So... I tried to spruce up my blog a bit. It is always fun... like rearranging furniture.

Last Saturday it started to snow/rain... Ethan begged all day to go outside and play, but there wasn't even enough to cover the grass. I finally relented and went out with him. It was so fun to see his excitement. The first thing he did was open his mouth and try and catch snowflakes on his tongue... it's funny to me how we all want to do this for some reason... it's almost intuitive. I love the innocence I see in my children. It reminds me of what is important.

He looked up at the sky like he was seeing a miracle... it is a miracle that we just see as a weather phenomenon.

My favorite Christmas memory this year:
We went to Grandpa and Grandma Reynolds' house for the annual BINGO game. I was in the adjacent room, later on in the evening, taking care of Lincoln. There are times, when we are at family gatherings, that I feel little left out because I am in the other room taking care of a baby, but this time was different. Lincoln was totally relaxed and I was totally relaxed. I sat and held him as I listened to the joyful chatter in the next room. I felt like everything was complete. Every time Ethan would open a BINGO present there was a little squeal of delight:
"Wow... a towel!"...
"Look... a big tootsie roll!"
He was just happy to be part of the action and get ANYTHING! It was so sweet to listen to. Then I had the thought :
"This (meaning Christmas) all began with a baby."
I was so happy to have my sweet baby in my arms to to be surrounded by that joyful noise.

I remembered Christ and thought about the peace and sweetness Mary must have felt as she held him on that first Christmas night. The holidays get too busy sometimes for me to slow down and remember what I'm really supposed to be doing. That moment brought everything together for me.

This post is dedicated to Tawny.. my awesome sister (in law). She gave Katelyn this present for Christmas and Katelyn spent hours and hours playing with it. If you look closely at the picture you will notice that there are 600 stickers... that's right... 600. And there are 10 different themes (ummmm.... I think Katelyn invented this). So... you dress each girl in a different theme (choosing from the 600 stickers). This takes awhile (maybe 3 days) because there aren't just clothing items... you also add accessories and the accessories HAVE to match the outfit and the theme. When that is done... you cut them out (this takes a whole day or more... THERE ARE 80, REMEMBER)... then attach each girl to a large popsicle stick (because they are going to be puppets... of course). So... after a few days... we have 80 puppets. She wants to give some to her friends so we have to attach a special ribbon to these ones and then make a card to go along with the puppet explaining what it is and how it is to be used. These puppets she gives away must match her friends' personalities (which really isn't a problem because there are 80 to choose from). Well... she decides she can only part with 4 (count yourself lucky if you got one). The rest must be named and the name must be written on the popsicle stick. This takes about a day and a half to come up with 76 girl names (some were quite inventive)... Tayo, Labi... Then they must divided up into group and laid on the floor ( not too hard because there are already 10 themes). Once this is done, a backdrop must be created for each grouping.. so 10 backdrops were drawn and colored. Then we need a STAGE to put the backdrops in... I knew a kept that shoe box for a reason. Then she proceeds to rehearse a play for each group and then perform each play. WOW! It's like the book: If you give a pig a pancake (which I love)! I truly love Katelyn's creativity. She is amazing and smart and a little exhausting!

Pictures with Santa...

Oh yeah...Lincoln loved it...

Jason was the MOST excited... ha ha!

And... Grandpa, that is just awesome. Most guys your age don't get to sit on Santa's lap. What a fun night to spend as a family!

Ummm... this is just cute!
I love hooded towels for this reason. I will go out and spend $15 on a hooded towel when the one hanging on the rack will do just fine just to have this picture. I love to give babies baths... especially Lincoln. He loves the bath and he is just so cute and squishy!

This is to all you moms out there with little kids....I just have to say this!!!! Getting ready for the day is overrated. Who really cares if you get dressed in your cutest outfit and fix your hair everyday? Today I actually got up, showered, kind of fixed my hair (the traditional ponytail because, why would I leave it down to let Linc pull all day) and put on a new shirt. It felt nice to be ready, but I really don't feel any different than yesterday (when I wore my old sweat pants from 4 years ago and a hoodie). We are supposed to dress for the occasion, right? I am a stay at home mom which involves a lot of manual labor, being on the floor and, lets face it, and lots of poo poo and pee pee. Why do so many moms thing they have to get up and look like a runway model everyday? I do think it is important to get ready sometimes so you feel like a human being, but not all the time. I opened the door this morning at about 9:30 am and there stood the primary president. The first thing she said was: "wow... you are dressed and ready for the day."

I think she said this because she wasn't...
I said " you should have seen me yesterday..."
She is the primary president and was on a primary president errand (at 9:30 in the morning). What was she doing instead of getting ready? HER CALLING! There is always a trade off... if you take the time to get ready, you may not have time to clean the toliet (which happened to me today). Because I am taking time to write down my thoughts about "getting ready" I probably won't get the dishes done before Ethan comes home from preschool. OH WELL!!! I wish everyone would stop being so hard on themselves (including me) about getting so much done. My kids aren't going to remember if I got ready or even if the dishes were done... they will remember how I fulfilled my most important calling of all: MOTHERHOOD