The end of February

Every Christmas I redo the entire look of our house with Christmas decorations-some Christmas specific, and others just wintery looking-like my snowmen. My thought is that I can leave my snowmen up until winter is over because they are winter decorations, not Christmas. But I also leave up my "winter" lights on the mantel with my "winter" greenery; and my "winter" lights outside on the play set. These are simply multi-colored or white lights; no red and green.


This year I had great hopes for kids playing on our play set with the lights on at night, but alas, the rains came. Our yard has been soggy since December! But I got tired of not using my lights, so the other night, between rainstorms, I let the boys play outside in rain boots or old shoes. Finally my plan happened!




The other thing I leave up year-round, are my "HOPE" letters. Years ago I bought JOY, NOEL and HOPE. After Christmas was over that year I put away the first two, but thought that HOPE was something I needed all year long. My HOPE has been for different things over the years ranging from things as trivial as hoping for snow to the first thing I really hoped for when looking at my letters; becoming pregnant with Camden. They aren't like a lucky charm, but rather a reminder that I need to pray for my desires and put my hope in the One who can fulfill them. I will be moving my HOPE from the front table at the end of the month when I put away all my winter decorations (and the pine branches on the mantel are very dry and needing to be thrown out by now!), but it will remain. We all need a little hope!

Camden's first performance

Camden was in his first ever singing performance on February 10 at his preschool. It was deja vu because they did almost the same thing that Nathan did when he was in the 2's at Westminster! But it was really cute, and he actually sang. In order for the kids to not be scared and freeze up, the parents sat with their children in a cirlce of chairs. Dave could not be there due to work, so he wanted me to video, of course. Since I was sitting beside him, the view does not change, but it is precious.

Nathan's extreme skiing!

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Camden's Extreme Skiing

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SNOW!!!!!

Well, I know our story will be like most everyone's in Charleston, but it is still fun to tell! WE HAD SNOW! Not just any snow, but real snow with depth and snowman-makableness (I think I just made up a word that may make no sense).

It started out with Nathan getting out of school an hour early. This didn't make much sense since it was only raining and we live in Charleston, so yeah right, we are going to get snow. But we got home and got ready for the snow that I still didn't think would happen. It was raining now, like usual, so I thought the best we could hope for would be ice.


Camden's first glimpse of snow!


Watch out for the snowball!

Snow in the hair!


The ice did come. I knew it first by hearing it. It reminded me of when we lived in Lynchburg and had several ice storms one year (which I actually miss because it made everything so glistening). But then I started to notice that in the outside light, the ice looked more like snow! We got excited and the boys and I ran outside and scraped the slushy snow off of any outdoor surface we could get to. I started the "snowball" fight with Nathan, who was very happy to throw back. I warned him not to hit Camden because he might not like it, but the next thing I know, Camden was in on the action!

After coming in, taking a warm bath, getting in jammies, and putting cookies in the oven, we decide to go back out again because the snow was really accumulating! More throwing snow and even making a little snowman! We got so involved in the snow that I burned the cookies! It was neat to see more and more snow cover our yard. I was beginning to believe that we would actually wake up the next morning to snow to play in.

Our first snowman!



And that happened! So of course we go outdoors first thing. Nathan, who never eats breakfast unless forced, was fine with that arrangement, but Camden always asks for breakfast first thing; so he was ready to come in. While he ate, Nathan made his snowman; a little squatty one. And when Camden finished eating, he had to make his own. More snowball fights; a walk around the block; complaints of cold hands; then inside to get ready for Upwards. How can one expect to play ball indoors when there is snow on the ground!








By the time we got home, most of our yard just looked wet-like usual-but I was very thankful for a little taste of snow beauty!

I now have blue walls!

Dave spent all of Saturday, the 6th, working on our bathroom! Yeah! It may not look like much has been done, but every little bit means it is closer to being finished. Right now he has blue board nailed to the walls that he will tile over. Bring on the tile.




He has stated all along that if he is going to put a lot of work into the bathroom, that he doesn't want it to look the same-meaning he wants the walls to not remain the same color. Although I am pleased with the sage color of our walls, I saw a different color scheme in a house that I really like-blue and chocolate brown. Since we have green mainly in the house, everywhere, I can't go all out with these 2 colors, but I can change from burgundy and green to blue and green. I found a pillow in Marshall's with both colors in it; put it on our bed to try out; and Dave is convinced that the colors will work with our forest green suede finished bedroom walls. I am not sure if we will be painting our bathroom (which is connected and open to our room) blue, but blue accents will definitely work. And I get to redo our valances and replace our pictures on our wall. I have always liked the way our room looked, but a little change can be fun! I REALLY want to redo our kitchen walls, but starting that will be opening a big can of worms that would cost more money than we have right now, so I will change colors in our bedroom and try not to be envious of other's kitchens :)

Oh, and the blue I want to accent with is not the present blue!

The Big Day

Well, I have now entered the last year of my 30's. Seems weird. What really seems weird is that I remember when my mom turned 40 and I was in high school! When I will turn 40, I will have a 4 year old running around the house. Yikes!



But not 40 yet and I got to wake up with a 9 yr old and 3 yr old telling me "Happy Birthday." They were both so excited. Nathan had woken up at 6:00 in order to get breakfast ready; present wrapped, etc. He came in to quietly wake Dave to get help, but we were able to get him to go back to his room until almost 7. He wanted me to sleep in; that was a little hard to do with him in our room! But at 7 he and Dave put the cinnamon rolls into the oven and made me get back into bed when they were done. Got to eat them in bed along with receiving my "kneeboard" disguised as a Willow Tree statue. Nice beginning to the day!

Although not looking forward to turning 39 (or maybe it is 38, I get a little confused!), it is still fun to have people remember your birthday. It hasn't happened yet, but I have already had a surprise party at Cubbies; a gift from a family in the neighborhood that we carpool with; a card from a Cubbie; and Nathan's gift of making me a blanket. I had thought he was going to do this (with his trying to hide his whereabouts), and knew he had bought material, but he really surprised me that he had done it already. He couldn't wait to give it to me and I got my cuddly fleece blanket Monday night! It is soft and warm and made with love :)

He says he has something else for me that I am trying not to guess! He and Dave stopped at "Dick's" on the way home from Upwards practice last night. They were looking at "kneeboards". He didn't have to tell me they had stopped anywhere because they weren't that late, but he had to ask, "Are we home late mom? Dad wanted to stop at Dick's on the way home." He really gets excited about giving gifts! Will have to post tomorrow what else he got me and I hope I like the "kneeboard"!