Day 2!

Blake with today's activities finished product...read below to see what we did:)

My spot for putting the tags as we take them down. The fun plates we found with the book options.

The choice is...Rainbow Fish!


Wrapping it up-in the paper Blake chose.

Today was a little less involved with the crafting and more focused on a little fun and thinking about others. We were to find a book to wrap to bring to Blake's up coming preschool party and get some cheap holiday plates for the kids. Since I try to shop sales throughout the year I had a couple of books for Blake to pick from and he picked the wrapping and helped me wrap it (Claire was napping by this time....I figure she will be involved in about 1/2 of the activities this year). Before this though we stopped by target on our way home from the gym (when we left Blake did ask me "Mom did you have a good workout? Ha!). And found some fun plates for the kids to use throughout the month at lunch and dinner-a "Frosty" for Blake and "Rudolph" for Claire. Funny that is what he called them...not snowman and reindeer. :)

It is soo great how you can take something that we probably would have done anyway this month-get some cheap fun Christmas plates and buy a book for Blake's book exchange-and if you add a little ritual/routine around it it becomes something different, something special, something new. Some days I wish I was as easy to excite as a 4 year old and almost 2 year old-their out look on life is so refreshing at times:).

Oh and these plates at Target are $1.50 right now....not bad for before Christmas:).

On the First Day of December....

We did our first Advent Calendar craft! Blake is still a little confused about there being 24 days before Christmas and only 12 Days of Christmas in the song, :) but he became excited when it meant we got to open up an little envelope and do something fun each day before Christmas. Today we made paper chains for the kids to count down to Christmas with. It was a fun activity that lasted almost the whole day:) We colored after Breakfast, cut after Blake got home from preschool and then made the chains after lunch. When the kids wake up from afternoon nap we will finish the day's activity with reading our verse for the day. Fun times!

The supplies:)

Finding #1. :) Blake reading us the activity.

The directions. Coloring our paper.

Claire even did a little bit (in between eating the crayon-YUM!)

The paper strips.

The finished product. :)

Accidents Happen.....

Today my sweet boy said this to me...making my heart melt after a rough morning. On our way home from some errands-Claire was telling me she had enough...as I turn around to see what is going on (why we as parents do this is beyond me...it is not like I can help her at all and she is buckled in a safe seat)-but I did and as I did my foot came off the brake and I rolled into the car ahead of me. GRRRR! We are all okay-and thanks to good insurance and a sturdy car we aren't even out much money...but needless to say I was upset and a bit shook up.

As I am driving home crying Blake says this simple phrase, "It is okay Mama, accidents happen." What a sweet boy I have! It is such a pleasure to see his empathetic heart developing and so nice to hear some truth from you kid on a rough day!

Here's hoping today ends our hectic fall and tomorrow starts my relaxing December!

So where have I been?!??!

Oh my goodness how has it been 3 months! I guess that is what happens when you take an
already filled life (in a good way ) and some tough stuff to it…in the end things have turned out amazing and I am oh so thankful…but let’s start at the very beginning…as we know from Sound of Music…is a very good place to start.

August:

This month allowed us to celebrate Justin’s 30th birthday! YEAH! Blake got to got to go 2
baseball games in the span of 1 week and at both “caught” a foul ball and ran the bases. Claire turned 1.5 in August and I can’t believe we are closer to 2 now! We went on some fun hikes, picked berries, swam in the pool, and enjoyed the little bit of sun that Seattle offered us this summer-which was not much! I helped out with a few trainings and started a contract with Kent School District.

September:

This month began with a wonderful ladies trip for me and my college girlfriends-we went to San Francisco for 4 days and it was such a great time! Blake started preschool 2 mornings
a week and Claire and I were getting used to having a ton of fun during our time together (missing Blake was part of the equation for both of us though). Middle of September we got to
celebrate my mom turning 55…this is when the craziness began. On September 21st I was getting ready to take my parents to the airport when I received a phone call that they would not be going on their birthday trip…the reason…my mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 “Ovarian Cancer” (you will find out why the quotes if you keep reading). This was obviously tough news to take and threw our world a little upside down.

October:

October brought my parents to TX for 2 ½ weeks-they flew to Houston so that my mom could receive treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Mama had a feeling that is where she should go-and as her story continued it became clear it was the right choice, and I am convinced that God speaks to us in feelings and nudges and it was Him who told her to go there. During this time her diagnosis changed to Stage 3 “Peritoneal Cancer”. During this time we kept busy at home, I helped to facilitate our church’s youth fall retreat, we went to pumpkin patches,
celebrated Halloween with a turtle and pumpkin and the end of October ironically brought our family of 4 to TX-Austin-to visit some good friends of ours and have a little vacation. Oddly
enough this trip was planned well before we knew about my mom, and they got home about 2 days before we left! October also brought us our new niece Isley (Pronounced: Eyes-Lee) Louise Ellington-born on 10/25-this makes it so ALL of the girl cousins on Justin’s side have been born on the 25th of the month-fun little fact.

November:

November began with a BANG! We found out that my mom now had “Appendix Cancer” so she flew out Halloween evening (after celebrating) for a new intensive surgery called HIPEC.
So the day after my 31st Birthday she had surgery-for 14 hours!-itwent AMAZING and they got ALL of the tumors! Praise God! We kept busy with life-I had my first craft show, a few baby showers, going to our church’s Fall Retreat for adults, a trip over the mountain pass to pick up the kiddos and me flying BACK to TX to surprise my mama over Thanksgiving weekend. My mom is a fighter and she is doing really well-walking and laughing. It was really good to hang out with her and my dad over the weekend and I am so thankful for the opportunity to go made possible by my uncle.

Why the “” around the diagnosis??

Currently, after my mom FINAL appointment with the Dr. TODAY they are clueless of the origin of her cancer…CRAZY! So the journey continues-even though visually her cancer # is 0, because they don’t know where it all started, she may have to get chemo sometime in the early spring…in the midst of it all I am convinced of two facts-#1-Our God is Good and #2-I have been blessed with one amazing woman to call my mom…

December:
As we enter into one of the busiest months for lots of people, myself included (with a 4 year old to celebrate soon! YIKES!), I am actually looking forward to the normalcy that is entering into our lives soon. Not much planned on the weekends, getting to go to church at our home church, and anticipating the birth of Jesus…sounds like a perfect end to a rough fall.

Another crafty-cheap-decorating idea:)

Here are a couple of my cheap frame "Holiday Re-Dos" All I did was take frames that I already had-most of them have pictures in them and just replaced the pictures with Christmas Scrapbook Paper. Fun, Festive, Cheap and really easy! When done I will just simple put the picture back up front-or maybe some winter Scrapbook paper in some-and leave the Christmas stuff behind it waiting for next year. :)

I Know it Has Been Awhile...more to come later on that...

But it is Advent Season and I wanted to post my cheap advent calendar:) I made this using some Christmas Scrapbook paper and ribbon-inside each little folded piece of paper is a fun activity to do as a family and a Bible verse to read. I am excited to do this!

I will post a much longer post soon (half-way done with it) about what has been happening the past 3 months! But for now the kids are waking up-but Hello! I am back:)

And another month goes by-we had fun!

Wow! How is it already the month of Aug...and it is 1/2 way done! This time thing is crazy:) We have been busy so that helps it pass quicker than we want. The last weekend of July we got to go on a little mini-family vacation with my folks. This has been a summer tradition since before the kiddos entered our lives, not long trips, typically 3-4 days-and ooo soo much fun. This year we found ourselves in Birch Bay WA-and Vancouver BC-we stayed in a great little house and had a blast up there:)

This week found us celebrating Justin's 30th Birthday-I now have about 3 months where we are the same age...and then another 9 of him taunting me by his 'youth.' We had fun-hiked up Rattlesnake Trail (we hiked, Claire hung out, and Blake mostly hiked and did some hanging) ;). Came home and the kiddos napped while we got ready to go out on a date.

As most of our dates do, we found ourselves indulging on peanut treats that we can't eat in the presence of Blake (poor guy! still praying that he is healed)-so we found ourselves at Thai 65 at the Landing in Renton (sooo yummy) and then eating Reses Pieces during the show (Captain America)-birthday guys choice. :)

This week we find ourselves prepping for a 2 day camping adventure...with kids and some friends and their daughter....the weather looks good...and we are going for it-wish us luck!