A little Christmas Elf

was up until 2 am doing a pile of dishes last night. Thanks little elf!

Don't wrap him!!

Our kids drew names this year, so they could buy a gift for one of their siblings. Sydnee has Gabe to buy for and today it was her turn to go into mom and dad's room to wrap his gift. David says, "Syd, go ahead and wrap Gabe's". Luke overheard and frantically ran into the kitchen saying, "no! Don't do that! I like him too much, don't wrap him!" He was so worried Sydnee was going to wrap his baby brother! We had a really good laugh about that. I asked Luke if he thought Gabe would like being wrapped and he assured me that he wouldn't at all because "he's very little still".

DIY

I just had to share a picture of my newly painted secretary desk. It was a natural wood color when we got it 6 years ago, but since then we've gotten new furniture and my mom gave me the idea to paint it black. It turned out so nice! So now my creativity quota has been met for the year! hee hee.

sweet tooth?

the kids had fun making gingerbread people tonight. Aren't they cute?

terms of endearment

Today when Maddy and Ben got off the bus and came inside, Luke ran to the porch and greeted Maddy with, "Hi sweet cheeks, how was your day?"
Too funny!

he rolls!

Gabe reached a new milestone on Monday, he rolled from front to back! This is quite an accomplishment when you weigh 17.5 pounds. Here's the pictures I took, I was so glad I had the camera out!!

tiny dancer

Here's Maddy at her dance open house. She was too fun to watch, and yes, her mommy shed a few tears watching her.

a special gift

My Grandpa passed away back in July. Last year my Grandma told me that Grandpa was making some nativity scenes for family members. Truthfully, I was really looking forward to receiving one, but never did. As Christmas was approaching this year I couldn't help but think about it and mentioned it to my parents. When my dad was out at the farm yesterday helping Grandma he saw some of the wood Grandpa had used to build these with and asked her if she knew if there were any more, because Em really wanted one but didn't get one. Grandma was shocked that I hadn't received one, but she said that last week she found two in a box, and sent one to me with my dad last night. I am a sentimental person, and as simple as this nativity is, it means so much to me. It's like one last gift from my Grandpa. I miss him.