Fa la la la la, we have our tree!

A week late because of all the painting mess, we finally got our tree up tonight. With Zig leaving for Tokyo tomorrow morning, and a crazy busy week ahead of us, it felt like now or never! After Sela's darling choir concert, we opted to skip the church party and come home for a little tree trimming party of our own. We have Sela's birthday next week, and there is one day midweek with three Christmas parties so tonight none of us were really up for the crowd thing. I thought the kids might balk at not being able to sing dressed like shepherds, sheep, and angels, but they were also excited just to come home. Hallelujah!

Sela's choir concert was very fun. They sang some Christmas classics like Silent Night and some lively Hanukkah songs that made you want to get up and dance. Then they ended with a couple fun ones like "12 dogs of Christmas."

As in years past, Zig put up the tree and along with the kids, decorated it beautifully. I was not feeling well. Usually I'm good for one activity, which was the choir concert, so I spent the rest of the evening lying down. But I had a little fun of my own. I had ordered a bunch of books for Christmas which arrived earlier in the week, so I had a great time secretly reading through all of them while the children were occupied. Some are books for reading before Christmas and the rest are gifts for the kids. I'm very excited to share them. Something I discovered early in parenting is that I love to read to my kids if, and that's a big if, they are well-written and/or beautifully illustrated. I especially love books from earlier times about the simple life and simple pleasures. I love books about the wonders of nature and I enjoy ones with a moral or with sweet and wholesome family interactions. There are some books I just cringe when they pull out, anything movie related for sure! The absolute worst ones are the Disney books written after the movie. Ugh, what drudgery those things are. And how did we get so many of those?! I always say, "Dad will read that one!" Right now one of the books we are reading "The Tale of Despereaux" and I look forward to it as much as the kids.

My big baby boy

I don't know if Rollin is preparing me to be thrilled about another baby boy, which is what everyone is predicting, but he is just so darn adorable these days. I was just telling Zig last night how much joy that little guy brings me. I just love him to pieces. I can barely go an hour without wanting to give him a big squeeze, and he never seems to mind. He is all boy and wants nothing more than to be like his daddy, but he is mommy's little cuddle bug. I am his soft place to land when he is sad or tired or needing some extra loves. He is so happy and fun and says the sweetest things to me all day long. He has his moments but they can almost always be attributed to being tired or frustrated.

This week Mrs. Judy did a mother's day out babysitting day where she watched a group of kids from 9-3. She was very nice to take Rollin as he is younger than the preschoolers, but you would have thought he was going to Disneyland! He could not wait! I totally enjoyed the time and need about 8 more "mother's day outs" this season to even hope to catch up on stuff, but I really missed the little guy! We have been virtually inseparable for the past three years. There are so many things I love about him, but these are just a few:

I love how he is always willing to give mama "a mooch!" He can be totally engaged in an activity and yet he will almost always stop and give me one of his very enthusiastic mooches.

I love to crawl into bed next to his warm cuddly body and hold his chubby little feet in my hands. I'll often stop by for a cuddle with him on the way to my bed. And lately with all the painting and moving of furniture, we've been all sharing the king bed (minus Zig, he's not that brave!).

I love how much he loves his Dad and tries to follow him. He loves tools, the real thing, and is a hard little worker.

I love how he says "nice to meet you" to strangers at the grocery store and when people ask him "how are you doing?" he always replies "I'm good."

I love the gusto in his voice and his every move.

I love how he adores his sisters and prays for them every day.

I love that he finally, finally, stopped the maddening habit of praying over anyone else who is praying. This has been the source of many tears at the dinner table the past year, especially for Nina. For months, as soon as Nina would begin her prayer, he would begin his own, only louder. Usually the ritual ends with them both in tears.
But now, thankfully, he has some impulse control at the table and will allow others to pray...alone.

And I love his smile. All those little baby teeth grinning from ear to ear and his sparkly little eyes can literally light up a room, not to mention capture his mama's heart time and time again.

Enjoying the season

December 3: Jesus is the light. We enjoyed searching the scriptures for ways in which Jesus is a light and discussed what it means to be a light to others.

December 4: Jesus is the comforter. We each curled up in a favorite blanket and I talked to the children about how Jesus is a source of peace and comfort. He alone has experienced every happiness and sorrow we have or will experience. Nina was happy to think of Jesus as her blankie and I told her that while you might someday lose your blankie, Jesus will always be there to comfort you. She smiled and seemed to grasp a bit of what "comforter" means.

For our activity we made gingerbread for our new neighbors and delivered it to their home. The kids have been dying to meet them and catch a glimpse of the kids. They just moved in this weekend. The nanny was there with the children, but when they opened the door, she had a baby in her arms and called the other two children to the door. A little girl and boy appeared and it turns out the girl is 4 1/2 and the little boy is 2. The baby 8 months. Nina was beaming!

We made some simple felt Christmas tree cards and even Rollin focused intently on decking out his little tree.

Lastly, the chickens heard my plea and we got our first green egg. Tis the season!

*Sela cut her own bangs but has major regrets. We usually pull them to the side for school but below you can see the shaggy do in all it's glory!

Advent Activities

December 1: Scriptures and Gingerbread. We decided to look through the scriptures and learn about some of the characteristics of Jesus each day this December. There are so many qualities, teachings and attributes of the Savior that we thought it would be neat to explore those along with our advent activities. Last night we read some scriptures likening Jesus to a rock. The kids came up with all kinds of ideas (some relevant, some not) about why this comparison, and we had a really nice discussion about how Jesus and his teachings never change. The world's morals and values change, people change, but Jesus never does and what a comfort that is. Then we made our first gingerbread of the season. Yummy.

December 2: Christmas collages and cider. What kid doesn't get excited about scissors, big stacks of magazines and glue?? Well, my kids love to cut and glue so they really got into making Christmas collages. Rollin wanted to collage our new table (at least this is a trial one!)so I helped him a bit. We listened to Christmas tunes and worked on our individual collages while we sipped hot apple cider. Ahhh, it's really nice to have everyone peacefully engaged in a creative project, even if just for a little while.

To share a bed or not to share....

Having painting done is no fun. We (well, I) put it off as long as possible, but we have some furniture coming next week so we had to get it done. We've had all of the furniture in one room, one bed for all of us, and a big ole mess everywhere. But, it's done now and back to clean and white. Unfortunately, there is dust everywhere even though the painters vacuumed.

Today I started putting the kids' rooms back together. I have two daybeds ordered for the girls because it has become very important for them lately to have their own beds. Unfortunately, because of the layout of their room and all of the windows, one bed looks best, design wise. I set it up differently today hoping Sela would change her mind on the twins. Having one bed leaves lots of room for a desk, a good amount of floor space and a big rug. But Nina is a wild sleeper so I doubt any of this will change Sela's mind.

So I guess here is our before picture:

Stay tuned :)

A milestone in chicken land.

A few more chickens have joined the ranks of the laying hens and we are now getting 7eggs a day. We reached a point this weekend where we realized we don't have to buy eggs from the store ever again. Pretty cool! As long as the chickens have grass to eat, we will have food. It's pretty comforting to know that with a garden and fresh eggs, you can feed your family well if all heck hits the fan;)And the eggs are gorgeous and the yolks so bright. Every couple of days another chicken starts laying so I'm sure this number will steadily increase. We are still watching for our first blue or green egg!

Thanksgiving at the Sleeping Lady

We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in Leavenworth at the Sleeping Lady Resort. We're looking forward to a big family gathering in December but with no family around for Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to just take the kids on a quick little trip. We've been so busy around home that getting away for a pause from life was just what this holiday called for. I had been wanting to go to the Sleeping Lady for awhile and it was really wonderful.


The Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. There were so many gorgeous and nutritious salads, a special buffet table for the kids, and the traditional turkey dinner was presented beautifully. The kids just loved the entire room full of mini-desserts from tiny pumpkin cheesecakes to chocolate covered strawberries, to pie, and creme brulee. Little fruit tarts, figgy bars, festive cookies and the list goes on. They were in heaven!


Our room was so fun. The girls slept upstairs in the loft, there was a twin bed downstairs for Rollin and a bed for Zig and I. All the rooms are lodge style...it reminded me a lot of Sundance. Very clean, natural, and not overdone.

It was cool, but the sun was out so we were able to do some hiking and exploring after lunch. We spent about an hour skipping rocks on the icy river and had fun watching Zig tossing boulders crashing through the ice. He kept warning the kids about slipping on the ice and guess who took a huge tumble! We all got a good laugh...I just regret not having my video camera on.

We had fun checking out the organic garden which supplies the restaurant during the growing season as well as the greenhouse...these things are particularly interesting to us these days. They recycle everything at this place and we saw the big compost things that process their plastic cups made from corn. So cool!

In the evening we went to the big hospitality lodge and the kids played games and ping pong, and had some hot chocolate. There was only one television on the premises and it was in another really fun building...I saw through the glass that Texas was playing A&M so we decided to go watch for a bit, in honor of Ryan, of course! The game wasn't close though and then another family came in with a movie. We all watched a movie until Nina was asleep and Rollin was snoring sitting straight up in Zig's lap. We had a long full day and everyone collapsed into bed.

We had to head back on Friday because we just have so much to get done this weekend. Zig has been working many evenings till midnight planting bulbs. I asked him if we were entering the garden show or hosting a wedding that I didn't know about ;) We are having the front of the house painted as well as the kids rooms. The front is almost done and I still haven't picked the paint for the kids' rooms. I am delaying the process with my indecision and meanwhile the beds are in the halls and all five of us are sleeping in my room. My goal is tomorrow. We'll see.