Lifesong

How many Christmas Trees does it take to decorate the Greiner Home?

Correct answer: THREE!

Yes, three Christmas trees in our home. Ansley really loves them, so of course it's worth it! You faithful bloggies (my new term for my blog followers, kinda like groupies) made some requests, so here you go! I have pictures of every tree (Mimi's request) plus a fun video at the end (Ashley's request).

Christmas Tree #1 - the main tree in our family room. It's decorated with a "theme" - gold, silver and burgundy. Lots of poinsettias and ornaments, ribbon and lights. It has the presents underneath it, and the one Ansley seems most attracted to (could also be because Kota likes to sleep under it.) (Disclaimer: Yes, I know that this dress is too short for Ansley. However, Mimi bought it for her, and she has never even worn it! It's a 2T, so it should fit, but I put it on her this morning and noticed it was a little on the short side. We aren't going anywhere today, so I left it on her. It still looks cute, although short.)

 

Christmas Tree #2  - this is in the playroom, and it's our memory tree. All the ornaments we've received in our 8 years of marriage, plus ones from my childhood, go here. This is a fun tree - I love pulling out the ornaments and reminiscing over past Christmases. There's the hand painted ornament we got from a Christmas party a couple years ago, a Pink Pig ornament we got last year, and Ansley's first Christmas stork ornament. In the picture below, Ansley was busy playing when I asked her to pose for a picture by the tree. She stopped what she was doing, ran in front of the tree just long enough for me to snap this, and ran right back to playing. :)

Christmas Tree #3 - this one was rescued from Kimberly-Clark. It was going to be thrown away, but John thought that Ansley would enjoy it. We were going to put it in her room, but it was a little big to fit on her dresser, and she's still a little young to have it plugged in her room. So, for now, it's on the screened-in porch, complete with twinkle lights and decorated by Ansley with, what else? jingle bells!

And finally, as requested, dancing Ansley. This video is what I like to call "dramatic interpretive dance." She really cracks me up. I love to see her dance, but there's a distinct difference between the "Jingle Bell Rock" dancing and the dancing you'll see here. :)

I hope you enjoyed today's quite lengthy blog! Ansley and I had fun taking pictures and dancing our morning away!

The magic of Christmas.

Ansley is really enjoying the Christmas trees around our house. She loves laying underneath them, and looking up. So do I. She loves to look at and point to all the ornaments, and lately she has become quite attached to the baby Jesus from our Nativity Scene. She wants to carry him around all day, eat, sleep, and talk with Him.  She asks about Him first thing in the morning "Mommy, where's Jesus?" and the last thing at night "Mommy, Jesus go night night" (we tell her He wants to sleep in His manger, but He'll be there in the morning). I pray that this will be a passion she pursues her whole life - talking to Jesus, wanting to have such a close relationship with Him. We have explained to her why we celebrate Christmas - that it is to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the wonderful gift God gave us. While I know even this is too deep for a two year old, I know that she understands Jesus is important, and that He is why we celebrate Christmas. 

We hope you are seeking the simple joys of the season, and finding yourselves thankful for the tremendous gift of our Savior.

O Christmas Tree!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We went to Nashville and visited my brother, Jonathan, and sister in law, Missy, for a few days. Check out the new photo album to see what we  did. We spent Thanksgiving Day at a family reunion with John's family, and got back late that night.

Yesterday we went to Kinsey Farms, where we cut down our own Christmas tree. It was quite fun, and our first experience ever cutting down our own. Ansley had a great time running through all the Christmas trees, and was especially intrigued watching Daddy "cut Christmas tree down." The picture below is her watching John cut it down. Below that is her showing her Christmas tree sweatshirt that Mimi made for her. We brought our tree home and have been in full decorate mode ever since! The trees are being decorated, garland put up, Nativity scene coming out, and, of course, Christmas music is on! I love this time of year! Ansley is, of course, VERY into all the decorating. The first thing she says now when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap is "Christmas tree!" There's still a lot left to decorate, so I better get to it. We hope you are all having a happy kick-off to the wonderful holiday season!

Thankful.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A blog milestone....

I thought it would never happen! I decided a month or so back that I would give a little RAK (Random Act of Kindness) for the 100th poster to my site. Since then, I've been anxiously awaiting to see who it would be (well, ok, it was between the 4 or 5 regular posters!) So, I have finally hit the 100th poster to my blog, and the winner is... ...Mimi! Otherwise known as my Mom (here she is pictured with Ansley this past September). Congratulations to you, my faithful poster. And I know, Ashley and Jonathan and Missy - ya'll were SO close! Here is a little sneak peek at the prize - but what's in the envelope? You'll have to find out when you get it in the mail, Mimi! :)

I want to take this opportunity to blog speak for a moment. Love this avenue of communication. How it allows me to conne ct with people, and become an online journal, of sorts. I love how it allows so many friends and family to stay connected with what's going on with us, and express their thoughts if they want. Reading your comments makes my day! I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for reading and commenting. It means so much to me!

So, again, congrats to Mimi, and I hope you all continue to read and comment. Stay tuned for more "blog milestones!" (Hint: They won't always be in increments of 100!) ;)

Ansley has had a fun weekend of new experiences. She gets so excited, so it's such fun to experience these things with her, and look forward to the holidays and all she will be delighted by. Last night we had our friends, Mark and Ashley, over. We started a fire in the fireplace just before they got here, and Ansley was SO into the fire! She kept saying "oh wow!" and "Fireplace, very hot!" but she would just sit in front of it and stare into it. It was quite sweet. (I tried to capture this in pictures, but I still need to work on my pictures in dim lighting). After Mark and Ashley arrived, we popped popcorn in our new Stir Crazy popcorn popper. Ansley went crazy over this, squealing in delight and laughter. (I admit, it was quite entertaining for us as well!:) ). She tasted popcorn for the first time, and thought it was pretty good.

Today John decided to clean up the leaves in our yard with the lawn mower, and Ansley joined him. She was so cute, riding with her Daddy, really concentrating on what they were doing. She is a "helper" and really enjoys doing the things that we do. After just a day, when we started the fire today, she had to pick up the log, proclaim it "heavy" and help put it in the fireplace. What a sweet helper!

We are excited about the holidays, and all the new things Ansley has in store for her! We hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

More videos....

I took these videos this morning. I wouldn't normally post two videos of Ansley, but I thought they were both so cute, I had to. Plus, Mimi and PopPop are always wanting more videos, so here you go! And, for the rest of you, I hope you enjoy it too.

Ansley's very favorite Christmas song is "Jingle Bell Rock" sung by Danny Dukes (from the Northpoint CD). It does have a great beat, which I'm sure is why she likes it so much. Every day she says "Mommy, Jingle Bell Rock" so we play it over and over and over. And over. (I hear the song in my dreams at night). At the end of the song, she says "again please" so we've taught her that it is Number 9 on the CD so she can turn the dial and play it again (after the 1000th time hearing Jingle Bell Rock, we may regret this). She flips the knob til she sees "9" and then starts dancing (see video). It cracks me up.

I had to show this video because I love how she waves to the camera:

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In this one, she is finding number 9 on the CD player. You'll notice when she finds it! :)

Upload Video at JussPress.comWe hope you all have a "Jingle Bell Rock" weekend! :)

Opposites.

Ansley's personality is really starting to develop. She is a girl of opposites, which makes me laugh. She loves girlie things - polish, baby dolls, purses - but then she'll fill up a pink frilly purse with matchbox cars, which she also loves. She can point out and name fire trucks, dump trucks, tractors, "big trucks" (semis) and "Daddy's truck", and does so often. She loves to play outside and run around, but doesn't like getting dirty. She seems to prefer boys (a trend I would be worried about if she were a little older) - always tends toward the husband in our couple friends, and absolutely adores our 2 1/2 year old neighbor, McKane. Here she is playing with her new Play-Doh set, which has molds, tools, cookie cutters, 20+ different items to push Play-Doh through - but what's her favorite? The car mold, of course (she's pointing to it in the picture). It makes me laugh! I was, am and will be the epitome of GIRLIE-GIRL, so she doesn't get this from me, but I totally love this fun, dump truck lovin', fingernail polish wearin', look-at-me-I-have-new-shoes-on girl!

This morning after gymnastics we went to a silhouette artist and had Ansley's silhouette done. It turned out so cute - I just love it. I had to take a picture to show because I thought it was just so cute. It was amazing - it took him about 2 minutes to do this. (Thanks, Kelly, for telling me about it!). I can't wait to get it framed!

Changes!

So, I changed my banner. What do you think? Let me know! 

Turns out, Ansley doesn't have a cold after all. Ya-hoo! She's just teething - she still is just slightly congested, but chews and chomps down on everything, and keeps her fingers jammed in the back of her mouth. I'm very thankful - hopefully we can stay healthy for awhile!

I'll post more tomorrow. Our internet has been down today (could've had something to do with me changing some settings) so I wasn't able to today, but mainly wanted to update my banner that I've been working on.

Good night! :)

I'm fighting...

FIGHTING FOR MY HEALTH. Ansley seems to have a cold, again. She doesn't seem as congested as she usually is with a cold, but it's probably coming. I'm taking EVERY bit of advice (see previous email) and doing it ALL - Airborne, Zinc, Green Tea. Hopefully overdosing on herbal remedies doesn't cause colds. ;)

PICTURES. So I don't have any cute pictures to post today because, well, Ansley isn't feeling well. I figured I'd spare you the picture of her with snot running down her nose. :) Ok, so it's not that bad, she actually doesn't have snot running down her face, we just got involved in some crafts this morning and I didn't take any pictures.

TAGGED. So in the blogging world, you get tagged on someone else's blog and then you have to answer a quiz and "tag" someone else. Since I only have one blogging friend, I'm taking this quiz I got via email from a friend, posting it on my blog, and then TAGGING two of you. (Watch out, it could be you!) So you'll get to see random responses to questions, and then see who's tagged. Sounds like fun, right? So here goes:

2 names you go by:
1.megan
2.nutmeg
3. Mommy! (had to add a third) :)

2 parts of your heritage:
1. German
2. Swedish

2 things that scare you:
1. spiders - ewww!
2. serial killers (told you it was random!)

2 of your everyday essentials:
1. My computer
2. sweet tea

2 things you are wearing right now:
1. my new Chocolate Ice lipstick
2. jeans

2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment):

1. Casting Crowns

2. Rascal Flatts

2 favorite songs (at the moment):these are older faves; I have been out of touch lately with new music:
1. This is Your Life (Switchfoot)

2. Remember When (Alan Jackson)

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love):
1. Laughter
2. compassion

2 truths I've learned:
1. Everything happens for a reason, no matter what. No exceptions.
2. Motherhood is the best job I've ever known, and it blessed me beyond measure.

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex):
1. eyes
2. hair

2 of your favorite hobbies:
1. Photography
2. scrapbooking

2 things you want really badly:
1. a new Canon digital camera
2. for all my Christmas shopping to be done!

2 places you want to go on vacation:
1. New York City
2. Hawaii

2 things you want to do before you die:
1. Have raised wonderful kids and see them grow into wonderful adults that I am best friends with.

2. Have kept up with my children's scrapbooks so I can pass them on and they can relive their childhood memories.

2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick:
1. I never leave the house without makeup.
2. I love to shop.

2 things you are thinking about right now:
1. Ansley is taking a good nap!
2.I wonder what time John will be home?

2 stores you shop at:
1. The Limited

2. Gap

2 people i would like to see take this quiz:
Liz (because she has a blog!) and Ashley J. (respond however you want!)  :)

Enjoy! If I get another one, you could be tagged next! :)