Head band Envy

 Doggone it, I just can't afford to pay $18 for one head band from a relative of a friend- even if it is REALLY cute. So I decided to give it a go making my own- relatively simple, surprisingly. Not as cute as the others, but I think they're still quite do-able. It helps that the girlies under the head bands are awfully cute! :)

And a giant carrot.

Thankful

I'm sitting at the desk- a desk that now has a bonafide countertop on it, connecting it to the rest of the cabinets. I'd post a picture, but I don't have one yet. It looks GREAT though- trust me. Or come on over and see for yourself. I'm THANKFUL to be married to such a talented woodworker!

We just finished decorating for Christmas. We had to do it today so that we can start our cool sort-of Jesse Tree Advent calendar on Thursday. It looks very festive, though of course I didn't take pictures. While I wish it was at least cold outside, I'm THANKFUL that this year the kids actually got the ornaments on the tree pretty well spaced out! Peter even put the tree up by himself! (Ok, so we just have a cheesy, three-part, pre-lit tree, but still...)

Since we were getting Christmas stuff out of the attic anyway, Christian decided to organize it. I sorted out my fabric tubs and got the fabric condensed to one tub! I also sorted through a LOT of old kids' drawings and pictures and general memorabilia. I found a number of sympathy cards from when I had my miscarriage 2 1/2 years ago. While these made me cry in remembering the pain of the time, I'm THANKFUL that God used that pregnancy and then miscarriage to revive a desire for more children- thereby leading to the blessing of our twins!

Our actual Thanksgiving celebration was neat. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday- mostly due to the fact that (well, since our family just doesn't do football) it's all about giving thanks- for family, friends, food, etc.- and not about getting stuff. This Thanksgiving was exciting in that in between getting the dishes washed and serving the pie, Anne got carried away in a game of chase and ran head-first into the corner of a piano. So we took a trip to the ER where they glued her wound closed (Anne is VERY thankful for skin glue and not stitches). I'm THANKFUL for a really efficient ER- we were back home exactly ONE hour after having left for the hospital. Well, I'm also thankful that she wasn't hurt worse, etc... On our way home Anne asked, "Do I have a band-aid?" Me: "Nope, no band-aid- just glue." Anne: "Rats. I wanted to see the blood." I had been pretty good at not showing her the bloody rag, thinking it would just freak her out, and then threw it away in the hospital- oh well. No, no pictures of the excitement, but here's a lovely picture of my brave girl.

I hope you all had a great time of giving thanks!

In the words of a couple brilliant red and green philosophers,

"God made you special and He loves you very much!"

Cinco de Elijah!

Can't believe our little boy is 5! Here are a few pictures of his "Knight Party"...

Incidentally, Kale'a's shirt says "BIG sister to be..."!!!

 He was so excited, he was literally speechless

We even had guest visitors of the Dark Knight, the Lady of the Green Kirtle (otherwise known as Queen of the Underworld) along with a couple of pretty cute little earthmen!

Out-takes

We had our family portrait session on Saturday and survived. We just take our own pictures at home since Christian has all the stuff. It can be fairly stressful since it seems impossible to get everyone smiling and looking at the camera, but in the end you just have to laugh at it all and just have fun! :) Enjoy!

 Tirzah

 Mama and Berea

 Oops

 Peter...

 Tirzah...

 Elijah...

 Ok, time for a break!

 Me and my ginormous 9 1/2 year old!

 Berea says, "No touchy!"

 More sillies

Fall?

Nope, no pictures this time- next week hopefully, since E's birthday is coming up. This last week we've enjoyed (more or less) snow! We finally had a windy enough day to blow almost all our leaves off of our tree out front. It was nice having the leaves up long enough for them to change color this year! But the landscape is rather bleak and desolate now- time to hunker down until May when we start seeing some color again. The kids did all of their week's worth of school on Monday, planning on doing that every day so that they'd be getting Christmas break early. That lasted...one day. :) Today I'm making them do some school anyway, just 'cause I think the routine of it really helps keep them happy in the long run. Yesterday we went down to Phoenix to visit Auntie Faith and Uncle Gary- it was nice to be warm and enjoy the park that was close to their house! Elijah spent almost the whole time on the tire swing, until he finally felt like throwing up and was convinced that he could play ball a little while. Peter got some basketball practice in while the girls cycled between swinging, slides, and playing with the red bouncy ball. It was very obvious that we're not from Phoenix- as soon as we got to the park, Elijah ran up to the playground, stopped in his tracks, and hollered out: "Hey! SAND!!!" (Flagstaff has woodchips. No sand.) Back at the house, we got to play with Sammy the hamster, eat yummy food and visit! A perfect ending to the trip, we got to go to Yogurtini's (I think?)- a self-serve frozen yogurt shop. YUM. I got mint with brownie bits and dark chocolate chips. Anyhoo, that's about that for now. We'll dig out the camera this weekend and get some pictures up soon. :) Have a great weekend!