Just Another Day In Paradise

Nature Calls

 

No, no, not *THAT* sort of nature calls....but real nature! Trees, trails, and treasures! Today we ventured out into nature to do some geocaching. This fits right into our theme for the year of valuing experiences and time together as a family.

 

My dad found a neat place about a half hour's drive from our house. It's a park with lots of trails and bike paths. Scattered among them were 8 different caches and we found them all! We set out after church with the family in tow.

 

 

It was Thumper's very first geocaching adventure!

 

 

Found this cache underneath the boardwalk.....

 

 

This is the strangest tree that I've ever seen in my entire life. These huge nasty looking black things fell off of it and onto the ground. And you can't tell from the photo, but this tree had tons of spikes that were each about 3 inches long! It's called a honey locust and it's just plain weird.

 

 

 

And no, this is not excatly how the Ergo baby carrier is supposed to work. The baby is supposed to ride facing inward and not outward. But Thumper had other plans. She wanted no part of facing inward. She wanted to see exactly what was going on around her. She spent hours standing up in the carrier, facing forwards as we walked down the trails and searched out caches. And she fell asleep the exact same way. She loved every second of it and only cried out when she was hungry.

 

 

That was our Sunday afternoon adventure!

 

Celebrate.

 

I'm all about holidays. I believe that they are meant to be celebrated. Big holidays, little holidays, special events....they are all meant to be celebrated with great abandon. I want my kids to have fond memories of holidays, both big and small. We celebrate anything from learning to use the potty to learning the gender of our unborn child and everything in between.

 

Christmas is definitely one of our big celebration times. It's not just a little celebration...it's a month long, holly jolly, smile-till-your-cheeks-hurt celebration. And it's only just begun. We spread our Christmas cheer over the whole month of December.

 

First, there's the decorating.....

 

 

 

 

We spent the Saturday before Thanksgiving pulling out the decorations from the attic and setting up Christmas in our home, complete with Christmas music playing on the radio. We ended the evening with the Polar Express, one of the best Christmas movies ever.

 

There's also the parade. Driving to the nation's oldest town, catching the Christmas parade, and sight seeing in the city has become a tradition of sorts....something to kick off the Christmas season and put that warm fuzzy of joy in your heart.

 

 

 

 

He's alive!!

 

Thumper didn't have a care in the world and slept through the parade.

 

 

Is it just me or is this photo a glimpse of her teenage years?

 

 

And we can't forget the crafts. The kids were into those as soon as Thanksgiving came to a close. As of late, Boo has finally gotten into crafting. She used to dislike them, but now she's a regular crafting machine and spends as much time creating as what Stitch does.

 

 

 

 

Towards the end of this week we're having a all-out craft extravaganza....big enough to cancel school, packed full of all the crafts we can handle. There will be cardstock, paint, cookies, music, glitter, baby Jesus, and plenty of Christmas cheer. All the makings of a perfect Christmas celebration.

 

This past Saturday I attended a cookie party, planned by my mom and hosted by my grandmother. It was ladies only, sans kids. Well, two-thirds of the kids anyways. Everyone made cookies and brought a certain amount to share. We all went home with a plethora of different cookies. I brought scrumptious chocolate chip cookies. Dying to know my secret recipe? Here it is.....drive to Super Target. Walk into the bakery. Pick up container of Nestle Toll House cookies. Pay at register. Leave store. Best. Cookies. Ever.

 

 

 

The cookie party went over well. We did lunch and also had an ornament exchange while we were there. We had a good group of about 15 people.

 

 

 

 Of course, Hermie has been busy with his usual antics this month....wreaking some havoc in the Incredible household. Let's see, he arrived nice and calm on the morning of December 1st, but since then, he's had some defining moments. Those moments usually end with a nice big mess that I have to clean up.

 

So far, up until this 12th day of December, Hermie has managed to.....

 

Use crepe paper to block the playroom.....

 

fall under the weather.....

 

show off his sledding skills....

 

drag toilet paper throughout the house.....

 

get into Thumpers diapers....

 

leave an ornament of himself on the Christmas tree....

 

try to disguise himself as one of the girls.....

 

set up a zoo for the kids animals (Stitch informed me that this was his best yet)....

 

play Rudolph and Angry Bird at Dogopoly....

 

leave the girls a gift.....

 

 

and make it look like the sock basket exploded in the living room (there were socks on the TV, the Christmas tree, photos, and even the ceiling fan).

 

 

Hermie sure has been busy! And the girls have been faithfully opening one of the books that he left each and every morning.

 

Hermie seems to be a little puzzled about this new kid he discovered in the house....

 

 

The girls also finished decorating their own little Christmas tree with miniature ornaments.

 

 

And what's Thumper been doing during these Christmas celebrations? Well, she's been working on her neck mucles.....

 

 

And just being her regular, cute little self.

 

 

Happy December everyone. I hope that you celebrate Christmas with great abandon!