Thanksgiving 2014

We honestly didn't do a lot leading up to Thanksgiving this year. Zero crafts at home! (I did one cool counting game with corn...but that's not a craft!) They made some at Super Saturday at the library and I loved the turkey Lorelei did with water color paint at school. From what I gathered, the teacher talked them through drawing the turkey (maybe started with the circle in the middle?) and then they painted it. Just love it. She also made pilgrims out of paper plates that she was very proud of.

Working hard counting corn for preschool!

We did continue our tradition of our thankful tree, which was up in the hallway this year. The kids told me what they were thankful for and then drew it on the leaf. Lorelei was doing a great job sounding out the words and writing them as they sounded. It was the first time she has done this much, so that was really fun to see. The night we made them, we then read over our whole tree in the hall after it was put up, per the kids request. I was glad they were so excited for it. :)

The "thankful for" items included... (next year I need to do a better job keeping track of who said what, but I think I remembered most of them correctly)

Lorelei: Dad and Mom, the library, books, candy corn, a dog, Makin, markers, candles, dance, 1C, school, cup, food

Makin: Mommy, Daddy, candy, cream of wheat, Lorelei, tow trucks, raisins and grapes, cupcakes, remotes, 1C, race tracks

We headed to the Oklahoma panhandle to celebrate this year. I realized this is the first time in our 9 years of marriage we were not home for Thanksgiving! It was great to see my family. :)

Bits of fun around the farm included...

A close-up view of the cattle because Papa made sure to put the hay-bales in the pasture right behind the house.

Lots of games (especially with Uncle AJ,  favorites were Mickey Mouse Yahtzee and Dinosaur Matching.), hot wheels and marble works. 

This was our first time back since my parents had added many gems fom my grandparent's house to their own house. This included a lucky cricket, which is supposed to stay on the mantle and bring you luck. Makin loved drinking out of the Little Foot cup. (Not from my grandparent's house, just cups mom saved, thank goodness!) These cups have so many memories from my childhood! Loved seeing my kids using them.

Sunrises with Aunt Heather on the back steps. What a view. :) 

You can see Makin's head peaking out from under the blanket.

Our Thanksgiving lunch was just our family and we all enjoyed it. Mom always goes all out, not only with the food, but also the table settings. :) Also just had to make sure to show Makin with his disgruntled look in case you think he is perfect. :) Lorelei loved having sparkling apple cider for our celebration.

What is this thing?

Couldn't resist that caption! :) We decorated for Christmas the day after, and the kids enjoyed checking out the record player and listening to Nana's old records. Muppets 12 Days of Christmas has great memories for me!

Love this one!!!

We celebrated an early Christmas on Saturday.

After family pictures for my parent's Christmas card. ;) 

This little boy was waiting all morning to open presents, so when he finally got the ok, he zipped through them so fast we could barely watch! Lorelei was actually sick part of Fri and Sat, so she had minimal reactions and I didn't get any pictures of her opening presents. Brad did catch her bug on the way home, which made for a long drive, but that's just the way it goes sometimes!

So thankful for a wonderful family!

Thanks for having us!

Surprise Day...Disney On Ice!

On Saturday we had our first Surprise Day in the Stahl house. We woke the kids up telling them it was Surprise Day and that we had a special scavenger hunt planned for them to find out what the surprise was.

(Brad and I were super excited to get tickets to Disney On Ice. The entire month we made sure to pick Disney movies for family movie nights and also checked out lots of Disney books at the library, so that the kids were more familiar with the characters. The movies featured were Cars, The Little Mermaid, Tinkerbell and Toy Story.)

Working out the surprise was lots of fun. We did a scavenger hunt to get the tickets, with each step of the hunt involving prep for our leaving. The first clue's answer was Lightening McQueen which led them to their clothes, so they had to get dressed before we did the second clue. The second answer was Tinkerbell, and we had baggies under Lorelei's Tink doll to put their special breakfast into for the drive. The third answer was Woody's cowboy hat and we had the car keys under the hat. Then the last answer was a fork, so they found the tickets in the fork drawer. (Disclaimer: our actual tickets were ugly and had to have the full page of paper printed, so my amazing husband quickly photo-shopped some cute tickets for the kids. :) So thankful for his talents!)

Two kids excited to see the show! :)

I got a few short clips of video just to help us remember (and in case you want a glimpse at what we saw) and for some reason did not get one from the Tinkerbell part! (I didn't want to spend the entire show videoing rather than enjoying it. But very hard to get any good pictures since they are moving so quickly!) They were all AMAZING!!! We all really enjoyed it and had a hard time deciding what our favorite part was! The day was a success! :) 

First Snow

We had a Saturday where the snow fell all day long. The kids were ecstatic. I was pretty excited it finally snowed when there were decent temps outside so they could enjoy it! I took the morning shift. We walked around the yard and then down the block to the playground. Slides are extra fun with snow and snow pants to make them faster. :) Brad took the afternoon shift and took them sledding right behind our house at the catholic school where there is a small hill. And yes, it was still snowing!

There were a couple of days where it was too cold to enjoy it, but then it warmed back up enough (highs around the 30s...) so we headed out Tuesday after lunch to sled at the park. This was a bigger hill and the kids really loved it. What an amazing difference a couple of years makes with Makin. Two winters ago we were bribing him with a cookie to go down a hill. Now he went again and again and just laughed and giggled and tried to go faster so he could get his sled the furthest. :) These two worked very hard going up and down the hill for lots of sledding.

And yes, I was wearing a hat but looked goofy. ;)

Monday they made some snow creations at the park. Lorelei has been loving having snow pants and boots at recess and her best part of the day is often playing at recess in the snow with her friends.

Please keep up warmer temps! You make snow so much more fun!

(Cuz I know Mother Nature reads my blog. ;) )

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

We were excited to see Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of days. They were enjoying a trip to Lincoln and then headed up to our place just in time to see the kids sing in church Sunday morning. The kids were elated to see them. They enjoyed a fun time swimming at the hotel both Sunday and Monday evenings. (I opted out of swimming as it was so cold last time and when there is snow outside a cold pool just does not sound good. The other three adults braved the chilly pool for the kiddos and I enjoyed a little time in the warm pool room to read a book and of course take a few pics and videos. :) ) Grandma and Grandpa also like to give me time off in the kitchen and spoiled us going out to eat, including an after-school trip to McDonalds after getting a quick tour of Lorelei's classroom. :) The kids also enjoyed some playtime and, of course, books with Grandma. Thanks for a fun visit!

This was their first time in a big pool since all the hours they spent swimming this summer and it was fun to see how much more confident Lorelei was in her swimming. She went across the entire pool several times as long as their was an adult near her. She put her floatie on when she wanted to jump in, and that was even exciting because she has always been to scared to jump. :)

Dance

As most of you know, we have been deliberating what activity Lorelei would enjoy participating in. She is really open to trying anything, which has made it hard for me to narrow down what I think she would love. For the most part, I was fine just not putting her in much until she was sure of what she wanted! But part of me also thought, well, how will she find out if she doesn't try some things?

I have not really leaned toward dance for many reasons. Expensive, pressure for girls to be/look a certain way, and not sure Lorelei was really that graceful or into that sort of thing. Then we were presented with a seemingly unique opportunity. Dawn (friend from church who home-schools) mentioned on the way back from the zoo this summer that there is a home-school mom who teaches dance. After I told her my reservations with it, she pointed out the reasons she likes this particular teacher. She is conservative in dress and music choices. The girls wear only black leotards and pink tights for practice. (From what I can tell, other classes you can wear whatever colors you want, then putting the pressure on parents/kids to keep up with the Jones' and buy a leotard in every color...) Then they only have one special outfit for their recital, which this instructor is very careful about choosing because, being a home-school mom herself, does not believe in spending a lot of money on a costume for the recital. Plus, her class is extremely reasonably priced and we only commit to a 6 week session. There is another 6 week session starting back up in January, if it is something Lorelei chooses to continue. All that, PLUS Lorelei fit in Ellorie's old tap shoes so we only had to buy ballet shoes. :) AND it is Friday afternoons, so it will not eat into our evening time whatsoever. So, we decided if Lorelei were going to try dance, this was THE perfect opportunity.

Perhaps none of you care and just want to see Lorelei and how cute she looks for her dance class, so I apologize for the explanation. :)

Far right... :)

My concerns were quickly quieted after her first class. I asked her how she liked it and she said with a smile and whisper, "I loved it." I tried not to spy too much on her first class, but peeked a bit more during her second. She had her eyes glued on her teacher and was trying her best on all of the "moves" she was being taught. And so far, she still loves it. As I watched I started thinking of how she tends to be more right brained (artsy and creative) so it would make sense she would enjoy dance in that way. She is also getting more and more into music so I think she loves that part of it as well. We shall see how long she enjoys it, but she is having a great time! :)

Halloween 2014

We had a fun time celebrating Halloween.

Brad had quite a bit of stress leading up to it, as he was in charge of Makin's costume. Back around June I started asking the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween (don't act like that surprises you...you know I'm that much of a planner) and Makin had a very specific request. "A race car with a string you can pull to open the trunk to put the candy in."  Further details included, black with green stripes and a green spoiler. (The kid loves spoilers.) Later he added that he wanted it to have eyes and a mouth like Lightening McQueen, but not be LM...so this is what his dad came up with! We kept with our budget of under $30, but if you count his hourly rate...well, we would rather not do that math. :) It was all worth it to see how happy he was and how much he beamed when everyone would compliment his costume. He loved surprising people when they didn't know where to give him candy. We even got a few "come look at this!" moments trick or treating. :)

Here is a video...

We took pictures the day before Halloween, knowing a cold front was coming in. We were pretty chilly for pictures because it was already arriving!

Lorelei was thrilled to be Elsa. And oh yes, I finally learned to french braid just for this magical moment!!! She loved dressing up and cherishes her dress, which is still hanging specially in her closet so it will not get damaged. You can tell she always feels special when she wears it. I loved how the blue made her eyes pop. :)

While I was taking pictures of Makin she loved getting in pretend mode and imagining she was going up the mountain just like Elsa. :)

Our happy boy in his car costume. :)

Brad was in charge of carving and I was in charge of cleaning and baking pumpkin seeds, as usual! One change this year, though, was that both kids helped cut out part of the faces! :) They did help me clean out some of the pulp and seeds too. I chuckled at Makin while he was scooping out the pulp and said "these are our sins right?" :) 

That morning, Makin and I joined the MOPS group and went on a Halloween parade at two nursing homes. He really enjoyed it!

1C always has a Trunk Or Treat, so we joined the masses (900 people total, not in front of us!) and enjoyed seeing people from church and check out their fun decorations. :)

After that, we did stop by the few houses on our block that had lights on, but it was very cold so we did minimal trick or treating. Drue did stop by so they could see each other's costumes. :)

I liked this post on FB about Halloween from Natalie Grant...not that any of you need convincing but this way I can go back and read it again if I want! :) 

I've dealt with plenty of negative comments on facebook. I've got pretty thick skin and I know who I am in Christ. But sometimes it still gets to me. However, I figured I might as well get this topic out of the way. 
I've had many people over the years ask me if I "celebrate" Halloween. I don't celebrate evil. Or darkness. Or witches, ghosts and goblins. But I DO celebrate kids. And princesses. And fairies. And candy. Lots and lots of candy. And neighbors. And community. As children of the Light, why in the world would we hide in our houses on what is considered a "dark" day? And what other day of the year does your entire neighborhood show up at your doorstep? What good does it do to make sure all of the lights are out, trying to make a "stand" for righteousness while the neighbors turn and walk away? No - as a Jesus follower I will open my door wide, greet everyone with a smile and hand out the best candy possible. You don't have to agree with me. That's totally ok. We still both belong to Christ. Oh, and I forgot one other thing I celebrate...freedom in Christ WITHOUT the yoke of legalism. Let the candy collecting begin.

PS - read Romans 14 xoxo

Hope you all had fun celebrating!