One step ahead

"Fast as fast can be, you'll never catch me! I'm the Ginger Bread Man!". . .

Don't judge me. I know that Thanksgiving hasn't even come and gone yet and here we are decorating Christmas cookies. But how else are you supposed to keep 3 children, 2 teenagers, myself, and a Grammy busy all day long on a snowy Saturday?  Normally, I adhere to the 'no Christmas until the sun has set and come up again the day after the Thanksgiving holiday' rule. If it makes you all feel better, we didn't even play Christmas music while we were decorating or baking. (We did sing some in the car though).  But we had a whole day with all of these extra helping hands, so it seemed like a perfect solution.
We did have a lot of fun. We even laughed a lot. We even cleaned up after ourselves. (With help from the cleaning fairy). We then all took a nap. (except for the cleaning fairy), (and the children).

Here Alexa and I are in our festive aprons, because let's face it,
I'm a messy cook.
And so is she.

Here is the crew after decorating most of the gingerbread cookies. My mom played a key role on the clean-up crew (she's also known as the cleaning fairy). Thanks to her I didn't have to wash any dishes. S-Weet! She's real good about that. However, she's not real good about having her picture taken most of the time. So you'll just have to pretend she's hiding somewhere behind these guys.
We made 4 different types of cookies in all. Ginger Bread, Mexican Wedding cake (or according to Megan, Don's cookies, but only her family calls them that), Jelly Butter Balls, and Almond Spritz. Yummy!! The amazing thing, is that we actually have some left over! So my mom will take some home and I already have a tray in the freezer for when it does get closer to Christmas.
Wow, so this is what it feels like to actually be ahead of the game instead of two steps behind, scrambling at the last minute to catch up.
Amazing.
I may have to try it more often. :)

Anyhow, enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Remember to thank God for all of your blessings.
You've just seen a few of mine.

13 is Our Lucky Number

This past year has been one of abundance for us.
We've served God - together.
We've been raising a family - together.
We've lost and loved - together.
We have suffered and succeeded - together
We've blessed and been blessed - together.
We've laughed and cried - together.
There are so many more things that have taken place this year.
And we've taken it all in stride - together.
But it hasn't just been us.
We've been joined by the One who loves us each more than we love each other.
Without Christ as the glue holding us - together,
this year would have looked a lot different.
We're looking forward to what God is going to do with us this next year.
and we'll do it - together.

Hoot!

Isn't this little guy cute? I admit it, our house is a little obsessed with owls lately. I'm blaming those kids books and that movie ''Guardians of Ga'hoole". My boys have been on an owl binge ever since. But it's not just them. owl's have been popping up everywhere lately. I've seen them on towels, clothes, mugs, plates, stationary, wall decals, bedding and more. And why not? They are adorable.

So I decided to help feed the owl love in this house and I made this little guy. I haven't named him yet but I think he's cute enough to earn one. He's made out of felt and fabric scraps with some beans in his bottom so he'll stand up. Super thrifty craftiness going on here! This little guy probably cost about $0.50 to make.Yippee!

Oh, and I pulled out my Super Mama cape and helped each of my boys make one in a no-sew version for themselves. Theirs don't stand up but that's o.k., they like to take them to bed.  The little owls help them have sweet dreams. We used a hot glue gun for the no-sew version so just be careful with that around your little ones. I've had more than one finger burned by that stuff and it does not feel good. Shoo-wee!

I'll be keeping this little guy around to help cheer up the house this fall. The mantle will make a great perch for him. Get creative and make a little owl for your home!

Tigrrrrs!

 Thanks to the Lakewood Zoo, we got to pet 10 week old tigers!
This is a once in a lifetime experience people.

The first picture is of a little white tigerling and there were 2 orange tigerlings for us to play with.  All girls. In total, the Lakewood Zoo had 8 tigers babies. We got to torture play with 3 of them. They are as adorable as you think they would be. But not nearly as soft. They all felt kind of like an overwashed polar fleece blanket. I guess they don't come into that plush, velvety fur until they're more grown up. We got to inteact with these little critters on the very last day they were available to the public. Apparently the next day they would be able to disembowl you, but today you were still safe. One of the tigers did start to lick Wyat like he may be a tasty snack after the nap we just rudely interupted.  I only grew mildly concerned when they also started to bite. And not let go. Was I supposed to stick my fingers in between those pointy rows of teeth to rescue my childs jacket sleeve? I think I'd rather sacrifice the jacket.
We got to torment play with these tiger cubs for about an hour almost exclusively by ourselves.  At some point in time the two younger boys decided that since they were close in size to the tigers, then they should get to sit up on the tiger table and wrestle around with them too. Since the guy who was in charge didn't tell them to get down, we took full advantage. It was interesting, watching my sons wrestle with tigers. Especially after walking around the zoo and looking at the mommy tigers. Definitely no wrestling with them. It was definitely different than when you watch them wrestle with puppies. And these babies were starting to look a little hungry. Maybe it's time to go. We've had enough of our once in a lifetime experience.
I wish they would have had better lighting in there so my pictures would have turned out better.
And an air freshener. Phew!