Getting excited

The siding is all up. It still needs to be painted. Crossing our fingers that mudding and tape happens this week! I'm excited to see it in person!

Last books of 2012

The last books for 2012...

 

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

Book #2 in the Flavia de Luce series (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is #1 in the series).  She is a delightful and precocious young chemist/mystery solver.  A young "arsenic and old lace" type gal. 
I haven't read many mysteries, but I love these ones.  I can't wait to read #3. 

Good read.

And...

 

Beautiful Creatures

 

Another YA fantasy fiction.  Mortal boy, magical girl.  I saw the trailer for the movie and thought the movie looked good so I wanted to read the book first.  There are three more in the series to go!  I need to read the next novel before I can decide if I like it or not.  Hmmm.

House

The sheetrocking is all done! 

Now they need to put the gas meter in so the heat can run inside so they can mud and tape next.

 

 

On the outside, the brick is all done, and the hardy board is going up.

The boys

The boys all clean and dressed up to look like brothers. I love it!

They are all filthy now and look like dirty brothers.

Christmas review

We had a great Christmas in Connecticut this year.  On Christmas Eve, after McKinley came home from her eye appointment with her new glasses, we started our evening with a family picture.  Then we played "Trouble" to see who would open their exchange gift first.  After the game we opened our exchange gifts.  The kids got to play with their gifts while we finished preparing dinner.  We had our favorite meal of filet mignon, baked potatoes, rhodes rolls, and slush.  After dinner the kids opened their Christmas jammies.  Then they were off to bed.  The three older kids share a room, so they conspired and snuck in their DS's and ended up playing in their beds.  We checked on them at 9:30 and Sawyer was still awake. 
Christmas morning we heard stirrings around 6:30.  Kent stayed up in their room to curtail their exhuberance and allow Josh to sleep until he was ready to wake up.  We didn't want a grumpy baby all day.  Just after 8:00 Josh was ready and we went downstairs and opened presents.
The presents this year included:
McKinley- Monster High dolls, clothes, books, earrings, rubber duckies, modeling clay, DS game, stuffed animal.
Sawyer- Beyblade stadium, beyblades, DS game, Wii games, clothes, stuffed animal, book, pokemon cards, board game.
Hayden- Beyblades, beywheelz, DS game, Wii games, clothes, stuffed animal, books, pokemon cards, trashies.
We also replaced my broken computer, yay!  We broke down and got a communal mini Ipad this year. 
When all the presents were opened we played, watched movies, talked to gradmas and grandpas, and played Headbanz for a few minutes before dinner. 
It's been a wonderful Christmas!  I loved spending it with my favorite people.  We are blessed.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Magic

We are on the cusp of an unbeliever.

McKinley wrote this in her letter to Santa this year.

I know it is only a matter of time, but I wish it could last forever. This might be our last year with kids who are all believers.

Sawyer and Hayden's principal sent this letter out after a difficult week back at school for parents and staff, just before Christmas break.

Here's a small snippet that I liked:

"Please remember as we close out this calendar year that we need to believe in this magical time of year. We need to bask in the laughter and exuberance of our little ones. We need to nurture their dreams. We need to cultivate joy, peace and hope in this community."

I wish they could all believe forever. This year I will definitely be basking in the magic that is Christmas through their eyes.

House

Next week the Sheetrock goes up. Every night in their prayers McKinley and Sawyer ask that "our house will be built soon". They're ready!

Sprained

McKinley hurt her finger the other week. I gave it a couple days to see if it would get better before wasting my time and money. When she still complained about it I took her in to the doctor, well, two doctors since we also had to see the orthopedist. Luckily it's just sprained.
They fit her with a little splint to wear for a few days. It's been on for a week :). You see, for a little girl who puts on twenty socks on one foot to fashion a cast, this medical splint is almost a dream come true. I think she'd actually prefer a cast, but the pain that goes with broken bones isn't all it's cracked up to be :).

Cool Kat

Josh kept insisting that I put these sunglasses on him.

I could eat him up!

Nice!

I will miss seeing all the cool cars driving around that I will never ever own.
This was in the church parking lot on Sunday...

it's a Ferrari

Sometimes on our way home from church we see a lime green lamborghini in a store parking lot too.  We have seen maseratis, bentleys, aston martins, rolls royce, ferraris, lamborghinis, and of course porsches which are quite commonplace here.

Unexpected

I put my kids on the bus today.  I didn't expect it and I didn't see it coming, but as soon as they stepped on the bus I panicked a little inside.  I'm sending them off to school.  I don't know if it will be the last time.  I don't know if they'll be safe.  I don't know if they'll come home.  There are no guarantees.  I'm scared.  I didn't expect to feel that, but I did. 
After a few tears, the day got better.  Having Josh here helped. 
Newtown is in our stake.  The wards are donating angels for an "angel tree" for the Parker family, in honor of Emilie Parker who was to be the angel in the ward Christmas party on Saturday.  I made and delivered a scherenshnitte (paper cut) angel out of vellum to our Relief Society President's house.  I made it because I wanted it to be from the heart.  They received a lot of angels for the tree, so one tree full will be set up in the Primary room, and the other angels will be shipped to Utah for the funeral.  Wilton is also collecting new teddy bears to pass out to each and every child at Sandy Hook and any siblings of students. 
Lest you think I am a total mess, I have also felt the peace and reassurance that only the Prince of Peace can bring. 

flag at half mast

Police are stationed at every school

Tonight for our advent calendar we went to a Christmas light display here that is set up like a little village.  It was at 6 Midwood Dr, Norwalk, CT.  The kids had a blast.  They want to do it again next year, ha ha.  Too bad we didn't find it two years ago! 

A night in Jerusalem

Tonight was our ward party.  The youth put on a "Night in Jerusalem".  It was very sweet.  We walked through different areas of "Jerusalem" and then made our way to the gym for "Jerusalem food".  The night culminated in the nativity scene of Mary and Joseph and singing.

Then a member of our stake presidency updated us on his experience with giving the Parker's a blessing last night.  We are all heartbroken.  We are having a ward fast tomorrow for the spirit of peace.

The kids had a good time though.  The boys dressed up as wise men.  McKinley and her friend Zoe wanted to be shepherds.  McKinley had Zoe sleep over tonight too.  They were fast asleep by 10:30.  Happy mama.

Josh stayed home with headache daddy.

Overwhelmed

Newtown, CT is about 30 miles from us.  It is one of the key areas we looked when moving here and again when looking to buy a home to stay here.  It was almost our home.  We are truly blessed to be in Wilton. 
We heard the breaking news that there had been a shooting at the school.  The details were scant at the time.  We heard perhaps 3 people had been injured. 
I had to go to Sawyer's school to read his class a story.  While I was there I noticed the police car in the parking lot patrolling the area.  Inside they announced there would only be indoor recess and no extra recesses for the day.  The kids all groaned and yelled "why?!" like kids do.
It wasn't until I had to go pick up McKinley for a doctor's appointment that the news conference was held and it was revealed just how many children were actually killed.  Kent called and told me and I bawled. 
I picked up McKinley and on our way to the orthopedist office the Wilton superintendent called all the parents and left his message about it all on our phones.  And I cried again.  And I had to tell McKinley why I was crying.
Both of the boys' teachers had to leave early that day. The boys don't know anything about it yet.  I don't think they need to know this young.  What good would it do?  Would it be to relieve my own grief?  Or would it be to to their benefit?
We held them close that night and watched a movie on the couch while we snuggled. 
We are completely overwhelmed with heartbreak. 

Waiting for the bus

Waiting for Sawyer's bus to get here around 4:00.  I can't believe it starts getting dark around here so early!

Josh loves to be outside.

And Hayden wanted me to take pictures of him being a goofball.

But I love every piece of him.

Technical difficulties

My laptop got dropped on the hard wood floor by sweet little hands. I was so sad. We were just talking about backing up the computer days before the accident. All of 2012's pictures were on there. After many failed attempts, and lots of sincere prayer, we were able to back up the computer onto my external hard drive. Relief.
It will be a while before I can load it onto a new computer and resume my normal computer activity. Until then I will keep up by posting via smartphone. I am relieved we were able to save all my data.

underwhelmed

Last Friday we went to the Wilton tree lighting for our advent calendar.  It is in the town center and was highly advertised around town.

This was it.  A few strands poorly strewn around the tree.

We grabbed this picture from the car on our way out of town after we waited a few minutes in a long line for Santa at the library and talked the kids into going home instead.

On the positive side, they had a nice little spread at the library complete with wine for the adults.  Maybe if we'd had a few drinks the tree would have been more impressive.

House

The framing is done.  The hvac is done.  The roof felt is on.  All windows except one are installed.  The construction walk through is next week.  That's the last thing before the sheetrocking begins.  I hope the speedy progress keeps up!

Gelukkig Kersfeest

Last night was our Dutch Christmas Eve.  Sawyer said his next favorite thing (after Dec 25th Christmas) was Chocolate Christmas, which is how he views Dutch Christmas Eve.

The kids put out their shoes filled with carrots and Sinterklaas rode by on his white horse and filled them with chocolate coins and chocolate initials.  We also got some spekulaas and stroopwaffels. 

We ate Dutch pancakes for dinner and toast sprinkled with milchschokoladen streusel (milk chocolate sprinkles).  We also ate fruit to be healthy.

This is one of our favorite traditions. Although I am not actually one smidge Dutch, I love the culture and traditions and love passing it on to my kids (I was so close to buying some klompjes -wooden shoes-, but I withheld). The kids love it too.  Sawyer was up at 4:30 sneaking down and eating all his chocolate coins.

Fog

We've been having light morning fog around here lately.  It's magical!

I'm going to miss the trees...sigh.

House

Our Progress as of Friday.  It's moving along quickly!  The kids are ready to move right now, except Hayden.  He's made some cute little friends in kindergarten and I think he wants to be with them a little longer :(      Moving will always be a little hard no matter where you go.