Wallman Wanderings

The Night Before Christmas

2009-12-23T20:49:00.004-06:00

Empty manger, perfect stranger about to be born

Into darkness, sadness, desperate madness -- creation so torn!

We were so lost on earth, no peace, no worth, no way to escape.

In fear, no faith, no hope, no grace, and no light.

But that was the night before Christmas.

Warm hay, cold sweat; a mother not yet, praying God speed the dawn.

She looks to her man, holding her hand, they wonder how long?

And the shepherds, wise men come to find them and bow to a king.

One star above shining on love so bright it lit up the night before Christmas.

And the world didn't know mercy was meek and so mild.

And the world didn't know the truth was as pure as a child the night before Christmas.

The world didn't know redemption was sweet and so strong.

The world didn't know salvation was writing a song the night before Christmas.

"The Night Before Christmas" by Brandon Heath

Interesting...

2009-12-20T19:03:00.003-06:00

I found this website through a "paid email" program I do (which I found out about from Money Saving Mom). I still can't believe they offer 100% free shipping. So I signed up (it's free) and looked around at their products. They have anything you need for household supplies...from the kitchen to the bathroom. I listed all of their prices on the products we buy and went to Walmart tonight to compare. I was very surprised that quite a few items were cheaper through the alice.com! And the others that weren't would probably add up to about the same cost when you factor in the fuel costs. I think this will be worthwhile, especially for the items I'm forever forgetting. Since we go to town for groceries anyway, there are some things that are still cheaper to buy at Walmart since I'll be there anyway. I need to check diapers.com for their prices on diapers, but this website is cheaper than Walmart on Luvs (I didn't check the other brands). This site also checks for coupons for you and automatically puts them on your order for you. I don't know if they accept regular coupons on orders or not. Looks like I'll be checking into this site! A penny saved is a penny earned, right?? :)

Love This Song...

2009-12-18T14:00:00.001-06:00

Have you been downloading your free Christmas music from Amazon? Yesterday's song is one I've never heard, but I love the words. Go take a listen!

Silly Boy

2009-12-17T21:15:00.002-06:00

He can hardly see!

He's not actually pulling her hair, he's just playing with it :)

Pray for these little ones

2009-12-14T14:20:00.003-06:00

Do you all have any idea how blessed I am to be surrounded by a family (and friends) that are prayer warriors? There are two little ones that I ask you all to pray for tomorrow...
Addison, my cousin's little girl (almost 2) will be having her tonsils removed tomorrow. I think Daddy is gone this week, but Papa & Grandma will be there. Pray for Teresa (not only for tomorrow but all week while Ike is gone) and Addison and the boys!
Also, pray for a little boy named Karsten. He will be having surgery tomorrow as well. Pray for his Mom (Monique) and his dad (Thad) as well as the surgeon and nurses. They are friends of ours from a church we used to attend.
I also haven't mentioned anything about Mom recently. She just went to an immunologist last week to try and figure out why she still doesn't have any B cells (which is basically your immune system I think) and why she keeps getting sick (colds which turn into pneumonia). The B cell chemo she took about 2 years ago is what caused it to happen, but they should have grown back by now. So pray for wisdom for her doctors to figure out what's going on and that it can be corrected! And pray that we all stay healthy so we can see her over Christmas break!!!!
Thank you, dear family!

Impromptu Photo Op

2009-12-14T10:16:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, we incidentally matched for church. When we got home, Anna didn't want to change out of her Christmas dress. So before we went to small group, Aaron wanted to snap a couple of pictures of Anna in front of the tree. She, of course, had her twins. Because they're real babies and all, ya know. (wow....I used at least one comma in every one of those sentences...I do like commas ya know!)

Precious!

Those babies were sure wiggly!!

Just like a real Mama...had to get them sitting just right.

Just like a real Mama...hurry up and take the picture!

This one just makes me grin!

Love it!!

Fun in the...SNOW!

2009-12-12T00:06:00.003-06:00

Today, the wind finally quit so the kids got to play in the snow!!! Jacob was ECSTATIC! As soon as he woke up from his nap, I asked if he wanted to go play in the snow. He said (well, yelled is more accurate!) "Yeah!!!" and went straight to the door. As soon as his boots (THANK YOU Kim, for letting us borrow them! They're perfect!) were on, he wanted OUT! So as soon as I got him dressed, I let him outside. He went straight to the closest pile and plopped down and started eating! haha

Mmmmm...tasty!

But once Anna got out there, he saw how fun it was to run around in the snow instead of just eating it! :)

Or better yet, eating it and playing in it!!!

Big sister...she knows all the great things to do in the snow! SNOW ANGELS!!

Any undisturbed spot of snow, she would yell and run to make a snow angel. She said "Mama, you're going to have all sorts of snow angels!"

He still thinks eating snow is the best.

Anna saw the snow covered sand box and said "HEY! I wanna go slide down that hill!!" Poor Kansas girl...don't tell Daddy she thinks that's a hill...she probably thinks a real hill is a mountain!

She's had enough....Mama, it's cooooooold! By the time the sun started setting, it started getting pretty chilly. And their gloves weren't exactly "playing in the snow" gloves!

Yesterday, the kids "helped" me make cookies for Seth's birthday supper. This was the first time Jacob had been awake during cookie-making and he was delighted to be in on it!! He kept saying "more! more!" I was lucky to get 3 dozen out of the 6 dozen cookie recipe!!

Anna's an old pro at licking the beaters! :)

I knew they were too quiet for too long!!! I'd let Anna play with the tub of water in the bathroom and I knew Jacob was in there with her but I had no idea this is what they were doing! Jacob does NOT like having his hair combed, but he was letting her comb it for like 5 minutes! He was having a grand ol' time getting soaked from head to toe! And Anna was helping by fixing his hair...because of course she had to get his hair wet to comb it! He had water dripping down his face. But he didn't care one bit. Of course, it wasn't long after I took these pictures that he decided to dump the whole tub out. ON THE FLOOR! Oh well. It'll dry. They had fun! :)

What a Sweet Boy!

2009-12-11T23:26:00.003-06:00

Jacob was fighting sleep hard tonight, but not necessarily being disruptive. I thought he was asleep so I went to check and this is what I found...

Anna was sound asleep, Jacob had crawled up beside her and was playing with her hair! What a sweetie.

More Free Music!

2009-12-10T14:02:00.003-06:00

Evidently, tis the season for free music! This time from iTunes!!

Go here to find out how to get an entire Christmas album (from various artists) entirely free.

Caroling, Caroling, Here We Go A'Caroling!

2009-12-09T22:53:00.003-06:00

Tonight instead of regular Awanas, we went caroling at the local nursing home. The Cubbies just sang in the dining room with the whole group and while they walked the halls the Cubbies made Christmas cards!

Anna has great teachers that she loves!

Yes, she's wearing a bracelet (actually two of them!). What a girl!!

They've got a nice group of kids for Cubbies.

Considering Jacob is, well, Jacob...he did pretty good! (Aaron had to work, so it was just me & the kids) It really helped that there was a little bird sanctuary (is that what it's called?). That kept him occupied for quite a while. After all the carolers got back, several kids had specials. Jacob really enjoyed listening to those and clapping!

THIS is not cool. You see that outside temperature?! That's without the windchill!! And it's not 57 degrees inside--this clock is on an outside wall, so the inside temp is always a bit colder (or hotter) than the actual temperature. Although with these drafty windows, it feels much colder than even 57!!!

This is my last decorating project! It's actually been done since the mirror garland, but I forgot to take a picture. It's quite bright in here with all these Christmas lights!

These Boots Were Made For Walkin'

2009-12-08T23:36:00.003-06:00

Jacob found my boots and decided to take a walk in my shoes (unfortunately it didn't make him decide to be 100% obedient and compliant the rest of the day! hahahaha)

Beautiful Dreamers

2009-12-08T23:26:00.003-06:00

The last two nights, Anna has insisted on having her baby bed next to her so she can put her baby to bed!! She feeds the baby her bottle, rocks her and then puts her in the bed and rocks teh bed! So precious:)

The last two nights, Jacob has FOUGHT HARD! :( He doesn't want you to touch him or rock him. He just wants you to sit next to him. Look at how he's all curled up with his hind-end in the air! :)

Christmas from Alaska!

2009-12-08T23:02:00.005-06:00

We got our Christmas package from Alaska yesterday! But first, here are some other pictures...

Any guesses what he's watching?!? :)

Anna's Little People nativity. She was very excited to get to set it up in her room! (I think her babies are excited, too! hehe) And she obviously thinks Jesus' birth was in Alaska...maybe we need to brush up on geography?? ;)

One more (and I think the last!) decoration I threw up. I had extra garland and ribbon and this mirror was begging for Christmas cheer :D

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And now for the Alaskan Christmas! :)

Hmmm....what exactly is this???

YAY!!!! It's a puzzle!!!!!
The coolest wooden puzzle nativity!

Anna was excited to get another Alaska doll!! She promptly named her Smiley because "she's smiling, Mom." Look at Jacob's face! He's plotting how he can torture his sister by stealing that doll when she's not looking!

And Aaron and I got some Hawaiian chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Oh. My. Goodness. We love these. They are so good. Good doesn't even come close! As you can see, Aaron was excited.

He's pretty serious about these things. You don't mess with him and his Chocolate covered Macadamia nuts! ;) He shared with everyone. And...they're gone already!

Thanks Erick, Jicks, John & Toby!!!

It's Beginning to Look...

2009-12-05T23:49:00.005-06:00

...a lot like Christmas around here!!! We finally got our tree, lights and decorations up today! There's still the aftermath to clean up. But the lights are beautiful and the kids love it all.

I thought Anna would be more into helping me decorate the tree, but they both got sidetracked with the tree box. As always...the boxes are more fun than the toys! :) Jacob was peeking through a hole and giggling like crazy while Anna meowed at him.

Then she would pop out and they would both shout with glee!

The tree:) Yes, the star is crooked...I tried forever to get it straight! I switched over to white lights this year and I really like it. I wasn't thinking and picked up white lights on white strands. At first I thought it would look bad, but I kinda like it. Makes it even brighter. It's possible that I put 7 strands of lights on the tree:D I am my mother's daughter!

I also got some new blue and silver ornaments. And I decided to try wrapping the tree in ribbon. I really like it.

Aunt Cheryl made this for Jacob. He found it right away and he loves it! :)

It's a bit blurry, but our decorations on the bookshelf. Finally have a place/use for those crystal hurricane glasses! (they're on the top shelf...I put beads and cinnamon-scented pine cones in them)

My Willow Tree nativity set. My in-laws have given me a few pieces every year for Christmas. I think last year was the final 'installment' (except for the creche (is that how you spell that??) which I told them to wait on til I have a mantle to put it on!). I love Willow Tree. And although the kids are NOT to play with it, it's nice that they're not porcelain or glass so if they do (and I don't see it) they won't easily break!

Our outside lights...I thought the B/W was kinda cool looking.

You can't see our tree through the front windows this year b/c of how our living room is arranged now. Aaron braved the roof to put up the icicle lights and I did the colored lights on the porch. I understand why people spend extra money for lights that when one bulb goes out the whole strand doesn't go out!!! Good grief. I musta spent at least 45 min. trying to figure out which bulb was out on which strand to get them all working. I just gave up and went with what was working already. Grrrr!!!

Again, Dollar General! :) I glued 2 bows together. One of these days I'll have a wreath on my door, but until then... :)

So now I have a DISASTER to clean up...but not til tomorrow!

Thanks Uncle Windell!

2009-12-04T19:30:00.003-06:00

I've barely started my Christmas decorating. Tomorrow we're getting everything out and done! Anna and I are so excited!!! :)

New this year, courtesy of Dollar General (I love that place), for a grand total of $7! :)

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Uncle Windell sent Anna's birthday package yesterday (a bit late, but logistics got in the way:)). She was super excited! And even more excited when she saw what was in the box!

These are her twins :) She changes the names every day, so I'm not sure what she's calling them! Yesterday at nap time she informed me that her twins were sick and she needed to put them to bed. :) She's taken them to school and every time we go to the store, they have to come along! She also got a Cabbage Patch Kid and several outfits, 2 of which had bottles with them. Those have become the twins bottles. Which, by the way, one is a girl and one is a boy. Just so you know. Last night, she couldn't come eat supper because she had to feed her babies. And today, she didn't want to come into the store with me "just in case my baby gets hungry. Because she probably will."

Jacob attached to the boy twin. It was so funny. He carried it around everywhere, rocked him, patted his back, and even took him to Awanas Wednesday night! Of course, once he got there and saw other toys, he dropped the baby... :)
So thanks for all the dolls, clothes and books Uncle Windell!! :)

Lots of Free Music!

2009-12-03T14:09:00.003-06:00

Go HERE to Deal Seeking Mom's website and you can download
1. The entire UP soundtrack. Free. Today only!
2. Amazon is giving one Christmas song a day away during the month of December. A wide variety! And they're FREE! You have to download the Amazon MP3 downloader, but it's easy and quick. Who doesn't love free Christmas music?!

Lights, lights, everywhere!

2009-12-02T01:08:00.003-06:00

Missed a few pics and I'm not going to take the time to redo the whole post!!

On the front porch--another new project. This one Mom did mostly on her own. Cheap decorations! You can buy the glass blocks at a hardware store for a couple bucks, drill a hole, stuff in lights and add ribbon!

New lights along the fence, too. The grandkid trees and Dad added rope lights around the crosses this year.

More cute blocks! We found different shapes and sizes. And a cute teddy bear:)

Dad carved these crosses from a dead tree. They're awesome and look really cool with the lights.

Jamie putting lights on the last tree.

It took quite a while to get all the holes drilled and then the lights on, but they turned out great.

Original Post

Papa had most of the Christmas lights out already, but there were a few new projects Binga had for him to do! He said it's funny how she comes up with all the ideas and he has to do all the work! :) I told him we know how to work things. hehe

Anna helped Papa drill some holes. He's got an ingenious way of putting up lights...he staples them to these boards, then screws the boards onto the house/fence. They go up fast, come down fast and store easily! He's so smart!

The front porch. The blue lights/trees are new this year.

Whole front view. He made the 18' tree and star. Pretty cool.

One of Mom's new projects this year: little trees for each of the grandkids! Made from a wooden rod and dowels. We wrapped them in lights and painted some wooden stars gold and put the kids' names on them!

I couldn't get him to look at the camera.

Until I said "Jacob...I've got ice cream!" HA!!!

No troubles getting Anna to look at the camera!

Or this one! Hudson is a complete and total ham! And a darn cute one, too!!

Sweet Dreams

2009-12-02T00:32:00.002-06:00

We spent Thanksgiving week in Iowa cheering up Binga :)

SHOCKER! Jacob found his favorite movie first thing!
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Anna & Jacob shared a BIG bed while we were there. At first, Anna wanted to sleep in the toddler bed that's in this room. But then she decided she'd rather share the big bed with Jacob. I got some incredibly sweet pics of them!

Anna insisted on sleeping with the light saber. And evidently having the pillow over their heads made it even better!

Well, they're both cuddlers, so that's good!

We're Still Here

2009-12-01T13:47:00.001-06:00

We're still alive and well...I just have a TON of pictures to go through! Hopefully I'll get a Thanksgiving post done before Christmas rolls around! haha

Family Pictures

2009-11-24T01:41:00.003-06:00

Saturday we had family pictures taken at the college. Teri graciously agreed to take them for us! She did fabulous!!! We got out of the van and Jacob saw wide open spaces! He was happy as a lark...as long as he wasn't tied down to sitting in one position! :) Anna was having none of the picture taking to begin with. I may or may not have bribed her with a Princess computer (which she still hasn't gotten). It worked--she did great! She's such a ham when she wants to be.
I've played around in Picasa with a few of them. Dad has Photoshop, so next time we're up there I might play around some more (not that I know a thing about Photoshop!).

There were about 6 in this 'series'...the first few Jacob had a stick and was looking at my head like "hahaha...I've got a stick and Mommy's head is right here!!"

There were still a few blooms and the kids had fun smelling the roses.

I love this man!!!

He really wasn't sitting still...he was quickly planning where he could run off to this time!

Anna Rose.

Such a cutie pie.

She wanted to take a picture in front of the Jesus statue. :)

Same shot, different editing

Anna loved it (I think we were 'running' here).
Jacob...not so much!

I really like this one!
1) You can't tell that Jacob is screaming about holding hands!
2) You can't tell that Aaron & I are still smiling for the camera! haha
3) You can tell that Anna is hopping with joy!

Teri, thank you SO MUCH for doing this!! You did a great job and I can't wait to get some of them printed and framed!

Dazed

2009-11-19T14:21:00.002-06:00

Here's how Jacob looks when he watches Cars...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sing Along with Bob & Larry

2009-11-19T01:22:00.002-06:00

We have a "Bob and Larry Sing Along" CD that Jacob loves. He asks for it every night (not good bedtime music!). And when I put it on for him (or Anna!), he gets so excited and dances around and "sings" along. His two favorite songs are "This is the Day" and "The Wheels on the Bus"
It's cute. And humorous...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is Bordering on Obsession

2009-11-18T22:52:00.003-06:00

Or maybe it's beyond an obsession!?

First thing in the morning, he runs out and picks up the Cars case and points to the TV.

He carries the case around everywhere. We went to town the other day, and he brought it with him. I barely got him to leave it in the van when we went in the store! That's all I needed--looking like he stole a movie! (which I wouldn't put it past him for this movie!!!)

Oh my stars. Everything for little boys is Cars. So the Pull-Ups I got the other day are...what else...Cars. He loves them (although he doesn't get the whole "don't get Lightening wet...keep him dry!" haha). And tonight I found him cuddled up with a Pull-Up!!!! I believe I know what kinds of things he'll be getting for Christmas!

Pushing on the Weak Spots

2009-11-16T21:28:00.003-06:00

The Lord has a way of pushing on our weak spots to make us grow. It hurts, ya know?! But if He didn't, would any of us grow? I know I wouldn't.

Tonight (and probably all week since Daddy is on another--his last!--recruiting trip) this boy...

...is testing my patience. I've known for 4 years that when I'm tired and my kids are tired that's a bad combination. I lose my patience really quickly when I'm really tired. And my kids get really grumpy when they're really tired! Tonight, Jacob is testing (Anna is a bit, too). He's not staying in bed. I jinxed myself today by saying how good he's been doing! ;)
So if you wouldn't mind, say a prayer or two for my patience this week!!

His True Love

2009-11-16T01:16:00.006-06:00

I've posted about this before but I think even I underestimated my son's ONE TRACK MIND.

I completely spaced the whole "taping over the wipes container" job I was forced into...

...and made the mistake of getting a "big boy" box of flushable wipes in the same theme! This one he carries around like a favorite stuffed animal!

So when we went to borrow a movie from Kim for our movie night, I couldn't resist when I saw this movie.

His eyes are seriously glazed over.

Who taught him to be so fascinated? God! ha I tell ya, the kid came out of my womb looking for wheels!

His true love.....CARS!!!!
I'll have to get the video downloaded of him watching. He watched the movie way too many times today. The first time, he sat for the entire movie. The next times, he was in and out. But he will always watch all the racing scenes! Too funny.