Air conditioning in December??

The temperature is dropping and the wind is howling outside as I write this (becoming a very familiar sound around here), but this morning and afternoon were a totally different story. Not only did we not need coats to go run our errands today, but the boys kept complaining that they were hot! We even had to turn on the air in the van to keep the whining to a minimum.

The poor boys were forced to run errands with me ALL DAY today, so their treat was getting to eat out at Chick-fil-A (or Chick-ta-lay, as they call it), play at the play place and trade their toys in for ice cream (which we ate outside!). Gotta love Chick-fil-A and the fact that one of the only freestanding ones in the metro area is only about 10-15 minutes from our house and on the way to the mall.

(excuse the food in Ethan's mouth - he was very excited about the Chick-ta-lay)

Let the Games Begin

We love playing board games and so do Barry and Vicki so we jumped at the chance last night when they came over and all the boys decided to play upstairs after dinner. We're so glad they are here so close to us. I met Vicki the first day of grad school in Tennessee of all places! Now we live in the same county, and they've been such a blessing in our lives since that day. Their two boys are adorable (you've seen them in some other posts), and our boys love them! We definitely need to get together more often.

And the game....the boys won this one (it came to an abrupt end when the boys tired of playing upstairs). There will be many games in our future this season - I'm can guarantee a game of Cranium will be played at my parents' house and probably Catch Phrase on New Year's Eve. Yes!

Christmas Eve

Well, the kids are tucked into bed (on the air mattress in Elliott's room as they preferred tonight) and we've finished with our Christmas Eve festivities. Beautiful candlelight service at church, pizza, decorating Santa's cookies for his snack tonight, hot chocolate by the fire and opening the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th boxes of the interactive nativity set we bought this week. Now it's time for these elves to get to bed. Merry Christmas!!!

Pay it forward

Today the boys and I had to do a Walmart run, so we stopped in at Subway before we started our shopping. While we were eating, I noticed a lady smiling at me. Almost kind of laughing with that "I can remember those days" look that I get sometimes when we're out. I didn't think much about it, but then after she got her sandwich she came by our table and asked if the boys could have cookies. She had bought them (us) chocolate chip cookies. We thanked her and told her she didn't have to do that. "I just wanted to. They're cute boys" she said. The boys were kind of bewildered as to why someone would do that. After a few moments Elliott said "We should do something nice like that for someone shouldn't we Mom? Like that lady gave us cookies. We should do something nice for someone else." Aaahhh...a teachable moment! I was so excited and we talked about how that is called "paying it forward". When someone does something nice and unexpected and then that person does something for someone else, etc. Of course, they're both confined to their rooms at the moment for assaulting each other one too many times today, but I think they really learned something from that sweet lady today. Thank you, whoever you are!

Dancing Lights

One of our Christmas traditions is going out one night with hot chocolate and cookies in hand, driving around some of the neighborhoods to look at all the Christmas lights. This year one of the moms in Elliott's class was telling me about a house that has lights that dance to the music near the theater by our house. She promised that it was a must-see, and she was right. It was really cool (and a lot of work for someone). I noticed that besides the lights, it looked like the only other decoration in the yard was a manger scene front and center, which I thought was really neat.

I debated which video to upload (we caught two of the songs), because the second one was a version of the First Noel and you can hear Elliott singing in the background - love that. But I chose this one because I thought the light choreography was neater.





And the funniest thing, I thought, was that as we were driving by I looked into the upstairs window and saw this:


If you've ever seen A Christmas Story, you're laughing your head off right now.

Brrr...

I just want to say that we just got home from a fun evening at our friends' house (thanks Skip and Janji!) and the temperature is 6 degrees outside. But it feels like -13 degrees (which I guess is mild compared to the -80 wind chill I experienced my freshman year at U of I - did I really go to class in that weather? Yes, I am a rule follower!). Did I mention how much I love this weather? Actually it hasn't bothered me that much as long as it isn't icy and I am blessed with a warm car or house to shelter me.

Took this picture this morning before church. They both insisted on spiking their own hair today. And Elliott was not amused with my attempt at cuteness with their matching outfits (thanks for the sweaters, Aunt Meemer). They were both totally fine with the pants and sweaters, but that was the end of the line for Elliott. He was not wearing the cute argyle matching socks I had gotten a deal on this fall. And he was not wearing the nice brown shoes we had purchased for church and other "dress-up" occasions. Okay. You win this time. White socks and tennis shoes for you - and you let everyone know when they would make nice comments about how you and Ethan matched "Not my socks. Or my shoes - see?"
And they were not excited about having to get a picture either. They tried to be as silly as possible, but I actually think it worked out well cause I love this picture of them.

Tuscan Chicken

I made this a couple of days ago and was reminded of how much we like this, so I thought I'd share the recipe:

Tuscan Chicken Breasts

1 c. chopped onion

1 c. each chopped sweet yellow and red peppers

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. minced garlic

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4-6 oz each) flattened to 1/2-inch thickness

1 can (14.5 oz) Italian diced tomatoes (plain diced tomatoes work fine, too)

2/3 c. chicken broth or white cooking wine

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp. pepper

hot cooked pasta

1/4 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet, saute onion and peppers in oil for 4-5 min. or until crisp-tender. Stir in garlic; cook 1-2 min. longer or until vegetables are tender. Place chicken over vegetables. Add the tomatoes, broth, vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper flakes and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until chicken juices run clear and sauce is thickened. Serve with pasta. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Makes 4 servings.

(From Simple and Delicious Magazine)

We made it with gnocchi this time - yummy! Enjoy.

Oh I Want a Hippopotamus....

Ethan's preschool Christmas program was today and it was a "Pajama Party for Jesus". They celebrated this morning with breakfast for Jesus' birthday and then at 10:30 filed into the sanctuary for their program. One of the songs they sang was the Hippopotamus song and the kids in front had these hippo masks - too cute! Of course, every time Ethan saw me hold the camera up he tried to cover his face. I'm surprised I even got this shot! The kids and teachers did a fabulous job!

I'm so thankful for Appletree and their focus on teaching the kids about Jesus. The Christmas party centered around a birthday party for Jesus - not the presents, candy, etc. All of that stuff is fun, too, of course, but I like knowing that the kids are being taught the real reason for Christmas and instilling values and priorities that we try to teach at home, also.

Let it Snow....

The boys were so excited when they saw snow this morning. It really wasn't enough to play in, but they wanted to go out anyway (of course!). Somehow they even managed to sled down the hill a few times. But they were most proud of these snow angels.





I couldn't believe they wanted to stay out for so long - the wind chill was something like 8 degrees. But then I remembered how much I loved going out in the snow with my sisters and our neighbor, Abby, when I was their age, coming in to get some hot chocolate and let our scarves, gloves, etc. dry in the dryer and then being ready to go right back out!


This is my sister Erin and I with a snowman that I'm sure my dad helped us build. According to the back of the picture this was in 1978 so Erin was 2 and I was 3.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Each year I get a new building for our Christmas village - when we saw this Walmart Supercenter we had to get it. No it doesn't really go with the other Dickens-looking facades, but it had to be part of our village. Notice that a few of the train cars have been derailed and covered with snow - yes, boys put this together!

And the sugar cookies - the boys have been asking for a couple of weeks now when we were going to do the "icing cookies". They always help cut them out and then decorate them, and I really enjoy doing this with them. Since we've been iced in for the past 2 days we decided that this was a great time to do the cookies. And, no, for some reason Ethan chooses not to wear a shirt even when it's below 20 outside (he does dress appropriately when he goes outside though!)

Nana and PaPa sent these Advent Calendars to the boys at the end of November, and they've been a hit! I don't think they've forgotten a day yet!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I love decorating for Christmas, and my favorite part is looking at all of it glow at night. It would've been even better if we had a fire in the fireplace (which we need since it's only 16 degrees outside!)

Christmas on Main Street

So Brian will probably remind me every chance he gets that it very well may have been the coldest day possible to take the boys down to Main Street in St. Charles, but it was well worth it! We had wanted to go last year, but the icy weekends prevented that so I wanted to make sure we got it in early this year.

Every year St. Charles puts on "Christmas Traditions" where Christmas characters stroll up and down Main Street in costume. What was so neat was that they were really in character, too. Each character that we saw had a perfect accent and was so entertaining with stories and activities to help the kids learn about who they were. And, for my collecting-crazy Elliott, they each gave out cards that had the character's picture on the front and background information on the back along with what number out of 29 they were. Elliott was a little disappointed that we didn't get all 29!

Ethan started getting into it, too, after we stopped at Little Hills and sat in the heat drinking hot chocolate for a while - he was not a happy icy camper before that! I think their favorites were the Master of Revels (he played jokes on them), Jack Frost (he teased Ethan about having a wretched hot beverage), and the Sugar Plum Fairy (who we searched for all over). I think they also liked the Nutcracker Prince and remembered a little of what he told them, because the next day we were in Walmart and they saw some Nutcrackers and started talking about them and looking for the Mouse King!

Oh, and I was so excited to find out that Frontier Santa is inspired by Mr. Edwards' visit in Little House on the Prairie - I know Erin will remember that with me!

This was so much fun and definitely one of my most favorite Christmas outings. I highly recommend making the trip down there - especially if you have kids!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

So we're driving home a few minutes ago from a whirlwind trip to Walmart and Target (never a good idea after both boys have been at school but it was a must today), and we are "discussing" why the boys couldn't buy toys today and how incredibly hard it is to wait until Christmas to open any presents. And the conversation ends up like this:

Elliott: (in a most annoying whining voice) "But it's soooo hard to wait!"
Me: "I know" (for like the 15th time in the past 10 minutes)
Ethan: "Besides, today is Christmas"
Me: "No, if today was Christmas we would all be at home with Daddy and just hanging out having fun"
Elliott: "Yeah, we would open presents and not do anything else"
Ethan: "Oh. Then it must be Easter"

What?!

No more treadmill?

Most of you know that I lost about 20 pounds last year and I will always say that I couldn't have done that if it weren't for a few things:

black bean quesadillas
Weight Watchers Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sundaes
Water
McDonald's Snack Wraps
Chick-Fil-A Charbroiled Chicken Sandwiches (only 2 points without the bun!!)
McDonald's Southwest Salads (does it seem that we ate at McDonald's a lot?)
Applebee's Weight Watchers entrees
Weight Watchers online tracking program

and

the treadmill

I learned to run on the treadmill at least 3 times a week at a speed of 5 mph for 30 minutes or more and honestly loved it! When we moved out of our apartment and I didn't have such convenient access to my beloved treadmill I didn't workout for probably 6 months. Then when I did get to the gym I started back up on the treadmill - harder to get back to what I was doing this time. But then my knees started hurting a little bit. I thought maybe I should try the elliptical for a while. So I got used to it and always brought my iPod to listen to the latest Andy Stanley podcast. But one day I just really wanted to run on the treadmill. So me and my iPod just hopped right up there. However, the multitasking of running on the treadmill while changing programs on the iPod is much more tedious on the treadmill than the elliptical, and let's just say that I now know that there is some kind of safety mechanism that triggers that big machine to stop when your feet are no longer on the belt but flailing on the side instead.

So as much as I love the treadmill, and as much as it has helped me in the past, might it be time to give it up? I'm sticking to the elliptical for now until Brian convinces me to run a 5K in the spring - then maybe I can brave it again!

Quote of the Day

After a long debate about whether I was going to cook dinner or we were going out to dinner or we were going to grab some pizza or we were going to pick up some pizza and eat at home (whew...hard to relive that again!) - and I know most of you who have had to make this decision with us before are rolling their eyes painfully (we're not good decision makers because we usually just don't care), we finally settled on Brian picking up pizza and bringing it home with some much missed Vanilla Coke for me.

So we're sitting at the table and I realize that the boys have Vanilla Coke in their cups too. And they can't sit still in their chairs and they can't talk in any other voice than loud or annoying. I mention something like "Whose idea was the Coke?" to Brian and Ethan says in his grovelly voice,

"I need my caffeine!!!"

We blame each other for how his little 4 year old self even knows anything about caffeine and definitely for who he heard that phrase from (seriously, it has to be from Brian's morning coffee routine, right?). When asked where he heard that, though, he replied that one of his little friends at school said it - whew!

Homemade Goodies

How good does this look? Home made bread and home made grape jelly....yummmm!! I cannot wait to slice this and enjoy a piece tonight! My friend, Nyla, gave this to me as a thank-you for watching her daughter this afternoon - so so sweet of her and so unnecessary. That's the great thing about good friends, though. They don't "need" to do nice things for you - they just want to. It has made me stop and think about the last time I did something so thoughtful for someone, so I'm challenging myself to do something just as thoughtful for an unexpecting friend this week!

I have to share this though. At first I wondered how she knew that I loved home made bread so much. I would expect Vicki or my sisters to know this, but Nyla and I haven't known each other very long. But in the last month or so we have come to realize that we have A LOT in common. Imagine my surprise when I found out that she was as big of a Becky Higgins fan as I was - ha! And her husband follows Fox News as much as mine does. Anyway, my curiosity lasted only a few seconds cause it hit me that we are alike in so many other ways that of course she would know that I love home made bread (and any other home made goodies!) cause she probably loves it too! I love when God just places someone in your life unexpectedly and opens new doors of friendship and fellowship - life is so good when you let Him be in charge. I'm so grateful for all of the wonderful friendships that He has blessed me with - both old and new!

Now off to that slice of bread......

Layouts

For my scrapbooking friends..........a couple of layouts (I was inspired by the snowfall over the weekend!)

Chicken Nuggets

Hey guys! So sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. This week has gotten away from me with unexpected responsibilities that popped up. I promise to write more over the weekend, but for now here's a kid-tested and kid-approved chicken nugget recipe (Elliott actually thanked God for "Mommy making special chicken nuggets just for us!" in his bedtime prayers the night I made these!). It's really not that difficult and it's got to be at least a little healthier than McDonald's and even the frozen variety (or maybe I'm just telling myself that -ha!).

Chippy Chicken Nuggets (yes, I made that up)

1 egg

2 Tbsp milk

4 cups crushed chips (I used SunChips cause they are healthier and made with whole grains)

1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Whisk egg and milk in a shallow bowl. Place chips in another shallow bowl. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then roll in chips. Place in a single layer on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes or until juices run clear. 4 servings

First Snowfall

So last night before I went to bed I noticed that our neighbor's driveway was wet. I hadn't heard rain, so I looked out and sure enough there were huge snowflakes floating down! I have to admit it was really peaceful for those few moments just standing there watching them gently land in the light from the street. But then I remembered I had Ethan's comforter hanging on the deck to dry - yeah, not so dry anymore.

Then I was surprised when Elliott woke me up this morning asking if they could play in the snow. There was a little blanket on the grass and roofs (not on the roads - just the way I like it). I'm still fighting this cold/sinus infection/whatever it is, so we didn't go to church and the boys did play out - twice - until Elliott thought it was way cool to torment Ethan by shoving snow down his back!

Happy Thanksgiving....

from our pilgrim and indian to yours!

p.s. Honestly, Elliott had a GREAT time at his Thanksgiving Feast - for some reason he wanted to act "too cool for the camera" when I wanted to get a picture. Boys!

Singing at church

Ethan's preschool sang "If I Were a Butterfly..." today during the 11:00 worship time. They were so so cute. Of course Ethan displayed his signature smirk with the eye rolling a few times to let us know that he was proud of himself and embarrassed at the same time. (Sorry about the video quality - should've had it zoomed the entire clip, but it was a last minute thought)

Wise Decisions

I was listening to my podcast of Northpoint Ministries this morning at the gym (thank goodness for that little iPod!) and the topic was "The Best Question Ever" and talked about how we struggle with making the right decisions all the time and knowing what God wants for us. It was the first in the 6 part series so I think it even just skimmed the surface today. But at the end Andy Stanley pointed us to this verse:

"He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. But he who walks wisely will be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26)

I keep a little book of favorite verses and this is going in there. Highly recommend listening to that podcast!!

A Turkey for You

This may be my favorite turkey of all time! Ethan's teacher, Ms. Wendy, helped the kids make these last week and it's just so cute...EAT HAM! Of course, since Ethan is in his "fatherly" phase, he tried to take his "chicken" out to eat with him the other night, so I had to rescue him and he's now sitting on our bar as content as can be....maybe we will just EAT HAM this Thanksgiving!

A New Layout

This is mainly for my scrapbooking friends....I've been wanting to post some scrapbook layouts on here, so here's the first one. It was from a Becky Higgins sketch (of course) and I couldn't tell you where I got the idea. Just some highlights of some of my favorite things last November. Thanks for inspiring me to do a layout this weekend, Nyla!!

Happy Veteran's Day

I realize we're a day late with this, but I still wanted to do it. Elliott was talking about an assembly they had at his school for "St. Vetrick's Day" the other day and he said there were lots of grandfathers there. I asked if they were veterans and he said no - only two of them cause they had their uniforms on. I realized that even though they had talked about Veteran's Day at school that he still didn't understand that there are thousands of plain-clothed veterans that we probably see everyday. So I explained that Grandpa and PaPa were veterans too, and they were pretty intrigued by this. We tried to think of others and of course my Grandpa Hosselton came to mind, but they never got to meet him, so they kept referring to Grandma Hosselton as a veteran - I do consider her a veteran of the war (and all other war wives) since she had to sacrifice so much also.

Anyway, they decided to make cards for Grandpa and PaPa and I decided to dedicate a blog entry to them. I'm lucky enough to have my sister's wonderful wonderful family history scrapbooks here at my house right now (these aren't just pictures of our ancestors, but treasured family stories and memories that she took the time and effort to make sure are written down for us to pass on - thank you Erin!!!). So I have this photo of my Grandpa, Gill Hosselton, around 1942 in the Navy and also of my dad, John Hosselton, around 1967 in the Army. I wish I had a picture of Brian's dad, John Weiler, who was also a military policeman in the Army - I'll update if I get one.

While I was looking through the scrapbooks I found this picture of my Uncle Ronnie (my dad's oldest brother) standing on the steps of my Great Grandparents' (Hosselton) house around 1944 (while my Grandpa was on a ship overseas with the Navy). I don't think I would've noticed this, but Erin pointed it out in her journaling. You can see in the window a flag with 3 stars. Each star represented each of their 3 sons that was serving in the war - Gill, Russ and Junior. Wow. Sometimes we become immune to the everyday scenes on the news about fighting overseas. Our hearts always break for the families that we hear about who lose a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a sister, a brother. But in my day-to-day life I'm ashamed to say that I rarely think about what's going on over there. But when I saw that flag with the 3 stars hanging in my Great Grandparents' window, I was really struck. Three sons fighting in the war. I want to cry just thinking about the heartache I would experience if my two sons were fighting in a war, so I can't imagine how my Great Grandmother felt thinking about the safety of her three sons everyday.

So to all of you who are Veterans, we say thank you. And to all of you who have family serving right now, thank you. Thank you for your sacrifices for our country and for us and know that we are praying for you.

Blessings

It's very gray, dreary and cold out today. All of you know how much I dislike the cold, dreary winters here. I can feel my mood changing just looking outside and feeling my permanently frozen fingers. But as I ran out to get the mail a few minutes ago I thought back to how just 3 days ago I was sitting in that grass with my neighbors wearing FLIP FLOPS and realized that I have so many blessings in my life that maybe if I focus on them instead of that gray sky outside that I'll bear the winter better this year.

So, here is my list of blessings that God has put a great big flashing neon light on today:

1. Two wonderful girlfriends to sit in the grass with (and warm enough weather to wear flip flops)

2. The boys' friendships with the other kids on our street - especially the Adamses and the Duffs (we'd be lost without them) and who can forget my future daughters-in-law Grace and Clara

3. A night of uninterrupted girl time and scrap time with Vicki, who is one of my very best friends along with her wonderful family. We love that we live so much closer to them now and can hang out together more often.

4. Rest time. Ethan actually napped today and Elliott played quietly in his room. Aaaahhh....

5. Family. It's so rare now that marriages last over 10 years, and we feel blessed to have parents on both sides who have been married for over 30 and 40 years. Blessed also that they love us so much and we get to see them and enjoy them often.

6. A really nice weekend alone with Brian. My parents wanted the boys to come over to their house, so we were so excited to have time to ourselves. And it was so nice - in the mid-to-upper 70s all weekend so we took advantage of it and went hiking (hadn't done that in a long time). Beautiful fall trees!!

And for some blessings that seem little but are equally exciting to me today....

7. A brand new scrapbook magazine in my mailbox this afternoon

8. Totally blessed that most of these babies had a place to go besides my hips! (Thank you Brian for taking them to work with you!)

9. A good Christian radio station - JoyFM (94.1)....although I do still miss the FISH in Atlanta - and there's another blessing....being able to listen online!