Christmas blessings.

happy birthday, Mom.

We love you like crazy...
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Christmas memories + traditions.

It's week 2 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas. If you'd like to know more about the 12 Weeks of Christmas event, be sure to click the link. I LOVE participating in blog-hosted events, ESPECIALLY when they are holiday-related in any way.

So, this week's entry is focused on the memories and traditions of Christmas. One of the most beloved of our Christmas traditions is focused on our family and our faith. For us, the Advent Wreath is at the very top of our list of favorites...


photo taken December 2007 in our home

I treasure the quiet moments each Sunday when a new candle is lit and we spend a some time together for prayer and reading scripture and talking a little bit about how we wait for Christ during the Christmas season. It's a good reminder, especially for the little ones in the house, that Christmas should be Christ-centered. It's hard to remember that when you're little... we understand.

I also believe it's so beneficial to children to celebrate traditions like the Advent wreath from year to year... We've had an Advent wreath in our own home for at least the last 10 years, probably more. I believe that the tradtion will be passed down through our daughters to their children someday and it makes me feel like we will be sharing a bit of what is meaningful to us today with our loved ones in the future.

I love tradition. What's your family's favorite tradition?

small world.

Back in May, Wendy and Tyler of Blue Lily Photography took the most beautiful portraits of our five girls in Old Town Temecula. Of course, we think our children are the most gorgeous ever, but isn't the photography equally amazing?



Well, Wendy and Tyler travel all around the country taking beautiful pictures of all kinds of people and families. It just so happens that they have also taken photos of Stephanie Nielson and her family... (Stephanie survived a terrible airplane crash and is recovering from her injuries, going strong I might add!) In fact, you could see Blue Lily Photography ALL OVER Stephanie's home when she appeared on the Oprah show yesterday.

Wendy blogged about Stephanie's appearance ... click here to see her post and be sure to click the link for the Oprah video clip. What a story.

Small world.

Week 1 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas

Image from Country Living

I’m participating in Red Writing’s 12 Weeks of Christmas… Yes, it’s only the second week of October and I’ve got “Christmas on the Brain” already! As of last Sunday, we are a little under 12 weeks from Christmas, hooray!

This week's theme is "Christmas List"...

I’ve decided not to post my Christmas wish-list, just because I don’t want to seem like I am asking for things… but believe me… I have one! Mom and Dad will get that list for sure… (Maybe I’ll post it at a later time, we’ll see!) Instead, I’ve decided to put together a list of things that my family and I love to do during Christmastime.

25 Things We Do During The Christmas Season:

1. An Advent Candle Wreath, observing each night during Advent.

2. Make Christmas Cards.

3. Go to the Festival of Lights in our area.

4. Bake and eat as many Christmas cookies as humanly possible.

5. Have Christmas movie marathons, including movies like Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story.

6. A Cookie Exchange. (yum)

7. Create handcrafted gifts of one kind or another.

8. Burn spice scented candles in the house.

9. Check amazon.com everyday to see their Daily Deal.

10. Decorate the house like crazy.

11. Scope out the local craft fairs for holiday stuff.

12. Play Christmas Songs 24/7.

13. Make a new Christmas ornament or two for the tree.

14. Attend the triplets’ Christmas Recital.

15. Christmas gift shopping, of course.

16. Read The Polar Express.

17. Drive around local neighborhoods to see Christmas light displays.

18. Write letters to Santa and mail them.

19. Keep an Advent Calendar that is updated daily.

20. Donate food to a food pantry, usually at our church.

21. Drink GALLONS of hot cocoa and hot apple cider.

22. Visit the public library for story time during Winter Break.

23. Open ONE gift on Christmas Eve.

24. Do our best to teach our little ones about the true meaning of the holiday, Christ’s birth.

25. Spend as much time with family as possible.

I am a winner.

Last week, the fabulous Jessi had another one of her fabulous giveaways on her blog... and guess what?! I WON!

Here is the photo Jessi took of the goodies she was sending me...



It was all beautiful, pretty stuff! Perfect for me cuz I love ALL things feminine (and PINK), and as the mom of 5 daughters (and ZERO sons) it was well suited for me. Made me so happy opening this package when it arrived Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, I do not have my own photo of the prize in its entirety. This is due to the fact that the SECOND I opened my awesomely decorated package from Jessi, these little ones...



... helped themselves to my goodies, but especially the sweets inside! Yes, she included exactly THREE candy treats in the box and the triplets spotted them before I had a chance to see what was going on!

Thank you, Jessi! I love everything you sent me!

goodbye, summer.

Today, September 22 at exactly 5:18pm- Summer 2009 will officially be OVER.

I was pretty much absent from my blog for the entire duration of my summer (as you can tell) because I was just having too much FUN. We had a great summer...

Hopefully I'll do a better job of keeping up with my blog now that the kidlets are back in school and we don't have any vacations planned for the upcoming months.

In celebration of these final few hours of the summer season, I thought I would wrap it up with a cute little Flickr slideshow featuring our Summer Fun! Hope you had a great one too!

Press PLAY.




I am tickled that FALL is almost here!!!