The "Saturday" 7

1. We did the bedroom switcharoo this week. Lucy is staying in her room, but Lena now has our old room to herself, and we moved downstairs. Lena has always slept in our room, other than a short stint where she slept in the crib in Lucy's room. So I was really nervous about how she'd do by herself. I knew she'd go to bed no problem, because she always goes to sleep alone, but I was worried she'd wake up in the night and not be able to see me and freak out. I didn't sleep very well because I was nervous that I wouldn't hear her crying. I woke up at 4:18 and lay in bed wide awake for a while, so imagine my surprise when I didn't wake up again until 7:28! Lena never sleeps that long! I jumped up and opened the bedroom door to listen for her, but she wasn't making a peep. I was so happy, thinking maybe she'll actually sleep better when we're not in there with her. Until my dad got home from work and said, "Lena sure was up early this morning." When I questioned him, he said, "Yeah, she was crying for you at 5:45 while I was getting ready for work." Oops! I know she wasn't too upset if she wasn't crying hard enough for me to hear her, and she obviously went back to sleep, but I still feel bad. Good news, though. I found a new charger for the baby monitor (we lost ours). So I've been sleeping much more peacefully, knowing I'll hear her if she needs me. (When did I become such an attachment parent??)

2. I was hoping to have pictures of our new rooms to show you, but we can't find the screws to put our bed frame together and I never even got around to cleaning/organizing the girls' new rooms this week because we've been consumed with all things wedding!! It's going to take me all week to clean the house after the neglect it received this week.

3. My "little" brother got married yesterday. It was such a beautiful ceremony and so emotional. Niki and I sat in the front pew crying before the ceremony even started because we were trying to articulate why it's so emotional for us. We came up with a few reasons. First of all, Luke is older than any of the rest of us siblings were when we got married at a whopping 26. Haha. But what makes it so special is that Esther was his first and only girlfriend. He didn't date just to date throughout high school and college. He waited for a good, godly girl, and God blessed him with the perfect one. I love to see how God rewards those who seek him. Also, Luke is such a good guy. I know that's what everyone says about their brother, but it's truer in this case than anyone else's. ;-) He is so selfless and kind and humble. He's always smiling and serving. It makes us so happy to see that other people see that in him - namely Esther who chose him as her husband. But we also love to see all the people who came to the wedding to support him and the people from his work who threw him a surprise wedding banquet the day on his last day of work. Mostly, though, we get emotional when we see the joy emanating from him. Esther truly makes him so happy. We love her and we love how she makes our brother so happy.

4. Lucy served her 3rd stint as flower girl and looked adorable in her red dress and tiara. She did great walking down the aisle, throwing her flowers, and stopped when she got to me saying loudly, "I ran out of petals!" Haha. Of course the second she sat down in the pew she said, "I have to go potty" even though I had just taken her to the bathroom before the ceremony and she refused to go. Grrrr. Kids.

The best pic I can find of Lucy in her dress/tiara. With beautiful Aunt Niki.

5. My mom found Lena a dress that matched Lucy's perfectly and she was in her glories at the reception running around in her dress and making the rounds from me to Justin to her aunts to Grandma. Although she mostly just wanted Grandma. She has been obsessed with my mom, lately.

6. In non-wedding news, we got our Christmas tree up this week. Justin's dad has a friend who sells trees and he called Dave this week asking if he knew anyone who wanted a free tree. He said someone cut it down then decided they didn't want it and told Dave it was a 7 ft. Frasier Fir. So when Dave mentioned it to us, we jumped at the chance. I love Frasier Firs, but they're usually out of our price range. Justin brought it home on Thursday and it was quite a bit smaller than I anticipated. Haha. But free is free, so we're making the best of it! The girls have loved decorating it. And they're doing quite a stellar job. Haha.

3 ornaments on one branch.

Concentrating

Wearing her reindeer ears to decorate.

7. We've also been doing our Advent Activities. I showcased my incredible artistic abilities by making this countdown on the chalkboard:

I used my new chalkboard marker. It is so amazing! 

And then I made a corresponding "countdown calendar" out of foam Christmas trees. 

Terrible picture, but you get the idea. I also ran out of trees at 8 and haven't had time to go buy more yet. Haha.

Every day, Lucy takes a tree down and we do the activity on the back. So far we've made invitations for Jesus' birthday party, watched Christmas specials on TV, gotten Christmas books from the library and read them in a fort at home, set out our Nativity set, and decorated the tree. I'll make a separate blog entry with the rest of our plans later.

In the fort.

We've also been doing Truth in the Tinsel, largely as our homeschool for the month of December, but also as another reminder of Advent. I toyed around with making my own "curriculum" of the Christmas story, but decided that was way too overwhelming and forked over the 6 bucks for a pre-made one. I'm really loving it so far. It's simple and crafty - which Lucy very much enjoys!