Faith, Hope and Love and the long awaited belly shots! Sigh.

For my birthday two years ago I picked out three word plaques: Faith, Hope and Love. After moving them around several times I finally found the perfect spot...well it is almost perfect! It is just a bit too low on the wall and just the right height for a misdirected pillow or ball that was thrown from one male or another in the house. But since I love the arrangement so much and they are just the thing for that space, I keep re-gluing them and putting them back up with hope and faith that my loving family won't break them...again! And when it does happen again, which it always does, we can't refrain from making wise cracks like "all hope is lost" or "where's the love?" And we inevitably go a few days or weeks with one or more of the words missing.

Over Thanksgiving the boys decided the free space and available nails was the perfect place to launch their "Cauliflower" ships...otherwise known as the "Mayflower". I thought it was an appropriate replacement thinking of all the faith and hope those voyagers must have had to make such an arduous journey into the unknown. And I find myself unable to take down the ships even though Thanksgiving is long gone and Christmas is on our heels. I think for the same reason I keep putting the words back up, I'm holding onto these construction paper creations. I love the ideals they represent and even more I love the little hands that made them. Even though those little hands are the source of our broken "hope", our disassembled nativity, and the decapition of my Willow Tree collection, I can't imagine life any other way. All too soon faith, hope and love will stay in place long enough to collect dust and Mary will sit perfectly still adoring baby Jesus all season through.

I know someone smarter or less stubborn would simply move the breakables to a safer location...and trust me I've tried to find one in this house...or just put them away for this season of life. Instead once I'm done yelling "Not again!" I have to laugh just a little at myself get out the superglue...again. I can't help but see the humor in the mother/ son figurine misnamed "tenderness" as the decapitated mother has clearly "blown her top" or "lost her head"...a more likely occurrence with little boys. And the obvious lesson of the headless "angel of prayer" is that all too often I pray without thinking, rotely saying my list of wants and needs. (Which by the way, the boys continue to pray without complaint and with creative flair for "folding our hands"...the other day we were praying with our fingers in our ears and it goes without saying there was a strong reminder/conviction in my heart over that one).

I know it is a bit late to be mentioning things I was/am thankful for on Thanksgiving, but one of them HAS to be acknowledged. Not only am I thankful for a husband who knows how to fix things, I'm so glad I married someone who knows how to build things! Since moving into our home 2 1/2 years ago Jeff has built a huge garage and completely finished our basement. Just yesterday the Things sat glued to their seats watching the carpet men ("carpenters" seems like it would be the right word, doesn't it?) lay down the carpet in our FINALLY done basement. The boys love running laps down there and hanging out in their hiding place beneath the stairs. We all love having more space! A big hug and thank you to hubby for the countless hours he has put in...and a huge thank you (but no hug - sorry) to our friends who have come over and helped hubby through this process.

So without further rambling, here are some photos of the basement and other happenings on the prairie.

Not shown, the finished:office, bathroom and guestroom. Shown:boys jumping off the steps!
Okay, for all those who have scolded me for not posting one sooner - here are some bellies!
Our Nav Christmas party last weekend. It has gotten too big to have in our home - a good problem to have.
We had not 1, not 2, but 3 Santas show up. The scary thing is those are their real beards!
I was thrilled to see that I could still dress in style when I arrived and saw these two lovely ladies who have much more of a clue of fashion than this stay-at-home mommy. So I made them take this photo with me to document my glee. I show up at large events mainly to figure out what is "in" and what "isn't". Just last night I learned how to wear my scarf just by going to Nav Nite.