Christmas 2012

This year, we had a lot of fun with our Advent calendar.  We tried to do a special Christmas activity every day in December leading up to Christmas.  Hannah was excited every day to draw a card for the next day.  Some of our extra special activities included:

Visiting Santa at the Festival of Trees with Grandma Teresa (an annual tradition!)

Attending the library Christmas party and sending a letter for Santa with Mrs. Claus

Making a Mickey gingerbread house, a gift from Grandma Jody!

Drinking hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles

Visiting Santa and riding the Christmas train at The Village Mall

Going to a live nativity at a local church

Doing special Christmas crafts at home

Making homemade flower shaped crayons out of our old broken crayons

Going to see a Christmas play (Peter Pan) and seeing Christmas lights in Danville

Making Christmas candies (smashing candy canes for peppermint bark!)

Receiving a letter in the mail from Santa.  Hannah was SO HAPPY to find out she was on the "good list."

Singing at church on Christmas Sunday

Our family Christmas celebrations were kicked off at the Gurtlers on the 23rd.  We went over after church and got to spend the afternoon and evening opening gifts and eating yummy food!  

Hannah was excited about LaLaLoopsy and Rapunzel's wedding dress.

Jake loved his new Mickey bike!

We tried to get the kids to pose in their matching jammies at the end of the night.  Landon was done-poor guy!

On the 24th, we went to my parents house, along with all of my siblings and all of our significant others!  We did a drawing this year for gifts, and that worked out perfectly.

Grandma Teresa made Hannah and Marie-Grace matching robes!  They are so soft.  Hannah was so excited!

That night, our family was involved in a small skit at the Christmas Eve service.  I love this picture that a friend snapped with her cell phone!

On Christmas morning, Hannah got a princess bike and some clothes from Santa!

Jacob got a tool bench and a basketball!

Santa left a note on his cookie tray.

Then we spent the rest of the day with Josh's dad's side of the family.  It's always a good day of yummy food and lots of gifts.  Jacob and Landon wore their matching sweaters from Grandma Jody!

Books I read in 2012

 

Wow, in 2012, I read at least 20 books!  I know that's not a lot for some people, but that's more than I've read in a long time!  Here's a list of what I read by category:


Marriage
Rekindling the Romance (good)
The 5 Love Languages (I know, I know.  I had never read this classic that is required in most pre-marital counseling.  It is a good read that I think could help a lot of couples.  We weren't sure on our love langues before reading, but we think Josh's love language is words of affirmation and mine is acts of service.)

Parenting
So You're Thinking About Homeschooling (Many of the moms that I admire are homeschooling moms, and this book was left in my office at church, so I read it.  Still not sure what we'll do, but it had lots of good thoughts.  I feel like God has asked me to at least consider this option that I never thought I would.)
Creative Correction (I feel like I should re-read this one in a few years.  It's better for parents of grade school children, I would say.)
No Regrets Parenting (This was ok)

Fun
The Help (Good!)
The Vow (Good!)
Misconception (Good)
Inconceivable (Good but heartbreaking....This is the flip story of Misconception.)
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels (Good)

Spiritual Fun
Choosing to See (Good but heartbreaking....)
90 Minutes in Heaven (Good)
Kisses From Katie (Excellent-best book I read this year!)
Reshaping it All (Disappointing)
Heaven is for Real (Good)

Spiritual Development
10 Things Jesus Never Said (Horrible, poor Theology)
Don't Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart (Good)
Think Orange (Ok)
Not A Fan (Good)
Simplicity (Ok)

Fall Fun

We got to do lots of fun things this fall:

We went to the Homecoming parade and got lots of candy! 

We went to Curtis Orchard with Grandma Teresa!

 We spent the night in Joliet with the Gorsch family.  It had been way too long!  It was so fun to catch up.  We stayed up late talking, went to a pumpkin patch, played some board games, and ate at Portillo's.  Hannah and Sadie really bonded and both cried when they had to leave each other.  

I made caramel apples with my sisters-in-law! 

  

  We kept Quinn Oakleaf for a week during the day while his grandparents were at work and his mama was pregnant with triplets and trying to let them "cook" as long as possible (which she did, by the way!).  

 He fit right in with our family!

 We attended Hannah's preschool Thanksgiving program! 

I got to see Jenn and Lindsay at the Missionary Convention.  LOVE these girls!

Adoption? Shopping? I'm in!!! Are you???

I would like to introduce you all to one of my very best friends, Jennifer Humiston. Jennifer and I met our freshman year of college and have been best friends ever since. We even got to be roommates our junior year and were both in each other's weddings! One thing Jennifer has always talked about is having a big family. God has blessed them, and they are currently "expecting" their 4th child, but Jennifer isn't pregnant. Jennifer and Jeremy were blessed with three biological children, and now God has called their family to add more through adoption. Maybe by now, you're wondering why I’m sharing all of this on my blog. I’ll explain in a minute, but first here's a note from Jennifer:

I’m so excited to introduce you to our clan and share with you about this crazy journey God has called our family to called adoption. We began dreaming of adopting when we first go married in 2004. We have three biological children Grace, 6 years, Faith, 5 years, and Titus, almost 3 years. After a complicated pregnancy and emergency c-section resulting in the birth of our son we knew it was time to adopt. Our heart for the orphan couldn't wait any longer. We hit some bumps along the way, but in April of 2012 I traveled to West Africa on a mission trip. While there I made connections with a local orphanage. In June we began paperwork to adopt from the orphanage I had visited. We can't wait to bring home our sweet little guy, David.  On November 24th David will turn two years old. We are so glad this will be his last birthday without a forever family. Grace and Faith are the best of friends and Titus can't wait to meet his brother and already has a bunk bed to prove it. We are hoping to introduce David to our family in the Spring/Summer of 2013. We are currently completing paperwork and raising funds towards that goal. If you’d like to know more specifics about the timeline of our adoption you can read about it on my blog here.

Back to Stephanie:

I'm asking all of my friends to help out the Humistons (and get some Christmas shopping done in the process!).  So here's how you can do that.  In honor of David’s birthday and National Adoption Month (both in November), the Humiston family is doing a week long online fundraiser for their adoption. If you purchase any item in the following etsy shops from November 24-30th, 100% of the purchase price (minus fees & shipping) will go straight to their adoption fund! How cool is that??? I know you all want to help, and I know you all love to shop, so this is the perfect fit!!!

To help simply click on the links below and purchase an item between now and November 30th.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/shotsibabyhttp://www.etsy.com/shop/Shotsigranny 

If you would like a card with David’s picture and “The purchase of this item helped to bring David home to his forever family” to include with your gift simply e-mail Jennifer at jenniferhumiston@hotmail.com and she will be happy to send you one.

Thanks you friends!!!

Illini Games!!

The Illini have not had a great football season, but we've had some fun attending the games anyway.  We made it to four games this year, which is the most we've made in a long time!