Our Christmas

We started Christmas Eve off by baking some peppernuts. Alison loves to help bake, but hates to get anything dirty, hence all the clothes off. If she gets a small speck of anything on her clothes she immediately takes it off. I loved spending time with her in the kitchen and I hope it's tradition that will always be in our family. After cleaning up, we attempted to curl Alison's hair. She thought it was a lot of fun, but the poor girl inherited her mommy's hair and after a morning in curlers her hair was still straight as a pencil.
We had lunch at the Boomer's before Ben and George had to get ready for the Christmas Eve service. After the awesome service, we headed home to read our Advent book and we let Alison open up her Christmas pj's.
I was so excited for Christmas morning I could barely sleep. Alison was up early and Ben took her out to get her stocking. We opened stockings on our bed and Alison was pretty excited about her candy and play dough.
I love how the simplist things can make life so fun. There's no where else I'd rather be than sitting next to the Christmas, by the fire, in my pjs sipping hot chocolate, with my little girl, playing with curlers (which she kept calling batteries).Pretending she's on the beach, reading Cinderella with her new umbrella
After some yummy tea pastries we spent the rest of the morning playing with Alison's new toys and we watched a Chipmunk Christmas movie.
Finger painting on her new Elmo table
I loved thinking about traditions we grew up with and which ones we wanted to carrying on with our kids. I love my family's tradition of doing a puzzle on Christmas and although Ben doesn't care for puzzles, I decided to carry it on with Alison. We started small this year and did a Barbie one together. Really it was me putting it together and teaching Alison the art of doing a "big" puzzle, but Alison loved it and maybe by next year she'll be able to participate more. Of course next year we'll have a baby brother to contend with who will probably be trying to chew on the pieces, but I'll take that as just a little more of a challenge.
We spent the afternoon at the William's house (the family that came over for Thanksgiving). We only had to make mashed potatoes and a pecan pie, which selfishly I was thankful for. It was nice to be able to relax, eat and enjoy good company. We still wanted to make a special dinner so tonight we're making a Smithfield ham, greenbean casserole, sweet potato casserole, zwiebach, and another pecan pie. Ben helped me make the zwiebach (our first joint attempt) and my mouth is savoring just waiting for them to come out of the oven. We invited some friends over to help us eat our feast and I hope they enjoy our traditions as much as we do.

Merry Christmas!

Shear Family Christmas Card

We've had a fantastic 2009; a year full of abundant blessings. We started the year by moving to Virginia and ended it with moving into a house with baby number two well on the way. These pictures of our family were taken in our back yard by Kent at Thanksgiving.

Ben is doing a fantastic job working at Hope Presbyterian as Director of Ministries. He just finished teaching a class over the 10 Commandments and continues to lead worship on Sunday mornings. I've been so impressed watching Ben juggle work, school and our family. He puts his all into everything and we are so blessed to have him as the head of this house.

I've become a full time mommy this year and I absolutely love it. From being involved in Church, to organizing play-dates, to teaching letters and playing dress up, my days are full. I've been blessed with an easy pregnancy and am trying to soak up all the rest I can before my babies are multiplied.

Alison is absolutely the best toddler. She was easy as pie to potty train (I'm hoping her brother catches on just as fast) and has moved into a big bed. She continues to amaze me how she learns things so quickly and her vibrance for life is contagious. She loves playing outside, reading books, taking pink bubble baths and anything that has to do with princesses. Truly she is the biggest blessing in our lives.


We love living in Virginia and are excited for what the new year will hold, especially meeting our son!

Merrry Christmas!

Definitely a Michigan baby

We had our first sprinkling of snow this Saturday night. Everywhere else in Virginia got slammed, but we just saw some flurries. Of course you can't underestimate the reaction a few flurries brings to a small town that rarely sees precipitation. You also shouldn't underestimate the reaction that a few flurries can bring to a kid. It was all I could do to keep this kid out of snow Sunday morning. Forget church, she just wanted to build a snowman!After nap time we all went out and built a tiny snowman so Alison could put a carrot on his face. A small snowball fight was started and Ben and I were done, but Alison would have stayed outside all day.

Christmas Time!

I've really been enjoying this Christmas season. Alison and I have spent several afternoons baking together and listening to Christmas music. She loves listening to the Chipmunk's and thinks they're pretty funny when they crack jokes in the middle of songs. We learned very quickly this year that presents are a much bigger deal than we thought. Ben put the presents under the tree a couple of days ago because he said half the fun is anticipating opening them. We told Alison that we would open them Christmas morning and that morning would come when we had finished all the pages in our Advent book that we read every night. Well, one afternoon I was putting away some dishes in the kitchen when I heard some paper rip...Alison decided to make her own Christmas morning and dove into a present. After some contemplation on how to parent this offense, I prayed that she would quickly forget the present she just saw. Shortly after that she wondered into the baby's room, opened the closet, dug through all the boxes and miscellaneous things and discovered her "big" present I hadn't wrapped yet. She came and found me and said, "Mommy, may I please have my Elmo table?" Dumbfounded I tried to convince her that there wasn't such a thing and attempted to distract her. But she gave my hand a tug and said, "Come with me Mommy, I'll show you where it is." She has asked so sweetly and politely for that table every day. I'm hoping she'll forget before Christmas or at least be very excited when she can finally play with it.
Alison also learned a new Bible verse this week. It absolutely blows my mind how quickly she can memorize things. Throughout the week I've heard her saying James 4:12 over and over to herself. It is a huge blessing to me to hear my child say scripture to herself and know that she is hiding the word of God in her heart.

Half way there!

Our little guy is quite the cutie! So far everything is going great and our the baby is completely healthy. I'm so thankful this pregnancy has been so easy and I can't wait to meet this handsome guy...hopefully we'll have a name for him by then!

Christmas Parade-Video

Christmas Parade

Today's was Smithfield's Christmas parade. I had the brilliant plan of going to the Y for a workout and then walking over to the parade. I was pretty impressed with my parking plan...maybe I should have read the signs at the Y that said it was the starting place for the parade. My plan backfired and I was stuck in workout out clothes. Thankfully Daddy and a very nice couple from church saved the day. Ben was downtown at 7:00 this morning setting up to play in the gazebo after the parade and a couple from church who owns the downtown pharmacy was letting the band hang out there. Thankfully they let me break their "no one uses their restroom" policy and was able to get out of my tanktop and shorts.
Alison and I first reserved some front row seats on the street, but I learned very quickly that if you want to sit there you have to have absolutely no personal bubble and have to be very pushy...both of which are not me. Daddy came to the rescue again and got us exclusive seats in the gazebo.
Although it was a very cold morning, we really enjoyed the parade. Ben did an awesome job playing afterwards (videos will be up soon) and some members from Hope handed out hot chocolate. Nothing beats good music and hot chocolate if you ask me.

Doesn't she look different?

We decided this week to grow Alison's bangs out. I've always liked her better without bangs and she's finally willing to keep a clip in all day. The first day I pulled them back I didn't even recognize her when I went to pick her up from the Y.

Alison the Ballerina

A Video from Thanksgiving

It's a BOY!!!

20 weeks
We have a healthy baby boy coming in April! Alison is still convinced she's having a sister, but I think it's going to take us all some time to adjust to thinking boy. I'm excited and the smile I got to see on Ben's face was priceless. I'll take any name suggestions since we have no idea what to name this child.

"I am not a boring princess!"

Alison's current favorite princess is Gigi-God's little princess. Poppy gave her some Gigi books awhile ago and they're all the rage around here. She has the stories memorized. So much so that a couple of days ago she came up to me and said, "Mommy, I'm not a boring princess". It took me by surprised, when I quickly realized that's the first line of 'Gigi and the Purple Ponies'.

My friend Carolyn bought Alison her first painting project last week while we were moving. She had planned on doing it with her but instead helped me unpack the kitchen. Alison's been asking for a week to paint and I finally let her last night before bath time. I was pretty impressed with how well she did.

22° Halo

Last night we had a 22° halo visible from our house. It was unreal how bright it was. At 11:00 pm the moon cast enough light to cause some serious shadows. This shabby photo shows the halo and also the prism effect at the edge of the ring.

This is the moon!