Happy December 1st!!!

It snowed last night and all day today...so we got our first official snow to usher in the wonderful month of December!

Ethan's shoes are the biggest in our whole house now! How on earth did that happen?!?!

We had a special date last night. To the mall. So I could buy him stuff. Lucky me.  =)

It was a low-key day, but super busy at the same time.

A little housekeeping & organizing, a few games of "Candy Cane-Land," some frolicking in the fresh snow, soccer- X 3- like usual, ha! There was also a several-hour loss of power which was kind of a bummer, but it all worked out okay. 

Jonah is so confident and aggressive (in the right way) on the field, but he is so shy and rather passive off of it. Go figure! We are trying to help him find that same confidence and apply it to his life off the field.

 Loooooooove watching my boys play!

Our board games begged for a little no-power ambiance.  =)

Today also marked the beginning of our wild & cuh-razy 2-birthdays-within-3-days-of-each-other-and -within-13-days-of-Christmas month!!! We also started our special month-long family traditions tonight: drawing a name out of our little red prayer basket and putting up an ornament on our beloved Advent calendar (the one my Mom made that my brother and I used to argue about all growing up because we learned early on that whoever started on the even days would be the one to pin Santa up on Christmas Eve...thank goodness for so many kids in our family to rule out that issue!)

 No idea why she's digging after #19 here....we started with Day One like usual.

Earlier in the day I found myself all alone inside the house for a few minutes. It was peaceful, and as I sat and watched the snow falling outside, I reflected on the names and groups of people I was writing down to include in the prayer basket this year. There is something so powerful and meaningful about listening to your child pray about a family member or a homeless person. Their prayers really do echo their hearts, and we are blessed to have such thoughtful, caring children.

Of course this sounds all lovey dovey and picture-perfect, so I won't spoil it by spilling the beans on the sweet little pink monster in our midst this evening at bedtime, who was either screaming at me for singing, or not singing, for tucking her in wrong, or not at all, or....the drama, ha!

This side of the kitchen has quickly become a festive, happy place to be. There have been some adjustments (ie, tears) in this whole new house saga- there are no memories here yet, things don't feel comfortable and familiar just yet. I know- or am hoping!- that in time, this will no longer be the case, but this whole process has been quite emotional.

 

Here's to creating new memories to cherish! 

Happy December 1st!