Life Lately

Did you fill a box this year?  If so, I'm sure you had a great time placing all those cute little trinkets and candies carefully into the red and green shoebox.  Not only did Thomas, the girls and I fill up a couple boxes (complete with an oversized plastic dinosaur that Katin insisted go in there) for Operation Christmas Child, but I also had the wonderful opportunity to serve at the packaging and shipping center in Denver.  A bunch of us moms (and a few lucky hubbys) went down together to work until the wee hours of the night about 11 pm sorting, taping, scanning, and packing thousands of shoeboxes.  A few things about it really warmed my heart.  One....There were thousands upon thousands of boxes to be sorted and scanned!  I couldn't believe how many boxes they send out to be shipped.  I never knew that our box was one of 100 MILLION!!!  Two....as the night went on I was thinking about all the little boys and girls playing in Tecate, Mexico, a place where Thomas and I visited a few times to build homes.  I was imagining how happy they would be to receive a box full of goodies!  And guess what!?!?!  About halfway through the night one of the head volunteers started explaining where the boxes go specifically and how we could get more involved throughout the year.  And do you know what...the exact boxes I was sorting were heading off to Mexico the next day!!!  And three....each box was completely different.  As much as I was thinking to myself in that dollar store how every kid must get a toothbrush or a candy cane or a pack of markers, I was wrong!  Every box was organized and packed and filled with very different stuff.  It was so neat to see what people thought of to send.  A few ideas I saw that I will try to remember were little lego sets, hair ties, flip flops, a small blanket, underwear, and a toothbrush holder!  Needless to say I was blessed by being at the OCC packaging site this year.  I will definitely sign up again for the years to come and hopefully my girls will want to come along when they are 13 :)

And in other news....

Thomas is a great dad (not new news)

We have a new favorite: homemade french fries

We love our advent calendar complete with an activity/idea for each day

Day one was make a Christmas Craft- from pinterest of course

The girls are probably looking bigger (and cuter) since the last time you saw them

And finally...we see quite the variety of animals on our way to church including horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, an unknown animal and dogs.  But today was extra special...we saw this guy!