And to top it all off, there was a new "snow" episode of Little Bear on our OnDemand at the end of the day. Gemma was thrilled.

HAPPY SNOW-DAY, EVERYONE!!!!

More autumn loveliness

We've pretty much hit and passed "peak leaf change" here in our neck of the woods. Here are some pics I have taken over the past week or so. We have all really enjoyed the Autumn this year. Gemma has really gotten into finding and collecting pretty "leafs". She especially likes the red ones it seems. And she has certainly enjoyed the pretty weather and opportunity to spend ample time outdoors. We are excited for winter in that it means getting closer and closer to the arrival of baby...not so much looking forward to the long stretches without the opportunity to go outdoors.

Happy Fall to one and all!
Be sure to check back soon for Halloween costume pics...

Healthy...and not so healthy habits

I have been trying to be really good about brushing Gemma's teeth (all eight of them) lately. It's been tough, simply because it isn't yet a 'part of the routine' yet. But we're getting there. And she LOVES it!!! I snapped some pics last night of her brushing them all by herself. I'm not sure if she was really brushing or just sucking the toothpaste off (I got this all natural, flouride free, strawberry-banana stuff, and I'm thinking it must be pretty tasty). At any rate, she thinks it's great when I brush them, she just opens up her mouth and giggles, like I'm tickling her gums or something.
So that is the "healthy habits" portion of my post.

Here is the "not so healthy habits" portion. This was daddy's idea. Don't worry, the tray has since been scrubbed down with lots of hot soapy water. Gemma was quite tickled to have someone help clean up her leftovers...
I love the look on her face in the first one. "HOLY COW, GUYS!!!!! Did you notice that there is a dog eating my dinner?!"

Thanksgiving weekend

We have had a wonderful weekend...we've had ample time to spend together as a family, and for that I am quite thankful. I'm big on the "quality time" when it comes to love languages, so I love weekends like this. Thursday we were able to get some great family pics in the morning, thanks to my sis Michelle. I am relieved to have a nice looking pic of the three of us to send in Christmas cards, so we've got that whole process begun now. We spent lunch at my parents', and the evening at Aaron's parents'. Here are some of our favorite pictures.
Friday I hit the stores early with my dad, sis Mandy and her hubby Damien. Fun times as usual. The main deal that I was excited to get was the Fisher Price "Little People" Nativity. They had a really good price on it at the local Christian bookstore...and then to my delight my dad surprised me and purchased not only it but also the add-on shepherd kit. Pretty special, I was totally thrilled. Gemma just loves it, it's on her dresser and we look at it often. And I think it's great that she can pick the different pieces up and we don't have to worry about them break. Cool stuff.
Our other black Friday deal we ordered online, and that was our camcorder. We could get the same price (incredibly discounted I might add) by ordering online Thanksgiving day from Circuit City.com. Well, the choice was either that, or get there at like 3 Friday AM, stand in line, fight the crowds, and hope they didn't run out. Gee, guess which one sounded more appealing. AND, it has already come. I've charged the battery, but that's as far as I've gotten. I am just not much one for reading directions and figuring things out. I very much learn by doing, not by reading. Oh well, I'm sure it can't be too hard. We decided to go with the hard-drive version, that way no matter what way the technology goes, we will have a format that can be converted (IE, DVD, blu-ray, whatever they think up next, etc.) Should be a pretty good deal I think.

We also put up our Christmas decorations, so it's feeling quite festive around here.
Saturday AM Gemma and I helped daddy at his office, which was quite fun. Gemma did really well, I was proud of her. She is in the process of dropping her AM nap, so that's been interesting. I think we've finally struck an OK balance, in that she takes about a 15-20 minutes cat-nap around 10:45, and then is good until she lays down for her afternoon nap around 12:30/1. She seems to be doing quite well with the transition, it was definitely time.

In other news, Max has made the move indoors (for nighttimes/really cold days that is)...and we have struck a grand compromise (YAY!) Last year, the dog-box was in our living room. It was, errrr, just lovely to look at all winter, and even better when he started shedding. SOOOO, this year, he is living in the spare room, and we're all happy. Aaron is glad that Max doesn't have to endure the cold (he is short-haired, I really would feel badly keeping him out, too), I have my living room back, and Gemma is just thrilled to be able to crawl back to the spare room and see Max whenever she pleases. We had him in all morning and she thought that was pretty cool.
Well, this is getting quite long, I'm going ot sign off for now. Take care, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!