Week in Review

It was a great week! Steve was on vacation all week and while we didn't really do anything major it was great to have him hanging here at the house. It was also a great treat for me to be able to run errands and go to the gym without Ava in tow.

Yesterday I took the girls down to my moms for the weekend. I dropped them off, ate lunch and hopped back in the car and headed home. A vendor of Steve's gave him tickets to the Colts game on Sunday - so the girls spend the weekend with Grammy and Pa and Steve and I get lots of dates. Mom and Terry are going to bring them home on Sunday.

Last night we went out and grabbed a pizza and beer then did a little shopping. I have a slight obsession with Christmas ornaments. I just can't stop buying them. A few years ago we ditched all the ball type ornaments and have a "family" christmas tree. Steve loves (I think) my memory as we pull out the ornaments each year. I can remember who gave it to us, when or why they gave it to us, where we were when we bought it, what year we bought it and so on. Each ornament on the tree has a personal meaning to us and I just love it!!

Also, each year when we get together when my moms side of the family we do an ornament exchange. The idea is to buy an ornament that represents you or that we can be reminded of the person each year when we hang it. I love having those memories each year and an ornament from some of the most important people in my life! Plus - as a family we all buy an ornament that kinda represents us this year. I collect tea cups and saucers as well as porcelin tea pots. This year I found a tea cup and saucer ornament so I got that, I got Isabella a piano since she started piano this year, Steves is a cowboy santa with a guitar and Ava's is a frog - because she is all about frogs!! I also got Isabella a turtle one to wrap and open on Christmas because she got her turtle this year. We also buy ornaments that are personalized with their names - my mom started this tradition. And one final tradition we do is buy a picture frame ornament with the year and put our family picture in it. Its fun to see how we've changed each year as a family.

Isabella brouht home a "I am Thankful" project the other day. She had to write what she was thankful for and draw a picture. She wrote " I am thankful for my Mom (yeah, I was first!!! lol), Dad, sister, my fish, my cats and turlte. And God." The picture is of all the the above - although I literally spit my coffee out when I looked at the picture closer because she drew really big boobs on my person. lol Then she drew clouds and an angel and God in the sky. Gosh, I love this kid to pieces!!! Stuff like this just warms my heart and makes me think I'm not that sucky of a parent. She gets what is important to her and didn't draw superficial things. When we were talking about the picture she said she felt bad that she wrote God last because he was the who "started it all and made us all and he should have been listed first".

She is really reading her bible and wanted to grasp and believe. I know some churches and people really push for kids to get baptized young but I think it is so important for her to make the decision on her own with full and complete understanding of the sacrifice Christ made for us. She's really close.