Princesses

My little lady had a princess party on Saturday.

I realized as I was getting her ready that it had been a while since she'd gotten all dressed up princess style.  There was a time when she spent most of the day, every day in princess attire...when had those days ended?  So, we spent a little extra time curling her hair, letting her put on make-up, painting her fingernails, and finding the perfect dress.  Because sometimes I need to remember all the lasts, not just the firsts, in these little lives.

Santa and Sandy Hook

 

The day of the Sandy Hook shooting I was feeling so uneasy.  My heart was broken for those parents who weren't going to be welcoming their little ones home from school that day.  The Christmas presents that were surely bought, wrapped and sitting under the tree would remain unopened.  I couldn't imagine sending my kids off to school in the morning and not having them come home.  I could hardly wait until the school bell rang to go pick them up and hug them extra tight.  We went straight to the mall to visit Santa.

I look at those sweet faces, full of Christmas anticipation, full of innocence and I can't imagine something happening to them.  At this point, they knew nothing of the horrible events of the day and I wanted more than anything to protect them from the knowledge of the pure evil that existed in their world.  I wasn't ready to tell them what happened.  I didn't have the words to explain to them why things like this occur.  I desperately wanted to keep them safe, physically and emotionally but I knew that they would need to know soon and I wanted them to hear it from me and their dad.

But that could all wait a couple days, right?  For this day, we just embraced the magic of Santa Claus.  We smiled, laughed, and let Stella run through the mall without a stroller.  We didn't hurry home for naps, friends, chores, homework or piano.  We went to Paradise for a treat and talked about innocent things like Christmas parties at school, friends, our favorite traditions, and wish lists. 

And this mama just held back tears and felt so incredibly blessed to call these safe, healthy babies mine. 

Keepin' it classy. . . and real

This might just be my favorite picture from the Christmas season.  So classy.  But so real life.  Stella in the nude, in the middle of December.  Lola pouting for unknown reasons.  The boys happy as can be.  And cute Steve and Betty.

We had headed over to Nate's parents to deliver their charlie brown tree that we had chopped down and to help them get it set up since Betty had just had her knee replaced.  Right when we got there Stella had a big blowout.  And no change of clothes.  But we had such a fun night visiting with grandparents and helping them get festive. 

We live in such an interesting world.  I love the technology.  I love blogs, instagram and pinterest.  I love all the great ideas I can find that make me seem like I'm on top of things.  The fun things that make memories with my kids.  But I hate all the comparing.  The worrying that we're not good enough because of what other moms are doing for their kids.  Wondering how other people seemingly do it all when some days I struggle to even get dressed before 3 in the afternoon. 

Someone put this quote on instagram and I love, love, love it:

"i promise you, my life is not perfect. . . I just focus on the good stuff and put a filter on it."

It's so, so true.  Recently I ran into one of Nate's cousins and she was telling me how much fun it is to follow along with our little family on instagram.  She told me of how the main thing that stood out to her when she saw my posts was that she could tell from my pictures that I love being a mother.  I was so touched that she saw that in my pictures because I truly love what I get to do every single day.  I feel so lucky that Nate works so hard and makes it possible for me to have this dream job.  But there are so many hard, discouraging, lonely, overwhelming, messy moments that also happen during those same days.  And for the most part I don't focus on that. . .that's not really the part that other people get to see.  We all tend to focus on the good, and I think that's the great thing. As long as we don't compare our worst moments to other peoples best.  Because really, we're all just doing the best job we can and I think that's really all that matters.

Gingerbread

One Sunday night while we were having dinner, I asked my kids what their favorite traditions were.  They went around the table and when we got to Jacks he said, "Making gingerbread cookies!"  

Crap.  

I was planning on skipping that particular activity seeing as how the month was winding down and I was feeling the familiar Christmas overload. 

So that week I made the dough, had Lola help me cut out the cookies, and we had a cookie decorating party.  All in the name of tradition!

 

 

 Keepin' it sanitary!  She sure did enjoy her sugar overload. . .

Yay for traditions...and kids to keep us on our toes and make sure we don't miss out on the memory making!