Oh Baby, It's Busy!

J.D. earned his woodbadge beads!!!  Yea!  He asked if I was excited that he was done, my reply 'I'm just glad you don't have to do it again!'.   (note Miss Lilly in a Peter Pan costume ... she is always in costume these days!)

 Went to a Christmas program for the 2nd graders - my lovely Miss Lily is in the second row up, third from the left.

 Made 11 gingerbread houses for a Christmas Eve party!

 Helped Miss Lilly make lots of candy cane reindeer for her classmates.

 Attended a 1st time Christmas program for Big D.

 Preschoolers are so adorable!

 Helped Big D learn how to ride a bike without training wheels - not a planned thing, just a spontaneous 'let's try it' one afternoon and he did it!  Amazing!

Made 30 of these ... for my darling nursery kids at church.  More details to follow.  They turned out so much better than I had in my head.  Love it when that happens!

 Watched Master S sit on Santa's lap for the Christmas party :) He may be a 'big 10 year old' but he still loves to be a kid!

Counting down the days with homemade advent calendars --- Halloween candy never looked better!  We've done this for a few years - collected 25 of their 'favorite' pieces after Halloween, wrapped them with a long piece of Christmas paper and a twist tie in between each one ... viola!  free advents and less sugar coma at Halloween.

Also, not pictured, LOTS of basketball practice and games for Master S, a cookie exchange, a very large Santa project that will get pictures later, so excited!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Parade

We marked 4 years in Indiana last week. Has it really been that long? I was watching a family that recently moved here at church a few weeks ago, thinking about what a cute young family they were and realized that their kids are the ages our kids were 4 years ago --- and my kids seem so much older than theirs (notice I wrote my kids, not 'we' or 'me' - I don't feel any older than I did when I had Master S, 10 years ago). 

After 4 years, we finally went to the town Christmas parade this year.  I'd heard it was great fun, but between snow, ice and sub-zero temps over the years, we haven't ever been.  This year it was 60 degrees during the day and we decided we needed to make it our year to go - and oh! we've been missing a great treat!  Things like this make me so grateful to live in a 'smaller' town in the Midwest.  A church down from our 'spot' was handing out free hot chocolate, YUM!  There were so many churches with floats in the parade - one even had a live nativity - all promoting and proclaiming the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  What an encouraging, uplifting experience to feel the community support and embrace the true meaning of Christmas.  That, in combination with the patriotic presentation of the flag and our armed forces, tractors and cars decked out in lights, as well as the sense of community created with people gathering in 'downtown' Brownsburg just made me realize what a blessing it is to live here.

There was a tree lighting of the tree in front of town hall following, during which Miss Lilly just happened to lose another tooth - crazy girl!  She has earned the nickname 'toothless' around here, with that dimpled grin showing off lots of empty spaces and awkward 'grown up teeth' trying to fit in ... I should have started a fund for her orthodontic work when she was born!