Our Tradition of Advent

I am so excited that the season of advent is here! This year, we are beginning a tradition with the girls that will hopefully last through the years. Each day of advent, we will do something to make the day special. Some days we will focus on service to others and some days there will just be something fun to do together. Many days will involve cookies in some fashion.

We have this amazing advent house in which I have written out an activity inside each numbered window. My way-to-ambitious goal is to blog each night of what we did for advent that day. With luck, that means I may post a picture--all captions will be bonus.


Although I can still barely grasp the miracle of the birth of Christ, I love that my two year old can understand it in all its simplicity. Our goal is to prepare the girls for Christmas. To talk with them about Jesus. To share our commitment and to be intentional.

Today we celebrated the first day! In the advent house, Kinsley found a piece of paper that read, "Go upstairs to the place you sleep and you will find a special gift."

I wanted to begin with something fun---a new toy!!---while hoping to set the stage for the reason we are celebrating. The nativity will remind us of the first Christmas night and of the birth that caused the angles to sing---the true reason for the season!

Is it November?

Everytime we go the park, I think that we have been spoiled long enough and each time will be the last time. I started saying that in early October---our days at the park have continued far longer than I expected. However, after a 70 degree day, I am actually looking forward to the mid-thirties and freezing rain predicted for tomorrow.

Days at the park or days sippin hot coco, I am tremendously thankful I get to spend them with these precious souls:

All I can say is that my life is pretty plain.......

Remember this......

It reminded me alot of this......

Our week was filled with Halloween fun. We had many events to attend and I think we are now recovering from candy hangovers. Though there were times I had to wrestle Kinsley into her costume, it was worth it. However, for the record, I did let her attend the storytime costume party wearing only a leotard and antennas. This was to spare myself from being the mom in the parking lot forcing the costume on the screaming toddler. I saved those moments for the privacy of our home. In the end, my little love bugs were precious.