The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Does anyone else remember reading this in school when they were younger? It was my favorite Christmas book growing up. It is the story of a "bad" family named the Herdman's and how they get involved with a local church's Christmas pageant. I found it at the library because I wanted to read it to Emma. We are only about 25 pages into it, but we are both enjoying it.

I also found out that the Art Center of the Ozarks does the play every year. I'm hoping to get to take Emma to see it, but it will depend on a few things. If you are looking for a good holiday book, I highly suggest this. It is good for the whole family.

Happies

Emma's creativity is awesome! She imagines the craziest things and I love it. The girl also colors more than anyone I have ever met.
She found this long green ribbon in a pile when I was getting out Christmas decorations. She wanted to play with it. She ushered me into the playroom to show me her frog and monkey buckled into her "car" laying down so they could take a nap while she drove them on a trip. The chair was her seat and she used one of her pot lids from her kitchen as the steering wheel. I know I'm a little biased, but she is brilliant! :)

I love our Willow Tree nativity. My Mom started giving me pieces to it about 7 years ago and it gets bigger each year. I love putting it out each year!



Christmas decorating started at our house this weekend. Typically, we wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we will be gone longer than normal so we started this weekend. John had a photoshoot to do on Saturday morning, so the girls and I decorated their little tree. I bought the pink tree last year, but all the ornaments are my Disney ones from when I was little.
We will do our tree together after Thanksgiving.



I love our stockings. John and I bought ours the first year we were married and I still love them. I also bought 4 snowflake stocking holders that year. John questioned my "thinking ahead" when I bought 4, but I told him that someday we will be thankful that they all match. I didn't think about us having a dog at the time, so Belle's is a little different than the rest. I bought the girls stockings before Brooklyn was born (after much searching for knit sock like stockings that coordinated with ours) and they are perfect.

I love Christmas time, including the decorating part! I'm hoping to get a post up before Thanksgiving about designing on a dime for Christmas. I did something for our dining room table this year that cost me nothing. I used everything I had and some from nature. It was so fun coming up with it and making it. Stay tuned.

Kissing

Friday night we got to hang out with the McGooden's and the Loibner's. It had been a long time since all of us had gotten together. All in all, there were 5 little warrior boys and our 2 little princesses that they were trying to rescue throughout the evening. Sarah blogged this funny little post that was the talk of the evening in our car on the way home. Take a look at the story and then read on.

On the way home from their house, Emma wanted to talk about the kiss. John and I are not ready to have a conversation with our almost 5 year old about why she doesn't need to be kissing boys. (and liking it for that matter) She did ask why she couldn't kiss boys since the two of us kiss and we are a boy and girl. We both (almost simultaneously) replied, "We are married and almost 32 years old!"

Happy Serving

It is Saturday and I'm writing this "happies" post a few days early because I will be out of town on Monday and won't have access to a computer to load pictures. I wanted to make sure that I got to share with you guys how awesome my cell girls worked today! They made me proud!

My last "happies" post was an effort to look past the sickness in our household and see the good. I have to admit that the rest of our week was not a whole lot better. The sickness was gone, but the whiny attitude from all of us remained. Brooklyn has been a mess. Lots of whining, lots of screaming over who knows what and not a whole lot of sleep. I finally took her back to the doctor thinking she had an ear infection, but she was perfectly healthy. I decided to pack us up today and head to Little Rock for a change in scenery. I think it will be good for all of us. Unfortunately, John has to stay here to work, but I have a feeling he won't mind having some peace and quiet for a few days.

Today, many of the cell groups and community groups at our church took part in a thing called INVADE. We were given homes, schools, or organizations that needed help around Northwest Arkansas. I have to admit that I wasn't excited about raking leaves in 37 degree weather. After working for 3 hours on leaves and meeting a really sweet lady that appreciated us beyond words, I am so glad that I went. There is a lot to be said about getting past your own selfish life and going to help someone else. It is a good attitude adjuster. I loved watching my 12 year old girls serve this woman. Not only did they work hard, but they also visited with sweet Nina and listened to her stories.

It was a fun morning and something I would really love for my family to do more often.

Looking to Get a Minivan??

If you're in the market for a minivan, my friend Blake's family is selling one on Craigslist. It's a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country with 27,000 miles on it. I'm a big fan of minivans, which you'll know if you've read this blog for a while. Their usefulness is beyond measure, and they are total chick magnets. Ok, not so much chick magnets, but they're really useful, especially for families.

Click here for more details.

Happies

It has been hard to find "happies" in the midst of the stomach bug that has plagued our house since last Wednesday night. We had a break from it from Thursday afternoon-Saturday and I thought it was gone. Emma and I got it Saturday, but we experienced it in different ways. John got it this morning in the same way I got it. Brooklyn's has lingered the longest. She started throwing up on Wednesday night and some on Thursday morning, then has continued with diarrhea. Her last blow out was yesterday afternoon. The poor thing is still whiny and not eating anything but crackers. She has no appetite.

I know, you are thinking, this is not a "happy" post. The point of my "happies" posts are to help me see the "happies" in my life even if things are hard or not going great. All you Moms and Dads know that it is hard raising these little ones and although the fun FAR outweighs the other stuff, it is just plain hard at times. Especially when you are cleaning up vomit, whiping bottoms, and lysoling every inch of your house to reduce the risk of spread.

In the midst of the hard times over the past days, I have had some happies. Even if I had to really search for them!!
1. I have enjoyed some AWESOME cuddle time with my girls, especially Brooklyn. (I have no pictures b/c no one had the energy to pick up the camera)

2. God knew this was all coming and he allowed Todd and Nana to give us new movies this week. Nana sent Tinkerbell and Abby in Wonderland (Sesame Street) on Wednesday, so it was perfect timing for watching on Thursday. Todd brought over the new Barbie Christmas Carol on Tuesday, but we did not show Emma so we could save it for a movie night. Movie night came on Saturday night when Emma's sickness started. Thank you Todd and Nana!!!

3. Being sick always reminds me that we are blessed to be as healthy as we are. I know there are so many moms and dads out there living in hospitals and watching their little ones suffer and fight to stay alive. Thank you Jesus for our health.

Does Anyone Have Basketball Tickets?

This is very last minute, but I thought I would try. John and I have 2 tickets to go to the Razorback basketball game tomorrow night and we want to take the girls. We are cheap and are hoping to be able to get the girls in for free. I have heard on these early games that the ushers will often let in kids for free. We have no idea what to expect, so thought we would check with all of you and see if anyone knows of 2 free tickets to the game tomorrow night (Thursday). Let us know if you know anything!
You would make 2 little Razorback cheerleaders very happy! :)

Happies

The trees in NWA are AMAZING right now! This is my favorite tree every year and lucky enough it is just down the street from me on Carley Road, so I pass it every day. I took this while in my car and it was on my phone, so it is not great. Hopefully, John can get out and get a good picture of it before the leaves fall off. Emma and I thank Jesus for this tree every time we pass it!






Has anyone tried these? I'm a sucker for Oreos and for anything mint. I saw these on display at Walmart yesterday and snatched them up. They are sooooo good. If you like Thin Mints, you must try!








I have been wanting one of these tshirts for a while now and I finally made my way over to Penguin Ed's and bought one.

Fayetteville does a great job of supporting local businesses. A lot of chains have gone out of business b/c of it. I thought this was neat until Fayetteville closed down Fudruckers and our family could no longer eat our favorite burgers for $12 total.



The best happy of all around our house this week!

Emma found her blankie. It went missing about 3 weeks ago and we have searched this house up and down for it. I knew it was in the house b/c she had it on a Tuesday night and on that Wednesday we never left the house and we didn't go outside b/c of the rain. Wednesday night rolled around and we could not find it. She did amazingly well without it. We got out some of her old small silkies and they did the trick for a few weeks. She asked about it every day and we looked every day, but no blankie.

Last week, she went to the dress up box (that I had looked in many times) and opened the drawer where the pom poms are and it was hiding at the very bottom. Apparently, we had not used the pom poms in a few weeks.

Emma and I were screaming we were so excited! I think I wanted her to have it back more than she did. I still have my blankie from when I was little and it holds a lot of memories for me. (I know, I'm weird) I was sad that she wouldn't have her blankie, but it's back. Hooray!

It was a Happy Halloween

About 6 months ago, we were reading The Three Bears and I told Emma that we should all go as Goldilocks and the Three Bears for Halloween since we had one golden haired child in our family. I really thought Emma would change her mind once Halloween rolled around b/c she would want to be a princess or something girly. She was so excited about the idea of all of us being something together, so here we are. Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Goldilocks.

Halloween started for us on Thursday afternoon when we headed to the Kellogg office to trick or treat. This is John's first year working there, so we didn't know what to expect. They went all out and it was a lot of fun. We trick or treated through the cubicles and then were treated to a catered Chickfila dinner in the conference room. The highlight of the evening was the lady making the animal balloons. She was really good!


From there, we headed to the Hannon's house for a Pumpkin Carving Party. They invited their neighbors and family over. It was perfect evening to be outside around a fire eating smores and carving pumpkins. John started carving Cinderella's castle from a stencil we printed off, but it got to wet and he had to go to classic Jack. Brooklyn was cracking us up because she walked around the first part of the evening holding her nose because of the smell of the pumpkin guts.














Our first stop on Halloween was at the Hannon's house. They wanted to see the girls and to our surprise, Grace and Emily Kate were dressed up too. They were Thing 1 and Thing 2 and were super cute!
We left there and headed to the Walker's house for Morgan's first birthday/Halloween party. We had a really fun time there. Jayme made fun Halloween treats, the kids got to play outside together, and the adults actually were able to have conversation.

From there, we headed to the Kelley's house for an after Trick or Treat party. They had their fire pit going and we had smores, cider, caramel apples and cookies. Our girls had so much fun running wild around the yard with the McGooden boys and the Harkey girls.

We did not officially trick or treat this year, but I was not to sad about that. The girls got more than enough candy at John's office. The thing that made me most sad about not being at home was our tradition of putting up the baby gate at our front door so that Belle can see everyone. She loves it and I was sad we couldn't be there for her, BUT once again our "first child" got the boot. Poor thing. This picture is the only picture we have with the baby gate, but we have done it every year. This picture is at our old house and when Emma was 10 months old.