Birthday-ville

Over the last 5 weeks, we have had a record number of birthday parties. Apparently a few other people thought the fall was a good time to have children!

Ms. Hannah turned two in November and Miki made the most unbelievable cake. At first glance you might think those are plastic animals on top. Au Contraire! Miki made all of those (edible) animals. I had to get a picture:

I failed to get a picture of Hannah, but Harrison and Levi sure did enjoy the cake:

We celebrated Garet's and our nephew Landon's birthday together. This picture is of all 7 cousins on Garet's side. It cracks me up that of the 8 people in the picture, not one of them is looking at the camera. Elyssa wins the best expression award:
The Fields Family

We enjoyed a breakfast at Davis' house for his second birthday. This was our first of THREE parties this day. Thankfully, they were all at different times. Kara, especially enjoyed this swing:

Here's Davis on his new tricycle!

Party #2 was for Levi's school friends who are twins. We enjoyed a morning at Earlyworks playing in Biscuit's Backyard. Parker and Levi got soaked at the water table:

Kara and Peyton spent some time in the play area:

Kara really liked moving all the pieces:

We ended the day at the bowling alley. Levi had never been bowling before, so I was thrilled to see they had these ramps (as well as the bumpers) for the littlest kids:

Levi was very into watching his ball go down the alley:

Happy 4th Birthday, Annin!

Last week, Garet took the kids to Harrison's 2nd Birthday at Build-A-Bear. I wasn't able to make it because I was otherwise engaged, but it looks like the kids had a blast. Here is Kara with "Flopsey" pre-stuffed:

Levi getting "Aubie" stuffed:

Levi "washed" Flopsey off for Kara:

The kids with their animals:

The kids have had a great time partying it up the last few weeks (and mommy & daddy have too!). Happy Birthday everyone!

Living in a World of Plastic

I loaded the dishwasher and this is what it looked like: Oh my goodness! Will I ever get away from all things plastic? Thankfully, I won the battle with Kara and the bottle, so those aren't in the picture anymore. However, there are 27 sippy cups in this picture - seriously! Anyone else go through this many? Whew.

Merry Christmas from my Snow(wo)man and Reindeer!

Adventures in Christmas Treeing

For several years growing up, my family went and cut our Christmas Tree down at the tree farm. I have great memories of running through the trees trying to find that "perfect tree". Ever since we had Levi, I've wanted to do that with my family. So, this was the first year that we thought Levi was old enough to understand and be able to participate in what we were doing. I was so excited.

After a brief melt down with Levi regarding tying the Christmas Tree to the top of the car (he thought we wouldn't be able to get it off), we were ready to go. We got the measuring stick and the saw and were off. It didn't take us long to determine that we weren't looking for a "perfect" tree here because half of them were dead! I mean, seriously, they were brown. We trudged on though thinking we could find one that was semi-decent. Nope, it didn't happen. We actually were laughing about it because it was so comical. I'm assuming it was because of the lack of rain we've had around here the past couple of years. Here are the kids next to a Charlie Brown type Christmas Tree. I think Levi is saying "Booooo".

I really wanted to help out this small business, but instead we went to Lowe's where we got the most beautiful tree ever!

When we got the tree home, Levi got his hammer so that he could help Garet put the tree up. However, he needed a pillow because the ground was too hard for him. Sigh.

Here's Kara "helping" put up the tree:

Garet had to leave for two weeks right after we got the tree up, so the kids and I had to decorate by ourselves. I was pretty bummed, but the kids made it fun. We watched "Elf" to liven up the mood:

Can you tell which area of the tree Levi decorated? The area with all the ornaments that "aren't breakable" (in Levi's words).:The finished product. Part of the reason I was a little sad decorating without Garet is because our tree is very sentimental. We collect ornaments from everywhere that we go and half the fun of decorating the tree is reminiscing about past trips and memories that we have had from our first trip to our ones before kids to our ones with kids to the good trips to the bad trips - it makes my heart full. We even have a naked man on our tree (a statue of David from Florence, Italy :). This year we got to add ornaments from the Alamo, Blue Ridge Parkway and Pearl Harbor. Maybe next year we'll be able to cut our tree down...

Darth Vader Mr. Potato Head and M&Ms

That's what I won at our annual Life Group Christmas Party - I know you are jealous. Every year, we play Dirty Santa, but this year, we decided to bring things from around the house instead of buying gifts. The result? A lot of laughter. We chose to give the money we would have spent on gifts to an orphanage in Guatemala for diapers. How cool is that? I love my group!

The highlight of the game was, of course, the aforementioned basket from the Stone residence. Here's a better glimpse in case you missed it - notice the animal detail:

I re-gifted a lamp and a Christmas puzzle which provided minutes of enjoyment:

Garet was out of town for the festivities, so my date got to be none other than the man of the evening:

The group:

Some of my favorite people!

Edward came to my house!

Because of my "near deer" experience last night, I apparently missed my Twilight hero, Edward, on my very doorstep! He even had some "Christmas Poo" with him. As much as I wanted to keep him all for myself, I sadly bid him farewell tonight. I hope he makes someone very happy.

Background: As if our group didn't have enough fun with the tissue box, Heather & Israel brought this little gem to our Christmas Party. It is making its way to doorsteps near and far and getting a little more festive in the process. Can you believe Heather received this as a gift last year for Christmas?!?!

Oh, and Kara refused to go near it. Levi wanted to leave it lit up on the porch (sigh). It can't be any worse than the fact I still have pumpkins on our porch!!

Quote & Event of the Day

First "the quote". Most days after school, Levi and 3 of his friends run around and around this ramp. Kara has started joining in and the kids are so cute with her. Today, Levi and his friends were huddled around her and patting her on the head like a little puppy. Then Levi said:

We don't have a doggie at our house because we have baby Kara

He was so serious when he said it - we cracked up.

Second "the event". On our way home from Wal-mart tonight, I almost hit a deer.....in my Cul-de-sac!!! Seriously. I turned the corner and this dear darted out in front of my car and ran into the backyard of my neighbor. We turned our lights on it and it ran around my neighbor's house and then stopped in the front yard. I tried to take a picture with my camera phone, but it was too dark. Am I supposed to call someone? Needless to say, I closed the garage door before I got out of the car - I am NOT a country girl.

Our Official Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas from the Fields! I'd like to say that I'm moving on with the times and posting our Christmas Letter here instead of doing a paper version, but truth be told, I don't have time to do it any other way! Hopefully our picture will make it out before the end of the year!

Kara turned 1 in October and brought with it all the joys of "toddlerhood" - walking, talking, climbing, falling down, breaking things, eating non-edible items, etc. She is Ms. Personality and is the source of much laughter and crying every day. I wrote about her in detail here, but we are thrilled to have her in our lives and look forward to see what she has up her sleeve next. She adores her big brother and it is a joy to see them play together.

Levi turned 3 in October and has become quite the little man. He is very inquisitive and is constantly asking questions until he is satisfied with your answer. He loves school and is learning so much - he blows me away with something new everyday. Lightning McQueen has overtaken our house - Cars is by far Levi's favorite interest - I'd like to personally thank all the marketing people for putting McQueens face on EVERYTHING imaginable - it makes it very difficult to go to the store these days. I wrote about Levi for his birthday here.

Garet has become a traveling man these days with work - all to the usual places...Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico and California. We miss him while he's gone, but the one positive is that we get to go to some cool places because of his miles and points. He started leading our Life Group for Young Marrieds again this year and is also leading the 10th-12th grade guys small group. He's a kid at heart, so this has been a great thing for him (when he's in town). Garet allows himself two hobbies and this year they were biking (mountain and road) and slot cars. He has enjoyed riding his bike to work, but those busy roads scare me!

I am still enjoying the best of both worlds. Working part time as the Life Group Minister at our church and being a part time stay at home mom. It's been a good balance for me and I am thankful for the opportunity. I have WAY too many hobbies at the moment, but who's counting. Blogging has been a great way for me to easily get things on a page instead of scrapbooking and I seem to enjoy it more. I also research travel like crazy. I have 10 trips planned and ready to go - just need the time and money! Finally, I learned to sew a little this year and have been dabbling in that. If only there was more time!

Traveling is always one of my favorite things to do. We were lucky to visit our siblings early in the year - My brother & wife in Maryland and Garet's sister & family in Detroit. I turned the Big 3-0 in March and after a failed trip to NYC and the Caribbean, we packed our bags and went for a family vacation in San Antonio - such a cool city! Sea World was a hit and hanging out with the Gibsons was a special treat! We also made the trek to the Hurter farm in July - a natural kids' playground!

In August, we had the first annual "Christy Family Vacation". We rented a house in the mountains of North Carolina and enjoyed a peaceful 3 days in Asheville, at the Biltmore and the Blue Ridge Parkway. A special time. Since the kids had never been to the beach, we headed over to Litchfield Beach, SC and had a much needed "Fields Family Four" vacation. Levi, especially, loved the ocean and we hope to make this a yearly occurrence. Garet and I enjoyed probably my favorite weekend of the year with our Life Group at the beach in Destin. We left the kids at home with grandparents and got 3 days to rejuvenate. We went in October this year and the weather could not have been more perfect!

Our moment of travel insanity might have happened in November when we packed up and headed to Oahu and Kauai, Hawaii with the kids. Nine hours in a plane wasn't so bad, but the time change was a little bit of a struggle. We spent two weeks out there while Garet was working and I posted way too much, so I'm just going to link you to the month of November. My heart is happy out there and I didn't miss the cold at all.

2008 was probably the toughest of our 8-year marriage (see video here).Garet lost his Granddaddy in June and having two children two and under forced some stressful periods of time. However, we are thankful to be out of the baby stage and looking forward to a (hopefully) less dramatic year in 2009.

As always, know that we love each and every one of you (at least those of you we know - although, I'll send some love out to you blog stalkers!). We are thankful for the times you have been a part of our life. Being a parent has made me realize just how precious life is and I don't want to ever take for granted the people God has given to us through family and friends. We are especially thankful for the gift that we received from God in the form of a baby so many years ago.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Love,
Alison, Garet, Levi & Kara

PS: Sorry for the link-o-rama. I realized that this could make for a very ADD type reading experience after I was done...

You know I went to see it...

...Twilight, that is. I've never been much of a movie person. In fact, over the past 5 years, I have probably only seen 5 movies in the movie theater. However, I couldn't miss this one! My friend, Mary, and I couldn't wait! Thankfully, she waited for me to get back from Hawaii so we could go together. I don't know who was more excited to see the movie, us:

or the 6 teenagers we brought along:I thought it was a great movie, IF you have read the books. Otherwise, I think you would have been completely lost - there was no character development at all within the actual movie. For those who have read the books, I thought the movie was the icing on the cake.

I decided why I think so many ladies adore these books. It is because every single one of us wants that guy who will do absolutely anything to keep us safe - no matter how hard that might be. Anyway, that was my thoughts. Anyone else see the movie? What did you think?