Thankful Thursday 2009 - What a year!

Wow, this has been a crazy year. It started off simple enough, I had my usual winter blues and started blogging in January. I met a wonderful group of people and developed some lovely friendships. I appreciate each and every one of you so very much! When we tragically lost Duke you all were there with your kind and encouraging words. THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart. It has been a struggle (and it feels silly because Duke was "just" a dog, but he was so much more!) but with the new puppies and finding out we are expecting our second child, I have a new found joy. I hope to be back in full blogging force soon! I have so much to blog about now. I am so thankful for everything in my life. I really have had no good reason to be "down" but sometimes it just sneaks in there and surprises us. I am thankful I have the Lord to hold me and guide me through everything. Without Him, I would surely be in big trouble. Here is to 2009, a year of losses and gains and many lessons and new things learned. And here is to looking forward to 2010, a new year and God only knows what it holds for our lives. But one thing is certain, HE will be the main focus as my family ventures through it.

A Late Merry Christmas and the News

So here is a late "Merry Christmas" to everyone!! I had in mind to set up an automatic post...but I didn't (BIG surprise lol). So I hope everyone had a very lovely holiday!


Now for my big news (Yaya & anyone else TTC, if you are reading this, you might want to stop, I don't want to make you sad or feel bad or anything, though I am sure you have it figured out by now - big hugs!!).








Ok,

Little Jimmy is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! =) So there you have it! I haven't even been to the dr. yet because I am switching and couldn't get in to the new one until January (they don't even see you until you are at 10 weeks)! But according to my calculations, I am about 3 months along. I didn't even realize it until around Thanksgiving and then I took a test about a week or 2 later to "confirm it"! So hopefully all is well. I feel pretty good now. I was feeling pretty yucky and was really picky about food and smells, etc. But that seems to be getting better, so I must be close to the 2nd trimester already!

Now, Yaya and any of my friends out there who have been ttc and been having trouble, if you did read this, I want you to know that I am continuing to pray for you and I kept thinking about you when I was thinking about posting this. I know I haven't been in your situation and I don't know what it is like, but I do follow what you go through on your blogs and I hurt for you. I hope and pray for you all the time that you will one day be blessed and have your own bundle of joy, whether it is your own child or through adoption. I wasn't really sure what to say, but I care about you!! Sending you all big hugs!!

Oops...

You are going to have to wait a couple days longer before I tell you what is up! ;-) Sorry to keep you in suspense lol. See my previous post if you are totally clueless about what I am talking about =D

We're Elves!

I had to do it! I finally gave in and Elfed myself lol. Make sure you pause my playlist so you can hear it. Enjoy our elfy-ness!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

He's Here!

Welcoming....Luke! I went and picked him up this morning. An hour through the snow one way to meet the breeder (though NOT over 15 inches like some of the east coast, I think we only got 2 or 3) and then he got to come to my dad's for our big family Christmas get together. So he got some socialization!

Here is my sweet baby dog for you all to see =) He's such a cute little chubby furball!! (please excuse my messy house in the pics, its been a long last couple days...weeks.....months even....lol. Once again I have been neglecting my bloggy duties, I have still been a bit down lately. That and laziness are my only excuses....well, there is ONE more, but I can't tell you that until, ohhh, Tuesday night (if I remember) ;-)

Late Belsnickle

Jimmy put out his boots last night (see previous post) with a note to Santa and this morning he found a couple goodies! Here are some pics. Enjoy!


He got a chocolate reindeer (that mommy surely won't try to help him eat...teehee) and a little Elmo doll that doesn't say anything or make any noise. Ahh that's the best kind =D

Have a great day!

St. Nicholas Day or "Belsnickle"

Yesterday, December 6th, was St. Nicholas Day or as we call it in our family "Belsnickle." It is German/Dutch celebration of St. Nicholas' birthday. On the eve of the 5th, children place their shoes on their fireplace hearth (or outside their bedroom door) and in the morning their shoes may be filled with things ranging from chocolates and treats to even a small gift. If they have been naughty, they will of course find coal! For more about it check out the wikipedia page about St. Nicholas.

My Oma (grandmother) is full German so we were brought up with this tradition. The way we always celebrated was to put our Christmas lists in our shoes and put them out by the fireplace on the evening of the 5th. Then Santa would come, pick up the lists and leave some candy and a small gift in the shoes. So on the morning of the 6th we had a nice little surprise! I just love this tradition and will definitely be carrying it on with Jimmy. We are going to do our "Belsnickle" tonight since I honestly forgot to do it on time, but Jimmy is so young it won't matter that we are a couple days late =D I will post some pics tomorrow!

Christmas Countdown Paper Chain

Today we made a Christmas Countdown Paper Chain. I remember making these when I was little, my sister and I just loved ripping the links off each day.

Supplies needed:
2 pieces each of Red, green & white paper
Scissors
Tape or a stapler
Cut 4 strips, longways, out of each piece of paper, except for one piece, cut out 5 strips. You need 8 strips of 2 colors and 9 strips of the third color to add up to 25 strips (one for each day, December 1-25).

Now all you do is make a loop with one strip and tape (or staple) it closed. Put the next strip through the loop and tape it closed and continue adding loops until all the strips are used up. Easy as pie!

If your little one is too young to cut and tape/staple, you will have to do that part. But this is a great activity for teaching toddlers the colors. I asked Jimmy to hand me each strip by color as I needed it. I rotated them green, red, white, green, red, white, etc.

Help your little one count down to Christmas (starting today) by removing one link from the chain each day. Have fun!

Its December!! Homemade Ornaments

It's the 1st day of December, Christmas is coming fast!! Ack, I need to go shopping!!!

I am so excited, this will be Jimmy's 2nd Christmas, but this is the first year he will actually understand a little better what is going on. I can't wait for him to be able to open presents and see the excitement on his face! I am so excited to do Christmas crafts with him, make cookies and all sorts of things. Yesterday, my lovely friend and very expectant mommy Katie came over with her soon to be 3 year old little girl. We made Christmas ornaments! We used 2 different recipes. One was the salt dough kind that you bake in the oven and the other was a cinnamon dough that smells SOOO good!! Here are some pics of the ones we made with links to the recipes:

Salt Dough Ornaments.

Cinnamon Ornaments

We just rolled out the dough and cut it out with cookie cutters, poking holes in the tops with a straw so they can be strung with ribbon or yarn and hung. Jimmy and I are going to be painting the salt dough ones and I will post some pics when they are done. The cinnamon ornaments smell very good and would be perfect for someone with country or primitive decor. These would make great gifts and/or add-ons to the outside of wrapped gifts. Have fun if you decide to try these and don't be tempted to eat the cinnamon ones! Hubby almost took a bite of one last night but thought, wait, those are a bit TOO strong smelling and then he asked me about them. I told him they had cinnamon, applesauce and GLUE in them and he was like eeeeew, glad I didn't take a bite! lol! Enjoy!