All our love The Shepherds
The other day I found myself wondering - if Andrew and I don't buy presents for the kids on Christmas - will they be there anyway? What if we test it? What if the the big guy really does exist but since we take care of the gift buying, the wrapping and the placing under the tree (we even eat the jolly old elf's cookies that kids made for him), maybe he just doesn't show up because he's not needed (and we ate half of his treats)? It could be true right? If you believe?
Yeah, I must be the parent of a six and three year old. Their undoubting belief in Santa is very powerful. Nia reminds me each day that the "Elf on the Shelf" is watching and that he flies messages to Santa. When I took the kids to see Santa at the mall this year, Nate ran up to him and jumped in his lap, wrapping his arms around him. He did it without hesitation. He did it with love in his heart and excitement for the wonder that Santa brings. I stood there with tears in my eyes. Adult strangers waiting in line for their child's photo stood there with tears in their eyes.
I suppose it's because the moments like I just experienced with Nate far outweigh the moment of "finding out." His happiness and love for the stranger hiding behind a white beard and red velvet suit made me want to believe again. (Plus, he was a really good Santa!) Part of me hopes to find a mysterious present under the tree for me - special delivery from the North Pole.
so frankie and i are living at heidi's now. max and frankie are finally getting used to each other. the other day when we dropped nana and g'pa off at the airport max reached over and held frankie's hand. no big deal. just my kiddos rule. anyhoo this is from thanksgiving. i am grateful for all of you. well most of you! ha.
Baking bread seems so daunting and time consuming at times (which explains why it's been over a year since I've done it), but when I made this recipe the other day it was such a fond memory to enjoy the way it feels to go through the steps of the mixing and rising and smell that wonderful baking bread smell in the kitchen. This recipe is particularly aromatic because of the rosemary (which is very mild tasting in the end) and really easy (as far as making bread from scratch goes anyway). I did use my kitchen aid to knead it which takes out some of the labor and if I hadn't had the kids at home from school I probably would have done it by hand just for the physicality of kneading dough (stress relieving). It required more flour than they stated (and I didn't know if that was because of the mixmaster or not). Yes, I know I could probably waltz into a bakery and buy something just as good but in the end it is a very gratifying feeling to produce a delicious loaf of bread made from scratch, if you've never tried it before you should try this recipe!
SO I'm the laziest blogger in the world. It' almost 2months after her first birthday and I still haven't posted pics. So here they are. We had a party for her the weekend before with all of our friends and family. On the birthday day we took Hayden to the coast to go to the aquarium and beach. She loved the aquarium but hated the beach. That figures. It was an idyllic day at the coast. sunshine, no wind and WARM. And then we had to leave because Hayden found the sand too soft and the sea too loud. Kids. We also gave her her first taste of ice cream and she LOVED it. Makes up for not liking the birthday cake at all.
It's a bummer, but I have decided from now on to have (most posts) as friends and family. This means if you enjoy checking up on us and don't have a vox account, you'll have to make one and we'll have to link for you to see our updates from this point on.
I don't want any of our friends/family to miss our updates, so please go sign up at www.vox.com so you can still keep up with us!
Thanks!
Julie came down for a week to help out and it was great. She was tons of help and we had a fun time hanging out with her. We wish that they lived closer than Alaska; we miss them terribly. Julie and I had fun with Moira, and played a little dress up with all her fun cute clothes. Here are more pictures from the week that we took with Julies camera.
Thanks again Jules; we miss you tons!
