December wrap up

Wow, December got away from me! Here to post some of the highlights, I wish Blogspot would put them in chronological order, but no, so it's going to be random.  

Lucy's dedication:

Friends and family over for after dedication lunch

love this boy

Went to the library for the city's Christmas tree lighting and to see Santa. August talked for days later about seeing "wooly", didn't care so much about "that santa guy" lol

Jeanie at speech therapy

Lucy turned 3 months

August LOVES the bunk beds at grandma and grandpa's house

One big thing we did was have this peek-a-boo window opened up. 4 days of mess and dust, but now it is much more nice and open :) we still need new flooring in the kitchen once we decide what we want

before:

After:

Mainly did it because I wanted to see the kids in the play area when I'm in the kitchen, in all our planning I didn't account for the piano edge to be sticking so far into the view :( but oh well, it is better than before

did another santa thing that Jeanie's speech school put on

August had to go for an eye exam, here he is all dilated, thankfully no need for glasses (yet anyway!)

sisters!

I'm so thankfully this girl is in our lives, she fits right in.

And her first Christmas, my brother and his family are in town so we've been spending lots of time at Grandma & Grandpa's

new swimsuit, she ripped off her clothes instantly to put this on, haha

And then we had our own family Christmas at home

electric trains for his Brio track

a marketplace cradle, this was the perfect gift for this little momma

Over to Doug's parents to celebrate with them

A girls craft night at our house

Nice!

December was a hard month for us, we lost one of Doug's groomsmen to covid-pneumonia a week and a half ago and have just been feeling so sad. He left behind a widow who is obviously shattered and we're not sure she has the Lord to cling to. So that has been really hard. Anyone reading this can please say a prayer for Stephanie. 

look what I made

 I saw this ad for a art display board from Kirklands, probably some Facebook ad, and liked it to display the kid's art and I thought I'd try to make my own. 

Supplies: a board from Lowe's, craft paint, had some leftover sawtooth hangers, and magnet clips that Doug pulled the magnet part off for me

Cut the board and stained it with some stain borrowed from my dad

Printed out the letters and cut them out trying to DIY stencil. 

It took 4 layers of coat and came out a little lumpy, but overall I like it. 

Doug nailed on the clips for me and put it up on the wall above their little art table.

And there it is with art!

And only now writing this post am I realizing the example board said "look what I did" not "look what I made", but oh well, I like mine better and didn't like all that splotchy color they had on theirs. 

That's also the wall that got about 6 inches added to it since we've been busy with our half bath addition so I was rearranging pictures and stuff anyway to re-center everything. I like how it turned out. 

life lately

 Last week the dreaded Hand, Foot, Mouth disease got the kiddos. Jeanie had a one day fever then a few spots on her mouth, hands, and privates. Then the next day her fever was gone, but August had one for half a day, and two spots on his throat. Then fevers gone and that was it. We feel pretty lucky as my bf's kids had it and her son's foot skin was pretty much sloughing off and she got it too and her hands were a itchy burning spotty mess.

Elizabeth and I hit up the country bar I used to go to a ton in my college days. Wore my new boots :) It was fun, but we need to go a lot more, didn't know any of the dances!

The leaves are down, Doug has been busy raking and doing his gutter cleaning side business. 

I had a suspicious mole taken off, and it had some 'abnormal cells' so they had to dig it out. Thankfully they got all the bad cells out and I'll have yet another scar. 

Otherwise just living, mostly happy busy lives with these kiddos!

This sweet little mama, here she is with all her 'babies' covered in little burp cloth blankets. 

And she buckled her baby Stella into the car seat by herself too. So sweet.

Speaking of mamas, my mom has continued coming every Wednesday all throughout my maternity leave (she babysits on Wednesdays when I'm at work) and it has been a wonderful help to get stuff done around the house, or do an errand, have an extra set of eyes at the park, and just to spend some extra time with her too. I really appreciate it. Back to work in 2 weeks! 😩

I'll be ready for a couple days a week in the grown-up world, but it's just as busy at work than at home, and having to squeeze in time to pump is always so hard to do. But oh well, thankful to have had this time at home with my babies.