Welcome 2012! Welcome to a year to be filled with family, love and togetherness! Welcome to a year of excitement as our first born will start kindergarden, our youngest will become potty-trained and our middle child will learn to live without a binkie (#2 and #3 are a testament to my power of positive thinking)! I want to welcome 2012 as a year that I know will present challenges, but that will invite our minds to solve problems as a family and help us to navigate through the beautiful chaos of everyday life. And the chaos certainly is beautiful. As my favorite mommy blogger puts it, the chaos is beautiful . . . "like the unorganized dissonant tones of instruments as they tune before a symphony. It's all in preparation of something good, and soon the maestro will tap his wand and all will fall together in lovely harmonies" . . . . yup, that's what I'm telling myself.
As to be expected, our family has been a bit crazed since the beginning of December. With three birthdays in our immediate family plus Christmas - well, we've had a lot going on. And now that the busy season is upon me at work, indoor soccer has begun and pink eye won't leave my boys alone, we're trending towards a very busy January as well.
Which brings me to my specific goal for 2012 . . . complete gratitude. No matter what we are doing, how busy we are, what we have or don't have . . . I will be grateful and present in the moment. I will thank my sweet husband more frequently for his teamwork in making our family what it is. I will kiss my babies even more and say a sweet prayer every time I squeeze them to thank God for picking me to be their mommy. I will play trains and legos on the ground even more. I will think twice before losing my patience. I will let the small things pass. I will give others the benefit of the doubt. And for all of the mommy moments to come for which I will doubt myself or question whether my decisions are the right ones, I will lean on the glorious times when I have just known that I was born to do this. When I feel like the love for my kids gives me some sort of special power that will overcome fatigue and exhaustion and that the super-human strength of a mother's love will lead me in the right direction.
Oh yeah, I'd like to run a few 5K races too.
Christmas with little kids is the best gift an adult could ask for. The pure joy of the season is magical. We started off the holidays with Drew and Owen's preschool Christmas program that was all sorts of adorable. Aside from a breathtaking singing performance, they each presented us with Christmas gifts that they had handcrafted, wrapped and signed at preschool. So sweet. So amazing.
The ornaments that the boys make at preschool are amazing. They are so creative and festive. With both boys in preschool now, we will definitely have enough handmade ornaments to fill an entire tree in their room.
This sweet reindeer is made with loving care by my baby Evan.
From time to time, Drew can be an ornery little boy. He doesn't always listen, he likes to aggravate his brothers and the boy can be silly to no end. But sometimes, he just amazes me. And the evening of his preschool Christmas program was one of those nights. His class was singing a song about sharing. The lyrics were something like . . ."if I have some and then I give you some, then we both have some!" And right at the moment of these lyrics, Drew reaches over to the little boy on his right and literally acts like he is sharing with him! It was perfectly placed in the song and made all of the parents and teachers smile. Especially this proud mommy. I was over the top proud of my Drew bear.
And one special note about the video below: Mr. Evan was not cooperating very well on this particular evening and wouldn't sit still. Thank goodness for Grandma Darlene's kind heart for holding Evan in the back and allowing me the opportunity to sit up front and enjoy the performance. Dan also stood in the back of the room and you'll notice Drew point to Dan several times as he was singing. This just makes me smile over and over . . . .
And let me tell you about my Owie bear. He did great. He knew all of the words and motions and I was one proud mama beaming watching my 3 year-old!
And fortunately, Santa and Mrs. Claus came to our house for a visit! Thank you Santa for thinking of us again this year! We love you!
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