This year...

With a new year starting it is normal to sit down and reflect on the previous years happenings. Reflecting is something that I don't often get to do. I am always too busy looking ahead.

Planning for the next day. Making sure to have the boys' lunches, clothes and backpacks ready for school. Making sure my lesson plans are done and everything is ready to go before my twenty-four 1st and 2nd graders come running in the door. Making sure that I have what I need ready for dinner that night.

Planning for the next week. Do I have a babysitter lined up for Bunco on Thursday? Did I turn in the daycare schedule for Owen? Am I ready for the next building committee meeting on Sunday after church?

Planning for the next month. Finding the Valentine's that I bought last year after Valentine's Day for 75% off. Looking ahead and trying to budget how much cash I need for groceries, gas, and other things.

Planning, planning, planning. I do a lot of it and I like to do it. But there comes a time when I need to stop planning and just sit and reflect on what has gone on before. Live in the moment and stop thinking of what is going to happen next.

Otherwise this happens. My sweet, happy, drooling little baby turns into a 5 year old.

Not that I don't like the 5 year old but I do really miss having a drooling baby around.

Overall 2010 was a good year for our family. A year where Mark and I made a lot of big decisions. We decided not to put Owen in kindergarten even though he turned 5 in July. His mom is still upset (I think) but we had our reasons.

I decided to switch schools and teach at McKay so that I could see Caleb every day. I love walking with him to school and talking to him about the things that happen in his day. I love knowing exactly what and who he is talking about. All his special things I get to participate in and even though it was very hard to leave my old school and students, it was definitely worth it.

With Dad's accident over the summer, Mark and I rededicated ourselves to making sure that our family knows every day how much we love and treasure them. Mark includes the boys in all his hobbies from hunting to gardening and he makes sure they know how much he loves them. My goal was to not worry so much about the house being clean and the laundry being done. I wanted to go for more bike rides and play in the mud and just be available to do what they boys want to do for a change. I often make them march to the beat of my drum and I would like to think that I have relaxed a bit more and given them a voice also.

Putting our house on the market was a huge decision for us. We like our house, we are happy in our house. It's where we brought our babies home, it's where we turned into the "do-it-yourselfers" and became Home Depot's best customers. But that little thought of "what if" danced around in our heads long enough to make us take the plunge and go after our dream of having a little bit of property of our own. A place where the boys can ride 4-wheelers and horses. Collect eggs from our own chickens and run and yell and hoop and holler and not disturb anyone but our cows.

The boys are in love with the idea of it. Caleb has drawn our garden containing some ledis, prpll ledis, appl's, cerits, cabig, ptedos and even some breb.

He even decided to help Mark and I out by planning our barn and pasture as well as the corn maze that he wants to have. He was even thoughtful enough to include two tractors - one with a mower attachment- for us to use in the field.

I am excited at what the Lord has in store for us this year - 2011 -  and I only hope that I am up to the task. I hope that I continue to treasure these two little boys that I call mine as well as appreciate my husband the way he deserves to be appreciated. I hope that I will place other's needs before my own and remember that I am only a steward of what the Lord gives me and not the owner. I hope for a lot of things but mostly I hope to appreciate all that I have and not take anything for granted.

That is my hope for you as well!

Welcome 2011 and all the surprises you have to bring!

My very own Christmas (break) traditions

Every year after the excitement and festivities of Christmas has passed, I have a few last things of my own that I always do before school starts again.

I always clean my house from top to bottom while I am putting away all the Christmas decorations. I like to start the new year off with a clean house.

I always take out our card table and work on a 1000 piece puzzle. I never seem to have time or room to do this any other time of the year.

But the thing that I do every year after Christmas, the thing that I love the absolute most - so much in fact that you could say it was my favorite, or even better yet - my precious - is to watch all 3 Lord of the Ring movies.

Now this might not seem like a challenge for most people but it is certainly a challenge for me. I feel like Frodo trying to make it to Mordor with only the aid of his best buddy - Sam. I have to schedule a time where the kids are either a) gone from the house or b) fast asleep. I don't aprove of them watching these movies yet. It could be because of the fact that some (ok, most) of the orcs scare me. It could also be because I was allowed to watch the movie Gremlins when I was only 7 years old and had nightmares afterwards into my teenage years. Even now I never, ever, let my arm dangle off the side of my bed just in case.  But don't tell anyone that. I don't want to give up my tough guy image just yet.

I also have to schedule a time when Mark is a) gone from the house or b) working. There was once a time when Mark liked these movies. Unfortunately that time has passed. It passed about 5 years ago after the 10th showing of the movies. Frodo drives him absolutely bonkers because Mark thinks he's a wuss and that Sam is the real hero and so now Mark likes to talk throughout the entire movie. This has almost led to a divorce for us. (Just kidding!) But for the sake of our marriage I do try to watch them while he is nowhere around.  

The third challenge I face is my own schedule. I have to make sure that all my other things are done before I can sit down and relax to enjoy the movies. Because when I finally sit down to relax and enjoy - I relax and enjoy. To prepare I will go put on my favorite comfy pajama bottoms, with comfy slipper socks so my toes don't get cold. I will have on hand a bowl of just-popped-movie-theatre-style popcorn. I will make sure that within reach I have all the remotes I need as well as a blanket to cover my eyes with when the movie gets too scary. I mean too exciting. And then I will press play.  

Aaahhh. Relax and enjoy people. Relax and enjoy.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Lots of soup to eat. Plenty of songs to sing. Several stories to share. Games to be played. Family to hang out with.

This is our Christmas Eve traditions.

As people start to arrive the games begin.

Even though there wasn't any snow left on the ground, it didn't stop us from having a snowball fight.

Before too long colored balls were being launched through the air every which way and there was no mercy shown by anyone. If you were on the grass, you were a target to be pummeled. If you had a camera in your hand, you were a target to be pummeled. Those kids were vicious!

The big kids joined in too!

It was every man for himself and you had to watch your back because the balls were coming from every direction.

Often everyone was moving around so fast I couldn't get a semi-clear shot to save my life.

After the snowball fight the munchkins went on a scavenger hunt and the adults headed in to get prepared for dinner.

Molly Kay was doing her best Rachel Ray and making some yummy squash soup for all of us to enjoy.

Aunt Linda and Uncle Glenn had their doubts as to whether or not the squash soup was suitable for consumption.

I think it passed the test!

Sweet grandma Darlene kept walking around giving everyone hugs and smiles.

Grandpa (or Poppa G as we call him) was still a little tired from his surgeries a couple weeks ago. He had part of a lung removed as well as a pacemaker put in and we were all so excited that he was feeling well enough to hang out with us.

Mom passed out small presents to each of the kids that had numbers on the bottoms of them. Starting with the number one, each child opened a gift. Each gift contained a symbol representing some part of the Christmas story and Harley would read verses from the Bible that went with it. Mom is so clever! The kids loved this and didn't want the story to end.

This Christmas we all felt especially blessed to have Dad with us. His accident only made us all appreciate and love him more than ever. He is doing great and he kept saying how blessed he was by all of us.

After the Christmas story we turned off the lights and sang songs.

Josh's guitar playing adds a lot to our plain old voices.

As the songs finished, all but the immediate family left and then it was time to get down to business. The business of game playing that is. We don't watch movies or simply sit around and talk. We are all excited to play the latest games. We played some Hill-Billy rummy and then switched it up with a few other games as well.

This is a heated game of go fish.

Before bedtime for the kiddos we break out the advent wreath.

Mom lit a candle and reviewed lessons about Jesus that the kids have learned. Then it was time for some more songs.

After the children go off to bed, the adults start to stuff stockings. It can be quite an adventure to do this while everyone is doing the same thing. Then we stay up way too late playing more games and then attempt to get some sleep before Christmas morning arrives (which is around 6:00 for the kids). All in all, it was 100% perfect!

Tamales - Mark's favorite vegetable!

Getting to know your significant other's family is always an interesting experience, right?

 Mark and I started dating right after Thanksgiving 13 years ago and the first night I met his parents was when Mark invited me over to do the advent wreath with them on a Sunday night. I think it was 3 days after our first official date. I of course started to sweat bullets not only at the prospect of meeting his family for the first time but because I was supposed to know what an advent wreath was. Needless to say, nowhere in my Catholic upbringing did we cover this.

Mark picked me up and drove me way out into the country to his parent's house. His mom met us at the door and gave me a huge hug after we were introduced. I liked her immeidately. Then I had to meet Mark's dad - instantly liked that guy too! Next up were Bill, Mark's brother and Molly - Bill's girlfriend at the time (now his wife). After visiting for a few minutes everyone started to sit down on the floor in a circle around a wreath that had candles placed in it. A bit awkwardly I followed suit - when in Rome, right?

Mark's dad led the discussion about what each candle had stood for in the previous lessons. I still remember. They were studying the four gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and how each one depicted Jesus in their writing. In one He was a prophet, another he was our Savior, and that night's lesson was how Jesus was a man like us. I soaked it up and thought this was the coolest tradition ever. I wasn't even a Christian at the time - that came later after Mark told me I was going to Hell. (A romantic moment if there ever was one.)

Anyway, after the lesson, Mark's family started to break out in songs. Christmas songs. I whispered them as I sang because I didn't want my singing voice to be a deal breaker for Mark and I, plus I hoped to be invited back for next week's lesson. As our night ended and Mark drove me home, I asked him if I had done ok. He said everyone had loved me and not to worry - they all knew it was my first time doing this. "How could everyone know? I acted like I knew exactly what I was doing!" Mark replied "your sweaty hands gave you away when we all prayed after the lesson". Darn it anyway.

I invited Mark over to my house shortly after that and we played a game of Scategories with my mom, my dad and my grandma. My family had just finished making our annual Christmas tamales and I had mentioned to Mark that he could try some later that day. As we were playing Mark rolled the letter T and everyone quickly filled out their categories with words that began with that letter. When the timer went off, we all started to go through our lists one at a time to see what everyone had written down and to record points. We got to the word vegetable and debated whether or not my mom's answer of tomato counted (no it did not) and then it was Mark's turn to share his answer. "Tamales!" he shouted out triumphantly, proud as all get out. No one else had written that down, of course. My grandma and parents just looked at him to see if he was kidding, then they looked at me. I started laughing and through my hiccups I explained to Mark exactly what a tamale was. My family still teases him to this day about tamales being a vegetable.

Well, that was a long way to get to today's post - tamales! Yesterday was the day my family got together to make tamales and I took a few pictures just to make sure that none of you think it's a vegetable either. My family has made tamales every year since before I was born. It's a lot of work (mainly for my grandma) but it's a lot of fun too. All the women of the family and sometimes the men (Mark and my Dad mainly) sit around my grandma's tiny table in her tiny dining room and talk, laugh and tease while we make tamales.

Grandma will have spent the morning slaving away in the kitchen preparing the masa, the meat and the corn husks which are called hojas (OH - has). This takes a long time and it is the reason grandma doesn't usually have to prepare any tamales. She just gets to sit and hold any babies that are available or play with the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

On the table you will find lots of containers with these ingredients in them.

                             
   Everyone gets a plate, cutting board or something to create their tamales on. Then we get paper towels (tamales are messy) and start by getting some hojas and wiping the water off them. They have been soaked so that they are soft and ready to cook. You dry them off and you sometimes have to put two hojas together to create a big enough surface for your masa.

Once your hojas are prepared you use a spatula or spoon to spread the masa onto them. My first one I did backwards - Oops! You are supposed to spread the masa towards the large end and leave the pointy end masa free because that is the side that folds up.

Make sure the masa isn't too thin and make sure it isn't too thick and then you are ready for the meat. This has always been a bone of contention in my family. My grandma runs around yelling "You are putting in too much meat!" while the rest of us try to secretly put in more.

Once the meat is in, then you can add an olive if you want. I know some families add different things like pineapples or mushrooms but my family adds an olive.

All you have to do after that is fold up the pointy end and wrap it up like a burrito. Then my grandma cooks them in a steamer for just about forever or at least it seems like forever before they are done. We fill container after container of tamales and it can sometimes take two days to cook them all. It takes us hours just to assemble them all.

This year we had quite the distraction. What's better than one sweet new baby in the family?

Two!

These are my cousin Aubrey's sweet little twin babies and I think tamale making took a little longer this year because all the women of the family just wanted to hold them and play with them.

This is Camyron and she is already quite the diva. A mommy's girl completely she just liked to look around and take in all the noise.

This little man is Carson and I don't know if it's because I have two little boys or what but I have decided I am partial to baby boys. They are always happy and smiley and so darn cute. I talked with Carson and held him and fed him and even let him spit up all over me. He had that breathless way of cooing at you that just about had me in tears. I took a picture of him with my camera phone and sent Mark a message asking if I could have one for Christmas and he just laughed at me in reply. Isn't he cute? (The baby of course, not Mark. Well he's cute too but you know what I mean!)

Here he is before the camera goes off:

And here he is after! That flash will get you everytime!

Sigh. I LOVE babies!

Christmas Traditions

This is the day blogging will resume!

I love December and the whole month of getting ready for Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year! It is very busy of course, as I am sure it is for everyone, but a lot of the "busy-ness" at our house is of our own design. Three years ago we started doing an advent calendar and countdown to Christmas with the boys. This is something that Mark grew up doing and I love it! Each day the boys pull out a paper from our calendar and we do whatever activity is says.

Each week we have one day of the advent wreath where we do a lesson about Jesus and all the other days we do something different.

One day we had breakfast with Santa (along with all the other police department families) and he had a special present for each child.

 

 Before the children could have their present, Santa made them hang a candy cane from their finger. If the candy cane fell, it was a signal to Santa that the child had been naughty, but if the candy cane hung there then they had been nice.

One day the boys and I spent it doing fun Christmas activies around town. We went to the Convention Center and played games, listened to music, watched a performance of The Nutcracker and created Christmas art projects. Then we went downtown and watched the Carriage Parade. These are a few of our favorites from this year:

One night we watched Caleb in his Christmas concert (Caleb and Owen from the audience and me from behind the scenes as I was also working that night by helping with the students during the program).

Here are some of the other things that we do:

1. Celebrate Pappa's birthday (it falls on December 1st)

2. Cut down our tree

3. Look at lights

4. Go Christmas shopping for each other

5. Act out the Nativity Scene

6. Advent wreath (4 times so we start the Sunday after Thanksgiving)

7. Make Christmas cards

8. Make ornaments

9. Decorate the tree

10. Go sledding

11. Make Christmas cookies and candy

12. Deliver goodies to Friends (Each of the boys gets a plate and they choose who they want to deliver it to - Caleb chose his good friend Andy and Owen chose to deliver his to the Police Department.)

13. Make a snowman

14. Do a Christmas puzzle

15. Watch a Christmas movie

16. Play flashlight tag (this is a huge favorite of the boys)

17. Hvae breakfast with Santa

18. Sing songs

19. Create a twinkie train (our version of a gingerbread house but more edible)

20. Decorate the house

21. Play a family game

22. Make hot chocolate and watch the Polar Express in our pajamas

23. Go Christmas shopping for needy families

24. Celebrate Christmas Eve with the whole family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents)

We don't get a chance to do all of these things each year and there are days where we did two things at once because we were too busy on another day to get something done, but the main thing is that we try to keep the focus on family and Christ's birth. Jesus is the reason for this holiday season and we hope that each of you are having a wonderful week and we wish you a very Merry Christmas!