Tree 2014

We like to tromp around in the mud looking for the perfect tree and we were so excited to do that and find the first Christmas tree for our new house!

We found one! And it was Becca’s turn to be the “angel” this year. The girls are getting too big for grandpa to actually hold them above the tree anymore…

It was Sarah’s turn to use the battery-powered saw to cut down the tree. This is the first year of “turns” for this opportunity. The girls aren’t too small anymore…

I found this and the following pictures on my phone after the tree expedition…

That was pretty entertaining to discover as the background on my phone as well. Teenagers and their selfies…

Then it was time for the girls’ new ornaments and decorating!

Sarah’s ornament came later…handmade by my crafty friend – Scrabble tile letters that spell “STRONG.”

And just to clarify, because most mom-bloggers feel the need to clarify this process one way or the other, the girls put the ornaments on and I did not move any. Except for the ones that slid off and fell to the ground. Those I replaced somewhere in the same vicinity. But I do not direct the tree decorating process. Except that all the ornaments that are not red, white, green, or silver go upstairs on the fake tree. So apparently I am only semi-controlling about this process. Of course, I have four girls who care that the tree looks good. No one puts six ornaments all on the same branch anyway. I am lucky that way.

It was Elise’s turn to put the star on the tree. It only took about 4 tries before the top was the right size & shape and all the spiders were destroyed.

Does anybody else think we have too many “turns” regarding the Christmas tree?

Beautiful.

iPhone Photo Dump

Awhile back the girls & I had dinner at Menchies. It was yummy & fun.

Becca turned 10!

Got to have lunch with my sweet friend from Minnesota and meet her new baby!

Elise looks so sweet sleeping in the hotel.

A really bad photo inside the Imax theater, waiting to watch “Flight of the Butterflies” in 3D!

The process of asking a boy to Tolo is very complicated, but it worked out just fine.

I told my dad I wanted a 24-pane vintage window…he’s never seen one, but he took an old window from 100-year-old house in Bellingham and made a re-production for me. I LOVE it! I put vintage Christmas music (from “The Messiah”) behind the panes and put vinyl numbers on the front. It sits on my mantel as an Advent countdown. Just a few days ago I saw an ACTUAL 24-pane vintage window at a local shop…for $125! Crazy awesome, but OUCH!!!

Got to have a birthday lunch with my honey

I can’t remember if I posted this before, but these were the turkey cupcakes from my Kindergarten class for my birthday. So cute!

I took out the very pretty, yet impractical, small black framed mirror and had my dad install a very practical, large, winged mirror in my bathroom. It makes my bathroom look HUGE! I love it!

I made Thanksgiving dinner. Here’s Becca watching potatoes boil. She’s apparently never seen such a thing before. I need to let my girls help me cook more!

The girls voted out my creative Advent countdown display in favor of the paper chain. It’s classic. Each day has something written on it that we do in preparation for Christmas. Sometimes it’s simple like read a Christmas book and sometimes it’s just the event that is happening that day, like choir concert, but sometimes it’s a fun activity like write thank you notes to the church staff.

Merry Christmas to Julie & Ed!

Ironing in preparation for the red bows/white capes K-4 Christmas program…which never happened because of the snow day. It will be rescheduled for January. What a bummer that was!!

Elise celebrated her half birthday at school with rice krispie pops!

Logos Christmas party!

Piano/violin recital day! (Videos are unavailable this time due to technical difficulties.)

Elise & Becca have taken to sleeping together lately. It’s just so sweet.

We finally got new furniture in the bonus room. We had ordered a sectional. A few weeks later it was delivered, but since it turned out to be a two-piece sectional, rather than the 3-piece sectional I thought it was when I bought it, it wouldn’t fit around the corner at the top of the stairs. I was SO upset because I really liked the sectional for TV watching with my family and it was super comfy and affordable. Well, the store wouldn’t take the sectional back and refund our money…they would only give us store credit. The whole process was unpleasant, to say the least.

Fast forward a couple weeks…we went back to the store to see what we could find that would fit and we found this couch and loveseat. We got a discount buying it off the floor, but it was still more than our store credit and more than we originally wanted to pay, and we didn’t like it as well as the sectional, but we thought it would work and we had to do something as the bonus room was pretty useless without furniture. We got the furniture home, but again, it wouldn’t fit, even after we measured and thought it would. This time, though, it was REALLY CLOSE to fitting, so my dad came and took the door jamb off and we got the furniture in the room!! Of course, now it will be in there pretty much for forever, but that’s OK. It’s neutral with clean lines, and comfy. We’ve enjoyed our movie-watching evenings together sitting on comfy furniture.

These girls strung popcorn on our snow day to put on the trail for the birds & squirrels. Pretty fun, but it’s a painstakingly long process!

Next up: Getting our Christmas tree!

Tolo 2013

I have this girl that lives in my house that is becoming quite a beautiful young woman.

She and two of her beautiful buds from XC got together.

And they asked these three good-looking guys to get dressed up and join them for an evening.

It’s called Tolo. It’s an all-county dance where the girls ask the guys. Except lots of kids don’t actually go to the dance…especially this year since there ended up being 3 different dances on different dates…

These great kids didn’t go to the dance. After pictures they headed downtown for the lighted Christmas parade (BRRRR! It was about 20* that night! They did put on coats and leggings and all that, thank goodness!) and then had dinner at a fish & chips place downtown. After dinner, back to the house where we took pictures for dessert, games, movies, and hanging out until midnight.

I haven’t seen any pictures from *during* the event…not sure they took any. But I heard they all had a great night and lots of fun.

And yes. We like the boy. And no. They’re not “dating.”