Thursday Ten

1. Began the ruthless purging and decluttering of the Pate house this week. I suppose this is somewhat cliche for the beginning of the year, but it needed to be done. Tackled Addison's room (see Appendix A below) and began Cadence's today. Got sidetracked because I got slammed with some sinus nonsense that made today kind of a wash. But I must press on- I'm trying to get through the house, room by room, by the end of the month.
2. Tuesday evening we watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs as a family, with popcorn of course. Love that movie. Addison said during the movie he would make it rain popcorn if he could. When we watch movies in the living room as "family time", we turn around our couch to be right in front of the TV (which is now huge, thanks to our "new to us" pass along TV we hauled home from Arkansas - yay for generous families!) :)
3. Mommy: (to Addison) " I can't believe you don't like almonds anymore! You used to like them just fine. You're crazy!" (saying in disbelief as he turned down almond M&M's...I can barely fathom such a thing) Addison: (oh so serious)"Mommy, some things change when you get older...." Wow. Spoken like a true Addison James Pate.
4. We have discovered that I have a freakish talent for winning Bingo. I always thought that there was no skill involved in playing such a pretty straight forward game, but after playing 20+ times just to make sure (at Chris's leading because he was getting frustrated...) and I only lost like twice.... what do you do with that? Just saying. Addison gets a kick out of it.
5. When I was cleaning out Addison's room, I came across a large construction paper pad that had some writing samples from when Addison first learned letters. (See Appendix B below) Wish I would have dated those pages (should have been thinking), but I'm thinking he was around four, and not very much four at that. I remember being amazed at the time at how well he was doing. And now that Cadence will be four in a little over a month, I'm re-impressed at his knowledge at that age. (Not that Cadence isn't a bright young lady or anything)
6. Another sewing project completed. (See Appendix C) I'm having a lot of fun! I had some left over material from a wall project in Cadence's room, and I decided to piece together a case for her pillow. Her pillow is so disgusting, and she is completely against getting rid of it. She will not accept substitutes! I was afraid she wouldn't even accept a case, but since it was pink and cute she embraced it. And anyone who has seen the embarrassment of a pillow that it was will be glad to know they don't have to look at it anymore!! And the best part is that it was free!! Well, if you don't count when I bought the fabric for the original project months ago I guess!
7. Cadence: "Mommy, did Daddy go work out at the church?" (Have no idea why in the world she said that...) Addison: "No Cadence, Daddy went to go get us some money."(at the church) Well, I guess that's somewhat accurate.
8. Some people might boo me out of cyberspace for this, but I actually am loving the cold weather. I've always been a lover of winter, and therefore I am delighted that we are actually having one. It's in the 20's as I'm writing, and I'm pretty sure most of our family spread out in TX, OK, and AR is actually colder that that. Wow! We'll all be ready for it to be over right about the time the seasons change.... funny, it's like God knew what He was doing when He made seasons....
9. It's nice to be back in our rhythm of working out and schedules. Well, almost. We are still out from the dance studio, but we start back up Monday so Monday Mania will commence! It's always nice to get a break from the norm, but it's always nice to embrace it when it's there waiting for you as well :)
10. I love the beginning of the year. It's so fresh, blank, and full of potential. I'm spending some time thinking about the person I want to be in 2010, things I want to improve on and things I need to do differently. And I'm also celebrating a few things I feel good about that I just want to be better and better (like my marriage with my amazing husband). Not one for resolutions really, but I'm all about goals and dreams. And all about setting some at the beginning of a new year to give you some vision and direction. So I'll be writing the vision down and making it plain so that I can run with it (Habakkuk 2:2-3).

Peace out from the Pate house.

Appendix A: What appears to just be an orderly, clean room actually represents hours of getting rid of things and deep cleaning and organizing (mostly the closet not pictured). And thank goodness now that I can sew I will hem up those curtains I ghetto pinned up!

A clean room is a happy room :) And check out the board game collection under the TV- most of those are new! Hours of fun for the Pates!

Appendix B: A precious sampling of beginnings

Appendix C: The new pillow case already on the pillow. The green blanket underneath was made for me with her bedding when she was born.

Took a strip of the left over blanket material to add a little pizazz!

What do you do when you don't have enough to cover the whole pillow? Improvise and make it two-sided!

This is what the material was originally bought for. These are on the wall above her bed. And her walls are really a much nicer shade of green in real life, unlike this pic.

First project of 2010!

I was very delighted to get a new sewing machine for Christmas. I have just started messing around with sewing and haven't made much more than a pillow and a cover for Cadence's nap mat (when she went to Mother's Day Out) with a borrowed machine. But now that I have my new machine, I'm very inspired to get going! It's always something I've wanted to do, and it's a skill I'd like to pass down to my daughter because I believe she's going to be off the charts artsy-craftsy!

I saw this little project online and decided it was perfect. Cadence colors all of the time, and her crayons are constantly spread all over the house and getting lost. I saw this and knew I wanted to make it for her. It's not perfect, but for my first attempt at something like this I am pretty proud!

It's called the "Crayon Roll Up"- this is the full view unrolled

Each crayon has its own little pocket

My only little glitch was putting the folded side of the pocket on the bottom, leaving the raw edge on the top of the pocket, which you can see in the pic. Oh well- I wasn't going to start over because of it!!

Then you fold the flap down over the crayons (to keep from falling out) and roll it up! Also perfect for sticking in a purse to entertain little girls on the go!

Voila! Cadence has been playing with it since I finished :)

Hopefully the first of many projects to come!!

Bye Bye 2009

Well, here it is the night of the last night of the year. We are home from our journeys, and we had a wonderful, white Christmas. It snowed everywhere- Arkansas, Oklahoma, and even here at home (although we missed that one). It was a major bummer that Chris ended up being sick for most of the time, but we tried to still make the best of it. I'll admit I was trying not to be discouraged and down because he/we were looking forward to/needing this vacation and then bam- sickness. But sick or not, it's always good to spend time with family and have some time away.

So not only is this a new year, it's a new decade. Not only a new decade for the world, but a new decade for the Pate family. It's kind of cool turning 30 and starting a new decade with the actual year. Change is standing in the doorway, peering into our home and waiting to be ushered in. New beginnings. Things we know not of to come, things only in concept and dream for the moment. But it's very comforting to know that our steps are ordered and directed, and they are being laid out as we speak. We are looking ahead and anxiously waiting to walk in them. We are laying to rest days rich in maturing and growing, the kind of growing that comes with growing pains. The kind of growing that makes you ready to just reach the point of growth you're headed towards so you can ease up for a minute. But I wouldn't trade our journey for all the journeys in the world. It's our journey. And it's one heck of a ride.

I'll have to play catch up to get some pics and video on here from the holidays, but I'll leave you with a few from our trip. Here's to the new year and all it holds. Peace out from the Pate house.

Playing the new lady bug game with Granna- lots of game playing over the holiday!

And the Bible Trivia game was going on at the other table- one of Addison's new games

Making a gingerbread house in Arkansas on Christmas Eve

This picture taken before the whole thing collapsed!

Waking up to a white Christmas and checking out the window

Reading Addison's note from Santa

We all got new Christmas PJ's!

Playing in the snow

Making a snow angel for the first time

I love this picture because he's throwing snow in the air

Back in OK riding Sanchez with Uncle Duck

John 3:16 the horse who thinks he's a puppy- he loves to be scratched and cuddled! It was so funny!

The snow in the pasture and open plain was so beautiful!

All bundled up with Poppy! Cadence just loves being outside

A Flurry of Christmas Activity

So here's a little bit of what we've been up to....

Making ornaments for their advent calendars

They each have one of these trees (it is almost filled up now!)

Gotta have a little of this in your holiday season! Peppermint Mocha for mommy, Hot Chocolate for Addison

Our very own hand painted nativity scene! (completed pics to follow soon)

So meticulous as always

And it is quite obvious where our "artsy" child painted!

Going to visit Santa at Christmas Lane- looking at the cute displays

So very happy Cadence was not afraid this year! She was a little shy, though...

Working the I'm-so-cute face for Santa

Hugs for Santa!

He had to think a second to let Santa know if he's been ALL good. He takes it very literally and was very honest in his assessment! We think he's on the nice list though :)

Considering the current awkward photography stage for both of them, we'll take this!!

Letting Addison have his own little tree this year. We only had one so they're "sharing" for now...

A little bit of this with the cousins...

and this....

and this...

equals this.

And my kitchen is still recovering!! Look at those white faces!!

And in non-media mention, Chris and I celebrated nine wonderful years yesterday. We went out on Tues because he is doing a wedding and had rehearsal last night. The time has flown in once aspect, yet in another it feels like this is how life has always been. My life before marriage and children seems to be dusty little memories in my mind now. Which makes me think and leads me to believe that when our children are grown this precious time of them being small will be in that same distant file that I will have to draw upon one day. I am so thankful for an amazing marriage. We credit that completely to the grace of the good Lord. To think we can love another human being apart from His love in us is foolish. It can't be done. Our hearts are wicked, at best. But Hope came to the world that we might be able to live a life full of grace and pour out the kind of love that can't be manufactured or produced in an unregenerate human heart. And thank God we can love like that because of Him. I feel like we've only begun in our days together in the scope of the sum total of our days. And that's exciting, because I know the best is yet to come.

Big weekend around here. The children's musical is Sunday, and Addison has one line and a little singing solo. This is the first year he's old enough to participate, and he's very excited. It's always chaotic for me when I do these, but I love to see those kiddos up there singing their little hearts out. I do enjoy it. And rest will follow. In the good company of family. Which is good, because in this very inconvenient timing, I have found myself not feeling well today. Going to try to take it easy this afternoon before I go to the wedding this evening, survive the chaos of the dress rehearsal tomorrow, open presents at the house with the kiddos since we're leaving, pack our family to be ready to go out of town, have the musical at church Sunday morning, come home, throw stuff in the van, and hit the road! And things in between!

Peace out from the Pate house!

This and That

Well, I seem to be falling behind on my blogging duties! We're entering into the crazy busy part of the holidays, but I actually enjoy all of the chaos. I love this time of year so much that it doesn't bother me to go from party to party, christmas cookie to christmas cookie, etc. We're trying our hardest to savor every moment and bring our children through the journey of Christ and the impact the reality of this season can have on the world. Plus, the craziness will culminate in us packing our bags and leaving for a nice long break so it's exciting!

I have much to say, but I'm in one of those seasons that what God is doing is so deep in my heart that it makes it hard to just sit down and relay the surface details of our daily life. Yet at the same time I still remain passionate about documenting and celebrating our children's lives, which includes the wonderfully mundane and normalcy that is precious to me. And the things they say and conversations we have are noteworthy at the very least! I think a time is coming that I will have an outlet for both, so that this blog can be what it needs to be and I can also begin articulating things written on my heart, even if that ends up being just for me. We have been challenged more than once to be writing during this crucial (and a bit mysterious, at least from cyberspace looking in until more comes to light) season of our lives, and I agree. Just don't know what that looks like yet.

For now though, I have plenty of material to let you enjoy. I'll begin by spreading a little holiday cheer with Cadence's dance class performance of "Jingle Bell Rock". She was very entertaining to watch. I'm sure you'll agree :) Although the video never quite captures the extent of cuteness represented in her little class. Something funny to note is everytime the class is told to put their hands on their hips, Cadence for some reason puts hers way up on her ribs. Her teacher thinks this is hilarious, and we do too!

Unfortunately we do not have documentation of any kind for Addison's musical theater performance of "Hot Chocolate" from Polar Express. I was teaching my class and missed it, and Daddy accidentally forgot to bring the camera to record it. But alas, grace abounds in our home...

More Christmas-y goodness to follow!