smiles, snippets, and pictures

well hello there december...where in the world did you come from!? seriously, it feels like time is sneaking past more quickly than i can grasp! my poor blog has been so neglected, but i must be honest...just trying to keep up with daily life has been more than enough lately...and to be really honest i'm not even really "keeping" up most days. there are clean dishes waiting to be put away...i really should vacuum before the day is over, my kitchen needs endless amounts of attention, i have sewing projects to complete for a friend, girlies who would love if i would play games and crafts ALL day long every day, a 15 month old who is into everything, and a wee baby in the womb who seems to have once again zapped me of all energy and motivation, and on and on and on and on. so blogging was on my "to-do" list today...otherwise i surely wouldn't get "to-done"...and i simply want to preserve the moments (mostly for myself at this point!). i'm still striving to find balance...to seek each day to keep His agenda and recognize where i need to focus my attention at any given moment...to discern when i need to take a nap and when i need to push through the weary and accomplish a few tasks...i suppose i will always be striving for that...

we greeted december with a dusting of snow this morning...and it has continued to drop light flakes all day long off and on. the girls were thrilled, and both elizabeth and kate thought that it simply MUST mean that today was Christmas. yep, they are a wee bit confused about the reality that Christmas comes after Thanksgiving--thinking and hoping it means it comes the very next day. that should be helped by the start of our advent and countdown activities...our muffin tin advent calendar and devotional advent tree and ornaments are all ready to go. and today, we spent school time talking about numbers, tracing numbers, and making their very own countdown calendars (3x3 scrapbook paper with their traced numbers 1-24 glued on, all hooked together with a binder ring).

anyway...i could ramble on and on for quite some time, but instead i will share some pictures, smiles, and snippets from the past week around our house. :)

i'll start with thursday, because, quite honestly the first two days of jilly home from the hospital were sort of a blur. :)

so, first i bring you our not-what-we-were-planning....but really splendid and relaxing in spite of that Thanksgiving day at home. seriously...what a treasured day for our little family. we have never spent Thanksgiving day at home since mike and i got married. but, oh my did pack lots into the day!

1. we surprised the girls, and i woke them up and drove to dunkin' donuts to pick out donuts for breakfast. they were just as delighted as they would have been if i'd had the energy or motivation to make something yummy and homemade. (mike and i enjoyed some homemade pumpkin spice lattes to go with our donuts!)

2. much to elizabeth's (and kate's too!) delight we busted out the Christmas tree...something we typically don't do until a week or so later. the girls were so fun helping get it set up and "fluffed".


3. the entire family (yep, mom and dad too!) made handprint turkeys, talked about (and labeled) what we were thankful for and colored our turkeys in. we plan to make this a tradition...and i kept this years turkeys for future glancing back!


4. after our donut breakfast we had a light lunch...popcorn and fruit and spinach smoothies (and as you can see, we all wore our PJs ALL blissful day long!).

have i mentioned how acutely aware we were of just what a blessing it was to have this sweet, graham cracker munching beauty at home with us.


5. we did enjoy a scrumptious Thanksgiving feast as well...my friend jill showed up at my door wednesday with two massive boxes of food...some for our freezer, some for dinner that night, and one entire box was full of Thanksgiving sides and dessert she made us (all homemade....all sooo incredibly tasty).

6. decorating the tree...with our little helpers. they went to town and had a blast. the lower half of the tree is noticeably more decorated than the upper half (as it should be with little people in the house, right!?).

kate had a particular knack for decorating...loading as many ornaments on a branch as she possibly could before moving on to another branch!


7. after the tree was all decorated we snuggled down under blankets with all the lights off but the tree and introduced the girls to the movie "elf" for the first time. a delightful and snuggly end to a sweet day of togetherness.



8. friday mike was feeling slightly more rested than he had been and with jillian seeming stable he decided to take the older girls down to his parents for a few hours (we traditionally do Christmas with them the day after Thanksgiving). jilly and i spent a quiet day resting at home, and elizabeth and kate were thrilled to visit grandma and grandpa, aunt Kim and uncle Dave, and uncle Dennis and Kaitlyn. they came home with boxes of goodies...including this "cookie jar" that jillian proceeded to carry with her endlessly for the next 48 hours.

grandma and grandpa also surprised the girls with new PJs and "Toy Story 3"...so after dinner and baths we had yet another family movie night. i can't even tell you how thrilled jillian was to be sitting on the couch with her sisters...


saturday and sunday were fairly uneventful (i think...what does it say about my mental state that i can barely remember those two days!). saturday evening we actually ventured out as an entire family for the first time in over a week--to Costco for a bit of shopping and dinner at the food court.

9. when the Christmas decor came out, so did the Little People nativity miss Jill gave the girls last year. oh my they are having a blast with it. yesterday i found this set-up...i asked elizabeth to describe it...and these are her words. "mommy, they all came to worship Jesus!" when she is asked to clean up she always leaves it looking just like this...just as it should be in my opinion!


10. the three most beautiful girlies ever...this morning i decided to attempt a candid in front of the tree shot. i have illusions that i will eventually get Christmas cards sent out...so i keep trying for a good shot of all three together...i think it might be the impossible dream.


11. snow! (and playing in it)



12. our first Christmas/advent/counting down craft. the tree was mostly to occupy them while i was trying to get everything else ready. they loved that both projects included lots of cutting and lots of gluing. :) in other news, crafts and school time may get more interesting soon...i have a sneaky feeling miss jilly is very close to dropping her oh-so-blissful 2 hour morning nap soon...like maybe in the next week soon...oh my!