happy new year!

Happy 2012!

or 2102!

Wishing you a healthy and blessed new year!

peace joy & love

Thanks to the very talented Sara, I already had our family picture for a Christmas card. We bribed the boys sufficiently on our last night in Destin and she got several pictures that I love. I will always treasure these!

After Thanksgiving there are several annual searches that ensue. The search for the perfect gifts, tree and scouring all things Shutterfly and Snapfish for the perfect Christmas cards. The first for us is finding the perfect Christmas tree{or in the case of ours this year from Menards, a good enough tree!}. Next was the card. I decided I'd make ours. I'd seen lots of {very talented, much more than me} bloggers make theirs and thought I'd give it a try.
Here are some that almost were for 2011:





And finally, the one you've seen

Merry Christmas loved ones!
From my little family to yours.

his lashes

{This is another post from my drafts. Hitting publish before the New Year!}

When we're reading, this is my view



This boy, the one who still fits just right into the crook of my arm when we read. I get to hug him close and look down at these long lashes and the way they pull away from his face and curl up at the ends. I love the way they hug his big blue eyes and set out from his still round baby face.
As much time as I can spend daydreaming about the future or wishing things would come to be the way I imagine them, I don't want to lose sight of things just the way they are right now. That when I realize all I truly have, I realize I have enough. A friend reminded me of that today over our grande gingerbread lattes sitting at her kitchen table. We have children that are still little and still want to be with us. Children that climb up and fit snugly in our laps.

I just noticed the holes in the bottoms of his well worn socks, too. I'm reminded again that it's the little things that add up to be the grandest in this journey.

decking the halls

This post has been just a draft since the beginning of December. I'm hitting publish now in an effort to start fresh in the New Year.

I sort of felt uninspired at first when it was just a day after Thanksgiving and all of the neighborhood was already lit up with the glow of Christmas lights strung on houses, trees and wreaths adorning garages. This is the third house we've lived in in the past three years. Something about the challenge of decorating someplace new without leaving any nail holes or tape marks quickly inspired me. And now a day before the new year, I'm a little wistful to be bidding farewell to our own glowing lights.

independent

This is what is happening when my boys tell me not to come downstairs and not to look.





A surprise for me - the big boys I have made breakfast this morning!
A fancy one too.
Wink wink {they take after their mom.}

my favorite thing about right now

Pj's, books, cuddling up by the light of the tree. The boys have been busy circling the pictures in the Target toy guide. I love a glowing tree and family game night with hot cocoa mugs warming our hands.





I love the cozy warmth the glow of the lights create and the extra long nights we have together because it gets dark so early. I love that when everything is dark around us and we are illuminated only by the strands of white lights on the tree and mantel, that when we are together what is truly most important about this season becomes so clear and that the rest of the hurried rush of the outside world is quieted and dimmed.

touring holiday homes

source

 Have you seen the holiday house walk around blog land?

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Check this out to tour beautiful homes all decked out for Christmas.

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It's so much fun to have a little peak into other people's gorgeously decorated homes. Especially while sipping my second cup of coffee and without ever leaving my pjs and slippers.

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sweet pea

Sometimes, on birthdays, you realize all at once that you're little babies are growing into big boys. And sometimes, on Tuesday afternoons, it happens right before your eyes. This afternoon after a morning trip to the library, William and I curled up next to each other on the couch and read some of his library stack. When we got to "S" in The Rainforest Alphabet, there was a picture of a spider. I read to him the type of spider and stated the spider facts, and then when he said, "spider", it came out just right. No more f-  instead of the sp - sound. He says spider now. It made me tear up a little bit, because even though I'm cheering for him and always grateful for growing children, I realize that today was one of those lasts. Or yesterday was I guess. The last time our little boy will say 'fider' and 'Fiderman'.

{This is what happened this morning when William discovered seeds in his apple. Or babies as he calls them.}

halloween was Super!

We spent Halloween trick-or-treating with Captain America and the Green Lantern.



We went trick-or-treating around our new neighborhood.




Oma spent the night after William's birthday party and came trick-or-treating with us.

We also ran into Griffin, Henry's favorite school friend. They trick-or-treated for an entire block together. It was really sweet to see their excitement at first finding each other in the dark and then filling their candy bags together. {I don't have pictures because I sent my camera home with Patrick who took a cold and tired Green Lantern back home early.}

It was a beautiful night; chilly but not raining or freezing!
After we picked Henry up from school, we did some speed pumpkin carving so we could have jack-o-lanterns before the trick-or-treaters came.












Also, for breakfast we made chocolate chip pancakes in spooky colors.

Blue, green and orange pancakes - pretty scary, right? These look disgusting I think, especially in pictures. But they were gobbled right up.
My very favorite part of Halloween this year has been my favorite since I was a little girl; the coming back home part. The part where you come inside your cozy, warm, brightly lit house, thaw out fingers and toes and dump your bucket full of sugared earnings on the carpet. I like the counting and sorting that ensues. I like the piles and the sorting from most favorite {king size Kit Kats} to least favorite {butterscotch candy disks}. It's an unofficial tally of the success of Halloween. And this Halloween delivered. One house gave only king size bars {and offered cold beers to the parents} and in only about an hour buckets were full and warm memories made. The nightcap on the festivities was waiting for trick-or-treaters to come to our house. Each time the door bell would ring, the boys would drop whatever they were doing and dash to the door. At first, we came with making sure the boys offered the candy and were polite. But they caught on fast and after a few times, we let them take over door duty. We'd sit in the living room and smile as they'd make the mad dash to the door and then laugh out loud when we'd hear Henry say things like, "Hi Cowboy", or "Nice lightsaber". And as the night wore on the the traffic continued, we panicked about running out of candy and being that house on the street that has to close down early. We brainstormed what kinds of things we could start throwing into the bucket if we ran out completely. I think spare toothbrushes, pencils and Kleenex made the list. Luckily for the trick-or-treaters that night, we didn't run out!
I found myself so grateful once again for these two boys and for their contagious joy.