Elf on the Shelf

 

 A little Elf came to visit us this year!!
The story goes that she comes to visit a family for the year and reports back to Santa the goings-on each day.  She isn't to be touched... 
At night she tries out the human world...getting into all kinds of mischief.
On Christmas Eve she heads back to the north Pole for the next 340 days. 
A promise to return the following year keeps her magic hopeful.

A friend of mine and I talked about whether or not we would get an Elf this year.
$25 seemed sorta steep for a toy, but it's a one-time purchase.
I really wanted to start a new tradition.
And she's cute.
Plus, I got tickled pink at the thought of all the things "she" could get into. 
.........Turns out 25 days is a long time. 
Late night scrambling to find something for Effie to do often didn't seem worth the trouble.
But by golly, Cale LOVED it. 
The imagination and wonder of a child.  It's so spectacular. 
He whole-heartily believe that she was real.  That she had an 'in' with Santa. 
Cale really was the only one who noticed her.  He played hot and cold with Pop-Pop every morning to find her.  I missed out on the early morning scavenger hunt, but enjoyed being behind the scenes.

We named our Elf, Effie. (Thank you, Hunger Games.)
I picked a girl, a brown girl - to represent the minorities in this household.
Above are just a few of the pictures of things we caught her doing.
Next year I may take a note from other Elf families and fill out a calendar of ideas and stick to them.  This way we aren't scrambling at midnight - or even worse - 4 am when I realize she hasn't moved since the previous day....

The magic!  The wonder!
...the creativity from momma (and lets face it - Pinterest) :)

Santa Parade and Fireworks

To kick start December we went out as a big family!!  Nana and Pop-Pop included -we loaded up 9 people see what we thought would be a fun Christmas time parade.  Meh.
BUUUT...the fireworks were great.
Well worth the wait.
We parked near Daddy's new workplace and took 2 strollers - double and single to find a good spot. Sometimes it's hard to maneuver strollers and children, but we were glad to have them as seats for tired legs. ...I can't tell you how many times I've thought of plopping myself in a stroller over the past few years....  I stop when I envisioning it breaking upon impact.
Ha.
The parade wasn't really anything great.  Just ho hum.
...Even Mr. Ho Ho Himself wasn't seen until the end.  And he was parading on top of a loud firetruck.
Where's the candy, big man?
...there were some entertainers that passed out candy, but most could not calculate correctly.  We'd get one tiny peice of candy thrown our way.
Thanks....but it's easier for us just not to have anything at all than for my 4 sugar addicts to decide who should be the one to get it......

A good mom is always prepared though, so you know I had a purse-full o' snacks.  I passed them out and we passed the time until the finale.
THE FIREWORKS!
Oh, fireworks...I had forgotten how much I love you.
And how the KIDS loved you!
It had literally been years since I had seen them....pre-Cale most likely.  So....7 years, at least.
Everyone oohed and aaahhhed appropriately except for Megersa.
He was cold.  Honestly MOST the time that kid is in a great, if not super-hyper mode, but NOT when he's cold.  I swear he turns into a blob of unconscionable tears.
He had donned rain boots on instead of snow boots.  (I have since come to realize the rubber keeps out the water, but brings IN the cold, so I can't blame him entirely.  I just didn't cry.  ...cuz I'm a big girl! ;))

I always enjoy experiencing things through my children's eyes.
It's something I said to a girlfriend of mine the other day - you can never really explain the joy that comes with raising kids to someone who doesn't have kids.
...I'm not trying to hop on a soapbox or anything: Please, reproduce at your own risk. 
But can I just say that love for a child cannot be matched ANYWHERE.
Believe it.

HERE'S TO A GREAT START OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!!

(*sad above picture of the fireworks does not depict the beauty and wonder of the actual ones.*)

Thanksgiving

Thanks.  And giving.

Giving Thanks.

Sometimes God requires you to give more than you think you have.
This Thanksgiving He has required the most of me.
While I normally would fight it, and still sometimes find myself trying to 'put up my dukes' I am always always much happier to please Him.

The relationship of God as our Father has become more real to me since having children.
Real in that I realize how childlike I still am.
Hey Dad, would you mind coming with me here?  Could you tell me what to do about this situation?  I need help with this Dad.....
Please. Please.
Thank you. Thank you.

Oh yes, we CAN do things without any help from anyone.  BUT not everything.  And certainly not as best they can be done. 
We need instruction.
We need correction.
We need discipline.
We need love.

And we need to be thankful for it all.

9 years and 5 kids later

 God has blessed us abundantly.

November 5

5 has always been my favorite number.
I always chose to be #5 for any sport.
I have 5 kids...
I even like the look of the actual number.  Big round belly, nice little cap on top.
It's cool.

So when I got Megersa's referral on November the 5th, 2009, I just thought that was something extra special.

His little face has been in our heads and hearts for 4 years now.
He's a fabulous kid.
His 4 year old little self is still pushing all the buttons that a preschooler does...he's still trying the lying thing even though I feel like he MUST know he's not good at it.

But he is loving.  Especially with baby Neve. All my boys love their sister, but Megersa is the first to want to crawl around and play with her.  He gives lots of hugs and likes to dance with this hilarious booty pop. (I really should get a video of it.)
Constantly asking us questions about animals - specific to "which runs faster and why."
Challenging our sanity as all of our children do, and expanding our hearts in love.

Here's to your referral day, Seka!! :)
LOVE YOU LITTLE MAN!

Fall 2009:

 

Fall 2013:

Shepherd Pie

This kid.
Oh man.  He is by far our funniest kid.
So creative...so carefree...
Rarely influenced by anyone else.
He will be a leader someday, I am sure of it.
....starting with his fashion trends:

Halloween 2013

First themed Halloween.
Mario Brothers.

Halloween actual day got rained out so we did some trick or treating Nov 1.
Doesn't matter...candy is candy, right? :)


Here's our cast of characters:
Cale as Yoshi (note: this is not an actual Yoshi costume, but Cale didn't know, and I got it for $2 at the end of the previous season) -
This kid really gets Halloween.  He was pumped to get going... was a little impatient waiting for his little brothers who lagged behind, but overall was just in his element.  He waved at his friends and was showing everyone his loot.
He's a great kid.
...so old looking!


Megersa as Toad - 

Megersa did a fabulous job keeping that big poofy hat on.  I give him a lot of credit.  Just minutes before we took off on the 1.5 mile neighborhood trek he fell down and scraped up his knees and forehead (can't see it here...it wasn't terrible).  But he sucked it up in the name of CANDY!  He did pretty well obeying and staying close and walking the entire way.  He makes a cute toadstool, huh?!




Thad as Luigi -
As Thad's 2nd walking Halloween he did a great job.  Kept his costume on the entire time and really did well with obeying when he could and could not eat a peice of candy.
I'm glad we brought the stroller and the ERGO because the littles needed time being strolled or carried.  Truth be told, both twins got more recognition than any of the others and man, they were eating it up. :) 




Sheppy as Mario -

As always, Shepherd deems things worthy of himself.  Even though he announced to many passerbys "I Mario!"  He didn't even notice that he was technically the top dog of this crew.  At least didn't brag about it.  Which is probably the best choice costume for him.  He is cute to the max, but what a slow lil buggar.  Haha.  He rode on Daddy's shoulders quite a bit of the way, and took a few stroller rides.  Happy to get up for more candy, but when he was done, he was more than willing to take a ride while he tried to entice anyone to "open more tanie."

Neve as Boo - I'm not entirely sure there was really anyone who noticed she was technically part of the Mario gang, but she participated! I snuck her bites of candy from the ones I snagged and she happily chomped on the cookies that were passed out from Subway.  She was in great spirits being carried or pushed through the town.  Towards the end it got a bit cold so I kept her bundled (plus, she was super messy anyway).  Happy girl participating!  Next year I'm sure I'll invest more in her costume.  Well...at least more than a white hat that was drawn on. :)  

 

And there's the whole gang together -
What a great looking bunch right?!







And a few more candids: