At Home Date Night!

I'm pretty sure I've posted on this before but at home date night is my second favorite night of the month (regular date night being the first) so it's worth re-mentioning. Since it's not realistic to go out twice a month, we instituted a stay at home date night where we feed the kids something easy for dinner and then enjoy cheese, crackers and salami just the two of us after they are in bed. We also each try to plan one romantic thing for the other person. We're keeping the romance alive, people! 

It's lovely and relaxing and romantic and we give it two thumbs way up! 

Here's a little photo of our spread from our date night in January:

In the words of Jesus, "Go now and do likewise!"

A Glimpse Into Isaiah

Isaiah is an awesome toddler. He is almost always happy, a really good eater, a fantastic night time sleeper (and not too shabby at naps) and so. stinking. cute. We all adore him - his siblings love him (a little too aggressively) and Ian and I frequently comment about how adorable he is. He is pretty much our favorite thing to watch. 

Anyway, enough of my very biased musings. You can take a look for yourself at our little I-Man! 

We love this guy!

A Glimpse Into Jonah

I'm not ready to call it OCD, but Jonah LOVES to line things up. Particularly his animals. While Ruthie is interested in laying out her clothes, Jonah is interested in lining up his animals. 

See exhibit A. (And note in the background the legos, another thing that Jonah loves.)

We love our Jonah Man! 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas with your family. We are having a GREAT time! 

Here is the picture in Christmas jammies that I wanted to post - Isaiah looks like a real person in this one, as opposed to the one I just posted about here. I love matching jammies! 

And here is the aftermath of our Christmas morning. Hope yours was a fun, relaxed and messy as ours! 

A Glimpse Into Ruthie

I'm sure your kids (if you have them) crack you up, too. But sometimes, the things our kids do are just plain hysterical.

For example, almost every night, Ruthie lays out her clothes for the next day. I mean, is her life hurried and busy? Does she actually have any where to be the next day? The answer is, of course, no. But it just goes to show how important fashion is to her. 

In this picture, you can see that she even lays out her accessories - head band, bracelet, necklace, and shoes, all laid out with her dress and underwear. And that's exactly how she lays them out, too. Just like she's going to wear them - everything in the exact spot it goes. She is nothing, if not thorough. And she brings so much joy to our lives. 

Take Two (or Three, I guess)

I'm attempting to pick this blog back up again. I really do like blogging; I've just been busy with 3 pre-school kids and the other blog I'm working on, which debuts on January 1. You can take a sneak peak here! It's been an exciting and busy project and I'm really stoked about launching it in a few days.

Speaking of a few days, it will be Christmas in THREE DAYS! Are you ready? We are. We've celebrated my birthday and Ruthie's and so now we are on the countdown for Ian to be finished with school and for the Christmas celebrating to begin. All of our gifts are wrapped and under the tree (thank you Netflix, for entertaining us while we wrapped and wrapped and wrapped); tonight we are celebrating with our neighbors with a Christmas Cookie Open House at our place; Saturday we go to the Marshes for Christmas Eve with the whole family (including David's family flying in from TX) and Sunday we'll have stockings, Christmas breakfast and gift opening at our house, then a big family dinner at my parents' place. It's going to be a great few days, followed by two weeks of Ian being off a school. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating - I love being married to a teacher!

So what is your family doing for Christmas?

Here's a quick picture of the kids from a year ago. We've got the same jammies this year, in the next size up, so I'll repeat the picture and post it here when I can.

Merry Christmas!

Making My Life Easier

This is what my typical Monday afternoon looks like. After I get home from Trader Joe's (where I shop every Monday), I compile the various items that I put in Ian's lunches throughout the week. 

Exhibit A: cut veggies, containers of yogurt (so much cheaper than the individual servings!) and bean and cheese burritos that I freeze. On the days that I don't have enough of dinner left overs, I just grab one of those babies out of the freezer and I have my "main" dish for Ian's lunch.

This weekly ritual makes my life a lot easier. You know what else makes my life easier? 

SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After Ian goes to work tomorrow and turns in his grades by midnight tomorrow night, we are free and clear for some summer fun. We. Can't. Wait.