Snow.

Oh to be a child again...

Waking up in the morning to the first snow fall of the year is a big event around here every year. And since Brandon has no memory of last year... this boy was extra happy this morning.

Before church: "Mommy! There's snow on the grass?!" On the way to church: "Mommy! There's snow on our house?!" At church: "Mommy!! There's snow on my CHURCH!!"

It was just a dusting, but it was enough to get their juices flowing for some outdoor play. And though I had to explain several times that there was not yet enough snow on the ground to make a snowman... they were more than content enough to just walk around in it and touch it. That is... after we had a lesson on how to put gloves on. I had forgotten how much work it is to prepare to go out in the snow, and we didn't even bother with the snowpants and snow boots yet.

"Mommy! There's snow in my hand!!"

"Brandon! Look... I can make tire tracks in the snow!!"

 

 

 

 

...and afterwards, we came in for some soup and applesauce by mid-day candlelight. It's the little things.

 

 

 

 

A big week ahead... a Christmas program, our first family Christmas of the year... and a ride on our very own real-life Polar Express. Slow down, December!

 

 

A virtual Christmas card from our family to yours.

Now that the cards have all been mailed, here's a sneak peak for our blog reader friends. :)

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Friday, happy weekend. We are hoping that the forecast holds true and that we get to see some of the flakey white stuff on Sunday!

Just a little something...

I was giddy excited yesterday...

...because work is always better with a Christmas tree on your desk, right? (Thanks, Mom). My home office is so warm and inviting, and I love it. And since this makes tree number three in our house, Brandon mentioned last night that we should have a tree in our bedroom, too. I think he's catching on that his mama loves Christmas, and I like where his thoughts are taking him. A tree for every room...why not?


P.S. Did you know there's SNOW in the forecast?!

When all else fails... make lots of cookie dough.

If there was just one picture to sum up our weekend:

Cody came home from work Friday night and had all of the sudden been hit with the worst sinus infection I've ever seen inhabit his body. Immediately, all hopes of plans for the weekend went out the window. Along with my hopes to consume less calories this weekend than last.

And... after being fine all day on Saturday, Brandon suddenly came down with a stuffy nose after I tucked him into bed Saturday night. I was up with him ALL night long. And I do mean all night. My first wink of shut-eye came at 7:00am Sunday morning - with Brandon tucked up right next to me in bed so that I couldn't roll over even an inch. Those wrestless two hours of sleep Sunday morning would be all that I would end up seeing. 9a.m. rolled around, and I realized I had an older son that probably needed some breakfast. Motherhood is beautiful in its rawest forms. ;)

So with a husband at urgent care Sunday morning in a waiting room filled with what seemed like 100 other sick people, a headache due to the fall I took down the stairs in the middle of the night (did I forget to mention that?) and a little two year old who somehow managed to muster up more energy than he sometimes does on a healthy day... I resigned myself to the fact that all I could really do was make cookies. And... I needed 10 minutes to myself for a grocery run. Just 10 minutes of "me" time... even if I did show up at HyVee looking like a dead mommy walking. I stood in the HyVee aisle looking up a Pinterest Christmas cookie recipe on my phone because I didn't feel like taking the time to print it off my computer before leaving the house. I came home, and Brandon sat on the counter with me while I mixed, poured, and stole a lick off the spoon here and there. And by the time I had two different kinds of cookie dough made, I had lost all the energy it would take to make rounded spoonfuls and throw them in the oven. So the uncooked dough went into the fridge instead. I did eventually get around to baking some of it...

 

 

 

We did manage to leave the house for a little bit on Saturday night. A Barnes and Noble run provided a way to get the boys out of the house and away from the walking virus that was their Daddy. Jaden picked out an adorable book while we were there, and I highly recommend it.

It tells the story of Mortimer the mouse and his quest to find a more comfortable place to sleep in the home that he has inhabited. He discovers the family's decorative nativity scene and decides that Jesus' bed of hay looks much too comfortable for a statue to be sleeping in. So he removes baby Jesus from his manger and camps there comfortably every night. Mortimer continues to do this night after night until Christmas Eve comes along, and he hears the man of the house reading the Christmas Story to his kids. Mortimer realizes that the baby statue he has been continuously pushing out of its manger is the Savior from the story, and he returns the baby Jesus statue to the bed of hay on Christmas Eve night. Then, without a bed for himself, Mortimer prays to Jesus to provide him a new warm bed to sleep in, and his prayer is answered when he comes across the family's gingerbread house. It's an adorable story and one of my new favorites for my kids.

Other joys of the weekend came when we finally got to start our advent calendars. We now have three different ways of counting down the days until Christmas. One is new, one is a few years old... and one is quite vintage. :)

We have our Fisher Price nativity scene that hangs on the boys' bedroom door. Every day the boys get to add another character to the stable until Christmas Day... when Jesus himself gets placed in his rightful spot. And while doing so, there's a little button they can push to hear Silent Night. They love this thing. ;)

Our something new...

My Aunt Sally and Uncle Bob always send great little packages, letters and cards to us all the way from Florida. We always know they are thinking of us by their thoughtfulness, and this year we received this adorable book that helps us know exactly how many days left until Christmas. Inside the pages are pull-out ornaments that we can hang on the boys' tree in their bedroom. Each ornament has different ideas of fun ways to celebrate the Christmas season.

And our something old.

This wall hanging was made by a dear friend of my parents' years ago and holds a special place in my memories. It was my countdown to Christmas activity when I was a little girl, and I have vivid memories of my dad carrying me through the living room in my nightgown first thing every morning so that I could move the bear through the house and one room closer to the Christmas tree. Brandon's especially fond of this one.

In other big news - after getting an update on my phone, I finally joined the Instagram party. You can follow me at @nicole_ubben or click on the Follow Me link at the top of the page. ;)

I'm now off to hopefully get a full night's sleep!

Holiday Hoopla Round 2

 

"First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."

-Buddy the Elf

I am on a mission to soak up as much of this Christmas season as we can. Whether it be reading our Christmas bedtime stories under the lights of the Christmas tree every single night, singing 'Silent Night' in bed with the boys at their request, enjoying the buy one - get one free hot chocolate packages at HyVee, or listening to nothing but my Pandora Christmas station for the entire month of December, I am determined to live this season out to its fullest - through quiet nights at home with my Peppermint Mocha candle... and through the smallest of events made big through the eyes of my children.

Tonight we returned to our downtown for a little more 'hoopla.' We weren't sure exactly how the night was going to go. It was a last minute decision on a somewhat 'warm' November night, and we had plans to just walk the pretty decorated street - while it was still comfortable enough to walk outside. We knew Santa would be there. We knew animals would be around. We knew there would be a Christmas trolly driven by horses. But we never know how our kids are going to respond to these things. If they will be patient enough to wait in lines. If they will be brave enough to try a new unknown. So we parked the car a block away from Santa's Workshop with no intentions other than to walk by it. And maybe head to Scratch Cupcake. :) But the light show synchronized to music grabbed the boys' attention immediately, and before I knew it we had subconsciously made the decision to join the end of the line with the hopes of seeing the jolly guy himself. (And Jaden wanted to earn a candycane that he saw the other littles holding.)

 

 

 

I was really surprised at how patiently the kids waited. It helped to have music and flashing lights and the Grinch walking around... even though neither Jaden or Brandon were brave enough to get their picture taken with him. ;) Brandon was in such awe of everything that he would cozy up to another daddy's legs standing in the line next to us before looking up and realizing the legs didn't belong to his own Daddy. He was kind of in a Christmas fog, and his reactions were priceless every time he realized he was cuddling up to the wrong guy.

Finally at the threshold...

While waiting in line, Cody explained to Brandon what he was supposed to be doing once we got inside. He told him he could ask Santa for what he wanted for Christmas, and Brandon even practiced what he was going to tell him. "Toys, Lego's and Lincoln Logs." But once we got inside, he quickly shied away while Jaden approached him with caution. He gave Santa a high-five, told him he wanted a drum for Christmas, and happily took a candycane as his reward. ;)

I don't know... do you think Jaden's impressed here? ;)

Eventually Brandon was brave enough to get close enough for a candycane, but that's as far as he took it - not even quite daring enough to follow Jaden down the tube slide that was created to usher kids out of the workshop.

From there, we walked a few blocks to get to the live nativity. At this point, Jaden just wanted to go eat something (what's new?), but as soon as the lights of the nativity were close enough to distinguish, both kids ran ahead excitedly.

I'm not sure what they think it is we were looking at. We tried explaining that this was a remake of what baby Jesus was born into. We described to them that this was what it was like on the night when baby Jesus was born, but they were more concerned with the live animals they got to feed hay and grass to!

After looking at one of the baby animals, Brandon looked up at my dad and very sweetly said, "I don't think he wants to be in there." He has such a soft spot in his heart for animals!

It was a fun night, and we might even return next week for the trolly ride! ;)