Catch Up

You know those people?  Who scrapbook?  And they, like, have 2 kids and they're still working on their wedding scrapbook?  I like, SO don't want that to be me with this blog!

Aaaand, the valley girl voice is done.  SO done.   :)

But seriously.  I have some catching up to do so bare with me.

No, don't do that.

...bEAr with me.

At the beginning of December, we put up our humble tree and decorated it with some humble decorations but much too quickly the decorations were pulled off and the tree was pulled down, breaking two out of it's three legs.  Never one to be defeated so quickly, I shoved it in a corner and made some unbreakable decorations with Caleb.  He went above and beyond and made as many as the pipe cleaner bag gave out pipe cleaners.

Here's the end result--mighty fine handy work there by the 5 year old.

We attended a few of the kid's Christmas concerts that month.  (Sorry, Caleb for not getting you in the shot.  You're at the far right, if you're wondering.)  Isaiah is a bit easier to see.  

Church concert.

School concert.

Then we traveled over to SW Minnesota for Kyle's family Christmas.  Caleb was in heaven when he got Knex and Star Wars legos, which after he put it together, transformed the kit into a ship, another vehicle and some other fighting stuff (bottom left picture).  Wow, I wish I listened better to what they were.  They were cool!  Livia got a life-sized puppy from her Uncle Orey, which she promptly hugged and named "Puppy".

On to my parent's house in Iowa...

My siblings and their families were over from Colorado, so we partied hard with exercising at the rec center, shopping, opening presents, eating, playing games, eating, playing with the kids, eating, more eating.  Livia received my mom's toy crib she had when she was a little girl. Isaiah is in love with the Grinch so when he got a puzzle to go with the Grinch DVD he got in MN, it sealed the deal.  

It was so much fun to see my sister and her kids, Jay and Andy.  Isaiah and Jay always hit it off.

And Andy is a little man after my own heart.  He's always smiling, even when someone is just bringing him over to the couch (left).  I get a little giggle every time I see this picture.

A week and a half after we got back home , we bundled up the kids and headed to Kansas City for a baby shower for Kyle's brother Josh and his wife Stacy who is due with their first child on Feb. 17.

We spent an extra day to hang out with them and went to Legoland and a kid's fun zone type place

When we came back, January didn't stop for us to keep up and life kept on going.  Isaiah grew a love relationship with the heater and and his "grinch" hat.  He recited "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" almost verbatim (a 15 minute book when an adult reads it, I might add) and was rewarded with the movie when he practiced getting his snowpants, boots and coat on for school.

Oh, quick story.  Isaiah asked me tonight, "What do you want for Christmas?" because he had his Grinch hat on--even though that's a Santa thing--but, whatever.  "World peace." I answered.  He gave me an exasperated look and said, "Noooo, you wanted PIZZA!"  Okay, sorry.  I guess I wanted pizza.  

We had and still have daily dance parties to "I Like to Move It, Move It".  Kyle and I now know how to play it on the piano, although Caleb is starting to say, "That is SOOO annOYing!"  We just ignore him and dance/play away.  It's funny how Livia or Isaiah will be reading a book and then as soon as I start to to play the "Move It" beat, they'll throw down their book and start jumping.  

Caleb came up the idea of saying "Super Amen" when all of us are done praying at the dinner table so everyone knows when they can start eating.  It got a bit confusing since 5 people were saying amen.  He's awesome like that.  He also made me this floor mural.  Again, awesome like that.  

Livia has a thing with names.  She loves telling everyone who we are.  She loves singing songs like Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Little Drummer Boy, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Move It.  She won't be caught with-in 12 feet of a vegetable, unless you count Pringles or I sneak them in somehow.  She'll run to the fridge when it's open and grab the shredded cheese and say, "Cheese! Cheese!" in her adorable little way until you cave and give her a handful.  She still takes her milk warm and has converted Isaiah to warm milk as well.  Her pacifier is always in the back of her mind and will ask for it often.  "Paci" with a really really hard "a".  We are very close to Wisconsin, and it's starting to take it's tole. :)

"What Mom?  Yoo doo it too."

Here's a favorite song of hers.

I've been hibernating a bit this winter.  Yet the nights when I don't read on the couch by the fire or play games with Kyle or go to a random meeting, I've been making a few changes to the house.  

In this post I was painting the trim and changing the color of my sewing room.  Here's the mostly final result.  My favorite thing has to be my Truth Wall, with verses and truths that helps me in my walk of faith.

I also painted the trim of a kitchen window.  And those tan outlets are all white now, even though they aren't in the after picture.

A friend of mine has an acreage she just moved into last summer and is tearing down a lot of the barns.  I went to go and salvage some wood and found a couple cool things.  Here's one of the things I got and I thought it would look perfect on top of the mantel.  Now just imagine some sort of wreath from the middle and it'll be complete.

Oh yeah, and in the midst of January, I turned 30.  I had a great time hanging out with my family and some really really good friends. Kyle gave me a very sweet coupon book full of "time off" from kid duty and date coupons, cooking coupons, and fix-it coupons.  He knows me so well.  It was the most perfectest thing ever.  SO perfectest!  Like, I know.  (And we come full circle.)  :)