Photo Story Friday: Anyone Want A Kitten?

He's cute, really














Really...



















Really!



This USED to be shower curtain before my shower this morning













So, you still want a kitten?





Me either.



Why can't he behave like his big sister?


















Unfortunately, he's become a beloved member of the household.















But I still have to go buy a new shower curtain and living room blinds.


Have a great weekend and come back and share on Monday.

Thursday Thirteen: Major To Do List (Updated)

I started this as a Tackle It Tuesday, but then I realized that it seemed to be growing into quite a large number. December, which is supposedly the Month for Peace always turns into hectic craziness instead. Wonderful craziness, but craziness nevertheless. I like this T13 graphic, simply because I like to think that Santa is checking MY to do list.

So while trying to gather my thoughts about everything that needs to be done in the next two weeks, I think I'll order them to help myself get things straightened out. You're welcome to come along for the ride.

1. Aaron's Tubes (Again)
Found out on Tuesday that Aaron needs to get tubes again, in his right ear only this time. His evaluation by the speech therapist is supposed to happen any time now and now I need to postpone it until after the surgery. Waiting for the ENT to call me back for scheduling. This will be Aaron's 4th "surgery" with this ENT. No call from the ENT, but found out that he is NOT going to be recommended for speech therapy. I guess that is good.

2. Gingerbread House Construction at Aaron's Preschool
Today at 10:30. They actually "constructed" them yesterday but now will decorate them today. Pictures to follow I'm sure. It was very cute but Aaron ate more candy than made onto the house

3. Noah's Christmas "Concert" Tonight
I still don't understand why the music teacher has the kids SPEAK the words to Christmas songs when it is just as easy to teach them to SING

4. Friday Night Shopping
Stockpiling coupons that I have received for the last two weeks and Deb and I will be out on the town again tomorrow night. Hopefully getting the rest of the stocking stuff done.

5. Family Christmas Saturday
Presents wrapped and ready, thankfully. It looks like the weather will be perfct for sledding and safe driving for my brother's family.

6. Three Bell rehearsals next week
Sunday morning bell practice, Wednesday night bells with choir, Saturday morning bells with choir AND members from the Grand Rapids Symphony.

7. Cherub Choir (including Noah) performing this Sunday
Hopefully, they will remember words and play their bells at the right time, but will look cute no matter what happens

8. Aaron's School Christmas Party Next Thursday
I'm supposed to supply something, but I don't remember what

9. Noah's School Christmas party Next Friday
Need to make pretzel treats and buy present for little girl in his class as an exchange gift

10. Craft Day with Deb's Kids
Need to get the ingredients to make salt dough ornaments and the boys today told me that they want to make gingerbread houses too so gotta get stuff for that (can you get some candy, Deb?)

11. Big Bell, Choir, Symphony Extravaganza on Sunday the 21st
Pray for me...

12. 12th Wedding anniversary on the 21st also
We can actually celebrate it now since Steve's Family Christmas has been mysteriously CANCELLED

13. Christmas Eve Service
Our family is lighting the advent candles so we need to teach the boys their parts, Noah is going to be a shepherd in the pageant, but chimes are no longer playing, so that's one stress gone.

UGHHHH!!!!! I ran out of number and I haven't even made it to Christmas day! I guess it will have to continue next week. Happy Thursday, Everyone.

Seriously?

Not quite wordless today, but pictures are truly worth a thousand words.

My husband is normally quite a handsome man. Cute smile, great hair. I even love the mole on the end of his nose. And I love that his second born son is the spitting image of him.















He had quite a bit of hair when I met him 16 years ago.

Not to say anything about the quality of our marriage (LOL) but his hair has receded quite a bit in the 14 years we have been together.

But he has ALWAYS been very particular about his hair style. He likes it short, and gets quite grumpy if it gets long enough to touch his ears.

I like that he cares about his appearance. It was one of the numerous things that I liked about him before I really even got to know him.

But this week has a been a very strenuous week financially (as have they all) and I told him that he would have to wait until Friday to get a hair cut. Not because I'm the boss, just because I know exactly where every penny needs to go between now and Christmas in order to try to get December's mortage paid before January 1st.

He has a hair clipping kit that he has been nagging me for weeks to use on his head. He trusted me, but I didn't and I flat out REFUSED.

Then I got a call at work tonight.

"Uh, Kristi, I couldn't wait."

"What?"

"I tried to cut my hair but I couldn't reach some spots."

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

But sadly, it was true. I wish I had taken a picture of the head I found when I got home, but I didn't want to have it embedded in my memory forever, although it would have made the blogging story much more effective.

So NOW I had no choice but to try to see this through. Let me show you the back after my attempts at fixing:






I actually think it turned out okay.












Now brace yourself......

There was so salvaging the top and front...it was too far gone and my only choice was to keep on going and know that it will grow back.




Maybe we can transplant some from his chest
















Let's chant this together...

"IT WILL GROW BACK, IT WILL GROW BACK, IT WILL GROW BACK..."

Am I convinced yet?

We were going to go get family portraits for Christmas. I think we will now wait until Valentines Day.

Doesn't he have a cute smile, though?

Have you ever cut the hair in your family? Do you have any tips, since he is crazy enough to believe that I could do it again?

Santa Fun

Weekend Top Five

Our weekend started a little earlier since I brought Noah home after lunch on Friday, due to the winter storm we were enduring at the time. Actually, pretty much the whole weekend we stayed home because of said winter storm.




5. Saturday Outside

We had two plans for Saturday...take the kids sledding and the walking in the parade with Noah's school. It was SUPER COLD and the roads were still really bad so I was not interested in going anywhere. Instead, we made our own fun outside.

Steve made a makeshift snow slide from our top step out to the driveway.






































They even got mommy to go down, even though I veered off course and hit the bricks instead.













The parade got cancelled so we needed a back up plan for the rest of the afternoon

4. Saturday Inside

Later that day, Steve decided to take Noah to the big sledding hill, while Aaron and I opted to stay in where it was warm.

So we made No Bake Pumpkin Pie instead.


















3. Crafts
Another indoor activity of the weekend was to use glitter to create foam snowflakes for the window.

I discovered a few years ago when Noah was small that if you put glue on paper and give them a paintbrush, it works WAY better than giving young kids glue bottles (and glue sticks just DON'T work!)



I got a great picture of Aaron from this that I am saving for a Wordless Wednesday in the future.








Noah takes his crafts very seriously


















Here they are on the window

















2. Church Sans Steve

Steve had two concerts with the vocal group that he joined on Sunday so we were Daddy-less. It went fine though. I set up a movie for the kids while we had bell rehearsal and then I took them to a McD's play area for lunch until it was time to go to Hannah's party.

1. Hannah's Birthday Party

Deb's daughter Hannah finally had her birthday party on Sunday. Because our kids, plus our friend Mary's kids make quite a large group, it was still a pretty good crew, even though only one other of Hannah's little friends could come.

They played Disney Bingo, did a pull string pinata and ate yummy cake and ice cream

Although I think the biggest hit of the day was simply RUNNING. I am quite sure there was no system to this game other than 6 kids on sugar highs who had been cooped up way too long this weekend.



Aaron, Noah, Becca











Like I said before, some weekends are harder than others to think of five interesting things. But what fun to try...

Another Winter Storm Watch is posted for Monday Night into Tuesday, so maybe we'll finally get our snow day this week.

If you want to share your weekend with me and others, please feel free to join Mr. Linky below.

Friday Fun

1. Real tree or artificial?

I always grew up with a real tree. Never dreamed of having a fake one. But every since kids arrived, fake is easier to clean up.

2. When do you put up the tree?

Another reason we have artificial. I like putting it right away the week of Thanksgiving. If we had a real one, it would die WAY before Christmas.

3. When do you take down the tree?

Whenever I get sick of the cats knocking the ornaments off and having to redecorate it for the millionth time. Usually around New Year's Day.

4.Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Paper for the most part.

5. When do you start Christmas shopping?

I start around June when I see things on sale. Noah's big present (mp3 player) this year was supposed to be his birthday present but it was back ordered so I bought it the last week of June. I usually buy one thing with every church check starting in September.

6. Who is the hardest person to buy for?

My 4 year old, Aaron

7. Easiest person to buy for?

My 6 year old, Noah

8. Angel or star on top of the tree?

Angel that we got for a wedding present 12 years ago

9. What is the worst Christmas gift you ever got?

Fruitcake from the dance teacher I accompanied for in high school

10. What is the best gift you received as a child?

I don't know if was the best, but most memorable was the Pink Huffy that I named Strawberry Shortcake.

11. What is your favorite food to eat at Christmas time?

My mom used to make this mint fudge that was awesome. Last year she tried but put nuts in it. Apparently she forgot that I have never liked nuts in my life and the fudge went in the garbage since Steve doesn't like it and the tin foil smelled like cigarette smoke.

12. What do you want for Christmas this year?

To pay the mortgage and to have the boys be happy with fewer gifts.

13. Do you have a Nativity scene?

See yesterday's post

14. Do your kids believe in Santa?

Aaron for sure. Noah asked since the discussion has apparently come up at lunch in the classroom. He said that a girl in his class doesn't believe in Santa and gets presents from her Mom and Dad. We told him that those who don't believe get presents from their parents. Those who DO believe get presents from parents AND Santa. That pretty much clinched it for him, given the sheer quantity of gifts for believing.

15. Favorite Christmas Movie?

I don't know if I have a favorite. We discovered two last year that were on a cable channel that we don't have any more but I want to try to find them. They had Steve Guttenberg in them as Santa Claus and Crystal Bernard as this girlfriend. I don't know the name, but Steve and I both wish we could see them again.

16. Favorite Christmas song?

Little Drummer Boy and Do You Hear What I Hear

17. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Yup.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

One on Christmas Eve (plus new Christmas pajamas) and the rest the next morning.

19. What I love most about Christmas?

The whole ambiance.

If you want to play, copy and paste it and then delete my answers. Please let me know if you play along by signing Mr. Linky below. It really is a fun meme.

Thursday Thirteen: The Nativity Story In Our Home

When I was growing up, there was an old creche that my mom would get out every year. I can't remember (maybe Matt or Shannon do) but it seems to me that it was only one piece with all of the character stuck. It was never a very prominent part of our holiday decor.


I am trying to raise my kids a little differently.

It is so hard for young children to NOT focus on the present aspect of Christmas. Truly, it's hard for all of us to not lose our perspective.

Many years ago (I don't even know how many), my step mom started building our family Nativity with a wonderful Fontanini set. I believe she started with the holy family the first year, followed by the barn the next. Each year it is fun to imagine which pieces will be added. I always encourage the boys to help when we get it out each year so we can talk about the story as it comes out.

But I wondered if this activity was enough to really help them see how important that particular story is to this holiday.

The answer came when I got out our Christmas bins to start decorating a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some of the things I found:

1.
Here is the Fontanini set. This was in 2004 and the first year we let Noah interact with the pieces. It was my favorite all around picture for a LONG time.


I think this is the year that the fire truck got pulled up to the barn and put out a fire set by the dinosaurs, but I didn't keep the pictures. Gotta love Daddy's imagination.



2.
Aaron "making a parade" with all the characters.













3.
Here it is AFTER Noah set it up this year.

Notice Baby Jesus is gone. He won't be here until December 25th.

The Four Wise Men (somehow we ended up with a duplicate for the second time) haven't reached the stable yet.

Aaron says we need more animals.





4.
I often hear people tell me that I shouldn't
allow the kids to "play" with the Nativity. I personally believe that the more the kids interact with the story, the more real it will become for them.

But I still broke down last year and bought a "Toy" nativity set made by Little People. It is such a neat set and even plays music.

Noah set it up so that the "Wise Men need to look at the Baby Jesus"


5.
Has anyone heard the story of the Giant Monster Cat that over took Bethlehem?












6.
Here is Aaron playing with yet another set that my Grandma got for the boys last year. The thing I like about this one is that EACH piece is an ornament that hangs on the tree.














7.
The first time they opened it, they played with it for over an hour last year.












8.
And here the pieces are hanging on the tree this year.


















9.
Noah really wanted a Nativity of his own this year, so he was pretty exited when I found this kit in our Christmas stuff when I was getting it out.

We broke out the glue gun to put it together and I ended up burning my fingers TWICE, but look how happy he is to have his own. He pretty much carries it everywhere with him.












10.
This was a one piece ornament that I found when we got the stuff out. I am not quite sure where it came from, but it is the only one-piece nativity that we have.










11.
And of, course, a selection from the many nativity stories that come out each year. We had a pop up book of the Christmas story that we read every Christmas Eve in our home growing up. It was the only time we ever really talked about what Christmas really was.








12.
I think Christmas Eve church drills it into the kids head pretty well, so I found a different book which I think serves our purpose better. It deals more with how Jesus and the idea of Santa Claus fit together and I think it may be the best book of bringing the spiritual and the secular together.


I highly recommend it for those of you like me that struggle with the Jesus/Santa conflict.










13.
Of course, the story can be told both inside and out. I gave the boys the choice between our big red and green wreath flag or this one, and I was shocked that Noah decided that this should be the one to go up.















My sister runs a preschool/day care out of her home and mentioned the other day that four of her kids didn't know what a Nativity was. I don't know if it was because of different religions or because of lack of exposure. It is amazing to learn the vast differences in our homes in this country, and thank God that we have the freedom for that.

But as for me, I can comfort myself on Christmas morning when the kids are psychotically running toward their gifts, that they do know the Reason for the Season.

I hope you are all enjoying the anticipation of Christmas as much as we are.

Happy Thursday!