One Week

=Seven Days.

And, also....

One. Flooded home. Not mine (thankfully) but I've cried real tears nevertheless.
Two. Sons of mine who had a beauti-ful and meaning-ful and present-ful Christmas.
Three. Mexican restaurants visited with family, who live in the land of Bland Food.
Four. Little feet running through our hotel room in San Antonio. They were in heaven with the new scenery, and I fell in love with the king-sized bed!
Five. Pounds of chocolate and other junk consumed. Oh dear, Lifetime Fitness has it coming on Monday!
Six. Houseguests crammed into my average-sized home. There is very little floor that is not covered, but I can't think of any other reason I'd rather have for the lack of walking space.

Un-quantifiable. How much fun we have been having this past week. What joy it is to be with family for the holidays. We are seriously so blessed. ;)

I do have pictures to show you (I have over 200, of course) and they are coming. But tonight I have to tend to my invalid husband, he has a serious case of the flu. Yuck. And also, I have to read some bedtime stories to the sweetest 5-year-old I know. My favorite 5-year-old who now has a rockin' mohawk, as requested tonight at his *cough* semi-yearly haircut.

Hope you and yours had a magical Christmas. See you soon.

Is it Christmas yet?

My holiday decorations have needed adjustment this year, due largely in part to our just-learned-to-walk-curious-about-everything little boy. Only the top half of our Christmas tree is decorated, and I haven't attempted to bring out my breakables. He just loves to throw everything, and while it was cute for a couple days, now I'm just exhausted by his passion for baseball. This is proof that he is a totally different kid than Nate, because Nate really didn't get into things that he wasn't supposed to, and if you told him "No" he usually listened. Aidan is a much more wild little man. (And don't tell him, but I love his spice. He's a lot of fun to have around!) Anyway, I have to laugh because I bought these tiny Nutcrackers for the boys to play with. Nate Looooooves to play with them, and re-arrange them, and put them in odd spots. A few days ago, I found them facing each other, nearly nose-to-nose, as though they were staring each other down. Nate said they were "getting ready to fight." I thought that was so stinkin' funny.
I may post tomorrow with pictures, although I'm not one of those people that posts pictures of my decorations because I think they look particularly wonderful (um, hello, there are people that kind of make me laugh. Decorations on a D.I. budget? Not really anything to brag about, Sister Smith!) It's more for me to remember this house and the way it looked during the holidays. And okay, also to show you that I'm destined to be the next Martha. (see how I only called her 'Martha?' That shows my level of closeness with the domestic diva...)

I may also show you a few of my treasures. 'Cause I gots lots to show ya.

OK see y'all tomorrow. (PS My parents arrive tomorrow.......yay!)

Yesterday

So, Thursday was the Fifth Day of Christmas and yesterday was the Sixth. I'm not doing so hot on this whole "post every day" thing.

I had Nate's class party yesterday. We made snowman frames, marshmallow snowmen, played Heads Up Seven Up, and read a book about a dog named Snowflake.
Can you spot the trend? I guess my ideas for building a nativity and acting out the story of Christ's birth didn't go with the non-denominational theme... (just kidding...but really, I hate that I am made to feel uncomfortable if I say Merry Christmas to someone!!! And they wouldn't allow us to do anything with trees, stars, or angels. I think it's insane!)

Anyway, here are some pics of Nate and his snowman:
Nate only had a half day at school yesterday, so we met some friends at the park and enjoyed the 75-degree weather. It was actually a tad warm for me. I was afraid we were going to get sunburned! Crazy December. Today is going to be warm again and then tomorrow is going to get frigid. Winter in Texas is totally unpredictable.
We also had a birthday party to go to last night at McDonald's. It was a loud, crazy, fun time. Nate was exhausted by the end of the day, and so was I. After the kids went to bed I watched Baby Mama and wrapped presents.
On the list for today: making and wrapping presents for the young women in the ward, cleaning and preparing for my family's arrival on Monday, trying to stay awake. OH and mailing Christmas cards, which have been addressed, stamped, and stuffed for several days. HELLO! Mail the dang cards already!

Have I mentioned yet that we're going to San Antonio for a couple days while my family is here?!?! I can't wait! I LOOOOOOOOOOVE San Antonio. I am so excited to go downtown and see the lights on the Riverwalk. That is, hands down, my favorite thing about the holidays in SA!

Oops, the Fourth Day of Christmas

I missed yesterday. I had a busy day, what can I say.

We took the youth of our Church caroling to some of the single sisters in our ward. The kids were so funny, at first they didn't want to sing, but after two houses we couldn't get them to stop singing in the car. Even the boys really wanted to keep singing (although they wanted to sing the same song over and over--Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer)
It was so fun to reminisce about my own growing-up years and the tradition of caroling. My own family does it every year, usually on Christmas eve or on the Monday before Christmas, for Family Night. I love the different reactions that people give when finding someone on their porch, singing holiday songs. Some yell to the family to "Come see the carolers," others seem to be patiently enduring your song, and some don't even open the door (last night we could hear the TV and see the lights on, but one family wouldn't open the door. I think it's a growing trend...)
Anyway, what a fun tradition! I'm hoping that when my family gets here next week, that we might be able to go caroling.

I was going to post a picture, but I've realized that pretty much every picture I have on my computer from the last two months is of someone other than my family. Work has been busy (which is great!) and so I think I was a little burned out with taking pictures of my kiddos. So, maybe this week I'll have to take care of that. :)

Today I'm Missing....

Canada.


I'm missing the snow. I know, that's crazy.

I'm missing Tim Horton's donut holes.

I'm missing Superstore, HomeSense, Mac's, and Canadian Tire.

I'm missing leaving a soda in the car and having it be cold or even icy when I get back.

I'm missing using my back porch as an extra fridge/freezer.

I'm missing dear friends like this one and this one and this one (and more and more and more)

I'm missing having family close and Sunday dinners with four generations.

I'm missing the adventure of Christmas shopping amidst a snowstorm and un-plowed roads.

I'm missing pine trees.

I'm missing Banff and the Canadian Rockies.

I even miss Bowness (did I say that out loud???)

I'm just missing a place I didn't know I'd miss! But really, everywhere you live keeps a little piece of your heart and there is always so much good everywhere you go! (After all these moves, it's a miracle I have any heart left! I've so much LOVED everywhere we've lived. We've been blessed with amazing experiences and wonderful friends in every city we've lived!)



I suppose my only solace is that tomorrow we start a warming-up trend here that will take us into the 70's.

On The Third Day of Christmas...

I totally bit it on the ice on our sidewalk. While I was carrying Aidan. I just wasn't expecting ICE on the sidewalk in Texas. Call me crazy. Luckily, Aidan was fine, as my maternal instinct kicked in and I deflected all injury to myself. Bummer.

On the Second Day of Christmas...

It was Sunday today, so we went to church. Tonight Nate asked me to sing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" for his bedtime song. Well, what he really wanted was "All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" but I made him choose a second-favorite. (We have a 2-CD set of the Little People Christmas music. He loves to sing along with all of them, but "My Two Front Teeth" is his favorite...)
See, we're boring people. Especially on Sunday.

On a totally unrelated note, whenever Adam works nights I stay up insanely late. Last night I settled in about two-thirty, until I heard a large "thump" from somewhere in the house (I figured out later that it was a box in the garage falling over). I couldn't sleep for an hour, because my mind was filled with unpleasant thoughts of thieves and bandits. Then, at 3:30, Aidan woke up (he's teething....yucky!) and then I couldn't get back to sleep again for awhile after that. I was way tired today, although it is now 1:00 a.m. and I'm still awake. Why do I need Adam here in order to get to bed at a decent hour? I have problems.
See, I'm boring and I have problems. :)

I'll see y'all tomorrow. It will be a more interesting day, I promise. ;)

ALSO--did you see the link I posted in the post right before this one? It's Adam's own website, a political commentary site which he writes with his brothers. It's definitely worth a read, especially if you are into politics or economics. Pass it along...I know they'd love all the readership they can get.

www.freemeninstitute.com

Come see what Adam has been spending his free time doing......

On The First Day of Christmas....

OK so I'm going to try to blog every day until Christmas. I'm a little bored with my blogging (I just never have that much to say, that I think will interest anyone but my granny....) but I'll try to get past that and add a little about what we are doing...Enjoy, if you can. :)


Today we made sugar cookies. We'll be sending some to my brother Thomas, who is on a mission for our church in Idaho. Nate helped me roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, and eat them. He also loved adding more and more flour (which he kept calling shu-gah) until I was sure that the cookies were going to crumble. Oh well, they were made with love. And a whole lotta shu-gah.

(Insert picture of made-with-love sugar cookies here. Use your imagination, because I didn't take any pictures of said event.)

Adam started two weeks of "night float," which is a residency rotation that entails 7pm to 7am shifts, five nights a week. Let's just say that if we all make it to Christmas, it will be a good thing. Because the night shift rotations nearly kill us. First of all because someone who gets very little sleep becomes cranky very quickly. Also because having him home all day makes me cranky, too. Don't get me wrong, I love having my normal husband home with me during the day. But cranky-no-sleep-everything-sucks-please-be-quiet-so-I-can-sleep husband is not that much fun.

Adam and I both celebrated birthdays over the past month. They were lovely, thank you for asking! We went on a date to Texas Land and Cattle restaurant and I pigged out. Because it was my birthday, dangit.

We are anxiously awaiting Christmas time (who isn't, right?) We are so excited that most of my family will be in town for the holidays! We are going to miss my brother Thomas, who is freezing his bum in Idaho, and Laurel, Nathan, and Eli. Laurel is great with child and didn't want for Adam to have to deliver her baby here in my home. I guess that is a good enough excuse.

OK so a couple pictures for ya. These are from a couple weeks ago when we were raking leaves, which is Nate's new all-time favorite pastime.

This next picture is retaliation from Aidan (hair-pulling),

for Nate dumping leaves on poor, unsuspecting Aidan's head,

which Nate learned because his dad dumped leaves on his head (although Nate asked for it, and Aidan did not.....)

See y'all tomorrow.

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