A Random Post
Here are a few random thoughts that are swirling in my head this morning. I have put my questions for you in italics!
- We are decorating the tree on Saturday! I am so excited. Especially because we bought a pre-lit one 75% off last year. YEA for not stringing light and for clearance. I think Elias will really love lying under the tree with us looking at the lights twinkle. Have you done this with your babies?
- I started wrapping Christmas gifts last night. I am so excited about Christmas this year. Matthew and I really want to focus on the meaning of Christmas and what we have – not what we don’t or can’t afford. It is easy to get caught up in all the hub-bub, isn’t it? How do you focus on the true meaning of the season?
- I am planning on taking Elias’s picture for the Christmas card this year on Saturday or Sunday after the tree is set-up. I am pumped about it. I love sending Christmas cards (we send more than 200 every year. I am sick, I know.)
- We need to get the Christmas letter written. I usually write it and then Matthew makes it better. 🙂 Do you send a Christmas letter?
- Elias gets dedicated at Cross Point on Sunday. Several close friends (including Elias’s godmother, Angie!) will be there. I am sad our families won’t be there, but we are going to video tape it so they will feel like they had been. I bought Elias an adorable little white outfit – on clearance for 12 bucks from $58! Gotta love a good clearance sale.
- I need to scrapbook. I haven’t in more than a week. Maybe will do that tonight.
- Elias has not been rolling over much, but the big-shot did it this morning when Matthew and I were both not paying attention. Sly little guy.
- Have you added the best in baby scrapbooking button to your blog yet? If not – what are you waiting for? We are talking great prizes here! You don’t have to have a baby to participate. Many of the products would work for families or kids in general. And you can always give the prizes away as gifts!
- I want to read the Twilight series, but don’t think I have the time to dedicate to it, Everyone says you get sucked in when you start it. Maybe over Thanksgiving – especially since we are driving to Wisconsin. Have you read it?
Note: The picture’s only purpose is to make you smile. Hope it worked.
Have a great day today!
ok just finished twilight last night and it was good(took me 3 days to finish it). so easy to get sucked into it. i want to read the others now, but don’t have the time either. maybe after christmas on the plane to maryland, but i will have a 4 month old, so we shall see…
Hey Jessica,
I am a frequent lurker no so frequent commenter but you must read twilight! BEWARE…you will get sucked it…make sure you have some time to devote to them! I didn’t think I would like it but wanted to see what the hype was about so I bought the first two books and finnished them in like a day (I’m a pretty fast reader and I couldn’t put it down) Then I went out and bought the other two. Haha. It’s just a good story.
have fun decorating the tree, I’m sure Elias will love it!
Courtney in MD
if you plan on reading Twilight, you must bring that and New Moon- You will likely finish Twilight quickly! I started the series 2.5 weeks ago, and just started the fourth book last night! They’re awesome!
The pic of your adorable little man certainly made me smile.
I send out approx. 150 Christmas cards each year…so I'm right behind you. I love it. I know it's costly, but cards are my "thing".
I know people enjoy getting them & I enjoy giving.
We were in Nashville last week, from Tues. to Sun. Visited our son. Yeah ! Went to the CMA's. Big Yeah !
Have fun getting ready for Christmas. Once there is a little one, it changes everything.
May God continue to guide, direct & bless you & Matthew as you raise little Elias in HIS ways. Have a blessed dedication for Elias on Sunday. Such a special event.
Love to you all.
Jackie
I recently found your blog & love to visit for great project inspiration. You have done so many cute things with your son like the pumpkin pictures…I wish I thought of that!
I added your button to my cancer walk blog. I can't wait to see what fun stuff you post that week!
OK, last Christmas, my Abby was only 5 weeks old, so I kept my tree up until february because she LOVED to lay and look at the lights (that and my husband was deployed until february and I=lazy). I am also a christmas card freak and we have to take out a loan just to pay for stamps. As for Twilight-it is a GREAT FAST read. I seriously read the entire series in a cumulative total of about 6 days. CANT put it down! Sucks you in like Harry Potter. Worth the read!
My little boy loved the lights on the tree last year at 8 months. But he was just starting to crawl and picked it up fast…before we knew it he had crawled over to the tree and grabbed an ornament. I wasn’t expecting that. So all the glass, delicate ornaments went to the top and just the the cloth/stuffed ornaments on the bottom. I’m sure we’ll be doing that this year, though it will be even more of the tree as he’s now a toddler. I wish we could set the tree up this weekend, but I can’t because family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving and we don’t have a big living/dining room area. It would be too crowded with the tree. But have fun setting up your tree – it’s so exciting the first Christmas with your baby!
And I send a Christmas photo card each year. I know I love getting those myself. No letter though. Never seem to find the time for that during the busy Holidays.
I send 40 Christmas Cards each year. I always take the picture. (except for last year when I sent professional wallets…never again cause I messed up my tradition.)
This year I used Snapfish’s special of 20 cards for 20 cents so I got a deal.
I usually write a personal note in each card to catch everyone up on our family. I really don’t like the Christmas letters. Everyone around here makes fun of them.
I don’t have a blog that I share so it wouldn’t do me any good to get the button, though I would love to.
I’m torn about the Twilight books. Vampires and such seem so far away from what I consider Christian literature (not that everything I read is Christian). I just have an uneasy feeling about it and can’t shake it. Maybe it’s the easy way EVERYONE is getting ‘sucked in’ as it’s being put. Just my dilemma.
Love the picture and it made me smile. Mission accomplished.
Oh I didn’t answer the most important question. We always focus on the true meaning of Christmas by reading the Bible story lots, packing Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, volunteering at their warehouse, and this year using Jesse tree ornaments.
And I have the sweetest picture of my oldest daughter when she was 10 months old lying under our Christmas tree playing with a jingle bell ever so gently. Makes me feel warm all over when I see that shot.
I’d love to add your button to my blog, but honestly don’t know how! Could you give a quick tutorial?
i loved the twilight series, just not the last book! argh!
we always send tons of xmas cards, and i include a “year in review in pictures” instead of a letter. people (claim to!) love it! and i love to get them back and see how every’s grown and changed!
we do the advent calendar (chocolate and the wooden one) and my kids love it. we read bible stories and i try to incorporate that it’s about JESUS’s birthday and what that means, and try not to focus so much on the gifts, but it’s hard!
This may be a totally random thing to say, but Elias has such a nice shaped head.
Ok so, YES we actually let Lady help string the lights on her first Christmas (she was 6 months old), and she was fascinated. Last year, for Mister’s first Christmas, we counted down every night when we would light the tree, the kids loved it. I absolutely love lights on the tree, I kind of wish there was an acceptable way to have a tree up year round. 😉
We TRY REALLY HARD to keep the gift giving to a minimum. Every year we ask the grandparents to keep it to one toy (and if they realllllly want to do more, then a gift to each child’s education fund is TOTALLY WELCOMED). We make a big stink out of getting together with family, and the meals.
And no, I haven’t read Twilight yet, but I hear it’s like Harry Potter in that you need time to savor it.
you definitely need to read the Twilight series. you do get sucked in and it is a very quick read….enjoy your weekend. sounds like it will be great!
Totally send a Christmas Letter, last year it was from the fish, the year before that it included a top 10 list of things to do with your Christmas letters, and I do a scrapbook 8×11 LO and then color copy it, that’s my “Christmas Card” with a picture of the family. I do 75-100 cards, so you aren’t alone in the 200 bracket. And it’s our christmas present to the masses which I’m sure they adore! HA.
As for other questions, my daughter was too old to stare at the lights, at 10 months, she only cared about crawling up to the tree, sitting up and grabbing the ornaments, my son though was 5 months and loved to stare at the lights, it was great I put in some music, put him in his carseat and baked a pie one day while he sat in front of the tree.
oooh Twilight! DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE UNLESS YOU’VE READ THE BOOKS! That’s all I’m saying. They were great in everyway, Stephanie Meyer knows how to captivate an audience.
oh and I think I told you but your button is on the right side column of my blog!
Love ya babe, and sometime soon we’ll see one another in person!
The Twilight series is good. I don’t usually read anything scifi or horror but this series is different because the vampires try to live among the populace as regular humans, thus the human/vampire love affair. Nothing to gory or extreme. They’re big long books, so clear out some time because you’ll want to know what happens.
Ok, I have randomly been checking out your blog, and I have to tell ya – you have the cutest baby ever! Oh my gosh! I just got married in July, so (God willing!) we’re not planning on having a baby for a long time, but when we do, I really hope our baby will be half as cute as Elias! (Love the name, too!)
Jessica,
I thought that lying under a decorated Christmas tree was one of those secret things that only I loved to do!! I am turning 30 this year and it is STILL one of my favorite things! Elias will love it!!!
Jessica,
My son Ellis loves the tree. His first Christmas he was 2 1/2 mos old and he just stared at the tree in awe! He’s now 2 and can’t wait for us to put up the tree!
We do our own cards every year. My husband takes the pics and we upload them to Wal Mart.com….about .32 each which = Great Deal!
My Best Friend has been into the Twilight series for some time… 2 mos ago we had to make a Costco run for her to get the 3rd and 4th. 2 Weeks ago Saturday I broke and bought the First 2….I was done with them by Friday and had to go get #3…Sunday I got 4th. I’m so impressed with them, and as a Mommy sometimes it’s good to just get away for a few. I’m not into Sci-Fi, but these are amazing!
But you will get sucked in. Last week my husband Chris had Ellis cover over to me and say “Mommy Come Back to Us!”… I felt like the worst Mommy in the world!
Hey Jessica,
I love to get my Jessica-Elias fix every day but I’ve never commented before 🙂 I just had to tell you that Twilight is AMAZING and you should definitely read it on the way to Wisconsin! I read all 4 in one week! (I’m a nanny and Gracie was still sleeping a lot when I read them–don’t worry, I have a life! haha) But I think you will enjoy them and finish it on the trip!
Melanie
Oh Jessica, the TWILIGHT series is phenominal!!! Not at all what you would expect when you think of vampires and all that!! Simply some of the best books I’ve ever read. They will certainly keep you comfortable through the cold month of January…if you can make them last that long, because they do suck.you.in!!!
As for Christmas…I’m all about traditions with my three girls. I started out continuing my traditions with them one by one as they were born, but silly things we do as a family have turned into what they claim/remember as traditions. Certain foods I make without thinking about it are fond memories of holidays to them, etc. What thrills them most is that they each have their own ornament box that holds their own ornaments they’ve made or I’ve bought over the years (they will eventually take them with them when they venture out on their own someday). They love remembering how they got each one and how old they were when they made them. It was just an organizational thing on my part, but it has morphed into a wonderful Christmas memory!
we buy the children 3 gifts… one from each wiseman. we tell the Christmas story and how baby Jesus was born. we have done this for 2 years now and they have loved it. It saves us money and keeps our focus where it should be… on Baby Jesus in this crazy Christmas season!
just added the baby scrapbook button.. is it too late to get in the drawings??? thanks!!!
The Twilight series will get you so sucked in it’s ridiculous. I finally caved and read them fast and furiously. It’s worth it just to know what everyone is talking about and to converse with them.
First of all, I love the picture. It did make me smile, so thank you for that! I am a frequent reader of your blog, but not a frequent commenter. I’m trying to be better about commenting.
We just did took our photos last weekend for our Christmas cards. I promised myself I would get them ordered and sent much earlier than I did last year. Enjoy the ease of taking your photos with Elias this year…my girls are now 3 and 22 months. It was definitely not easy this year getting both of them to sit still at the same time for the pictures. I took about twenty five and ended up with about six or seven good ones to choose from.
I love to bake and usually end up baking at least a dozen different kinds of cookies that I then package up as pretty as I can and deliver them to family, friends, and close neighbors. I am looking forward to my girls being old enough to help!
I am always thinking of new traditions to start with them… I really like the idea of the ornament box for each of them that Jenn mentioned!
I have already started talking to my girls about Jesus being born on Christmas and that is why we celebrate the season. I am thinking about buying a children’s nativity set for them also. I already have about four sets for our home. I guess I like having different ones for different rooms.
As for the Twilight series, I just heard about it this week (apparently I’ve been out of the loop) and am anxious to read it. I actually am in a dilemma because a friend of mine just invited me to go to the movie with her on Sunday for a rare girl’s day out. I really don’t like seeing movies before reading the book, but don’t want to disappoint my friend. Not sure what I’ll decide to do.
I read the first 2 books in seven days total! Since they are both like 600 pages each..that’s like 171 pages per day! Ikes! I promise I did feed my children and do laundry (of course it helps that mine go to school). But, you will get sucked in. The third book took me longer, but then the 4th one was quick.
Love the picture!
Hi Jessica – I don’t know that we have met before, but I know that we “know of” each other. I’m the former “antiblogger” friend of Pete and Brandi’s. We now live in St. Louis. I check your blog periodically – cute baby! This time your last comment got me because I’m from WI too – the GB area and my in-laws are from Kaukauna. We’re actually driving back tomorrow and will be there all of next week – I’m so excited – I love the area.
As far as Twilight – I’m a psycho fan – I LOVE the books and they became a huge obsession for me – I got Brandi, Jenni, Marla, et al. all hooked on them last spring. When you start just be prepared to not be able to put it down and enjoy!
Have a great trip!
Oh how we love Christmas here at the Helms house. All 5 of our kids love it as well…that was sort of stupid sounding…of course kids like Christmas??? what i mean is that they really enjoy the traditions of Christmas!!!
read twilight.
you’ll love it.
then email me about how much you love it!
xoxo
happy turkey day! and be safe on your roadtrip!
I had so much fun last year taking pictures of my girls laying under the tree together.
We have a 2 1/2 year old that we have been teaching what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. I get so excited when she finds her book about the birth of Jesus and ask me to read to her about Jesus.