i feel a haiku coming on!

cookies will be made
tonight to prepare for the
snowed-in band of crazies.

you know, cause what's better to help ease the time of homeboundness than a sugar rush? that's right - nothing! cookies are the perfect snowed-in food - they're bribes for good behavior, currency for some mama alone-time, and rewards for a whole hour of not hitting, squishing, poking, or crowding anyone. long live the cookie!

cacophony is the word of the day...

...which i totally had to look up to make sure it meant what i thought it meant (it does, but i had spelled it wrong). cacophony means "harsh discordance of sound" as well as "frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand" - both are appropriate to describe the hacking coughs resounding off our walls. and who is the crazed woman chasing children with tissues in hand to prevent the unthinkable (someone wiping their nose with their hand and then getting it somewhere near their eyes)? oh, yeah, that's me. do you wish you were here? not so much.

prayers and thankfulness

i read this post today, and it totally sums up my feelings about what's happening in haiti. it hurts my heart to think of the families who are grieving or searching. i'm also immensely grateful to be a part of this church and its ongoing efforts to help. excuse me for a minute, i feel the need to go smother my children with kisses and look them in the eyes and say "love you," and hope they know just how much i mean it.

back to normal-ish

hey, there, peeps!
sorry to have been in absentia for so long, but james took off for the tropics! for almost a whole week! and, while james was enjoying this:

the kids and i were "enjoying" this:

but, don't worry, we had provisions:

actually, said provisions were distributed to a few other families, since me + cookies + snowstorm = no sharing + lots more junk in the trunk. seriously. anyhoo, we got 2 inches of snow and the kids had 4 days off of school! with a weekend in the middle! so really 6 days off of school! for 2 inches of snow! so weird, but the kids did pretty well at getting along and rolling with an early-ish bedtime every night. (gotta keep my sanity!) so, now james is home (yay!) and we're getting back into the 40's (double yay!), so everything is good all around. happy day!

happy new year!!

happy new year!
we hope your year is filled with love and laughter!

advents for kei

kei asked about advent calendar ideas, so i found a few that i thought were awesome! check out these from whip up - i especially love the string of stockings (#10), the string of envelopes (#24), the sewn pockets one (#16), but my absolute favorite is the 'snowing presents' advent calendar (#4) - LOVE it! maybe for next year? we'll just have to see. i've also seen advent calendars that use favor boxes or jars - just add your numbers and daily surprises! the jar advent was especially clever, i thought, since you could vary the size of the jar to accommodate the day's treat - small for a slip of paper, or large for the ingredients of a recipe or craft project. i made this one this year, using plastic bead jars and magnets:

not bad, eh? oh, and don't forget the ol' standby: the advent paper chain! hope this sparks your ideas!

christmas in collages

merry christmas!!!
we have been busy bees and lazy bees - just enjoying our time together this christmas.
hope you like our christmas in collage form (it would've added years to my life to upload each of these pix individually - thank you, picasa!)
anyhoo, on with the show!
here we are, enjoying the christmas lights and giant nativity at opryland:

and here's a miscellaneous collage - kalei's informal christmas piano recital, cookies for santa, the kids on our trip to deliver goodies to friends and neighbors, our gingerbread village, and our ornament addition this year: birdhouses (going with the idea that we stayed 'home' this year):

christmas eve, we upheld the navalta tradition of acting out the nativity story. we had a thoughtful mary, a reverent wise man, and a very curious and enthusiastic shepherd:

christmas morning! ever since we moved to kentucky, we have kept the tree gift-less until christmas morning - it helps keep little fingers from 'accidentally' opening gifts early and also adds a little 'ka-pow!!' to these guys' anticipation. here they are anticipating (kawelo's a little groggy - we had to actually wake him up - next year, he'll lead the charge, i'm sure):

followed with their delight of actually finding something under the tree!

(yes!! santa forgave our last-minute naughtiness!)
we hope you all had a wonderful and magical christmas!

p.s. if you were counting, i used 'christmas' 10 times - 11 if you include this sentence - yay, me!