Archives for December 2014

We experienced our first hiccup in our kindness advent yesterday.  We went to a fun Christmas festival at our church last night and thought it would be fun to take polaroids there.  Sadly in the rush and jumble of getting everyone out of the house we completely forgot our polaroid.  Gasp.  And didn’t realize until we were almost there, so we rolled with it because that’s just what you have to do.

The Christmas festivities were super fun.  A sweet young lady did give Hudson a peanut butter cookie.  As he was taking a bite she said something about peanut butter cookies and I from a far yelled out “Nooooooooooooooooo”, ran towards Hudson and smacked the cookie right out of his hand.  So maybe not exactly like that, but there was some mild panic.  Luckily Hudson barely bit into it and then freaked himself…spitting and scraping his tongue and mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.  He didn’t ingest any of it, so all he got was a fat swollen lip.  We hit up the smores station and all was right in his little allergy world.  Pour dude.

Today we handed out Christmas books to kids shopping with their parents at Target and Joanns.  This is Harper’s most favorite.

And tomorrow we are taking breakfast to a family.  We’re thinking donuts and chocolate milk because, yeah, donuts can change the world too.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  So far we’ve been pretty chill and productive.  Harper and I got all our Christmas cards ready and in the mailbox today.  I’ve never finished our Christmas cards this quickly…Harper is the best…big kids who love to help are the best!!!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Today’s kindness advent was leaving one of those giant Christmas inflatables in someone’s yard.  This was the pure genius that is Josh Kelley.  Welcome to his wonderfully fun mind.  And it was easily one of our most favorites!  I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want a giant inflatable to greet you first thing when you opened your front door?!?!?  We went after school to make our final selection.  After much deliberation and some mild candy cane choking, we decided on a 7ft tall polar bear.  Hudson’s insight pushed us over the top in choosing the bear over Santa because they can leave the bear up longer for winter.  Made sense to the rest of us and an unanimous decision was made.

We decided to do a test run in our living room just to make sure the final drop went smoothly and we knew what to expect.  Not pictured is Amon permanently attached to my leg and terrified of the large friendly polar bear.  And Solomon, I mean, can I really say much more about his ability to nail that creepy face and posture…dude is spot on.  Cracks me up all over every time I look at him.

My friend Melody called just in time and she wanted in on the action.  We swung by Melody’s house to pick her and her son Luke up.  We decided to let the polar bear ride fully inflated around town to our final destination.  Amon’s seat is on the passenger side so when we rolled his window down the wind positioned the bear’s giant face right in his window.  He freaked out yelling, “No, no, no.  Up, up, up.”  He does not like mythical creatures or mascots of any kind.

I soooo wish I had taken a picture of Harper, Hudson and Solomon leaving the house.  They decided to try and disguise themselves…hats, scarfs, sunglasses…totally cracking me up.  Hudson is my cautious child and kept asking “What if they think we’re burglars?” “What if they think we’re trying to rob them?” When we finally got to our friend’s house Harper, Melody and myself were the only ones who ventured close to the house.  Hudson, Solomon and Amon stayed back close to the car with Luke.

We ever so slyly and quietly creeped around the outside of their house, got the polar bear in position and plugged him in.  It was so hilariously wonderful.  We wanted to make sure they couldn’t miss him.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a 7ft tall festive polar bear.  Totally one of my most favorite things we’ve done.

And tomorrow we are taking polaroid pictures of people shopping together.  Also one of my faves.

Hope your day was awesome and maybe, just maybe you’ll find a giant Christmas inflatable on your front porch tomorrow too!

Happy Thursday Night.

Today’s kindness advent was leaving a treat for our trash guy.  He comes bright and early every Tuesday morning so last night we did our prep work.  I want this advent to always be something our kids participate in because I do think it helps cultivate a spirit of thankfulness and kindness during a season which can easily focus on our own personal wants.  I never want our kids to shy away from kindness.  Every morning as we drive to school I pray out loud over their day and always ask God to show them opportunities for kindness.

So they each colored and wrote a thank you note to our trash man.  The boys needed help with all their spelling, but chose their own words.  I want them to take ownership over their kindness.

This morning I ran our little package of goodies out to our trash can and placed it on top.

Year after year, this kindness act always makes our list and we always sit and wait with crossed fingers and toes that he sees the package before dumping it into his truck.  This little window gets fuller and fuller each year as their little bodies get bigger and bigger.

Hudson was mid getting dressed when he heard the trash truck coming.  This is serious anticipation.

Tomorrow we are giving coffee and donuts to our car rider line staff.  Everyday the exact same staff is outside working the car rider line…no matter the weather.  They’re crazy awesome!

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Hope you are spreading a little kindness in your own way.

Happy Tuesday!

Today for our kindness advent we bought up lots of toiletries to stuff stockings for some sweet young adults.  We love being a part of the extension of foster care here in Tennessee which assists really amazing 18-21 year olds.

Tomorrow we are leaving treats for our trash guy.  Cookies, thank you notes and a Starbucks card because he’s awesome!

A few random things:

*You know how there are always those few random lonely bananas in the banana produce area at the grocery store???  The ones that have either fallen off or someone has pulled off because they wanted a smaller number of bananas.  If I see them, I have to buy them.  It’s a serious problem.  I don’t know why…they just kind of call to me.  “Take me home Laura.”  “I’m a lonely banana.”  So I do.  And then Amon eats them.  He eats approximately 37 bananas a week.

And before I get asked, why yes, yes we do have rabbit ears for our t.v.

*I have received a hilarious amount of emails and comments about my house slippers…the ones I turned into outside the house house shoes.  My friends Eric and Chelsea gave them to me when Josh was in Nepal and Amon was puking his guts out.  Anyways, I saw Chelsea last night and she said she got them at Target.  Now everyone go forth and purchase a pair.

*Have you heard of Dressember?  Well it’s awesome.  Click on the link and watch the video.  I absolutely love this quote:

“Don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” -Michelle Obama

  Women are raising money for the International Justice Mission this year.  It simply makes my heart want to burst and my friend Jessica is going after 10K for the IJM.  She’s over half way there and we can help her reach this goal and further the incredible work the IJM is doing.  Head over to Jessica’s PAGE and donate today!

*Josh Kelley snapped these while I was away and it made me want to melt into a big drippy puddle.  One of Hudson’s chores is taking out the trash and recyclables and Solomon offered to help him.  I love being their mom.  It’s a total honor.

 *Today is the last day to place an order to ensure your order arrives by Christmas because I’m a tad slammed.  You can still place orders after today, but I just can’t guarentee them by Christmas if they are gifts.  Email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com if you have any questions.

*And Amon and I are both getting a crown on a tooth this month.  A) My teeth totally went to crap after having Harper.  I had impeccable teeth for 25 years.  Alas.  B) Poor Amon has an undeveloped 2 year molar and that sucker is hurting him something awful.  It’s the weirdest looking thing too.  So his dentist is putting a crown on it because it has zero enamel and he won’t lose it until around age 12.  They won’t sedate him and he’s totally going to scream his head off so they scheduled us for super early in the morning while no one else is there.  This cracked me up.  Kid dentist’s surely will have extra jewels in their crowns.

Now I’m off to work like crazy.  And I might fix myself a little sea salt caramel hot chocolate because hey, it’s Monday!

Yesterday was Ashley’s birthday so we were kind of busy doing birthday things like going into Ulta only to emerge 3 hours and 42 minutes later.  It’s what we do.  So I never got around to my post for yesterday.  It’s cool.  I’m letting my OCD hair blow in the wind.  Although I fought the urge to bust out my computer at a little before midnight and still make it happen.  Geesh.

Saturday’s kindness advent was buying someone’s lunch.  Josh Kelley continued on in true kindness fashion while I was away.  He sent me this little gem of the kids waiting in the Arby’s drive-thru for someone to pull in behind them so they could get lunch and surprise the stranger behind them as well.

After further review of this picture at first I thought I just loved Solomon’s squirrely little face he’s making. Buuuuut, then I realized I loved even more that Hudson is missing his shoe and low and behold it is on Sol’s hand.  This is them.  All the time.  God bless their little strange hearts.  And doesn’t Amon look like he’s going to fall sleep mid camera snap?!?!?!

Today we are delivering a recipe with all the ingredients.  I love this one because I hate figuring out what’s for dinner.  I would love for this to happen to me Monday-Friday for the rest of my life….I’ll handle Saturdays and Sundays.

I’m going with this super yummy and delicious and easy 5 Ingredient White Chicken Chili…plus cheese and corn chips.  Yeah!

And tomorrow we are buying toiletries for our extension of foster care Christmas party.  Locals:  Did you know Tennessee has an extension of foster care for 18-21 year olds who age out of the system?  It’s amazing.  Josh Kelley and I learned all about it during our foster care training and just fell head over heels for the department and the kids involved.  There are so many ways you can be involved from mentoring (which I love) to helping out with events and parties they throw for the young adults.  Our family will be rocking out at their Christmas party this year on Christmas day.  Cannot wait.

 And now I need to get to the grocery store asap and gather up all our food for the week plus our recipe ingredients.  I loved having a little weekend getaway, but nothing beats home.

Happy Sunday!