I love Santa! ... and some thoughts

I have heard from many friends that they are so against Santa because they say he takes away from having a Christlike Christmas. I never felt that was the case and just thinking about banishing Santa so my kids can only think of Christ made me sad. Why not have both? Sure, everything is so commercial now but I think the fun of it comes from trying to make the holiday special and non commercial; thinking up ways to avoid falling in the I WANT this and that and instead of thinking of the importance of what this holiday actually celebrates. I most definitely don't want to spoil my kids rotten and will do all in my power to live and have a Christmas with meaning.  I hope to teach them about being giving and sweet and most importantly celebrating Jesus's birth, the most important gift God gave us all.
Santa is a not a bad thing. Maybe there are people that don't believe in anything and just do Santa because that's better than doing nothing but having both didn't ever hurt anyone. (in my humble opinion of course)
Recently as I was thinking about this a friend wrote this post.
I think it's worth a read and she beautifully wrote what I too think. I am going to use her letter when it's time later on for my own kids.
I want to hear my kids' thoughts on this magical person, I want to see their excitement, I want them to live the magic. I know that in a year or two my kids will talk about staying up to catch Santa and I can't wait to hear their conversations on the subject.  If you think about it kids don't believe in Santa that long anyway so why take it away from them?  I think they will learn and understand more about Jesus when they are older.

Isn't this Santa so cute? He grows out his beard and plays Santa beautifully. He comes to our church for all the kids to see him and have their picture taken with him. I just love how Dacian was so serious about showing Santa what he wanted. I love that I captured both of them looking at the magazine. Cute!

And now shifting gears a little; a few thoughts on this special season. I am starting to stop stressing over the holidays. I always stress this time of year and I have in years past dreaded Christmas. Why? Because it became a chore, expensive, too rushed of a holiday. But as I pause to think about what we are celebrating little by little the stress dissipates and the joy comes back.
I wish we all take time to slow down and think about Christ, think about how he is the perfect example of a humble and loving person and how as son of God he was born in the most uncomfortable of places.
This season my heart turns to my best friend who lost her mom and aunt within a month of each other, who is going through a rough time and I hope that because of her belief in God she will feel comforted and most importantly feel loved. I sure do love her dearly.
Last Christmas we were not doing very well financially that I was wondering if I could afford even a nice meal for our family. Of course I didn't tell anyone about this and we did manage to have a nice, quiet evening with some good (bought well in advance thank Goodness) turkey and potatoes and more. I wasn't very happy I have to admit, mostly because I had lost perspective of what was important here; I was being jealous of what others might have had, or what great food they must've had etc. (food is one thing that makes me happy in life and I don't know how to change that since I seriously need to lose weight) Silly but that's how I felt and now I feel bad that I wasn't happier because truly life wasn't that bad. I was ungrateful but hopefully that was a lesson learned. Surely other people with less knew how to be happier, they had a much better perspective than mine was.
But seriously what I went through is nothing in comparison to what others go through. I have so much more than I truly need. This year we are doing better financially and I hope I can make someone else happier a little. Thinking more about Christ I feel so much less concerned about me and more about others.
 I read in a book recently how one family "adopted" another less fortunate one and involved their own  kids in the shopping of presents. This helped the family focus on someone else, brought them joy to think of this family they were buying for. The kids in the family also learned a lot from this experience and the focus moved to this poor family, to loving them and thinking of others more than about their own wishes.  This more unfortunate family truly was happy to receive ANYTHING. They were so grateful. The little girl in the family brought the man who gave her the fun gifts to her room to show him the tree she had in her room. She told him with delight in her voice to come look at her beautiful tree. Guess what it was? It was a string of green lights taped to the wall in the form of a tree. She was so happy and to her that was more than enough. So I sat there reading that and the waterworks came.
I want to raise kids who are grateful (a little hard to do it; seems the world revolves around them-pretty typical for their ages but I hope they don't remain like that), kind, giving, and loving. I cannot wait until they grow a little older so I can take them out shopping for others too.

(the "Santa" had a fun gathering at his house the day he lit up all the lights. It was so fun to go there and kind of have him all to ourselves since we arrived later after most people had left. This family is just so fun and amazing. We used to be in the same ward a few years back. Everything was decorated with pretty lights and he had cookies and hot drinks for everyone, they sang and the gave out some Christmas movies and had the missionaries there. Fun event for the neighbors too. I guess they do this every year. What a fun tradition!)

Well, it's pretty late so enough of my thoughts for now.
Much love,
Maddy

A post long overdue

This year's celebrations for my birthday and Lavinia's birthday were quite big. Mostly because I decided it's time for a party at our house. This year I got the flu right on my b-day and I was super sick and miserable. Two days later on Lavi's birthday she had a fever as well. So I had a birthday celebration on Sunday and we did get better by then. 

On the day of Lavi's birthday my parents came over to give her a present and also they brought the most delicious dish ever. See the picture that has a two on it? Guess what? It's Brussels sprout with chicken dish and the 2 is made out of sour cream. I was too sick to cook and I am glad they brought this over because it was heavenly. My mom got inspired from some other dish and made this kind of her own. I definitely will try to make this. Shane almost wanted to eat the whole thing himself. Anyway, kind of funny to stick a candle in a not so sweet desert like dish. 

Also here I am taking all these pictures when I realize I only have one candle in instead of two. Silly mommy. Oh well...

After food came the presents. Miss Lav was so excited to open her presents. She got this pretty dress from my parents and was super happy to exchange her totally mismatched pajamas for this princess dress. It was hard to take it off to say the least when it was time for bed. We got her a baby doll and she has been pretty attached to this baby. She has a binkie that attaches to the baby's mouth with magnets. I also love that pretty much first thing she did with that doll was to put her on the potty. Why oh why can't she do the same? Summer come fast please, I cannot wait to get rid of diapers. 

I guess this is the post of collages. I have too many I like or want to post so this is the easier way to go. We had a lovely party and was glad to have Scott, Candice and their family over and also Kim and her family. It was so much fun. We ate good food of course, mom made the butterfly cake which also was delicious and at the end we played some Minute to Win it games. I needed that. Last year being Lavinia's 1st birthday I mostly did something for her but this year I said I wanted to party and not really do a party with kids. I mean who needs a bunch of 2 year olds running around throwing tantrums every other minute? I mean my very own had a couple to embarrass me well. She was a little shocked I think at the number of people at our house.  

So what other way to celebrate that with a family and friends? Thank you all for coming and for the lovely presents. 

Here's another close up of the cake. 

And here's the TWO year old. Enough said! 

My good friend Cristina sent her this cute dress. Look at that delighted face! Thank you so much Cris. She's a much fashionable little girl. 

 And here we are playing our games. I can't wait to do more fun games like these. I liked it that even the kids got to play and had fun. 

Phew! I was dreading posting this because I had so much to say, lots of pics, editing, etc.
Now I have just a few more from Thanksgiving and our recent snow and I am all caught up.

Lavi, our princess

Ha! Lavinia is so funny. She now wants to wear a million outfits a day. She calls herself princess or ballerina and prefers pink. What happened to my girl who liked cars and trucks only and no dolls. Hmmm, apparently a girl will mostly be a girl no matter if she has a brother for a sibling or not. It's cute how serious she is about things and how much she is a typical 2 year old. She just wants the world to work for her. Right now I left her crying in her room after not giving in to changing her yet again. She has since stopped crying but keeps coming out saying: Bad baby, bad baby, and you guessed right, that baby is her mom in her opinion.
I had no idea clothes are that important this early on since with my son that was NEVER a problem. He never even cared what he wore, I didn't have to make him choose from two outfits let's say. Super easy going in that respect. I think I am in for trouble.
Otherwise what else is new? Hmmm, I am still sick. I got sick on my birthday (the yucky, most miserable flu that kept me in bed all day for two days) and now I just got back from the doctors and found out that I have bronchitis and was put on antibiotics. I can't wait until they kick in because I am in pain from all this coughing. I feel terrible having to come to work to infect everyone but there were no subs available today. Plus it snowed and it's always a big deal in Seattle when that happens, schools may be late or closed all together and our fear was they might close the school day at noon or later and I wouldn't be there to help my co worker through it all. Now we are all thinking they might have to close the schools tomorrow since it's really quite dumping out and it's sticking and it's supposed to snow all night long. The problem in Seattle is that we are not super equipped for bad weather (since it's a once a year event most years) and the city is so super hilly and then you have these icy roads with drivers sliding all over the place. Anyway, I love the snow as long as I am home to play in it (or skiing in the mountains) and not have to drive and worry if I might get hit any second by another driver.
So here's to hoping I stay home tomorrow and mostly, mostly just to start getting better. These kids are super wearing me out and they have all this energy that of course only drains mine and I don't have much left in me.
Also with it being cold they are not so excited to go out for a long time and instead have cabin fever. Feel free to give me some ideas on fun things to do that are free. We have played all the games that we have or so I think. Sorry, this is the sick person in me who almost just wants her kids to disappear for a few days so I can get better. I only have so much patience you know. Hats down to all stay at home moms who have to fill out the days with their little kids ALL THE TIME! Not that I don't wish I could be in the same boat most times. :)
Well, that's it for now. More later. I am too lazy and sick to post pictures so I have to postpone for another time.

Geekiness

I love sci fi shows. Recently Shane and I finished the Battlestar galactica series and I loved it. It was addicting, I couldn't wait to watch all the seasons and since we have Netflix we had them all pretty fast. Well, for my birthday, actually the weekend before my birthday Shane took me and the kids to this new exhibit they had at the EMP (Experience Music Project right next to the Space Needle) They had all these life size models, Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes stuff, ET, Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Dune, and other stuff. All pretty awesome. I know it's geeky but I love it nonetheless. 

More posts to come with pictures of our other celebrations for mommy and daughter's birthdays. 

Halloween 2010

This Halloween started out in the office. We like to dress up at work and this year we were Mr. Anderson's angels. Mr. Anderson (our principal)was Charlie and blurted things out from his office. I will post pictures as soon as I get it off the card from work.
Saturday night it was our church's Trunk or Treat. There were so many children there, it was super crazy but fun as well. I am so excited the kids' costumes turned out super cute and that we had enough time to actually finish sewing them. Thank you to my great mom who is a great seamstress who just made out the paterns and taught me how to sew better. We made the cape, apron, skirt, vest and Lavinia's hair and then Dacian's whole wolf suit. We ran out of time for my bonnet so we ended up putting a pillow case on my head. I look nothing like an old lady but you get the gist. Shane is missing an ax but otherwise I think he looked the part pretty well.

And here are my parents. Dad sewed his costume last year. I love it!

As soon as I put make up on his he said his nose was super itchy and so we have a nice smeared make up now. Oh well, he still looked pretty cute. 

Lavinia. Sweet. Super. Red. Riding. Hood.

Just a funny wolf really excited to catch and eat Little Red. 

How sweet is this wolf? He was playing the part so well into deceiving Little Red. 

And a silly wolf picture. He was super silly that day and I have lots of pictures with his funny faces but I will stick to this one. 

Here are our pumpkins at night. 

Later in the evening we went out to trick or treat of our neighbors. 

Aren't they so adorable? 

Fall and the latest

Mostly because I am tired  of looking at the last post I decided it's time for a new post and some pictures. I took Dacian out for a fall photo session while Lavinia was napping. It was so gorgeous out, warm and the light was beautiful. I so wish I had friends to visit me so I could show you the beauty of this state. I sometimes feel so friendless. Actually I am pretty friendless. Why is it so hard to make friends? I tend to think it's because we've made life so busy for ourselves there's no time for just hanging out, there's always so much on our to do list. And friendships fall lower on the list. Then I think maybe there's something wrong with me, that I'm just too boring so maybe that's it. I guess I like not to think about that too much. I tend to get depressed quite easily. I have had great days lately however so I  have been quite positive. 

I finished my parenting classes (yay! Loved them but being gone all day until 9pm was a lot harder than I had thought).  We have gone to the fair, gone to the pumkin patch and are almost done sewing the Halloween costumes for the kids. Can't wait to show you the costumes when they are done. If only my kids will pose pretty for me. Lately I've had a heck of a time with one little girl who could care less about mommy trying to capture her cuteness on camera. 

Today it was Shane's birthday and even though he got a very nice (pricey gift) and thought about just keeping it in the family I decided that 35 is a pretty special birthday and he deserved to be with family and friends. So totally last minute I invited fiends and family to Red robin. I love that place. I also got his a cake at Hoffman's (remember the cake he got me last year? Same place) that was so delicious and brought it with us to Red Robin. They brought it out for us and sang and embarrassed Shane a little. It was a fun night. 

The kids were super hyper and that was before desert. I am sure glad they are a kid friendly place. My son has the energy of a whole crowd. It must be that he's a boy. 

Anyway, we love you daddy, hope it was a great day. (Sadly I had no memory cards in the camera. I do have to say I have a hard time taking good pictures inside without a good flash or a tripod so I probably would've ended up with a bunch of blurry pictures anyway. 

This is the view I get in the morning when I leave our neighborhood to go to work. I can't get enough of it. I am sure glad I went to take the photo because just today I saw so many of the leaves fallen out already. Fall comes very quickly around these parts but I can't complain, we've had a beautiful one. I really don't want it to end. 

 Totally SOOC. Love the colors.

 I like this one of my son. Finally I like that he's ditching his cheesy smile. He's so cute, isn't he?

 Just around the corner from us. I loved how that light was just perfect falling on those trees giving them that  wonderful golden light.

Anyone else love fall as much as I do?I know at least one person who is 100% agreeing with me right now. :)

Love and Logic

I got back from my third parenting class. I am fascinated by the new techniques I have learned. They make so much sense yet boy it's not so easy to dive in and actually do it.  Maybe it's because I've been doing my own, kind of taking it by the day parenting for too long. I get mad too easily and I realized how little patience I have and how much more I have to learn to calm down so that I am good parent. We were told to take it easy with implementing what we learn and not to do it all at once. I realized that I have to have a plan of attack and rehearse what I would be saying should he/she misbehave. It helps getting a few answers ready. It helps to think about different situations that happen often and have an answer ready. It also keeps you cool and collected, enough to be in charge and not be drunk on emotion.
The other day Dacian hit my back more as a joke but it hurt. And we don't tolerate hitting so this is how it went:
"That's so sad Dacian, you hurt mommy. I was going to take you to Safeway to get a little toy with your quarter but now we don't get to do that. That's just so sad!"
First empathy, then consequence is what they teach in the first lesson. No matter how long he cried I just kept repeading. How sad... that's just so sad...
Well, I kind of took my time on this one and just implemented. It was a success. A success for me for being able to stick to my guns and for being on the ball, a success because Dacian (hopefully) learned not to do that again even as a joke. I told him that we can go to Safeway the next day but that I would ask grandma about his behavior. Apparently he was a little angel the next day and remembered to tell me he was a good boy so he could get his prize.
Was that easy? Yes and no. Yes because that was so simple; no because when we are mad or annoyed empathy doesn't come naturally. So if I rehearse and do this over and over, the "that's so sad" expression will take on a new meaning.
But the more I listen to the instructor and read the materials provided I realize how much I need to change about the way I parent. I get a little overwhelmed but I am excited to have new tools on how do it better.
I will come back to this subject with more examples as I start having more success. Maybe parenting comes easy for most people, maybe everyone's children are little angels, all I know is I have work ahead of me.
But I wouldn't change it for the world. I love my kids and I am so happy I get to be their mommy. I get to love them, play with them, and create memories as a family.
OK, now I really need to go to bed. Night, night.