Some assembly required

We all woke up on Friday morning and got ready for church only to find that instead of the "White Christmas" people dream of, we were having a "Wet Christmas". While we drove to church the kids and I were all groaning about what an yucky, wet Christmas we were having. And wondering how it was that the rest of the state was being dumped on with snow and we were holding umbrellas.

As we sat through church celebrating the birth of Jesus my son tugged on my arm and said, "MOM! Look!" And through the stained glass I saw huge flakes of snow. The buzz spread through church and every congregant, no matter the age, turned into a small child with their excitement.

What a special moment!

We headed home for church and were all excited to play with our gifts. Our day was ours and we had no plans other than to spend time together and put together any toys that needed some assembly.

I hate those three words: some assembly required. That is such a lie. Why don't they just be honest. Not everything requires "some" assembly. Some require "a lot" and some require "more than it's worth".

I honestly thought we were going to be able to lounge most of the day, but from the moment we got home from church till the moment we went to bed, Dustin and I worked on toys. Well, toys and laundry.

The first toy we brought out (after changing back into our pajamas) was the bouncy house. And while there wasn't much assembly required...there was a lot of furniture that needed to be moved. ;-)

Yes, Dustin and I are often like two fourteen year-old's, left home alone.





While we cleaned up from that Lauren decided to try on some of her new dress-up dresses.



Ella found her stackable cups and kept herself entertained.




While working on some laundry in between projects, I once again realized that another sign of having more than one girl in the house is that "pink" is now an entire load of laundry.



The toughest toy to assemble, by far, was the trampoline. We had to string the thing and by the end my hands were raw and numb. Good thing she loved it!



Saturday we had mom, Titi and Joel over for our gift exchange.








The road conditions kept Pop-pop and Joyce from making it to Iowa. I think it's safe to say that everyone was pretty bummed but we'll see what the next few weeks bring. Who knows? All I know is that I have quite a few presents under my tree left to be unwrapped!

I caught Ella on camera pulling her latest stunt:



She is starting to stand unsupported more and more. She has the cruising down (walking along the couch and moving from one piece of furniture to the next) so we'll see how long it takes her to just "take off".

Once the last toy was put together Dustin and I looked at each other and agreed that next year we are just buying toys for Ella because that's all the kids are playing with anyway.

They spent forty minutes laughing and playing with Ella's Ball Poppin' toy. The funniest, though, was when I got a shot where Josh looks like he's playing Bozo!






Ella was happy to share...as long as she got to play with her big brother and sister!

Unfortunately, as happy as Ella was in the morning, she quickly became cranky in the afternoon. So Dustin took her to the doctor and sure enough...her first ear infection.

Seems like the poor thing just can't catch a break. Thank God for Amoxicillin, because one dose and she was back to our happy, little Ella!