Our Advent celebrations

This year I was invited to participate in making and exchanging ornaments for a Jesse tree.  I had heard about this for celebrating Advent but hadn't looked into much.  But a friend posted something on Facebook and I joined.  I had to make 30 of the same ornament to take to the exchange.  I pick a sheep with shepard's staff thinking I could handle that.  After searching pintrest, Walmart, and the craft store, I found 30 wooden disks.  I already had the tan, black, white paint, and ribbon.  So it ended up only costing about $35 to make.  While Justin was traveling to Cambodia in November I got to work.  I enjoyed painting at night while watching reruns of Gilmore Girls on Netflix!  

 I finished them off with a clear coat of finishing spray. And glued the ribbon to the back.

I was pleased with how they turned out.  I have a hard time free handing crafts.  I have an idea of how I want it to turn out in my head and can rarely get what I create to match!  But these came really close!

And here's our Jesse tree after all the ornaments were added.  One was added each day corresponding to that day's reading.  We really enjoyed this and will look forward to doing this for many years to come.

 The day after Christmas we had the Morgan's and her sister over for a Christmas meal.  We did Marie's kabobs and they didn't disappoint!  I got new plates and placemats for Christmas.  Will folded all the napkins into Christmas trees after watching a video on how to do that.  I thought he did a great job and it really added to the look of the table.

 It was a wonderful evening of visiting and catching up.  We even played some Apples to Apples after.

 Aunt Patt, the giant stuffed dog from many many years ago made a great pillow for Caroline and Miles to watch football!

Christmas Day Celebrating

Christmas morning did not start bright and early for us this year.  Will was the last one up and he didn't roll out of bed until 7:10!  We all enjoyed seeing the items Santa brought and then started opening all the wrapped gifts.  We paused gift opening, ate a quick breakfast (standing in the kitchen) of scrambled eggs and sweet bread toasted, and then headed in different directions.  Justin and Caroline went to an industrial kitchen to help make pancakes and eggs, while the boys and I went to the Chapel to help serve the soldiers and families, that aren't in housing yet, breakfast.  This event has been growing each year and this year over 400 people were served breakfast!!  

 I love this picture!  Will was not aiming at his brother.  And he's closing the wrong eye, but I just love this one.

 Paused.  The den still looks like this minus the trash.  We have some picking up to do!

 Miles was not far away all morning!

 Caught this smile at just the right moment!  She was thrilled about her Kindle and new case.

 Caroline and Zoe playing on the slack line she got.

 Will and Eric playing tennis ball which is a lot like tether ball.  Justin and I also played and worked up a sweat!  It's a fun game!  My right shoulder is sore today from playing!

 After all the excitement of the day (and he didn't feel his best) Eric was done.  Telling him it was too late for a story did him in and Justin scooped a crying heap of legs and arms off the floor and put him to bed.  Will came out of his room about 5 minutes later (tummy hurting) and said Eric was already asleep!

Merry Christmas all!  We enjoyed all our FaceTime calls with you as well.  It was great seeing everyone.

An Abundance of Rainbows

Have I mentioned that it's been raining a lot lately?  Well, it has been raining.  But with all that rain there are beautiful rainbows.  SO. MANY. RAINBOWS.  I saw 5 just the other day, 5!!  Low ones, high ones, double ones, super bright ones, fat ones, I love them all.  I mean this is the rainbow state.  

 The one below was a full one right over the flag going down at 5pm.

The rainbows just never get old!  I love seeing them and how they can be so different.

Sledding in December

Two weekends ago Justin and a buddy went a bar near Barber's Point.  So I picked up his wife and kids and we went to the beach right near where the boys were.  After the game was over they joined us for a day at the beach.  It was a great relaxing day.  All the kids played so well together.

The Hideaway club is a neat place according to Justin.  There is a potluck every week!

 With all the rain we have been having and still are, it was so nice to sit in the warm sun.

 We had the beach almost all to ourselves.

Christmas Program

This morning was Eric's preschool Christmas program.  Caroline and Will are done with school until Jan 6th so they were able to join us.  He did great and it was fun to watch him sing.

He was a wise man and wore the tallest crown.

 There are lots of kids in his class.

Eric is on the far left.

 There's my croc wearing wise man!

Here are the videos of the songs they sang.

Will's football season

Flag football season is over.  The twice a week practices and games every Saturday for 2 months are done!  Will wishes it wasn't over.  It was a great season, lots of growth from Will as a player and teammate, and wonderful coaches.  Will wasn't sure about how the season was going to go when we first found out they changed the rules of how the game was played.  Not sure what format Youth Sports was using in previous years but this year they switched to the NFL Play 60 flag football rules.  No rushing was a big rule change for Will and one he WAS NOT thrilled about.  He LOVES to rush the quarterback and now he couldn't.  His coach still found a way for it to be fun for Will and he still interrupted offensives!  He hiked every snap, every game.  Only fumbled 1 snap.  He even got a safety (the refs didn't know what to do with it though)!  His attitude was much improved over last year and he showed some impressive speed for a bigger kid!!  I don't have many pictures or videos.  Justin and I try not to bring out our phones during his games.  The last 2 games we tried to get video but every time we went filming Will would make a great catch, making a diving flag pull, or have a big (funny) collision with another player.  Oh well!  You should come visit and watch this kid play.  If you ask him, he says he's going to play in the NFL.  So watch out!!

Will is number 8 on the blue team.

 Getting ready to hike the ball.

 Running his slant route.

Will also got invited to play on an Army team.  They practiced the other 2 days he wasn't already practicing.  Although he didn't get much practice time with them because of all the rain.  This team had 1 game down at Hickam.  It was against a Navy team.  The kids did really well.  They lost this game.  It was a tough loss because the adults apparently weren't communicating very well.  One team thought we were playing with one set of rules and the other team thought we were playing with a different set of rules.  After it was figured out what was allowed (Will could rush the QB, and did very well!) then our team did great!

Eric playing with friends at the game.

After season party.

Will has been letting his hair grow.  He wants it long.  He likes the fact that he can spike it up just using his sweaty, little hands!  He will spike just one side and leave the other side down.  So silly!  He also gets many comments on how blonde his hair is.

Oh Will!  We sure do love you!!

Christmas Work Party

Friday after the kids got home from school we went to Barbers Point for Justin's work party.  The party was a disappointment, but the location was beautiful!  How can you go wrong with a beach party in December?!

Caroline and Eric played in the surf.

 That's the party back there under the pavilions.  Will stayed in the bounce house.

 Eric enjoyed sitting in the sand while the waves washed over him.

 He was covered in sand!

 This perspective makes his legs look even longer than they already are!  Please note the festive toenail polish.

We were supposed to have dinner there but that didn't happen.  We did find a local pizza place that hit the spot.