Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you’re having a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Savior!

I admit, I’ve had a really rough month and feel like Christmas has snuck up on me. I had to finish up my shopping, um, yesterday, which is so unusual for me.

We’ve unwrapped all the presents. The kids are in various states of pajamas/dressed as they play with each other’s toys and watch Bob the Builder as requested. I’m enjoying my Almond Eggnog Latte in my new coffee tumbler. Hubby is, well, he had to go take care of his parents. We were supposed to go down to their house later today for dinner and celebration, but they got the yucky stomach bug that we had last week.

 

and I keep getting interrupted in writing this post. I started it yesterday (Christmas eve), now it’s Christmas evening. We went to my mom’s instead of going to my in-laws after lunch. Had a lovely ham dinner with roast potatoes and our Happy Birthday Jesus cake. Thanks for letting us crash your “party”, mom, we had a great time!

Here’s a story in pictures of our day, or at least parts of it.

  

Christmas Eve. Kahlen’s hair is in pin curls while she sets out eggnog and chocolate chip cookies for Santa on our baby barrier in front of the tree. Nate is looking at the stockings in anticipation of them being filled by Santa.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast, yum!

They’re “helping” Shane open his present.

Kahlen’s favorite present ever: Pillow Pets Dream Lites

The snow outside.

Shane being, well, Shane.Watching Bob the Builder

The cards we have received from family and friends.

Our Christmas card I made this year.

Wall hangings above our dining room table

Kahlen’s foam gingerbread house (She got the kit for her birthday)

As far as we got with Truth in the Tinsel this year (day 15, oops)

Happy Birthday Jesus! almond layer cake with white chocolate frosting

So, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

~S

Happy 6th Birthday, Kahlen!

My sweet girl turned 6 today! We had a nice quiet home day. I tried to make it special for her even though we didn’t have any presents for her to open today. With the help of the grandparents, we got her a 20” 5-speed bike. She’s been able to ride it once this week, then we were sick, then it snowed. Ah well, there will be time for her to ride it soon, I’m sure!

For breakfast, I made her waffles and surprised her with a balloon and a pink rose. Then she got to play in the snow, something she’s been wanting to do since it fell two days ago.

She’s a funny girl. Close to lunch time, she said, “Mommy, can we please go out for lunch?” I informed her that I didn’t have any money, and I pulled out my wallet to show her that I was down to $3. She said, “But mommy, you can just use your Visa card!” Silly girl. I made her call daddy and see if he said it was okay. Then he decided he wanted to go with us, so we went to Einstein Bagels in Loveland. Quite tasty.

My grandparents are taking us all out to dinner tomorrow to Red Robin, which is where she originally wanted to go for her birthday. So I made her pizza instead, which she likes because then she gets to do it however she wants to.

Oh, and somewhere in the middle, I painted her nails for her, and she made a birthday crown :)

To end the evening, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. We ended with a house that had a fantastic light/music show, with broadcast music, at least four different sets of colored lights, and multiple songs! (It’s at Starflower and Larkbunting, if you’re in the area, and it will be up until the end of the year)

I debated about doing a birthday video for her, it’s getting harder and harder to come up with good music, especially now that she’s not the only kiddo. Anyway, I decided I would be sad if I didn’t have some recap of her year

Kahlen’s Sixth Year

Happy Birthday, Kahlen! I love being your mommy! Thank you for your sweet attitude toward me today when I was struggling with the demands of mommying three little children. Thank you for helping me with your baby brother. Thank you for happily playing by yourself…or with Nate. You are a mini-me, and I love you!

See previous years:

5th birthday

4th birthday

3rd birthday

2nd birthday

~S

Wordless Wednesday–Sick, sick, sick!

We, and by we I mean all 5 of us, had a nasty stomach bug Monday and Tuesday this week. It was…well, let’s just say it wasn’t fun. Here’s a picture of the kids Tuesday. Kahlen spent the entire day laying down. She was the only one who threw up again on Tuesday and we’re all doing better now. I guess better this week than next, right?

~S

Linking up at:

Wordless Wednesday–Nate and the Ergo

Since he’s too big to ride in it, he thought he should carry his babies around in it instead…

~S

Linking up at:

Hello December!

And I thought my life was busy before! Enter December. The “slow down so you can meditate on Christmas while at the same time decorate your house, teach your kids regular school plus advent activities, holiday parties, shopping for presents, making presents like matching pajamas for all the kids and super cute yet complicated Christmas cards, celebrating my only daughter’s birthday, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera” month. Yup. That’s about the size of it. So, while I’d really really like to get “caught up” on tot school posts, weekly wrap-ups for first grade, and book reviews, not to mention wordless Wednesday, Tasty Tuesday, and Menu Plan Monday, it’s not likely to happen this month. I’m hoping at least to get a few things posted, but we’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, hope you are having a great season so far, as we are, despite the busyness!

(Okay, this picture is totally staged, but you get the idea…)

 

~S

Speak Up Saturday - Book Review–The Chase by DiAnn Mills

From the Publisher:

To the FBI it's a cold case. To Kariss Walker it's a hot idea that could either reshape or ruin her writing career. And it's a burning mission to revisit an event she can never forget.
Five years ago, an unidentified little girl was found starved to death in the woods behind a Houston apartment complex. A TV news anchor at the time, Kariss reported on the terrifying case. Today, as a New York Times bestselling author, Kariss intends to turn the unsolved mystery into a suspense novel.
Enlisting the help of FBI Special Agent Tigo Harris, Kariss succeeds in getting the case reopened. But the search for the dead girl's missing mother yields a discovery that plunges the partners into a witch's brew of danger. The old crime lives on in more ways than either of them could ever imagine. Will Kariss's pursuit of her dream as a writer carry a deadly price tag?
Drawing from a real-life cold case, bestselling novelist DiAnn Mills presents a taut collage of suspense, faith, and romance in The Chase.

This is the second book that I have read by this author, and it was just as fun as the first.

It was an fun and entertaining look into the life of an author researching a book, kept me interested throughout the book. It moved at a good pace without keeping me up all night reading (a problem I’ve been known to have).

As with the last book of hers that I read, the character development was well woven into the story. The characters wove together to make a good story from beginning to end. The interactions between the two main characters especially were true to life.

I have learned that I really enjoy this genre (if it qualifies for it’s own genre, maybe it’s a sub-genre?) This would be the light suspense, light romance, from a Christian perspective, with maybe a bit of mystery thrown in, genre. Surprisingly, I feel like there are quite a few books out there that fit that category, and I have yet to be disappointed by one. I like them, and this one in particular, because they are interesting from start to finish, but not too heavy. A “vacation read”, if you will. I think after all the other books that I read for bible study, for homeschooling, for parenting, etc, that something that’s just fun is a good thing. And it doesn’t hurt if it only takes me a few hours to finish either.

All that to say I would recommend reading this book if the genre appeals to you :-)

~S

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NetGalley as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.