Spelling Tuesday

So the Lenz's packed up and headed down to Caleb's parents house in Bolivar. We had a great time catching up with the family and stuffing our faces! This year, Caleb's brother Levi and his wife Robyn who are missionaries in Papua New Guinea were home on furlough, so that was an extra special treat! And of course, their three boys were there to play with Loralie, so she got an extra dose of COUSINS! She especially loves playing with new baby Matthew, helping him with his binky and giving him kisses! Loralie got another truckload of toys and was spoiled rotten by all of her amazing Aunts and Uncles. And I got probably the best Christmas present I have ever recieved from my dear sister in law Michelle. She remembered an obscure mention of a favorite childhood book "Hirim's Red Shirt" (which is out of print!) and managaed to find me a copy! I think I had tears in my eyes when I started flipping through that book and remembering having it read to me when I ...

We began our Christmas Eve festivities by heading to church. Loralie spent the service literally running in circles... she had to be removed twice. I think she was a little bit excited about Christmas! Then we went home and changed into our Christmas PJ's! We pigged out on snacky foods and had a great time just hanging out together! Loralie opened the first presents of Christmas: a veggie tales DVD and her Mickey Mouse ornament. Then we snuggled up on the couch and watched the movie together! Before we shuffled Loralie up to bed we made sure we sprinkled "candy cane seeds" on the Christmas tree (candy sprinkles) and left Santa his milk and cookies! Christmas morning, Loralie slept in until 9! She got a bulging stocking, a dress up trunk, and a cupcake game from santa. He remembered to eat his cookies and drink his milk, too! And low and behold those candy cane seeds had sprouted into full size candy canes on our christmas tree! That is some Christmas magic! We ...

I love Christmas. And I love decorating the tree. It isn't just about adding some "holiday cheer" to the house. I love that every ornament I pull out of the box has a memory attached to it. I love that looking at our Christmas tree is like looking at a timeline of me and Caleb's lives together, and how each year we add to the memories! This is the only ornament I have from my own childhood. I think I got it when I was in the junior high ski club at school! This one is of the city hall in Bolivar, so it kind of represents Caleb's childhood. This one is from 2001, when we were engaged! This one is from 2002- Just married! We went on lots of fun adventures and vacations and I always tried to find an ornament if I could! It is kind of fun to try to find them, epecially in the middle of the summer! Sometimes I had to make my own from little trinkets I found. And then in 2008, we got a new addition! Loralie's first Christmas! And this one was last year's....

Some fun from our little girl: Her new favorite game is to carry her potty step stool all the way downstairs and use it to turn on and off the lights. She was following Caleb around this morning and he said "I need to put on my socks", and she said "don't put them in the microwave!" I asked her what she thought was in the big box under the Christmas tree and she said "a horse!". Uh oh. We bring home books from the library each week and it is really funny to listen to her "read" them. Sometimes she gets whole pages word for word after hearing them a few times. She likes to play "Mommy", which consists of putting on her purse, saying "I going to work! Be good!.... Where my keys? Where my KEYS????". Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, huh? She likes to torture daddy by conspicuously leaving him out of the "I love yous". We will both say "goodnight Loralie! We love you!" and she will say ...

Nee Nee came over today and had a very special pizza picnic/tea party with Loralie. We ate our pizza in Loralie's kitchen and pretended that she cooked it for us, and then we drank some delicious "tea party". Loralie kept saying "I would like some more tea party please!" She liked pouring the milk back and forth from the tea pot to the cup, and managed to make quite the mess!

Yesterday me and a few friends has a cookie bake-off and exchange out at the Tuscan Ballroom! We had a lot of fun, and our final products came out delicious (except my candy cane cookies- bad recipe- luckily I made some yummy sandwich cookies that turned out pretty good). Heather is modeling her delicious fudge here... sorry Val, the picture I took of you was all blurry! (That is quite the face I am making...) :P And last night we got our first snow of the season, and Loralie was super excited to go out and play in it today. I love her "snow gear". I think she was probably sweating out there!

Loralie has a new bedtime ritual of asking us to cover her up with not one, not two, but five blankets! They all have to be right side up and in the correct orientation. She has been know to scream for Daddy for twenty minutes if one of her feet should happen to find it's way out! ("Daddy! My foot! HELP!") That is why I had to chuckle to myself when I went in to check on her last night and saw this:

Yesterday we took Loralie to Breakfast with Santa at the Tuscan Ballroom. I had visions of her sitting on Santa's lap for a fantastic photo op, but as you can tell by this photoless blog, that didn't happen. She FREAKED OUT. Pretty much anytime he LOOKED at her, or waved at her, or even came near her. She talked about Santa during the whole breakfast, and quite a bit since. But there was no way in hades that she was going to sit on that scary man's lap! She says: "Santa say Ha Ha Ha! He scary. I cryin'. " I say: "Actually he says Ho Ho Ho. And he's nice! He gives the children presents!" Loralie: "He nice? No."

We have always loved Christmas at the Lenz house, but having Loralie around makes everything even more fun. We are starting to do a lot of "counting down" the days until Christmas. I bought Loralie a little cardboard advent calendar from Target where you get to open a little door each day and eat a piece of chocolate. I remember doing those when I was a kid. She loves it, of course, as she is a chocoholic, but she always asks if she can have more, so I don't think she gets the concept! We also have a big felt calendar where she gets to take little decorations out of a pocket each day. Last night we went to church and they had a very fun Family Christmas service. We sang some Christmas songs, and then we made advent wreaths with our families. They gave us a whole bible study to go with each week, but I think that might be a little advanced for Loralie, so this week we are going to light the candle each day and say "Jesus is the Light of the World!" I ...