Prep and More Prep

In the mid-winter excitement, there was a series of days when we tried on her ballet recital costume again and again. This was risky.... if she freaked out and decided she just would not wear it "because it hurts!!!!" that was that. Horrible day-of, melt-down was likely to ensue. Not fun for any of us.

But.

If I was able to get her used to it, she'd be thrilled and even more excited for the recital. And, praise the Lord, that's what happened.

That and she raided my shoe closet (do I have a shoe closet? No... the area of my closet where my shoes are crammed) :





Things were looking up in terms of recital prep.

And after every ballet class, in order to prepare for Christmas, our dear friends would bring some books along and the girls would sit in a little circle, eat some snacks and while Ford ran circles around them, they were read a story.

We read The Sparkle Box this year. The main theme is that when we do good deeds, we write them down and put them in a special, sparkly box -- and on Christmas morning, that was Jesus' birthday gift. Cute idea. Although I often forgot to implement it!

Here are the girls after they made their sparkle boxes :

And we got a super duper fun gift this year -- an early visit from Grandma so we could make Christmas cookies! Remember last year? We're loving this tradition.



791. easy, peasy costume
792. borrowing every bit of it
793. ice cream love
794. on time flights
795. getting up with Grandma

Advent Reading Plan

Merry Advent!

This year, I actually prepared a bit for December (hence the lack of blog attention) and when I wasn't pressing Christmas cards for clients, I was scouring Pinterest among other things for ways to make advent relatable to the kids. I came across reading The Jesus Storybook Bible every night instead of the "normal" Christmas passages and it's been a breath of fresh air.

Before we were hardly back from Thanksgiving, we went to an annual awesome party where Santa (the most amazing Santa I've ever seen, I might add -- who is the same Santa every single year) shows up with a massive bag of toys.

Awaiting his arrival...

He sits down, talks to the kids, and then, slowly, gives out a wrapped gift (that the parents bring he brings, of course) to each child and they sit on his lap and they actually have a little chat.

Fordy did awesome...

I always thought this was great, but now that Abby is older, it's really, really special. She got to tell him all about her princess-love and exactly what she wants for Christmas. He told her that he and Mrs. Claus had something special in mind for her this year. The girl lit up.

And once everyone has their gift, he counts to three and they all open them up -- good thing I purchased one extra, on-sale princess this year, eh? "Oh Mom! How did he know just what I wanted?" Ahem. He didn't. See Ariel below.

785. just what she wanted
786. anticipation
787. learning lessons from older ladies
789. not creating a monster
790. silence in the car

Thanksgiving 2012 (a bit late).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Errr...we're a little behind. :)

Bunny, snoopy and in her bathing suit. This pretty much sums up Thanksgiving at Grandmama and Pop Pop's house. That and lots and lots and lots of cousin love.




Abby spent as many moments with cousin AJ as possible. Closely. Time after time, I'd look over and she would be inviting herself to share a chair with him. I love that she feels so close to him even though  we don't live close. He also taught her to scream "Jake!" from Jake And The Neverland Pirates and then, "Never! Never ever!" Now Ford, too, runs around the house screaming "Jake". He can't say Abby... but Jake is somehow easy.



And Fordy fell in love with new cousin Sloan. Kisses and adoration day after day. I mean, what's not to love?

There's something about that girl. We all love to stare at her.

And an all-hands on deck cousin bath was in order after a day of playing...

And the 2-man Bob became a 3-cousin stroller for a nice, warm walk...

And once at Grandmama's there was a party time golf cart ride...

A naked boy who loved running on the golf course...

And Thanksgiving dinner! We all made it in time!

And there is nothing like a holiday without some pouting. This was over her shoes, (not a new thing, I'm sorry to say) and it went on and on until she saw the dessert bar and Grandmama gave her some m&ms. Ah, candy. The sweet solace that solves all of our hurts. :)



For the first year, Abby really thought about being thankful every day. I'm sure our "thankful tree" had something to do with it - and I've left it up as a reminder that we need to be thankful all year long.

778. long, swim-filled days
779. a boy who loves the water
780. good sleepers
781. loving cousins
782. Jake!
783. vacation at Grandmama and Pop Pops
784. no one else getting sick

Blog Neglect

Oh, people. What a sad state of affairs. Some serious neglect of the blog has occurred during the most thankful time of the year. I blame it all on Santa. Those darn Christmas cards have me working almost every night till the wee hours (and yet, we're all healthy!). It's a wonderful, crazy time of year. Always is... but somehow I forget and each year I'm surprised at the interest in letterpress cards celebrating Christ's birth. Go figure! I wouldn't have it any other way.

In the past few weeks I've seen super heroes in capes jumping on my bed...

Freezing cold late afternoon walks after a certain three year old refuses to nap (thankful for "rest" time!)

The stomach flu hit 50% of our house and yet Cinderella continued to play croquet...

We've eaten ice cream like it was mid-summer....

Picked flowers like it was spring...

Abby attended her first Trojan slaughtering...

And we've all been very, very thankful. More Thanksgiving news and advent fun coming soon...

774. rain on a new, strong roof
775. no tears at getting dressed time
776. finding Christmas music I didn't know I had
777. everything in the pantry for that recipe

The Climber

Other than singing, humming and dancing around, this guy loves to climb. More than Abby ever did and ever has. I think he's gone down this slide 100 times more than she has.

And while she doesn't love to climb, she does love to make boats out of boxes with her brother.

And this year we did a Thankful tree for the month of November. It was fun to count our blessings and to see the things that Abby came up with. I was especially thankful for health after the epidemic stomach flu hit our house (Abby and Grant) and Abby was thankful for our fridge. Very suspicious for a girl who doesn't like to eat much. And of course, for bunny.

And today was a banner day... after 3.5 years, Abby got to turn around in her car seat. She was speechless at what she'd been missing out on. She thought everything looked "bigger" this way -- and it actually feels like we're hanging out together now on our jaunts around town.

770. not getting sick
771. a patient spouse who walks in at the right moment
772. laughter is the best medicine
773. anticipation of this Christmas season

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Halloween night, we taped the Charlie Brown Halloween special. I had completely forgotten how bossy and rude Lucy is. Truly. Whew! For days and days after, I heard something to the effect of, "Ford, I'm going to pound you!" Gasp! Right? She'd laugh and say, "Mom, that's what Lucy says!" Oh my. This will teach me to encourage these shows, huh?

In other news, we've been having lots and lots of trouble with getting dressed. Socks (the seams!), pants (these hurt!), long sleeved shirts (I don't like this), are all causing us trouble. We've actually resorted to "practicing" wearing winter clothes. Can you imagine if we lived somewhere cold? Even super soft Ugg boots that someone loaned us - "these are itchy!" It's a fine line between wanting to listen and be sensitive and then really, really, really needing to get somewhere and absolutely needing her to not be naked. The days of a sundress and crocs every day are gone.

Some days are better than others. Recently, it took a full hour with kicking and screaming to get her to put on a pair of socks. Socks, people. Not a wool sweater. We finally settled on these cute, reindeer socks but could only find one. Two days later, I found the other sock in the garbage disposal. In the words of Charlie Brown... "good grief!"

But, the exception is her blessed (jelly) glass slippers from Halloween. Even Ford likes to try 'em.

They give her blisters and yet, she won't take them off. So she's not that sensitive, eh?

The few days around Halloween, it was really warm. Back in the pool they go...with Ford splashing and jumping around while Abby stands there like the lifeguard.

And then naked Fordy wanted to swing...

And here she is, still looking like the Lifeguard, very in charge. "Fordy. It's time to come back to the pool."

So, in light of the Charlie Brown show, you'll now notice the use of the word "blockhead" in this video. Dear Lord, make her forget everything that video hath sayeth.

767. candy cane green tea
768. 24/7 Christmas music already
769. a joyful-hearted hubby in a bad circumstance

Halloween 2012

Little Cinderella was waiting and waiting for it to be Halloween night. She spent the majority of the day in her costume... waiting. Waiting by the swings, waiting while we ate a snack, waiting for it to be 4:30.

And finally it was time to head over to our friends' house! The "big kids" have known Abby since she was born and yet, whether it's the costumes or the craziness, she's always very, very shy at first when we get to their house.

Notice that a) she has "princess hair" (it's pulled back in a messy pony - don't tell her this isn't proper Princess attire!) and b) she's holding a silver purse from her Grandma that served as her candy bag. I heartily approved seeing that it was small and could only hold 20 pieces of candy as opposed to a pillow case, holding one million pieces.

And here's the whole gang, three families worth of fun (sans Ford)...

And her partner in crime from last year -- they gave out candy together and I think Abby got a piece to eat for every piece they gave away.

Reliving the tradition before it even got dark...

And finally, it was time to go! She went from super clingy to "No, dad. Don't hold my hand." All the big kids went their own way and just a few of us walked the lovely street together.

Ford was destined to be Charlie Brown (I had the shirt ready to rock) but he was obsessed with this tiger costume we had from cousin AJ. When Abby would play dress up in the days coming up to Halloween, he'd run to his room and yank on the closet trying to get his costume down. So, the tiger became Tigger after watching the Pooh movie recently.

He had a wonderful time just walking up to front doors and talking to people.

This boy is a people person. They'd answer and he'd just laugh and stand there.

And finally, one of all four of us.

Clearly Abby and the youngest boy (other than Ford), Asher, didn't get the memo that there is to be no dating (even over Halloween candy and legos!) until they are at least 25. After trick or treating, they parked it on the floor while the big kids were still out, counting candy and talking the physics of how to put things together.

Be still my heart. It was really cute.

763. a fun event on Halloween
764. families that include our "young" kids
765. traditions
766. a warm night