He Knows His ABCS!

My Christmas Present

I love Billy for many reasons, and to try to elaborate on the subject in this blog would be the wrong forum for the wrong audience.* But I will share with you one secret to our relationship: Billy gives very thoughtful gifts. This Christmas his gift to me made me fall in love with him all over again.

In an effort to save money, we decided to make each other a present with a $5 limit. I sewed him a carpenter's apron. It was cute and functional, but nothing I want to take a picture of. Billy made me a radio. It has a futuristic retro look I love, and is permanently tuned to 1190 AM (a station that keeps me company during long sewing sessions). Every little detail was made by him, for me, and so sweetly unique and unexpected.

Like a child's drawings on the fridge, this radio makes my love for Billy tangible, and I just can't help but show it off.

Forgive me.






*This is not to say I look down on anyone who writes about their cute husbands and their marital love in this blogosphere. I love to hear about it, and I know many others do too. I am just afraid my prose would prove inadequate and that would make me sad.

Crying

Isla is not crying because she has a monstrous snot bubble. She is not crying because baby food is smeared all over her pretty face. She is crying because I am not feeding her quick enough. As one sweet, dying Winnie Maud said to me, she is "too gosh dang anxious".

Kitchen Remodel and a QUESTION!

The kitchen remodel is coming along quite well, but has missed the Christmas deadline. I like to have Billy do things like watch Jeopardy with me, enjoy the kids while I take a break, and put Isla to sleep for her nighttime nap and bedtime. Liam likes him to do things like take him to Home Depot and ride the tractors for an hour and then come home and play legos for another hour. And then Billy has his demanding work and church stuff. And I am completely incompetent and do nothing for the project but say "are we there yet?" in a really whiny voice.

So, yeah, it is no wonder the kitchen isn't finished. We are close though. Very close. Even though I still cannot imagine what it will be like when it is DONE. What will we do on Saturdays? What will we spend every last fluid cent on? What will the very purpose of our lives be???

I do have a question though. What should we paint the walls? The cabinets are brown/black and the counter top is a greenish corian. The floor is caramel colored wood but will be sanded and stained a light grayish color (I think). We will do a tile back splash, but still need to chose a color for that as well. So...help us color illiterates. What color of tile and wall??

Thanks. Please respond, we beg of you.

Christmas In General

This Christmas was by far my favorite Christmas ever. It was even more exciting then the year Santa brought me a doll house. Making it our mission to bring the joy of Christmas, combined with the true Spirit of Christmas into our home was very rewarding to Billy and I. I am sure all of you are saying "well duh, Rebecca", but this was the first year we really got into it, you know, and it felt so peaceful and happy. I hope I can find small reasons to do stuff like this year round.

Liam was very, very involved in the whole Santa Claus concept. He was convinced Santa would bring him four big tractors, but wasn't disappointed when he found only one under the tree. He had many more presents to distract him. The best ones were by far given by his Grandmas, of course.

Isla's First Christmas

Christmas came and went, and my little girl experienced her first candy cane, traditional Olsen pullah bread, and the tearing of wrapping paper. The latter was most poignantly proven by a big piece of red wrapping paper found in her diaper. Fully intact.

She is now six months and regularly calling me "Mommamommamomma". She likes to take a brief nap in the evening, around 7 or 8 pm, and then stay up 'til 1 am. It is hard to begrudge her of the late nights because she just coos and giggles the whole time. She likes to smile and play with people and gets her feelings hurt if you ignore her. Last Sunday a group of people walked by her while Billy was sitting in the hallway and she tracked them with her eyes the whole way. When they they turned the corner, and it was pretty evident they were not going to stop and smile at her, she let out a series of angry cries.

We love our little Isla Q, can you tell? She has so completely integrated herself into our family and hearts that I do not know how we were ever happy without her.