Just a snippet of the fun things I hear daily-
Me: how did share day go?
M: good!
Me: did anyone have questions or comments?
M: yeah! Lots of them!
Me: what did they ask?
M: why does Rufus have type 1 diabetes? (side note: Rufus is a teddy bear especially made for those with Type One Diabetes)
Me: and what did you say?
M: because he's like me! (Looks to me for approval)
Me: (nods head when I really want to cry) that's right, sweet boy. I love you.
M: love you too.
Michael in Walgreens, notices diabetes supplies. Eagerly says "look! Those things take care of me!"
Michael gets to bring a toy or a stuffed animal every Wednesday to school for his "share day." He presents his item to the class and then asks for questions or comments, which he's deemed "questions and comics."
Me: What's the difference between a question and a comment?
Michael: Well, I brought my lion today. So a question is, why does he have lots of hair? And a comic is, I like it!
Michael: What's that day in November where we get to eat all the food?
Me: Thanksgiving?
Michael: Yeah.
Me: And we might get to go visit Grampa Bill's mom Grandma Gallahair.
Michael: She has the same name as Gigi. Gigi Gallahair Petersen!
Michael: what is 2 by 3?
Me: 2 by 3 also means 2 times 3. (Holds up 3 fingers on both hands) so it's 3 two times.
Noah: I can spell that! 123456!
(Watching Elf)
Noah: look! The American flag!
Me: yeah!
Noah: we love America!
Michael: Where did you and Daddy meet?
Me: We met at church.
Michael: So you went to the same church?
Me: Yes. And Daddy lived at Grandma Chips' house, so I would get to see him when I came home to visit my mom and dad.
Michael: That is so impossibly cute!
Noah: mom, I love you more than a school bus with a white roof!
Playing with the toy nativity.
Noah: look! Someone stole a candy cane! (Speaking of the shepherd & staff with How the Grinch stole Christmas on the brain)
Noah: missed me, missed me. Now you have to kiss me. I don't even know what that MEANS!
M: mom, I love you and games no matter what.
I'll continue to keep notes on these things in my phone for upcoming posts!
Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
So fast
The holiday season is racing by, and I'm a bit sad because of it! I know that the holidays will roll around again before we know it, but it means my children will be one year older as will I. I'm trying to "live my best life" which is the current trendy phrase going around now, but it's true. I'm trying to soak up all these moments and ponder them in my heart as Mary did.
In the educational psychology class I took from August to October, I learned about how our brain categorizes thoughts and turns them into memories. Memories are created from thoughts that we mull over and think about over and over again until our brain recognizes it as a significant event and stores it in the "long term memory" bank. This is why we all remember where we were on 09/11, or entire days' events like when my dad has his accident or when Michael was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, and what our wedding days or graduation days were like, and the timelines leading up to the births of our children. I'm trying to categorize all of the happenings this year, and formulate them into memories to be held in my long term memory bank. I don't want to forget anything! But that's not realistic.
We had snow this past weekend. SNOW. We hardly ever get snow that sticks to the ground. We usually see a few flakes midair in January or February, but never before Christmas. Well, our neck of the Southeast got 6+ inches of snow on Friday. It was magical. Like living in a snowglobe. School let out at noon. Aaron came home early. All of my people were home and warm and were able to watch the snow fall and cover our yard and home with a layer of magic.
Aaron took the boys to play in the snow on Friday afternoon. I took them out on Saturday morning. I also went out alone with my nice camera and took pictures of every single thing I saw so that I could remember it, because we are certain this will not happen again for probably 20 years.
I'll upload those pictures soon after I get a chance to cull them. But for now, here are some random photos from the past few weeks. I'm trying to remember to use this blog as a memory keeper for myself. And photos are a good thing to add.
She had discovered the art of the selfie.
It's always an adventure with Noah!
This is a hoodie I wore as a baby!
He was so excited with his police car toy that he picked out for our church's Christmas party gift exchange, and he chose his own gift. :)
Wrestling time with Daddy!
What Avery wore to get her picture made with Santa. She is pushing up on her feet which is why her legs aren't photographed.
A picture of our Santa picture. :)
The cookie Aaron secretly made for me one night last week.
Ready to go play in the snow on Friday!
Wearing her "Little Sister" pajamas. This is size 3-6 month!
All decked out and ready to go outside on Saturday morning!
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
In the educational psychology class I took from August to October, I learned about how our brain categorizes thoughts and turns them into memories. Memories are created from thoughts that we mull over and think about over and over again until our brain recognizes it as a significant event and stores it in the "long term memory" bank. This is why we all remember where we were on 09/11, or entire days' events like when my dad has his accident or when Michael was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, and what our wedding days or graduation days were like, and the timelines leading up to the births of our children. I'm trying to categorize all of the happenings this year, and formulate them into memories to be held in my long term memory bank. I don't want to forget anything! But that's not realistic.
We had snow this past weekend. SNOW. We hardly ever get snow that sticks to the ground. We usually see a few flakes midair in January or February, but never before Christmas. Well, our neck of the Southeast got 6+ inches of snow on Friday. It was magical. Like living in a snowglobe. School let out at noon. Aaron came home early. All of my people were home and warm and were able to watch the snow fall and cover our yard and home with a layer of magic.
Aaron took the boys to play in the snow on Friday afternoon. I took them out on Saturday morning. I also went out alone with my nice camera and took pictures of every single thing I saw so that I could remember it, because we are certain this will not happen again for probably 20 years.
I'll upload those pictures soon after I get a chance to cull them. But for now, here are some random photos from the past few weeks. I'm trying to remember to use this blog as a memory keeper for myself. And photos are a good thing to add.
She had discovered the art of the selfie.
It's always an adventure with Noah!
This is a hoodie I wore as a baby!
He was so excited with his police car toy that he picked out for our church's Christmas party gift exchange, and he chose his own gift. :)
Wrestling time with Daddy!
What Avery wore to get her picture made with Santa. She is pushing up on her feet which is why her legs aren't photographed.
A picture of our Santa picture. :)
The cookie Aaron secretly made for me one night last week.
Ready to go play in the snow on Friday!
Wearing her "Little Sister" pajamas. This is size 3-6 month!
All decked out and ready to go outside on Saturday morning!
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Roadtrip
Let me start out by saying that my kids are excellent roadtrippers! The road trip went a lot better than I thought in that regard. The two DVD players worked out really well, and the boys hardly touched the bag of toys that I brought for them. We had ample snacks, and low blood sugar supplies which were needed at times. Neither boy nor Avery had a fit or a crying spell or a mad spell. They did absolutely great as far as travelers go.
Of course, while we were only 30 minutes away from the house, Michael asked if we were in Maryland yet. So at that moment I knew that this was going to be a long trip. Sporadically throughout the rest of the journey, Michael would ask me what town we were in. Sometimes we would actually be in a town, and I would tell him the name of that town or city. But a lot of the time, we were on the interstate in between towns and cities, so I would just start making up stuff. I would tell him we were in Green Grass, or Tall Tree, or Gray Rock. I would basically come up with a name of anything that I saw, and turn it into the name of the town.
The journey is supposed to be about 12 hours from my house to my grandmother's house in Maryland. I knew that the trip was going to take longer because we were going to have to stop every 3 hours to breastfeed Avery. Breastfeeding her can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. I knew that that would add time to our trip for every time that we had to stop, but I was hoping that we would either be getting gas or going to the bathroom or getting something to eat at these stops which would maximize our time.
We left on Friday night around 6 p.m., and we drove for 5 hours. We stopped at a hotel around 11 that night and we were in North Georgia. The next day we were supposed to be on the road for 7 hours not including the stops that we would have to make to feed Avery. However, it took us 13 hours on Saturday alone.
Coming home, we left on Tuesday at noon, and drove for 6 hours to get to a location that should have been two hours away. Welcome Thanksgiving traffic in Washington DC. We stopped to visit some family friends in Virginia and had dinner with them. We stayed at their house for 2 hours and then got back on the road and drove for another 3 hours. So that was 9 hours spent in the car on Tuesday. We stopped at a hotel in Western Virginia, not West Virginia. My parents had changed up the routes home in order to avoid Charlotte North Carolina and Atlanta Georgia Thanksgiving traffic. So on Wednesday we got in the car at 7 a.m. and drove all the way through Tennessee and clipped the northwest corner of Georgia before entering into Alabama. It took us a sweet forever to get through Knoxville and Chattanooga. And we pulled into my driveway at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. So the trip home, if you do the math, took us 9 hours on Tuesday and 12 hours on Wednesday. I. Was. Tired.
And here is the real kicker of this entire journey. The week leading up to this trip, I was working feverishly to get Michael better from a stomach bug that he had. He had to be checked out of school early on the Thursday two weeks before Thanksgiving because he wasn't feeling good and his blood sugar would not stay up in a safe range. This can be very dangerous so I had to go get him from school early. When he got home, he got sick to his stomach. Friday was a day off of school anyway, and he got sick again on Saturday morning. He was okay on Sunday, and on Monday we had our Endocrinology appointment. He got sick that morning, but we still went to the appointment and he was fine. He got sick again on Tuesday morning, and stayed home with me that day. On Wednesday he was finally better, and I was pretty sure that the sickness had run its course, so he went to school and was fine. He also went to school Thursday and Friday and was fine those days as well.
I patted myself on the back for getting my child over his sickness just in the nick of time to go on a road trip. The joke was on me.
On Friday mid-morning, my mother in law texted me to say that Noah had a little bit of diarrhea. I was hoping it was just a one-time incident but I was also terrified because I had just gotten one child over being sick just in time for the road trip, and I did not want to have another child get sick on the day of the road trip. So my mother in law suggested that I find some pull-ups if I had any left at the house. Fortunately I have been working on cleaning out the office closet earlier in that week and so I knew exactly where my spare pull-ups were. I pulled them out and they happened to be the perfect size for Noah, which is a total praise so thank you, God. I packed a few in my purse and packed several in Noah's overnight bag and I packed the rest of the packet in the back of the van. There seemed to be no issues anymore once he got home, so I thought maybe we were in the clear and that he just didn't want to stop watching his show to go to the bathroom earlier that day.
We drove for 5 hours that night and got to a hotel in North Georgia. The boys and I shared a double bed, which meant I got about 6 inches of space to sleep on.
Avery's Rock and play bassinet worked out absolutely fantastic, and I absolutely recommend it to any mom who's going to be traveling with a baby 4 months old and younger. Avery was the perfect size for this but I do think that if I had waited another month to use it, she would have been way too tall. Fortunately, I have a nephew on the way (yay to my older brother and his wife!), so I will be giving the Rock and play bassinet to them to use for their new little baby arriving next year.
As I'm laying in bed in the early morning, I hear the all-telling tummy rumbling sounds. I grabbed Noah and I raced into the bathroom and I get him on the potty just in the nick of time. I was devastated. Because although I got him to the bathroom on time, and there were no accidents, I was terrified to continue on the road trip. My parents assured me it was going to be fine, and we would just put Noah in a pull-up. So we went about our business of packing up the hotel room to get ready to go downstairs and eat breakfast. Before we got out of the room, Noah had to go to the bathroom again. He got sick to his stomach again, but everything was fine and no accidents.
We go downstairs for breakfast, and as we're deciding what we want to eat from the continental breakfast layout, Noah thinks he's got to go again. So I pick him up and I raced back up the flight of stairs because this hotel did not have an elevator. I get into the hotel room, and Noah doesn't have to go anymore. I actually thought that was a good sign. We go back downstairs for breakfast, and Noah picks out what he wants. As he and Michael are sitting at the table to eat and my mom is also sitting there holding Avery, Noah starts throwing up on himself. I felt so horrible because there was another family in the little dining area eating, but that mom was so sweet because she looked at me and said that she was the mama of five boys and that it wasn't bothering her at all. So my dad and I are trying to get Noah over a trash can to continue throwing up. He's thrown up all over himself and his clothes. I am a wreck because I'm certain that I'm going to have to sit at this hotel all day with three kids waiting for Aaron to come pick us up while my parents continue on the road trip. So my dad runs out to the van to get Noah's suitcase so that I can change his clothes. My mom assures me that it's going to be fine and that she's not leaving me at that hotel. I get Noah all changed and cleaned up in the hotel room, and I make use of the several plastic bags that I brought with me and the gallon bags that I brought with me and we decided just to press forward on our trip. Noah told us that he had to go to the bathroom about eight times that day. And every single time we would stop and he would try to go but he would either be too afraid of the automatic toilets or they would be too loud or he wouldn't really have to go. So it just made the day take forever.
Noah continued to have diarrhea every single day that we were at my grandma's house. Somehow he made it through the car ride for an hour to Pennsylvania where we rode the Strasburg Railroad. He was absolutely fine and made it all the way back to my grandma's house before he got sick again that night.
On Monday he didn't get sick again until dinner time which I thought was great to go that long between getting sick. On Tuesday we were set to leave at noon and Noah got sick that morning, but it was starting to look a bit better. He made it through the entire car ride that day which put us in the car for 9 hours, along with a two-hour visit at a family friend's house in Virginia. We made it to the hotel in western Virginia, not West Virginia, at 11 p.m.. Noah refused to go TT, and actually did not TT the next day until we arrive back at my house at 7 p.m. Such is the life of three year olds. Noah did not get sick at all on Wednesday which was a blessing because we were in the car for exactly 12 hours. And by Thursday when he went to the bathroom, he was completely better. So of course he would get sick only during the time that that we were going to be on vacation.
Aaron told me that this was a deliberate attack on us from Satan and that I should enjoy myself no matter what. I made it to Monday before I had a breakdown, but Aaron was so sweet to talk to me on the phone and keep me sane. My parents were out of this world fantastic to us. My dad never once got upset that we had to keep stopping for Noah to try to go to the bathroom, or that Noah was sick, or that we had to keep stopping so I could feed Avery. And my mom just kept reassuring me the whole time that it was completely fine for me to be on this trip and that things were going to work out. In fact she and I patted ourselves on the back for going to Pennsylvania to the Strasburg Railroad because it was a risk to go to a town an hour away with a kid who's been sick, and having it be 49 degrees outside with a wind chill of probably 35. But I bundled Avery up like nobody's business and bundled my boys up like nobody's business and we got on that train and we had a good time.
My grandma got a bit of a cold right before we got there so she was a bit under the weather while we were there but the boys had a fantastic time and I'm so glad that my grandma got to meet Noah and Avery.
The moral of the story for myself, in the future when I read this again, is to get out of your comfort zone and do it anyway. My kids made so many memories on this trip and I just wouldn't be pleased with myself if I had refused to go based on fear. My mom was great and she took the kids outside of my grandma's house on Monday and on Tuesday and let them run off some energy and play in the leaf piles and run through a field in front of my grandma's house. And they absolutely loved it! Michael said that was his favorite part of the trip was getting to jump in leaves with Gigi. So it's important for me to remind myself that it's not about my comfort zone it's about getting out and doing something different despite the fear and letting my kids make memories.
Until Next Time,
Of course, while we were only 30 minutes away from the house, Michael asked if we were in Maryland yet. So at that moment I knew that this was going to be a long trip. Sporadically throughout the rest of the journey, Michael would ask me what town we were in. Sometimes we would actually be in a town, and I would tell him the name of that town or city. But a lot of the time, we were on the interstate in between towns and cities, so I would just start making up stuff. I would tell him we were in Green Grass, or Tall Tree, or Gray Rock. I would basically come up with a name of anything that I saw, and turn it into the name of the town.
The journey is supposed to be about 12 hours from my house to my grandmother's house in Maryland. I knew that the trip was going to take longer because we were going to have to stop every 3 hours to breastfeed Avery. Breastfeeding her can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. I knew that that would add time to our trip for every time that we had to stop, but I was hoping that we would either be getting gas or going to the bathroom or getting something to eat at these stops which would maximize our time.
We left on Friday night around 6 p.m., and we drove for 5 hours. We stopped at a hotel around 11 that night and we were in North Georgia. The next day we were supposed to be on the road for 7 hours not including the stops that we would have to make to feed Avery. However, it took us 13 hours on Saturday alone.
Coming home, we left on Tuesday at noon, and drove for 6 hours to get to a location that should have been two hours away. Welcome Thanksgiving traffic in Washington DC. We stopped to visit some family friends in Virginia and had dinner with them. We stayed at their house for 2 hours and then got back on the road and drove for another 3 hours. So that was 9 hours spent in the car on Tuesday. We stopped at a hotel in Western Virginia, not West Virginia. My parents had changed up the routes home in order to avoid Charlotte North Carolina and Atlanta Georgia Thanksgiving traffic. So on Wednesday we got in the car at 7 a.m. and drove all the way through Tennessee and clipped the northwest corner of Georgia before entering into Alabama. It took us a sweet forever to get through Knoxville and Chattanooga. And we pulled into my driveway at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. So the trip home, if you do the math, took us 9 hours on Tuesday and 12 hours on Wednesday. I. Was. Tired.
And here is the real kicker of this entire journey. The week leading up to this trip, I was working feverishly to get Michael better from a stomach bug that he had. He had to be checked out of school early on the Thursday two weeks before Thanksgiving because he wasn't feeling good and his blood sugar would not stay up in a safe range. This can be very dangerous so I had to go get him from school early. When he got home, he got sick to his stomach. Friday was a day off of school anyway, and he got sick again on Saturday morning. He was okay on Sunday, and on Monday we had our Endocrinology appointment. He got sick that morning, but we still went to the appointment and he was fine. He got sick again on Tuesday morning, and stayed home with me that day. On Wednesday he was finally better, and I was pretty sure that the sickness had run its course, so he went to school and was fine. He also went to school Thursday and Friday and was fine those days as well.
I patted myself on the back for getting my child over his sickness just in the nick of time to go on a road trip. The joke was on me.
On Friday mid-morning, my mother in law texted me to say that Noah had a little bit of diarrhea. I was hoping it was just a one-time incident but I was also terrified because I had just gotten one child over being sick just in time for the road trip, and I did not want to have another child get sick on the day of the road trip. So my mother in law suggested that I find some pull-ups if I had any left at the house. Fortunately I have been working on cleaning out the office closet earlier in that week and so I knew exactly where my spare pull-ups were. I pulled them out and they happened to be the perfect size for Noah, which is a total praise so thank you, God. I packed a few in my purse and packed several in Noah's overnight bag and I packed the rest of the packet in the back of the van. There seemed to be no issues anymore once he got home, so I thought maybe we were in the clear and that he just didn't want to stop watching his show to go to the bathroom earlier that day.
We drove for 5 hours that night and got to a hotel in North Georgia. The boys and I shared a double bed, which meant I got about 6 inches of space to sleep on.
Avery's Rock and play bassinet worked out absolutely fantastic, and I absolutely recommend it to any mom who's going to be traveling with a baby 4 months old and younger. Avery was the perfect size for this but I do think that if I had waited another month to use it, she would have been way too tall. Fortunately, I have a nephew on the way (yay to my older brother and his wife!), so I will be giving the Rock and play bassinet to them to use for their new little baby arriving next year.
As I'm laying in bed in the early morning, I hear the all-telling tummy rumbling sounds. I grabbed Noah and I raced into the bathroom and I get him on the potty just in the nick of time. I was devastated. Because although I got him to the bathroom on time, and there were no accidents, I was terrified to continue on the road trip. My parents assured me it was going to be fine, and we would just put Noah in a pull-up. So we went about our business of packing up the hotel room to get ready to go downstairs and eat breakfast. Before we got out of the room, Noah had to go to the bathroom again. He got sick to his stomach again, but everything was fine and no accidents.
We go downstairs for breakfast, and as we're deciding what we want to eat from the continental breakfast layout, Noah thinks he's got to go again. So I pick him up and I raced back up the flight of stairs because this hotel did not have an elevator. I get into the hotel room, and Noah doesn't have to go anymore. I actually thought that was a good sign. We go back downstairs for breakfast, and Noah picks out what he wants. As he and Michael are sitting at the table to eat and my mom is also sitting there holding Avery, Noah starts throwing up on himself. I felt so horrible because there was another family in the little dining area eating, but that mom was so sweet because she looked at me and said that she was the mama of five boys and that it wasn't bothering her at all. So my dad and I are trying to get Noah over a trash can to continue throwing up. He's thrown up all over himself and his clothes. I am a wreck because I'm certain that I'm going to have to sit at this hotel all day with three kids waiting for Aaron to come pick us up while my parents continue on the road trip. So my dad runs out to the van to get Noah's suitcase so that I can change his clothes. My mom assures me that it's going to be fine and that she's not leaving me at that hotel. I get Noah all changed and cleaned up in the hotel room, and I make use of the several plastic bags that I brought with me and the gallon bags that I brought with me and we decided just to press forward on our trip. Noah told us that he had to go to the bathroom about eight times that day. And every single time we would stop and he would try to go but he would either be too afraid of the automatic toilets or they would be too loud or he wouldn't really have to go. So it just made the day take forever.
Noah continued to have diarrhea every single day that we were at my grandma's house. Somehow he made it through the car ride for an hour to Pennsylvania where we rode the Strasburg Railroad. He was absolutely fine and made it all the way back to my grandma's house before he got sick again that night.
On Monday he didn't get sick again until dinner time which I thought was great to go that long between getting sick. On Tuesday we were set to leave at noon and Noah got sick that morning, but it was starting to look a bit better. He made it through the entire car ride that day which put us in the car for 9 hours, along with a two-hour visit at a family friend's house in Virginia. We made it to the hotel in western Virginia, not West Virginia, at 11 p.m.. Noah refused to go TT, and actually did not TT the next day until we arrive back at my house at 7 p.m. Such is the life of three year olds. Noah did not get sick at all on Wednesday which was a blessing because we were in the car for exactly 12 hours. And by Thursday when he went to the bathroom, he was completely better. So of course he would get sick only during the time that that we were going to be on vacation.
Aaron told me that this was a deliberate attack on us from Satan and that I should enjoy myself no matter what. I made it to Monday before I had a breakdown, but Aaron was so sweet to talk to me on the phone and keep me sane. My parents were out of this world fantastic to us. My dad never once got upset that we had to keep stopping for Noah to try to go to the bathroom, or that Noah was sick, or that we had to keep stopping so I could feed Avery. And my mom just kept reassuring me the whole time that it was completely fine for me to be on this trip and that things were going to work out. In fact she and I patted ourselves on the back for going to Pennsylvania to the Strasburg Railroad because it was a risk to go to a town an hour away with a kid who's been sick, and having it be 49 degrees outside with a wind chill of probably 35. But I bundled Avery up like nobody's business and bundled my boys up like nobody's business and we got on that train and we had a good time.
My grandma got a bit of a cold right before we got there so she was a bit under the weather while we were there but the boys had a fantastic time and I'm so glad that my grandma got to meet Noah and Avery.
The moral of the story for myself, in the future when I read this again, is to get out of your comfort zone and do it anyway. My kids made so many memories on this trip and I just wouldn't be pleased with myself if I had refused to go based on fear. My mom was great and she took the kids outside of my grandma's house on Monday and on Tuesday and let them run off some energy and play in the leaf piles and run through a field in front of my grandma's house. And they absolutely loved it! Michael said that was his favorite part of the trip was getting to jump in leaves with Gigi. So it's important for me to remind myself that it's not about my comfort zone it's about getting out and doing something different despite the fear and letting my kids make memories.
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Christmas Tour
Today I'm linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for Show & Tell Tuesday: Christmas Edition!
This is a chance to peek into the homes of others and see how they decorate for Christmas! These posts are some of my favorite for the whole year because I love seeing how others incorporate Christmas decor into their homes. I especially love seeing the sentimental family pieces that people have.
This is our tree. I let my kids decorate as high as they could reach (which is why most of the ornaments are on the lower half). I filled in the top of the tree with the more sentimental/breakable ornaments. I am not planning to rearrange the ornaments at all because I'm soaking up these moments when my kids want to help me decorate!
My mom had Precious Moments Baby's First Christmas for my brothers and me, and I wanted to carry that tradition through with my own kids. We ordered Avery's ornament this year, and now I feel like my collection is complete. :)
This Christmas pillow was made my by Nana!
This sleigh used to belong to my Aunt. It is now sitting on top of our entertainment center since two little boys couldn't resist pulling out the greenery.
I made this candy cane wreath last year at a women's craft night at our church.
The stockings are from Pottery Barn Kids. I love how they are all textured. It was so fun to pick out Avery's stocking this year!
Both boys have gotten a good laugh in putting a gigantic stocking on their heads and pretending it's a Santa hat!
Michael made a paper chain at school (and Noah made one at my mother in law's house), and they each take off a chain each morning to indicate one day closer to Christmas. It's an easy way for them to count down the days!
This is our Advent Calendar. Each morning, the boys can put a new character of the Christmas story on the felt.
This is Michael's school Santa picture, and his "Mistle-toes" from his very first Christmas in 2012!
We are taking all 3 kids to the local Santa tomorrow and I'm so excited! The boys are really "into" Christmas this year and are all about doing fun Christmas things, and Avery is young enough where I hope she won't mind being held by a stranger for a few moments!
The handprint wreath is from Noah's first Christmas, and the frame is last year's Christmas picture with our local Santa. Michael wasn't sure he wanted to see Santa and get his picture made. And Noah isn't really sure what's going on. The Nativity set was bought by my mom at a Christian bookstore a couple years ago.
This door hanging is on the door leading out to our deck. This used to hang in my house when I was growing up.
Here's a completed look at our mantle.
And a close up of the nativity set.
Here's a close up of Noah's handprint wreath and the Santa picture from last year.
This is the nativity set that I've been adding to since Aaron & my first Christmas after we were married. It sets on top of our entertainment center.
This is our dining room table with handmade placemats made by my Nana. I love these placemats so much!
This is a handprint wreath the boys made for me in 2015. I love displaying the Christmas crafts from years past. I know this will be even more of a treasure in the years to come when their hands aren't nearly this small!
On our door leading from the kitchen to the garage, I have a felt "Merry" banner. It was sent to me as part of a Christmas giveaway a couple years ago. Christmas boxes got put away with items still inside them, so I need to have Aaron go back up in the attic so I can get down the Hedgehog Nativity set that I won from this same Christmas giveaway. The shop where the Nativity Set came from, as well as the banner is Hopscotch and Honey. Check it out! Everything is so darling!
I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our Christmas decor. In the future, I'd like to set up little trees in my kiddo's bedrooms, but this year they're just not ready.
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
This is a chance to peek into the homes of others and see how they decorate for Christmas! These posts are some of my favorite for the whole year because I love seeing how others incorporate Christmas decor into their homes. I especially love seeing the sentimental family pieces that people have.
This is our tree. I let my kids decorate as high as they could reach (which is why most of the ornaments are on the lower half). I filled in the top of the tree with the more sentimental/breakable ornaments. I am not planning to rearrange the ornaments at all because I'm soaking up these moments when my kids want to help me decorate!
My mom had Precious Moments Baby's First Christmas for my brothers and me, and I wanted to carry that tradition through with my own kids. We ordered Avery's ornament this year, and now I feel like my collection is complete. :)
This Christmas pillow was made my by Nana!
This sleigh used to belong to my Aunt. It is now sitting on top of our entertainment center since two little boys couldn't resist pulling out the greenery.
I made this candy cane wreath last year at a women's craft night at our church.
The stockings are from Pottery Barn Kids. I love how they are all textured. It was so fun to pick out Avery's stocking this year!
Both boys have gotten a good laugh in putting a gigantic stocking on their heads and pretending it's a Santa hat!
Michael made a paper chain at school (and Noah made one at my mother in law's house), and they each take off a chain each morning to indicate one day closer to Christmas. It's an easy way for them to count down the days!
This is our Advent Calendar. Each morning, the boys can put a new character of the Christmas story on the felt.
This is Michael's school Santa picture, and his "Mistle-toes" from his very first Christmas in 2012!
We are taking all 3 kids to the local Santa tomorrow and I'm so excited! The boys are really "into" Christmas this year and are all about doing fun Christmas things, and Avery is young enough where I hope she won't mind being held by a stranger for a few moments!
The handprint wreath is from Noah's first Christmas, and the frame is last year's Christmas picture with our local Santa. Michael wasn't sure he wanted to see Santa and get his picture made. And Noah isn't really sure what's going on. The Nativity set was bought by my mom at a Christian bookstore a couple years ago.
This door hanging is on the door leading out to our deck. This used to hang in my house when I was growing up.
Here's a completed look at our mantle.
And a close up of the nativity set.
Here's a close up of Noah's handprint wreath and the Santa picture from last year.
This is the nativity set that I've been adding to since Aaron & my first Christmas after we were married. It sets on top of our entertainment center.
This is our dining room table with handmade placemats made by my Nana. I love these placemats so much!
This is a handprint wreath the boys made for me in 2015. I love displaying the Christmas crafts from years past. I know this will be even more of a treasure in the years to come when their hands aren't nearly this small!
On our door leading from the kitchen to the garage, I have a felt "Merry" banner. It was sent to me as part of a Christmas giveaway a couple years ago. Christmas boxes got put away with items still inside them, so I need to have Aaron go back up in the attic so I can get down the Hedgehog Nativity set that I won from this same Christmas giveaway. The shop where the Nativity Set came from, as well as the banner is Hopscotch and Honey. Check it out! Everything is so darling!
I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our Christmas decor. In the future, I'd like to set up little trees in my kiddo's bedrooms, but this year they're just not ready.
Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba
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