Snow Dance

They were predicting snow in the lowlands and I was pessimistic but trying my best to be optimistic with the kids. And there was a small part of me that thought maybe, just maybe the snow dance would actually work. 

We wore our pajamas inside out and backwards, put a spoon under our pillows and taped a penny to the doors.   (It's from a book).   

Despite 3 of my 5 putting forth a great effort we woke up to no SNOW.  We were all sad but I'm still doing dances, crossing my fingers and hoping for a good snow dump sometime this winter.  It's been too long since we have had one. 

 

Hail.

It's been getting colder here with a few predictions of snow in the coming days. The kids were very excited when they saw HAIL coming down. It was the biggest hail I had seen and it actually lasted quite a long time. It also came at the same time Brad was up on a ladder hanging up our Christmas lights. 

The kids even went out in the cul-de-sac to catch the hail coming down.  

Chocolate Advent Calendar

Aunt Angie & Uncle Brian always get the kids Lego Advent Calendars for their Christmas presents. WE LOVE THEM! She also throws in a chocolate advent calendar. We were only 3 days into getting our one very small piece of chocolate when this unfolded. 

I couldn't find Bo for a few minutes and finally discovered him here.  He was quietly opening up whatever ones he could and eating his chocolate.  I don't blame him.  As the 5th child you have to take what you can get.   I kept asking him what he was doing and he just said "I have a surprise for you."  A surprise of an empty calendar?

We will need to keep working on patience.  Oh so very hard. 

 

Lights

We put our tree up and added lights and ornaments. Lots of low hanging ornaments in lots of clusters. It makes me smile.

Tree Hunting Again

Seriously, it seems like just last week we were looking for our Christmas tree. Once again we went to Home Depot where we have had great success the past few years. It's quick, less expensive and little crowds. The selection isn't great but that is perfectly fine for us. 

This was our fastest tree find.  I walked over to Starbucks to get Brad his coffee and when I got back he had the tree in his hand and said I think this is the one.  And it was. 

We didn't waste any time trying to waffle over our decision.  We just bought it, threw it in the back of the Onrax van and continued on with our day.  

 

I love my family! 

Tigers

We decided to pass on the professional team pictures for a number of reasons but the biggest is that they scheduled it at 9:00 in the morning. Half our team would not have been able to make it.  

We finally got this picture on our 2nd to last game when everyone was there.  I think it turned out great!  Such a fun group of kids.  

Darby's bedroom

With our 4 bedroom house we have been squeezing our kids into two rooms. We have one room for us and one for our office. We knew the day would come when we had to give up our office and turn it into Darby's room.  We bought this bunkbed a few months ago and that has been our motivation (otherwise it would take up space in the garage).   After clearing out our office, selling our desk, moving the computer, rearranging furniture and shampooing the carpets we have a somewhat finished project.   (We still want to paint and add more decorations but for now this is the basic layout of her room.  She loves it!   And so do we. 

This is her closet and this is all my stuff that still needs to get organized.  I decided to not worry about it until after the Holidays.  And this stuff is just a small glimpse of the stuff we still need to sort through and figure out where we will put it.