Christmas came early for us this year, and we are loving every minute of this extra special holiday season!
Little man and I are both healthy and recovering well after a short and redemptive birth.
More to come in the next post!
-Chels
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Favorite Christmas Books for Kids // Part Two
If you've been around here since last year, then you might remember this blog post I did talking about one of our favorite Christmas traditions---a "Christmas countdown" with opening one Christmas book per day leading up to Christmas Day.
Read last year's post to get all the details, but in a nutshell, every new year I use my leftover wrapping paper to wrap up our kids Christmas books and put them away in a tote. It is the easiest hack ever and then they are all ready for the following year! I also make sure any additional leftover wrapping paper is nearby so that throughout the year as I pick up new titles, I can wrap those right away and put them in the tote as well. Then whenever we are ready to start our little countdown unwrapping tradition, I just bring the books up and they are ready to go! As you can see above, we are stacking all of the opened Christmas books together on a nearby shelf, so they are handy to pull out and look at/read for the kids. I put away a lot of our other books during this season so we can focus on the Christmas ones. We always go to a tree farm and pick out our tree right after Thanksgiving, so since we started the countdown earlier this year, I just incorporated the wrapped books into our living room decor instead of having them under the tree.
Also in last years post, I talk about another tradition we have, filling the Giving Manger. (Pictured in front of the stack of books above) This is such a sweet little activity for children, and ours LOVE it!
I'm starting out my book links today with these three Thanksgiving books. With the kids getting older, I realized that this year I wanted to make sure they knew the meaning and history of the Thanksgiving holiday. So I got these three books and have been so happy with them. They each tell the Thanksgiving story in a unique way and the kids are obsessed with them too. With Amazon prime you might be able to get them in time for Thanksgiving, or go ahead and purchase ahead for next year! I included these books in our countdown stack, even though they aren't Christmas books.
And then here are a few of the new Christmas titles I've added to our collection for this year! I got these throughout the year-several at garage sales/thrifted, and several from Amazon. I have pictures of these few the kids have already opened.
My kids are really into Winnie the Pooh right now, so I knew they would love this one when I found it at a thrift store this fall.
This one is a bit above their level but I went ahead and got it and I have been surprised how much they have enjoyed it! It is full of really fun facts, verses, and details about the Christmas story and biblical timeline. Highly recommend!
The Llama books can get a little crazy...=) but they are really cute and fun especially for younger kids!
This one is our pastor's favorite children's Christmas book and such a sweet book. I am really excited to have it added to our collection!
These other four titles are all brand-new to me as well as the children, so I am excited to add them in with our "tried and true" favorites!
Their favorite time every morning---taking turns choosing and opening a book from the stack, and then reading it aloud with mama. =)
Our throw pillow covers (in the background of this above picture) are these and these. I love how easy they are to use for decor-I simply pop them on my existing throw pillows and they instantly turn our little living room festive!
For more book ideas, make sure you also click this link and read the post from last year!
What are your favorite books that you are reading to your children this holiday season?
Have a fabulous weekend!
Chels
Note: all of the items linked in this post, unless otherwise noted, are items that I own and love. Amazon links are affiliate links.
Please read my affiliate disclosure here.
Monday, November 11, 2024
Family Health Update
(our little fam at my cousin's wedding this fall. Maddy was a flower girl)
Many of you ask from time to time how everything is with Madeline and me and our health journies.
I realized it has been a long time since I've given an update on myself and my health stuff (probably because it’s not my favorite thing to do!) but you all have been so sweet to pray and check in on us and I did want to share a bit as I haven't really updated on my heart since this post.
As of summer 2023, I am now seeing doctors at what we feel is the best hospital in the nation. We have been 100% thrilled with my care there and are very thankful for their thoroughness and kind, professional care. The current plan is that I visit there regularly until it is determined that I need surgery. (open heart surgery) The doctors are hesitant to give a number since so little of my 33 years are recorded/monitored (since I had no idea there was anything wrong with my heart prior to Maddy's birth) but they have loosely floated the number 3-5years. (I’m hoping it’s more like 30 years!) When I am there each time, I get ekgs, echocardiograms, etc. In November 2023 I had my first stress test and everyone was really impressed with how well I did on that, considering how bad my valve is. I am confidant that my exercise played a big part in those good results. (In the 14 previous months, I did not miss a single day of walking 1+ mile a day)
I’ve continued my walking (after a break in December 2023 due to my appendectomy) and then started working with another doctor in January to help with some other random non-heart related health stuff. (Headaches, sleep issues, and weight gain) Since my heart issues were discovered in 2021, I have totally changed my perspective on how I view my health. I used to blow things off and just “power through” things, but now I pay attention if even the slightest thing seems “off”. Last year, I just wasn’t feeling my best and had that feeling that something wasn’t quite right with my basic health, aside from heart stuff. I had a ton of blood work done and based off information and results from a few of those levels being not great, (nothing crazy, just a few little things) my doctor started me on a batch of supplements and vitamins. I also cut out gluten and sugar, as well as implementing a number of other smaller personal changes, based off her recommendations. By May I had lost 14 pounds but more than that, my sleep issues were gone, inflammation was way down, and I haven’t had a single headache since. I also feel so much better just overall. It is incredible to know that not only is my heart is in current stable shape (for as bad as the valve is) but I also can feel energized and have amazing quality of life. After some of what I’ve gone through, I will definitely never take health for granted again, and I am super grateful to have had an amazing year of energy and vitality!
Madeline is fit as a fiddle and doing great. You would never know she was once a preemie. She is almost caught up to Elliot in size and is one of the spunkiest three year olds I know. Considering that neither of her brothers are even close to what I would call “laid back”, we have quite the little energetic little pack of “three musketeers.” They keeping me hopping and are such fun kids!
Her eating struggles have all resolved, with time allowing her swallowing/digestive system to heal and develop. She eats pretty much anything these days, in large quantities. :)
(took this picture of the kids the other night because seriously they are just the cutest and I want to freeze every minute of them being little!)
John and the boys continue to be in fabulous health and spirits and I really feel like we are living the dream. Nearly every day I look at my little family and can’t believe how absolutely blessed we are. This is truly a beautiful life we get to live!
Thankyou all again for your prayers and support. We are truly so grateful!
Have a wonderful week!
-Chels
Monday, August 5, 2024
Puzzles & Puzzle Boards - Our New Favorite Mama/Son Hobby
But since actually using the puzzle board, I have not only loved it for those reasons, but also for how awesome the drawers are for organizing pieces! It is seriously a dream! Those drawers are so handy for sorting out colors and shapes!
I currently store it underneath our couch and that has worked out perfectly.
If you are looking for a puzzle board, I highly recommend this Bits and Pieces brand plateau board!
I'm including pictures in this post of most of the puzzles we did from January-April. I'll link the ones I can find, also!
This was the first puzzle Axton and I did together and boy, it was fun! I wanted to start him out on a smaller one, so I went on Amazon and started browsing. When I saw this one, accurately titled "Yum Yum", I knew I had hit on a winner. Isn't this just a feast for the eyes?! All of our favorite foods in one puzzle, haha! At just $10, it is quite affordable as well. I don't know how the pieces or quality will hold up long term, but the fun we had doing it together was definitely worth it, and I've already packed it to take to our B family vacation next week.
Oh. I'd say Axton definitely has the "puzzle gene." I timed us as this was his first big puzzle to do with me, and we put this puzzle together in 70 minutes start to finish! If you want a fun little puzzle to add to your collection, or even to get you started on puzzles, go get yours here! (note: I've done dozens and dozens of puzzles of various skill levels in my life, and this one is a great starter puzzle! Fun, doable, and almost tasty! =))
Since getting the puzzle board and doing puzzles more regularly, I've been discovering friends who are also avid puzzlers. =) It has been fun to merge a friend afternoon/hangout with a fun project for the hands!
Loved doing this "potting shed scene" with our pastors wife!
John's grandma also loves puzzles so we planned a puzzle date one afternoon and Axton and I went over and did this one with her.
She also loaned Axton a stack of her puzzles for us to do later at home, and he was thrilled.
I was given this double sided one as a birthday gift from a friend and I had SO much fun doing both sides! Axton helped me some as well. The colors were just gorgeous.
This side was definitely the hardest!
Elliot even got in on the action on this smaller 100 piece ocean life puzzle, borrowed from Gigi.
All in all, it has been so fun to rediscover this old hobby of mine, and see it become a new favorite for Axton as well! We've taken a little break for the summer (we still have a puzzle partway done under the couch-we just aren't working on it as regularly these days, with all the time we spend outdoors) but I'm sure we will be back into it before long.
I'd love to hear in the comments if any of you readers are into puzzles? Do you have a puzzle board? Any favorite puzzle links you want to share with us? I think we are going to try to find some new 1000 piece ones to do this fall/winter!
Happy Puzzling!
-Chels
Note: all of the items linked in this post, unless otherwise noted, are items that I own and love. Amazon links are affiliate links. Please read my affiliate disclosure here)
Monday, July 1, 2024
December 2023 // Appendectomy, Christmas, & Traditions
Our December last year started out with our annual trip to the local tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree! The kids love this tradition and they talk about it all year. We drive past the tree farm every Sunday on our way to church and they love to say, "That is where we get our Christmas tree!"
When that above picture was taken the very end of November 2023, we had no idea how very different December was destined to look for us. We were all geared up for another Christmas and ready to party! As mentioned in this post, we got our tree, decorated the house, and prepared to launch right into a full holiday month.
It was Friday morning, December 8th. I finished the Christmas party gathering for the MOPS group I coordinated and came home to crash as I was exhausted from some late night prep, little sleep, and a very full schedule. As Friday afternoon wore on, I felt worse and worse and what started out as a stomach ache began to intensify. The kids and I went out to run errands and by the time we got back, I was barely able to stay upright long enough to grab a frozen pizza from the freezer and pop it in the oven. My kids are little troopers and they did a great job basically feeding and entertaining themselves until John got home from his work trip around 7pm.
Long story short, stubborn me has spent a lot of time in hospitals over the last 2 1/2 years and I had no intention of going again unless there was no other option. Hospitals have saved my life (literally) and I am SO grateful for the amazing medical care my family and I have received there over the past years. I just really wanted to fix the problem at home if I at all could! But unfortunately, Be Your Own Doctor didn't come through this time, and after a solid six hours of trying all the recommendations for my symptoms, I caved and told John I was out of options. He was willing to help me try the natural stuff but was definitely ready to see me doing better so my dear sister in law came over in the middle of the night (we had called them and asked them to be on standby in case I got worse) and we headed in to the ER. By this point I was pretty much 100% sure I had appendicitis and sure enough, that was the case. The CAT scan also discovered that I had a hernia. I had surgery later on that day and was able to have my appendix removed and the hernia fixed as well.
Our kids had amazing care the 24hours we were gone. They love their cousins/uncle/aunt more than about anyone else on earth, and they had the time of their lives. It is always such a relief to me during these times to have such incredible care for our children; I do not take it for granted!
I ended up spending the next two weeks mostly on the couch, and I took it easy overall for a month. Apparently appendectomy recovery isn't too long, but I was told that for the hernia recovery, it was extra important that I not lift anything for a solid month. Subsequently, our December ended up looking completely different than what I was planning. I had scheduled a lot of fun stuff and we had a full calendar lined up. Instead, most of that got scratched and we were reading Christmas stories from the couch and staying home. And you know what, it ended up being fantastic. We had a beautiful Christmas. I think it was even our best one yet. As it turns out, I really needed the slow down time both physically and emotionally, even aside from the surgery recovery. I had some pretty big stress points over the prior month that had really built up towards the years' end, and being forced to take it easy also gave me extra time to work through some of that. Even though the timing was not at all what I would have chosen, I can truly say that it worked out for the best and I am thankful for it.
Our church and my MOPS group brought us dinners every night for two weeks straight. My nieces came over after school and played with the kids and did our laundry. My inlaws had the kids for extended playtimes at their house. My sisters in law brought freezer meals and stopped by to visit. We were so well cared for by our community of friends/family and I was able to rest well and completely, and be able to enjoy the Christmas holiday (although still at a scaled back pace) when it came just over two weeks later.
The following pictures are in no particular order, just a smattering of favorites from the month of December. The ones that have me up and about were either taken before my surgery or during the last week of the month. =)
I started reading the Little House series to Axton over the winter and we have both LOVED this addition to our afternoons! We are already halfway through the series and it is a favorite part of our day. I was thrilled to find the whole set minus one book at Goodwill last year, in mint condition!
My grandma read these books to my dad and his siblings when they were little, and my mom read them to me and my siblings when we were little! So it feels so right and so special to get to continue the tradition for a third generation!
Movie night with the kids on an evening that John was gone.
\
At the end of the month, we did a special "make your own mini pizza" night. The kids loved it and we will definitely be doing this again!
Delicious!
One of my sisters in law loaned us a tub full of fun toys and activities for the kids to use during my recovery time. They loved all of it!
Lots of snuggle time in bed and on the couch!
\Couch snuggles and nighttime bottles.
First time ice skating!
Post skating party! We went to Chicken and Pickle to skate and then John's brother and his wife hosted us in their home for soup and sides afterwards.
A new tradition we’ve started in the past several years is hosting some siblings here for the night before Christmas Eve. It started with just John’s brother and his wife who who spent the evening/overnight with us, since they were driving in from an hour away. Now this year, we had seven of the eight siblings and most spouses here to hang out late into the night! (kids were sleeping!) I kept it simple and scheduled a Walmart pickup order for snacks and drinks. I hardly took any pictures but it was such a fun night full of food and laughter!
Here we have Maddy and Ellie surveying the gift situation at Grandpa and Grandmas house. =)
Madeline with Aunt Anna! She loved her new shirt from Uncle Kory!
Ever since we have been married, we have spent Christmas Day just us, as it is important to us to establish and have our own fun holiday memories that are specific to John and Chelsy Maxwell, not just the Maxwells or the Bontragers. We have loved having this special day at home! Usually we celebrate Christmas then with the M side on the 24th, but this year it was Saturday the 23rd that found us celebrating with my in-laws. The highlights for our kids are the big gift exchange in the morning and "Granddads Christmas program" in the evening. It was such a special day together!
I got John this new game, Spy Alley, and we've both enjoyed it!
(hint hint, if you are looking for a fun game for a gift or for yourself, you should check it out!)
This year it was "Grocery Go Carts". I highly recommend this little board game-the kids can even play it on their own now and they just love it.
We did our yearly Christmas week cookout downstairs in the den, where we light a fire and roast hotdogs and marshmallows in the fireplace.
Enjoying one of the first bigger snows of the season!
I wasn't quite prepared and didn't have snow pants for Elliot yet so cousin Debi loaned hers. I laugh every time I look at this picture! =)
Making gingerbread houses!
We did a second batch of gift opening a few days after Christmas, just for fun. =) We find that kids can get overwhelmed with too much at once, but John particularly loves getting them lots of fun things, so we do more of a "Christmas week" idea where they open gifts several times and then get to enjoy each thing more instead of just getting overwhelmed with a big pile of new toys on the actual Christmas Day. So far it has worked great-I'm sure we will adjust as they get older, but for toddlers, it has been a fun twist on gift giving!
Madeline has been rather obsessed with Curious George (I told her one day that her name should be George since she is ALWAYS climbing) and ever since then, she keeps people laughing when she is intorudicng herself because she says "My name is George". I'll say, "but Maddy, what is your REAL name?" and she will pause and then say, "CURIOUS George!" It has made for some great laughs especially when she is meeting someone for the first time.
Anyways, I got her this Curious George and the look of delight on her face and her gasp of "IT's GEORGE!!" when she opened the box, was just priceless. He now sleeps with her every night and she can't do without him.
Christmas Eve service at our church.
Snacks for New Years Eve. We stayed in this year!
We had a fun evening with the kids, then put them to bed and watched a Christmas movie, rang in the New Year, and slept in front of the fire.
I laugh every time I look at this picture, because she just looks hilarious in this set up!
My inlaws gave Elliot this doctor kit and Maddy this vet kit for Christmas, and the kids have played with them for hours upon hours.
One of my personal favorite traditions is buying the kids matching pjs for Christmas. This time, I had found two pairs of Burts Bees pjs in Axton and Madeline's sizes, at a garage sale in the spring. I knew I would likely be able to find a pair for Elliot on poshmark, so I snatched those up! Sure enough, later in the year I searched and found a matching pair for Elliot! They were such cute little sets.
Time to open gifts!!
Annual family sleeping on the living room floor on Christmas Eve!
My family did this when we were growing up and it was one of my favorite traditions.
I made this photo board with pictures from our October vacation (we flew to a resort in Florida for a week with the kids) as a gift for John to hang in his office. We all enjoyed looking over it and remembering the good times we had!
Husband brought me a Christmas peppermint latte!
A well scrubbed counter, filled with cooling party mix, post baking.
The glass dish setting off to the side belonged to my grandma. It is so special to use some of her dishes in my home now, and remember her when I do.
One cold Christmas morning we got a text that there had been a certain delivery made and we should have the kids go out back and look over our fence.
They were ecstatic to find donuts from a certain "Secret Santa". (their favorite Maxwell uncle)
During my time of recovering from my surgery, the boys especially did such a great job of pitching in and helping around the house. They've always loved to help but they definitely took extra pride in helping out when I couldn't do much.
They are so creative-you never know what object will be the hit "toy" of the day!
Christmas touches
Cute little helpers!
The kids had so much fun helping decorate for Christmas!
Kids were here! And this little pile up of Christmas tree balls made me laugh!
Many many cups of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate were consumed in my beautiful Christmas mugs during December!
Every year we enjoy going to a local Walk Through Bethlehem experience. Some of our extended family members participate in this and it was a great guessing game to the kids to recognize various cousins and uncles/aunts.
MOPS party brunch charcuterie spread. I take no credit for this but my hospitality team did incredible putting this together for our December meeting.
The boys went with daddy to go to the nearby farm where we get milk, and while there they got to meet the newest litter of puppies!
Twas the night before Christmas! Our living room decor is a mixture of gifted, thrifted, repurposed, and other such randomness. It isn't fancy but I always feel in my heart, plus hear on the regular from guests, that it is homey and peaceful and that checks the only boxes needed for me. It is my favorite spot in the house around the holidays! The kids love it too and really enjoyed being a part of the decorating crew.
I am pretty minimal when it comes to decor and what I like to store, so I've found that removable pillow covers are excellent for switching out from season to season! Here are the links for my Christmas ones, here and here. Other decor pieces are the giving manger, a wooden star nativity scene, flameless candles, and lots of greenery and string lights! I also love to use leftover branches/clippings from the tree and strands of red beads and faux red berries. I have several red blankets that I have been gifted and I like to drape those over the ends of furniture to complete the look and also be readily available for use.
Anniversary date night with my favorite.
And that's a rather lengthy wrap on our December/Christmas 2023! =)
-Chels
Note: all of the items linked in this post, unless otherwise noted, are items that I own and love. Amazon links are affiliate links. Please read my affiliate disclosure here)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)