a misconception of sorts.

Hey everyone! I have 4 fewer teeth, hoorah! We'll chat more on that later. Let's play catch up here, starting with this year's Christmas card.

Some years, nothing unexpected happens.

Other years, my card has some mishap. Like the time my wooden hippie beads got smashed by the post office. When people opened my card, they were met with smashed beads.

"What is this?", they wondered. "Popcorn? Confetti? Corn?"

Oh my. How awkward.

This year I did not really anticipate any major misunderstandings.

Back in October, my darling little sister Lindsay drove to our town to take our photos.

Without much thought, I settled on this particular location. Little abandoned house with a nice porch area to handle my herd of boys.

The following month we went to Mexico.

Then a few weeks later I made up my card.

I sent a draft to Lindsay and asked "Will people think I'm pregnant if I write For unto us a child is Born?" That was my one and only concern. I did not want people to wonder if I was pregnant. Because I am not, ok? Simmer down.

"No no", my little sister replied. "Nobody will think you are pregnant. It's a common Christmas verse".

So that settled that. No misconceptions. I mailed out the card without a single thought in my mind.

That is, until people began commenting that my pictures were taken in Mexico. A overwhelming number of people still think my pictures were taken in Mexico. Someone even asked my MIL if that was my house.

And that is the big misconception of my card, LOL.

"Omygosh!" I texted my little sister. "Do people really think I'm that silly to wear a dress to Mexico????!!!!!!! And then dress my boys up and drag them on a photoshoot????"

I die.

I mean, I know I'm ridiculous and all. And I can totally see how you would think that. But honest. I did not wear a dress to Mexico and drag my kids on a random photoshoot. I wore jeans and yoga pants the entire time.

Plus, our church was very structured with our schedule and I was not able to take one 'whole family' photo because there just wasn't a convenient time to do so.

But. I do realize in hindsight, that my card has a very spanish vibe.

For crying out lout, I wrote Feliz Navidad on the back.

Plus the timing was extremely coincidental. We JUST got back from Mexico, so I can totally see how everyone would think that my pictures were taken in Mexico. HAHAHAHA. Funny. Funny.

But they were not. They were taken here. By my little sister, who did an amazing job of corralling my wild herd of boys. We are no small task to take on. I feel sorry for anyone who has to photograph us.

Here are some other pictures she took of us. Thanks again Lindsay! I treasure them!

John and I always think Ollie looks like a little mouse. Love.

Ollie is perfecting his K. Stew pose. He read my blog and then submitted his photo. He won my little contest. Good boy, Ollie.

Lindsay helped the boys make a cute little teeter-totter out of the rubble.

feathers and teeth.

I wore some clip-on feathers in my hair today.

And that's all for today folks!

I wish. I spent some time on the phone today with my dentist and oral surgeon.

I was supposed to get my wisdom teeth out in October but got a bad sinus infection and had to reschedule for this coming Dec 29th. That is 8 days from now. 8 days.

A month ago, my (sweet)dentist shook his head at me and said "I don't know if you are gonna be able to wait that long...one of your wisdom teeth is cracked and it might turn into a crisis once it hits the nerve..."

I have never had teeth pain ever in my life, so I had no idea what he was talking about.

Til yesterday. My cracked tooth was throbbing and I was in miserable pain. I had no idea that teeth could hurt this bad. I took Advil and Tylenol and that did not help much. 8 days seemed a loooong time away.

Last evening I was scheduled to see Dr W(my homeopathic DO), so I told her about my teeth. She inspected my mouth and said my jaw muscles were uber tight and that I was probably clenching like a maniac at night...and that was not helping my overall mouth situation. Dr W whipped up a little dental impression mouth guard for me(is there anything she cannot do???). She says that when I clench my teeth it also causes immobility of the sinuses...and that people with chronic sinus issues(hello, ME!) usually clench their teeth at night. And get cracked teeth. Hm.

Anyhow. My mouth guard helped some and my teeth(overall) felt much better this morning. My cracked tooth still hurt. I took a few Advils and felt ok for the most part. But I was still kind of nervous that my tooth situation could go from bad to worse at any given moment. And Christmas is just a few days away!

What to do???

My oral surgeon is totally booked because all the teenagers on Christmas break are getting their wisdom teeth pulled this week. But fortunately he said he could squeeze me in and take my wisdom teeth out a few days earlier.(Dec 26th, the day after Christmas)...and prescribed tylenol w/codeine and vicodin in case of an emergency. And so I don't jump off a bridge from the throbbing pain.

Don't worry mom. I won't be jumping off any bridges.

So just limping along til I get these teeth out! Just 5 more days! 5 more days!

Praying that I don't need vicodin. Praying that my tooth does not act up again.

But at least I had some feathers in my hair to keep my mind off the inevitable impending doom of tooth extractions.

my first instagrams

guess what?

i learned how to do something yesterday.

i did my first instagram.

i know how everyone loves their instagrams round here. so i'm finally one of the kewl kids and can do it. so this is cause for celebration and documentation, right?

i asked some friends the other day how to do it.

and they said it was easy.

so yesterday i downloaded the app thingy and took some (bad) pictures of myself. the photo in the middle is my best k.stew impersonation.

hey. it's harder than it looks. she is a genius with her awkwardness.(you are supposed to look at the ground and pretend you are inspecting ants, FYI. Or you bite your lip and twirl your hair or something. You have to try it too.Then email me your best shot and I'll post the winner next week, k? I am not kidding. I should be kidding, but I'm not.)

my first instagrams, sadly, had no frames. and I was like "what a jip! where are the frames?".

apparently you have to select the frames. and I have no idea what I'm doing and I can't figure out why some filters have frames and others don't.

and these frames are fine and dandy but don't show up on a white blog background, so they are dead to me.

i know you all have a secret on how to get the ivory-colored polaroid frames. and i'm too lazy to figure it out by myself. i would like full instructions hand delivered on a silver platter. or directed to my email. spill the beans.

this week.

1. I wore my new bear paws every day this week.

My older sister told me they were on sale at Famous Footwear.

Katygirl thought I said bear claws and was envisioning these.

While these are...um...delightful kg...I will not be wearing them. Ever.

And FYI, leg warmers really do keep your legs warm. Target $7.

*****One word of warning. Sometimes I might trip wearing them(fake uggs. not leg warmers, ha). I was wearing my old $14 fake walmart uggs last week(before buying my new bear paws) and I fell flat on my face in front of my favorite antique store, while carrying Twain. A young worker was outside cleaning windows and he came rushing up to me...very concerned that I was hurt.

Of course, I was mortified at his deep concern over my clumsiness.

Twain was not hurt(praises)...my thigh muscle was slightly strained. But me and my boots are fine.

All this drama to buy a crate full of earwigs and a record player that smokes. Yay me!

Did not know the crate had earwigs til I got home.

Yes, I saved a specimen for your viewing enjoyment. And to show John. To make sure they were not roaches or anything.

John said it was an earwig. RIP dear earwig. He looks so defeated.

And I did not know my lil' record player smoked til I plugged it in at home. Rude.

You should have seen Ollie running in terror from the smoke.

But for $18 it's too cute to return. And Santa will bring me one that works. He told me so.

2. This jar of dark chocolate m&m's is disappearing more quickly than anticipated.

a. Twain gets one for going on the big potty rather than the little potty(YAY!).

b. Ollie gets one for wiping his own tush(double YAY!).

c. Mommy gets one for a. and b. Because I still have to supervise.

d. Finn and Calvin get one for saying AWANA verses. I know it's bribery and it's pathetic, but it works. They were getting wildy unmotivated and now they beg to do their verses.

3. We try to go outdoors at least once a day for some vitamin D. It works wonders on our mood(s). Even though it's really chilly this winter, there is just something oppressive about staying indoors all day.

And yes, Ollie dresses like that almost every day. It's a problem.

4. At MOPS this week, one of the girls shared about how for Christmas this year, she is trying to get her kids excited about giving Jesus a present. "What should we give Jesus this year?" She asked them, with enthusiasm. Since Jesus loves it when we care for others, their gift to Jesus involves doing something little each day for someone. Yesterday it involved chasing down the trash man, with her kids following behind in excitement, and giving him a special treat. She said, "You should have seen the look on his face...he was like 'A treat? For me?' "

I think maybe ALL of our trash men should get a treat this Christmas. Do it:)

5. My amazing neighbor Patty invited us to go Christmas caroling with her last night. She even made the yummiest treats to hand out to our neighbors.

I was a little apprehensive and skeptical at first because I sing like a crow(especially during Silent Night), but it was wonderful and everyone was so receptive. I almost cried when we sang to the older lady down the street because she looked so happy.

Oh and I included a picture of a donkey because Twain thought it was a bunny rabbit at Mrs. Patty's house. Ha.

6. Someone sneaksy dropped a special Rapunzel bank on my doorstep, much to my delight!

Thanks again Loo!

7. I have been listening to Mark Driscoll sermons lately. He's swell. I try to blog and listen at the same time, but invariably end up listening to his sermons instead.

p.s. me and my iPhone are are pretty tight, so there might be lots more blurry pics here from now on, k?

p.s.s. i realize that my number 1 was riDONKulously long.

p.s.p.s. i just learned that it's actually p.p.s. not p.s.s. and then it's p.s.p.s. whew.

my first silver tip tree!

Do you ever feel like you are moving at a snail's pace while the rest of the world seems to be racing past you?

That's been me lately. So slow at decorating for Christmas this year. We bought our tree last weekend.

Calvin came home from school every day and asked when we were going to decorate the tree.

Day after day...the tree remained undecorated, much to this little boy's dismay.

But he remained hopeful and continued asking. Day after day after day.

In the meanwhile, Daddy helped the boys decorate their little tree while I was gone one night.

I love these little vintage toy ornaments.

And John even plopped down this white tree right onto the middle of the piano, and I have not even had the time to do anything further.

Finally, last night, I decided we could not hold off any longer. Poor Calvin had waited long enough. So I made up a special batch of hot chocolate.

I am kind of allergic to dairy and so this coconut milk is a great alternative.

I think this was the first time I actually got to use these little mugs, so that was very exciting.

Ollie and Twain were very disturbed with the temperature of the hot chocolate and insisted we put ice in it. Apparently they do NOT like hot chocolate. It's un-American, I tell you!

I thought this hot chocolate tasted amazing. And no snot the next day. Yay! (regular milk makes my sinuses run like a faucet).

Finally John got out the lights.

The boys were ecstatic.

We got this singing dog at Festivus a few years back. It's not really Christmas at our house til this dog comes out. Like it or not.

And finally folks, here is my very first silver tip tree!!! Wahoo!

It's kind of like a noble, but has half the branches and costs twice as much. Hmmm. Maybe I'm not so bright.

Anywho.

I really wanted one...and now I finally got it out of my system. I love it because it's easier to hang ornaments, but will probably be buying a noble next year due to the steep price.

Ms. Lorieloo surprised me the the other day with the cute mushroom ornaments. I love them. Thanks so much Loo!

Speaking of gifts. I got these sweet socks as a gift from one of my dearest friends Mel.

I know you are jealous and want them. They are from the grocery store Winco and cost $2.50, if you must. I'm totally saving the striped ones for a special occasion. No lie. I heart them.

And our mantle is pretty much the same this year. Same stockings as last year. But it is sporting a special card from dearest friend katygirl.

She knows how much I love all things awkward. I know it's all the rage to be awkward now, thanks to the awesome K. Stew, but I've always loved awkwardness even before it became trendy. Just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The more awkward, the better.