I pretend I can run and Christmas cookies

For the past month or so I have been working on another drawing. I didn't really have time to sit down and draw it start to finish so I did a little whenever I had time. I like to take picutres periodically to see my progress.

Completed portrait 

Original photo

Days in the Life...

Tuesday morning I had Kate to myself for a long time because everyone else slept. She and I had breakfast and then went outside to watch the sunrise. Yup, she still comes early.

The others started stirring around 8:00 am and Kate, Ava, and I began working on Christmas cookies while listening to Christmas music. 

Making cookies with Kate was really fun! She mostly wanted to be held (by me alone), but was okay to sit on the counter some too.

That would be butter down her shirt. 

(She played with it too, though not down her shirt. That was mostly for the picture.)

Mia helped a little too and Gabe...was around. 

A rare moment when I could scoop cookie dough with two hands. 

Cream cheese cookies ready to bake. 

Kate played in the living room some. 

The Christmas music coming through the Bose was intriguing. 

This was four batches later...

Then we moved on to Butterfingers. 

Of course we had to take a break to feed Kate and she went down for a nap a little while later. At that point everything was ready to be cleaned up and put away. I think the three of us probably made around 300 cookies in a little under four hours. By that time I was baked out. 

Kate took a great nap! I was so excited! Then she ate her lunch and some of mine. I think she grew, she seemed heavier to me this week. And she is communicating so well! Not talking, but she has her own words and she understands a lot of my questions, like about food, and napping, and blocks, etc. She even, in her own way, asked for a second nap in the afternoon! 

Mom was pretty tired and so stayed in bed a good portion of the morning and early afternoon. Dad had a few meetings. 

After lunch all the kids (and one adult, and Kate) cleaned the downstairs and prepared everything for small group that night. Then we had rest time. 

Kate didn't actually sleep for her second nap (I don't think), but she was very pleasant for a long time in bed. Then I got her up to play in my room.

Kate took her first steps for me! I texted her mom right away really excited but hoping it wasn't really her first time since that would mean that she'd missed it, but that was her first time! I got Mom to see if we could get Kate to do it again and video it, but she was done. (And hungry.) 

So I fed her and everyone came to play with her until she had to leave and I had to get myself ready for group.

Baby Tips: 

-If you have to climb on the counter to get something out of the cabinet, put the baby down. 

-If you are going to let your baby crawl around in the kitchen, make sure there is nothing on the floor that you would be upset or worried if they ate. 

Small group was very special. It was our last one for the year and our time to celebrate Christmas. We also had a few new people join us. For food everyone brought appetizers and finger foods. (Not food made with fingers...) And I actually got to sit at the adult table finally! 

Despite the fact that it is dark the entire time, the kids all still play outside, and barely stop even to eat. They wouldn't miss the food, though, because they are mostly little boys and the food is always very yummy. 

After dinner some of us went next door to carol for Nana and Grandfather. Someone had suggested we go around our neighborhood, but the driveways are a little too long and we have a lot of kids... 

Our time of sharing was very sweet. Mom and Dad started it by asking everyone if they are a maximizer or a satisficer decision maker. 

A maximizer typically likes to research things a lot, look at something from every angle, weigh all the pros and cons, and make the very best decision. 

A satisficer usually looks to make a decision relatively quickly, finding the first thing that meets most of the necessary criteria and going with that. 

For our group, all the men are maximizers or lean more towards that than they do towards being a satisficer and most of the ladies possess more satisficer qualities. 

I couldn't deicide which one I was, because for some things (like eating at Babe's, or going to Maui, or taking any opportunity to care for a baby, etc) I can quickly decide 'yes.' But for other things (like buying a car, or moving to Hawaii to be a nanny, or where I should eat breakfast on my birthday, etc) I take a long time to decide. Since I was looking at all the options and trying to make the "right" decision I concluded that I must be a maximizer. 

Once everyone had shared their thoughts on that fun topic, we moved on to sharing praises and prayer requests. Several in the group were in physical pain and at the end we all gathered around to pray over each other, first for physical things and then moving to the other requests. 

We didn't finish until almost 10:00 pm, but it was so incredibly special. I know, I probably sound like a broken record, I feel like I say the same thing after every small group, but it's true! 

Wednesday morning Ava and I were to go babysit for Nana's Bible study, but Ava wasn't feeling great, so Gabe went with me. We ended up just having two little girls and two babies, so Gabe was a bit bored. I enjoyed a more restful babysitting job and of course the time with the babies. 

We got home in time to have lunch and then I left for the afternoon to go finish my Christmas shopping. 

I learned from three very reliable sources that being an adult has benefits like, if I want a cookie, I can have a cookie. Aside from that, being an adult is hard and I don't even know half of it I'm sure.

That night we all watched "Christmas Hope." It was really good, but kind of sad... 

Thursday morning Mom and Grandfather took us to go ice shake skate at the Galleria in Dallas. There was almost no one there for a majority of the hour and a half or so that our ankles held out. Around noon a couple school groups arrived, though, so it filled up fast. 

Last year Mia found ice skating very difficult. She stayed on the side by herself and didn't want any help. Every time I asked if she was having fun she said "no" but she didn't want to get off, she wanted to "conquer" it. This year, by the end, she was out in the middle and the whole time she had a blast. 

Gabe was very adventurous and was in the middle the moment his skates hit the ice. He fell pretty much every time I turned around, though. 

Christian, Ava, and I are the confident skaters in our family. Chloe admittedly has balance issues, but still enjoys it. 

I'd forgotten what good exercise ice skating is! 

Mom and Grandfather drank coffee and watched us. Then we got lunch at "Five Guys." There was no Chick-fil-a. 

At home everyone had rest time and Mom and I looked at my high school transcript. As we'd suspected, I have all but two of the credits I need to graduate in May! Then we looked at Chloe's. There was a possibility she might graduate when I do, but she still needs too many credits, more than is realistic to expect that she would complete in the next few months. *Sad face* 

Dad enjoyed having a quiet house during the time that we were gone and had left for a meeting before we got back. We were all home for dinner. 

Chloe and the littles watched "Frozen" after dinner and the rest of us watched "Valkyrie." 

Friday morning Dad got to take Chloe and me to see the little house in Ponder that Mom and Dad are purchasing as a family project for all of us to fix up and rent. I love it! I think it's absolutely adorable and it'll be fun to work on it and make it even more cute. 

It was a pretty quiet day aside from that. 

I had to purchase running shoes the day before so I can learn to play soccer in January (our new friend from church is planning to teach us). They had to be broken in at some point so I decided to go pretend I can run. 

It was nice and sunny and I did run plenty so I wasn't cold. It was a good workout too. I wish I really was a runner. I don't think I hurt myself this time, so hopefully I can do it again. 

The littles did a 75 item challenge (went through all their stuff to see how many things they could get rid of) in the afternoon to earn hot chocolate and a cookie. 

During dinner we watched a house show, "Flip and Move," and then after clean-up we got hot chocolate and cookies and watched "Here Comes the Boom." Boxing, hmm, not my thing. The movie was pretty funny though. 

Saturday was Christmas celebration number one with Nana and Grandfather at their house. We about drove the littles crazy by sitting down to visit before exchanging gifts. They really did wait very patiently although they were visibly vibrating. 

We took turns opening gifts, going from youngest to oldest, one gift at a time. 

These are some very excited kiddos. 

Ava with her new origami paper.

Amelia and her new "Amelia Bedelia" book. 

Mom with her "old person socks."

(They have sticky stuff on the bottom so you don't slip.)

Enjoying their gifts. 

Nana had made us all lunch and after that we went back home to rest and get ready for church. 

I don't typically love it when the sun is setting everyday at 5:30, but the plus side to that right now is that our drives to church are filled with stunning sunset displays. 

We got there plenty early so that Chloe and I could be a part of the secret santa gift exchange with the other teen girls in our church. (There are about seven.) We also had a little time of sharing and prayer before the service started. 

This was our church's Christmas service as next week will be the day after Christmas and many will be out of town. Afterwards there were cookies and other desserts to enjoy while people visited. 

We hadn't necessarily been planning to go eat at Rosa's, but we were soon convinced otherwise and very much enjoyed additional fellowship and getting to know some visitors better. 

Sunday after brunch Mom headed out for a girls' overnight with three other ladies in our church. 

Dad, Chloe, Christian, and Gabe left soon after Mom did to brave Costco and Walmart as some needed to finish Christmas shopping and we were in need of something kind of important, namely- food for the next ten days or so... They were gone for almost three hours. 

Ava and Mia enjoyed playing together and we all three had rest time. 

When the others returned we did round two of Christmas cookie baking. My estimate would be about 400-500 cookies in 4 ish hours, including more cream cheese cookies and butterfingers, as well as pecan sandies, chocolate covered pretzels, and oatmeal craisin white chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookies (all four of those things in one cookie). 

Here is a blurry picture of some of them.

After everything was cleaned up and put away we all watched "Little Rascals" and didn't get to bed until after 11:00 pm.


That Moment When...

You still have to climb on the counter to get stuff out of the cabinet.

Mia asks Mom if girls can be boxers.


The Herd: Quoted

"If you help us with the item challenge you can have hot chocolate and a cookie." -Gabe
"Not this time...I can have those things anyways." -Me
"What? Why?" -Gabe
"Because I'm an adult and I take care of my things so I don't have anything I need to get rid of." -Me

"Ahh, I broke my arm." -Gabe not very dramatically.
"Move it." -Mia
"No, I broke it." -Gabe with minimal moaning.
"Gabe, it's not deformed or anything. It's not broken." -Ava

"Mom gets a gift? Did she buy it for herself?" -Me

"Yes." -Mom

"Oh I'd forgotten about these!" -Mom opening another gift she'd picked out for herself. 

"I want to see! It's for all of us-es." -Mia

"Just making sure that was all." -Gabe checking a gift bag. 

Where We Belong

Thursday morning we pretty much got up and got ready for the beach. A little packing continued while we waited for each other. 

It was cloudy to start out and the water was about the same, still kind of rough, and not that great to be in. It was not, however, super windy like the couple of days before so that was nice. Later in the day the clouds cleared away and it got sunny. 

We spent the morning crying on the beach enjoying our last beach hours and talking about things that would need to get done when we got home, like renewing my driver's license which expired on my birthday. 

After lunch some of us started towards the pool and then showers. After I was all cleaned up I was able to complete my packing and rest for a bit. Aka blog. Then the rest of the crew arrived to shower and pack and go through food and finish laundry and everything else which has to be done before a family leaves Maui. In the midst of that Mom and I got to slip away and get pedicures. 

This is the view from my bed that I'm going to miss. 

And this view while driving.

Mom and Gabe had to take a shuttle to the airport as the mini van could not hold all of us, much less all the luggage. The rest of us left at 6:02. The goal was 6:00. It's a record! 

In the car the other kids retold all their surfing stories and what the should and shouldn't have done on each wave. 

Dad returned the renal vehicle while we waited at the curb...

crying.

Once we were all together again we went through security. For the first time in my life I was terrified to go through. I didn't have my passport to be current ID. And, as I already stated, my license had expired. They totally could have told me I couldn't fly. 

Mom decided to divide up the kids and have Dad take three and her take three and try to "these are my children" approach hoping they would not think that I or Chloe looked 18. Chloe's group went first and she was immediately asked for ID (which she had). Mom and I started sweating. 

The guard took one look at me and asked if I was 18. We said yes and he asked for ID. I gave it to him. He scanned it. He said it was expired. And let us all through. Praise God, hallelujah! I wasn't arrested and I got to come home. Whew! Never. Doing. That. Again. Ever. 

But the rest of security was crazy too. Chloe and I both got patted down. Her for no reason. Me because of my hair. Then Gabe's backpack was taken and searched. When we were finally all through with all of our bags (I almost left mine on the belt...) everyone was sighing with relief. 

We got the the gate and dropped all our bags. Then went to the restroom. 

I did way better flying alone. With so many people I kept leaving my bags and I almost face planted while walking. 

Dad took all us kids to get dinner while Mom guarded the millions of bags. 

I think that was maybe the first time I ever ate at Burger King. I had a veggie burger. *Ducks* 

Eating. Chloe was there too. 

Our flight didn't leave until 9:30 so we had some time to eat and clean up and put on jeans and sweatshirts.  

Boarding.

So excited. Not.

She asked and they obliged. 

He got the sweet end of the deal.

Yes, we were photobombed.

No, we didn't see it until afterwards.

Leaving Maui.

I watched it until there were no more lights to be seen.

The flight was about 4 and 1/2 hours long. We all tried to sleep. We all sort of failed. None of us find it very easy to sleep on planes. Christian even let me lay across his lap. I think I dozed. I did discover that hats are great for wearing over your face to block out light, though! I've never worn a hat before. Until I bought one while we were in Maui. 

About to land in San Fransisco. 

We arrived at 5:30 am and all went to our next gate. The layover was 2 hours long and gave us enough time to rest, stretch, and eat a little something. 

Breakfast and sunrise.

The second flight left at 7:30 and was 3 hours long. The seatbelt sign was on pretty much the whole time because of all the turbulence. I think some people were able to sleep. Our landing was extremely  bouncy and rough. 

Gramma, Aunt Candice, and Brennen brought us our truck and Dad was able to get all of us and all our bags in it. We were not expecting for that to work, but were very grateful it did. 

We were in...

...but not by much.

We all went to Jamba Juice in Southlake Town Center and enjoyed catching up some by the fountain. 

I walked over to Starbucks to see if my friend was working and she was! I just wanted to say hi to her and I didn't have any money with me. She blessed me so much by offering me whatever drink I wanted. My Pumpkin Spice Latte was so good. 

Now they sleep.

We got home a little after 4:00 and unloaded all our stuff. I pretty much went straight to the piano. I missed it. So. Much. Playing the piano is a way I release stress, calm down, and process, plus I just really enjoy it. I was so excited to be able to play a few songs from memory without hesitation or mistakes! 

Everyone worked on unpacking for a majority of the rest of the day and Mom and I started working to go through our stuff and find things to get rid of. 

While we were away we noticed once again that we really don't need a lot of things to be happy. We all pack very light to go to the beach because all we wear is swimsuits and pajamas a majority of the time. Also, we don't need "toys" or a lot of other things because we just spend time enjoying the beach and visiting with other people and playing games and being creative. At home obviously there are different dynamics, but we still have so much more than we need. 

So as soon as we were unpacked Mom and I both got started and already there is a large pile of things to take to our church's garage sale in a couple weeks. 

Once everything was mostly taken care of and put away (around 8:30 pm) the others turned on American Ninja Warrior. 

We were all really tired having not slept on the plane much, but because of the time difference it was still mid afternoon for us so going to bed would have been useless. I think most everyone stayed up until at least 10:30. I went to bed at midnight. 

That moment when:

Your brother decides to order your meal even though you are standing right there.

Your siblings get you confused so that when you get on the airplane you try to kick people out of the seats you thought were yours.

You almost face plant in the middle of a crowd and get told by the people giggling behind you that you were very graceful.

The Herd: Quoted 

"Prefect crying weather." -Me on the beach  

"What is that?" -Dad and Me at the same time.

"It could be something gross." -Ava

"It came from the freezer, it won’t be gross." -Dad

"That's the fish Christian caught and smashed and cut up!" -Chloe 

"Dad, that is gross!" -Me

"Thank you for buying food Mom and Dad." -Mom reminding everyone not to complain.

"You’re welcome." -Chloe very sleepily. 

"Hey, what?" -Mom

"oh oops, sorry, thank you." -Chloe

"what did she do?" -Ava

"She took credit for something she didn’t do!" -Mom 

"Whew, we are through. I thought I was going to have to call Mark and ask him to come get you." - Mom after we got me through security 

"I'm still shaking, I'm so glad they didn't tell me I couldn't come." -Me 

"They gave me a pat down again!" -Me leaving security 

"Why?" -Mom

"Because I have long hair." -Me 

"That's what they said? Was it a woman?" -Mom

"I think so...I can't remember." -Me 

"Let's see how many times I can almost forget my bag." -Me after almost walking away from my carry-on for the second time.

"I was talking to that woman and she asked, 'Are all those your kids? I thought you were their sibling or something!'" -Mom

"It took all of about 2 minutes for one of Keely's coworkers to ask me how old I am." -Me 

Purse Hanging Thingy, DIY

Here is how I made my "purse hanging thingy" for my room. Again, I pretty much made it up as I went. 

Gramma had given me this piece of green wood with white paint chipping off for me to create something with. It had another piece nailed on the top of it like a shelf, but it went too far off the back. I was going to get Christian to knock the piece off, but he suggested cutting it so the top would have a tiny shelf. 

I let him do that while I was inside. (I really dislike watching people use power tools.) 

Once it was trimmed, I dusted it off and gathered the paint stuff I wanted to use. 

I chose a really light pink acrylic paint and a white one.

Then I just used large brush strokes to mostly cover the green with a light coat of paint. (I used both pink and white separately to make it sort of two toned.) I still wanted some green to peek through. I finished the paint process by dabbing some satin-finish mod podge in spots that I thought might be prone to chippage. I don't know for sure if any of the shine shows up or not... 

At Hobby Lobby I found 5 shabby-chic white knobs. Christian helped me drill holes in my newly painted piece and then screw them in. Super easy, especially if you can get someone else to use the drill. Someone who knows what they are doing. 

I was very pleased with the finished product. 

Dad hung it up for me and there it is, ready for use!

"Dream" Sign DIY

As a part of my new room, I wanted some sort of wooden sign with a word I want to be reminded of often. People who know me, know I would much rather "figure out how to make it myself" than go buy whatever item I have in mind (in most cases). 

I acquired some old wooden ladders, and employed Christian to help me tear them apart. We ended up pulling off two of the steps and then the cross supports to use for my project. (Another thing about me, I rarely totally plan it out, I pretty much just get into it and see what happens.) 

I told Christian what I wanted and he grabbed all manner of power tools and did it all while I stood 10 feet away, closed my eyes, and covered my ears. 

He cut the two steps to be the same length roughly and then cut three supports for the back.

The wood was old and one of the steps was cracking so he used wood glue to fill it in. I was no longer closing my eyes at that point. 

Then he glued the two steps together.

And attached the supports to the back. After that, we left it to dry for 24 hours. 

Once it was dry, I wiped the whole thing off, and checked to make sure everything was secure. 

Then I printed off the letters I needed in a font I liked, and cut them out. They ended up being too big, so I cut them down to make them fit. 

I was going to just trace around the letters with a pencil and then paint them, but the pencil wasn't showing up. 

I grabbed a couple pieces of paper and measured and cut it to be the same size as the sign. Then I laid out the letters on top and taped them down. 

Making it up as I went, I took the paper and letters to the window and used a pencil to trace around the letters on the back side of the paper using the sun to show up the shadows. That ended up being a wasted step because I decided to make the paper into a stencil and cut around the letters, then went back and taped all the edges.

Once the stencil was finished, I taped it onto the sign and got my paint. I used a flat brush, and did two quick coats of regular acrylic (?) paint. It was not kid paint, but it wasn't wall paint either. If I had wanted to the use the stencil again I should have made it out of card-stock. As soon as I finished painting the letters I pulled off the stencil and let it dry. That didn't take long at all. 

To hang it up, I turned it over and used a heavy duty stapler to put two staples into the supports. They didn't go all the way into the wood, which was good. I then threaded heavy wire through the staples and used pliers to twist the wire several times around itself. 

I may end up hot gluing some burlap flowers onto it later, I just haven't decided yet. 

There are other projects I have in mind for my room, and if I think of it I'll do something like this again so y'all can see what I did. 

Later on, I'll post pictures of where they all end up in my new room.

The reason I chose the word, "Dream," is because I don't want to only do what I think I can safely do, I want to reach beyond that and dream big. How far can I go? What can I do for Him? But I don't want to just dream, I want to act. And along the way, maybe inspire others to do the same.