Celebrating Advent

Of all the gifts I've ever received in my life... there is only one gift that is worth mentioning.  The gift of a baby boy -- Mary's son, Jesus.  Who in their right mind would ever, ever, ever, ever let their child go, give up their precious cargo?  To anyone?  For any amount of money?  For any reason at all?  And then to let him be tortured and killed by cruel, merciless men, while I stood by and watched and got my heart ripped out from inside of me?  All for what?  To restore fallen people back to me?  I would never.  Who would ever!  No sane person would ever, ever do such a thing.  In a hundred thousand, trillion years.

But there was someone who did. God did.

There are no words to capture this phenomenon.  There is nothing else newsworthy in all of history in comparison to SUCH sacrifice... sacrifice born from Love, a divine Love I don't think I'll ever understand on this side of heaven.  I am humbled, grateful, moved to tears when I remember, remember what this season is all about.  Forget the decorating.  The cookies, the snowflakes I'm going to hang soon, the tree that will be lit for a few weeks... but oh let me just remember His goodness.  His unending goodness that has showered me with the gift of life, the gift of second chances, the gift of mercy, the gift of grace....

a new playhut

playhut fun!

and new glasses for big girl..

having a blast with her cousin ava...pics to come later!

pushing carts

we had a super fun morning hanging out a rio today... me, the huzz, and little girl (while emilie was in school).  oh the gorgeous weather!  coffee @ B&N, pier one, target, kohl's... so much fun to just stroll around and buy stuff (which RARELY happens)...  and this little pic?  on our way back to the car with a shopping cart full of stuff.  little girl just HAD to push the cart by herself.  she ALWAYS has to push it!  it is so crazy and funny that this 26 pound girl and actually push the cart down the sidewalk.  she is a beast!!  lol  

moonsand!

i picked up this moonsand set on freecycle the other day.  and i must say, it's pretty darn cool!  super messy but it kept this girl QUIET for 30 minutes straight, which almost never happens.  ;)  the top velcros over and then again in half, all nice and neat with handles, like a briefcase.  i haven't let eliz use it, though.  i know, mean mommy.  she'd be flinging handfuls all over my wooden floor.  so it only comes out when eliz is napping!  lol

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

so my sweet little neice ava is coming to town in a few weeks, all the way from tyler, texas -- a reunion that happens only once a year, unfortunately!  so this year, we're planning on taking pics with just the 3 girls.  i thought it'd be fun if they all wore the same cheesy turkey shirts! 

this is my first time working with fusible interfacing and i messed it up a whole bunch of times!  argh.  never mind that i didn't finish the edges or give the turkey feet.  but i think they turned out ok, whatdayathink?  jo, if you're reading this, the middle shirt above is ava's.  :)

(the tutorial can be found here: http://www.thecottagehome.blogspot.com/ )

anyhoo i think i'm turkey-d out this year already, lol!



cloth napkins??

toying with the idea of cloth napkins... eco-friendly for sure but... do i really want to do more laundry than i already have to do (and don't keep up with very well)???  lol

on another note, emilie missed school today because her sorry momma couldn't get up in time.  sigh.  the alarm went off at 8, and emilie and i just promptly lay back down and slept until 9:15am.  oopsies.  i guess one week of no sleep is finally catching up to me (broken heater, eliz cutting her 2 yr molars, etc etc).  it's all good though.  we had fun at home - did "school" - practiced spelling colors, did art work, and worked on her cutting skills.  she finally held scissors the right way and made some cuts in paper!  who-hoo.  it's neat to see the kids learn and grow skills they didn't have just months before.

and how amazing, little eliz actually took a nap TWO days in a row.  what a miracle!  

26.2 on hallow's eve

i'm so proud of my husband for running the marine corps marathon.  it was almost a year ago when he asked me for christmas, if he could run this race, and the day has finally come.  i went down to rosslyn to meet him and the crowds were impressive!  i knew there'd be a lot of people but i just didn't think we wouldn't be able to get back on the metro to go home because of volume of people!  we ended up taking the bus to dupont circle and then back on the red line home....

understandably, jee was too tired to join us at our church's fall festival - so we had to go alone... ah well.  i went dressed up as the huzz... bowtie, big glasses, and running bib and all - LOL.   he thought it was funny too.  :)  the girls were princesses and were just so darn cute!!  :)

 test run before the parade at school...

she was a little cold that morning!

with her preschool class!  the kids were all so cute!  and yes, that's her crazy teacher in the back (but very nice!)

pooped out at our church's fall festival!

and last but not least, my husband outfit!  never mind that i look preggers in his shirt... (which i'm NOT!)... lol

and you can't really tell in the pic either - but my hair is permed.  so sick of my flat straight hair that i got it done last sat... but it didn't take well.  :(  like, most of it is already gone... sigh.

ah well.  here's to another halloween night gone by.  and i couldn't be happier for november!