State of the Family #46

Ack!  It has been almost a month since my last SOF.  How in the world am I ever going to remember everything that we have been doing?  Well, I guess I won't be able to bore you with quite so  much information, then.  (I don't have pics added yet, but will soon!)

I guess Thanksgiving was in there somewhere.  We had a great time with family and my girls got to don their cute turkey shirts my friend, Lacey made them.  I, of course, couldn't leave Noisy Man out and make him a more "boyish" turkey shirt to wear (it has feathers on the back).  These pics were taken at a family Christmas we had the Saturday after Thanksgiving, if you're wondering what the stockings/presents are for.

Mommy did her annual Black Friday shopping and tackled about 75% of the Christmas shopping list all before 1 pm, and I didn't even start until 7 am.

The red hair saga continued for me as well and we finally got an acceptable color for the Christmas Musical.  It is actually still the same color as I haven't had time to drive home and get it 'fixed' yet.  It is growing on me, but something will have to be done as my roots are growing as well.

The week following Thanksgiving is, of course, taken over by the Christmas Musical and the entire thing is a blur, except for what I blogged about it.

The next week we make pretty low-key since Mommy is usually exhausted and daddy would have a coronary if I left the house again.  To make up for some mommy time lost during production week, I took the kids to Lost In Fun for a day full of mommy play time.  We love that place!

We started our Advent activities a little bit late, but the kids are totally loving our little activities that we do with each lesson.  We get to make a little ornament thing each day.  This is a struggle for mommy as it creates a lot of clutter and I don't do well with clutter.  "Why does it not go on your tree?" you ask.  Well, I am one of those mean, terrible mothers who has a matchy, pretty tree and doesn't do well with homemade things mixing in.  Don't worry though, another Christmas tree for our basement for all the homemade ornaments is on my day after Christmas shopping list!

We also had two programs for Noisy Man.  One at our church and one for school.  He did smashing in both of them and was so well-behaved I won't have any stories to tell other than how cute he looked.  Of course, when he was done with the one at church he barely had time to say hello to his grandparents before he had to rush off to the bathroom and I was totally bummed that I couldn't see him very well in his one at school.

Nothing else too exciting.  Miss Thumb Sucker is finally sleeping in her bed past 5:30 am.  Although she still wakes up about this time, she knows she can't crawl in bed with Mommy and Daddy anymore and gets tucked back in her bed.  She usually does well and sleeps again until 7.  Can anyone please tell me why she is waking up this early when she clearly wants to sleep longer?

Miss Firecracker is still loving preschool and brings home at least 5 colored and cut pages every day.  Her hands are eternally covered in magic markers.  This girl is too smart for her own good though.  Should I be scared or impressed that she sat down with us the other night to do Noisy Man's homework and could answer the missing numbers and find the missing numbers just as easily as he could?

My other big news is my new camera!!  Yeah!!  Finally, after waiting for two years to save for other necessities first I finally got to save for my camera and got it a week and a half ago.  It am totally loving it and still have lots to learn. 

Well, lots of presents to wrap, Christmas cards to address (just got them back from the printer) and more ornaments to make and Christmas stories to teach.  I'm not sure I'll make it back on before Christmas Day, so just in case.....

Keep the Christ in Christmas this year and enjoy the peace He brings each day as you surround yourself with loved ones.  Merry Christmas!