Silver and Staples

I love when I enter a home that is lovingly, carefully decorated, especially when you can tell that it's happened over time and each piece has been chosen because it struck someone's eye and they had to have it. I do not feel this way about my own home yet. Especially around holidays, I tend to beat myself up for not spending more time and money to make my home into a holiday happiness that my family and friends can enjoy. I was feeling that way before Thanksgiving this year. We were having my Mom over and I felt like the house was bare, that I didn't have any special decorations planned, no beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece, etc. I determined that next year it would be different. Then I went down to the garage for something and what did my eyes behold? A utensil tray full of dirt - AND SILVER! There was a full set of beautiful, tarnished silverware - even serving pieces! I brought it upstairs and admired it. Mom brought over some silver polish and Malachi set to work. He made every piece gleam, and it was gorgeous. Thank you Lord for such a gift!

On Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving at Tony & Rabae's house. Now SHE had a gorgeous Thanksgiving setup! But anyway, right around 1:00 Caris fell backwards from a tug of war game and hit the back of her head on their granite hearth. Alif scooped her up and was getting some ice when I saw that there was blood down the back of her shirt. Thankfully, Tony's brother Nick was there. He is an EMT and really helped out. He said it probably needed a staple, so Canaan & Caris & I took off for urgent care. The doctor agreed, probably a staple or two. A nurse cleaned it all up (was THAT hard to watch!! but Caris laid still and quiet the whole time!) and when the doctor came back in she said it was bigger than she thought. It ended up with three staples. Watching her do that was one of the hardest things ever as a Mom. Caris was so brave, lying still and crying softly into the table. I feel like I let the doctor do something barbaric to my little girl, but what else could be done? Her scalp was gaping open and had to be fixed. It certainly could have been a lot worse, but watching her have to have staples in her head was no fun. She's healing up wonderfully and we even got to wash her hair today.

Kids' Christmas Production

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9551363592

pics

Triplets, anyone?

When the kids and I walked into the WIC office today, everyone was smiling at us. A lady who was there with her kids asked, "are they triplets?" It took me a minute to realize she was referring to Malachi, Graham and Caris. I said, "Oh - no, they're not." She said, "Oh, ok - I saw that they (Malachi and Graham) were twins and then thought that she looks a lot like them too." ROFL! I said, "Oh - they're 9, 7 and 4, but boy triplets would have been a lot of work!" Ha ha ha! I get asked A LOT if Malachi & Graham are twins, but triplets - that was a first.

He's so precious

When I look down and I can just see Canaan's big brown eyes peering up at me, or his little sausage fingers reaching up to see what he can find on top of my desk, or hear his new spitting-all-the-time exuberance, sometimes I get tears in my eyes. I remember to thank God for this most beautiful gift.

Malachi, the white Ninja (no, the colors don't mean anything, they're just generic ninja costumes)
Graham, the red Ninja (or ninya, however you prefer LOL) ;-)
Caris, the big green Dragon - my little princess ROFL
Canaan's 1st Halloween, wearing the same Pooh costume his big brothers wore
Pooh didn't make it very long. We took him to one house trick-or-treating, fed him some carrots out of the split pea soup and then he was pretty much ready for bed. Don't worry, he didn't sleep in his costume. LOL