happily random

Ahhh.... winter

We have been having snow storm after snow storm after snow storm, with more coming. In the 3 1/2 years we've been here, this is the most snow we've ever had at our house. There is about 3 feet of it on our lawn. Samantha got suited up to got out to play with the older 3 a couple days ago & came back in crying after losing her gloves & one of her boots in the huge drifts. You could just see her little head above the snow, poor baby.

I love living in a Winter Wonderland. Everything is so white, clean & crisp. So beautiful! Winter is by far my favorite season. I just love the cold outside, the fire in the stove, wearing scarves, coats hats & gloves. I don't even mind shoveling the snow each day... good exercise! And the icicles! The icicles on the house have gotten enormous! One of them is taller than me. Simply amazing.

Things I hope to accomplish this holiday weekend:

1. Take down the Christmas tree. After having it up for a month, I am so ready for it to go away. And all the Christmas decorations too. I get a little tired of the clutter.
2. Clean my bedroom & closet. They are embarassing, they've gotten so messy. I've got to get our "haven" cleaned up.
3. Go to the dump. Our trash cans are all full (we don't have trash pickup here in the boonies, therefore, we have to haul our trash to the dump every month).
4. Finish the layout I'm working on. Trying to enter Hall of Fame again this year... for the 5th time. I'm a glutton for punishment.
5. Catch up on laundry. It's taking over!
6. Have some fun as a family! It's not often that my husband has a 4-day weekend.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

Christmas Review

It was still completely dark when we started opening Christmas presents yesterday morning. That's what you get when you live so far north; it's still dark at 7 a.m. After four winters here, I'm still not quite used to it. It gives me a good excuse to sleep later. ;)

To the kids' frustration at times, we make our kids open presents one at a time, from youngest to oldest. After going to all the trouble of finding them the perfect Christmas gifts, I would like a chance to see their reactions when they open them. It's my Christmas present from them.

Rebekah's wish list year consisted of almost entirely 0f Littlest Pet Shop. She got this playset, a Paws Off Diary & a digital pet. And one her favorites was a Webkins, a cat she named Princess. From her aunt & uncle she got a rock polisher, which is completely up her alley. She is always collecting rocks, so it'll be lots of fun for her to do something with them. Her list rounded out with a math game for the Leapster.

On a somewhat sad note, Rebekah figured out that Santa Claus isn't real. We don't overly promote the Santa-Claus thing, but we do pretend with our kids. Rebekah seemed to understand that it's fun to pretend things like that, like magic & fairies, but that it's not real. We sat down & talked with her about it that afternoon after the other kids were busy playing. She kept up the charade for the rest of the kids, but she understood that the true miracle of Christmas was that Jesus came to earth as a baby to save us from our sins. She is a very wise child. :)

Every one knew what to get for Lucas for Christmas: Legos, Star Wars or a combination of the two. He got three Lego Star Wars kits (one of which he is enthralled with putting together here), a General Grievous Transformer and a Luke Skywalker Lego watch (which is super cool!). He also received The Word Factory game for the Leapster, which I'm hoping will do for his reading what The Letter Factory did for his alphabet skills.

Tyler is as big a Star Wars fan as Lucas, so his wish list was pretty similar. He got one small Lego kit that Dad helped him put together. He mostly like people to build stuff for him at this point to play with. He especially likes the little Lego people; those are the ultimate. He also got a Force-Action Light Saber & a blaster which both make realistic noise, so a huge hit. He also got a Lego watch, his a Darth Vader, and some Monster Trucks.

This year Samantha really got into Christmas and the whole unwrapping presents. If we didn't keep a careful eye on her, she would start unwrapping things that weren't her own. LOL. Sammy's big gift from us was what we call a drive-drive (a family name... LOL). Basically it's an electronic car steering wheel. She also got a My Little Pony Baby Rainbow Dash, which made both she & Rebekah very happy. Rebekah has a Baby Pinkie Pie that Sammy has commandeered as her own, so now Rebekah gets it back in place of Sammy's new pony baby. And she finally got something that my mom has been trying to get to her since last Christmas: a sand/water table. Last Christmas Amazon misdelivered it to someone else & we never got it. It was of course sold out all summer. So now we have one, which I'm sure that all the kids are going to enjoy. We're going to set it up in the boiler room which is right off the kitchen because it's warm, has a door to the outside for easier clean-up and I don't mind it being messy. So now we just have to find some sand for it in the middle of winter... maybe we'll just fill it with snow? We have plenty of that this year!

I also got the kids several games that we can play together as a family. Things that are simple enough for the youngest to play with help and that oldest will enjoy too. They also got some Moon Sand, which I'm sure I'll regret buying for them very soon. LOL. I know they'll enjoy it though, especially since we're stuck inside with a foot of fresh snow and more coming down.

Joel hit the mother load this Christmas with three new XBox 360 games: Lost Planet, Orange Box & Call of Duty 4. He also got the movie Blood Diamond, which is one of his favorites, and the series DVDs for Firefly. Firefly was an AWESOME sci-fi show that aired for half a season on Fox in 2002 and is still one of our very favorites. It even won an Emmy, and yet FOX still canceled it. Very annoying. It's almost a guarantee that if Joel & I love the show, it'll get canceled, like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip last year... don't get me started. Anyway, so Joel was very happy about the Firefly DVDs because they contain 3 unaired episodes.

I also got a good haul this year: some Uggs, a pair of Merrells that I've been wanting, a new coat & a 2Peas gift certificate. Oh, and a Lego Star Wars Game for the XBox 360 just for me! :) My favorites were from my in-laws though: a studio light for shooting portraits & a remote for my camera! Yeah! Can't wait to set them up to play!

It was a nice, simple Christmas, and a white one at that. God has truly blessed our family. Even though things are lean right now with our new company taking off, he still provided the money for us to comfortably purchase gifts for our family.

Christmas afternoon we headed over to our in-law's house for Christmas dinner: Roast Beast (Prime Rib) with Yorkshire pudding. YUM! We were even able to squeeze a game of Push Rummy while the kids played with their new toys. I love playing cards.

Well the kids are clamoring to play with the Moon Sand, so I'd better go clear the table...

Christmas Eve

I write now from my husband's laptop. Our HughesNet satellite is so covered with snow that we have no internet. Joel has a Verizon Wireless AirCard in his computer, so I steal it from him from time to time. Just a part of winter in the deep boonies. Totally worth it, if you're wondering.

We're settling into our Christmas Eve now. The kids are enjoying the movie The Very First Noel, which tells the Christmas store of Jesus' birth. This delightful computer-animated movie narrarated by Andy Griffith is fast becoming a Christmas tradition in our home.

I made a breakfast casserole for a yummy & quick breakfast for tomorrow morning. Just hash browns, sausage, eggs, milk, cheese & pepper. Easy-peasy. It's what I've always made for MOPS during our table's month for bringing breakfast & it's always been a big hit. I thought it would make things a little simpler for us in the morning. Here's the recipe as a PDF if you'd like to give it a try. (can be trimmed to 4x6 for easy addition to your recipe book!)

Excitement has ruled our home today. Rebekah started off the day by putting on her Christmas dress. Samantha follow suit, so of course I had to get some pictures. Here's one of my favorites.

We also have been tracking Santa on Norad Tracks Santa, which can also been downloaded to Google Earth (really fun!). Lucas has been thoroughly fascinated by this, watching all day where Santa is visiting at each moment. It has been a good geography lesson for them all as well as a lesson about time zones. As I write this, Santa is visiting Eastern Europe. "Is that near Idaho?" Lucas asks. Tomorrow is going to be lots of fun.

Lucas is bugging me to find out where Santa is right now, so I'd better end this. Merry Christmas!!

Wrapping up

I'm ahead of schedule. It's 2 days until Christmas and I'm all done wrapping presents! Usually I'm still wrapping on Christmas Eve. That means I have to stay up late wrapping and then be grumpy Christmas morning because the kids are up before dawn and I still need my beauty sleep. Actually, I would settle for just sleep at this point... beauty is optional. :) Speaking of sleep, do you think there is a way that Santa can deliver that into my stocking this year? Seven & a half years of motherhood has left me with quite a deficit.

A little freebie I came across today from Dropps Laundry Soap. Here's a rebate coupon to try it for free (20 free loads!) at Target. Gotta love that. Think of it as my Christmas present to you.

Legends & Presents

I'll start this off by say this: I do not like scary movies. I have never been a fan of movies such as The Night of the Living Dead or Halloween. So I was very surprised when we saw the movie I Am Legend to be completely terrified. Maybe I'm a wuss. Probably. But I was tense the entire movie, just waiting for something else to jump out at me. That was the way it was throughout the whole movie with people jumping about 4 feet out of their seats. Now the "zombie" people weren't too creepy to look at with their very white skin and bald heads, but the way their jaws opened so wide when they roared was rather disconcerting. I guess if you're one of those who is used to those slasher films, this was mild by comparison, but still. The previews do not portray the movie this way. We were expecting something different from Will Smith, one of our favorite actors, along the likes of Men in Black or Independence Day. This was not so. It wasn't bloody or gory in anyway, but it does give you the heebie-jeebies. And it only has a PG-13 rating? Sorry, I wouldn't let my 13-year-old see it. I wish I could scrub it out of my brain. If we were to do over again, we would have seen National Treasure II instead. Just wanted to put the word out.

Oh, my friend Jessica, also a mom with a large family (which in this day seems to mean more than 2 kids!) forwarded this site to me. I guess I'm not the only one who gets those comments like, "You have your hands full" and stuff like that. A few of my favorites:

No, they're not all mine. I gather all the neighbors' kids and then go shopping.

Yes, they're all mi--- wait... where did that one come from?

I'm glad it's me and not you, too!

Yes, we're expecting again. Yes, we know what causes it. Yes, we have a television. No, we're not on welfare. Now mind your own business!

Are they all mine? Yes, and I have more at home! (Why do you ask?)

I make beautiful babies; what's YOUR superpower?

No, we plan to keep going til we get an ugly one!

If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart!

As I write this, my husband is heading out the door to do his Christmas shopping. I have several people to buy for, including him, our kids, our extended family and friends and I've been done for about 2 weeks now. Who does he have to buy for? Me! Yep, my husband is going out 3 days before Christmas to buy my presents. LOL. Very typical. He does this every year, so I'm not really surprised. And he always gets me good stuff so it's not really a big deal. It's just such a "guy thing." My philosophy on that is the closer I can finish my Christmas shopping to Thanksgiving, the better. Happy Shopping, honey! I am off to wrap those said Christmas presents now while the boys play on the XBox (Joel took the girls with him).

Happy Birthday to my one and only

Isn't he a hunk? I think so! A hottie-hot-hottie as they say on The Emperor's New School (can you tell I watch too many kids' shows? I'm always quoting them! LOL). This picture was obviously taken this summer, but it's one of my favorites. Today is Joel's 34th birthday. That's 13 birthdays we have shared as husband and wife. I love him more today than I did on his 22nd birthday during our first year of marriage. He is the love of my life and my best friend. Happy Birthday honey!

Tonight we'll be celebrating with a trip to the movies. Joel wants to see I Am Legend, so that's what we'll do. I would really like to see National Treasure II, but since it's his birthday, I'll cave. I don't know where all the good movies have been lately, but it's been slim pickings lately. Looking forward to a night out. :)

Rebekah had her first friend over for a sleepover last night. She really is getting older. *sigh* I picked up her friend Gabrielle last night and the two of them were up until at least 10 playing in her room. This morning they suited up to play in the snow and have been out there for an hour already. They're going to sleep well tonight! Gabrielle is an only child (at least for 2 more months... her mom is expecting), so the sheer noise of a house full of kids, including 2 boys, has been a bit much for her, I can tell. LOL. It's a bit much for me sometimes too. I'm sure this is just the first of many sleepovers in the future.

As you can see, I changed my blog up at bit, including the title. Add to the Beauty just felt like a more fitting title to me. It's actually from a song by Sara Groves, one of my favorite artists. Here are the words:

We come with beautiful secrets
We come with purposes written on our hearts, written on our souls
We come to every new morning
With possibilities only we can hold, that only we can hold

Redemption comes in strange place, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
To our lives and our work

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find it's worth

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out our best

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

We got elfed!

Okay, this was just too fun! We did ElfYourself at the OfficeMax website.The kids got a hoot out of it and we even called in and recorded an elf message. Enjoy!