Well, Rich has gone off to work and I have about 15-20 minutes before I start seeing “the troops”. How was everyone’s weekend? I thought I would give a quick update on the things my family has been up to.
Thursday, of course, was spent preparing and eating our Thanksgiving meal. At about 10, Rich took the older children for a run, probably to make himself feel better about eating so much later on in the day.
While he was gone, David and I had a good time putting together all the appetizers and making the punch, and Caleb sampled everything.
Our food was delicious and even though at times I did get tired and cranky, I was blessed to have a lot of helpers in the kitchen…….and after all was said and done, I was very very thankful for my dishwasher, which had to run three times after we ate!
Caleb is becoming an Ipod boy at an early age, I have the story of Bambi on mine, and he loves to listen. This picture was also taken on Thanksgiving day:
Friday. Did anyone else go shopping? I had no intentions of going but when I woke up that morning, at 7, I thought about what a special memory it would be if I got Grace up out of bed and left the house with her before anyone else was up. So, that’s what we did. I woke up Rich to ask him if he minded and he didn’t, so Grace and I quickly got dressed and away we went, to the mall. The first thing we did was eat breakfast at Panera. And then we shopped, and she got her hair trimmed. Grace talked the entire time we were gone. “What a girl”. We were home by 10:30 and I immediately washed and dried my new pj’s (I bought them when we were at the mall) and then wore them the rest of the day, totally enjoying an afternoon of comfortable laziness. My new pj’s are red and Rich said I looked like Mrs. Claus. Wonderful.
We did some organizing in the basement storage room, and I found our Christmas decorations for the tree and also a bag of maternity clothes, including my all-time favorite black maternity dress. I thought I had given it away and was so thrilled to still have it, just in time to wear to church for the next two months, lol.
Saturday. We took the kids to Crackerbarrel for breakfast, and then to Walmart.
Our project of the weekend? We removed the wall-paper border in “the office” (used to be David and Caleb’s bedroom) and prepared the walls for paint. So far, so good. Here’s a picture of the busy workers:
I also spent some time wrapping gifts.
On Sunday, we went to church and then to Wendy’s for lunch, with my sister and her family….a lot of fun. Rich went to night service later on with the three older kids while I stayed home with David and Caleb. I tried teaching David to sing “Joy to the World”….he had a hard time getting those high notes and we quickly ended the singing lesson. At this rate we will have the first stanza learned by Christmas day (I hope). He requested pancakes for dinner so we made those together. Caleb was being a pickle (very rare for him) and I finally stuck him in the bathtub for a soak just so he would stay in one spot!
Now that the long, lovely weekend is over I must somehow ease myself (and the children) into a regular routine again. I hope all of you have a good day, can you believe it’s December 1st?
Here, before I go, are a couple pictures of Davy, in his new hat. So funny. We bought one for each of the boys, basically for my own amusement……..
Did any of you put your Christmas tree up?
What will be your first Christmas-y activity this year?
I think the children and I will put the gingerbread house together very soon, since I already have the kit upstairs (hidden). Also, I collect Christmas magazines and I will get those out today and start looking through them for inspiration. Of course we are also looking forward to cookie-baking (I’ve found a few new recipes to try) and garland making. Any cool ideas would be appreciated!
Love ~Shanda~
PS, While Rich was gone last night I made the new header for my site. Do you like it?
Good to be Home 
Shanda, yes I love your header. Very pretty and cheerful! We’re also making a gingerbread house this week, tonight I think. My sister hides a small present in each of her kid’s gingerbread houses and then on Christmas Eve they get to break it open and see the present. I think I will do the same. Have a wonderful first day of December! -Maria
I love your new header. How do you do that? We put our tree up. My hubby got me a fresh wreath so that I could have the smell of pine in the house. It was a complete surprise and really spoke to my heart. He also got me a little sac of cinnamon pine cones which I put in front of the heat and boy do they smell good when it comes on. I did a lot of baking yesterday and am looking forward to baking for Christmas as well.
I hope you have a great week. I keep you and the baby in my prayers as well as your family!
Andrea
I do really like the new header. I was just trying to come up with a new one for mine but it’ll have to wait. I loved reading about your “weekend”. I hope that Grace will have memories of that day. I would really love to start decorating the house for Christmas. We’re going to pick our tree out again this year. I am making some gifts this year and I really need to start cracking on them! I love you! Lish
I love the new header! I sat and looked at it for a couple of minutes to take it all in b/c it’s so pretty. You’re off to a great Christmas-y start. I feel all inspired now.
@imthankful72 – Great idea with the cinnamon and the heat! Thanks.
Your new header is lovely! My boys used to wear those hats too! We don’t put our tree up until the week before Christmas (my kids call me “Scrooge!”)
I do like your new header. It is nice and bright. I really like the flower closeup in this post. I love the picture of Davy and his new hat.
Blessings on your day.
My Rebekah and I had a mommy-daughter day on Friday too. We got up early and met my sister for coffee and muffins at the bakery- then went out into the crush and rush of Black Friday. Not my favorite time of the year- but it wasn’t that bad. Rebekah loved the early morning busyness of our city and the stores. We bought a huge nutcracker and some other holiday goodies.
Oh man, I just peeled wallpaper off my bathroom walls- thats a chore I don’t relish in-that’s for sure!!!! 🙂
Sounds like you had a lovely weekend. I like your new banner! 🙂 I had seen a huge selection of Fiesta Ware at the mall Friday morning…I’m now able to fully appreciate your extensive (and expensive!) Fiesta Collection!!!! 🙂
Ok so we had fun yesterday at Wendys all the children make me so happy! Abigail and Naomi and I have made paper-chains I love this project every year because we just sit for hours…..I am not kidding… we first went to Micheals craft store for the perfect paper and glitter (this year instead of glitter every place mommy was smart! and I bought the pray glitter) We have also been listnening to My new ENYA cd And Winter Came (LOVE IT) did you end up putting it on your IPOD. Oh and I have all of the childrens presents bought and wrapped! Can you tell I am very very excited this year ( I feel very happy and complete having all my children 🙂 We are getting our Christmas tree Saturday…our families should go together that would be so much fun! I am contemplating going to the Christmas eve service at Mom and Dads church because Mom is in the chour and Dad Nate and Isaac are all in the play! Maybe we can go down Christmans Eve Eve and then come home Christmas Eve night! I don’t want to miss the chane to see the play and all the hard work that they are putting into it!Well I guess I better get going befor my coment is longer then your BLOG! I love you Happy Monday Love Amanda
I love love love your new header. =)
I love your new header! Very pretty & in the holiday mood:) It sounds like you had a great weekend! My Mom watched my kids on Thanksgiving night & my husband & I went shopping on Friday. We were at Kohl’s at 4AM, then Wal Mart, Sears & Kmart. We were back by 11:00. We found some good deals. We put up our tree on Wed. before we left to visit our family. I did some decorating yesterday & hope to finish this week with the rest of it. You are really getting things together for the new bundle of joy:) One thing we have done is watch Polar Express and Christmas Story together. The kids love those movies, besides decorating the tree together. I hope you have a great day & I can’t get over it’s already Dec 1st either!
Love the new header! Hope you have a joyous Christmas season!
Love, Love, Love George Winston! Thank you for the beautiful blessings of your blog.
I love the new header. It’s so you. We did our Christmas decorating as well. The kids had a blast hanging ornaments all over the bottom third of the tree. 🙂 I want to get into the Christmas mood with baking, etc, but I’m SO tired!!! Little Lucy has a BAD case of colic. Last night was especially awful, so tonight we are buying gripe water to see if that will help so I can get some sleep! I have a few Christmas ideas for garland, but they’re all traditional–popcorn, cranberries, paper chains (I once put family members names on them and we would tear one off each day and pray for them–like an advent calendar). It would be fun to do one with fabric scraps tied on all messy-like…
Good Morning Shanda.
Great header!! Love it!!
Mrs. Clause…funny..lol. Pjs ALL DAY???? I’m guilty of that too.
When Leonard was small around 8 or 9, he had a toque like that. But it was funny the way he would go around with it on. The mouth part he would stick his lips out and around the size of the mouth part. It was funny when he did this. His mouth would be part way open too.
You hide your gingerbread house kit too? I have to hide mine REALLY good. My girls know all my hiding places. LOL!
Been reading your blog just no time to comment. NOW I have some time.
Have a wonderful day!!
Yes, the header is very festive and lovely and WARM looking, and the music is beautiful too. Your weekend sounds so lovely and fun. Thanks for all the updates on your sweet family.
LOVE the new header! We put our tree up yesterday and decorated the house. Where did you buy your gingerbread kit? I was hoping for a pic of you in your new jammies. 🙂
I did a new banner too ~ yours is just lovely. Need to get a post done by day’s end ~ wonder if it will happen ~
Your banner is lovely. I wonder if we get to see a pic of “Mrs. Claus” in her pajamas. Glad you had such a great weekend. We need to catch up with some things this week with school…..David was sick and the brothers visited so we didn’t get any done last week. Early Christmas plans….I hope to get the wreath out for the front door , I will look for the advent calendar today, we (youth) began practicing our Christmas skit for the church dinner , I need to get everything ready for our homeschool Christmas/craft party in a week. I have 21 k-6th graders coming to make crafts ( I am activities director ) , next Sat. we light luminaries all over downtown SJC with our church and sing carols. Happy, warm times celebrating the birth of Christ! Love seeing Davy’s blue eyes and pink lips in the hat, and Caleb looks so cute listening to a story. Have a great day! Jenny
I love reading your posts–it truly is a peek into your world! We did decorate the entire house except for the living room Christmas tree–we will go and get the tree next week (if we get it too early it dies) The first Christmas-y thing we will do this year is gather some things and donate them to a needy family we have chosen to help–next will probably come the gingerbread house and going to a local zoo for the Christmas lights–over 50,000 lights I believe. It’s spectacular and we also get hot chocolate and ride the train that they set up just for Christmas-time!!! So excited for the holidays–and love the new pic! No Black friday shopping this year–been too nauseous with the pregnancy, but normally J and I are the crazies who wake up at 3 am to shop until about noon! Yah for Starbucks…
looks like a wonderfully sweet weekend! i LOVE long weekends – though it makes monday seem rather mundane and boring after so much fun & relaxing. we haven’t got our tree up yet… i want to do that soon. i always decorate our church for christmas, and try to do our house first. the church is so big and it’s a long several day process, so if i don’t do our house first i feel a bit burnt out after the church! your new header is lovely. so warm and inviting looking. i put a new one on and it’s really BIG – i like your size. i should try to downsize mine if i can. dont’ know all the christmas-y activities we’ll do yet. but i want to do them ALL. =) i absolutely love this time of year!
Love the new header! Quite creative 😉 I love that next to last picture! Cute!
What a lovely weekend! My hubby was not home:(
Well our first xmas activity will be this afternoon baking for a xmas party!
Take a pic when you put on your favorite dress!:)
I also love your new header! Yes, we started putting up decorations this weekend. It takes days to do it, but the tree won’t come for weeks. I also collect Christmas magazines. I have some doozies. The ones from the 70’s and 80’s are so much fun. We use something from them every year. I even save the Williams Sonoma Christmas brochures with all of the ideas and recipes they often contain….not that I can afford the stuff in it! Won’t it be fun for you in twenty or thirty years to browze through the magazines from the early 2000’s. hugs and love honey.
I put up our garland with twinkling lights. Jesse’s birthday is in a couple of days and THEN I will decorate the garland with birds, pine cones, berries, etc. We no longer put up a tree. I can’t believe pregnant you was brave enough to go to the mall on Friday morning. I don’t want to go to the mall *EVER* and I’m not even pregnant!I’m glad I’m not the only one who is wrapping early. I detest getting stuck with a ton of packages the week of Christmas. I think last year, because I had been sick for so many months, I wrapped everything on the 23rd and 24th and hated every minute of it.
Love the new look! Sounds like ya’ll had a wonderful weekend. I haven’t put up any decorations as yet – DH left Sunday for a week, and I need him to put up the tree – then I will decorate it and the house. We will probably do that this weekend. Suz
We went to cut down our tree this afternoon, but got to the place 10 minutes before it closed. Needless to say, we couldn’t find the “perfect” tree in that amount of time. Bummer. I guess we’ll try again tomorrow.Ainsley is dying to make Christmas cookies. I’m sure we’ll be doing that by the end of the week.Your weekend sounds so nice. I’m sure you enjoyed every second with Grace all by yourself.
Sounds like a great weekend. I’ve done nothing Christmasy yet. Your site always looks nice!
Yes, Yes, I love the new header!! so festive!My kids love it when we go to Wendy’s after church, too! what a fun treat.Our first Christmasy activity will probably be making cookies… I am not much in the Christmas spirit this year. so not in the mood to pull out decorations, when we don’t have much space, so not in the mood to buy presents, when we don’t have much money. and we aren’t bothering with a tree this year because we are traveling for Christmas (not looking forward to the packing and the trips, but am looking forward to being with family), so that basically leaves cookies, because I am still in the mood for eating, haha!
All these pictures really capture the essence of a relaxed, family weekend at home. LOVE the one of Rich on the road with the kids, out for a run; that SO reminds me of MY dad!!! Also love the shot of you working in the kitchen with your little boys – precious. And Caleb is such a cutie with the ipod. I think the very first Christmas-y activity I will be doing is LISTENING TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!
I meant to mention, the close-up of the flower is stunning! I always enjoy your nature photos.
Glad to hear you had a lovely Thanksgiving and long weekend with the family. Your children are just so precious.
God bless!
Love your new header! So festive and so YOU! The candles are such a nice touch. We just put up the tree and some lights and garlands today. There is still more to do, but it is looking Christmasy. I am having so much fun decorating this house for Christmas for the first time. I have used blue and silver decor for the last eight years, and this year I switched to red. It looks so nice with the wood walls. I told Ryan that this wasn’t a “blue and silver Christmas” kind of house. LOL!
OH I love that header!!! Could you tell me how you change it? and do you have to be a premium member to do that function? Thanks for your help! Have a great evening!
I do like your new header. Sounds like you had a busy fun filled weekend. We got our tree and it is up. We are pretty excited about Christmas this year. Glad to hear you found your favorite maternity dress. Hope you have a god week.
I love your header ,Shanda. I am going in to NY this weekend with my mil and sil and my big purchase at Macy’s is going to be my first piece of Fiestaware. I’ve loved it for years but never bought anything or even asked for a piece as a gift. Your pictures made me really need something lol. I’m looking forward to decorating this weekend. I’m also going to make little houses out of graham crackers for the children to decorate. They will be so excited!
my kids decorated the dining room walls with tons of christmas pics they spent all day drawing. we will put the tree up this weekend :)i love your new heading!
Yep I like the new header and its festive red and green glow!
I think David looks like your side of the family in the last picture.
You didn’t say anything about the flower! It is a great shot!