tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19407421667920542252024-02-06T22:46:41.386-06:00Shanghai DixieFrom Shanghai to Dixie Land, enjoying the food along the way.Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.comBlogger513125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-36325729634488957832017-07-31T11:45:00.000-05:002017-07-31T11:51:13.261-05:00Nature Summer Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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July has been crazy for us. First we had vacation bible school for a week, then the very next week we had Summer Nature Camp. I was actually one of the teachers at Nature Camp this year, which was a lot of fun but also a lot of work.<br />
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Here are some pictures from Nature Camp... but as one of the teachers I can't post pictures of the kids at camp... other than my own of course.<br />
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Margaret was technically too young for nature camp so we had a few teens and preteens around to help with her. However, Little Miss really does think she's one of the big kids are was right there with all the other kids participating and keeping up. She was amazing all week... She also really really loves painting. (we painted rocks)<br />
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This was also the hottest week of the entire summer. It was really hot... and since it's nature camp we were outside all day. But with lots of shade and water play time we managed to stay safe and cool.</div>
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One of the favorite things the kids love to do is walk in the field and garden and cute flowers for our vases.</div>
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The play ground was where we spent most of our time because it was the most shaded. But this isn't a standard playgound. It has a boat and a tree to climb. A platform under a tree. A bucket and pully, and hills to play on... also a sand box.</div>
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The boat is always a favorite.</div>
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Obi loved the play ground... he was very proud that he was able to climb the tree by himself.</div>
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Which is the point of nature camp, to help them build confidence in themselves and in nature.</div>
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The MOST favorite part of nature camp was the outdoor kitchen. We had a rain barrel filled with water and the kids spend all day making mud pies and goop soup.</div>
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This was the most wonderful thing.</div>
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I brought streamers to camp and the kids decorated the trees and sticks and made wands with them. </div>
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It was a lot of beautiful fun.</div>
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We played with clay.</div>
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The kids were SO creative making things and decorating with things they found on our nature walks.</div>
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With yarn, flowers from home, and sticks we collected, one the little 4 year olds made this as her fairy wand. I was so impressed with all the creativity. </div>
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On the last day one of the moms found this turtle in the middle of the street. He hung out with us for a while and then we took him to the forest on a nature walk to find a new home.</div>
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Tree climbing was a major part of nature camp.</div>
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On the last day, after cleaning up, the other teacher and I (and our kids) went out to celebrate with some dinner and margaritas. </div>
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Our silly kids were wonderful and so helpful all week long. It's not easy being the teachers kids but these kids were the best!</div>
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<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-71509258118805635802017-07-14T22:16:00.000-05:002017-07-14T22:16:02.469-05:00Rosie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Rosie turned 7 almost a year ago. We are currently in the process of planning her next birthday. She's having trouble settling on a theme. So far our options are My Little Pony, Chickens, or Star Wars.</div>
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Rosie is very eclectic.</div>
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But for her birthday last year the theme was Unicorns and Horses.</div>
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Here she is opening her still favorite book Phoebe and Her Unicorn, which is a comic book style book about a girl and her friend unicorn that is very silly.</div>
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Rosie's other favorite birthday gift was her kids garman. She loves counting her steps and she getting her exercise notifications.</div>
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For her 7th birthday Rosie wanted a cupcake unicorn cake.</div>
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She designed it herself.</div>
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Obi found these unicorn themed balloons at the store. </div>
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Instead of having a party Rosie wanted to go to the mall for her birthday. </div>
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She wanted to have lunch at Wholefoods. </div>
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We had hotdogs with gluten free buns for lunch,</div>
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with gluten free donuts for dessert. It was a perfect lunch.</div>
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I can't believe how big my little baby is getting.</div>
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From Whole foods we went to the mall and spend the day at Build a Bear.</div>
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This was our first time at Build a Bear </div>
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Rosie wanted everyone to get a special stuffed animal for her birthday. </div>
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Usually we have the birthday person pick out gifts for their siblings, but this year Rosie just wanted everyone to build their own cuddle buddy. </div>
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It was a very fun experience for everyone.</div>
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(we even went back a week later with birthday money each kid had saved and got little gifts for their cuddle buddies)</div>
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Afterwards we played in the mall kids play place. </div>
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Rosie and I went to Starbucks (mama needed some coffee) and while we were in there we met a lady who also had her birthday that day. She was very happy to meet Rosie and bough Rosie a birthday drink. It was very sweet.</div>
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Margaret got a pink princess bear that she's very proud of.</div>
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The next day (we always spread out the birthday gifts and celebrations) we went to our local book store where there was a gift waiting for Rosie.</div>
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She was very happy to get more Pinkalicous books... one of her favorite series of books.</div>
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It was a bit of a non conventional birthday. Daddy took work off that day and we spent the day at the mall. But that's what made it perfect for our little Rosie, our non conventional princess. </div>
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(She loves being like her mama and nana and counting her steps)</div>
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I can't believes she's seven already and I'm not ready for her to be eight. Where did my little 6lb 13oz baby go?!</div>
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She's always been my little panda.</div>
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Rosie loves horses and unicorns. She's a dreamer and very practical at the same time. She loves science, especially nature science. She's particularly interested in learning how to make teas with plants she finds outside.<br />
She also loves rocks. She has several rock collections around the yard.<br />
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Rosie loves fairies and we are slowly working on building our own fairy garden. She loves books about fairies and unicorns.<br />
Rosie loves to read. She loves to be read to. She could sit all day and listen to me read to her and she's very good at understanding complicated stories.<br />
We just finished reading Centar Rising by Jane Yolen.<br />
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Rosie is also very good at drawing. She makes up wonderful stories to go with her drawings. She also keeps a nature journal where she records things she see outside at Nature School.<br />
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Rosie LOVES her cuddle buddies. She has several favorites besides her all time favorite, Dancing Bear, and she had a large duffle bag full of stuffed animals that she carries everywhere with her.<br />
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Rosie's favorite color is pink. She also loves flowers. Pink flowers are especially her favorite.<br />
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She's a huge help around the house and regularly puts the silverware away and sweeps the kitchen. She's also very good at making snacks for her brother and sister when they want one.<br />
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Rosie says she wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up. She enjoys putting together outfits and she's very particular about fabrics.<br />
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She also loves animals and knows a lot about many different kinds of animals. She loves to collect animals facts and has the best memory.<br />
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Her favorite TV show is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic<br />
In fact a My Little Pony movie is coming out in October and Rosie and I already have plans to dress up and go see it in a fancy theater.<br />
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Rosie's Favorite books is Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson.<br />
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Rosie is very interested in the world and loves to hear about China, where she was born. She says she wants to study Chinese in school this year. She wants to go back and visit China someday.<br />
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Rosie is very opinionated and likes things to go her way. She's curious and adventurous and it's always fun to see the world through her eyes.<br />
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Honestly, I'm just in awe of her right now. She's growing up and changing so much.<br />
She's such a big girl now and doing so many things on her own. I learn so much from her and I love hearing how she sees the world. She's articulate and passionate and very serious about being silly.<br />
She will always be my amazing quirky little girl that changed my world completely and continues to rock my world every day.</div>
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(The is a picture of Rosie wearing a shirt that *I* wore in 2008 before I was pregnant with her.)</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-23098594508472918982017-07-10T05:00:00.000-05:002017-07-10T05:00:22.927-05:00MargaretSo I went back and looked at my blog. Wow. I had not realized I pretty much stopped blogging when Margaret was born (except for Christmas of course).<br />
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I never even posted anything about Margaret's First Birthday!<br />
So here are a couple pictures from her very first birthday for comparison. She's grown and changed so much but she's still my silly little stinker.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLtXkSUxIl-P-Gi_47BmvtdHH3zDJk9B3Qq1NTDpTdOmcbGC9L5WAgqFhdRKN_E8GDTRtn_GQVN_M0TeUnilm3hg71F9n_S9K8eA0xjluVEuGeClzcQN0HxWcdTA5ta-3HIRA49D-MagX/s1600/IMG_5582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQLtXkSUxIl-P-Gi_47BmvtdHH3zDJk9B3Qq1NTDpTdOmcbGC9L5WAgqFhdRKN_E8GDTRtn_GQVN_M0TeUnilm3hg71F9n_S9K8eA0xjluVEuGeClzcQN0HxWcdTA5ta-3HIRA49D-MagX/s320/IMG_5582.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QlAWR6q2hyAIExx_tvgcJo0hnWQUIMkKWwqd-PFNcT7qHfszr2mYNsopC1sLNKobMNT4i1cDJKhrWaG99l50hQxEge5RWNOtKZI_DguNnlGyWft-5lMrMY8m_xC1x4fwfL5vgqjBuaF6/s1600/IMG_5838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QlAWR6q2hyAIExx_tvgcJo0hnWQUIMkKWwqd-PFNcT7qHfszr2mYNsopC1sLNKobMNT4i1cDJKhrWaG99l50hQxEge5RWNOtKZI_DguNnlGyWft-5lMrMY8m_xC1x4fwfL5vgqjBuaF6/s320/IMG_5838.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxt1EFEoHHdAtt5aD2LCWES_NRpuPEJ5F1v3jMLB2J9xvuJKKYoKREJ0KOVM7pAUmnMNZdS-VYUIKzukl9PbyviM6ww_XT__E9qV-qqdNTJMCPAwDASYdHOzXcWiVYA2Y6uH98Yq2vtXIV/s1600/IMG_5844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxt1EFEoHHdAtt5aD2LCWES_NRpuPEJ5F1v3jMLB2J9xvuJKKYoKREJ0KOVM7pAUmnMNZdS-VYUIKzukl9PbyviM6ww_XT__E9qV-qqdNTJMCPAwDASYdHOzXcWiVYA2Y6uH98Yq2vtXIV/s320/IMG_5844.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Margaret is my biggest helper. She loves helping and taking care of people... mostly other babies. She loves when she gets her own cart at the grocery store and she loves cooking in the kitchen. She can pretty much make scrambled eggs by her self now... except for the turning on the stove part.<br />
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Margaret LOVES owls.</div>
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At any given moment in the day she'll walk up and say </div>
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"Mama, I like Who Who"</div>
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So for her second birthday we had an owl themed party.</div>
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And she got her very own bike.</div>
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She also loves Minnie Mouse so she was especially excited about her Minnie Mouse helmet.</div>
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Rosie got Margaret a stuffed owl.</div>
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Margaret opened all of her gifts sitting on that bike. She was so proud and so happy.</div>
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We had cupcakes for breakfast of course.</div>
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That year William took off work on everyone's birthday so we had a fun day playing on the farm together.</div>
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After morning cupcakes we all piled in the truck and and drove up the the barn to take care of the injured donkey we had at the time.</div>
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Margaret wore her helmet all day long.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuW8NYCAKNan3DHtItJqkvgOq4jvlHcUQlw6gMqCkZQry2q_1xD5PJ3-EnWnrtbzzQaJbOTgnYV2HPoDWbw-Yt8KFTJzNCnWfIGisxYAvw8MqHf16nzUQ7pIU997etsVaa4kGYU5BARwo/s1600/IMG_4084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuW8NYCAKNan3DHtItJqkvgOq4jvlHcUQlw6gMqCkZQry2q_1xD5PJ3-EnWnrtbzzQaJbOTgnYV2HPoDWbw-Yt8KFTJzNCnWfIGisxYAvw8MqHf16nzUQ7pIU997etsVaa4kGYU5BARwo/s320/IMG_4084.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Margaret has always been my little meat eater, so for dinner we had duck!</div>
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November is really the only time of year you can find duck in the grocery store so we were all pretty excited about it.</div>
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Margaret was especially pleased.</div>
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She took a break from eating dinner to doctor Daddy.</div>
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"Who Who cake!"</div>
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Margaret also loves chocolate very very much. So naturally it was a chocolate cake with chocolate chips.</div>
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She also loves sharing with her brother and feeding other people.</div>
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Little Miss Margaret had a long and wonderful day on the second birthday.</div>
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She passed out and slept almost through the night.</div>
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The next day more presents arrived! </div>
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Margaret loves to play tea and kitchen and cooking.</div>
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Our little Miss Margaret is our biggest handful. She's wild and opinionated and loves being the center of attention. She's my best eater in that she will eat a wide variety of things but she will only eat little bits here and there... for that reason it seems like I'm feeding her every 20 minutes.<br />
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When Margaret was born my life turned upside down. I thought I had a handle on things and could joggle my life and social life relatively well. But baby number 3 was very hard to get used to. I'm still not sure I'm used it!<br />
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But as much as life seemed more out of control and hectic after baby number three it sure has been fun.<br />
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Margaret has so much personality. She's feisty and she has a hilarious sense of humor for a baby! She's imaginative and plays well by herself for a little bit. Mostly she likes to play with her brother and sister. She loves following them around and doing everything they do. She does her best to keep up with them and she's a very fast runner for such a small kid.<br />
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Margaret loves to play "mommy". I will often hear my name called by the other kids only to find out that they were talking to her. She's always the mommy and they are usually the kids or babies. Except when Obi is the daddy.<br />
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Margaret still loves owls and squeals with joy when I find a show about owls on TV (thank you PBS!). She also loves Minnie Mouse and has a pair of "MeeMow" ears she loves to wear.<br />
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Her favorite shirts to wear are her "MeeMow" shirts.<br />
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Margaret loves to wrestle! She's my biggest wrestler and is always jumping on people!<br />
She loves animals and all animals really love her.<br />
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She loves playing in the dirt and sand. She loves making mud pies. When she's outside she says "I like mud, Mama."<br />
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She's a rough and tumble kid and tough as nails. But she's also my little cuddle bug. She's my best cuddler and always falls asleep in my arms. She's also still nursing. Yes still.<br />
I went away for a weekend in February and again in May and both times the first thing she said to me when I walked in the door was "booboo mommy."<br />
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Her favorite food is Chocolate in any form. She also loves chicken and duck.<br />
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She's my tiniest kid. She's the only of my kids in clothes actually made for her age group.<br />
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Did I mention she loves to help! She's currently with William taking the trash to the dump. She will try to carry anything you ask her to and if the laundry stays in the baskets too long she'll empty them for you.<br />
She loves putting her laundry away and she loves to wash the dishes.<br />
When she sees a baby she says "bee bee mama" and will try to take care of them.<br />
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Her favorite show is Little Bear and Wonder Pets at the moment. She loves animals.<br />
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She's a sweet caretaker and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's a big kid.<br />
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She's also home from the dump now so I better go down and make her something to eat.<br />
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<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-61350901813133527982017-07-07T05:00:00.000-05:002017-07-07T05:00:11.045-05:00Obadiah <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I was looking back at my blog and realized I pretty much only blog at Christmas. And then my last post was Half Christmas! </div>
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Goodness...that's a lot of Christmas.... I swear we do other things too!</div>
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The thing is, we didn't have internet for a LONG time at our new house... but now we do! and now I need to get back in the habit of blogging again.</div>
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I thought I'd start with the kids' birthdays because those are my favorite times... I love looking back and seeing how they have grown.</div>
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I usually let the kids plan their own birthdays and pick their own theme. They always come up with such creative ideas. </div>
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Obadiah had been telling me since his LAST birthday what he wanted for his 5th birthday.</div>
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I kept thinking he'd change his mind but he never did.</div>
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He wanted a beach themed birthday for his 5th party.</div>
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From the week after his 4th birthday he'd been telling me he wanted a crab shaped cake.</div>
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He also wanted pineapples and other beach themed food.</div>
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He's a very science loving boy and he was very happy about the solar powered robot kit his daddy got him.</div>
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Also, at the time, William was working a weird shift and didn't get home till late at night. But that also meant he didn't leave till later in the morning. Naturally that meant CAKE FOR BREAKFAST!</div>
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After William went to work the kids and I had a scavenger hunt.</div>
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I drew them clues that took them all over the property and ended in the back of my car where there was a treasure box full of chocolate chip cookies.</div>
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Because pirates like beaches, therefore a beach themed party should half a treasure hunt!</div>
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I just love how excited this boy is about his solar powered robot. </div>
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Obi loves robots and he loves building robots.</div>
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Nana came over at lunch time and brought us a special treat of sushi!</div>
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Obi loves sushi and since it was a beach themed day sushi seemed perfect.</div>
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Margaret loves sushi too.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LKW6dE8CeEGOy1lqFMRgUMbib4iLmM_xnioVpo_XqI-oBFF4qsNjDIixG3qnH4O712Qa2kfzpNKcBkFlFx2e4vMmOrQ4bj25sMl9sf-7zSK2FkAzCmxQxrRi__lMquT2FKMhinpqUu4r/s1600/IMG_6857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LKW6dE8CeEGOy1lqFMRgUMbib4iLmM_xnioVpo_XqI-oBFF4qsNjDIixG3qnH4O712Qa2kfzpNKcBkFlFx2e4vMmOrQ4bj25sMl9sf-7zSK2FkAzCmxQxrRi__lMquT2FKMhinpqUu4r/s320/IMG_6857.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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I'm not sure why, but for some reason Obi really wanted protective gear for his bike. He's got such a huge head it took us a long time to find a helmet that would fit him but was still fun. I think we ended up getting him a helmet for a 14 year old. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFySXJYrtroWaxKc8_m2BPU-r0OFeI1eNyBUfgOjal-5Dxo40kIbGSavNWeP3uFw4WbaF_Lt1lJ7mCkh7jLhC3dV8jxxLm9QditDXBpuV8HDcsHJQ_Clq1BMTyA05itOgsnOUVbZZe9p_/s1600/IMG_6858.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFySXJYrtroWaxKc8_m2BPU-r0OFeI1eNyBUfgOjal-5Dxo40kIbGSavNWeP3uFw4WbaF_Lt1lJ7mCkh7jLhC3dV8jxxLm9QditDXBpuV8HDcsHJQ_Clq1BMTyA05itOgsnOUVbZZe9p_/s320/IMG_6858.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Then we rode bikes!</div>
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All the kids are getting really good on their bikes and so much more confident.</div>
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The weekend before his birthday we took Obi to pick put his very own brand new bike.</div>
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We live in the country with no side walks and a gravel driveway so the kids ride in circles in the work shop. We also take them into Nashville sometimes and let them ride at one of the parks there.</div>
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Papa sent Obi a pair of work pants over alls. Obi was very proud of them.</div>
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He loves being like Papa.</div>
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William's parents sent Obi Magnetic building tiles.</div>
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Every kid needs these things! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxUAaDl9oIGC3wKuOFOXf-v_cys1wsizilw4qy5ZxeiO_S_M2WLAE40VI-iXM5C62hVJvEgUtX8QeEWMNYHAMK8jvhJhj18nGjAXDmrZXcWtUwm2TuzvhwVSaKUVmjenBDlere7ZlTAS4/s1600/IMG_8416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxUAaDl9oIGC3wKuOFOXf-v_cys1wsizilw4qy5ZxeiO_S_M2WLAE40VI-iXM5C62hVJvEgUtX8QeEWMNYHAMK8jvhJhj18nGjAXDmrZXcWtUwm2TuzvhwVSaKUVmjenBDlere7ZlTAS4/s320/IMG_8416.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The kids have played with these every day since the day we go them. I think there was just one day they didn't play with them and that was because I took them away because they were never picked up.</div>
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These things are seriously fun.</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CBSNRY/ref=asc_df_B000CBSNRY5055715/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B000CBSNRY&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167150204809&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6079703922181951636&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1026056&hvtargid=pla-305964428069" target="_blank">Here's a link</a> to where to buy them. </div>
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I'm linking to the big kit because you can build more villages, and castles and spaceships with more tiles.</div>
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Obi had a very fun birthday. He's growing up so fast. He says he didn't like being four but that five is his favorite so far. </div>
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Right now he's wearing size 7/8 clothes and his pants NEVER stay up.</div>
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He loves suspenders and bow ties and hats.</div>
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He loves building with blocks and he LOVES sticks. </div>
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There are sticks all over the yard!</div>
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He loves the name George and names everything George.</div>
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He named his chicken George.</div>
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Yes she's a hen.</div>
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He also named his favorite rock George and at least one stick.</div>
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His favorite cuddle buddy at the moment is his little snake "Snakey" and his "baby wookie"</div>
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I don't know what the wookie's name is ... it's probably George.</div>
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He tucks it on at night in a little bed he made for him.</div>
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The kids just watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Father's day and Obi declared it "The best movie ever!"</div>
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His favorite TV show is Rescue Bots... because he likes robots.</div>
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He's a caring and sweet boy and he's a wild and silly boy.</div>
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He loves taking ballet class and the other night we watched a ballet performance on PBS because he wanted to see "the boys dance"</div>
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He also wants to be "the good guy" like the Nutcracker Prince and he wants to "rescue people, like a super hero"</div>
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He's currently down stairs taking apart an old radio that doesn't work anymore and he can hear him exclaiming with excitement that "it has a circuit board!!"</div>
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He loves science and he says he wants to be an engineer when he grows up so he can build rocket ships and play with circuit boards.</div>
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He's my sweet Obadiah.</div>
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<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-74273951199608639732017-07-03T05:30:00.000-05:002017-07-03T05:30:22.500-05:00Happy Half Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
One of my favorite things about being Catholic are all the extra Feast Days to celebrate different people of faith throughout history.</div>
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I especially love the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.</div>
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Which is on June 24th and marks six months till Christmas!</div>
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So naturally we get the Christmas tree down and have a Half Christmas party!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gq2BgDJhBm9rx7Y3rngDKQni1ffaLl24Jte60dWHj3DsVFLejxDsUWh4G72HKrEo6tGjxgwdU5IuxIOWAL3e9VOvSIKTpkuzCGPKIvaElZNxmJm6dY1o0rBR6CTT5dNzyn4V-YkG_q-F/s1600/IMG_9813.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Gq2BgDJhBm9rx7Y3rngDKQni1ffaLl24Jte60dWHj3DsVFLejxDsUWh4G72HKrEo6tGjxgwdU5IuxIOWAL3e9VOvSIKTpkuzCGPKIvaElZNxmJm6dY1o0rBR6CTT5dNzyn4V-YkG_q-F/s320/IMG_9813.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The kids love decorating for Half Christmas. They choose what ornaments they want to use. They put the bows on the tree and they work really hard to cleaning up the living room.</div>
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They are adorable little Elves.</div>
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They also love planning their outfits and wearing their christmas t shirts.</div>
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(This is why it's important to have Christmas t shirts!)</div>
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Don't get me wrong. I love Summer too. And with Half Christmas being in June is a great time of year to get together with friends and do summery things.... while celebrating Christmas too!</div>
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This year we roasted hot dogs over a fire and had a hot dog building station on the porch.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHCThuOjqO9bE7Vt_qcMypAyg78l_dRghdc9aQKPbn4ZK8aKIci4reQ0nqbJNpuc-3AQa3hS-ULqG1sj-fNl17TwfVTAIUfyjz0Xt-4JNnoB-jEFhiQc5E77cXcRHJjzeG1iWSy2Aoyii/s1600/IMG_9819.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHCThuOjqO9bE7Vt_qcMypAyg78l_dRghdc9aQKPbn4ZK8aKIci4reQ0nqbJNpuc-3AQa3hS-ULqG1sj-fNl17TwfVTAIUfyjz0Xt-4JNnoB-jEFhiQc5E77cXcRHJjzeG1iWSy2Aoyii/s320/IMG_9819.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It always helps to invite responsible adult people to help with the roasting of the hot dogs and marshmallows.</div>
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Of course we also have Christmas cookies and everything you need to decorate a Christmas cookie.</div>
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I made mostly Christmas shapes but I did made butterflies and sharks too.</div>
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Really it's just an excuse to have fun people come to my house. </div>
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And have lots of great food.</div>
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Joanie even came all the way from Nashville for our Christmas party.</div>
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Because it is a Christmas party there needs to be Christmas gifts. </div>
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Luckily for me, I always have lots of Christmas wrapping paper.</div>
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(I buy it after real Christmas, on sale)</div>
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This year everyone got dance ribbons and water guns.</div>
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This was Margaret's first water gun and boy was she happy about it.</div>
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She ran around shooting everyone shouting "shoot shoot"</div>
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Our friends even brought us gifts! </div>
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Actually, with Christmas being so hectic last year we didn't see our friends around Christmas time. So she saved our gifts for Half Christmas! Brilliant!</div>
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I think my favorite part of the day was when everyone went out on the front lawn and played with their dance ribbons. That made me so happy and it was so fun and lovely to watch.</div>
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Here is one of Rosie's cookies she decorated. </div>
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Also, if you get marshmallow fluff and a kitchen torch (the kind you use for creme brûlée) you can have toasted marshmallow on top of cookie!!</div>
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It's amazing. Especially if your sugar cookies aren't too sweet.</div>
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Obi was a huge fan of the marshmallow fluff</div>
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Rosie was very creative about decorating her cookies. </div>
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I made so many that the kids decorated all weekend long.</div>
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Margaret is proudly showing me her half eaten cookie.</div>
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I even got the Christmas dishes out!</div>
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Happy Half Christmas everyone.</div>
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This is our favorite way to keep Christmas in our hearts "all the year long" like Scrooge and Tiny Tim taught us to.</div>
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How do you keep the magic of Christmas alive?</div>
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Have a great Summer!</div>
<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-80997750057746775372017-07-01T13:06:00.001-05:002017-07-01T13:06:30.273-05:00Brave Rosie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Rosie broke her arm on June 1st.</div>
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She was a very brave little girl in the hospital, and a silly little girl once they gave her the funny medicine.</div>
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Two weeks after her first cast we went back to the Children's Hospital and she got a new, very pretty </div>
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cast. She got to pick any color she wanted. So she chose pink and purple.</div>
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On the last day of June we all went back to the Children's Hospital to get her cast off.</div>
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Obi thought the noise canceling head phones were great.</div>
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They give the head phones to kids who don't like the noise of the cast cutting machine. </div>
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It sounds like a loud vacuums cleaner.</div>
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The children's hospital is amazing and they do everything to make the kids comfortable and to make being there fun.</div>
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After Rosie got her cast off we watched the train set in the lobby and explored the shops and food court on the second floor. </div>
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Rosie said the Children's hospital was the Disney World of Hospitals and even though she doesn't want to break her arm again... if we do have to go to the doctor for something again, she wants to make sure we come here.</div>
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Obi just wants to come and hang out. </div>
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Margaret loves the train.</div>
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It took a long time to get out of the lobby.</div>
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Rosie is very happy to have her cast off.</div>
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Her elbow is still very stiff and we try and stretch it every night. She doesn't have full range of motion yet but I think she will soon. </div>
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I'm so proud of my brave little girl.</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-34504473877231538872016-12-12T18:58:00.001-06:002016-12-12T19:02:10.723-06:00"I only smile for Santa"Obi is very serious about taking pictures<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I asked him why he wouldn't smile for me and said he only smiles for Santa ...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkC5OPq47mnABDb6hz9yV79vSrD_WANougXcHkY7Buya2Btadna_GTpD0TQwenYUcN_FFxuJlglWkDH22ADrRQ-6X0YL7tH04PREjeG9_FyuHSw8H-QdgsAzbqR_BQtA6LgsOkv2rgjDp/s1600/IMG_4565-734759.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6363383763127232610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVkC5OPq47mnABDb6hz9yV79vSrD_WANougXcHkY7Buya2Btadna_GTpD0TQwenYUcN_FFxuJlglWkDH22ADrRQ-6X0YL7tH04PREjeG9_FyuHSw8H-QdgsAzbqR_BQtA6LgsOkv2rgjDp/s400/IMG_4565-734759.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So I asked him to pretend I was Santa...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnamH4TLQc1hA2m0AR0Dm7sUHZnmashyphenhyphenLfr4wZSTwiuiCvnCZ_c8Wkqi7DW8IdhzGDyFzCzWV04NKGSrKxgi08ZF7Alb7Rfx-cNZt1Wj8kNtiNjZd79JUrg8V3JQxVQNYKK4bAh-n8UUG/s1600/IMG_4566-737636.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6363383771441953378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnamH4TLQc1hA2m0AR0Dm7sUHZnmashyphenhyphenLfr4wZSTwiuiCvnCZ_c8Wkqi7DW8IdhzGDyFzCzWV04NKGSrKxgi08ZF7Alb7Rfx-cNZt1Wj8kNtiNjZd79JUrg8V3JQxVQNYKK4bAh-n8UUG/s400/IMG_4566-737636.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">At least the boy has standards.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And really good taste.</span></div>
<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-77444438759276081542016-08-22T14:14:00.001-05:002016-08-22T14:14:19.682-05:00School Has Started 2016 -- Fall Semester<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjKoAho3_xbxT72fNEHSFTQY12j8mHmtF5R4r26agVB8fyMjDgSQNGtfxZPKSAeG6yAbPdtFI0Vj_GlfXA_5zJepMQuHV1nNUOju9keuTwTzTcY5SkMoPO7DAogSQviHmcp2cJlkDydiY/s1600/14124459_10153681394735684_4869699490913182403_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirjKoAho3_xbxT72fNEHSFTQY12j8mHmtF5R4r26agVB8fyMjDgSQNGtfxZPKSAeG6yAbPdtFI0Vj_GlfXA_5zJepMQuHV1nNUOju9keuTwTzTcY5SkMoPO7DAogSQviHmcp2cJlkDydiY/s320/14124459_10153681394735684_4869699490913182403_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">School has started! </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">We started a couple of weeks ago (as you do in Tennessee).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> I kept waiting till our hair was done and we were each properly dressed to take this picture. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">But I guess that's just not us. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Obi and Rosie we're excited about their new "school clothes" and Margaret was just happy to be wearing Obi's shirt. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">She wants to be just like him. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">My babies are growing up so fast and I have to remind myself to stop and enjoy every quirky little moment.</span>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-20109688965318185092016-02-29T00:02:00.001-06:002016-02-29T00:02:25.959-06:00Oscars 2016<div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9xAhQz_4S2HAethN_sbKE_vc3S37H8SPmvmLLKybkDR41L3pIDL0cAr7qiodS8YTLYGnHxQHbfyXXgrv0Svwqg6StrwZ86hG7-Ec2bQvmDVYnbKj9DqJuYd4cjNahVYsomxRIC9E9CbQ/s640/blogger-image--510122034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN9xAhQz_4S2HAethN_sbKE_vc3S37H8SPmvmLLKybkDR41L3pIDL0cAr7qiodS8YTLYGnHxQHbfyXXgrv0Svwqg6StrwZ86hG7-Ec2bQvmDVYnbKj9DqJuYd4cjNahVYsomxRIC9E9CbQ/s640/blogger-image--510122034.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>This is the first year since we've been back in the states (5 years now) that we haven't had a formal Oscars party. </div><div><br></div><div>We did however have a quiet celebration with popcorn, pizza, chips and black eyed peas salsa and a pretty powerful sangria. </div><div><br></div><div>It wasn't a big fancy night but it was fun. I listened to a pod cast about the nominations earlier in the day and followed along with my score sheet for most of the show. </div><div><br></div><div>I have a couple movies I'd like to rent now. Especially The Martian. </div><div><br></div><div>I thought Chris Rock did a good job ( but he's no Ellen). </div><div><br></div><div>Mostly I just enjoyed the celebration of film making and movies. </div><div><br></div><div>Did you watch the Oscars this year? </div><div><br></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-15243595770650481542016-01-10T11:27:00.001-06:002016-01-10T11:27:56.408-06:00Last Liturgical Day of Christmas<div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MFKkpOpppO8f5bh8TO1EZzkRpo6Jf2YiaVKtjuZHXDA1bAphjMVFX_qk1RbkWo3_x7Xo3nMmHEK0I3AaLu5dFza5BDIkxpQx7hVi3OEi2woLMyjBk8j3wkytt5UEuxQ0lbMpDXkCu3IQ/s640/blogger-image--737698606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MFKkpOpppO8f5bh8TO1EZzkRpo6Jf2YiaVKtjuZHXDA1bAphjMVFX_qk1RbkWo3_x7Xo3nMmHEK0I3AaLu5dFza5BDIkxpQx7hVi3OEi2woLMyjBk8j3wkytt5UEuxQ0lbMpDXkCu3IQ/s640/blogger-image--737698606.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Got all the kids on the picture on this the last liturgical day of Christmas. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Today we celebrate the baptism of Christ and talked about our own baptisms with the kids. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We listen to Christmas music one last time and then tomorrow we move into "Ordanay Time". Rosie calls it "green time" because the priest wears green. It's a time of growing in our love and faith and understanding in Christ. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also. It's one month till Ash Wednesday ! Why is this year going to fast already!?</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Happy Christmas lovely people.</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-56652882148602652822016-01-06T23:17:00.001-06:002016-01-06T23:47:36.015-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 12 - Epiphany!<div>
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Happy Twelveth Day of Christmas! </div>
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Happy Kings Day! </div>
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Happy Epiphany! </div>
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Today around the world we celebrate the arrival of the Magi, Wise men, or Kings arriving at the house of the Baby Jesus and bringing him gifts.</div>
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This is a very big holiday in some parts of the world like Mexico, Spain, most of the Spanish speaking world and Italy.</div>
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The kids and I had so much fun watching little clips of different celebrations from around the world on SnapChat. </div>
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Yes. I said SnapChat.</div>
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I know it sounds crazy but there was this little button that you could click on and it showed you lots of little clips of people around the world celebrating.</div>
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We saw parades.</div>
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Mass with Wisemen coming down the aisle to bring gifts.</div>
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KINGS CAKE! </div>
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We are totally making Kings cake next year.</div>
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There were also some fun clips on Instagram and Twitter if you check out the hashtag #Epiphany.</div>
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Make the technology work for you and make it fun.</div>
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The kids really enjoyed watching it all.</div>
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There was one clip from Spanish Harlem and Rosie was excited that "Hey! They are speaking our language."</div>
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Many Catholics around the world do a house blessing on Epiphany.</div>
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All you need for this house blessing is:</div>
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The Blessing (I printed mine from HolyHeros.com)</div>
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Some Holy Water</div>
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and blessed chalk </div>
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(I'm sure regular chalk would work too, but it's so much more fun asking your priest to bless a piece of chalk. I keep mine in my jewelry box and reuse it every year)</div>
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Then you get everyone together... say a little prayer and blessing and write</div>
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20+C+M+B+16</div>
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above your door</div>
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The 20 and the 16 are for the current year and the letters C, M and B stand for </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which is Latin for "May Christ bless this home."</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"> They are also the initials for the traditional names of the three wisemen.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Balthasar</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> of Arabia, </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Melchior</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> of Persia, and </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gaspar</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> of India.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">(Traditional. Not factual. We don't actually know their names. But these are fun to say).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Balthasar is our favorite... we just like saying it.</span></div>
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Obi is the official Holy Water distributor. </div>
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He splashed it all over the door.</div>
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In many parts of the world children leave their shoes under the tree and receive a gift from the Kings as they pass by on their way to Bethlehem to see Jesus. We didn't do the shoes this year but there was a gift under the tree! Obi was very excited to discover it.</div>
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It was a 3D puzzle that we can all do together this weekend.</div>
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Rosie declared the Kings must be still alive.</div>
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I tried to explain traditions and that weren't but I was out voted. </div><div style="text-align: center;">"Nope. I think they're still alive. That's more fun. "</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"> I've always loved Kings Day.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"> I love that one last day of gifts before the Christmas season comes to a close.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br></div>
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Also, I didn't realize this until I became Catholic but the Kings or Magi were the first non Jewish people to honor Jesus and so they represent God's gift of mercy to the whole world.</div>
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I thought I'd share a couple pictures of our nativity. The kids had fun setting it up and decided the nutcrackers should be there to guard the baby Jesus.</div>
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Thank you so much for celebrating the entire month of December and the 12 Days of Christmas with me. I enjoyed blogging again.</div>
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I hope you have a wonderful year and that the joy and peace of Christmas is in your heart and home all year long.</div>
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Merry Christmas!! </div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-54549415465895081712016-01-05T14:19:00.000-06:002016-01-05T14:57:36.409-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 11 - How Christmas Day Went Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Christmas Morning!</div>
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The day we think about and plan for all year long.</div>
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It was so peaceful and wonderful this year.</div>
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The kids woke up and examined everything. </div>
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They were excited to see that Santa had not only eaten all the cookies and brownies we left him, but he also emptied the can of beans and the cup of oats. </div>
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He left the book (we left out "The Night Before Christmas") open to the page that says "up the chimney he rose."</div>
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They thought that detail was really fun.</div>
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Obi exclaimed "He DOES love beans"</div>
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I think they were more excited about that then they were at all the gifts under the tree!</div>
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The only thing Rosie had asked Santa for when we visited him was candy canes on the tree. She was happy to see that he left both peppermint ones as well as jolly rancher flavored ones, since Obi doesn't like the peppermint. </div>
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That Santa is a thoughtful guy.</div>
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My Mother-in-law sent the kids ornaments that have a motion detector on them and sing "we wish you a merry christmas." The kids thought they were wonderful! </div>
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Quite honestly I thought they were hilarious. Every time any one walks by the tree (including the cat) it starts singing.</div>
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They also sent two birds that do life like bird songs.</div>
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So our tree is very noisy and freaks the cat out. </div>
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It's great!<br />
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Santa brought the kids these giant stuffed animals because he must be a little crazy.</div>
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They were a huge hit. . .</div>
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for a while anyway.</div>
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Playing under the Christmas tree..... we are very slow gift openers. We like to take our time to stop and play with things for awhile before we move on.</div>
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It took us four hours to open our gifts and we didn't even have that many people this year.</div>
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I got an Instax camera!! </div>
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I took this picture at "intermission." </div>
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We had to stop for second breakfast and coffee.</div>
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Margaret was the cutest. I think her favorite thing was this box. </div>
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She kept climbing in and out of it all morning.</div>
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She finally got the hang of opening the gifts herself after Rosie showed her. </div>
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Then she thought it was great fun.</div>
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I put together this frame for my mom. </div>
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Andy died last year and he'd been part of the family for 16 years. </div>
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We all still really miss him.</div>
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I saw this idea at my friend Julie's house and thought it was lovely.</div>
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Now Andy is on the wall with all of the other family pictures.</div>
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When all the gifts had been opened and we picked up the paper, we found one last big box in the back under the tree. </div>
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The kids opened the box and found this note in it.</div>
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It told us to go outside and open a door.</div>
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I had no idea what was coming... Santa was up to something.</div>
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We opened the garage door and found this crazy thing!!</div>
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Santa had really out done himself this year. </div>
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The kids were ecstatic.</div>
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The rest of the day was peaceful. </div>
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I had put a turkey in the oven in the morning.</div>
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After the gifts were open I took a nap.</div>
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The kids spend most of the day in their bouncy house with Papa,</div>
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And Margaret got to sit on the counter while Nana pealed oranges.</div>
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After my nap I baked four pies. </div>
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It was such a lovely dinner and such a lovely day.<br />
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Some of my personal favorite gifts were these!<br />
I got lots a warm socks, which I really wanted.<br />
Obi made me this Christmas ornament all by himself!<br />
And I got this camera that I've wanted for years.<br />
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Rosie said this was the best Christmas ever. </div>
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I told her that every Christmas is the best Christmas...</div>
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but this one really was extra special.</div>
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<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-13712804910101907392016-01-04T22:00:00.000-06:002016-01-04T22:00:00.690-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 10 - Christmas Eve<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy Christmas Eve!</div>
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Christmas Eve is the true start of Christmas at our house.</div>
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I have a personal rule that all my gifts must be wrapped by Christmas Eve because I hate being locked in a room while every one is enjoying the peace and joy of the day.</div>
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For us it means hanging out and baking cookies and then going to Mass.</div>
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We usually got to the Christmas Eve Mass. </div>
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My kids are still too young for Midnight Mass.</div>
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The nativity this year was absolutely amazing. </div>
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I tried to get all three kids in the Nativity picture but it is so hard to get all three kids in the same picture... and getting everyone to look and smile is just out of the question.</div>
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The kids had lots fun running around after Mass and playing with their friends. They were all so cute. And we got to song JOY TO THE WORLD! </div>
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On our way home we had planned on stopping and caroling but we stayed at Church so long and the kids were hungry. Instead we just drove very very slowly past the lovely decorated houses.</div>
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These two houses are the best decorated in town.</div>
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The defiantly have the most decorations and they put a lot of work into it.</div>
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Awkward family Christmas picture!!</div>
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We have some amazing friends at church. They always give us such great Christmas gifts. We always enjoy opening them on Christmas Eve.</div>
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Margaret got this cute stacking snow man. She played with it all night. I haven't seen the whole thing put together since that night. She carries the pieces all over the house and treasures them.</div>
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Some other friends gave us these cute nativity crafts. They were a perfect craft for the kids to do while I made Santa some brownies. </div>
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Finally it was time to put out our goodies for Santa. </div>
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I totally forgot to buy carrots for Rudolf and the other reindeer so we decided they might like some oats.</div>
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We left Santa brownies and meringue drops and some nugget cookies we got at World Market. </div>
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We also left him a small candy cane and a cup of oats and a glass of Eggnog.</div>
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We left a book for him to look at too in case he wanted a break.</div>
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And yes, my kids are naked because it was 70 degrees outside!</div>
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Plus it's hard to keep clothes on my kids for some reason.</div>
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At the last minute before it was time to go to bed, Obi came running out of the bed room. He opened the pantry and said he wanted to leave something for Santa "that he will really really like."</div>
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Then he grabbed a can of black beans, "THIS!" he exclaimed. </div>
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It was the cutest thing ever. </div>
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He was feeling a lot of love and he wanted to show his love to Santa through a gift.</div>
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One thing William and I do on Christmas Eve is put gold on the Christmas tree to mark the beginning of Christmas. Leading up to Christmas Day is Advent and preparation. Christmas Eve marks the beginning of the Christmas Season.</div>
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(the 12 days that follow... or more)</div>
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Santa also hangs candy canes on the Christmas tree and of course adds gifts under the tree.</div>
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Our stockings after Santa came.</div>
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I was laying all snug in my bed when I heard something in the living room.</div>
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I got up and caught this guy!</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/s_vi/jMP5EYDEXtk/default.jpg?sqp=CJjuq7QF&rs=AOn4CLCtXDIxUmjUHW8a8BtWIG-D_lQukg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jMP5EYDEXtk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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(using the KringlApp)</div>
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<br />Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-31753785083078768712016-01-04T16:16:00.000-06:002016-01-04T16:16:31.106-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 9 - Christmas Shopping Elves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
My kids are awesome shoppers. They love going to almost any store and looking at things. They also love buying gifts for other people and they are so good at finding just the right thing.</div>
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I had asked the kids what they wanted to get William and they both said they wanted to get him Avengers Comic books.</div>
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On December 22, Christmas Eve Eve Eve, I took the kids to Nashville for some last minute Christmas shopping.</div>
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We were very impressed with the Christmas tree made of books. </div>
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The kids were so cute in the book store picking out gifts.</div>
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They dug through the comic books with me and picked some out for William and then they looked through the kids books and decided they wanted to get a book for Papa called "I want to Eat your Books." </div>
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No idea why they wanted that one except it had monsters on the front of it and I guess that reminded them of Papa.</div>
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Then we went over to Target and they picked out a travel makeup case for Nana. </div>
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We also picked up some stocking stuffers.</div>
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Luckily the Target nearest to us (about an hour from our house) has a Starbucks in it and we all got a festive red cup and some hot chocolate.</div>
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Obi takes his hot chocolate very seriously.</div>
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We then went over to World Market and we even stopped at The Bath and Body Shop. </div>
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Four stores with three kids a few days before Christmas is quite an accomplishment.</div>
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Especially when all the kids were so well behaved and in good moods.</div>
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We even had a lovely drive home with a gorgeous sunset to watch as we sang Christmas songs.</div>
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I know it sounds pretty ordinary but it was actually quite a lovely day. </div>
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It was one of my most favorite things we did this Holiday Season. </div>
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It was just fun to get out and have a cheerful fun day with my kids and to watch them pick out lovely gifts for other people. </div>
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What sweet kids my little Christmas Elves are.</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-80637650285449770842016-01-02T21:56:00.001-06:002016-01-02T22:07:55.062-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 8 - Dickens of a Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After our lovely Pink Sunday Mass and a picnic lunch in the car, we made our way over to Franklin, Tennessee for their annual <a href="http://historicfranklin.com/events/event/dickens-of-a-christmas/" target="_blank">Charles Dickens Christmas Festival</a>.</div>
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You may notice that Rosie is wearing an entirely different outfit. She said that she had to wear pink to Mass for Pink Sunday but she had to wear Christmasy things to a Christmas party. </div>
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I like the way she thinks.</div>
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Franklin Downtown is a lovely historic little city that does a wonderful job every year being Christmasy. It can get a bit crazy with the parking and the crowds. Actually it gets really crowded. BUT I'll tell you my secret. </div>
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Go on Sunday while everyone else is in church and the crowds aren't so bad. We actually headed home just as it was getting crazy.</div>
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As soon as we made our way to the closed off part of the street we came across this man playing the water glasses. </div>
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He was Amazing! </div>
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He knew every song and played lovely Christmas music. </div>
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I'm actually kind of sad I didn't buy his Christmas CD.</div>
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Then someone asked him to play Star Wars and he just whipped this out!</div>
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He was amazing.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ev2AQ_FWGKE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ev2AQ_FWGKE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><br />
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I'm sorry I don't know what his name is... but I hope to find out next year.</div>
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The best part about the Franklin Christmas Festival is that it's a Charles Dickens theme and you can run into so many great characters. In fact, people are encouraged to dress in period costume.</div>
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The kids got to meet Father Christmas and he gave us peppermints.</div>
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There was also "snow" falling from the balcony of one of the old buildings. People were sitting on a bench under the balcony and taking pictures. </div>
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We stood for a while and tried to catch the "snow," it was very fun.</div>
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I also really love that there are a number of artisens demonstrating their craft.</div>
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There are all kinds of booths of hand made crafts and interesting gifts. You could get various unique things for everyone on your Christmas list. But I especially love the ones that have demonstrations of how they make their crafts. This girl was making wool yarn. </div>
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There was also a few painters, a jewelry maker and a back smith. </div>
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The black smith was fun and had a big crowd around him.</div>
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The one thing I wanted to make sure we did was go on the horse drawn carriage ride. Rosie had seen them at the Gaylord and at the Main Street event near our house but we hadn't ridden one yet. So I wanted to take her on one. </div>
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We were all very excited. We had a wonderful horse and an excellent driver. The line wasn't too long. The price wasn't high ($2 a person I think) and the people in the booth were wonderful.</div>
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Rosie really loved the house. She really wants a horse. This boy was SO big. His name was Maximillion. </div>
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I looked every where for mulled wine and roast chestnuts but couldn't find them. That was disappointing. When you go to a British themed Christmas event you want there to be mulled wine and chestnuts...maybe even some mince pies. </div>
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We did find a stand that sold cinnamon candied hot nuts though and those were good.</div>
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We sat and ate them while Margaret danced to the Christmas music.</div>
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Margaret loves music and she loves dancing. She seems to really love Christmas music too. The stage had bands and choirs and even a few dancers that performed Christmas music. It was loud but Margaret really enjoyed it.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Since Rosie got to choose the horse carriage ride Obi wanted to ride the mini train. It was a cute little train. </span><br />
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I think next year they should decorate the driving path with some festive decorations or a mini Christmas village, but the kids loved it and it was quite a long ride.</div>
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As I mentioned before, there were characters wandering around all morning. Here Rosie got to meet some of the Dickens Dancers...</div>
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Then we ran into all three of the Ghosts! </div>
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That's the Ghost of Christmas Past in the white dress and the Ghost of Christmas Present is the man that looks like Santa. Of course the Reaper on is the Ghost of Christmas yet to come.</div>
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These boys were our very favorite. They were setting up just as we were making our way back towards our car and we stopped and sat on the ground and watched them. They were not only wonderful players but they were so festive and dressed for the period.</div>
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Rosie says she wants to learn the violin and Obi LOVES the tube. So it was just perfect that this group was a tuba and two violins.</div>
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The tube guy was amazing and he had his tuba decorated and covered with other little noise makers. The kids loved them. </div>
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Margaret danced the whole time and Obi was all smiles. He really does love the tuba.</div>
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Our little sassy dancer.</div>
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Right before we left we saw the whole Cratchet Family. I thought that was fun and was able to tell the kids who they were. We watch various versions of A Christmas Carol every year so they thought it was neat that we met the Cratchets.</div>
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Here's a bonus picture of Margaret and Daddy being silly in Daddy's beanie hat after we got home.</div>
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The Franklin Dickens Festival is every year. This year it was on the 12th and 13th, a Saturday and Sunday. I recommend visiting the <a href="http://historicfranklin.com/events/event/dickens-of-a-christmas/" target="_blank">website</a> and checking out the fun events they have planned on each day. </div>
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If you have kids then do go early in the morning. We found Sunday worked really well for us. </div>
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It's best to leave when it starts getting crazy crowded. </div>
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There is a petting zoo and lots of fun snack food if you aren't allergic to everything like we are (we brought own own food and left it in a cooler in the car). </div>
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I defiantly recommend trying this event out. I very much hope we all get Dickens period costumes some day and get to dress up. </div>
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I think that would be a fun way to participate.</div>
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The highlights of this event is definitely the street performers. There were harpists and singers and fiddlers and dulcimer players and so much more. </div>
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It was so festive and completely free.</div>
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(Unless you want snacks or to do some Christmas shopping.</div>
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You would have a great time finding really unique gifts here if you did you shopping here).</div>
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We just went for the Christmas spirit of the whole event.</div>
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We will be back again next year for sure.</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-64802652274704506562016-01-01T22:04:00.000-06:002016-01-02T22:09:46.712-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 7 - Gaudete Sunday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The third Sunday in Advent is called Gaudete Sunday. Which translates to rejoice or joyful Sunday. On that Sunday the priest wears pink (or as they like to call it "rose") colored vestments. </div>
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Therefore, we call it "Pink Sunday." </div>
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We love pink Sunday. We love to wear pink and see pink and it's one of our favorite Sunday's of the year. </div>
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This year "Pink Sunday " was even more special because this year is a special Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church and Holy Doors all over the world (and in our diocese) were being open. </div>
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Holy doors are wonderful things. </div>
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Here's a picture of Pope Francis opening the most special door in Rome. </div>
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In Rome the last time this door was opened was in the year 2000. Since then it's been covered up with brick and mortar. They had to un-wall the door so the Pope could open it. </div>
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Passing through this door is a sign of actively making a pilgrimage to make your self right with Gid and to grow closer to Him through His mercy. </div>
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After the Pope opened the super fancy one in Rome he told the bishops around the world to open holy doors in their dioceses so everyone could have a chance to make that personal journey towards Christ. (You do not have to be Catholic to go through the door). </div>
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And guess what day Pope Francis chose to have all the holy doors open? </div>
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Pink Sunday of course!! </div>
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I had been planning to spend Pink Sunday in Nashville anyway at one of the super fancy old churches but when I heard the holy door was being opened we had to go! </div>
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So off to Nashville, to St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows we went to be at Mass at 9am. </div>
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It was early but we were all happy and excited. And we were all wearing pink. </div>
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Baby didn't know what was going on, but she was excited about it.<br />
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St. Mary's is the oldest church in Nashville and used to be the cathedral until the "newer" one was built. </div>
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My lovely pink family in the old box pews. </div>
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My darling family going through the Holy Door.<br />
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St. Mary's is the heart of downtown Nashville and is very old. They have these cool steps in front that the kids liked playing on. </div>
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Rosie talking to Father Baker. She likes him a lot. We've visited him before. Also, we like his pink and purple vestments. I think Rosie is telling him those are her favorite colors. </div>
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Standing in the Holy Door. We drove and hour and twenty minutes in the morning to see it opened. I was going to stand in it for a picture. Plus just in case you get extra mercy or blessings the longer you stand in it (you don't. But just in case). </div>
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St. Mary's is a lovely old church full of history and Father Baker is amazing. I highly recommend visiting both. Father Baker is wonderful at helping the mass and the liturgy come alive. He makes it seem so beautiful and simple while still keeping it holy and sacred. He's able to keep my kids' attention while still appealing to the liturgy nerd in me. </div>
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The Holy Door will be open till November 20, 2016 so there is plenty of time to visit it. There is also a holy door at the main cathedral in Nashville. </div>
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If you're not in Nashville look up the Holy Doors near you. Pope Francis said every one should make a pilgrimage to a holy door. You don't have to be Catholic to do it and it's pretty fun. </div>
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If you are Catholic you should definitely do it. </div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-83817310883205712912015-12-31T00:50:00.000-06:002016-01-02T22:09:32.157-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 6 - Christmas Parade<div>
One of the most exciting small town traditions is the annual Christmas parade. Actually, I think big towns have Christmas parades too. </div>
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This year we didn't just go to the parade, we were in it! And not just one parade, but two! </div>
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On Saturday we were in the county parade and then on Sunday we were in our local town parade. </div>
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By "we" I mean we joined other members of our church to represent our church in the parades. </div>
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We decorated our stroller and the kids and I had the very important job of passing out (or tossing) the candy. </div>
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We may have broken into the candy a little to keep the babies from fussing. </div>
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Rosie was so cute. She picked out her outfit and ran and walked almost the whole parade route passing out candy. </div>
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We didn't have time to put together a whole nativity so we decided we would all just walk with Mary and Joseph as they traveled to Bethlehem. </div>
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Our alter servers looked pretty fabulous. </div>
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Beth was a fellow candy passer-outer. Unfortunately she also had knee surgery not too long ago and was quit sore after two days of walking. </div>
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This is the only picture anyone got of me and the stroller in the parade. We were pretty proud of our festive stroller. </div>
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On Saturday, Rosie made it almost the whole parade running back and forth passing out candy. At the very end she asked for a break so I took Obi out of the stroller. He couldn't keep up so Vince ended up pushing the stroller while Obi and I got picked up by the search and rescue float. That was nice of them and very funny. </div>
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On Sunday we walked again in our own town's parade where our church is actually located and we won first place!!! Yes, it's a small town and a small parade but it was still very exciting to us. </div>
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We all really enjoyed being a part of the Christmas celebration and hopefully we spread some joy and smiles as well as reminding people what the season is really all about. </div>
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I'm already planning for next year. By the way, in the maket for a nice friendly donkey. </div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-85258619456771103622015-12-30T22:04:00.000-06:002016-01-02T22:09:14.652-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 5 - Main Street Tree LightingIn the first weekend of December one of the local towns had their annual Main Street Christmas celebrations.<br />
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The evening included a tree lighting, Christmas carols, horse drawn carriages and lots of hot chocolate.<br />
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Each shop on the historic down town Main Street stayed opened a few hours late for this special evening. That's actually a very exciting big deal in our small town area where most everything around here closes at 5pm. But on this night everything stayed open till 9pm!<br />
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And I'm not just talking about the obvious shops where you could get your Christmas shopping Donne, like the jewelry shop or the book store, I mean everything on Main Street stayed open till 9pm. The lawyers, the tax agents, the furniture store, the other random shops I have no idea what they are. Every shop stayed open and offered treats to anyone one who would wander in. There was hot chocolate and cider and cookies and cupcakes and candy and cheese plates, and even wine tasting at the art shop!<br />
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It was truly a wonderful night of the community coming together and just spending time together and celebrating the Christmas season. I really enjoyed the feeling of warm welcomes and comradery that was buzzing up and down the street.<br />
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There was also the added joy of seeing people walked out of shops carrying gift wrapped packages. It was incredibly festive. I told William that next year we are buying everything local (especially at the shops that offer wrapping).<br />
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I don't have very many pictures of the evening because we were busy just enjoying it.<br />
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In the first shop we went in Elsa from Frozen was there saying hello to all the little girls. Rosie was very happy about it and wanted her picture taken.<br />
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The main thing I wanted the kids to see was the live nativity. It took us a while to walk around and find it but when we finally found it we really enjoyed it.<br />
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They even had live sheep, a donkey ...</div>
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And camels! </div>
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They also had really lovely live Christmas music. </div>
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In fact the whole street was full of Christmas music. The funature store even had a group of seniors line dancing to Jingle Bell Rock. <br />
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It was a cold night and we did stay out later than we normally would, but it was such a fun and festive evening. I am definately looking forward to doing it again next year.<br />
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-63274230080360638732015-12-29T22:05:00.000-06:002016-01-02T22:08:59.573-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 4 - The Gaylord Opryland Hotel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Clearly we love Christmas lights.</div>
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I've always loved driving around and looking at them but that's not as easy to do with kids and in the country where the houses and fewer and farther apart. </div>
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One of our most favorite Christmas traditions is visiting the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. We go every year on my mom's birthday. </div>
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The kids call it "the White Castle" and they look forward to it all year. </div>
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Every year the Gaylord does an amazing job decorating for Christmas. This year they even had a lot of new decorations. </div>
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It's pretty much Nashville's Disneyland </div>
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This bobble tree was new this year and I just loved it. </div>
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Music notes hung from the ceiling as a nod to music city. These were new too!</div>
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They always have the most massive and lovely Christmas tree.<br />
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These were new!<br />
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And guess who we ran into?! Santa!<br />
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We had dinner at the Fuse sports restaurant. They have great food (even for allergy people like us) and the atmosphere isn't too stuffy for ramuctious kids. They have the TVs muted till 7pm. At 7:00 they turn the sound up WAY too loud so make sure you're out before that. Otherwise the place is great. Great kids menus too. With crayons.</div>
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Baby Margaret discovered she loves French fries.<br />
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After dinner we did the boat tour this year. The boats run till ten so feel free to have dinner and walk around a bit first. (The shops close at 9pm and Santa was there till 6pm).<br />
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The kids always love the boat tour. It's the best way to see the lights.<br />
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I swear he's happy. He just makes silly faces when I take his picture.<br />
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See. He loves the lights <br />
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Dinner, Santa, shopping and the boat tour as well as all the lights were indoors in the giant atrium. So it was all very warm.<br />
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But if you go out the front of the hotel the trees and decorations are amazing. We always take a stroller to carry our coats and then put them on to go out to the nativity.<br />
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The nativity is lovely and larger than life size.<br />
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They also have the Christmas story from the book of Matthew playing over a load speaker.<br />
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It is very lovely. But you are outside so it can be cold.<br />
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They also offer horse drawn carriage rides along the lighted tree area.<br />
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This is the front of the hotel. It's so beautiful. You can see why my kids call it the "White Castle"<br />
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Back inside to warm up we explored some more. The hotel has three wings. Each is decorated in its own special way. And has its own theme. We always love playing behind the water fall in the Cascades wing.<br />
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This is the other side of the water fall.<br />
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I love all the little details in each room. The garlands and wreaths and every little thing that transforms the whole place into a Christmas wonderland.<br />
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If you are ever in Nashville be sure to stop by the Gaylord hotel and just wonder around. It's beautiful all year long. </div>
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There are lovely places to have dinner. </div>
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The steak place is amazing if you're looking for something fancy. Fuse is nice for something low key. And the Irish pub is great for drinks and live music. </div>
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For you're ever in Nashville around Christmas time DO NOT miss this place. It's amazing. </div>
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There are plenty of free things to see and do (especially if you park at the mall and walk over). But there are also lovely places to eat and shop. </div>
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Chances are you'll find some great Christmas gifts. </div>
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There's an amazing toy shop for all the kids on your list. </div>
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Christmas runs through January 2nd this year so there's still time, plus I hear the shops have great after Christmas sales. </div>
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I'm actually thinking about taking the kids back one more time this week. Maybe I'll see you there!</div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-37489261317662398542015-12-28T22:30:00.001-06:002016-01-02T22:07:18.776-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 3 - Columbus Zoo Lights<div>
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I might be counting the days a little wrong for the twelve days of Christmas. I might be a day behind. But that just means an extra day of Christmas for me, and is that really a bad thing. </div>
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Plus the Catholic Church doesn't start Ordinary time till January 11. So really Christmas Tide even longer than 12 days. </div>
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Today I would like to share what we did as a family the day after Thanksgiving to kick off our Christmas celebrations. </div>
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We went to Dublin, Ohio for Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Columbus Zoo for their Christmas "zoo lights". </div>
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Rosie wanted me to take this picture of her because she forgot her special bear and wanted to show her pictures. I sure do love this sweet girl. </div>
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My boys</div>
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We got there at dusk before everything got really impressive. But even at that hour it was beautiful. Rosie loved this rainbow tree. </div>
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Happy boy just wanted to see some animals. He was impressed with the moose. </div>
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We saw miniature cows. William wants some. This is as big as they get!</div>
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The lights were amazing. There was even a light show on the lake that was sponsored by Disney. And we all took a train ride through some nicely decorated areas. </div>
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It was cold so Margaret got to wear her new winter hat. She kept running off and making everyone who wasn't her mother chasing after her laugh. </div>
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After wondering around with the whole family for a while ( cousins and aunts and uncles and Nana and Papa and Grampa Coleman ), our little family stayed behind to explore a little more. </div>
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The kids loved the Christmas decorations And then we found an old friend!</div>
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We saw Santa!! Obi wasn't sure what he wanted and Rosie said she wanted Santa to put candy canes on our Christmas tree. At least that's what she meant to say. Really she just said she wanted a candy cane for Christmas and Santa reached down in his bag and gave her one! She was so surprised and excited. </div>
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Obi later decided he wanted ice skates. Although I did try to persuade him he might want a tool set. </div>
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If you're ever in the Columbus area make sure to visit their zoo. It is one of the top five zoos in the country and it really is amazing. </div>
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But if you're ever there during the</div>
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Zoo Lights time do not miss it. It was spectacular. And very festive. </div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-21215115916176426122015-12-27T22:25:00.001-06:002016-01-02T22:07:13.850-06:0012 Days of Christmas: Day 2 - O Christmas Tree<div>
The Twelve Days of Christmas are some of my favorite days. They are a time of relaxing and vegging. It's a time for playing with new toys, reading new books and playing video games. </div>
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It's also a time of looking back over the year. Aswell as looking forward to the new one. </div>
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Today I was sick so I slept late. I also folded laundry (I am determined to get it all folded before the new year), I planned for a 5k I plan to run in February, while stuffing my face with peppermints. And the kids destroyed the house. </div>
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As I look back on this year I thought I'd share how we spent our Advent/Christmas season. It is still Christmas after all! </div>
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We got or Christmas tree the week before Thanksgiving. We knew we'd be traveling for Thanksgiving and we wanted the tree to be up when we got home. Plus we like to start early. </div>
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Everyone had fun running around the tree lot. It's actually one of our favorite places to visit. It's a local farm stand so it's where we get all our seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables, pumpkins and trees. </div>
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Margaret just liked running around while I spent my time being far too picky about the perfect tree and chasing kids around. </div>
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William helped with the chain saw. </div>
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The kids and my mom watched from a far. </div>
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That evening we had what Rosie called a "cookie feast" and decorated the tree. </div>
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Even Margaret got a cookie!</div>
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Of course there was also egg nog. Which is one of our favorite holiday treats. </div>
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This was the night we have the kids their new ornaments for the year. Obi was a happy boy when he saw his robot ornament. </div>
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But he was really excited about his Olaf ornament from Nana </div>
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Rosie loved her unicorn </div>
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And Margaret seemed pretty happy about her shoe ornament. </div>
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Even Nana got one this year. She got a Tardis. </div>
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And then we put all our pretty new ornaments, as well as our old loved ones, on the tree. We didn't get it all done in one evening but that's fun too. I guess that's another reason I like to start early. That way we can take our time. </div>
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I love decorating the tree because it reminds me of togetherness. It reminds me of all the fun memories we had as kids decorating the Christmas tree. And I hope that Obi and Rosie and Margaret grow up treasuring that togetherness too. </div>
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I love that every year Rosie asks me to "tell the stories mommy!" Even if they are stories she's already heard, she wants to hear the special story that goes with each ornament. </div>
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So that's how we start our Christmas season. It's always special and it's fun to build and add our own little traditions and memories. </div>
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This year the kids and I also decorated at tree down at our new house. That was a lot of tree decorating and am so proud of them for how much they love it. </div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-14282544924650144902015-12-26T20:43:00.001-06:002016-01-02T22:07:07.570-06:00The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day 1 - The Force is With Us<div>
Today is the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas. </div>
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A lot of people seem to think that the twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days before Christmas. But they aren't. The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days after Christmas and end on January 6th, which is Kings Day, or epiphany. That is the day that traditionally marks the arrival of the wise men who came to worship baby Jesus. </div>
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Our first day of Christmas was spent sleeping in. Tidying up. And playing with Christmas toys. The kids spent a lot of time in their bouncy house Santa brought them. </div>
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William and I went and saw the new Star Wars movie. Of course we dressed up. </div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> I'm not actually sure when the last time I saw a movie in the theater was. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The movie was fantastic by the way. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Merry Christmas!! </span></div>
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Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-47127889382399830312015-12-25T23:36:00.001-06:002015-12-25T23:36:26.001-06:0025 Days of Ornaments: Day 25<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDM75PastOgKkheCzdjIQ-wjQjcMOwQ0AwyQSkhlfloFGpCv5j4DLibQ-ZF4_bfKQjj5L8_t8g79xgMAf1hLdT6WaOmhNODDwIpML2vHThdpVnFU-1AVcXq1swR5MVJakT8FyvJi5NVnP8/s640/blogger-image--380916240.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDM75PastOgKkheCzdjIQ-wjQjcMOwQ0AwyQSkhlfloFGpCv5j4DLibQ-ZF4_bfKQjj5L8_t8g79xgMAf1hLdT6WaOmhNODDwIpML2vHThdpVnFU-1AVcXq1swR5MVJakT8FyvJi5NVnP8/s640/blogger-image--380916240.jpg"></a></div><br></div></div></div><div>Merry Christmas every one. I hope your day was filled with love and peace and lots of sweets. </div><div><br></div><div>It was so fun going though all of our ornaments and sharing their special stories. I realized last night that I could do another 25 days and share completely different ornaments. We have a lot of ornaments! </div><div><br></div><div>This last one I wanted to share isn't actually an ornament. It's a Christmas snow globe decoration. But it is still very special. </div><div><br></div><div>It was purchased years ago for a family friend but when we got it home it was so pretty that we fell in love with it and decided to keep it. </div><div><br></div><div>Another gift was purchased and sent but I have no idea what it was. I just remember this one. </div><div><br></div><div>This is such a pretty globe that we often leave it out all year long. And when ever we see it we think of the friend it was originally purchased for and it makes me smile. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-81990133429251881622015-12-24T23:55:00.001-06:002015-12-24T23:55:05.772-06:0025 Days of Ornaments: Day 24<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJ6W3BiWD-95ed2-Vn2GPA4AfY5Q_BwCDb5XCtZBZ3rnCP0N-2OFu8IvWDptzFpm_rxHXg3b6jlqsJZr4BR2s_SpcYLWmknviZwTI5CwQ3Pz57-BM1nFrR6p2uqzUqadrfTL1kVmnskjW/s640/blogger-image-1817254960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJ6W3BiWD-95ed2-Vn2GPA4AfY5Q_BwCDb5XCtZBZ3rnCP0N-2OFu8IvWDptzFpm_rxHXg3b6jlqsJZr4BR2s_SpcYLWmknviZwTI5CwQ3Pz57-BM1nFrR6p2uqzUqadrfTL1kVmnskjW/s640/blogger-image-1817254960.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>William and I bought this as a gift to ourselves on our anniversary this year (we went Christmas shopping on our anniversary in November). </div><div><br></div><div>We bought this to put on our first Christmas tree in our first house as a reminder of what we want for our little home. </div><div><br></div><div>We want our home to filled with love and joy. For it to be a peaceful place for all those who visit. We want to model ourselves after the Holy Family as best we can. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1940742166792054225.post-12143572124175430662015-12-23T22:37:00.001-06:002015-12-23T22:37:29.993-06:0025 Days of Ornaments: Day 23<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeBkykLlN0CKS2W2Nw_V2Dr3a2k7ieS2Qw1RM5xEyc3VbQwM_qZDsS9fDvYLMtkUTLFx_Lw6agD8J3ElTahX5llzVkUozNHIpDVW0urVG5GKJTAEVfjQlYjK-cke8h529EmExRv0FGHsL/s640/blogger-image--791342726.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieeBkykLlN0CKS2W2Nw_V2Dr3a2k7ieS2Qw1RM5xEyc3VbQwM_qZDsS9fDvYLMtkUTLFx_Lw6agD8J3ElTahX5llzVkUozNHIpDVW0urVG5GKJTAEVfjQlYjK-cke8h529EmExRv0FGHsL/s640/blogger-image--791342726.jpg"></a></div>Merry Christmas Eve Eve. </div><div>This lovely ornament was given to us in 2012. That was the year we became Catholic and my friend who was also a teacher in the adult Catholic education class gave it to us. </div><div>That was our first Catholic Christmas. </div>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17758341914542426321noreply@blogger.com0