Simple things we enjoyed this month

Art projects... Even if our little girl thinks our trash can is part of our family.


The coziness inside our warm home; a sharp contrast to the extreme cold outside. After returning to work, I value these cuddles even more.












Sledding party with friends.








Taking monthly pictures of our little man, with a helper.





Sneaking peeks at moments like this:


And this:


And this (our little girl playing "fundraiser"):


Finding this unexpected note while out running errands. A pay it forward of sorts, the day after I paid for a stranger's parking.


And big smiles from our kids!











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If I could stop the hands of time

If I could stop time, I'd freeze these last few weeks. We are caught in that wonderful place where fun and exciting things are happening every day- simple things like smiles from our little guy, holiday festivities, and new family traditions (Elf on a Shelf and Christmas movies) and old favorites (Bentleyville and bell ringing for the Salvation Army).












Our little girl has concerts for Sunday school, preschool and dance.











We've enjoyed Christmas parties and she is over her fear of Santa.






She's excited to give the gifts we've chosen and made for others. She understands giving. And wants to give. She's keeping secrets of gifts we've bought and writing out names of those we care about on presents. I'm aware of how much she's grown and learned in the last year and I love to see these glimpses of a child wise beyond her years mixed with the awe and wonder of delight that is just as it should be for her age.

I love our home decorated for the holidays. And since I'm home on maternity leave (best timing ever) I can sit and enjoy quiet moments at home with my little man, the Christmas tree twinkling, baby sleeping on my lap, beautiful snow outside our windows as I appreciate the warm house, healthy baby whose playing, exploring, smiling (!!!), and these moments that I know won't last forever, but sure wish they could.


























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Gingerbread house

I've never had good luck building gingerbread houses... This year I bought a kit that had slots for the base so I was thinking the added stability and less stress building would mean more time decorating.

It started off well:







With the walls in place, we decorated the roof:









Assembly from there did not go well:



As I was trying to reconstruct the dilapidated gingerbread house I realized my daughter was eating the building materials (frosting) right from the package.












We got back on track and just decorated the pieces and gave up on assembly after I discovered a bite out of the roof.



I had visions of an award winning gingerbread house, and really would have been fine with one that at least stood in its own, but instead we had good memories- and a sweet snack.

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An attitude of gratitude

We used the tree of giving thanks that my mom and I made for the first time as a family this year.






Each day in November we took turns writing what we were thankful for. My daughter loved this activity and as a new writer, contributed more than Daddy or me. She is also a pro at writing her name so that made up a good portion of her contributions:) It appears we were more thankful for her than anyone/anything else.






I saved all of our thankful cards and we can read through them in years to come, just as we did at the end of the month. My daughter didn't choose to be thankful for things like toys, but people (such as herself), including her little brother- proud parenting moment here.













Our thanks included some light hearted and some serious, but topping the list is our health and our family. If you have these two things, you have everything. It's amazing how when we take the time to be thankful for what we have, we worry less, complain less and love deeper.

Then I saw this in a book I was reading:


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Laughter is the best gift

We celebrated our anniversary earlier this week, sticking with some favorite traditions (see here and here). 8 years into the marriage and how things have changed. First of all we went to dinner with both kids; a family date instead of just the two of us. And it was still very fun. Eight years and two kids later, life is beautifully different and fulfilling. And seeing my husband as a father never gets old.

Then there was the matter of trying on my wedding dress- a tradition I quite love. I decided to skip it this year (insert gasp here) as I am not a tradition breaker usually, but I know my three-weeks-post-baby body would not fit into it so I just spared myself the effort.

We watched our wedding video this year and looked at photos from our honeymoon. We laughed at ourselves...we were having such random adventures together. We took terrible pictures. We remember the back stories to the photos- random inside jokes shared by just us: guy in red underwear, my new husband doing high kicks, adventures with the rental car.

Then there were the gifts we exchanged. I painted this for my husband.









I love to make gifts and usually they turn out better than this, but I still gave it to him. I knew we'd both get a good chuckle out of it- first of all my husband does not have a bowl cut or love handles as it appears, nor are my legs that skinny (I wish!) Our faces are also not molded together. In any case it was a good attempt and it's proudly displayed in our basement storage room behind other artwork not deemed worthy of our walls:)

And then there was the gift I got from him.



Made of driftwood (I do love driftwood), I wasn't actually sure what it was... And I'm not good at faking it so my husband knew I wasn't really in love with my new light fixture??? Well once I realized it was not a light fixture and indeed a pumpkin (as a reminder of Halloween and putting our little guy in a pumpkin).


I really do love it. But we had some laughs over my initial reaction, nonetheless.

We still have random adventures and lots of laughs... Happy times make for a happy marriage.

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