Balancing Bliss

the gifts...

i'm going to skip all the holiday happenings for now and get right to the gifts... after all it is almost new years.

mr. g is loving everything he got. he is always grounded from electronics so there was no use getting him any. he does however love to sort out legos when he is angry. so i got.. ahem.. santa brought him a lego sorting system. it's so him. he loves it. that is what matters.

 i bought him a hat. not just any hat but one that has a huge flat bill. i guess that is the cool thing. my friend and i had to ask the guy at zumiez what every logo was go make sure it was cool yet not inappropriate... i told him i was old and the last time i shopped there was 20yrs ago. im old. while i was in there i got him a cool hoodie. to match the hat of course. the look had to be pulled off with head phones of course.

eli blu had a bit of an awkward yet great Christmas. he was right on the edge of believing.. he wanted a video game really bad. i finally said "you didn't get a game" which luci replied "just ask santa for it" and he looked at me with a twinkle and said "i can't, i already asked him for a TABLET" well...

 funny enough Santa thought that was a good idea months ago. he might just believe again. that was not the intention but he just might. his face sure looked like it that morning. now, he has wanted a zip over your face hoodie for so long. SO LONG. he actually started wearing his hoodie backwards which started a trend at school and it was banned at recess due to boys running into eachother. i looked high and low. i took 2 back. while at zumiez i decided to go all out and get him a good quality one. he is a good boy so i shelled out the $69 for it. it was my 2nd favorite gift i got this year. could not wait to see his face. this is what i got;

 so i guess a dorky face is only cool once you hit middle school because he didn't like it at all! he was nice about it. it's not that he didn't appreciate it but he wasn't going to wear it to school. my heart broke but i kept it together...i wanted him to have what he wanted. brian took him down there and he did find another. so that is what matters. i just wanted him to have one that wasn't scary or evil. he picked a good one..

moving onto luci girl. this little girl is full of the Spirit of Christmas and makes it magical every day leading up to it. she asked Santa for a $15 toy. that makes it easier for Santa to give out tablets... she wanted a doodle bear. Santa brought something just a little bit more special.. a doodle penguin for the girl who loves such things. it has been doodled on and washed a few times already. can't wait for little sister to realize she can color on toys...eeeek.

 she also got clothes which being a girl you would think one would be excited but it's not so. maybe that will change on the first day back to school. when she is gavens age it will mean everything i'm sure.( quick story; when i was gavens age i got some bongo jeans that i could peg with an oversized white sweater and exclamation perfume! i thought i was amazing. i ran downstairs, curled my hair and added layers of hairspray i'm sure then followed it with way too much perfume. my sister went outside to take pictures of me at my request. nothing like being 13 and into yourself. sigh...)

and onto little miss. it was a very minnie Christmas here this year. Santa gave her a little something. a mushroom and frog bowling set. i got a bowling set around that age and LOVED it so that should be fun during these winter months of being indoors. the one toy i never did get and wanted my whole life.. the one i had to get the real one of as an adult but ironically had to get rid of when i had kids.. 

 A JEEP!!!! yep.. i lived through my child this year. in a healthy way. she can drive this thing for years. luci rides in it at 9. we have the perfect backyard for it once it's dry and until then we have a 10acre park with a bike path just a block away. i still can't believe it. she ran right to it. grabbed a candy can off the stocking and got in it. she didn't get out for over a half hour. after we exchanged gifts and ate breakfast we took her outside in it. i must have looked like a 5yr old out there. the older neighbors all came out to see her ride up and down the street. it was what i always thought it would be... 

there was a little something for brian. something i LOVED getting him. nerd gifts. i thought i was brilliant. not sure if he did.

 the license plate reads; 'no i won't fix your computer' in german and the shirt reads GEEK in binary and then says 'if you can read this you are too'. 

 i got everything i wanted or needed this year. my sweet husband got me a digital frame that i have wanted for so long that i was about to go buy myself. the only thing i asked my dad for he brought with him... a load of firewood for a nice Christmas day fire and a couple pounds of coffee beans. fire and a cup of joe... sigh... wonderful holiday

the holidays puked on my dining room...

 i've spent the last two days cleaning up Christmas. i'm pretty sure this part of it has nothing to do with Jesus... sigh.  we start out simple. reading from the scriptures  as we add figures into the nativity on the dining room table... but somewhere along the way it becomes about bright colors, glitter, bows, and santa. sometimes i remind myself that i have little children and this is how it should be. so i guess i will just take a week cleaning up 'the magic' of it all.

 90% of it is put back in totes but i'm still cleaning the yuck that was left underneath it that used to be my house! two rooms are done, minus a popcorn cake on the piano i just can't throw away. so today i'm breaking out some crafty happiness.

this moment...

 Every year there is this moment that makes every crazy, upsetting, failing moment of parenting just disappear.. it is the moment when you turn out the lights Christmas eve.

 That very special moment came and went. it was followed by wake up calls at 6am for the trip out to the tree. all these years later i can't believe the kids  wait for me to go out to 'check if santa has come' because when they were little i said that so i could be on the otherside of them to get a picture of their faces. so i 'checked' and yes, he had come. we had a great day. we feasted.

 and now i have the reality of it all... my kitchen is scary. my fridge is full.. like FULL.. (which is not a complaint.. just different), my desk and table are covered in layers of new things and paperwork to new things, my home just isn't my home... i don't want to face it but here i go..

 more pics like this to come soon..

for the love of ...

PHOTO SHOOTS WITH FOUR KIDS...

we even attempted a family photo... FOOLS

i told everyone to sit up and smile.. so my dear husband did just that.. to be funny.. little did he know it would have been a great picture.

we did get one that we used in our card.. minus some adults.. add some wrestling and sitting on a sibling.. hey, lets keep it real.. that is life in our home. as is the toddler bailing out of pics. or off santas lap. or off the potty. whatever... life as we know it.

 

school pictures...

 bless those in conn. tragedy today.. a little persons first day of school pictures shouldn't be their last school picture..

kissing my babies when the walk in the door today...

9 years ago...

this little miss entered our lives... all pink.. foofy and girly... she has since glittered bombed our world... can't imagine life without her.. her tiny little voice.. her messy messy self (ok i could do without that one).. sassy... nuturing.. little tiny thing that she is no matter how much older she gets.. just a blessing always...

the reason...

Luke 2:7

annual storybook land...

 it is that time of year again.. the annual trip to storybook land. it has been going for as many years as i have been alive.. i went as a kid with my dad.. i've been on many o' field trips with my kids preschool and kindergarten classes... we go as a family every year.. we missed the last two years.. you know, when your baby almost kills you and you spend over a year in recovery, one skips such events ;).. so we weren't going to miss it this year!

    (the girls are staring at a grandpa who was trying to get minie to smile)

 i'm sure it's a magical little place for children. the funny thing about magical moments is that they are really for the parents to see magic in their kids.. the entire building is lined with Christmas trees (that are from thinning the oregon forests) and each little little spot has a theme from a movie or a storybook. some are new, most are old.. some have been there since i was a kid.. my favorite is a 'ginormous' raggedy anne and andy.. when gav was just a tiny 4mo old baby i broke the rules and hopped the fence to put him on their lap.. it's a happy memory.

 and now onto this years...

 it wouldn't be a trip to storybook land without a trip to the bench to have a talking to. it's just a sade tradition i guess. one year it was eli blu.. then a pic of him pointing a finger in daddy's face.. next pic is of gav and luci on santas lap but no eli .. hehee.. it's a good memory too.. a funny one at that.. this year it was minie who refused to walk and had some fits when put down. once she got comfortable with it she was happy to do so and so into all the little scenes..

 choo choo is always a favorite.. people stop and it holds up the line.. eli blu who was just almost too big to go this year, thought he would be funny in this one..

 this beautiful little girl loves anything nutcracker.. such a good girl.. sometimes we forget how little she still is.. love her..

 we had the first peek of santa who was around the corner at the north pole.. precious

 luci had a friend from her class run over and loudly exclaim "luci do you still believe in santa? I DO!" then she went on to list her friends who don't.. nice.. this was eli blu's first year not to sit on santas lap.. he also made a few suggestions that it's his last year to believe.. i stood in that exact place 4years ago when gaven's eyes welled up with tears as he walked out of the building telling me "it's sucks to know"... i could see that moment in eli blu as he watched long after our girls we out of line.. sigh.. a weepy mommas heart <3 ..

 and once again this sweet girl who loved to get on his lap and happily tell him about the preschool age toy she wanted at 9yrs old.. thank goodness because i do believe it's what he already has got for her..

and then there was...

 a quick daddy handing her over, no eye contact with santa as arms went back up to daddy and DONE!  she did like mrs. clause.. who doesn't.. she is the one with the candy canes..