Christmas Traditions

1.  Home Alone is my all time favorite Christmas movie.  It's a tradition to watch it Thanksgiving night, and hopefully a few more times by Christmas. 

2.  I buy each of the kids a new, special ornament every year.  This year Jagger has his first Christmas ornaments and Malone got a ballet ornament.

3.  Speaking of Christmas movies, I must also watch The Santa Clause with Tim Allen and the Charlie Brown Christmas special sometime before Christmas. 

4.  We make cookies Christmas Eve to leave for Santa.

5.  We open presents on Christmas Eve with the kids.  We give them our gifts from us and give gifts to each other from the kids.  Then after the kids go to bed, Justin and I give each other our gifts.  This is a special time that allows us to spend some quiet time alone.

6.  Santa Claus brings 3 big presents for each of the kids.  This represents the 3 gifts brought to baby Jesus from the Wise Men.

7.  Stocking Stuffers are my absolute favorite part of Christmas morning.  Sometimes, it's the little things that are the funnest to get. 

8.  On Christmas Day we eat steak, salad, and baked potatoes for our big meal.  Not exactly traditional, but it has become our own traditional Christmas Day meal.

9.  Christmas Day night we go riding through town and neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights.  We didn't get to do it last year because of the snow and road conditions, but a White Christmas was even better!

10.  I love Christmas music, and play it in my car starting at Thanksgiving!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmas is here...well less than a month away.  It is absolutely, without a doubt my FAVORITE time of year.  I love everything about it: the trees, the lights, the music, the church services, and even the shopping.  I just think the atmosphere and air seem magical at Christmas time.  This year we decorated our house the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Justin got all our boxes down from the attic and set up our trees (we have 2 big ones and 2 small ones: one in each of the kids' room).  When he plugged in our big trees both of them had huge sections of lights not working.  After working on them for a while, we decided the one in the living room was not able to be saved and we needed to buy a new one for our living room.  I was devastated because I loved my tree.  I loved the fact that I had the option of doing just colored lights, just white lights, or both together. After getting our new one and putting it all together I was really pleased, even though I would still love to have some colored lights on it too  :)

I was really letting this hurdle dampen my Christmas spirit.  But, as usual it all worked out.  I needed to stop and remember that Christmas is NOT about the decorating (even though that is super fun and special), but about the birth of our Savior.  Justin and I are teaching Malone and Jagger that Christmas is one big birthday party for Jesus.  All the trees and lights are decorations for the birthday party, the presents are a reminder that it's Jesus' birthday, and Santa Claus comes because he loves Jesus so much that he wants all the boys and girls to help him celebrate. 

I have seen several people post, blog, or talk about not being in the spirit this year.  I know our society turns Christmas into one big, commercial event, however, Christmas is what YOU make it in your own life and home.  I CHOOSE to have the spirit, have fun, and remember what it is all about.

Thankful

This time of year is definately my favorite time.  I love fall colors, cooler weather, and the spirit that fills the air.  In a world where many people have little or nothing, I am blessed to have an abundance of things to be thankful for.  With the Thanksgiving holiday a week away I thought I'd take time to reflect upon my life and what I am thankful for.

1.  I am thankful for my salvation.  I am completely undeserving of that precious gift from the Lord, but am eternally grateful to have it.
2.  I am thankful for my wonderful husband.  He is a great man, father, and friend.  He works hard, which at time frustrates me because work takes up so much of his time, but I am so proud of his work ethic and what it allows for me and our family (see #7).  He spends quality time with our children and is a natural with them.
3.  I am thankful for my precious, precious babies.  Malone and Jagger have completely fulfilled my life.  When I was a little girl being a "mommy" to my babies was my favorite thing to play.  I always knew I wanted to be a mommy, but never knew how much love I would have for my children.
4.  I am thankful for my mom, who is my best friend.  She is the most selfless person I know, putting everyone above herself.  And she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Malone and Jagger.  She is the perfect Nana!
5.  I am thankful for my family.  In a world where many people have no one, I have so many people who love me, and who I love.
6.  I am thankful for my Granny, who is in Heaven now.  Even though she is no longer here with me, I will forever be grateful to have had her in my life.  She was more precious to me than anyone, and I loved her so much.  I'm so glad I knew her. 
7.  I am thankful to be able to be a stay at home mom part time.  My babies have been growing too fast and I can't imagine missing even more than I already feel like I do.  I am again thankful for Justin for letting me have this awesome opportunity.
8.  I am thankful for my teaching job that has allowed me to work part time this year.  It provides some income into our house, insurance and benefits, and a time where I can go have my career and have adult interaction. 
9.  I am thankful for my beautiful home.  How blessed I am to have it, and I am so thankful to have somewhere to stay warm and dry and call HOME.
10.  I am thankful for my church.  It's a place I like to go to learn and be fed in the Word. 

There are many other things I can think of that I am thankful for!  I hope we can all reflect and find things in our lives that deserve our gratitude!  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Princess and The Frog

This year has been an exciting Halloween.  It is Jagger's first Halloween and Malone's first year of telling me what she wants to dress up as!  I can't believe Malone is already old enough to really know what she wants and decides what to be for Halloween.  This year she wanted to be a princess, which is a pretty obvious choice for Malone.  She thinks she is a princess in real life already, so why not dress up as one?! :)  She even had to pick out her own princess dress and it HAD to be a long dress.  We found several dresses online and Malone chose this beautiful pink dress and it was exactly what she wanted.

 I thought for Jagger's first Halloween I would try to coordinate him with Malone's costume, so I decided to make him a frog: The Princess and The Frog.  Malone keeps saying that she can kiss him and make him a prince.  Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard?!  Jagger's frog costume even had a little crown on top.  He was the absolute cutest frog I have ever seen!!!!! 



Malone made a beautiful princess and Jagger made the sweetest frog ever!  What a priviledge to be a Mommy to these two precious gifts from God. 

Today was also the day Jagger is 7 months old!  Wow!  Where did that time go to?  I'm still in shock that he is that old.  He is becoming so interactive!  He loves to clap his hands and bang on things.  He LOVES to eat.  He is a bottomless pit.  I'm just now starting the 2nd foods with him, which are bigger containers of food, and he eats every last bite of them.  He is a little chunk and is getting so heavy.  I love him so much!  Look at the difference from 1 month old to 7 months old.  Wow!  It doesn't even look like the same baby! 

Mommy Guilt

Lately I have had a lot of Mommy guilt.  I feel as if I never get to spend any quality, 1 on 1 time with Malone.  Don't get me wrong, I spend a lot of time with her, but usually accompanied by Jagger or other people.  Recently, on the days I work and I go pick her up she runs to me and won't let me put her down.  This just seems to be another example of how she is missing her alone Mommy time.  And I miss my alone Malone time! 

Jagger is a baby and requires everything to be done for him (obviously).  This takes up so much of my attention and Malone is noticing this.  She does not seem to get mad or upset (usually), but does become much more clingy than her normal self.  I also get alot of alone Jagger time while Malone is at school or when she stays the night with her Nana or Meme.  I know this is not a new problem faced by mothers, and I know there are other mothers out there who have had to deal with this exact situation, but Malone is my special first baby who I was so used to spending all of my attention on, and now the situation is drastically different.  I think it has gotten more noticeable lately because Jagger has become more playful and interactive with me and Malone sees this too!  She is naturally, and understandably, jealous.

This weekend I am going to have a special Mommy and Malone girl day.  I am so excited about this.  My heart hurts that Malone is missing my time, and I am so excited to give her my undivided attention.  We are going to get our nails done, have lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and according to Malone, get a toy and Starbucks too!  I know this seems like spoiling her, but they are only babies once and I will never get this time back again.  I am going to spoil her and cherish her all I want!!  :)  I hope to have many more girl days with Malone in the future so she always knows how special and precious she is to me!!!

I am a...

Worrier!  I worry about everything.  I'm not sure why I'm like that, but I have always been one to worry about things.  Even as a child, I worried to the point that I made myself sick.  I now try to find the humor in this trait I have, but even finding humor doesn't stop the worrying. 

I worry about my kids, health issues (I find a way to worry about getting sick when I'm not actually sick), what people think, work, and I even worry about worrying. But when I find myself worrying about something (which is almost all the time) I find myself reflecting and praying over these Bible verses:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6: 25-27

Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7

It is not always easy to stop worrying, but I know that the Lord loves me and cares about my worries.  I know I can go to him with my worries and that they matter to him!  How comforting that is during times when I am consumed with worry.  I also know that I have to stop worrying so much and trust in the Lord.  He WILL take care of me regardless of if I worry or not, so why worry?!  :) 

It's that time again....

It's the time of year again that I start thinking and preparing for Christmas.  I know many people would think "Wow, that's early", but I'm a planner at heart and it's also my favorite time of year, so in my opinion, it's never too early to prepare. I'm one of those crazy people who put out Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.  I know, I know...that is so early, but like I said, it's the most wonderful time of year, so why not enjoy it?!!!?

 Justin and I have an annual ritual in October where we start our Christmas shopping for the kids.  Both of our birthday's are in October and we always spend one Saturday (usually the weekend in between our birthdays) shopping and then we go somewhere nice for dinner.  We have done this since Malone was born and we usually get her Christmas finished on that trip.  It is one of my favorite days of the entire year.  I love getting to spend quality time with Justin, while doing something fun and special for Malone (and now Jagger too!).   This year our month of October is crazy-busy so we are going to do our annual birthday date early while I'm on Fall Break the first week of October.  I'm so excited!

 I have already started asking Malone what she wants Santa Claus to bring her for Christmas.  So far she has said a car (oh my...I'll be in real trouble when she is 16), a Hello Kitty bicycle, and Barbies.  She loves her Barbies (which I think is so precious, because that was my favorite toy as a child too) so I think she would also love to have a Barbie Dream House.  I think I'll show her a picture of one and see what she says. 

Jagger is easy at this stage because I get to decide everything he gets.  :)  I have several things in mind for him, but I'm gonna keep my options open so I can have fun browsing and shopping next week. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year..... What fun rituals do you have for fall, and leading up to Christmas???