The 1st of Many

Last week we attended Kendry's very first Christmas program.

First of all, let me tell you this: our kiddo loves to sing.

I mean, really loooovvvees it.

In the weeks leading up to the program he was singing his Christmas songs at home so we knew he had memorized most of the lyrics and melody.

But as adults we know that lyrics and melody can disappear completely from your mind when you find yourself standing on a stage in front of a crowd of people.

We weren't sure if Kendry would clam up and try to get off the stage as quickly as possible, or if he would thrive in the spotlight.

Here he is with his trainer class (he is the tall one in the middle). They sang with the younger toddler class.

Aside from getting a wee bit distracted by the faux fireplace behind him on the stage, Kendry definitely thrived.

Yes, sir.

And by 'thriving' I mean jumping sky-high during the closing song, completely exposing his little white tummy.

No reservations, that one has. 

(Disclaimer: After 2.5 years I still don't fully understand our camera. I attempted to snap a few photos while also filming the videos; thus two of the three videos have a few "click" moments of pause. Darnit.)

Kendry's class began the official program, strolling into the sanctuary ringing their bells and singing "Jingle Bells".

In case you couldn't hear it, at the end he brags "I'm on the stage!" 

Then he says "Hi guys!" 

The "Mister Sun" song is one of Kendry's favorites.

Finally, all of the kiddos Kendry's age and up sang the final number, "Celebrate! Celebrate! Jesus is Born!"

Can I just say how blessed we are to have Kendry at a Christian daycare?

Could you hear the excited screams coming from our kiddo's mouth at the end? Obviously he was excited.

After the program everyone enjoyed juice and cookies.

Kendry with his bestie:

Nana and Grandpa came to the program too!

I hope we never tire of these Christmas programs.

Seeing Kendry singing, jumping and clapping to songs about our Savior's birth -

my cup runneth over.

Parenting "Aha!" Moment of the Evening:

At the start of the program Justin and I were kinda poking fun (shhh, don't tell) at the grandpa who had his fancy tripod and camera all set up at the back of the audience.

These Christmas programs are serious business, you know.

Then I started recording Kendry's class as they walked in. I don't know if you could tell from the footage but I was laughing so hard at the cuteness of it all I could barely hold the camera still.

Tripod Grandpa gets the last laugh.

Hands and Feet

Sometimes I might upset you

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

on furniture and walls.

 

But every day I grow a bit

And soon I'll be so tall

That all those little fingerprints

Will be so hard to recall.

 

So here's a special handprint

Just so that you can say

This is how my fingers looked

When I placed them here today.

My baby is growing up too fast.
He doesn't even let me call him "my baby" anymore; he says he is a big boy now.

He still holds my hand when we go on our walks, but with each walk it feels like his hands are getting bigger and bigger.

  How do I stop the clock?



After browsing some fun kiddo handprint/footprint ideas on Pinterest, I had the idea to do one handprint/footprint craft with Kendry for 12 consecutive months.

My goal is to keep and/or photograph each one to include in his baby book.

While I cannot keep him from growing, at least I can document those precious hands and feet as they are right now.


We're only three months into our project and Kendry and I are both having so much fun with it.

October:

These are supposed to be spiders, can you tell?

November:

Our turkeys looked a wee bit creepy this year, like they were turkey zombies leftover from Halloween or something. Try as I might, I couldn't convince Kendry that the turkeys did not need their googly eyes painted.

December:

This month we changed it up and went with a footprint instead.
I saw this manger idea and knew it was perfect.

Theirs:

source


Ours:

I am in love with this one, even if Kendry did wiggle his toes a bit while making his print. And I put it on canvas so we can pull it out each year with our Christmas decor.

 

Stay tuned for January!

Merry Christmas!

Its been a busy December so far, but is is a wonderful kind of busy.

I love this time of year.

I haven't posted much this month, and I am not sure how much I will post in the coming weeks.

There are cookies to bake with my kiddo, egg nog that needs drinking, a cozy fire that needs appreciating, and classic Christmas movies to watch with my hubs.

There is packing to do for a trip I am so excited about I can hardly stand it.

So many memories to make.

We are relishing this season as a family,
taking as many moments as we can to thank God for all He has given, for the gift of His Son, and looking for opportunities to show others His love.

From our family to yours:

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and may God bless you richly in the New Year!

They Slept In Happily Ever After

Only if you count 6:35 a.m. as sleeping in.

And we do.

To say that Daylight Savings threw Kendry for a loop would be an understatement. We fully expected the first week after the time change to be difficult, but even after that first week he continued to wake earlier and earlier.

As a friend of mine so aptly put it: 

the concept of Daylight Savings was obviously not proposed by a mother.

At its worst Kendry woke at 3:45 a.m. two weeks ago.

Gah!

And because it doesn't get light until 7 a.m. now, the poor kiddo can't tell the difference between the darkness at 6:45 a.m. and the darkness at 3:45 a.m.

Light sleeper that I am, I pretty much know the second Kendry wakes up.

The sound effects go something like this:

1. Light thumps as he crawls out of his bed.

2. The clicking sound of his bedroom light being turned on.

3. The unmistakable rattle of his doorknob jostling as he opens the door.

(This knob rattles so much I am about ready to knock it out with a hammer and kiss it goodbye. Seriously.)

4. The pitter-patter of little feet across the hard floor between his room and ours.

5. Softer, padded footsteps as he crosses the carpet to my side of the bed.

(Why is it always MY side? Like Daddy is off duty or something?!)

6. And finally, the sound of another human being staring at you while you sleep pretend to sleep.
With his face a mere foot away from yours.

You know the sound I'm talking about.
Its eery.

Naturally, we usher Kendry back to bed and tell him its not time to get up yet, at which point he proceeds to doze off for 15 minutes (if we're lucky), and then come marching back into our bedroom again, certain it must be time to get up now.

Repeat this process a few more times between 3:45 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.

Thumps.   Click!   Rattle rattle.   Pitter-patter.   Eery stare.

Usually around the fifth cycle we scream "Uncle!" and padlock the kiddo's door shut with him inside.

Not really.

But don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind.


No, at some point we conclude that it is simply going to be that kind of a day and, ever so reluctantly, we get up.

And, if you're genius parents like we are, you pour your morning coffee, plant your kiddo in front of some 5:30 a.m. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, ponder how many other sleep-deprived parents are doing the exact same thing at that very moment because why else would Mickey be on at 5:30 a.m. unless there are kiddos awake to watch it...

...then log on to Amazon and order this clever little contraption:

Teach Me Time Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight

How genius is this?
This clock glows a really light yellow throughout the night, a sort of nightlight if you will.
When it hits the preset time (aka: the very earliest time Mommy and Daddy will allow the kiddo out of bed) the light yellow switches into a bright green.*

"It is now okay to leave your room, Kendry."

It doesn't really say that, but thats what I envision my kiddo saying to himself when he sees the green.

We have it set for 6:35 a.m.
A much better alternative to 3:45 a.m., don't you think?

Three of the last four days Kendry has succeeeded in staying in his room until getting the "green light" to come out.

And that is how peace has been restored to our mornings.

Except now the pattern goes like this:

Thumps.   Click!   Rattle rattle.   Pitter-patter.   Eery stare.

"Mom! My clock is green! Come see!"

Shouting before 6:45 a.m.?

Oh well.
You can't win 'em all.

*In case you can't tell by the product name, this clock is also designed to help your older kiddo learn to tell time.

Wordless Wednesday

HO!   HO!   HO!

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Sorry for being MIA lately.

We have had so much fun simply enjoying this time of year that I haven't stopped long enough to blog about any of it.

Hopefully this post will update you on a few of our goings on.

{2}

Thanksgiving at the Gimlin House was fantabulous!
The food was dee-lish, the company wonderful, and the kiddos mischievous (more on that later).
There was no Black Friday shopping for us; we were too busy hightailing it up to Quincy to spend the rest of the holiday weekend with our friends and chillin' at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Like I said, fantabulous!

{3}

Last weekend the three of us ran in the Santa 5k Fun Run in Clarkston.

We love getting outside and doing active things as a family.

For the second half of the race Kendry was begging for me to let him out of the BOB so he could run too.

Maybe next year.

{4}
Happy birthday to my big sister, Jaimee!
See you in a few weeks, sis!

{5}

After two weeks of Kendry waking by 5am (yawn!), we spent $30 on a kiddo alarm clock which will arrive in the mail this week. Then the other night at bedtime we told him firmly "you stay in bed until mommy and daddy come to get you."

He slept until 7am the next two mornings, and since then he hasn't been up earlier than 6:30am.

Apparently we weren't giving our kiddo enough credit for his ability to follow basic instructions.

Next up: instructing him on how to do his own laundry.

{6}

Hooray for finally making my own Christmas tree skirt!

This has seriously been years in the making - or rather, I thought about doing it for years and finally got around to it this month.

Here is the tutorial I used.

Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles, ruffles...
(Think Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle singing: "Horses, horses, horses, horses...")

I already had the canvas drop cloth ($7) and all the fabric (old linen curtains that I machine-washed when I should have dry cleaned  -oops!-  and a little burlap), so this project was a bargain.

Just cut and hot glue...and hot glue...and hot glue.

I'm not gonna lie, this one took some time to assemble.

But I love it!

 

{7}

Next week Kendry will participate in his very first Christmas program. We can't wait to see if he will be the kiddo covering his face with his hands so the audience won't see him, or the kiddo screaming the songs two inches from the microphone.

I'm hoping for the latter.


 

{8}

The paper chain countdown for our plane trip to Alaska is getting shorter and shorter...

Kendry loves ripping another link off each day and counting the remaining links.

Then he proceeds to jump around and shout "We're going on the airplane!"

Excited much?

 

{9}

Sappy Christmas novels and Hallmark movies (and commercials) make my world go round.

{10}

This Week's Blessing:
The hubs put up our Christmas lights and even added more this year.
Plus, he made me three of these 'trees' with our wire tomato stands:


source

Our house looks so festive!

Here With Us

This time of year our local Christian radio station mixes Christmas songs into their regular music.
Every time they play this song I am moved to tears.


"Heaven's love reaching down to save the world..."


Thank you, Father, for the gift of Your Son, our Savior.

Here With Us

~Joy Williams~

It's still a mystery to me
That the hands of God could be so small,

How tiny fingers reaching in the night

Were the very hands that measured the sky

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Heaven's love reaching down to save the world

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Son of God, Servant King,

You're here with us

You're here with us

It's still a mystery to me, oh,

How His infant eyes have seen the dawn of time

How His ears have heard an angel's symphony,

But still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Heaven's love reaching down to save the world

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Son of God, Servant King

Here with us

You're here with us

Jesus the Christ, born in Bethlehem

A baby born to save, to save the souls of man

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Heaven's love reaching down to save the world

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Son of God, Servant King

You're here with us

You're here with us

Ten on Tuesday

{1}

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are hosting dinner this year and I am just itchin' to set my beautiful table.

Its going to be fab-u-lous!

{2}
Our houseguests arrive tomorrow, and if you think my guest room is spotless and ready for them...well...you would be wrong.
I was up until 1am this morning getting it ready and I am still not done.
I hate it when I procrastinate.

{3}

There is a strange correlation between me staying up too late and Kendry waking way too early.

I am functioning dragging along on 4.5 hours of sleep today.

{4}

Kendry asked to take his baby doll in the car with us this morning.

(Yes, my little boy has a doll. You got a problem with that?) 

It seemed like a harmless idea until I glanced in my rearview mirror on my lunch break and found two baby doll eyes staring back at me.

Freak. Me. Out.

Sleep might be hard to come by tonight too, thanks to the creepy baby doll dreams I am bound to have.

{5}
We had our first snow day last weekend.

In true LC Valley fashion, the snow melted away the same day.

{6}

This week I allowed myself some literary time (a rare thing these days) and read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

I highly recommend it!

 

{7}

Do you have any idea how cold it has been in Fairbanks over the last two weeks?

Our little family could be in for some serious temperature shock come Christmas.

 

{8}

I can't tell you how it happened but our kiddo has picked up a slight British accent on some words.

This video is aptly named "Bowt".

 

{9}

New tires.
A pratical purchase.
A boring purchase.

{10}

This Week's Blessing:

Getting to run another race with my kiddo.

All too soon he will be too big to push in the BOB.

And not too long after that he will refuse to let me put cute (albeit somewhat dorky) turkey hats on him anymore.

Boogie Down

I am not the only one who loves the new keyboard.

Not only does Kendry's love of playing give me hope for his musical future, but those hip movements lead me to believe he just might defy his genetic code and grow up to have rhythm.

Holiday Wreath {P}inspiration

Have you heard of a pinterest project yet?

Pinterest Project [n. pin-ter-est proj-ekt] - the act of a Pinterest addict getting off their heinie, pulling themselves away from their computer screen displaying pin after pin after pin, and finally completing one of the great projects they have spent countless hours pinning.

I am not even going to tell you how many pins I have.

It is borderline embarrassing.

But I am all about pinterest projects.

What fun are great ideas if you don't put them to use?

This project is a combination of two ideas:

1. Cutting up a foam pool noodle, taping the ends together and using it as a wreath form.

(source)

Can you say FREE? I snatched Kendry's worse-for-wear pool noodles and hacked them up. Hey, he won't need more until next summer anyway. Have you ever used a carpet knife? Serious sharpness. Those pool noodles sliced apart like butta'.

2. Crafting with coffee filters.  

(source)

Coffee filter crafts are everywhere right now. They are super cheap and very easy to work with.

Pool noodle + coffee filters =

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Slice up your pool noodle, shape it into a circle and tape it securely. My wreath form was 13" across, which looked small at first, but we all know first impressions can be deceiving. Once completed, this wreath is the perfect size and quite full.

2. Tear some long strips of light colored fabric (I used muslin), keeping the width about 4". Wrap the fabric around your wreath form to hide the ugliness that is a disintegrating pool noodle, pinning or gluing the fabric in place. The light-colored fabric is necessary because it blends with the coffee filters and disguises small gaps; plus, you want to avoid putting any hot glue directly onto the foam noodle. Trust me, it will melt. Fast.

3. Gather up your hot glue gun, lots of glue sticks, lots of coffee filters, and a Diet Coke and start working. I scrunched the bottom of each filter a bit and then attached it with hot glue. In all it took me about 4 hours of scrunching and gluing. Put a fall movie on in the background to help pass the time.
I have a thing for Pauly Shore in Son-in-Law.
We all have our vices.

NOTE: I don't advise starting in one place and going all the way around your wreath form. The filters start piling up on each other and it gets tough to make them fill out the wreath in a uniformed fashion. Instead, I would complete a 5" section, then go out a few inches to a bare spot and start a whole new section. When you think you are almost done, step back and look for tiny bare spots that could accept one more filter. The fuller the better!

4. When your gluing is completed, step back to admire the beauty you have created and exclaim "Wow is that white!" (if you used white filters like I did)  It is almost hard on the eyes white. So I brewed a little coffee, put it into a spray bottle and repeatedly spritzed the entire wreath until it had the slightly browned color I was going for - all the while listening to the hubs complain because he hates the smell of coffee. 

Oh the price my hubs pays for my crafting addiction.

Its a tough life.

5. Put a cute accessory on the front of your wreath, then hot glue a ribbon scrap to the back and hang it up. I suggest attaching your front accessory (in my case a ribbon) with something other than hot glue, like a small safety pin. This way you can swap out your accessory with each season without damaging the filters.

Coffee filter beauty!

Are those ruffles not totally gorgeous?

They remind me of a wedding dress.

And because I am a total movie dork - always quoting lines, pointing out references and such - I couldn't resist posing for this hilarious Chevy Chase similarity:

{Spies Like Us}

The kiddo thought this was pretty funny too.

HAPPY CRAFTING!

I Will Be Here

{2005}

Tomorrow morning if you wake

up and the sun does not appear
I will be here.

If in the dark, we lose sight of love

Hold my hand, and have no fear

'Cause I will be here.

I will be here

When you feel like being quiet

When you need to speak your mind

I will listen
And I will be here.

When the laughter turns to cryin'

Through the winning, losing and trying

We'll be together

I will be here.

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up

And the future is unclear

I will be here.

Just as sure as seasons were made for change

Our lifetimes were made for these years

So I will be here.

 

I will be here

And you can cry on my shoulder

When the mirror tells us we're older

I will hold you

And I will be here.

To watch you grow in beauty

And tell you all the things you are to me

I will be here.

 

I will be true to the promise I have made

To you and to the One who gave you to me.


Tomorrow morning, if you wake up

And the sun does not appear

I will be here

Oh, I will be here.

-Steven Curtis Chapman-

 

 

Celebrating 6 years of marriage today!

 

 

DING! DONG! The Door is Done!

What can I say?

We like to drag out our home improvement projects around here.

Case in point: we began painting our home in May 2010 and did not finish until four months later.

Why we didn't paint our front door when we painted the house in 2010 is beyond me, except that I know we would not have picked orange back then.

Nope, a year ago we probably would have played it safe with a dark ink blue or even {gasp!} stayed with the white.

Boooorrrinng!

No offense if you have an ink blue or white door.

Its just that Justin and I are finally discovering our design tastes and, as it turns out, we like a little bit of funky now and then.

Cue the 80's disco music!

"Won't you take me to funky town,
Won't you take me to funky town..."

You should know I have killer dance moves for this song.
Just ask my kiddo.



Anyhew...
I touched on some of my pop of color inspiration back in July.
After trying two different paint samples and taping about twenty different swatches on top of that we finally settled on Bird of Paradise.

Justin bought the Behr paint and primer in one, which I didn't realize until I was already shaking up my Kilz primer on paint day. When Justin pointed out that I didn't need to prime I was ecstatic! I might go so far as to say that the time consuming 'prime, dry, then paint' process was the reason I dragged this project out for so long, but who am I kidding.
I am just lazy sometimes. And impatient.


Any job worth doing is worth doing well, right?
Which is exactly why you should be slightly suspicious when a product claims to simplify your painting by elimating the priming stage.


Mistake #1
After two coats of the Behr you could still clearly see the spots of green paint underneath.
Grrr!
In hindsight, I should have done one coat of primer first, especially with the beatings that doors take.
It also didn't help that I was using a sponge roller.
Lesson learned.
(NOTE: we don't intend to buy the paint and primer again; we haven't been impressed with it)


For the third and fourth coat I used a roller with a longer nap.
Much better.


Mistake #2
No matter how great a multi-tasker you are, never attempt to paint while watching a kiddo and preventing two cats from sneaking into the warm house while the front door is open for painting.
In fact, remove the cats from the equation altogether if you can.
Otherwise you will find yourself scrubbing a path of orange kitty footprints off your carport cement.


I'm convinced I cannot complete a home improvement project without drama.


But at least the end results are worth it.
The combination of our house color with the white trim and orange door is funky awesome!

Let's recap the transformation of our door/carport, shall we?

{Dingy white with a screen door through May 2010 - blech!}


{Still dingy white with no screen door in October 2010}

{Still dingy white and covered with orange paint samples in July 2011}



{Nekkid door in September 2011}


{Today}

Somebody please ask for directions to our house.

I am dying to say "Its the house with the orange door."



{Disclaimer: we still need to do a clear protective coat and add a kick plate at the bottom before she is completely finished. I also want to add some typography below the window. But like I said, I am impatient. I wanted to show you a photo already.}



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