Christmas Celebrations

So we had five total celebrations this year. With Christmas on Tuesday. Our celebrations began the Saturday before and the grand finale was our own celebration on Christmas Day.

We were blessed beyond imagination. Of course, I never got to posting pictures of our Christmas with my grandparents the weekend after Thanksgiving so those are in here as well. I also had every intention of making a cute photo collage with photoshop (my Christmas present from the hubs) but well the lazy moments of the holiday took force and it still sits in the package. Maybe after D returns to work I will get back into the swing of things.


Saturday...Christmas with the Johnsons

Sager's new ISU hat

Blakely sporting her new crown that Aunt Mary made for all the girls

 Sunday...Christmas at the Livingstons

the cousins

Something upset the Sage man...our attempt to then get one with the grandparents

The Socks

The girls

Opening gifts with Shadd is hilarious. He is full of funny expressions like "Oh my cows"

Uncle J got to read stories in the staircase

What a cute present. Can I have him. 

Mrs. Claus

Sage isn't quite sure. Sorry Cousin H

 Monday...Christmas at the Rethmeiers

Wearing her new Rapunzel dress

Again...the expressions never get old. Loves the new Nerf guns. Thanks Papa

We had a blast celebrating. Hoping tomorrow I will get our pics posted from our own Christmas celebration. However, we can't wait to watch the big ISU bowl game and hang out with friends to ring in 2013.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I know a day late but still I hope you enjoyed every moment.


It went by too quickly once again. This year Sager was a sick (fever, ear infection) so it made it a little tougher to photograph and commemorate the year but we had a blast celebrating the birth of our Savior.

SAVIOR

Sorry for the bold title. But wow. Have you stopped to think about the details of our Saviors birth. We watched the Nativity Story (a movie we have but hadn't opened, whoops) and it just got me thinking about all the small details of our Saviors birth. The fulfillment of prophecy is amazing. God beautifully orchestrated the birth of his son on this earth. The perfect timing, place, people, etc. Every detail calculated and perfected. Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth & Zechariah, Nazereth yet Bethlehem, a Son of David, the bright Star, the wise men from a far, the shephards, the angels, Egypt, John the Baptist, a manger, the cloths, the animals just to name a few.

So many perfect intimate details of his birth fortold years before. Yet the people were expecting a King. Not a baby.

So how is God working out all the details in your own life for His ultimate glory & perfection. Are you allowing Him to use you. My mom has been meditating on Mary's Song and I hope for it to be a reminder of our call to live the Kingdom Life.

Mary’s Song

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

Our sermon Sunday reminded us that Jesus came to this earth to give us life. We aren't supposed to just believe in Him, seal our fate (heaven or hell) and then just stop. NO. He called us to pursue his dream of the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. We are supposed to live out the gospel. Show the love of Christ to all. No matter what the cost. No matter what they've done or are doing. We are called to love the Lord & love others.

Thank you Lord for sending your son in such a lowly way to remind us of how great your plans are for our lives even though the current circumstances sometimes don't make sense. I pray that you would continue to draw me and my family closer to you. That our relationship with you would be so intimate that you would radiate from our souls.

Merry Christmas!

Thankful Thursday, uhm Friday

Its finally Friday. We have a big weekend prior to the Eve and Christmas Day celebrations as well. Lucky for us we get to celebrate with family for 5 days in a row. Crazy I know but it will be an awesome time of family, fun and food. With a whole lot of the real reason for this season: JESUS!

So my thankfuls this week..

1. Jesus Storybook Bible - Love it! My kids are so engrossed
2. The Christmas Story - spending my time in Luke and Matthew
3. The Snow. We had a blizzard. A good 8-10 inches sits on my front lawn. It is beautiful!
4. Quiet Moments
5. Wrapping the perfect gifts
6. D's willingness to run random errands
7. How my kids play together
8. The power of earning the green. Shadd & Ells did a few jobs for mommy today
9. Completed projects
10. Yummy desserts - snickers fudge
11. A house full of laughter
12. My kiddos imaginations
13. My new kitchen table, a reveal when I remember to take a picture. Maybe I'll go up and snap a few after I post this
14. The hubs hard work
15. A morning with D home. Thank you snow!


So so much to be thankful for each year. It seems like a new year just started and now we are wrapping another one up. With each one I grow older, I have been married longer and my kids get bigger. Its amazing how much can change within a year. Hopefully next week I will have time to reflect prior to diving into 2013. Doesn't seem possible.

Hoping to post again but with all the craziness it may not happen. If not. Merry Christmas.

Praying you and your families have a great one and may the Real reason we celebrate never be far from your heart.

New Views

Sage has been pulling himself up for a few weeks now but it still surprises me each time I see him like this...

He is even cruising furniture. Slow down little buddy. Mommy needs to catch up.

The Christmas Crunch

Do you feel it? Well I do. Its that kinda overwhelming feeling that you have way too many things to do that you may not be able to just sit back and soak up the small moments of celebration and joy.

Well as much as we have done to prepare ahead of time this year the month of December just seems to fly by. We (I) have really been trying to be here in the present and relish the moments but its tough.

So far to celebrate we have done a few things off our bucket list. We have done quite a few Christmas crafts and coloring sheets. We even used some old Christmas cards to set up a little card writing center. Something about making cards for other people kept them occupied for a few hours. Of course, I can't throw any away so they've been siting on my counter ever since, sigh. We also bundled up and drove around to check out the lights. Always a favorite of mine so a tradition that didn't get as much hype as I had hoped but still we had fun for about 20 minutes or so.

Our favorite...dubbed the gingerbread house

Another fun craft was decorating Christmas trees. Instead of sugar cookies (which my mother-in-law is famous for) so its a no can do thing around here, we frosted and decorated sugar cones. A pinterest idea that made my day or at least morning. Easy peasy plus fun.

Now snow globes are what they would like to attempt tomorrow. I found some tutorials on pinterest but I have seen some blog posts and say it didn't work out so hot so we may give it a shot but I don't have high expectations.

Today though...we baked bread. Yep. 12 loaves. My sister was here and we were the two little red hens - only no one got to eat the bread other than our lucky neighbors. We had a ton of fun. But at four loaves at a time and letting them rise in between it took pretty much are whole afternoon but fun no the less. We even got to use our crafty side and design, print and cut labels. A favorite for both of us.

We had extra hands, of course. Can I please have a snack???

And then everyone went out for deliveries. Check out this set up. Nice. Bread on the back bumper. I don't think so.

I am hoping I get to blog more this week but if we get the estimated snow I will definitely be out there rolling around and enjoying a white Christmas. I hope you do too.

p.s. I finally just uploaded over 1500 photos from my phone to my computer so I may be posting some oldies.

Small Town Love

I might be a little bit biased but....

I think we live in the best place ever...

I mean a walk without coats in December... absurd...then snow a couple days later. Wow.

But a beautiful small town and a quiet path. What more could you ever ask for? 

Thank you Lord for bringing us here. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us. 

Thankful Thursday

1. A massage - finally using the gift certificate i got for my birthday almost 11 months ago, whoops!
2. My mother-in-law's sugar cookies. Huge bake sale at their house Saturday 8am. First come, first serve. Just the pictures posted on facebook made me thankful
3. Mail (packages & christmas cards)
4. The Jesus Storybook Bible - hands down best bible for kiddos
5. A handy hubby
6. My Christmas Elf (aka D) - he's been my wrapping king
7. Pandora - we somehow aren't getting commericals and we aren't paying! Double bonus
8. P90X - I love it but I hate it
9. Holiday Crafts - attempting glitter tomorrow.
10. 33 Miles Christmas CD - Believe - thanks Ali!
11. Free printable gift tags
12. Completed projects - getting closer
13. JOY from my kiddos faces over the smallest things!


What a wonderful season...brings so much happiness & joy but most of all gratefulness that my Jesus came down as a little baby, born in the lowliest way to live a perfect life so that he could take my sin away when He died on that cross so that by believing whole heartedly in Him - I get the gift of living an eternity with Him. Thats a long time! I couldn't be more grateful! Thank you Jesus for the best Christmas gift of all! YOU!

The SNOW

It snowed. I know I prayed for it all last week and then Sunday morning came and well lets just say my kiddos weren't the only ones excited that morning. We got to go jump around in it in the afternoon but we aren't well too prepared for the snow so no boots for Shaddy, hand me downs for ells and well I couldn't find their thick gloves or their snow pants so we just opted for a quick photo shoot instead.

Lets just say we are thankful for the dusting and we will be ready for you next time winter. So bring on the snow! Plus mom just got a couple ideas for christmas gifts.

Things I don't ever wanna forget

Lately my kiddos have been saying some of the cutest things...

For instance..

Shadd has the gift of giving. He loves to give almost as much as receive. He went to his best friends birthday this weekend and the excitement about it has been building for weeks. He loved it. Of course he left with a goodie bag and some candy from the pinata but instead of telling my mom & dad what he received he was way more delighted to tell them about the awesome cars he gave his buddy. Something he just had to pick out!

Shaddy has also been making quite the list of gifts to give his momma, brother and sis. Most of these conversations have been with Dad so maybe thats why he hasn't shared any gift ideas with me. D said that the other day when a Jarod's commerical was on he pointed to some diamond earrings and told D that he was gonna get those for mom for christmas. Now that is my kind of boy! He reminds me a lot of his generous gift giving father! I think a waffle maker is somewhere on the list too.

He also has the gift of helps! Big Bro to the rescue! 

He also had a cute discussion with D the other night about growing up. He teared up when D told him that someday he would get married and have a family and live in a different house than us. He didn't seem to mind the different house as long as we all lived there together. I think he's thinking we would get to live with grandma & papa again as we build. Oh my sweet little boy - if only you really would live and stay this age forever!

Never a dull moment at this house thats for sure.

Now Ells lately just puts the cutest phrases together.

She is pretty excited about all things "tismas". She loves the Go Fish cd and wouldn't mind if we listed to number 5, Christmas with a Capital C, or dubbed "tismas" from Ells, on repeat every single time we are in the car. Thankfully I told her that cd doesn't work in the house. So for some sanity I at least get to enjoy other tunes in the house.

She was helping me fold some laundry the other day and held up a dish towel and said, "now this one is soft and comfy". Oh crazy girl.

Ells loves to laugh and say "Dat was funny, uh?"

Even Sager has gotten into the action...in this pic I caught him singing "Gloria"...made this momma die laughing. He loves a good tune!

P.S. Slightly in love with Instagram. I know way way behind the times but just too fun. I'm not following anyone or anything just enjoying the editing and fun look of different photos plus my phone upgrade (thank you babe) has left me with a mighty good camera within in reach at all times so I get to capture those more life like moments, you know? 

Sage 8 mo

Whoops. I am so behind on these little posts. Well I guess since his birthday is on the 27th only 13 days or so. Yikes.

Well the Sager is officially 8 months. Wowzers. Can hardly believe it. My niece little Shaye shaye is going to be 1 this month. She's walking and one crazy little girl. So blessed to see her often again. Thank you Central College.

Anywho...what is new with the Sage Man.

For starters he is going from crawling to sitting. Sitting to standing with furniture mind you. His new favorite game is push the car or ball around the room. He is still army crawling for the most part but now a few downward dogs are thrown in for all you non-yoga people (he does a push up with his but straight in the air).

Sleep: He has been through the night but it might just be because I have turned the monitor down so he would really have to be loud for me to hear him. And sometimes its hard to wake this momma. He still naps in the am and then again in the afternoon typically. He loves to snuggle his blanket. He goes down great and sometimes just chats a bit to himself before drifting off to sleep. He is sharing a room with big brother and they are loving it. Shadd just can't wait till he can sleep in the bunk bed rather than the crib. It won't be long, I know.

Eating: The newest foods he has really enjoyed were some pasta (thank you NJ) and hard cooked eggs. He loves just about everything but seems to getting a bit sick of cherrios and puffs. He is more of fruit and veggie guy which makes snacks a bit more challenging. Probably by the end of the month he will be eating mostly table foods. He can pick up just about everything and manage to get it into his mouth. Still struggling a bit with the sippy cup but momma tends to forget to offer so thats probably why. Of course he is still nursing about 6 times a day give or take.

Other: He loves to try his best to pester his sister - grabbing and pulling her hair, taking her toys, and just trying to get her blanket or whatever she is toting around. He tries to stay in on all the action. He loves to crawl to my feet and shake his body. He is waving goodbye. He loves a good tune.

He is growing like a weed and this is by far always my favorite stage! I love seeing his accomplish new feats and transform from that newborn to a little guy. I have a glimpse of what he may be like as I get to compare him and Shadd but it will be fun to see what Sager has in store for our family.

Gingerbread Houses

On thanksgiving we made the cutest gingerbread villages. The kids had a blast. Great idea Aunt K & Grandma Darcy.

Of course the candy was quite the temptation...who could resist that face?

And this satisfied one?

Just one of the beautiful villages...