School celebrations

Here are a few pictures from the boys' parties at school before the break. I did a little experimenting with Scrapblog:If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or R...

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Heart

CB: "It's a heart, Mom. Dat means Looove."me: "It's beautiful, thank you!"BH: "Yeah, we worked really hard at school to earn dat so we could give it to you."CB: "Aren't you glad you have us?"More than you could possibly know... I am blessed beyond measure every day to have these boys in my life. I gave them each a big hug."Of course, I love all of you boys more than anything!"CB:...

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SEW & WW: Christmas Eve

Hot chocolateChristmas movies (The Grinch, old-school cartoon version, and Polar Express)CandlesA warm fireThree happy and excited boys (minus the one meltdown when I wouldn't let a certain 4-yr-old climb to the top of the cat post, he eventually got over it)What more could a mom want on Christmas Eve?Click here for more Special Exposure Wednesday. For more Wordless Wednesday,...

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Baking cookies

These are from about three weeks ago, I was baking Christmas cookies and the boys wanted to help out :). It was quite the group effort, as you'll see...Little Bitty loved sitting on the counter to help :). Here he was testing the spinning speed of the bowl while I got the ingredients ready, lol.When it was time to stir, Bitty held the bowl while Bearhug did the stirring.They...

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Family pictures!

The last - and only - time we've had family pictures done was five years ago, when Cuddlebug and Bearhug were three years old and I was still pregnant with Bitty (so technically he's in the pictures, you just can't actually see him):Taking our boys to have pictures done is such an ordeal, and one that I typically embark on by myself when I can work up the nerve to attempt it. ...

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For God so loved the world...

(painting by Simon Dewey)For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ~John 3:16For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince...

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Sleepover

Cuddlebug and Bearhug have been having "sleepovers" by the Christmas tree every weekend since we put it up (they'd do it every day if we let them but we limited them to weekends, lol).They had planned to sleep there tonight too but are still upstairs playing. I'm all for staying up late tonight, anything to encourage the possibility of sleeping in a little bit tomorrow (yeah,...

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The Santa dilemma

(Photo taken at Parents' Night Out)Cuddlebug and Bearhug never really showed any interest in Santa Claus until they saw the Polar Express movie (I think they were 5). Even then, they were more interested in the train, but Santa had some relevance to them as the person the train was taking the children in the movie to go see.That year, they kept asking if a train was going to stop...

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Magic Marker Monday: Christmas crafts

We have lots of creativity to share today, I couldn't choose just one and figured better to put them all in one post than still be sharing Christmas art two months from now (no I wouldn't actually do that. Or would I? hehe)Bitty made this cute ornament at school as a gift for us... clearly his teachers helped with the details but the handprint that makes the snowmen is all him...

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Morning help

Thought I'd share in case anyone has similar struggles.We figured out a new strategy for helping the boys get up and moving in the morning (especially Bearhug, and I feel his pain because I am not a morning person either). Mornings have been especially hard lately with it being dark outside and cold. After trying a few other things with little or no improvement, we asked Bearhug...

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The countdown continues...

The boys are all excited for Christmas and it's been so fun having Bitty into it. He is making up for lost time, singing Christmas songs (in his own way) and he keeps pulling this one present out from under the tree wanting to open it. "Opeh... 'Bitty' opeh da book. You wah opeh?" Have I already mentioned that I need to be a little more sneaky with putting things into boxes...

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Spell-a-pa-looza

Yesterday both Bearhug and Cuddlebug handed me their spelling lists so we could work on them. Since they each seemed eager to have me quiz them, I opted to alternate having each of them spell every other word rather than go through the lists one at a time. So we got into a rhythm where I'd call out Cuddlebug's name and a word from his spelling list, he'd spell it and then I'd...

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What's in a name?

Cuddlebug and Bearhug decided a few weeks ago to start calling me "Mom" instead of "Mama." I think some other kids may have given them a hard time about saying "Mama," who knows. They made the switch overnight... one day I was "Mama" and the next? Suddenly I was "Mom."I was not prepared for how weird it would feel or how long it is taking to get used to, but I am slowly getting...

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A glimpse...

Every now and then we get a brief glimpse into what Little Bitty is thinking about. The "inner Bitty," if you will. As I have mentioned before, truly spontaneous speech, unprompted and unscripted, is rare. On the other hand, there is insight to be found in speech of the prompted and/or scripted variety too, of course. I have a whole other post coming together on that ;).So,...

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Getting ready for Christmas (lots of pics!)

This year has been especially fun getting ready for Christmas, thought I'd share some pictures of our tree-decorating escapades...First there was the trip to Walmart to pick up a few remaining decorations that we needed. Aside from climbing everything in sight (which I did not get pictures of, too busy trying to get them down), the boys tried on some festive headgear :). Little...

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