the most wonderful day of the year: christmas 2012

i almost titled this post christmas 2012 but then i remembered finn
calling it "the most wonderful day of the year" just a few days ago.

like the boys do EVERY christmas morning,
they were awake and in our bedroom at the crack of dawn {6:30am}
finn came singing and dancing "it's christmas" and begging us to wake up.
c washed his face, i grabbed my camera and we were in the living room a
few minutes later watching these little guys in their striped pjs.
{they really do remind me of fruitstripe gum}

scout found this note on one of his packages

he read it outloud and didn't bat an eye about not getting that
light saber. he was thrilled to get that special toy - an rc buggy.
he spent the day racing it all over the house and backyard.

finn spent a chunk of the afternoon flying his new rc helicopter.
he pointed out was for ages 14 and up and said in all seriousness
"santa must know i'm very intelligent". {i love his confidence} hehe
he's had several crashes, but he's learning.

we spent the day lounging around the home,
calling loved ones and watching the boys play with their new toys.
we also spent the day eating way too many goodies we received
from kind neighbors and coworkers.

i can't help but think of something auntie jen said as she
watched the boys' excitement as they tracked santa's whereabouts
before she left to the airport on christmas eve.  she saw their overwhelming
excitement and said wouldn't it be great to be 5 and 8 again at christmas?

i smiled because i know exactly what she mean,
and thought that as a parent, i sorta get to be a kid in a sense.
through the boys, i get to experience the magic and wonder of childhood
christmases all over again. that's one of the special things about parenthood.
watching them on christmas morning always gives warm fuzzies.

i hope your day was the most wonderful day of the year too!

{next year we hope to pose in front of a completed fireplace}

and to all a goodnight: christmas eve 2012

it's christmas eve.

the boys have been so excited all week they could hardly contain themselves.
they tried extra hard to be good which meant doing their best not to fight,
and giving mom and dad an usual amount of hugs, kisses and "i love yous".
they also tidied their playroom after just one request {very rare},

so it would be clean and ready to accept new toys on christmas day. 

unlike the past 7 christmases, we don't have aunt jen with us.
it will be a little sad and strange, but she was due for a christmas with
our parents in florida.  i dropped her off at the airport earlier this evening
and will be meeting up with her and the family for my sister leslie's wedding
a few days after christmas - 12/30.

we continued the tradition of giving the boys new pjs.
this year they aren't christmasy at all, but i couldn't resist them.
they are striped and the colors remind me of fruit stripe gum.
after pjs, we piled onto the couch to watch rudolph the red nose reindeer 

afterward i put the boys to bed, i finished some last minute wrapping, 

and sat in our very quiet living room and snapped this with my phone:

just one month ago, this room was a mess.
there was no ceiling, electrical wires were hanging from the ceiling,
and all the floors were concrete.
it's come a long way in a short time.

even though it will be several months and even years before this {old} home
is truly complete, it's ok because our family now has a place to call home.

a place we can grow in as a family and make memories for years to come.
my heart is happy as my christmas wish came true.
i hope one of your wishes do too. *wink*

and borrowing from the last line in the classic 'twas the night before christmas
happy christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. 

~ i almost forgot. there was no mention of sleeping in our bed tonight. *cheer*

the boys must have forgotten as they were too busy tracking santa's whereabouts here
the brainchild of this software is brilliant. where was this when i was a kid? 

christmas wreaths

since we are still trying to get our home together,

and only barely got a christmas tree up before the big day, 

the outside of our home didn't get any attention at all.

it was a little disappointing to us all, but it was impossible
with everything going on.  the little guys seem to understand. 

{we promised next year we would have exterior lights on the house}

i've seen all kinds of pretty wreaths popping up in stores,

on blogs and in magazines, so i thought i'd share a few of the
more interesting ones i found: 

via

via

via

via

next christmas i hope to have not only lights on the exterior of our home, 

but some type of  wreath on our front door.

this year, i'm enjoying the 4 lovely wreaths on our next door neighbors 
front doors and garage doors.  have i mentioned these folks yet?  

they may be the sweetest neighbors we've ever had {and we've had some great ones}. 

they came over to welcome us with big hugs and christmas presents for the entire family.
they even asked if they could give us a key to their home since they travel a bit.
{this was really the 2nd time we had met them}

when they left i said to c, i bet they are mormon.

he said why do you think that and i said i just had a feeling.  
i pointed out they were wholesome, spoke about their children and grandchildren
were trusting and just seemed like good people. 

sure enough, our plumber, whom we've known for years,
was over and mentioned he does their plumbing too. 
i asked him if they were mormon and he confirmed it.
they are!  {c said you called it...yes i did}

of all people we could get living next door to us,

we got this lovely retired mormon couple who reminds me of my parents.

we feel pretty darn lucky. 

~ the boys reminded me christmas is 2 days away today.

YES, they are counting.  c and i feel like it snuck up on us this year,

but we managed to sit down together a few nights ago and thanks to amazon, 

we finished all our shopping in under an hour. 

i finally feel ready for christmas. i hope you are too.
xo

the boys' christmas eve plan

i overheard this conversation this past weekend:

scout:  i don't think i believe in santa.
finn:    why?
scout:  no one has ever seen the REAL one.
finn:     no one has ever seen god, but people believe in him.
scout:  well i don't.
{if i had dog ears they'd have been standing straight up. i was completely tuned in}
finn:     well i believe in santa about 95%.  i only doubt about 5%. {he's learning percentages in school}
i have a plan though that will tell me if santa is real or if it's mom and dad.
let's sleep WITH mom and dad on christmas eve and if  they get out bed for a while,
then we will know it's them.  if they stay in bed then there really is a santa.
scout:   ok, sounds like a good plan.

OMG was my first thought but neither have come to us 'officially' yet with their plan.
good thing as i will need a little time to think on this one.

this idea is SO finn!
seriously, i don't think i'd ever think of that as a kid.
i was the kid who snuck out of my room to peek but santa had already been there.

i'll report back on what goes down christmas eve.

in the meantime, i thought i'd share this photo of my two questioning kiddos.
it was taken by the talented kelly at bubba-loo photography a few weeks ago
scoutie is still trying to master smiling naturally...it doesn't come easy for this 5 year old.
{notice the puffer vests?}



scout {5} and finn {8}

finn's wish list, 2012

knowing christmas was just around the corner,
mr. finn finally sat down over the weekend and completed his letter to santa.
when he came to the blank to fill in an example of how he had been naughty,
he asked scout what he had done to him recently.

scout's list was long. he responded finn had been mean to him,
kicked him, punched him, called him names, and maybe even more.

i asked finn if it were true and he responded "probably".
{have i mentioned my firstborn couldn't lie if he tried}.
finn has never been typical....on anything.

then he turned to his little brother and said he was sorry and really loved him.
scout responded i love you too finn.
and that was that.

so here is finn oliver's letter to santa and his wish list this year:

so that's a wrap.
the boys' letters and wish lists were mailed to santa on saturday.
they know not to expect everything on their list.

when he completed his wish list,
he said he forgot to put legos on it.
{he still loves to build}

~ i hope you had a wonderful and productive weekend!
we got alot accomplished and squeezed in some fun
{we attended a new neighbor's holiday party and sat around
the television sunday evening watching this christmas movie}.

fashion friday: puffer vests

i'm ♥ing puffer vests for boys!
my obsession actually started last winter
when i found this one at target for scout.

this year, target has new styles and more colors and i picked up another
for scoutie and one for his sweet nephew who just celebrated his 2nd birthday.
they are super cute and perfect for mild winters.

because target only has puffer vests in the little boy's department,
i had to do a little digging to find one for finn that wasn't ridiculously priced.
i found one at kohls for $15 - such a deal!

someday i'm gonna learn to post images in a collage,
but until that time, bear with me.
i haven't even updated the look of my blog since i started it.
{it's hard enough to find time to post}  someday...

anywho, i'm so happy it's the weekend!
it's been a CRAZY week {probably the busiest i've had all year},
and with the holidays and the new house {jobsite}, i'm exhausted.

i had a little downtime last night attending our company's holiday party.
my 3 joined me for some great food from phil's, a local restaurant known for its bbq.
on any given day of the week there is a line that wraps around the building.
not i know why.  SO delicious!!

we all ate too much and listened to my company's informal band play.
they call themselves the X band since we are exp.  ok, so no creativity points
but they were pretty good.  everyone got a kick out of finn running to find me
when they started playing leaving on a jet plane.
he knows what songs his mom likes. so sweet.

well i must skedaddle.  i have a zillion errands to run this afternoon -
a cooktop to buy, 2 sinks to return, presents to buy, outfits to pick
out for our family's photo shoot tomorrow, and we need to trim our tree!
i promised the boys we'd do it tonight.  if there were just more hours in a day....

enjoy your weekend folks.

christmas wishes

despite MY not being even remotely ready for christmas,
the boys are expecting santa to visit and have been working
on their wish lists.

i don't have finn's letter yet,
but i wanted to post scoutie's tonight so i wouldn't forget.
i found a template online from these talented ladies,
printed a few and brought them home.

the boys were THRILLED to create their 'wish lists',
but the letter to santa was a little tougher to write.
i mean who wants to write about the time they were naughty?

when scout came to the line that read "i have been very
{fill in the blank}, he looked up with his big blue eyes and
asked christopher and i if he had been very good.
we responded that he had. he smiled and went back to writing.
a minute later he asked how to spell "whined". *laugh*

the boys are into all things star wars right now
as c and i finally let them watch the original trilogy.
{we haven't moved to the newer star wars films and
won't for quite some time}

it works out wonderfully because the boys can fully
enjoy all the games, toys and books associated with
the first, and when they eventually tire of it, they will probably
be ready for the clone wars. {it's all about pacing}

finn created his wish list but didn't write his letter to santa
yet so i'll wait to post until i get them both.
finn was worried that we weren't going to have a good christmas
since the house is in disarray and we didn't have a tree up.
we finally got a tree tonight, and plan on decorating it friday night!

~ scout really wants a light saber and c really doesn't want
him to have one. he likens them to toy guns and prefers the boys
not have toy weapons of any kind. {though they make them out of
anything they find - pieces of pvc pipe, sticks, you name it}

i understand his thinking and i know many parents who feel the same,
but a light saber is different than a gun to me and it's at the very top
of our 5 year old's wish list.  c and i have some discussing to do
between now and the big day.

on the first day of christmas

my true love gave to me.
ONE new {old} home...

i spent the first day of december digging and pulling aside boxes
that held our family's essentials: toiletries, clothes, towels and linens.
it was pure CHAOS!

we moved into a house that was really weeks away from being
ready to hold it's new family comfortably, but we had no choice.
{just too expensive to simultaneously carry another month of rent and a new mortgage}.

the only room that didn't have concrete floors was the kitchen,
and that room didn't {and still doesn't} have a sink or stove top.
the microwave has been getting lots of use and soup is dinner most nights.

since the new flooring wasn't down, and our stuff had to go into the house,
we had the movers put almost the entire contents of our home in the boys'
future play/bedroom. the pix below is only about 1/4 of what went in the room.

we did have our bed carried into into the master bedroom and the
boys' beds set up in the future library, so despite all the dust and boxes,
at least we had our comfy beds to sleep in.

people ask, how are the boys holding up?
i chuckle and respond, the boys? they think it's one GIANT adventure!
they don't care at all we are living out of boxes and can't find anything.
it's much harder on c and i {especially since we like to be organized}
finn and scout remind us that this is what making memories is all about.

~ we have one story we all laugh about now.
c removed the front doorknob since it had seen better days, and we haven't
picked a new one up, so we literally have a HOLE in the door where the knob should go.
we lock the deadlock at night and stick a hand towel in the hole to keep the cold air out.
so classy isn't it? *laugh*

nite nite.