Anyone Else?

I have tried to avoid this... the explosion on the refrigerator door. But try as I may, every time I remove something off the fridge that I think no one will notice, my plans are thwarted. "Mom, where'd my superman picture go? That was one of my best." or "Mom, I hung that Spiderman picture RIGHT there. Who took it?" or "Mom, why is that Batman picture in the recycling bin? Silly Mom, you must have thought that was trash..." as one of the little boys recovers it from the bin and re-hangs it back on the door.

All this to say, I really do LOVE the mess on the refrigerator door. It's beautiful. My mom cleaned out my entire fridge the other day, inside and out, bless her heart. And when she had the front all shined up and emptied, I thought how sterile it looked with no pictures and coloring pages on it. So, while I do enjoy a clean refrigerator door, I don't enjoy it enough to keep it empty. I love the coloring pages and pictures and handprints even more!

Btw, if you're waiting on a Christmas card from us, you'll be waiting for awhile. December has been a challenging month, and when I recv'd our first card in the mail (way to go Marcy!), I thought ... oh shoot... I completely forgot about Christmas cards this year! Oh well, we'll send out a spring card or just skip it altogether and mail some next year. Merry Christmas from us - and we'll thoroughly enjoy all of your cards hanging on our doorway. I love seeing all the pictures!

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Volume 14

Sometimes (or a lot of times) I do stupid things. Like let a 3 year old use scissors... I think the problem is I assume him and Henry can do the same things. Wyatt communicates so well and I just lump him with Henry and move on. So, the other day, I let him use Henry's kid scissors (at least I didn't give him adult scissors!). I was at my laptop doing some work and noticed it had gotten a little quiet. I thought I should double check, so I peeked out and he is snipping his pajamas with the scissors. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him actually doing it. It would scare you. Please don't judge.

We had a good talk about how we use scissors... his privileges were removed (and if there were parent police, they would have removed mine too!), and we tucked the pj's away in his memory box. Of course, I told him we had to take a picture so Daddy could see what he had done. When I asked him what he was doing, he sheepishly looked at me and said, "I not know." Like... oh no... is this going to be good or bad? Is this really a 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' post when I'm the one who should be held responsible??

*asleep for his nap... finally* And don't worry, my safety patrol husband told me the lights weren't safe. We have made the necessary changes :)

the trek out

Here is some documentation of our tree farm excursion... this is a great place. We go to Country Pines Christmas Tree Farm. We love it - have gone for many years. It is very rustic and family owned. They have a gigantic fire in the barn with popcorn popped over the fire... gigantic trees, a mule the kids can pet, hot chocolate, plain donuts... mmm....!! This year we skipped over the sugar and went for the popcorn. It's a really fun and memorable way to get the season started off!

the tree

*We decided Myles could be the star!*

We made the cold trek with the Berry's to go get our tree this past wknd. It was FREEZING... which made for a very quick choosing of the tree. We usually see how far out on the Christmas tree farm we can go before we cut one down. This year, we didn't make it too far. It was about 20 degrees and we had all 4 boys with us, so we couldn't linger! Thankfully, in the barn, they had a big cozy fire and popcorn popped over the fire. It was perfect! (Although if Wyatt ever recollects the event, I don't think he would say it was perfect. He has always been extra sensitive to hot and cold temps, and we really have to work on being patient with him b/c he crumbles pretty fast!) The outdoor pics are on J's phone, so these just capture our tree decorating.

The Berry's stayed for hot drinks and getting the tree in its stand, and then we set to work. The older boys are at such a fun, fun age for this! This was the first year where Henry was super excited about each ornament he unwrapped... wondering who's it was, where it came from, etc. It was funny b/c they kept hanging the ornaments all in one place on the tree... I kept moving them around, and then Henry would come back around and say, "Hey, how'd that get moved? I just hung by that ornament?" It was super cute!