Kvien Family Christmas Card

Christ Wishes Religious Christmas Card

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It's December what?

I can't believe it's already December 5th!! I was bound and determined THIS was the year I was going to be organized again. I'm a planner and am used to having things done ahead of time. But having 2 kids within 26 months makes that nearly impossible. But now that they're 3 years old and almost 2, I thought THIS would be the year I would get back to being my old self.

We took family pictures the beginning of November so I had plenty of time to decide where we should get our family Christmas photo cards through and which cards to use. But then something unfortunate happened with almost all of the pictures and we are just now getting a handful of the pictures.

I now feel like I am scrambling last minute to get our Christmas photo cards done. Thankfully my wonderful sister sent me a link for this awesome promotion that Shutterfly is having. If you are a blogger too, you definitely need to check out this promotion! All you need to do is blog about Shutterfly's Holiday Card promotion and you receive 50 free cards! You can beat FREE!

And these aren't boring cards...they're cute! They're so cute, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pick a favorite. I might have to pick more than one option ;) One of my favorite's is definitely Christ Wishes. I also really like Journey to Christ and Nativity Blessing. Now to decide :)

For those of you who aren't planners or who maybe are but have kids (who make it nearly impossible to plan!), Shutterfly also offers New Year's cards. Those look like so much fun too, I might have to consider those as well!

Old McDonald had a...pumpkin?

I was excited for Halloween this year. Cooper is at an age where he's old enough to actually understand the concept of trick-or-treating and Cole is old enough to have fun doing it. Plus with harvest over for the year, I knew the whole family could enjoy Halloween together.

Since we live out in the country, we take them to the local mall for trick-or-treating. It's nice and warm inside, which is always a good thing. But also you know the candy is safe. Sadly, in this day and age, that is something to worry about.


If you ask him, Cooper will tell you he LOVES costumes but come to put one on him or Cole and it's a fight. And Cooper is the worst of the two. So we decided he should be a farmer (especially since he loves animals). But he even put up a fight while putting on his overall bibs! Finally we got him calmed down by singing "Old McDonald had a farm" to him and telling him that he was Old McDonald.





Cole went as a pumpkin. It was rough at first because he refuses to wear anything on his head. I originally intended for him to be a puppy dog but without the floppy ears, he wasn't much of a puppy. But at least this costume, you could still recognize what he was and he still looked cute. Maybe someday my kids will get past their "costume issues" and we can do something fun!



Auntie Holly, Uncle Brent and Baby Ethan met us at the mall. Ethan looked adorable as a peapod. The mall was packed so the boys got tired pretty fast so we only made it about halfway around. But it was fun to see all the cute costumes!

Daddy'll fix it

My husband is a farmer and fall is his busiest time of year. He just finished up with sugar beet harvest. For those of you unfamiliar with how that works, they harvest 24/7 literally. Danny worked from midnight until 5:30-6 pm. Then he'd come home, eat supper, shower and pretty much head straight to bed since he'd be back up at 11 pm. Sugar beet harvest is over now but they are still very busy with corn harvest, which means late nights. This all has left little or no time for him to see me or the kids.

While I dislike it, I do understand it but try explaining to an almost 3 year old why Daddy is too tired when he asks to "play wrestle". Not easy.

Cooper is in a "destructive" phase, which isn't easy for a mom who likes things nice and organized. Or for poor Cole, who is in a "building" phase. He loves to build towers with his blocks and will just get one started and the "big bad wolf" will come along and knock it down.

Just recently Cooper has started pulling the baseboard trim off the walls in the playroom. He pulled a piece off one day and I yelled at him for it. He told me, "Daddy'll fix it". And Daddy did one night quick before he went to bed. While playing with window clings, Cooper ripped one and when I told him it was broken, he replied "Daddy'll fix it". Of course, that one Daddy couldn't fix but Cooper kept believing he could. Things kept breaking/ripping and the response was always the same - "Daddy'll fix it."

One afternoon Cooper pulled off two pieces of the trim. I'd had enough of this "destructive phase" and got mad. And I explained to him Daddy was going to be mad at him too. He almost smiled and said, "Daddy'll fix it." It was then that I finally realized what was really going on. This wasn't part of his phase. This was a little boy missing his Daddy and trying to find a way to spend time with him. He knew Daddy could & would fix the trim and he hoped that meant Daddy would let him help and spend time with him. It broke my heart. As soon as I told Danny about Cooper pulling off more trim & Cooper's response, he realized it too. Danny made it home right before the boys went to bed that night so Cooper and Daddy were able to "play wrestle" for a little while. And then promised Cooper that very soon the two of them would fix the trim together.

If only we could all have such a simple yet solid faith like Cooper's, always believing that "Daddy'll fix it" no matter what. To know that we can always bring our hurts, pains & troubles, no matter how big or how small, to our Abba Father and "Daddy'll fix them". Unlike earthly fathers who are sometimes too busy to spend time with us or be there to "fix" our problems, God is never too busy.

Before I became a mother, I knew it would be my job to teach my children. But I never realized just how much I would learn from them. Or how God would use someone some small in such magnificent ways.

"Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22

It's all about the name

Blogs are all the rage these days so I decided it was time to start a "real" blog. I "technically" have two other blogs. One I started shortly after my son, Cooper, was born. I had high hopes to fill the blog with pictures of him and updates of him as he grew - which I did. But when Cooper was 13 1/2 months old, our second son, Cole was born. Time for a new blog!

I started a "family" blog that would be all about our family. This blog didn't go as well, as you can imagine taking care of 2 kids under 2 is not an easy thing to do! Fast forward almost 2 years later and things have slowed down...a little :)

And now it's time for ANOTHER blog. This blog will still be about our family, yes. But rather than giving boring reports of what we did each month (usually 6 months after it happened), I hope to instead share stories of the many adventures that being a stay-at-home mom of two wild and lovable boys brings me. Along with living very close to my mother who drives me crazy pretty much every time we speak!

But first I had to think of a name because it is all about the name. I needed something that didn't just describe who I was but also what I will be writing about. And then it hit me. Before I was a mom, which some days seems like that time never existed, I was a girl. And that girl liked to shop, a lot. And one of my favorite books was (and still is) "Confessions of a Shopaholic" by Sophie Kinsella. Finally the perfect name.