A Boy Day

I love not having anywhere to be.  This week, there are no lunches to pack, no set bedtimes, there is no homework to do, no piano to practice. We forget what day it is, and only get dressed if we are going somewhere, which has been rare. Days are long, slow, unplanned, and unspectacular. We've spent them almost exclusively alone---which is rare for this family of extroverts. 

Reese and Quincy were invited over to sew with Ms Eunice yesterday, then took her to lunch for a Christmas gift. Time alone with my boys calls for some little boy fun!

We ate chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, and a fort in Soren's bedroom. Then hit Chuck E Cheese for lunch and games. Aaron came by and met us on his lunch break. I'm not sure if Soren or Daddy had more fun playing this game...

When we got home, Soren and Sloane took a nap and Corbin started a puzzle, and then, just like that, two and a half months of prayers were answered: Corbin emptied his bowels. In a toilet.  I don't care if that's TMI. A bound up and wound up child is a really really difficult challenge that affects our entire family. I thanked Heavenly Father for his (and my) peaceful relief. It was as if a switch had flipped and my sweet boy returned. He grabbed a blanket and curled up with me in a sunny spot on the sofa for a long awaited snuggle, and I rubbed his back and we both fell asleep until the girls came home. 

After dinner, we put out marriage to the test of all tests. The Feats of Strength, if you will, as we assembled an IKEA bookshelf together, and let our 3 year old help. It took 3 hours longer than expected this way, but I said zero curse words and Aaron and I still love each other, and we love Soren. So other than a few attempts to just burn the bookshelf, and two tiny essential pieces that got lost (and found) in the sofa, it was a success. And our tiny handyman stuck it out to the finish line. Which is better than I can say for Aaron and I, who both wanted to walk away from the project in the home stretch. But it's together and it's fabulous. 

The girls and Corbin went to bed before the shelf was complete, so while Aaron put Soren to bed, I crept into the girls' bedroom and took down the old sagging shelves, moved the furniture, and set up the new shelf with all of their books and treasures on it. When they woke up this morning, they were shocked!  It was a simple, but awesome surprise. I can't believe they slept through it. 

Winter break is being very kind to the Willardson family. 

Temple Trip with the Thompsons

The day after Christmas, we took a day trip up to Kansas City to attend the temple with our friends, the Thompsons. 

The drive up went wonderfully! I love this cute view in our mirror. Aaron and I are seriously considering getting one of those gigantic vans that holds like 12 people. Our van is getting old and the next 8 years of our life will be full of children, we love the idea of everyone having a buffer. Seeibg everyone in my rear view mirror is evidence of their lack of personal space.

The Nativity scene at the temple is beautiful. 

After over 3 and a half hours in the car, the kids were getting antsy. We arrived at the temple just in time. Aaron went in to the endowment session and I stayed with the children. Soren and Sloane were asleep, and the big kids were happy to run laps around the neighboring stake center while I slowly drove behind them. 

We hung out in the nursery until it was time to switch. Aaron loaded up the kids while I attended the sealing of this beautiful family. 

It was an experience I will always treasure to be with my friends while they became a forever family. There were no dry eyes in the room...except for Shane (grandpa), who claims his tears were from allergies ;)  Angels were singing and the room was filled with love and holiness. Such a magnificent day. 

Before driving home, we stopped at IKEA to get the girls the bookshelf for their room that was out of stock last time we were in KC. Sadly, the boxes didn't fit in our van! I called Nancy, who had also come to KC and brought her van, Goliath (a Mercedes Sprinter) and thankfully, they were right nearby having dinner. They picked up the shelf and brought it home for us. 

Then put phones started blowing up with severe weather alerts. The downside of an unseasonably warm winter is the risk of tornadoes when the cold weather finally arrives. Now, if it were up to me the cold weather would never arrive, and winter would be spent in 60* outdoor bliss. Alas, in Arkansas, we must trudge through the sorrow of freezing winter temps to fully appreciate all the joys and blessings of spring's arrival. 

Benton County was under tornado warning and friends back home were hunkered down with bike helmets on and taking cover in basements and storm shelters. 

We drove through torrential rain and several flash flood warnings but arrive home just after the 2nd tornado warning was lifted. The kids thankfully slept the entire drive home, and camped out in Soren's room in the basement that night. We are grateful to be home and safe, and dry. 

The bottom of our driveway was under a 4 inch puddle! 

We are grateful to arrive to a dry home, and have another safe drive to KC in the books. It was totally worth the trip! 

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

The beautifully warm weather we had in December came to a very wet, intense end. The day after Christmas, we were in Kansas City, but our severe weather notifications kept us updated on what was happening in bentonville. We arrived home just at the end of two tornado warnings. The drive home from KC was trecherous, but it honestly could have been so much worse (remember the time we waited out a tornado in Lamar, Mo in a McDonald's bathroom? That was wild). I watched the radar map and we stayed out of most of it, except a few flash flood warning areas and a LOT of heavy rain, 

And the rain did not stop. 12 inches of rain in less than 48 hours!  

The bible story of Noah is absolutely possible! If it rained for 40 days and nights like the downpour we had last week, that would be like 20 feet of water!

But back to Bella vista. It was a lake. Spanker flooded and closed. The lake flooded all the way to the highway (act surprised, y'all) and almost to Dartmoor (by the school). Our magical "island" out front really WAS an island, with a 6 inch deep moat all the way around! 

This is the duck/picnic area near the parking lot on the highway side of the lake.

Poor war eagle mill took a hit. (All of these pics are via the local news fb page.)

But my favorite thing that happened was when the local haunted house flooded and coffins with zombie mannequins on them were spotted floating down sugar creek among the flood debris. How's that for an apocalyptic sight? My neighbor's watch walking dead and told me they're coming to hang out in our "prepper room" if the "end of days" comes. They'll bring the guns, we'll provide food storage.  I'd better stock up. That zombie looks legit. 

Christmas Eve Jingle Jog

The sunrise on Christmas Eve was magnificent. I drove down to Lake Bella Vista and met up with Karen Sasine, Jocelyn Petersen, Tia Glover, Stephanie Miller, Leslie Andreasen, Tonya Bingham, and Bekkah Burnett for the traditional Jingle Jog/Winter Walk/Reindeer Run.  Man I miss seeing those faces every Sunday.  Their history and friendship bring me indescribable peace and effortless comfort. 

Christmas Eve Eve Campout Under the Tree

Soren got to join the sleepover festivities, this year, and was very excited about it, and was surprisingly the first one to go to sleep. The older kids had a tough time sleeping this year and we still had a couple awake (and squabbling) at midnight. We threatened to end the tradition and they went to sleep. 

Like a cruel joke, they took turns waking up during the night and everyone was up and at em and cranky at 5:01am. After the 2nd overtired sibling argument broke out, I laid down mom law and sent everyone to their bedrooms until 7am. They were all very cheerful after that and we had a wonderful Christmas Eve.  The tradition of the sleepless sleepover lives on, and as always, it was totally worth it. Look at those dreamy angel faces. 

Santa's Crew of Stocking Stuffers

I bought new "traditional" stockings for our family, this year, to replace the "Too Fancy Nordstrom Stockings" that I made several years ago. 

The 7 "fancy stockings" are still in perfect condition and just sitting, unused. I had a thought this morning that we need to fill them. We tossed around some ideas (missionaries, single retired sister-friends) and decided to call the local women's shelter. 

They currently have 7 women staying at the shelter. Is that a sign? I think so. We set out to fill the stockings and decided to grab 7 more stockings and fill them for each of the children staying at the women's shelter as well. 

These kids gave me 5 hours of shopping today. I'm proud of their perseverance, commitment to their allowed budget, great behavior in the stores (tender mercy!), and charitable attitude while they thoughtfully selected items for each of the residents. It was a good experience for me children, but more importantly, I hope the recipients of these stockings feels uplifted and knows that someone cares about them.  I like that we will never see who actually receives these gifts. The kids need to understand that giving is not about waiting for a thank you. The reciprocity in charity is feeling the love of Christ for everyone. I feel like this was accomplished in our home today as my children caught on and started adding gifts they'd picked out for one another or recently received to the stocking piles for other children to enjoy.  I hope the love is felt Christmas morning on the receiving end. The pleasure was definitely ours, today. 

Huge thank you to Carly and her family for their donations of pampering products (a stocking stuffer staple!), to Gwen for her adorable Christmas sugar cookies and the toiletries, and to Teresa for the Dickeys BBQ coupons, and to EA for the light saber and storm trooper for the boy child. These extra touches really helped personalize the gifts make them so much more special. I'm amazed that our family prayer to "help us find someone to serve today" turned our family into a vehicle to make such a magnificent thing happen.  We feel really grateful to have been so blessed to feel the Christnas Spirit so strongly today. 

When we checked out at one store, the cashier told me I'm crazy for bringing the kids along to pick out their own stockings. Corbin told her that "we don't get to keep this stuff, it's for the shelter with no daddies". The cashier told us with tears that she herself lived at the women's shelter years ago and they helped her to get this job and that small donations and gestures really do go a long way to make a difference in someone's life. 

Dream Day

Where all your wildest dreams come true!  An occasional "yes day" is a great cure all for feeling like we are all work and rules. 

I went for an early morning run with Kasey...and 100 other people who are also signed up for the Bentonville Half Marathon. This was my first run in 8 days. I average about 1 run a week. What was I thinking signing up for a half? I'm going to have to schedule some more time for running until my life, somewhere. 

When I got home, we showered and told the kids our plan for the day. They were so excited! Surprises all day long? Better than Christmas!  We started with a trip to the square to see Santa, followed by ice cream or hot cocoa at Spark Cafe. 

Soren and Sloane did NOT LIKE Santa. It was pretty hilarious. We got plenty of stares from people in line who probably thought we were crazy for taking non-perfect pics of crying kids anyway. This is one for the books! 

There is a cute little Christmas village set up in the Walmart museum that they had to see just one more time before we went home.

I took Reese, Quincy, and Corbin ice skating at Lawrencs Plaza while Aaron watched the BYU football game and the littles napped. I am not a highly skilled ice skater. I move at a ridiculously cautious pace around in a circle and carefully followed the children around, helping them feel confident enough to join me away from the wall. All three got the hang of it eventually and we all had fun cheering each other on. Corbin was, by far, the bravest of us all. He probably fell 20 times, and fearlessly jumped up and got going again every time. It was good for me to see another experience to my list of times where his full-speed-ahead wreckless abandon way of living is super helpful. The rest of us were inhibited by our fear of falling and took much longer to reach the exhilarating joy that Corbin partook in the moment he flew out onto the ice. Point: wild side.

An added bonus was running into Cheylee B and her family, and Eliza (one of my preschool students) who was out with her big sister and mom. 

The fun continued when we had skated all that our legs could take. 

 Food trucks for lunch! A fig and prosciutto wood fired pizza, and three dessert crepes. 60 degrees and sunny never felt so good on a Saturday afternoon! The children didn't like the figs, but it was fun for them to try something new and different than our traditional pizza toppings. 

Reese, Sloane, and I made a quick trip out to True Treasures to pick up a couple Christmas gifts. 

Our next activity was for Aaron to take the 3 big kids to see Star Wars: the Force Awakens, but Kasey suggested I go too, offering to babysit the littles and the advice that I want to be with them for this huge moment in pop culture. They will always remember the day they saw Episode 7 with mom and dad. 

I'm so glad she offered! I loved being there to watch their amazed facial expressions. It was an unforgettable memory for the mom bank. Thanks Kasey and Jimmie!!! Loved the movie, too. It was a good pick me up for Aaron after the "dumpster fire" that was the BYU v Utah game. 

Dream Day ended with Sloane hamming it up for us and giving everyone high fives. The kids went to bed thanking us and each other for having "the best day ever". High Five for Dream Day and nonstop family fun. 

Winter Break Kickoff

It's class party/concert season!  

We started with Corbin's first grade musical. Holiday song extravaganza. An explosion of adorable. Corbin sang his little heart out and I obnoxiously joined the other proud parents on the floor in the front row paparazzi area when it was his class' turn to come down to the front and dance. He would occasionally stop and wave at me. Cuteness overload. 

On to OHMS for the winter performance. I can't get over how beautiful this old school is. We sat in the balcony of the magnificent mission style building and soaked up every bit. I was happy to see that even though these kids are in middle school, they aren't too old yet to enthusiastically wave to mom and dad from the risers. Great singing, Reese! 

Reese is on the second row from the bottom, third in from the left. 

We rushed from OHMS to Cooper for class parties. Corbin's was almost over, but we shared a few minutes of holiday ornament making with him. 

Quincy had a cupcake waiting for Soren. 

I checked the kids out early and we went back to OHMS to check Reese out early. Her party was just ending so our timing was perfect. 

We started celebrating right away with ice cream sundaes for an after school snack, a fix-your-own homemade pizza/calzone night, a dance party, and Christmas movies. 

The kids set up the Willy Elf Diner and Bakery in the basement. I was favored with dinner and a show. The experience  included homemade menus, kazoos, balloons taped to behinds, fake knives, and a dance to Alvin and Chipmunks Christmas and "I whip my tail back and forth." They played so well together I wanted to freeze time. 

These kids are mine, all mine for two weeks!