Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! May your hearts have much to be thankful for this year. We are on our way north to enjoy my family for Thanksgiving. We are very gratefull for the many blessings God has given us, all the love we feel and give, and protection He has showered on us this year.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all those you love and hold dear in your hearts!

Fridge Fronts

Live a Colorful Life traditionally sports a fantastic fridge front that I have always admired every holiday season. I searched all of her "Decembers" and could not find her fantastic fridge. You'll have to ask her. Now I will join her on a month-ish or so of a barren fridge front. In my house, that is difficult to do!

Here is how my fridge looks currently. I love these little turkey-lurkeys!



Here is how my fridge will look come December 1st. Thanks to last year's order from Christa pre-Fairy Tale Pumpkin. I saved my Advent kit for this year. I didn't have the time to put together a display last year, and we used "What Color is Advent?", a devotional book mixed with "I Spy" from our church. I am earlier at planning Advent this year. Wanting to keep costs low, I perused Etsy for idea. (Shhh . . . yes, I do browse the site to get my own creative juices flowing for my own personal use. I do make some purchases!) I vetoed the mini-muffin tin after some consideration. I liked the magnetic containers, but not the price. I found a bag of 10 small containers for $1.00 at my local dollar store, I bought 3 packages. Then, I found magnetic vent covers that I could cut and hot-glue to the bottoms. Next, I searched for some seasonol paper on hand, stamped the numbers, and used double sided carpet tape to adhere to the lid. Last, I placed the devotional slip around the inside of the container and filled with the little treasure. Some containers needed a heavier magnet. Only 2 items did not fit the container and are in a safe hiding spot (if only I can remember where that is!). There is only one problem, I need 1 mustard seed. I misplaced the tiny but mighty treasure! Please, any reader out there who has mustard seeds, can you spare one and send to me? I would be grateful!




Oh, and the interesting thing? Her devotions are all New Testament. Every Lutheran Advent material our church has starts with the creation and includes important Old Testament events. I am very excited for this new Advent-ure! I am thinking it will delve beyond the Christmas story. Thanks, Christa for your kit!

Buy . . . buy . . . buy . . .

Project Update

I took this picture standing at the bottom of the stairs, facing towards the laundry side. See therail and the stairs on the far left?



Ahh, the new basement sink. I don't miss the double basin cement-titious baheamouth that took forever to drain after 2 loads of laundry and sported a coating of slime. Hmm, I think my parents will enjoy this sink more as a guest than the old one?!?! My first reaction, the handles are too nice for filling a mop bucket.

How, you may wonder, did the heavy looking water softener filled with salt get removed from this picture? And how did that cement-titious sink basin walk up the stairs? Well, for once we greatly appreciated the Mexican junk truck man that combs the neighborhood for great finds. Eric snagged one picking up pipe that was set out on the curb. Eric, his brother, and a man who spoke not a lick of English grunted that bad boy up and out. Then, he was willing to take the sink. That did not want to go up the stairs in one piece. So, Mr. Mexican Man went to get his axe and busted it on out of here. Eric showed great appreciation by giving him 3 cold beers. I was glad to be grocery shopping at the time with Norah. I don't do well when items don't easily enter or exit the house. Good-bye cylidrical salt holder and goodbye hunk of cement! Now, my kiddos want to wash their hands pretty much every time we come down to change the laundry.


Can you see Simon's handwriting and drawing? He wrote "Simon and Daddy working on the little project." He drew stairs on the inside of the closet. He declared to Daddy the other day "You are almost done with the little project", of which he does not even know.

I love how Daddy has glasses and I dearly miss the spiral bodies Simon used to draw!

Halloween Happened

Walleye, our scarecrow, was created at Scarecrow Fest with Uncle Gordon. Loved in extreme amounts by Norah. Protector of our jack-o-lanterns. Immediately after trick-or-treating, Norah dumped her candy and dug in! (Note the blue-plaid dress handmade by Grandma - perfect!) We hosted a chili and hot-dog dinner with the fixin's and hot chocolate/tea/cider for neighbors and trick-or-treaters. A fire pit in the driveway warmed us all!

We enjoyed a Halloween party with friends! Oh, I mean Nemo and a "green giant vegetable guy something". Norah was interested and loved carving her pumpkin. She dug in the guts a couple of times.

You will fiind Norah caught in the act for a second time! This time she dragged the chair into the kitchen. Climbed onto the counter. Took the candy basket down from the top of the refrigerator. To eat candy first thing in the morning. Prior to this event, she dragged the chair into the kitchen. With scissors. To cut open Halloween candy. And started eating the Smarties. Which is the best potty-training reward ever, by the way! (Yesterday, she took herself to the potty and went ALL DAY with NO accidents! Woo-hoo, we're on our way!)

You will also see the finishers at the 3k Pumpkin Fun Run at my school. Simon finished 199th, I finished 203th with Norah on my shoulders at 204th. When you are 2 1/2 and insist on walking while holding your new best friend's hand, you will get slowed down. Norah was not agreable at photo time.

One more picture at the end for the cuteness factor! (If you click on this one, you'll see Simon is holding onto his tail.) They played the parts well! We enjoyed visiting the library in character and sharing treats with the librarian via Lil' Red's basket of goodies

Enjoy the pics!

More Than Excited

We are more than excited to pack up our car, stuff our little ones into car seats, and endure the late afternoon/evening/night 7 hour drive to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. No, it is not over the river and through the woods. It is through the woods (of WI) and over the river (St. Croix River)!

Reasons to be excited include: (in baker's dozen style)

1. Second trip this year away from home; that makes this feel like a get-away vacation. So we have plans to enjoy!
2. It has been over a year since my children have gone to Grandma and Grandpa 'Sota's house! It'll be time to play and I'm sure a little spoiling in love and attention!
3. I get to see my parents, my sister, my longest and bestest friend, and maybe cousins.
4. This year totally beats cold turkey sandwiches in the hospital for my Dad and sister while Mom is sleepy and icky sicky. This year totally beats crying not being able to call Mom about cooking a pumpkin because canned pumpkin was unavailable due to a shortage.
5. Mom and I are walking in the Giving Thanks - Atttitude of Gratitude fitness walk. Mom is training for her first ever road race - 1.5 mile walk around beautiful Como Lake. Pray for no snowy or icy conditions as that will prevent her participation. We get t-shirts!
6. Not leaving the house after that walk to eat, watch football, play games, and perhaps play in the yard (because of energized little people), and #6. Hoping we'll see some of the Thanksgiving day parade.
7. Insisting that Mom does NOT cheat by putting together chunks rather than pieces of her Christmas puzzle. Having Simon enjoy this puzzle tradition with us!
8. Not stepping foot in any store on "Black Friday", because I am mostly done with shopping! But perhaps a sneak to a fabric store with Mom for a fabulous coupon deals.
9. I, as in Becky, get to decide to either go to a Gopher hockey game with my longest and bestest friend or send my Dad and Hubby so I get some girl time with Jo. Hmmm, right now it is the Gopher game for me, one of the toughest tickets to get in town!
10. Be sure to send the guys to an ACE store to redeem this awesome coupon on Saturday!
11. Possibly take the kids to see the Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis!
12. Maybe check out this new breakfast joint I found a coupon for.
13. And then the long trek back to IL; which is "over the river and through the woods". Along with everyone else.

Where have we been?

Well, no busier than anyone else. But few spare minutes in a day. And more items to do than there is time for. Perhaps at nap time today I can post pics. It just takes time to download pics, save to file, rotate, and load. So, what have we been up to?

• Playdates with new kindergarten friends. Age 5 and Kindergarten is a great time where kids can play on their own, with occasional peek-ins to make sure all is okay. Nice to see Simon develop friendships.
• No more nap time for Simon, rare is the need for a nap.
• Except with this time change! Never before has it affected our children than this time. We have been up between 4:30 and 6:00 every day since. The kids pretty much fall asleep during dinner and can't stay awake past 6:30-7:00 p.m. Yesterday Norah napped at 3:00 p.m. and woke at 3:30 this morning. Some naps were needed. We are tired.
• Recovery time after creating all aspects of Halloween; whew, that wore me out. Pics to come I promise.
• Dealing with the wolf hat arriving in the mail on November 5th. Simon wants it, it is fleece lined and warm so a fun winter hat for him. Not sure if he will actually wear it.
• Eric working on the basement project. Updated pics to come. Simon LOVES LOVES the project and "helping" his Daddy work.
• Creating gifts for Christmas. Have two hats to make - one for a niece and one for a nephew. Other little niece's is ready to wrap! And my own kids' handmade slippers are completeed. Considering making a superhero cape for Norah.
• Celebrating vertical day, quite low key this year. Not many activities, due to Halloween recovery. But just wait until next year (11-11-11).
• Spending our days in the bathroom and saying things repeatedly like: "Are you wet or dry? Do you have to go pee? Did you pee in your underwear/pull up? Is you pull up wet or dry? Mommy has to go potty so let's have you try. Keep sitting there. Underwear is fun to wear - so keep it dry." All while having potty parties when successful and celebrating with smarties!
• Preventing Lil' Miss from climbing every second of the day. (Pics to come on this as well.)She has been caught climbing everywhere. We had to purchase this for furry friend (stuffed animal) storage because her basket kept getting dumped out and used for a stool. You know, to turn on the light to avoid taking a nap. This product met all our requirements: squishy to prevent climbing, plastic so not breakable and washable, can see through the holes to find desired furry friend, and big enough to hold a loving collection of stuffed animals! It's amazing what becomes a stool or a step - baskets, containers, cabinet handles, chairs dragged everywhere, counters, under bed rolling containers, etc.
• Reminding Lil' Miss to "Play with toys, not tools. Are you touching Mommy's things?"
• Listening to constant, and I mean constant, talking from Lil' Miss as she does not stop! So fun to have a little chatter-box and she can be quite hysterical!
• Reading daily to Simon, having Simon read daily, practicing his writing, and keeping up to date with his school.
• And both of us working as well and trying to complete the typcial household tasks, or putting them on hold!