Busted

Maddox has been getting around for months now. In fact, he started crawling sometime in the 7th month and was cruising everywhere by the 8th month. We had to act quickly and baby-proof our home. We thought all was good. Until tonight when Maddox was very quiet and I found him in the pantry. BUSTED! He had pulled out his own snack (Gerber Puffs), opened the lid, poured himself some (onto the floor) and was enjoying. What a stinker this kid is!

And I promise we do feed him. When I found him, I was laughing and thinking, "Poor baby, I would have given you a snack if I had known you were hungry!"

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year with a whole bunch of great friends and kids at 6 PM -- new year kids' style! There was a bounce house. We grilled out hamburgers & hot dogs and had a new years celebration cake/cupcakes. Before 6 PM, we all went to the front and the kids had on party hats, were given noise makers and horns, there were confetti poppers, and bubble wrap! The bubble wrap was for our bubble wrap stomp; we counted down (10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, Happy New Year) and then all the kids made noise and stomped all over the bubble wrap. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start the new year.

We hope you and your family have a super 2009 filled with lots of blessings!

Happy Birthday Jesus! Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas day and hope you and your family did as well!

Christmas Eve traditions

Growing up we always had the same Christmas Eve traditions. We went to see a movie in the theater, out to dinner at Steak N Ale, looked at Christmas lights and then to church at the 11 PM candlelight service. Now that we have kids, we are making our own traditions. For the past two years, we have gone to the kids' Christmas Eve church service, then out to dinner. This year we came home and left reindeer food out in our yard for Santa's reindeer and then left a note and cookies for Santa.Brewer leaving the reindeer food out in the grass for Santa's reindeer.

Family Time

Christmas time should be spent with family. Tonight was as my mom prepared a meal for us at her home. We decorated Christmas cookies (these are some of the ones we'll be leaving out for Santa). And we sat around the Christmas tree and enjoyed one another.

Baking & Christmas movies

Probably a tradition most of you have in December...baking holiday goodies and watching Christmas movies-- Even though you might not do them together like we are today. It is a chilly, chilly day and while it's beautiful outside, it is too cold to play. So we're spending the afternoon baking brownies and watching The Happy Elf. (We love this cute movie!) We also are going to make some Jello and then tonight (once the Jello has done its thing), we will use Christmas cookie cutters to cut shapes out of our Jello.

Off to finish cleaning the brownie mess...

Advent Wreath

The advent wreath is a tradition my church did as well as my family when I was growing up. As a teenager, we often made fun of the advent wreath at church because of the silly lines they would have the kids say each week about the wreath. Like, "Why do we light the third candle?" But secretively, I always loved the advent wreath.

In my nine years of marriage, I have always tried to have an advent wreath in our home. However, I must say that I am unsuccessful most years. I just can't seem to find an advent wreath that isn't "flimsy". I am always scared that our house will catch on fire due to the advent wreath. And since we've had children, there is no way I'd light candles right now...especially with the activity that can be produced by two boys. Yet, I hope there comes a time in our future when we can have an advent wreath; one that we can light each night as we sit and have dinner together. I picture us discussing the coming (that's the meaning of advent, coming) of Christmas and all that it means.

Today's post ends up being of a tradition I had in my past, and one I long to have in my future. However, for now, we do not have an advent wreath in our home.