We have been elfed!

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Mommy's little elves

Yesterday Mamaw met us at the mall for our picture with Santa. Afterwards we headed to my favorite place Santa Depot to let the kids run around the Christmas trees.


Where are the presents??


Oh I am going to fall!



Oh these lights are sooo beautiful!


Ready for Christmas time.

Our new favorite song to ride in the car to.

Betcha didn't know.......

They say that you learn something new every day. Well, yesterday I learned a few things I would like to share with you.

-Glade flame less candles can work as a flashlight when you are crouched under the desk trying to work on the modem. (guard your eyes for the wisp of fragrance that comes out though, it tends to burn)

-The New Albany YMCA has these handy pump dispensers inside the toilet stalls in the bathroom, after 3 trips to the bathroom I learned that it is not hand sanitizer (or as Victoria calls it "Hanatizer")it dispenses, it is toilet seat cleaner. Quit your giggling. Yes I walked out of there each time rubbing it in my hands thinking "This is great I don't have to wait in line to wash my hands" not having a clue I was rubbing toilet seat cleaner on my hands

-Toilet seat cleaner smells really good and isn't too drying on your skin.

Bluetoothing Jesus.....Good stuff

Tonight was Design 101, the bible study that I have been going to to monthly for the Women's ministry. Tonight we learned more about the holy spirit, what it is, what it does, and what it is capable of.

I have been known to have my hands full every minute. Whether it be a baby that needs changing, food that needs to be cooked, clothes that need to be washed, it always seems to be something. Tonight we talked about Bluetoothing Jesus. Being in constant communication with him, Like David. He may not have STARTED everything with conversation with God he always went to him, to learn, grow and understand more about how he should be and how things should be done. We are told to be in constant communication with God, and when the Holy Spirit doesn't give you rest listen to what God is trying to teach you and say to you. The Holy Spirit in us as believers is the same Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead! Isn't that AMAZING! I had never heard it said like that. That same holy spirit is inside of me, living,
breathing, and wanting to guide me.

It is no mistake how things are worded in the Bible. Living water is spoken about in the Bible quite often. Tonight we talked about how living water fills us. How does water react? How can it be described? We went through illustration after illustration of water and how it is pure, it is clear, it is moving, it is simple, it is what makes up so much of our body, when it fills something it doesn't require something to change it just fills it in the shape that it is in, it fills a hole completely, it fills from the bottom up, and all of those things describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all of those things, and it wants us to let it be all of those things too.

Visioneering is the name of the book that we are studying this month. It is by Andy Stanley. It has been a great read. It has spoken to me on so many levels. Here are some quotes from the lessons in the book. .....

"God may very well use the "time of waiting" to REPAIR something in you in order to PREPARE you for what He has in store" This helped me to understand even more that the answer to some prayers may not be "NO" just "Wait I am working on lining things out for that to happen even better than you imagine" We need to keep praying and planning. We can not be idle. James always says "Yes God can move a mountain but someone may need to pick up a shovel."

I am hoping that some of this makes sense to you reader. I am really excited about it and wanted to get some of the thoughts swarming around in my head grounded and my mind and comprehension is working faster than my fingers are. I hope that at least one things speaks to you in this moment in your life, that you are letting the Holy Spirit lead you and also giving yourself time to rest and allow God to heal you and put you back together as you give of yourself.

Cramps, crying, and cat pee OH MY!

Last night was rough. The first part of my title is self explanatory, so we will just leave it at that. At 12:30 last night Addison started crying HARD. This isn't unusual because when she rolls over and loses her paci she freaks out. I got up twice to help her find her paci again and then headed back to bed. The third time I did this she still had her paci in her mouth, but was still crying. I put my hand on her back and she stopped. I think she was just having one of those night where she just needed mommy. This continued for about forty five minutes when I decided to take a blanket and pillow into the nursery and just lay with her for a while. I ended up laying on the floor with my hand through the rails on her bed rubbing her feet to let her know that I was there. This worked for a while, then the crying started again. She wasn't hot, she wasn't dirty, I just don't know what was wrong with her. I ended up giving her a dose of Motrin in case it was teeth or something and took her into the living room to hold her and get her calm. She sat in there with me for a while but wouldn't fall back asleep. After about 20 minutes of no crying I decided to try her bed again. I tip toed down the hallway to lay her down and she did without a fight. I very quietly took my place next to her bed where my pillows and blanket were laying and sat on my urine soaked blanket....THANKS LUCY!! Seems as though her night wasn't going to well either. I finally got Addison down around 4 this morning and fell into my own bed after putting my blankets from the nursery in the wash. Looks like I will be going to bed early tonight, and Lucy will be sleeping in the bathroom. :)

Mommy's traffic cone

Blogger would only let me post one video at a time so here is the other video from last night. Later when we got tired of the lunch box we placed her laundry hamper on Addison's head. She looked like a traffic cone walking through the house. I believe I have found a way to let her loose in the house and not worry about her getting into things especially the litter box. I am joking people!

Normal life

I got out the video camera today while mom was over to get some footage of our festivies. This is completely normal in our house, Victoria in a Halloween costume that Grandma found on clearance at Meijers, complete with yellow and black striped tights, Anthony chasing the Tigger toy Aunt Punkin got for him, and Addison walking around with a lunch box on her head. You can't forget her constant singing either.

Let's see....

Well life as always has been adventure as always. My head is doing better and I am slowly but surely gaining the capacity to let things go.

Here are some of the highlights and favorite quotes of the past week:

-Friday we headed to "The Pine's (the park that we live in) pitch-in dinner" James had gone to work and I walked the kids over to the storm shelter for the festivities. We were the youngest there by about 50 years and the evening ended tragically with Victoria being frightened to death by the entertainment (An 86 year old Elvis impersonator that only knew about 10 words to every song he sang) to the point of hiding under the table while I got more mac and cheese for the babies.

-James and I started our first Bible elective this weekend. It is geared toward marriage enrichment and looks like it is going to be great! I am VERY proud of him for participating. I know getting up early is not his favorite thing to do on his only day off but he is an incredible husband for doing so. My favorite quote of the class titled "Dealing with Differences" is that "My wife and I live in a two-story home, her story and mine" This was not a quote from James but from the man teaching the study. Even though I understand the meaning of the statement it made me feel like we have a bigger home.

-Victoria added to my love for the Kirk Franklin's song "Stomp" There is a line in the song "My brother can't you see I've got the VICTORY.....stomp" Well our little Victoria was singing the song at the top of her lungs on the way home from church this morning and sang the line like this....."My brother can't you see I've got someplace to be.....stomp" I cracked up so hard I almost peed my pants. That girl cracks me up.


So Victoria this is for you......

Autumn at the zoo

Seeing as though today might be the last day that we have to be out without coats on, we met Grandma at the zoo. Please forgive the proud mom and her camera.


Hooray the zoo!!


I am having to narrow down about 50 photos on here. I just couldn't pass up this one. The light in their eyes was incredible!


Walking with Grandma.




Sissy sharing her glitter hat that Grandma got for her at the flea market, it was a hit!

I know Halloween is over but....

I ran across this video, which is another favorite of mine, while looking for the video of the cat hitting the wall. It still cracks me up.

Internal clock and psycho cat.

This recent time change has been a bear. I normally adjust pretty well but for some reason my internal clock is all out of wack. I do enjoy waking up an hour earlier but at night I am ready to crash a 6. Especially yesterday after the adventurous day we had I wanted to fall over before Dancing with the stars.

Once I fell asleep last night I had a hard time staying asleep. My loving furry child Lucy decided to take some speed last night. She tore across the bed last night I know about 10 times, just to run into the bathroom and pull open the bottom drawer of the vanity and take off again towards to front of the house. This isn't an actual video of Lucy but this gives you an idea of what I am working with here.

Escape

With the election finally over and the new leader named, I decided it was time to take my mind off of disappointment and fear and get out of the house. I am not the most politically educated person (more so now being married to James, who can tell you what shoe size and kind of cereal each of the canidates have for breakfast) but I do know that the "Change" that America voted for is scarey, and unnerving. I continue to pray for our country.

Victoria and I took the babies and headed out of the house early today to cash in some tickets to the Forest Discovery Center up in Starlight. Mamaw gave them to us last Christmas and I have held onto them forever. We love gift certificates for things to do.

It was really neat, I have to say. They had a room that was an indoor forest complete with stuffed animals and eduacational material on how to identify trees based on the leaves and how imprortant reforestation is. We enjoyed the movie theatre inside and watched the movie about the acorn that turns into a tree. The babies were even mesmerized. We took the babies out of the stroller and let them play in the wooden blocks and the only time that they cried was when we put them back in. You should of seen Addison walking one way with a block in her hand and Anthony with 2 blocks in each hand going the other. They liked knocking over the castle that Victoria and I was making.


here is the man made tree that you can walk through in the activity area. Everyone got to sign their name on the tree to state that they would take care of the trees. Victoria signed her new favorite thing to draw.. a heart.


At the end of the tour we walked this overhead catwalk overlooking Koetter Woodworking Factory. They had stations that you stopped at explaining each phase of how a tree becomes a piece of crown molding or base board or a door. I was unaware that in Starlight, In they made the wood work for the oval office in the White House, bet "Baramahama" didn't know that.


You can see in this pic the path suspended from the ceiling. Victoria was NOT a fan of how high the path was above the factory. Her knuckles were white gripping onto the stroller. There were some tears shed but she made it. I just had to keep her distracted.


When we left the Discovery Center, we headed to Huber's. We enjoyed a cookie by the pond and shared a lemonade. It was one of the most enjoyable days that I can remember. It was nice to get out of the house and have a date just me and my kids. We needed that.