Goodbye 2011. You've been quite the year.
While you were loads of fun, I'm kinda happy to see you go. The boys have been sick all of the holiday... I was sick just prior to the week before Christmas and I just feel happy to slowly getting everyone back to their semi-normal selves. Ringing in the new year without anyone throwing up and everyone sleeping through the night sounds like a great way to start the year.
I wish I had more time to reflect about what made this year great. Most of all, I realize just how grateful I am for my Ryan who is my gravity... my sun to which my world rotates, my saving grace. And of course for my three little mugwhumps who are aging me faster then I'd like, but who I worship, love and adore.
I hope this new year brings more patience on my end, more movies cozied up on the couch with my boys, more moments for just me and ry, more chances to become someone better then I am and more quiet moments to take in all that I have.
So goodbye to the end of the year, and hello to all that is to come.
Max is back to sleeping... thank the heavens and everyone in them. A combination of not liking regular milk (I just took him off formula) with the teething made for an insane couple days.
I hope to see you all tomorrow night at the Lower Lights holiday concert. It is going to be fantastic.
Saturday Jack is hosting a gingerbread house decorating party... any excuse to have friends over and gobble up candy. Here are the invites I made. Most the kids started trying to eat them... I can see my design efforts are totally lost on 6 year olds.
Our favorite line to say to each other when one of our kids won't sleep is, "Who's idea was it to have kids?" Of course we are kidding. I couldn't love my mugwhumps more. My heart and world revolves around them... but oh! These last few days with Max have been brutal.
We are in a major teething episode. Last night I was up until 4am, trying so hard to keep him cozy as possible... and trying even harder to not fall asleep standing up while I rocked him back and forth. The best moment of the night/morning, was when just minutes after getting him finally down and crawling into bed, my three year old came wandering in our room, announcing he had wet the bed. Of course he did.
But now tonight it looks like it is round 2.
I feel I have prepared myself mentally that I will not be going to be anytime soon, but I am desperate for him to be able to relax enough to get into a deep enough sleep. Poor little man.
Why does growing up can be so rough?
The Lower Lights are playing their Christmas show, Thursday, December 15th, at the Salt Lake Masonic Temple.
Tickets are on sale here.
I hear the venue is pretty amazing. Add the Lower Lights singing holiday songs... it should make for one killer night.
I hope I see you all there.
If you haven't heard the Christmas album yet... your holiday isn't complete. You can buy it here. I love it. The boys love it. We listen to it all day long.
You can watch this little diddy about the making of the album:
The Lower Lights: Come Let Us Adore Him from
The Lower Lights on
Vimeo.
My cute friend Sarah Sample hosted a holiday craft party this weekend. We got to make mini matchbook advent calendars, reuse books into festive trees, sew adorable paper garlands, and munch on lots of delicious snacks and treats.
I had so much fun, I went out and bought supplies to make a whole bunch more to decorate the rest of my house.
Thanks Sarah!
I've spent all of November gathering ideas for a homemade advent calendar I could do... but have found myself in December now and no time to do it. Have no fear. I found this wrapping paper at Target to help me out. I can be uber creative and make something more long term when the boys aren't so young and I have all sorts of time to kill (does that ever happen?).
I just cut out each number, glued it to some adorable mini envelopes - and day I hide the envelope somewhere around the house for the boys to find. They take turns finding each day - and it is fun to have it happen at random times. They get so excited when they suddenly take notice of it on the shelf with their toys or next to their milk in the fridge.
So far the treats have been tickets to The Festival of Trees (yesterday), and going to the Movies with Grandma and Grandpa (today). I have little holiday candy and treats, some craft projects for them to make and color, and other activities like making hot chocolate and reading Christmas books, or driving around to see the lights around the neighborhoods and getting malts afterwards.
I figure the only time this will be as cheap and as fun will be now while the boys are still young. The uber cool designed homemade well thought out and crafted advent calendar can come another year.
Come December first, I can't resist going out and picking the wrapping paper for Christmas. I love wrapping paper! And absolutely love this one from Paper Source. I want to frame it to hang during the holiday season. So adorable.
