As many of you know, Jim had this last week off. His company requires you to use all vacation time within the calender year. And we have no complaints with that policy. We chose this past week (12-1 to 12-9 including weekends) because our family has two big events in early December. Our wedding anniversary (3 years now!) was on the 5th, and Daelynn's 2nd birthday was on the 8th.
As many of you also know, this past week has been... well, not what we expected. It has been a difficult week, to say the least. But for all the bad that did occur, there was still joy to be found. And we really did our best to make the most of our time together.
Here is a glimpse into the joys of our week:
I wanted to start our week off with a good note, so I made these delicious Cinnamon Roll Pancakes for breakfast. Thank you pintrest.
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| This is on the skillet |
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| And this is after they come off, all swirled and covered in cinnamon caramel sauce. |
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| Here is Daelynn's with the glaze on, ready to eat. Yum! |
Next on our list was the Spring Hill Christmas Parade. The weather was incredible! Couldn't have asked for better. And we had wonderful company, sitting with some of our closest friends and some new friends as well.
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| Waiting for the parade to start. |
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| Daelynn waiting patiently with her cheerios. |
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| Blake had his cheerios too. |
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| And there were candy canes! |
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| Yay! |
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| Bubba had a good seat for the parade |
Here are some of the floats we really liked:
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| This was so cool to see. It was huge. |
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| Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. |
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| A sleigh led by... deer heads, Yes! This float was awesome! |
Other key events while Jim was home all week included:
Our first Advent Celebration!
It was a wonderful time to learn about the season of Advent, both at our wonderful church, and at the celebration held at our friends' home. We are learning about the season, about new traditions, and enjoying getting to sing and have great fellowship.
Lots of play time with the kiddos!
Daelynn got in some good work on her somersaults.
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| pre-somersault |
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| post-somersault |
And some fun with our letter blocks!
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| We made a long tunnel with it that Daelynn loved. |
We also made several trips to some local parks. And this being our first December in the south, the warm weather has been both a shock and a treat. But there are some down sides to that wonderful warm weather. One of our trips to the park ended rather suddenly because I got stung by a bee! In December! That is definitely a new one for us. :) But all of our other park excursions were very pleasant.
Jim and I enjoyed lots of time together on our anniversary. The kids spend a good part of the day with friends, and we got to spend some much needed time together. Included in our time was a dinner date and a nice stroll together in the starlight.
We tackled some of our "honey-do" list.
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| Here is Jim with his "helpers" hanging up all the frames for our family photos. |
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| Here is the finished product. What a great job they did! ;) |
Also included was baby gate instillation, furniture rearranging, and various odds and ends. Thank you honey. :)
We did crafts.
We had been wanting to get some stocking holders to put the stocking up on the mantel. We went to the store to find out that the only ones they had were nearly $10 each! So I decided to get creative and see if I could make my own.
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| Came up with this one on my own, lol. And it worked out pretty good. |
We used cans of tomato sauce, wrapping paper, some spare garland, and butter knifes. And...
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| Tada! Works for me! |
With Daelynn's birthday party we were planning on making some ornaments. And I had wanted to do a test run on them, which didn't really happen before the original date of the party. But since the party had to be rescheduled, after one batch of dough was already made, our opportunity was upon us. So we made some cookie cutter ornaments.
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| My big helper stamping out some ornaments. |
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| What fun! :) |
On Daelynn's birthday we let her open the presents from family, and had a small family party for her. Included was a paint set. And she got to enjoy some fun time painting. She really loved it!
We ended our week with a movie night on Sunday. We threw all the pillows and blankets on the floor, snuggled up together, and watched Brave. :)
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| Movie night! |
And, although this was on Monday, after Jim went back to work, I included it because it pertained to our week. I decided after such a long and stressful week, and Jim having to go back to work, we all needed something sweet. And I had the best big helpers in the kitchen to help me make some sweet goodies!
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| Mommy's big girl! |
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| Yummy, delicious cinnamon rolls before their second rise, then into the oven. |
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| Fresh from the oven |
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| Oh so delicious! |
We had these warm gooey rolls with chili for dinner. And then brought some along with us to our second Advent celebration with friends. And the comfort food and fellowship was a wonderful way to ease our transition back into the work week.
God blessed us with a good week, even though he also put us through trials. We had so much love and support from the people in our lives, and everlasting love and support from our Father in Heaven.
Our eyes are on our blessings.
