Our Advent Calendar

For the past few years I have wanted to get an advent calendar for the Christmas season, but haven't found one I liked. I thought this would be something fun to do with our kids now. We had one when growing up and I remember enjoying looking at it each day. I also remember that one year my parents had an advent book where we were supposed to read a page from it each day during December. I think we tried doing this in the mornings before school and I don't think that went over very well - too busy in the mornings!

Anyway, I couldn't find a calendar I liked to buy so decided to try and make one. I searched Pinterest and found several advent calendars that looked fairly easy to make and very neat, too. I didn't want something too big and wanted something that would be interactive and easy for kids to use. I am quite pleased with the one I settled on and proud of the way it turned out.

Each tin has a Bible verse in it to read for the advent season so the idea is to open the tin that corresponds with the day in December and read the verse. I plan on adding a few pieces of candy or a note listing something fun to do for the day in the tin, too. Here's a picture of the final product, made using scrapbook paper, 2" party favor tins, a 12x12 shadow box and frame, Velcro, number stickers, and spray adhesive. (Sorry the picture is turned sideways. I can't figure out how to turn pictures on here.)

You can click here to see the original blog post I got the idea from. I tweaked mine a bit from the original idea. Here are my steps:

1.  I used spray adhesive to adhere the scrapbook paper to the top of the glass from the shadowbox frame to serve as the calendar background.
2.  I bought the 2" favor tins at Michael's (Wilton brand) and made a 2" circle template to cut out 25 circles to put on the inside of the top of each tin.
3.  I used spray adhesive to adhere the circles to the inside top of the tins.
4.  I found the number stickers at Hobby Lobby and put them on the outside of each tin.
5.  For the inside of each tin, I cut 25 more circles and taped them to the inside bottom of each tin.
6.  I found a posting on Pinterest that gave a listing of Bible verses to read each day during the Christmas season and wrote the verse location on a sticker that came with the tins. I placed the stickers on the circles for the inside of the tins.
7.  I simply used tape to adhere the verse circles and stickers to the inside of each tin. I could have used spray adhesive, but just didn't want to deal with the sticky mess that it can sometimes be.
8.  The original blog post about this calendar said to adhere the background scrapbook paper to a sheet of metal and glue magnets onto the back of each tin to get the tins to stick to the board. I didn't want to go this route so decided to use Velcro. I bought a package of small Velcro rectangles, cut them in half, and stuck them to the background and tin. The tins are so light that they will stay on the board with just the Velcro and it will be easy to take the tins off and on each day if needed.

I'm so proud of this project! It really wasn't that hard or time-consuming to make and using 40% off coupons and catching sales helped keep the price down! I'll try following it this year, but realize it might be a little bit lost on Lucy. Perhaps next year, though!

Gramma Ward and I

Last weekend we went to Omaha, Nebraska, to see my grandparents and other family members. My birthday was November 7 and my Grampa's birthday was November 9, so we celebrated together. One of the highlights of the trip for me was taking a picture with my Gramma.

I took the picture myself holding the camera out in front of us, so I guess you could call it a selfie. Each time I've seen her for the past SEVERAL years we've taken a picture together like this. It's so much fun to me and I know she enjoys it, too. :)

Dog People

I think it's safe to say that I (and especially Ross) am not a dog person. I like dogs, but don't really care to pet them much and I really don't like them jumping up on me. I don't want to smell like dog and I don't want the dog to possibly tear my clothes or scratch my legs with its jumping.

I was reminded of all of this just this morning when I had to go to a meeting at someone's house. I had never been to this house before and didn't know she had a dog. I became keenly aware of this the minute I rang the doorbell and heard the barking dog on the other side of the door. I wish I could tell you my first thought was, "Oh boy, a dog for me and Lucy to play with!" but that was definitely not the case! It was more along the lines of, "Oh crap, she has a dog. That means the dog is going to be barking and jumping up on me and Lucy and get its slobber all over us." Thankfully, only about half of my thoughts came true.

The dog did not stop barking for the first five minutes we were there. I was thoroughly annoyed by this but Lucy didn't seem to mind. She loves animals, so the dog was very exciting to her. I'm usually pretty good at pretending to like dogs like this and humor the dog by petting it, but today I was just not in the mood! I tried to ignore the dog, but it kept staring up at me and barking, as if it knew I was ignoring it on purpose. I finally gave in and gave him a little pet and that seemed to shut him up for a bit, at least until the next person came in the door. 

What probably bothered me the most about the dog wasn't the dog itself, but the fact that the owner didn't do a single thing to calm the dog down. She was completely oblivious to the dog running around barking so much and jumping up on everyone who came in the door. This is what frustrates me the most about dog people - they just don't get that not everyone is as excited about their dog as they are. I realize that most dog people treat their dogs as family, or more so like their children, and that's fine. I can't relate to it at all, but to each his own. What is not fine, though, is their complete oblivion to others disinterest in their dogs! I don't expect people who come to my house to be super excited to see Lucy and constantly play with her and give her attention. I realize that not everyone is a kid person like I'm not a dog person.

Ross and I have had countless conversations about these dog people. It just frustrates us to no end that people don't realize we are not into their dogs like they are. In fact, one time we had dinner at a couple's house who we hardly knew at all. We were going on a church ski trip and carpooling with them so had dinner to get to know them a bit before our trip. No exaggeration - their dog had its head in my lap almost the whole time we were eating dinner. They knew the dog was there but didn't do anything about it.

Oh how I wish dog people would be a little more self-aware and not expect everyone to love their dog as much as they do.

She's Advanced

At a recent MOPS meeting, I was talking with some of the ladies about the developmental things our kids are doing now. A few of us have kids roughly the same age (18-24 months) and one of the topics we discussed was talking. One lady was asking how much our kids were talking because she was concerned that her son wasn't saying very much right now. One lady said that her girl talks a lot and followed that statement up with, "but she's advanced for her age."

I laughed to myself when I heard "she's advanced" and thought about it for the rest of the day. I was in no way making fun of her and she did not say it in a bragging way at all. She was just simply stating a fact about her daughter. It made me laugh because I wondered how many of us parents think our kids are "advanced," when in reality, they are doing exactly what they should (and nothing more) for their particular age. This lady's child very well could be advanced for her age, but I'd venture to guess there's a bit of bias in that statement!

I know I'd like to think Lucy is advanced for her age by all of the words she says, what she understands, the activities she does, can walk up and down the stairs so well, and so many other talents of hers. However, I don't want to overlook the fact that she's maybe just right-on, developmentally, where she should be for 18 months old. I'm sure, though, that my Mom would completely disagree with me. I know she thinks Lucy is "advanced." :)

Lucy Language

Lucy has really started talking a lot over the last month and it's so much fun! Some of her words are said very clearly, but others are very hard to understand. Sometimes I feel so bad because I know she's saying something "important" to her, but I have no clue what it is! In fact, there's one word that Ross and I cannot figure out at all. It sounds like "bucktooth" but we know it's not that and have gone through several ideas of what it could be but can't figure it out.

It is so cute when she talks. Often times, she will walk up to us and spew off whatever she's saying and it's like she is really telling a story to us, but in Lucy Language. We just reply and pretend like we know what she's talking about. I've been around lots of my friends' kids when they were at this beginning to talk stage and I could never make out what they were saying, but the kids' parents didn't miss a beat and could tell you exactly what their kids were saying. I somewhat marveled at this wondering how they could figure it out.

Now, though, I'm at that stage and can tell you (probably 95% of the time) what Lucy is saying, even if it doesn't exactly sound like it should. When you're around her all day, everyday, you just learn her and her words. I was telling a friend this story the other day and how it's fun to now understand her when others can't. She agreed and said it's neat, almost like we have our own little way of communicating that no one else has with her. I've thought about that so much and love this idea! It's like we're in our own little secret club with our own secret language!

My Growing Belly

My belly seems to be getting a little bigger. It seems, though, like all I hear is how small I am for this far along (24 weeks) with a second baby. Here's more pictures for you!

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21

Week 22