the post i've been waiting to write

It's the one I wasn't sure how long it would be before I could share the good news.

What good news you ask?

I FEEL HUMAN AGAIN!

Sure I don't move as fast as I used to and I have to eat and medicate around the clock, but a $30 pill twice a day, a bag of cherrioes at my side at all times, and a thermos of Sunny D isn't going to keep me from smiling!

No sir!

Christmas is coming and I have 80% of my shopping to do and 95% of the wrapping left to do. We're keeping things very simple this year and I'm oK with that. My perspective has changed. My priorities have changed.

I can walk up and down the stairs.
I can ride in the car.
I can eat dinner with my family.
I can get my kids ready for school.
I can help with homework.

Do we have Christmas cards printed, visited Santa, looked at lights, baked anything, read a Christmas book, done a single Christmas craft?

Nope.

But....
I will be there when my kids perform their Christmas programs on Sunday night with tears in my eyes because I'm not missing them sing of our Savior's birth. I will be there on Christmas Eve when our families gather. What more could I ask for this Christmas after a month of being in bed, missing Thanksgiving, and so much time with my kids and husband?

I am blessed.

And the bonus part?

My baby belly popped out yesterday at 11 weeks, 1 day.




P.S. Thank you for all your kind comments this month while I've been sick. I know I wrote back to so few of you and I feel terrible about that.

The {clean} calm before the stormy {mess}

this is not an ordinary Christmas card

No red and greens! Gasp!

No dress clothes? The horror!

No parents? That's new!

But you know what? I love it anyway!

Do you make your own cards too? Leave me a comment and a link to your card if you posted it - I'd love to stop by and see it!

Dog Gone It!

"I've had enough!"

Christmas 2009 was the year

that we had a very very white Christmas

that we rescheduled our normal Christmas Eve gathering because of snow

that we got stuck in my inlaw's driveway on Christmas Day

that Sam got run over by a sled

that Mommy got kicked all night by Sam when they slept on the couch

that Julia had a major meltdown at two Christmas gatherings

that Sam helped Grandma get 2000 point in one turn during a game of Fill or Bust

that we came home after three days at Grandma and Grandpas to find huge snow mountains in the park

that 27 members of my mom's family gathered for Christmas

that we walked on the creek (beautiful, but I'm not a fan of walking on ice where I can HEAR the water moving underneath me)

that Sam hugged the box of his new aircraft carrier until we said he could open it

that PapaBear said, "go take a nap, I'll unload the van."

that of the snowball makers

that the weather forecast was wrong about when we'd get snow.

of the snow jump.

that Julia went around and hugged each member of our family while we in the middle of our traditional time of singing carols by the tree

that my Christmas post didn't include a single picture


Now it's your turn to finish the sentence, "Christmas 2009 was the year...."

On the....

go

go
go


go


go

Were you counting? If not, that was 5 goes. One for each day we celebrated Christmas in the past 5 days. As you can imagine we are all tired and worn out so I'll leave the Christmas wrap up post for another day, but I had to share these images from sledding at my Inlaw's house this afternoon. They have a great hill and I've had fun playing with the manual settings on my camera to capture these blown out action shots. Fun times were had by all, except maybe the little guy who hit his face in the snow after his blue sled hit the jump and planted him right in the crustiest part of the snowbank.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 25

Twenty-five days of memories! Oh how I will love looking back on these pages in my blog book some day! Thanks for joining me on this adventure! It sure has been fun!

There wasn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason to which ornaments I chose to write about and I had no idea which one I would use for the grand finale...until I saw the picture of this one. It is so simple, yet so detailed.

Kinda like that night long ago.... A simple couple came to Bethlehem to be registered and yet all the details were set in place by God.








Today is Christmas and for most of us that means a day spent opening gifts and enjoying the company of family. I pray that we will always remember the words on the sign my friend Karen gave me for Christmas last year:



Christmas Blessings from Bear Country!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Julia's First Christmas

Welcome to day 2 of the 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Carnival! It's 3am and I'm taking a quick break from my last day of work before Christmas vacation to share Julia's first Christmas ornament.

The first couple of years the kids ornaments included a picture - it wasn't planned but I'm glad it worked out that way - especially because for both of my kids, their picture is of them wrapped in daddy's baby blanket as baby Jesus in the live Nativity. My MIL bought this ornament and I love it! It's not breakable, it's not heavy, and it holds a picture....

What ornament have you chosen to share today?

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments - Day 1

If this is your first time visiting BearCountry, welcome! I'm glad you stopped by! For the first 25 days of December I'm going to be hosting a fun and easy carnival about Christmas ornaments. Once a day I will post a MckLinky for everyone to share a photo of an ornament and the story behind it. Want to know more? I suggest you click here to read the official introduction to the carnival or leave your questions in the comment section. There are no right or wrong ornaments to share - homemade or store bought. If it's special to you, we want to hear about it!



I chose this angel ornament for the first day because it is one of my most precious ones. It was purchased in honor of a little boy I won't meet this side of Heaven, but has impacted my family none the less. Noah is celebrating his third Christmas as an angel in Heaven and I bet he and my dad are best buds by now.









Thanks to my friend Susan, who understands code way better than I do, there's even a handy dandy 'grab the code' box if you'd like to add the button to your blog.

<center><a href="http://thisfamilyof4.blogspot.com/"><a href="http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll285/mom2three-2008/?action=view&current=Christmasornamentbutton3-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll285/mom2three-2008/Christmasornamentbutton3-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center>
One thing to note as your planning out which ornaments to feature on which days, I plan to feature homemade ornaments the second week in December. My kids make ornaments each year and I'm hoping that we'll be able to share some fun ornament projects with each other.

Christmas Day in Bear Country

We all made it on his good list this year....
SisterBear got the "Nem-nem-nems" (M&Ms) and Swedish Fish she asked for.
BrotherBear asked for boats, M&Ms, and Swedish Fish. He wasn't disappointed. In fact he was so busy playing with his new toys that I couldn't get him to let me take a picture of him.


Conor was more than willing to pose. :)


Then he was off to enjoy is "candy cane"


Santa brought me Burt's Bees lip balm. Just what I needed!

PapaBear's sweet tooth will be satisfied for a while with a package of gummy worms and a Toblerone Bar.

Later Christmas Day we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more gift opening fun. They spoil all of us with their unique, thoughtful, useful, and creative gifts. Would you believe PapaBear's dad made us a countertop? I now have twice the work space in my kitchen. Wahoo!!
BrotherBear's favorite gift was a camera. We've since learned that the Fisher Price digital cameras have a virus in them. If you that brand of camera I suggest you look into this before uploading any pictures to your computer.

Gifts were handed out one by one and the kids (when they weren't off playing T-ball or mixing up a batch of cupcakes, or changing WhinniePooh's diaper) helped everyone open their gifts.

For what seems like the hundredth time, we put the kids to bed late. Then the next morning we drove south see my mom and Paul. My sister, Kara, and her daughter, Lily, were in town and my other sister, Katie, and her husband, Brandon were able to join us as well. We played Cranium, drank homemade eggnog*, and showed the kids how to make homemade ice cream.


Paul (who's idea it was for this post title), is adding the ice and salt to the ice cream maker out in the garage.


It was great to see their new home and enjoy my mom's cooking.


Two days later PapaBear's family gathered here at the park for our final Christmas gathering of 2008. My new countertop was put to good use as we lined up chili, chicken noodle soup, cheese & crackers, a veggie tray, and a ton of Christmas cookies. I love that our house is big enough to have extended family gather here. It also comes in handy that we don't have a no running rule at our house. The wide hallways and big open spaces allow the kids to run and play. Does anyone else let their kids run in the house or is just us?


* Honey Eggnog

4 cups whole milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 c. honey
1/8 t cinnamon (I think it could use a bit more)
1/8 t nutmeg (again, needs a little more next time)
1/8 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/2 teaspoon rum flavoring (this was omitted - never missed it)

In a large saucepan, combine milk, egg, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, and rum. Chill at least 2 hours.

4 the love of (extended) family

If I don't get these pictures from Christmas posted today I'm going to regret it when I get around to making my blog book. It's already an almost impossible task as it is to get 3 years worth of posts organized. Maybe that should be my New Year's resolution - to get my books put together? We'll see... Speaking of resolutions, check out Steph's post today...I think you'll be glad you did.

Before going to PapaBear's side of the we stopped by my cousin's house. Elsie turned nine on December 16th. I was her nanny until she was five. Where has the time gone? That boy with the goofy face? That would be Porter, hamming it up as usual.


Later, more cousins (2nd cousins this time) posed for a picture (or five)


PapaBear read the Christmas story and then we sang carols before opening gifts.


Hungry Hungry Hippo was a big hit with the kids.


For the adults, hearing of Kevin's engagement was the big news.


On the way home we went to late Mass. I wish I could have taken a picture of the church all lit up. It was -10 and I had Julia in the Kozy so I'll have to rely on my memory for that one.
We got home and put the kids to bed about 12:30 and put the Santa gifts in the stockings. We made an executive decision to leave the gate open so we wouldn't have to get up and open it six hours later. The kids slept until 8:30 and then with pumpkin muffins baking in the oven we checked out what Santa left for us.

Not Me Monday - 15th Edition

We have a rule in our family that we do not go to any businesses on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It was PapaBear's idea. He figures if everybody would play along then all those businesses would stay closed those two days and employees could spend time with their families instead of catering to those who don't plan ahead.
Seeing that that I'm writing my Not Me post, you can probably see where this is going...

On the 23rd I packed everything for our two stops on Christmas Eve as well as my photo equipment for my photo shoot. All I left for the morning was to set out the kids Christmas outfits.
Sam's sweater vest - check
Sam's dress shirt - check
matching socks - check
khaki pants - check

Julia's Christmas dress (same one as last year) - check
tights - ______

Hi! My name is MamaBear and I did not break the Christmas rule. I did not run into Target (with 250 other last minute shoppers - no lie!) to get Julia some black tights. She did not wear 6x tights because they didn't have anything smaller. They did not fit my two year old perfectly.

Later that day we started a new tradition by taking a big family picture. First we took one of the kids like we always do. That is not my daughter standing on her head. Nope. I have no idea who that child belongs to!


Here's the proof that we actually got everyone to cooperate for the big family photo.

Sweet huh? Except maybe for only getting Julia from the chin up. :)
There wasn't an audible gasp the second after the shutter went off because the person nobody noticed was missing from the photo (she was in the basement) walked into the room. That wasn't embarrassing! Not one bit!


After four hours of food, fun, presents, laughter, and tears (PapaBear's cousin announced his engagement) we packed up and headed home. On the way we decided to give going to late Mass a shot. From what I remember Catholic services are usually an hour.
The service did not start late and then last an hour an a half. It was not midnight when we walked out into -10 degree temps. I was not wearing my four year old in my new Kozy Carrier
to stay warm because Julia had been in it on the way in and we only had one coat.
That same four year old did not spend the entire service coloring with Color Wonder or watching intently and very quietly...in his snowman pajamas. I don't know who he belongs to either. :)

Wanna see my new Kozy in action before you go check out more Not Me Monday posts at My Charming Kids?

This is me (yes, my hair is red again), with my niece, Lily.

I didn't get this carrier for free when I purchased a ToddlerHawk from a nice lady on Ebay.
I didn't almost end up with a black one with flames on it. Phew! I wasn't relieved to have asked the seller at the last second to describe the two patterns before I chose my free one. Not me! Free is free right? I would never be so bold to ask under the pretense that black might not be the greatest color because of our white dog.
It's not going to take some convincing to get my hubby out on our ski trails with a 37 pound kid strapped on his back.
Me? I'm ready to strap the 36 pounder on as soon as we get some fresh snow!

I have a feeling most Not Me posts this week are going to be Christmas themed. If you missed my Christmas edition of Not Me Monday you can read it here.

Christmas Eve - Part 1

I don't know about you, but I'm at a loss as to how to creatively post pictures from Christmas this year. I don't like to get behind in posting about things because I feel like it loses the emotion of the day. Yet with so many things going on, I just didn't have the energy to deal with uploading and composing posts each day.

We're all loaded full of sugar (no puking this time!) and just about ready for life as we know it to return to normal.

Our Christmas marathon began at 7:30 Christmas Eve morning. BrotherBear wasn't that anxious to open gifts. He's gotten so used to being told he has to wait that his eyes got as big as saucers when I told him it was time to open gifts.

SisterBear, wearing buttflap jammies, received a Whinnie The Pooh book

and a dollhouse. PapaBear was thrilled to have to put that together. :)


We gave BrotherBear a tool set and a movie (An American Tail)


Even with so few gifts to open it was still chaos afterwards.

The kids made cookies for us and as is tradition, an ornament for Daddy.

I headed off for a photo shoot and PapaBear took care of getting the cubs down for their naps in time to leave for the afternoon/evening/late night.

Christmas was off to a good start. Well, except for that emergency Target run because Julia's black tights were M.I.A. I have no idea how that egg nog got in the bag too.

The Final Card...

Bringing you tidings of comfort and joy

From our family to yours!

The icing on the cake Christmas cookie

Our favorite Christmas party of the season was today. Six inches of snow and high winds didn't stop our crew from getting together to share some holiday cheer at PapaBear's parent's house. We are sleeping over because of the bad weather. You know you have wonderful inlaws when you can invite yourself over at the last minute to spend the night! Julia crashed at 7pm because she didn't take a nap, but Sam is watching The Santa Claus with us. I logged on tonight to check on the status of my offer on this fireplace mantel and to order a free 8x10 from Walgreens. (Use the code "FREEGIFT" by midnight (central time) to order a print for youself)


I'm still deciding which photo to enlarge but as for the fireplace - It's mine for only 25 bucks.
I just need to brave blizzard conditions to pick it up. I can't wait!

Too cute for the cutting room floor

What's a mom to do when she has hundreds of photos that didn't make it into the Christmas card this year? Put them on her blog of course! :)

Wordless Wednesday - Sugar Rush

A far cry from when she got a Candy Cane from Santa last year!

The Big guy

Our pictures with Santa this year aren't as dramatic as Kelli's.


Last year it was a different story. If you are new to my blog or don't remember our visit to Santa last year, click here to see SisterBear and Santa.

BrotherBear has also come a long ways.



Check out Wordless Wednesday tomorrow for SisterBear's latest reaction to getting a candy cane from Santa...

4 the love of Christmas

Esther answered these 25 questions on her blog and I thought it would be fun to answer them for our family. The snow is falling outside and I'm about to curl up in the library next to our tree and do my devotional, but before I do, here's our family's version....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Next year I want to try these for some of the hard to wrap gifts. Sometimes we use gift bags - if we have them from previous years. I've never bought any for Christmas gifts, only reused them.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Both. When I was growing up we had a fake one every year except the year our farm was paid off. That year I insisted we go out to the woods and cut down one from the property. It was the ugliest tree, but oh so special. When we got married we picked out a real tree from the Snyder's Drug Store lot. When BrotherBear was a baby we went to Z's Trees to cut down our own. We did that until SisterBear's second Christmas when we purchased a tree from a lot, 'planted' it in Grandma and Grandpa's yard, then went out to 'chop' down our tree.

This year we chose a wild balsam from a nearby Christmas tree lot, but because we had a few artificial ones we've accumulated and our house is so big, we put a fake one up in the living room and one in Sam's room. Our other fake one is at my sister-in-laws apartment this year.

3. When do you put up the tree? I really like to wait until the first snow fall so it varies each year. Sometimes I get to anxious and get a tree without any snow on the ground. Last year it was December 10th - too late in my book. We've always had great luck with our real trees being up for a whole month and not dropping very many needles.

4. When do you take the tree down? It depends. I like to wait for a weekend where PapaBear can keep the kids distracted so I can work uninterrupted.

5. Do you like eggnog? Like doesn't even come close to my feelings about eggnog. I drink it by the gallon - straight from the container. It is in my top three on my favorite foods list. It is my main protein source for the month of December. I'm not the only one who loves it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The only thing I can think of right now is a 10 speed bike I got at my Grandma and Grandpa's house.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My father-in-law. Once I figure out what to get him, it's clear sailing from there. SisterBear has been difficult to buy for until this Christmas. She started liking art activities around her birthday so that saved us then. Now that she's starting to pretend with dolls and the play kitchen I've got some direction to go with her gift list. We don't do Princesses or Barbies in our house so that shortens the options quite a bit.

8. Easiest person to buy for? BrotherBear. If it has wheels, he'll like it.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Three of them. Two for the kids to play with and one that we keep up high and put the baby Jesus in on Christmas Eve.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. If I'm going to see the family over the holidays I save postage and give them their card in person.

11.Favorite Christmas tradition? There are so many! I can't pick one so here are some I can think of off the top of my head:

Driving around to look at Christmas lights
Singing Carols with PapaBear's extended family before PapaBear reads the Christmas story
Decorating Christmas cookies with PapaBear's family
Unwrapping a Christmas book each night in December
Writing a letter to Santa each year (they are displayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house)
Giving the kids an ornament each year
Making ornaments for PapaBear

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas. A Christmas Story. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The day after Christmas. Seriously! I find some great deals and then spread out the rest of the spending throughout the year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You bet.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? See #5.

16. Lights on the tree? White. Always white. We have some poinsettia garland over a doorway that has green and red lights and SisterBear has pink lights in her room, but our trees and outdoor decorations (none this year, hopefully next year) will always be white.

17. Favorite Christmas songs? "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Always makes me laugh. Of course I do like the more traditional ones too, but this one I don't hear that often so I'm not sick of it.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? Growing up we either had to travel 3 hours or 6 hours to spend holidays with extended family, but our kids won't have to do that. We live 15 minutes from my in laws and no more than an hour or two from any of my family. The downside of this is that we can make it to two gatherings in one day. Hustling from place to place takes away from the magic of the day, yet I feel blessed to have so much family to spend holidays with.
Last year we spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house so the kids could experience what we did as children. We brought all our sleeping bags and slept downstairs by the fire. We even brought our stockings to hang on the fireplace. Now that we live in a park we have to be home to open and close the gate each year.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sure I can, but what I really want to know is whether it's Donner or Donder.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star. A Moravian one. Unless there isn't room - I like my trees to reach the ceiling if possible.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? The four of us open gifts on Christmas Eve morning if there's going to be enough time. This year I have a photo shoot Christmas Eve morning so we might have to wait. We spend Christmas Eve with extended family and open the gift from the gift exchange that night. On Christmas Day we get our gifts from Santa in our stockings. We spend an afternoon/evening with PapaBear's parents opening gifts anywhere from the 23-26th. It all depends on the schedule that year. It's nice to spread things out and not be rushed. We'll spend an afternoon at my mom's new house on Friday, visit with a big group of friends this coming Saturday, and have my FIL's family over here the Sunday after Christmas.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Keeping up with the rest of my life's responsibilities. It's easy and fun to do all the Christmas traditions, but things easily fall apart around here when I don't stay on top of the cleaning and cooking. Last week was rough in that department. This week I planned my menu around the crockpot so things are running smoother. The other thing I struggle with is that we give homemade (food) gifts and I want them to be as fresh as possible. That leaves me scrambling the week of Christmas to get everything made and wrapped.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We don't have a color theme to our ornaments. What I do is pick ornaments for the kids each year that relates to something they are interested in. This year Sam is getting a knit sucker. The kid loves candy so this one fits him perfectly. I found a J that looks like a cutout cookie with frosting for Julia. She learned how to say her name a few months ago (she'd been saying JoJo for a year). I write the year on each ornament so they will know how old their were when they received it. I still hang my ornaments from my childhood on our tree, making for a more old fashioned look to our "bony" tree.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? An electric fireplace. The snow is blowing into our house. Need I say more?

25. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving of course. That's not to say that I don't love the gifts we receive. We are blessed with a generous family and a Savior who gave us the best gift of all.