Advent

The girls opened a special early Christmas gift this weekend from their Great Aunt Laura and Great Uncle George. They actually received the gift over Thanksgiving, but couldn't open it until Dec. 1st.

It was a beautiful Advent calendar! The girls both love it. My Aunt Laura made it for the girls and it is so sweet! We've wanted to get an Advent calendar for a couple years now because Adam's mom has one that Alaina really enjoys. So when Aunt Laura asked if that would be a good gift, I said YES!!!

The first day Alaina got to chose a "marker" and place it on the calendar, and the next day Cami did. We'll alternate days until Christmas. Both of the girls are really excited and I'm looking forward to talking to them about Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

We have a crazy week coming up - Alaina's going to be in the Nutcracker this next weekend so she has rehearsal each night this week for 2+ hours in the evening. She will be a baby mouse and an angel in the Nutcracker. She's excited and so are we. She keeps pretending to be scared (truly, pretending in every sense of the word - the girl is SO dramatic!) and then laughs and then goes back to pretend crying and nervousness. She's a nut!

We also have been under some "renovation" in our home - a new kitchen! Adam and some friends (Brian Shaffer and Scott Rodgers) have been putting tons of time into our kitchen over the last 2+ weeks and we're almost done! Here are a few pictures of the progress...

Before:

After demo:

After fixing demo:

Getting closer:

I'll post a few pictures of the final results. It's truly amazing how different my kitchen in already! It's actually a kitchen with purpose now! I can USE it effectively and there's ROOM in it with cabinet space and counter tops!!! Thanks so much to Adam, Brian and Scott!!! Now you can all come to dinner and see my new kitchen. It's beautiful. :)