Christmas Wishes

I really enjoyed this quote from the Christmas Devotional this year.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas this year! Love from the Joslin Family :)

Christmas is Coming

Well, Christmas is making it's way into our life. Russell, much like Curious George in A Very Monkey Christmas, has asked every day since Thanksgiving if it is Christmas in the morning.

Ben braved the wind and put lights up on the house. It wasn't terribly cold, and clearly, we are missing snow:(

 We got our tree last Saturday. Russell was very excited. I was excited because we found trees for $25 isntead of $60.

 She gt the hang of it pretty quick. And, she keeps taking care of the tree everyday by rearranging ornaments when I am not looking.

 Happy to have our tree. The presents haven't been any problem so far.

 I bought this rice krispie Christmas train kit on clearance last year, so I broke it out and let Russell decorate it today. Clearly he is very happy.

We are excited for Christmas (break!!) to come. I got most of our Christmas cards sent today. We have been listening to Christmas music. We attended the Wonder of the Nativity event the Stake puts on every year. We were distracted by kids running around the house watched the Christmas Devotional with our friends. We are going caroling with the playgroup kids. Our annual white elephant book club is this week.

Gratitude

My friend and I had a mom's day off yesterday (for 3 hours) and went to a craft fair. Somehow along the way we were talking about some quotes that we have seen floating around the webs lately about being grateful for dirty dishes/dirty laundry because that means tummies are fed/we have clothes to wear. I told her I'm not sure I can be thankful for those things. But, really I am.

We have been pretty blessed this year. 

We have a nice warm home to live in.

We have too much yummy food to eat.

We have lots of love in our family.

We have two vehicles that work pretty good most of the time.

Ben has a job.

We have enough means to visit our families.

We still have Netflix.

Meghan sleeps through the night.

I have two little sweeties.

Ben and I were talking tonight about Christmas last year and how we can't be ungrateful because we have so much in our lives! It is true. We have a lot. 

I have always wondered what it means to live a grateful life. I could never think of more than just always saying I'm so thankful/grateful for this. Last night I had a realization that maybe living a grateful life means that I shouldn't complain. 

So, this thanksgiving I am going to give extra thought to living my grateful and not complaining (even in my mind) about the things I have in my life.  

Kitties!!!!!!

We have several cats that live in the 'hood and wander through our yard. One day while I was painting doors outside, Russell and Meghan convinced one to hop over the fence into our yard. It then spent the whole time we went inside for lunch and to put Meghan down for her nap meowing outside our kitchen window.

Russell keeps asking if we can get a kitty. I have already broken the news to Russell that never in our life will we ever get a dog. So, he has taken to just asking for a kitty. I told him the other day when he asked that we can get a kitty when we are not going to have more kids.

Ben told me right before he left for scouts tonight that one of the office ladies has kittens and is looking for homes for them! Here are some adorable pictures.

So, should we get one?

Happy Halloween!!

We have had a festive Halloween season with spooky meals, scary crafts, goopy pumpkin carvings, and very scary emotional children.

Our pumpkins are a family portrait from the day we carved them. If you can tell what Russell's really is, you must hang out with someone between the ages of 1 and 4.

I pulled out the mummy costume for Meghan and Russell said he wanted to be a ghost, so I obliged. He was very unhappy with it until I cut a huge hole for his entire face. Then he was unhappy because he couldn't climb people's stairs without stepping on it. I am picking costumes next year. They will have no head coverings and will not be long.

Our trunk-or-treat was a little less exciting than last year, but the weather was pretty cool and wet. And, I didn't allow kids come around more than once or twice if they were really cute and not over the age of 8. Ben's chili dog chili tied for 2nd place at the chili cook-off.

Life with Meghan

Meghan has been a little spitfire since the day she was born. Life has gotten a little more enjoyable, but a lot more tiring trying to keep up with her and her silliness.

Meghan tries really hard to keep up with Russell. She insists on doing what Russell does, including riding her 'bike'. Whenever Russell gets off of his, she races over to try and climb on. This of course leads to lots of screaming from both Russell and Meghan.

She LOVES shoes but, shoes are never allowed to be on the shoe rack. She must sense that there are shoes on it because she rushes in to it every morning to pull them all off. Luckily, this will be going away once Ben gets our back entryway finished. When we put her church shoes on, she has to run right to the wood floor and check to make sure that they make noise when she walks. When Ben takes her out of Sacrament Meeting, she likes to go to the bathroom area, which has a tiled floor, so she can hear her stomping feet.

Meghan is a hider. She spends most of the time finding something that she can hide somewhere. This is Meghan's favorite hiding spot. She has put the recycling truck, the toy penguin that sings, Night, Night Forest Friends, The Mayo Clinic's Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy (no this is not an announcement I just haven't decided if I want to keep it or give it to Savers), her doll's clothes, etc. Last night, I looked all over for the Roku remote, but had a heck of a time finding it. Ben came home and helped me search for it, and Meghan had stashed it in our little people house.

 She does not hold still. I tried taking some fall pictures of the kids, but this is all I could get of Megs.

The nurse at the doctor always has lots to say about how much Meghan moves. There was a student with the doctor last time she went in, and he asked if Meghan got at least 60 minutes of physical activity. It's more like 9 hours of physical activity.

Her hair growth plateaued for a while, but it has started back up again! I was able to get this bow in, and it lasted for about half an hour. That was probably the longest she has gone with something in her hair lately.

This is how you eat corn

Apple Orchard

I wanted to take Russell and Meghan to an apple orchard since we have been talking about apples in Russell's little preschool. Ben happened to be home yesterday, so we invited some friends to come along with us.

Mom and I went there once to see how their corn was priced for freezing, but we had never actually been into the orchard part.

They had a little play area where kids could wait for the tractor to come take us into the orchard. Russell was in heaven to find another park that had diggers.

 Meghan only got out of this car once to get on the swing with Ben. And, she was very determined to stay in the car.

 Riding in the wago out to the orchard. Russell was so happy to be riding on the tractor ride!!

 Russell was very happy to pick apples. Too bad it was 6 bucks for that very small bag.

 Proof that I was there, too.

Ben and Meghan's apple selfie. She would not put that apple down at all, even when she got to the seeds and when a bee came and landed on it.

One last summer hurrah

Thanks to Janet and Jacob, we got to have a final summer adventure going to Haley's blessing. The drive seems a lot longer than it should be, but we made it there and back without too much complaining from the troops.

Swimming in Janet's pool. Meghan was the happiest kid of all five that got in the pool. All the rest were chickens because it was cold.

Surprise party for the September birthdays. More on the cake over at the cupboard project.

Hanging out with the family.

Sleepy girl and boy.

She must have been really excited to be on vacation with only one child.

We had lots of fun hanging out with the family, visiting the Amish store, watching BYU win, going to church all together (especially since we are so obviously siblings), eating yummy food, etc. Too bad the other sib couldn't have made it.

Summer Bucket List Follow-Up

Tomorrow is the day that Russell's and Meghan's world will be changed. They are going back to just having mom at home. And, I'm not nearly as nice as Ben is. I figured I better give an accounting for our bucket list items we were hoping to achieve this summer.

Ben
1. Check to all of those house things except al the trim. We still have to put trim in the kitchen, but there is a lot we want to do there, so we worked on other things not listed in that list.
2.He came back mostly unscathed from High Adventure!! The only thing that got him was the sun and mosquitoes.
3. There is no LLC.

Joanna
1. I survived high adventure week.
2. I survived the longest road trip ever. Both kids were pretty good.
3. I did not lose any weight, but did not gain any weight, either. My new goal is to get of this weight loss plateau.

Russell
1. He can get himself dressed though he frequently tells us it is too hard for him. But, he does like to pick out his clothes.
2. He is day potty trained. We need to start on night time training, but his diaper is always SO soaked in the morning that I don't know how to do that.
3. He doesn't know all his letters and numbers, but he learned some new ones. He also has been very happy to write the letter 'p' for us.

Meghan
1. She can use a spoon and fork, but is still much more efficient at the grab and shove method of eating.
2. Her hair started growing pretty fast at the start of the summer, but it has tapered off and doesn't appear to be growing at all.
3. She is now tall enough that she has to duck to get under the table.

Well, there you have. We mostly met our goals, but are definitely going to be working on those we didn't accomplish. It will be good to have a set schedule so that we can keep ourselves motivated to work on our goals.

Help!!!!!

I recently received a new calling in the Primary Presidency. I'm kind of bummed about it. I really liked doing the music. But, at least it wasn't into the Relief Society Presidency. Sorry, Sas!

Anyway, I was asked to come up with the primary program since I did the music so far this year. Fine with me. But, I'd like to come up with something unique, and I have had no ideas!

What do you think would be a good idea for a primary program that is a little out of the ordinary?

One year of our house

I realized today that one year ago today is the day we closed on the house. It has been such an incredibly long and painstaking year, and we are happy with the progress that has been made. We can't wait to get the rest finished up for many reasons: to not have tools laying around everywhere, to hopefully get rid of some more of the smell that lingers, to have a little more storage space, etc.

Here is a quick peek at what has happened so far. And, don't mind the mess. I'm pretty sure it won't look put together until there is no one with a single digit age living in the house.

The view from the front door. We are planning on painting it this upcoming week. That will allow us to install a little mantle piece/shelf over the couch. Plus, I need to figure something out with the curtains because I originally didn't plan on them being almost the same color as the wall paint. I'm going to try dyeing them and seeing what happens.

The downstairs bathroom. It is the most finished room in the house. We just need to do some paint touch-up on the crown molding and screw a little door stopper in, and we will be done!

The view from the dining room. The dining room is also almost finished. Once again some paint touch-up on the crown molding and then staining the two beams and we'll be done with the dining room.

Looking into the kitchen. This was the biggest change in the whole house. I love it becasue now I am not secluded in the kitchen, though some days I wish I was.

The kitchen. It has the dumb 4 doorways that make it hard for any counter space, but changing the location of the doorway to the dining room made it possible to get a tiny bit more counter space.

The stairs. The whole house was covered in disgusting tar residue from smokers, and the stairway was one of the worst areas. If you look closely you can see the discoloration and drip marks. Blech! We are hoping to get this area painted before school starts up again. Then I plan on having an awesome gallery wall.

The upstairs bathroom. This was another room with a huge change. Everything is new, including the walls. And, the outlet because there wasn't one in the bathroom.

Our bedroom. It's the least of our concerns right now since we can manage with it being in a slight state of disarray.

The kids room. The area is huge compared to what the apartment had.

Notice how short it is? We didn't change that.

Peek-a-boo!

Now after looking at these pictures, I feel like I really need to declutter. I promise it isn't nearly as messy now at 9:00pm since the kids are in bed and not messing things up.