Why Life was so Busy Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

My Bethlehem Costume

I did way too much this year. I admit it. And I let some people know that it would not happen again, my family, my friends and my congregation lol. However somethings I cannot step away from so easily.




First, and most dear to my heart was the Operation Christmas Child Shoe box packing. Most of you saw the posts on facebook and some pictures I sent via email to keep you up-to-date, but here are a few pictures, and Elijah was my big helper this year. The boys are starting to understand the shoe boxes and their mission more and more, which I love and is a great thing leading up to Christmas for them. Our goal was 200 boxes. Through the generous donations from friends, family and church members we were able to pack 261 boxes, ship all of them ($7 fee/box is requested) and send 36 kids the discipleship program that Samaritan's purse offers.

My sweet helper Elijah - 261 Boxes, our most by far!

Leading up to collection Sunday

Faith showing us how to make towel teddy bears.

Packing Party items

Second was our church's first attempt at a new Christmas tradition. We put on A Walk Through Bethlehem for our community. We has our congregation members sponsor a booth that was period specific to the days of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem to be counted for the census, and more importantly, the birth of Jesus. Our turn out was good, and our feedback was great so it looks like we will be doing it again. My role was one of the key planners - that is what I wont be doing again. As fun as it was, it didn't lend any free time for me to prepare for Christmas, and as a result I was finally able to get in the Christmas Swing on December 18th. oy. too close to Christmas. Here are some of the pictures from this wonderful event.

Elijah feeding the goats.

Last little mention, is that after a year of searching, our church finally found a pastor. Matt and his wife Amber will be coming to lead our church in February and we can. not. wait. YAY!.

Matt in the middle and his wife Amber off to the side. Caught mid sentence but its all that was on my phone.

Sorry not so much about the kids, but every once in a while I have to throw in some "me" stuff. :)

Christmas Performances

The boys had two wonderful Christmas performances (one each, one day apart- whew) the week of Christmas. Darling, just darling. Words don't really describe it, so you can just watch it. Enjoy. And look out, Elijah is in the back sandwiched in between two boys taller than him. Heck! Aaron and I had first realization that he is one of the shortest kids in his class. LOL. Lucas is the blondy in the Santa shirt.

Elijah first video

Oh man so many videos, I just realized, so you are going to get a sampling. You can find all of them on my youtube channel, I think this is how you get there: https://www.youtube.com/user/BabyDeMers/videos

Elijah is there in the back the shorty. :) He was really excited about this song.

Lucas has his handbell performance down, well sort of.

From Halloween to Thanksgiving!

We didn't take really any pictures on Thanksgiving, I am sorry to say. However we took a few before hand. Here is Elijah proud with his makings from his school feast, and pictures from his feast.  

Lucas and Elijah in their new turkey pj's that I scored on MAJOR sale last year on Black Friday. 

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I apologize for those of you who I did not get to talk to, actually that was all of you. So none of you were left out - no one got a call. Truly life has been so busy - though that is no excuse.  We love you all very much.

Halloween!

And now, two days after Thanksgiving, you finally get the Halloween update!


We had an Ironman (Elijah), and a Spiderman (Lucas) this Halloween.  I think by next year we may have hit all the Marvel characters. LOL.
The boys were super cute in their school parade.  Elijah happened to be SuperStar of the week in his class, and you can see him leading the class with his chest popped out, and feeling very regal!  Lucas was just as darling coming down the lane in his outfit.

Even Aaron dressed up - as Luke from gilmore girls! 

We had a wonderful time trick o' treating with Aaron's brother's family and their extended family.


Sorry, I'm a little short-worded tonight. Pretty tired from the long weekend, but what you really love are the pictures right?

Thanksgiving post comes tomorrow.

Love you all.

I'm Back, for Now

so three FOUR months later, it's hard to believe it's only been four months, but I'm sure that seems like an eternity to you. For me, it has flown by. Soccer started in late August followed directly by school and then one million other things and so, here we are today in October November!

You can catch up in glimpses of what our past four months have looked like. Opening day of soccer, first day of school and a few random pictures here and there can all be found on our shutterfly page. Today, however we will pick up in the present. 

This post brought to you by "The fact that I once again left the voter's guide at home, so I have a minute to write a post."  Well that was the original reason, but then I couldn't upload the photos, so here we are again, and another month later.

Leading up to Halloween. 

This past weekend had to be one for the record books. 

Yep, that's what my calendar looked like. No time for grocery shopping (thank you Raley's ecart for my Monday night pick up order)

Let's start in the beginning- 9 am soccer. 

Woops no pictures, but Elijah scored a goal! He was so proud of himself. He's starting to understand how to follow the ball instead of just watching it go up field with the other team. 

11 am: Pumpkin patch. We haven't had any time and this is where I could squeeze it in. We were supposed to go to an "authentic" patch in Napa but after 30 minutes on the road and only mid American Canyon, I googled a "pumpkin patch near me" and sure enough 4 minutes away was a "pumpkin patch" that was really bounce house central. Oh well we did it. $30 later we had two pumpkins and 30 minutes in bounce house city. The kids were happy and so was I. 

1 pm: Elementery School Country Fair. Our school throws a harvest festival every year and this was our first year to attend. I remember this being one of the things I most looked forward to when i was a kid , so it was important we go. I bought too many game tickets (noted for next year) and sent Elijah on his way while Lucas and I roamed together. Elijah got to the Orb ball rat run. He loved it and did WAY better than I thought he would. We played games, bounced in some more bounce houses and then headed out to Eddie's birthday party. 

2:30 (half hour late) Eddie's Super Hero Birthday Party. The kids had a blast. Eddie's mom Kate did a simplistic yet Fantastic job and I got to sit for an hour. Lol

 -Sorry no photos, I think I was a little pooped- 

4:00 Muriel's Birthday Party (Gina and Jason's Foster Daughter)- San Francisco. That's right. San. Fran. Cisco. Aaron had a dinner party with frisbee friends so I loaded the kids and off we went. For everything we did that day the kids were marvelous at dinner. It helped that they napped for the 1.25 hours it took to get there, and that there were ther kids around their ages there. 

- yet again no pictures, I was definitely pooped-

Sunday. Church and another birthday party and pumpkin decorating with McKenna. Super fun. Then Erin and Nate stayed for dinner and fun was had by all. 

Elijah's Mummy Pumpkin

Lucas' Vampire Pumpkin

Monday.....oh Monday. That's for tomorrow.  

Torchlight Parade 2016

Our towns annual torchlight parade was tonight. It's become a wonderful tradition to bring the kids down to and soemthing I have been attending once my youth. Where we used to stay out til 12 as a youth, we now pack up and get home as fast as possible. Lol.

Here are some great pictures from our night.

And yes. I did realize that the last post was May 5. Darn it. I do have the best of intentions I swear.