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!