december days

december is one of my favorite months...advent, lots of family time, the building of excitement as Christmas day draws near, a festively decorated house, snugly up inside while chilly weather abounds outside. in my dream world everyone is full of joy and love, and peace reigns in our house. in my dreams we calmly enjoy our advent devotional each evening during dinner (a dinner that everyone eats without complaint or tantrum), and then we enjoy some blissful family activity from our muffin tin advent calendar. people, i don't live in a dream-land. truth be told, it was messy december more than often...fighting for joy, struggling to get through dinners and devotionals, tears and tantrums more than occasionally, a mommy and daddy who often longed for one long evening off, many chances to ask for forgiveness, and many chances to extend grace. and yet, in the midst of the reality of life...especially life with 4 kiddos 6 and under....we did snatch so many moments of togetherness, so many snippets of peace and joy, and we did have plenty of loud, noisy, chaotic fun. here are some sneak peeks...in reverse order, since that is how they uploaded, and, well, i just don't have it in me to rearrange.

watching the grinch and eating homemade pizza....while mommy and daddy munched our pizza on the couch and savored a few seconds of quiet


luke is such an eater...oh my goodness...my grocery bill might quadruple if he keeps this up. he loves anything and everything...especially if it is what we are eating AND if he gets to pick it up himself! he chowed down on pizza!


daddy and libbers with her finished graham cracker house...she was sooo excited about this. she drew gingerbread house designs all month long, even making a list of all the supplies i needed to purchase for the making of the real thing. i cannot believe how quickly she is growing and maturing...to think that 6 years ago at this time she was a tiny little almost 3 month old...


kate and daddy with her finished house...kate loved this...but most of all, i think she enjoyed eating it!


decorating


jilly and daddy...cheese!


a determined decorator


spreading some frosting


little man and mama


luke, hanging out and snacking on cheerios, while the rest of us do projects :)


my precious, noisy, goofy, beautiful gifts


kate with her pre-K teachers' gifts


finished teacher gifts...sock snowmen


my very favorite december tradition is our trip downtown to see the lights on monument circle...

this year the girls were so excited about hopping on and escalator...it truly is the little things in life that bring so much joy to their little hearts


monument circle


daddy and the crew


mommy and the crew




they are all mostly looking at the camera and smiling...a Christmas miracle ;)



elevator riding! :)


we spent lots of time at our school table crafting...i think we were painting ornaments here


kate modeling their christmas shirts i made



love this one!