Caught up!!

We should be all caught up now!!! Sorry it took so long to update the blog!

Red Winter's Over

A few months ago I was sitting in the living room and I asked Paul what he thought about painting the living room.  I loved the color red that was here when we moved in, but at night I felt like it was so dark it sucked the life out of me!!!  We hemmed and hawed and finally painted it last Saturday night.  I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I can't believe we didn't do this earlier!!!

A picture from last Christmas...

 The first round... we couldn't believe how light the room was!!!

With a few added accents and curtains... so cozy and bright!!!

New Year's Eve

We invited our normal crew of folks for New Year's Eve and two families joined us for a fun night with the kiddos.  We made Thai Food with lots of coconut milk, peanuts, chicken and shrimp.  It was super yummy! The kid ran around and played for a long time.  At 9:00 Paul brought up youtube on the TV and found last year's countdown to the ball dropping and we played it for the kids and promptly put them to bed!!! It was a very low key and relaxing night!

We woke up the next morning and had chocolate chip pancakes, lots of coffee, and a wonderful, relaxing day with pork and sauerkraut (that Maeve devoured!!)  Happy New Year!!!

Menschies

During our Christmas Week Celebration we got together with our church camp friends. It is always great to see everyone and amazing to see how each of our lives has developed. The kids were especially charming.

Sadie was the hit of the party!!!

The baby was crying and ready to go and the older kids watched with wonder!

These friends have "been there" for so long... for me since 9th grade in high school.  Some of them have known each other longer.  These are some of the people that no matter how long it goes between visits, I know their friendship is so true and loving.  I know they would do ANYTHING for me and I just feel super blessed and lucky to have them in my life, even at a distance!!!

Paisley and Argyle

I try to dress my kids in them as much as possible. 

Christmas 2010

We had the most wonderful Christmas this year.  Somehow, in a way I can't explain, it felt better than other Christmases.  We really enjoyed each other and had a lot of fun with the holiday.  We played together with the games we got (remember Mouse trap?) and just smiled and laughed through the holiday.  Paul was off for a long time too which helped to make it seem longer. 

The picture above is Maeve sitting through Christmas Eve worship.  Noah was in the Christmas Pageant as a cow and Maeve was running wild in the back.  She is incredibly interested in mimicing so when she saw me sitting with the bulletin she had to do that too!! 

When we got home from church, Maeve went to sleep and Noah and I made some more cookies while we waited for Nana to come. 

Once the cookies were done we opened Afi and Amma's presents which were a HUGE hit (literally!).  Noah got a giant kangaroo with a joey and some awesome clothes and a great book!

The dog got a rudolph set but Noah and Maeve were more interested in it!!!

We went off to sleep and Noah woke up about 7:30 on Christmas morning.  We went down the back steps and there was a Happy Birthday Jesus cake waiting for him.  He was so surprised to see it and wondered where it came from.  We sang Happy Birthday and had cake for breakfast!

The kids were so patient that morning!  We opened stocking gifts first while we waited for Mom Mom, PopPop and Uncle Eric to arrive.  When they did arrive we all sat down to a nice breakfast with mimosas and bloody Mary's, breakfast casseroles and more.  It all was so perfect! 

And then the craziness began!!! We all opened presents for what seemed like an hour or more.  I've thought a lot about this.  It was a crazy whirlwind and each of us had a pile of presents in front of us at all times.  It was so wild that no one really saw what anyone else got! I thought about worrying about it or getting upset at the sheer quantity, but I remembered all of the families that we helped this year and I decided that I would rather my kids have a million presents than none.  I remember loving the over the top nature of Christmas as a child.  I know that we never buy our kids toys all year long and so I figured that I should look at it simply as a re-stocking instead of anything bad. 

Noah was very grateful and was good at thanking everyone after every gift.  He was or at least acted super surprised at every gift, even tiny ones.  It was very funny because he would get excited over socks and underwear and then at one moment he opened the Toy Story 3 DVD from Nana.  He looked at her and said Nana I don't like this movie in a VERY serious face.  I encouraged him to be grateful and he said Thank You Nana, but I really don't like this movie.  It was so random!!!  He and Paul had seen it in the theater with no problems!  It's funny to watch and see what affects children...

 

It was a perfect day.  After we ate and opened everything we all went to Paul's sister's house for a little while.  The next day we went to church and then to Matt and Yaz's house and got snowed in together all day.  Another perfect event!  The entire week was filled with wonderful times with our friends and family.  We thank God for each one of you and the love and light you bring in to our lives!!!  Merry Christmas!