can't keep these Rae's down...

Our house these last weeks have consisted of: 

doctors visits, double ear infections, antibiotics, chest colds that required albuterol treatments, trips to our pharmacy, LOTS of hand sanitizer and hand washing and even MORE kleenexes. 

(Taking pictures in our doctors office while Kit was out of town, just giving him updates.)

We had Kit gone for an over night work planning project and lots of coffee cups and HGTV that was consumed.  We have had early mornings with ear pain, and very late nights with painful coughing and trying to comfort while they are half asleep and awake, but refuse to be put down in their bed.  

(Late nights with this girl and her painful cough.)

There have been tears that we can't go to school and see our friends and teacher, and bad attitudes that even though we don't feel good, we still have to practice kindness and trying to come up with activities that make us all feel less stir crazy!  

(They really played so well together, even though they weren't feeling good and were ready to not be cooped up in the house anymore.)

It has been filled with sweet texts from friends and family, prayers, and late night care packages left on our door step.  

(Thank you Coltmans!)

We are on the mend, slowly but surely and we just wanted to THANK you guys for your thoughts and prayers for our family!  We love you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today we are headed to a field trip with preschool and we are SO excited to see our friends again!

i've got (fake) green thumbs

Right after thanksgiving, I'm always so excited to put Christmas decorations up and have the house feel so decorated and cosy, covering every space with greenery and tchotchkes that just make me feel in the holiday spirit.  The funny thing is, fast forward to December 26th and I am ready for it to all come down.  (Does anyone else feel that way?) I'm ready to clear spaces, wipe things down, have open counters and shelves and pack away all those things I was so excited to pull out just a mere 26 days before.  This year however, in my mode of clearing the greenery from my bookshelves and taking down our tree, the house suddenly felt sparse and bare to me.  I missed all the green that I had been seeing on the shelves, so I decided to pull in some plants that I can have up all year round.  It just took me a little time to figure out what would work best.

Then I went in my closet and realized that I had my collection of thrifted milk glass that had just been sitting and waiting to be used!

So using a gift card and coupon that I had at Joann's, I picked up these little babies:

(It was my first outing in several days alone, since the kids had been sick and Kit had been working so hard in preparation for his teaching weekend...)

 The finished products:

Bringing in these plants also made me want to move things around and that is always fun for me.

Now, not only do I get to see the greenery, but I get to see some of my favorite milk glass pieces that I have thrifted and have just been sitting in the closet. Plus, it's IMPOSSIBLE for me to kill them, so it's a win all the way around...♥

a little barista

Every morning, Ryder comes in our bed to snuggle with us.  Usually within 20 minutes, Eden joins us and our bed, though feeling very small, feels warm and cozy and inevitably no one wants to get up to actually start the day.  Then Ryder will say, "Hey Mom, can I make you some coffee?"  Yep, that does it every time! This tells you how dependent I am for my morning cup...

I mean, I kind of want to melt when I see this little barista, doing such a big kid thing like making coffee for his mom, while wearing some of his favorite striped pirate pajamas... Yep, melting.♥

switching my perspective with sick kiddos

Ok, so the last week has been tough.  Not only were we sick over the holidays with the stomach flu, but then Rdyer got a chest cold, runny nose and cough from the kids in our lives and then gave it to his sister.  My poor kids!  The hardest part for them in being sick is how it isolates us.  I have two INCREDIBLY outgoing, relational kids. We can't go to school or church or meet up with our friends for play dates.  It's all about trying to get better and contain what we have so that no one else gets it.  Ryder has missed two days of preschool and he was so BUMMED to not see his friends and his teacher.  I start to go down this rabbit hole of frustration and then step back and I am so thankful that being sick is not a part of our normal.  We can get the medicine we need, see the doctors that we love, and I can get care for my babies with out trying to go it alone.  What a blessing it is!  So today, as I write this, Ryder is home from school getting over the tail end of his cold.  We are going to capitalize on what we have, snuggle up with our books and movies and eat comfort food and kick this cold in the toosh!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are some things that have brought smiles to our faces the last few days:

This was posted at Ryder's school last week and my friend Angelina sent it to me:

She decided to accessorize her pjs:

Being sick will not slow this little fashionista down:

Even though they are sick, they are playing so sweetly together:

He is SO good with her.  They are so lucky to have each other!

So here is to getting better quickly so that we can jump back into the swing of things!

creating: a little anniversary gift...

This year, I had decided to make some type of art work for our bedroom as a gift for Kit on our wedding anniversary.  I really had a hard time thinking of something that I really wanted to do and finally decided on this EASY little project using words from our wedding vows.

The finished product:

We put it in our bathroom area, where we can see it where we start and end our day:

What a great reminder of the commitment we made over a decade ago...

Kit Rae, I still choose you...

oh this kid...

If you ask Ryder what he wants to do with family free time, he says he wants to go to the archery range with his dad... 

 I just can't handle how great this kid is...

Seriously, I just can't even stand it!

a visit from close friends...

Our friends, the Kamalskis, from South Africa came for a visit and stayed with us for a few days!  We went to college with Chris and he married an AMAZING South African woman (Kit and all their college group went to South Africa and Kit performed their wedding ceremony.)

Since we have seen them two years ago, they had a baby girl named Mia Anne and we got to meet her for the first time!

 Our kiddos were so good with her.  Eden thinks that she can babysit her.

 Eden really thought that she could carry her around.

 She really was a big helper.

 Mia really did love me, even if her face didn't show it in any of our selfies...♥

 We had our close group over for dinner with our families to get to spend some time together.

I pulled out a scrapbook that I had made for Kit when he had graduated and the guys LOVED going through it together!

 The day they left, Eden tried to soak up as much time as she could with Mia.

 We love you, Chris, Maxie, and Mia!  Come visit us again soon!