Nativity

I've been a little busy lately as I've mentioned before,

but this morning a little miss slept in

and a few other things didn't go as planned 

so we spent the morning in

with Christmas music and Elmers glue.

I found a free little printable here

and had some empty cereal boxes...

so we crafted.

It even has a short script if your story-telling is slightly rusty.

My littles loved it.

My plan is to get it laminated and use some leftover magnetic tape 

to be able to use it on the fridge.

...

But then,

the Christmas spirit was a-flowin'...

And I just happened to have a spare toddler girl who loves costumes,

a certain young man who will do anything for a graham cracker,

and

a stripped down baby in swaddling cloths...

you know,

no big deal...

so we had a little living nativity in the nursery.

There may have been some coaching involved.

But, as a matter of fact, the baby Jesus seemed to find it hilarious...

Which it actually kind of was.

Probably somewhat close to as noisy as that actual scene was...

But, poor T,

El isn't going to stop calling him Joseph any time soon.

And now she's only answering to Mary.

Gift

In

our everyday

life,

our everyday

mess,

our everyday

love,

our everyday,

it's obvious I use a lot of my camera,

although 

this post it seems to leave the impression I only use my phone these days...

Regardless

just wanted to share a little holiday gift idea...

More can be found here...
I'm just sayin'...

Special

Here we are on Sunday night again, 

and I'm rolling my shoulder back and down, 

trying to remember the yoga mantras my special friend led us through last night.

See,

the busyness swept through our home again,

decorations, lights, grocery shopping, laundry, and girls' night out carried the days into evenings into now.

It started yesterday when I brought the special bins up from the cobwebs

and no sooner set them down before a baby's first Christmas ornament was shattered.

And pretty much from there the festivities did not go as I had dreamed, imagined, planned...

but either way

I got the munchkins to do their part

and once they started

they were on a special kind of roll.

Our tree is a little more Charlie Brown than glorious this year,

plastic and dusty, actually.

And,
really,
more clumped than symmetrical.

But it's ours.

And it's the way we do it.

And it's special.

--

And soon after,
I took a break,

gave my toes the attention they've needed for months.

I said it was simply because my preggo sister needed the company,

But I didn't mind.

--

And so we continued 

with the' evening...
Girls' night out was a yoga night in.

Annie cuddled up in the corner while we all downward dogged for awhile,

trying to burn off the calories Kali was feeding us later;

she's one of those girls that just does things right.

Everything glistens under her touch.

You kind of just feel special to know her.

We...okay, I...
stayed up way past my bedtime

and loved it.

--
So,

all to say,

I'm a little tired this evening,

it was a good weekend,

full and lovely

and special.

Moments

We had the chance to trade photography sessions with a friend from Willow Brandt Photography and although the hour was more noisy, active and chaotic than we even started to anticipate... 

the moments she captured are precious to me. 

See, there's a lot of diaper changing, laundry folding and manners practicing in this home these days,

and often the evening starts happening and I'm scrambling to throw breakfast dishes into the dishwasher before the hubs walks in the door,

and perhaps I've recently had a new level of thankfulness for Sid the Science Kid and Veggie Tales,

and it might just be true that our family room ceilings are ruined due to a certain someone's curiosity of whether plastic Farmer Joe fits down the toilet,

and my man might have just heard something in my voice when he called home tonight that caused him to simply ask, "So...you wanna get out, go do something, take a break when I get home?" 

And, 

the behind the scenes of the really pretty pictures my Molly friend took, 

the most of them might just have looked a little like this...

But the point is...

I'm really thankful for these moments 

because

Every good and perfect gift is from above.

James 1:17

Baby

Our baby

hasn't gotten much face time in this space, 

so had to take just a minute to celebrate his kickin' it with us the last three months.

He's pretty much the coolest.

We'll keep him around.

Softest blanket provided by Knots. 

She's got a wealth of some of the coziest things imaginable in her shop, check it out!