Snapshots of Christmas

A special weekend

I spent last weekend at my parents' house with all 5 of my siblings and my mom and dad. Here's me with 3 of my 4 sisters watching our amazing niece and nephew play basketball. I could get used to watching them every weekend--they were sooo good!!
Our very loved Mom was just diagnosed with lung cancer last week, and we all just had to be together for the weekend. We were soo grateful to hear today that it hasn't spread anywhere outside of the lung and are hopeful that with surgery it could be treatable. My mom and dad are still very much in love...had to capture this sweet moment... Here's my niece Jacquie doing Mom's hair. We all wait our turn for her to beautify us! I'm sure she gets rather tired of it, but she's a good sport about it.And the star of the weekend was my brother's son, James. He was the only little one to make it home with us, and he got a LOT of attention! We kinda think he's a genius...and just a bundle of fun! Here he is checking out some of the first big snowflakes of the year.

Gearing up for the holidays

We're having lots of fun at our house getting ready for the holidays. The kids and I are crafting and baking! These stars they're making are called "Waldorf window stars"--may be a little early, but they're already making our windows look festive, and the kids so enjoyed making them.



Sarah helped me make 4 dozen cinnamon rolls the other day for Thanksgiving (breakfast) with my side of the family. She did great--we froze them before baking them, so we had to sample a thawed out and baked pan this morning--not bad at all! Sarah is a great help in the kitchen. (I have us wear these bandannas to keep hair out of the food, but the kids think we're the coolest pirate cooks ever!)


I found a tutorial here for these cute no sew flower headbands (I did mine all with a glue gun b/c I didn't have Fabri-Tac). Made a couple last night and Sarah thinks they're fun, so I might have to make a few more--maybe a few for gifts. They're so easy and basically free--I just used scraps of material I had, and I've got plenty of headbands. This is her "gameday" headband...
...and her super fancy pink and green one. She loves it!

In other news, our puppy Jake has become an almost exclusively-indoor dog this past week. (He's spent much of his life in our backyard because the weather has been so nice and his sister--neighbor's dog and litter-mate-- plays out there with him.) He's doing great about not having accidents, and is actually becoming our dream dog! So glad we got him!

Brothers

Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party

We have the best neighbors ever! Three families had a pumpkin carving/cupcake decorating party the other night.
It was fun to watch how seriously the bigger kids took it.
Jason's "carving" lasted about 5 seconds. He decided he'd rather use markers to decorate his--I was in full agreement--he's a little scary with a knife!
Isn't Shayla adorable?!?
Levi's working so hard...


Sarah had to make sure everyone knew that "I am a nise pumken"

First Day of Preschool

Jason and his buddies did great today--no tears, and they were so excited to tell us about their day on the way home. Highlights from the day included play-dough, apples and rice krispie treats, and trading silly bandz with his mentor, Jacob.

Memories...

Our family was looking at old videos tonight and my heart was so full, yet sad when I watched my babies. Can't believe how big they're getting. My youngest, Jason--now 4--is having his first day of preschool tomorrow morning. This is hitting me harder than most transitions. I am NOT ready for him to grow up yet! Thought I'd post a video of him a couple years ago so you could remember how incredibly cute his was (and still is)!

Apples, nephew and puppy love

My sweet 2 year-old nephew James came with grandma (my mom) this week to spend a few days at our house. His mommy is about to have her 2nd baby and was a little worn out from chasing her busy boy, so we jumped at the chance to spend some quality time with him. My immediate family--dad, mom, siblings, and their kids is 27, going on 28 people, so pretty much whenever we spend time with family it's chaos (really fun chaos), and hardly any alone time with any one child. We had a BLAST with this little guy! Jason and James became best buddies and followed each other all around the house. The weather was perfect, so we spent lots of time out in the backyard. And...our neighbor gave us tons and tons of bruised but deliciously sweet apples that needed to be used up--3 boxes in all. My mama brought her nifty applesauce press, and we were in business! We had tons of help from James and Jason--I couldn't count how many apples had bites out of them by the time they were washed and ready to quarter! And, of course, water was all over the floor, but it sure kept them entertained! Every once in a while, I have the thought that I should've been a pioneer woman.
We washed and cut and cooked apples for hours, but the end result was delicious! Just like I remember from my childhood. I knew there was a reason I don't like store-bought, jarred applesauce. It really doesn't compare! Not sure it was worth all the work for how much applesauce we ended up with, but it was great fun to work with my sweet Mom and let the kids be a part of it!






Love this one of James and our puppy Jake playing tug-of-war! I think he needs a puppy! Isn't Jake the cutest thing ever? Wish I could get him completely potty trained so I could trust him in the house!