A Merry Christmas!

I should go to bed, but here I sit listening to the rain and storm. What a weird December. It's been raining since the early hours this morning. We've had a steady flow of water running through our basement all day long. I keep praying it doesn't get worse than it is, and keep going down to check, even though I don't know what I would do if it got worse anyway. As I type, the rain is POURING down. This is insane!

Yesterday was such a fun day to celebrate with the boys!

Christmas Eve we ended our Advent calendar with a big list of traditional activities. Christmas Eve was rough though. Daniel was not in the mood to obey. He and I had a throw down about rest time, which ended in me waking Jacob up from his nap to deal with it, while I went to the basement to wrap their Christmas Eve jammies and have a little cry.

We did a living room picnic for lunch, and ate junk food while watching Elf. Sometimes I don't know why my expectations are so high. I know that Daniel rarely can sit through a movie, but the kid was bouncing off the walls. Then came the rest time meltdown. He ate supper well though because he was excited to go see Christmas at the Park! That was really fun this year because he noticed a lot of the lights and pointed things out. James sat and cheerfully chatted the whole way though. We came home and unwrapped jammies. It was the first (of many) years of matching jammies, I'm sure!



Then we watched Charlie Brown...which ended up another bust. He claimed he was watching, but he more or less ran around the living room like a maniac.

He was so tired and I knew it. He was asleep by 7:15 and James was down by 7:45. Santa showed up early...although I was a little nervous Daniel would wake up and wander into the living room before I went to bed!

I ended up waking up at 3:30 with James and never falling back to sleep. My mind wouldn't shut off and then I was excited for the boys to wake up! I had told Daniel he could come in and get us at 7:15. LOL! At 5 I was willing him to wake up! Just before 7, I heard his bedroom door and greeted him. He wanted to see if Santa came! Not long after we were opening gifts. We did stockings first , then breakfast and then presents.

James latched onto Mickey and a Bubble Guppies bath toy from his. And decided socks were the dumbest gift ever.



Daniel seemed to love just about everything he pulled out of his stockings. We've never given the impression that Santa does stockings. He even helped pick out stocking stuffers for Jacob and I. But he was so funny! "Santa filled our stockings!" "Santa got this police car at WalMart! I've seen it there before!"



Presents were such a hit this year! Jacob did the unwrapping for James because that boy has zero interest other than eating the paper! He examined almost all of his gifts though. I think his 2 favorites were his mini Mickey Mouse piano from Aunt Erica and his BeatBo from Mimi and Pa. The kid was cracking up at that thing!





Daniel loved each of his gifts as well. I loved hearing his exclamations as he opened each one. I think his 2 big hits were Gears and a cookie baking set. We've played each many times!





Santa also brought all 3 things he asked for: a doll, a book and a shark.

All in all a great day, and I even got to nap in the midst of all the playing.

This morning Daniel and I played gears and cookies again. Then he and I went to Springfield to go shopping. He was a trooper through the rain with me and was so good. I really didn't want today to end because he was SO good. Like, the best day ever, and I'm sad knowing that it won't last! Haha! He hugged me so hard tonight and told me he had so much fun with me. It makes all of the hard days worth it!

The Power Of Prayer

I was just going to post a Facebook status about this, but I decided it deserved its own post. I'm still in awe of this little conversation that I had with Daniel tonight.

I'll back up a little first.

When I started taking the boys to church at the beginning of August, it was a struggle for Daniel. Why? Because in his life he had only been to church for about 6 months as a baby. It was a struggle with myself. I was tired of feeling burned out or getting burned by church. We weren't feeling it at the church we attended for awhile when Daniel was little, and so we quit. I won't lie. It was kind of nice for quite awhile. I spent my whole life going to church on Sunday morning. I liked getting up and not worrying about having some place to be. Eventually though, the guilt started to creep in. That guilt was God nudging me over and over. I ignored, over and over.

Finally, I starting actually wanting to find a church, but there's the struggle of actually going. It's really hard to walking into a new place where everyone knows everyone, and you're the stranger. You don't know your surroundings and you've got to figure out how things work. I put it off more, but finally I was ready. I chose Calvary because I just felt drawn to it. I heard good things from other people all the time.

Jacob wasn't ready for the whole church thing, so I left the boys home the first Sunday I went so I could scope things out. No need to worry about child care when I might not even go back!

I walked across the parking lot, and was immediately greeted by 2 friendly faces. I walked upstairs and was greeted again and handed a bulletin. I went in the auditorium and found a seat a few rows from the back and on the far right side. I took in my surroundings and read my bulletin, and as I looked up, I was greeted by Pastor Steve. He took time to talk with me and introduced himself. Then he pointed out his wife, Shelley! As it turned out, I knew her from the Y! She had been the personal trainer while I worked there. She gave me a big hug (and we all know that I LOVE hugs!), and chatted a bit. The service was amazing. The music spoke to me. The message was just the right one that I needed that day. It was preached by Pastor Ryan, and was so easy to relate to. Before I left, I asked Shelley if I could see the children's area and she took me downstairs to show me. I was so impressed with their whole drop off and pick up system. They put safety first and I knew I would have no problem leaving the boys down there.

To make a long story short, I have continued to attend and just love it. James has always had an easy time. Daniel has taken time to adjust. When we started he cried and cried. He hadn't started preschool yet so this was really his first time being left somewhere (that he can remember, anyway), but when I would pick him up he'd be all smiles and tell me, "I LOVE my Calvary preschool!"

Recently, he's become hesitant of going again, and will cry at drop off. Last week was the worst. He screamed getting into the van. He screamed all the way to church. He refused to get out of his car seat. We got downstairs and they had to peel him off of me kicking, screaming and crying. He moved to a new room last week, and when I picked him up, he was happy again. He told me that night though that he still didn't want to go back there. I told him that we would pray about it each night, and so we did. At least a few nights. I think I forgot a couple. Whenever something bothers him, I always ask to pray about it and usually he agrees.

I've always been uncomfortable praying out loud, but praying with Daniel has turned into such a blessing. I don't mind praying out loud with him. In fact, I enjoy it. We pray each night before bed, and every day before he goes to preschool.

Now, to get to the whole reason behind this post.

I braced myself this morning for the tears and crying, but was still praying that all would be okay. Everything went smoothly at home. We got to church and he walked up to the lady who greeted us and told her all about his advent calendar. Then we went downstairs, checked in and off he went! Then he came back...but he just wanted a hug and then happily walked to his room.

Tonight before bed I told him how proud of him I was because he didn't cry when I dropped him off. He looked at me and said, "Do you know why? Because I heard Jesus talking to me when I was walking to my room. He said don't be scared and don't cry,"

I was floored. I said, "Wow! You heard Jesus tell you that?" He replied, "Yes, but I did not talk back to him."

Wow. Just, wow. My 4 year old heard Jesus speak to him, and was able to comprehend it and tell me about it. I think my heart was about to burst.

And as I was writing this, it made me think of how today's sermon once again matched up. It was all about prayer and what prayer can do. I'll be the first to admit, I'm full of doubt at times when I pray and don't get an answer (or the answer I want), but I witnessed an answer firsthand tonight.

Prayer works. And if you listen maybe you'll hear Jesus talking to you too.

Happy December!

Well, I didn't make it through every day in November, but 27 days was pretty good.

The boys had a great birthday celebration in Iowa. A very yummy CAT cake, and lots of fun new presents. Or "new" presents if you're James. He did get something new, but my mom also went shopping in our basement the last time they were here and wrapped a couple of Daniel's old toys! Get used to it kiddo. You're the 2nd child. Haha!







We were very thankful that Grandma was able to come over for Thanksgiving. The boys both gave her plenty of love and hugs. It makes my heart happy to see them together.





Sunday we drove home. It was a long, tiring drive, but the boys were good. Daniel even fell asleep for awhile before we stopped for lunch!

Yesterday was a bit uneventful. which is always good. Especially after having a busy long weekend. I realized though, that the advent calendar that I had been planning to make wasn't going to happen if I didn't get on it! I always get these ideas in my head, but never follow through. This is one I've wanted to do for quite awhile. Every day leading up to Christmas we'll turn a card over and we'll do something special. Either something fun as a family, or a project or an act of kindness. Today's activity was writing a letter to Santa! I had already discussed Santa with Daniel. I finally got him to visit Santa last year, but he wasn't overly thrilled. This year he has requested no Santa visit, so a letter seemed like a safe plan!



"Dear Santa,
My name is Daniel. I've been a good boy this year!
I like to read books with my Mommy.
I like to play Candy Crush and Soda Crush with my Daddy!
I like being silly with my little brother James.
For Christmas I would like:
books, a baby doll and a toy shark.
I like my preschool and church.
I'm excited for Christmas!
Love,
Daniel"

So much fun! I tried to make everything "doable" so that I don't tire out. He's already excited to see what tomorrow's is! I love this idea so much more than the Elf on the Shelf. First of all, those things creep me the heck out. Second of all, there is no way I'd want to find creative places to put that dang thing every night. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Daniel had a fun day at preschool and then we did some Aldi shopping after I picked him up. We were out of a lot of stuff! The boys were very well behaved though.

Tonight I busted out the waffle maker. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've only used it once since we got married! I even got all fancy and made them from scratch. They were pretty tasty too! I just don't have the patience to do things from scratch very often though.

I gave both boys a bath, but did them separately tonight. They have fun together, but I've felt something pinching in my back again this last week and set it off just by walking tonight. Ouch! Then after I tucked Daniel in I discovered yet another leak in our basement. So tomorrow I'll make the 3rd call to the plumber in the past 2 months. We cannot win. I can't let myself get too down, but it sure is frustrating when you don't have the money to keep flushing it away (see what I did there?).

But alas, tomorrow is a new day and supposedly my Christmas present will arrive by the end of the day tomorrow! We'll see though. The last place it was tracked was Maryland. Yay new camera though!