My highlights...

It seems my life at times is just a jumble of randomness. I've had mental (and, I think, spiritual) reminders over and over again the last few weeks of the importance of journaling. I get a little envious of those who seem to have their whole lives neatly chronicled in volumes of diaries and journals, available to share with children, spouses, friends and even to be reacquainted with their past selves. I've had spurts in my life where I've done well at keeping a journal or diary, even as a kid, but sometimes I find it hard to get everything down that I want since it doesn't "flow", if that makes sense. Same with the blog. So instead of grammatically complete sentences and paragraphs, I plan on dedicating one blog a month to the random highlights of my week/month/day/whatever. These are the little things I want to remember that don't exactly flow with the rest of my daily life but make it rewarding!

• Alexis randomly insisting that I call her "Captain Moroni" at Kroger...and for the rest of the day.
• Kira walking into our bedroom one late night (we weren't asleep yet) and flopping down on Christopher without a word. She hadn't seen him that day since he got off work after bedtime. She just laid there until I asked if she was ok and if anything was wrong, which she replied with a head-shake and went back to bed.
• Caprice finally not throwing up after 6 hours of doing so every 10-15 minutes. What relief!
• Painting my nails an awesome gray-blue shade and having it last without chipping for more than 24 hours.
• Christopher coming home and verbally reassuring me that I was appreciated after dealing with sick/screaming toddler on three hours sleep.
• Kira getting teary after figuring out that daddy will be in Guatemala for a week. (It's nice to know that even though they don't get to see dad that much normally, they still love and miss him and don't like NOT seeing him for so long!)
• Watching my much smaller than average 19-month-old try to keep up with towering 3-5 year-olds at the library story time.
• Seeing Alexis make a new friend in less than 5 seconds!
• Having a completely spotless kitchen before bed TWO whole nights this week! Wahoo!
• Reading/finishing Austenland.
• Getting first tax refund in nearly four years!
• Buying much anticipated white pintuck/puckering duvet for master bedroom with aforementioned refund.
• Listening to the ever-evolving prayers of my children.

Wintertime...

Ahh, winter in Michigan. Break out the snow-blowers and ice-picks, right? Well, typically, but this year has been freakishly warm. Like we're talking 40s, even 50s occasionally, in January! And as for snow, what's that? The girls have had very few opportunities to go out and enjoy the snow since the most we've had so far at one time barely made 2 inches. Crazy. Anyway, I'm really not complaining. The girls wish for snow but I'm just opening up the shades and enjoying each ray of sunshine and jacket-weather day. I have this awful sinking feeling its all going to end with a bang somehow, like with blizzards and power outages and ice, oh my!

We were very excited to decorate our new place for Christmas. I have been really bad with the camera lately and never seem to have charged batteries in it so most of my pictures are grainy phone or ipod pics, which I'm not posting here. But I did get this shot before my camera shorted out. This is the first place we've lived that has had a fireplace and we've been wanting one for so long. So even though it's a very quirky one, it was our pièce de résistance this Christmas!

And though it hasn't been the whitest Christmas holiday we've experienced, there have been plenty of cold days that keep us indoors. Lex and Caprice have been little pals lately without Kira being at home all day. I love catching calm moments like this when they are just lovey and snuggly.

When Caprice is napping, Lex really has had a hard time not having SOMEONE right there with her. So I've brainstormed special activities just for her so I can use the down time to get something done. A favorite was having a tent in the family room to have her own little picnic and Christmas movie-watching experience (after dressing up for the occasion, of course).

Here's proof that we have gotten some snow up here...I think this is the most we've gotten so far. Just enough to gear up to go out and enjoy it.

Another special winter treat: After finally getting every wet layer off after rolling in the snow, snuggling up by the fire with hot chocolate and Christmas carols (and warmer snowmen friends, of course).

Another exciting winter happening: Christopher's little sister Autumn got married last week! Though we were unable to make it to the Oklahoma wedding due to lack of control over scheduling vacation time as an intern, Autumn wanted us to feel a part, and she and Lawton made the trip all the way up here to take out her endowments at the Detroit temple. It was so nice to have them here for a few days. The girls warmed right up to Dad and Autumn right away.

It was a wonderful opportunity to escort Autumn at the temple and be there with Christopher and Lawton. What a great way to add to the true holiday spirit.

Christopher did have the week before Christmas off and we enjoyed so much having him home. I tend to forget how luxurious it can be to have a partner to wrangle kiddos, cook, clean and snuggle with each day. Since he wasn't home much of December, we tried to do a few extra special things with the kids for Christmas. One night, we had the kids get ready and into bed early, only to find a "gold" ticket in their beds. After hearing a whistle blow from downstairs, they rushed down to find the "conductor" (mom) ushering them into the "train" complete with pillows and blankets to watch The Polar Express, which they had only seen once two years ago and had been reading that week. They were able to trade in their tickets for hot cocoa and popcorn and stay up extra late to watch the special show about the first gift of Christmas.

The next day, being Christmas Eve, we focused on the true first gift of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. We enacted Luke 2 with our toy nativity as Daddy read from the scriptures. We also had a little birthday celebration for baby Jesus complete with chocolate fudge cake, since we know chocolate would have been His favorite! ;) The girls opened their annual Christmas pjs from Grandma and new slippers that they gave to each other.

We woke up and decided to go to church first instead of suffering the wrath of post-Christmas-present-opening whines to stay and play. This is where I'm really feeling the woes of a dead camera. The girls received a guitar (K), make-up/hairdresser kit (A) and a bounce 'n ride (C) from Santa, along with wonderful gifts from mom and dad and extended family. They were in heaven! I always secretly dislike Christmas day since it means the end of a month-long celebration of my most favorite time of year. But it was so nice to be together as a family and enjoy the spirit of the day on the Sabbath. I was more than ready two weeks later to have everything put away!

Just for me...

So after a grand total of, wait for it...3! posts in 2011, I decided that something had to change. I'm not really sure why I have been so reluctant to just get on and post about life but I have been. It seems almost a chore, I guess. I think I spend so much time trying to write something interesting for the few readers that I've missed the whole point of my blog. As much as I would love to have the photography, interior design, cooking, fashion and/or crafting skills that so many of the bloggers I follow are blessed with and perfectly layout into witty posts, I'm just not that talented. The reason I started this was to have a place to keep a record of "life in the Wood's" household and make it available to family and friends, since I'm awful about calling and writing to keep people up to date. If nothing else, I love reading through past posts and seeing and remembering my life for the past three years. I start to get disappointed as I near 2011. I need to do better since this is my most consistent form of journal-ing, sad as that is. So, many of the posts may be short or strictly pictures with descriptions, depending on my mood, but my goal is to have a post once a week so come 2013, I can look back and more thoroughly enjoy 2012.