A sister bond

What an amazing honor it is to watch your sister grow from a baby you so fondly remember holding in your arms, to a young woman who sits next to you.

The last 3 weeks have been an absolute gift to me as I've gotten to spend them with that young woman. Staying up late, doing our hair, sharing clothes, secrets and stories. It's the kind of bond that can never be explained, or broken. It's been 2 very long years since I've seen her and the long-awaited reunion was everything I hoped it would be. I've had so much fun watching her play with my babies. It's been such a treat to watch her fall in love with them, just as much as I do.And now, as I sit here helping her print her boarding pass out to get on a plane and fly 3000 miles away from me I am pretty darn sad about it. But I know that it's not goodbye.... it's see you later.

Pimp my Ride or The Cozy Coupe Transformation

I wracked my brain this year thinking of something really great to get my boys. But as I looked at my budget, I just couldn't get them the newest and greatest. By chance, I was browsing craigslist and found an incredible deal on 2 very old Cozy Coupes. At $10 each, I simply couldn't pass them up. The owners powerwashed them for me, and even though they were sparkly clean, they were still somewhat faded and definitely LOOKED like a craigslist buy. So I decided, after much research on the internet, to refurbish them. Here's what they looked like:

I bought the Krylon plastic covering spray paint and got to work covering the bottom in painter's tape. I painted BOTH of the top parts of the car a shiny black color. I started with the top because I knew if it dripped it would be alright, and I wanted to get the black over with, since that is the hardest to recover and repaint if you mess up. Once I did a few coats, they looked like this:

In my house, color is important. It's how you set apart what's yours from what's your brother's. Everything that Elijah owns is blue, everything Noah owns is green. So naturally, I had to make a blue one and a green one. Spray painting those were a challenge. I taped plastic bags on all the wheels and the black spots that I didn't want to get paint on. Even so, things leaked through and I ended up having to put several coats on them. I think it's the perfectionist in me probably. But after several coats, and several days, I ended up with a pretty amazing result. Ofcourse, I highly reccomend putting a coat of see-through polyurethane on top, to keep scratches and ruboffs from rearing their ugly heads. But, it worked pretty well considering:

It was so fun on Christmas morning peeling back the curtain and revealing their "new" toys. I found it quite hilarious that they both knew exactly which one was theirs, without having to be told. Ahhh, the simplicity of having those familiar colors- no fighting.

Christmas: Through the eyes of a child

I used to think I knew what Christmas was about. I heard the story a thousand times, and thought of it's meaning. I thought about how amazing it was to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. But it wasn't until I became a mother that I truly understood just how precious the birth of a baby can be. This year, I had the priviledge of talking to my sons about what Christmas was about. Their responses were... pretty amazing.

When asked about why we celebrate Christmas, Elijah replied, "Mama, Christmas is Jesus' berfday. Eets not my berfday mama, it's Jesus'. "

This is the story, as told by Elijah, Noah and mama, of Jesus' Berfday:

There was a baby named Jesus. He had a mama, and a dada who loved him a "wot". But they couldn't find a crib for him, so he had to sleep in a barn. He cried "wah" just like baby "o-wee-a" (Olivia) cries. Then there were some kings with big crowns on their heads who followed the "twinkle twinkle widd-uh star" to the barn where Jesus was born. They gave him presents and there were cows "moo" there. There were also some farmers who were watching their sheep and an ANGEL came to them and told them about where baby Jesus was. Then all the farmers and kings bowed down to worship him. And the angels danced around and had a big party. - This is the part where Noah said "dance" and him and Elijah started dancing all over the room.

And that's when I totally lost it. How wonderful it is to look at Christmas through the eyes of my children. I so enjoyed dancing in celebration of Jesus- my King. It really made me think of how the angels must have been partying up there. I thought about Christ sitting on his thrown right now smiling, just as I smiled, as I watched little Noah and Elijah dancing for Jesus. I wonder if he got a small tear in his eye, as I did, when Elijah said, "Mama, for Jesus' berfday, I want to give him a berfday cake."

Thank you boys, for helping me to keep the reason for the season in my heart...always.

A very Coldplay Christmas

If you know me at all, you'll know that nothing gives me as much pleasure in life than a new Coldplay song. And this holiday season, they wowed me with a Christmas song.

Now, I know that perhaps I am just a TAD biased here, but I have to say it is fast approaching one of my new favorite Christmas songs. Why? Other than the obvious: Chris Martin's mezmorizing vocal tone. Because it's not a song about happy reindeer, or old saint nick. It's a beautiful poetic symphony about Christmas when you're in a fight and depressed. Still, somehow hoping that Christmas Lights will make everything better.

Ofcourse, the line "When your still waiting for the snowfall...Doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all" just hits right where it hurts. Being in Redding, that is exactly how I feel.

And I must say that you can't grasp the awesomeness of this song until you've seen the music video- true story. Okay, enough of this verbal PDA. All this to say it's a great song, hope you enjoy.