Tis the season for Joy!

After my post the other day I wanted to share with you some joyful things going on around here.

The sun rises later around here.  Usually in the seven o'clock hour.  Because of that I do sometimes get to see the sun rise.  One morning I caught a particularly beautiful sunrise

While my Mother-in-law was visiting we found this cute little shop and this sign in it.  She bought it for me and now I proudly display it in my laundry room! According to the sign I should make about 3-5k a week!

My Aunt put Rolos on the table this year for Thanksgiving and she also put a peppermint patty on each place setting.  We all had finished eating our meal and gotten up.  Soon after I realized Cody was no where to be found.  I came into the dining room and saw him with a few Rolo wrapper remnants near him on the table.  He looked at me like I scared him and caught him in the act - I DID!  He was sneaking Rolos.  Luckily I caught him before I had a repeat of what child #1 did with chocolate.  When Corbin (child #1) was two and a half he got into the two candy advent calendars we had and ate about 16 pieces of chocolate in one sitting.  He did that after he took a bite out of each cookie on a plate that our neighbor had delivered the day before.  I definitely caught him!

Cody at the table:

Corbin at two years old feeling sick after eating too much chocolate! You can see the remnants on his face and the floor.

We have been enjoying having Steve home. He has been spending special time with the boys.  He took the time to help Corbin build a windmill with scrap wood he had leftover from building shelves in the garage.  Corbin got to paint it himself and they worked together on building it.  It really works!  It was cool too because the day after they finished it was a really windy day so we got to see it in action.

Since it is starting to become a bit wintry around here. I wanted to do a snowman craft with the kiddos.  Cody had never gotten to paint before.  This was his first time.  I was really impressed with how careful he was.  He didn't make a mess at all.  I just had to keep telling him to stop painting the background for the snowman black!  For some reason he liked black the best.  We all made snowmen.  Bet you can't tell who's is whose?

We started advent the first Sunday after Thanksgiving.  This has been a tradition that our family loves.  The boys have to take turns lighting the candles and blowing them out now.  It is really cute.  We updated our wreath too.  It doesn't have as much character as our first one but I like it because it is smaller and fits on our table better.

Each year I surprise the kids with an ornament that represents something in the year for them.  Corbin kept hounding me about when he was going to get his ornament this year!   It will be nice though because when they grow up they will have their own ornament box to take and decorate their own tree with.  Ornaments with sentimental memories are fun!

I got Corbin a Winnie the Pooh/Eeyore "Where's my tail?" ornament because we had watched the movie recently and I hadn't heard Corbin laugh so hard in a long time he loved the newest Pooh movie.  I got Cody a Curious George reading one because he likes to go into Corbin's room and take all his Curious George books down and read them all. Naughty little Monkey!

We always make a big deal about choosing and decorating our Christmas tree.  I usually make hot chocolate or hot apple cider and put Christmas music on and get all the ornaments out. It is a special honor to be able put the angel on the tree once the tree is all decorated.  Usually Corbin does it but this year it was Cody's first turn. Poor Cody.... he tried but just couldn't do it.  The picture below it right before he DROPPED the angel and broke her wings off!  AGGGHH!!  Thankfully Steve fixed her wings.  We later let Corbin have his turn again and he did it successfully.  Maybe next year Cody?

We have to bundle up around here.  When we go out we always have to put on jackets, gloves, and beanies.  The problem with beanies is that the boys always get "beanie hair."

I thought I would leave you with another spectacular sunset.  We get a lot of them around here!  Oh and also I hope you'll like my favorite Christmas song: Breath of Heaven.