Life lately has looked like Christmas lights, clay creations, and cute breakfasts. Our days have felt extra cozy as we soak in the Christmas season, and I’m so thankful for these busy, messy, good days with my people!

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A Dazzling Night 🎄

We attended Dazzling Nights for the first time! It’s a Christmas light walk-through at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. It was such a fun way to celebrate the season together. We bundled up the kids and made our way through acres of Christmas lights.

I loved watching the kids’ excitement and soaking up the special family moments together. The kids are at such a magical age for things like this—everything was so exciting for them!

Jimmy and I learned a lesson: bring a stroller next time! We did great bundling the kids up, but he ended up carrying Mordecai and I carried Dakota and our arms were tired by the time we got back to the car. What a blessing it is to be tired from carrying out sweet babies, though!

Our special night looking at Christmas lights reminded me that we’re due for a family drive around the neighborhood to look at lights before Christmas.

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Clay, Coloring, & Cute Breakfasts ⛄️

Lately, our kitchen table has been full of little hands creating all sorts of things. From coloring pages to clay creations, it’s been a sweet mix of imagination, creativity, and plenty of messes—exactly the kind of moments I want to remember.

We spent a morning playing with polymer clay, and I think I had just as much fun as the kids did! Also, check out that duck—Sadie made it all on her own, and I was so impressed! She’s giving it to our neighbor for Christmas because he collects duck figurines.

We also colored Christmas coloring pages with my mom and put them in frames in our living room. Seasonal decor like this is my favorite!

I also got creative in the kitchen on Saturday! I decided to make Sadie and Mordecai snowman pancakes. Just simple pancakes surrounded with powdered sugar and edible snowflakes, topped with candy and chocolate accents, bacon for a scarf, and pretzel arms!

I love making fun breakfasts like that from time to time! I hope the kids carry memories of little moments—like a Saturday morning snowman pancake—as they grow up. 😊

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Mom Brain and That Little Foot🦶

Mom brain is frantically searching the house for your baby… while holding your baby.

It’s true. I was looking for Dakota, thinking she was off getting into trouble… and she was in my arms. I’m officially losing it!

She has the funniest little habit with keeping her foot up on her booster seat tray. I catch her doing it at least once per meal!

This girlie is something else! She is forever keeping us on our toes. I can’t believe she’s going to be ten months just before Christmas. How in the world did that happen?

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Living the Husky Life 🐾

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Niva escaped our house—right before church started! We had to drive around the neighborhood looking for her because it was way too cold for her to be outside for a few hours while we were at church.

Of course, we spotted her—she never runs far—but there’s a rule with huskies and that rule is that you can never chase them. They think it’s a game and there’s no outrunning a husky. She was loving the snow, though!

She ended up a few houses up the street and was playing with a neighbor’s puppy. Jimmy carried her back to the car and she threw a fit. She was “yelling” and carrying on. 😂

Just another day at our circus! 🎪

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Little Systems and Kind Neighbors🧤

Lookout everyone, I’m on an organization spree! I got the shoes taken care of, then I moved onto our hats and mittens. We had this struggle where I was keeping them in bins in our basement, but half the time we need them upstairs. It was just a cluster, basically! Everyone had a bin but we were searching through and trying to match mittens up. Enter: hanging shoe storage!

Instead of shoes, our organizer holds everyone’s mittens and hats. So far, this system is working well!

Have I ever mentioned that we have great neighbors? They are the type of people who treat our kids as their own and are so kind. Each day, the kids visit an older neighbor and he even has Tupperware labeled for the kids snacks. How sweet is that?!

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Everyday Life

Everyday life around here has looked like school lessons, library trips, playing in the snow, and even a car inspection!

We had our car inspected this week, so the kids and I had Jimmy’s truck for a day. They thought that was super cool. Mama was nervous driving a big truck, haha.

We made a trip to the library! I just started a new novel. I’ll be sure to update here on how I’m liking it.

The kids stacked themselves on top of Jimmy. Can you spot Niva?

We spent an afternoon at my mother-in-law’s and Dakota was trying to play the drum!

Sadie went to see her cousin, Leia, perform in the Nutcracker ballet!

Jimmy and Mordecai built a car together.

Pittsburgh got lots of snow!

And the kids were cute and crazy as we tried to get a picture of them before church!

We managed to get a nice picture eventually. 😉

Don’t let Dakota fool you. She never sits still!

And that’s a wrap! We have a busy week coming up. Both of the girls are going to specialist appointments—Sadie for a cyst and Dakota for her reoccurring ear infections—Jimmy and I have a date planned, and we’ll be doing the usual homeschooling, cooking, baking, cleaning and whatever else crops up!

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Other Notes and Thoughts 📝

• Recipes I’ve been making lately: Secret Ingredient Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gingerbread Granola, and Maple Apple Granola.
• Scripture I’m loving: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
• Mordecai has been dropping his afternoon nap the past couple of days and I have mixed feelings about it! I feel less “trapped” between his and Dakota’s nap schedules, though, which is good!

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What are you up to this week?