Just being

We have been living in the moment here. That means we haven't been taking many photos. The stress level is low, and we are ready for Christmas. Camden and I hand washed our filthy van. It was so warm I had to put shorts on today. Cliff went out shopping with my sister's husband today. The kids and I just hung out. My sister was at work, but will be off a lot for the rest of our visit.

Tonight we watched "A Christmas Story." I had never seen it all the way through. I think I had only ever watched the last 15 minutes. It made me so grateful it was only a movie and made me laugh at my own child hood. I know there are some kids who actually get treated rudely by parents, the way those kids are treated in the movie. And I know at times I can be a grouch. But I do try to treat my kids with kindness, and never wash their mouth out with soap---like Ralphie's mom did to him.

All is going fine here. It is really cold and icey in Iowa from what we have heard. It has been dreary here, but not frigid. I can live with dreary. It is nice to go outside without a coat on. Camden played in the water a few times today. We went on a few bike rides too. I am not too scared about going back to Iowa. I am hopeful to get out and make some snow forts in the back yard over the winter and go sledding. Camden has asked to go ice fishing sometime. Iowa may be cold in the winter, but the other three seasons of the year are quite bearable. And it is hotter than heck here in the summer which keeps a lot of people indoors--their summer is like our winter in that regard.

The kids aren't too worried about what they will get for Christmas. We don't hang it over their heads that they have to be good or else Santa won't give a "good boy" present. In fact we really don't talk much about Santa. Camden knows about Santa, but we don't hype it up. I think it is sad when parents build up Christmas to be such a big deal when the rest of the year is so important too. We try to make life as fun as possible all the time. We put importance on the time we spend with our kids, not just about gifts. They know a big part of our Christmas gift to them was coming to Texas. They always have fun here with family and that is important to them. They ask to come here and they feel loved when they are here. Plus they get to play outside a lot and go to some really cool places. Yesterday we went to see Madagascar 2. They loved that and it was a fun family date.

We haven't found anything really interesting to blog about. The flowers are not blooming, and we haven't found any cool creature finds. But all is well and we are enjoying "just being."

Much love to all!

~Heather ;)
oxox