Christmas

Maddox was part of the Kid's program at church and made the CUTEST little lamb that you have ever seen. He stood there, motionless and stunned for the entire song. I think he was staring at the director, too confused to participate, and then he saw me snapping his picture at which point he beamed his gorgeous smile at me and waved emphatically before being herded off.

Too bad this is the best shot I got :(

Christmas Eve day the kids enjoyed the snow and their favorite neighbor boy, Jared, he is so gracious and sweet to our kids, despite the 7 year age difference.
Christmas Eve we had Jennifer stay the night since her plans were foiled by a damaged Aircraft wing… we sure are thankful they found it before take off! Since we had 4 adults, we played a silly game of Hand and Foot while wearing our plaid Christmas jammies.


Julian and his tiiiiny leettle mustache
Christmas morning started off at a very reasonable hour, sometime after 7:30, maybe even closer to 9:00.

Happy, happy Audgy

It was relaxed and not rushed and really could have ended after the stockings since the kids were absolutely thrilled with the trinkets that had filled them.

It seemed as though the presents would never end and by the time we were through, the living room was buried in boxes and tissue.

The kids mostly got educational toys which makes me feel less guilty about the quantity. Maddox got the Leap Pad2 and Jetty got a Leapster and they have really enjoyed them, especially in our travels (we have already changed the batteries twice since Christmas,yowza!).


Bing served up an incredible prime rib dinner and I made the best.loaf.of.bread.ever. Somehow, the same recipe I always use came out beyond wonderful, better than I have ever made it which is really cruel considering I have developed an intolerance to gluten…sometimes it is just worth suffering :)

We feel very blessed in our life, and especially so throughout the Christmas season. Thank you family and friends for sharing your time with us and showering us with gifts. We are so grateful for you, our family and pray your Christmas was a delight too. But more importantly, we pray you felt the goodness of our God in the last year and are beseeching Him for an even more incredible 2013.

Love to you all
xoxo

Thanksgiving

I have neglected to share our delightful Thanksgiving because my sister so adequately captured it on her blog…so I thought it redundant but, I have had at least one request so here goes.
My parents, my oldest sister, and her family joined us at our home for my very first domestic venture into holiday hosting.

I was a tad nervous about the timing of all the dishes that we wanted to be cooked and or warmed and I couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome! I followed a turkey recipe that I found HERE, brining it overnight and the whole bit. It turned out just beautifully, perfectly browned and crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, phew!


We introduced Jennifer and Julian to the fun game of Hand and Foot/Canasta, I think it was a hybrid of the two games since we like to make our own rules and the quantity of rules involved gets really confusing for newbies, especially when said newbies are imbibing while playing. Anywho, it was a rousing game, the conversation was a riot and mostly civil, although some people are less gracious at losing :)
The boys had SO much fun together which is a total blessing from God. There are several years between them but they ran all over the house, ridding it of bad guys, entertaining us with sword and gun fights, they "killed" the multitude of deer in the backyard after luring them in with apples, played baseball with daddy-Bing and had slumber parties every night.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort Lighting Festival drew us all out into the cold and rain, and throngs of people but it was totally worth it! They set off a fabulous fireworks display over the lake before flipping the switch on several million lights covering trees and wreaths and the myriad of displays on the dock. It was stunning.

Also, stunning… Addie and her offspring

From Collages

Me and my babies

From 2012-11-23

Special Audgy kisses

From 2012-11-23

Grammy and Madman in the streetlight

Shortly after the family left, narrowly escaping a nasty snow storm, we went out Christmas Tree hunting. On our way we passed by a tree farm that looked charming so we pulled on in. It was an old barn with worn wooden floor boards that were smoothed, yet knobby, from many years of training Arabian Horses. They gave that up to create a Christmas tree farm… We tramped all over for the perfect tree, sipped on cider and nibble some popcorn before Julian tackled the beauty to the ground. Who knew that Carhartt bibs make a perfect baby carrier?

I'm so behind!

How do people make time, regularly to update these bloggy things? I find, that being home and having almost nothing of a schedule makes for a whole lot of time wasted. I am working toward disciplining myself in event management, I have the same 24 hours as the rest of the world but WHAT am I spending it on?! Dishes and tidying mostly, at least that is how it feels… Maddox no longer takes a daily nap and the other two don't always synchronize their sleep times leaving me with little time to just sit and let my thoughts spill out into this space. Not to mention, my process for blogging takes a good 2 hours. With holidays, company, shopping, cleaning, cooking, and such, I have had more activities than childless free-time. I usually go to bed around !:30am after trying to cram in my household duties, bits of projects, reading, & Words with Friends after the kids go to bed. I really don't like this schedule but I hate waking early equally…oh the dilemma!

We hosted Barney, Marcia, and our niece Danica, a week before Christmas. We had all sorts of fun in those few days. We went on a cruise across the lake to see Santa and make sure the kids made the "nice" list, had early Christmas, did some sledding, played card games and generally had a blast.

Pretty, pretty girls



What a happy couple, and what a great example of loyalty and life long commitment.

Da boys

The snow this week is more amazing and we have the PERFECT sledding hill for a back yard.

"dude, nice run"!

See, I was there too!

sneaking cookies

poor visibility but, the sound is the best part anyway