This year's Christmas card

So this year's Christmas card marks a major shift for us -- we've decided that our kids are way cuter than we are, so the front of our card features just them.  Plus, it's significantly easier to get a cute portrait of them than it is to do a remote/timer shot of all four of us at once...  ;)  I did manage to eke one out this fall, so the back of our card has a black and white photo of all four of us.  Which is one of literally only two photos I have of all four of us together this year...  Any photographers in central NJ want to do a family photo swap sometime next year?  :)

Joshua and Sophia were actually kind of happy and excited about photos this crisp late fall morning when I dressed them up for Christmas photos.  Joshua thought it was hilarious, sitting on the leaves -- he kept asking Sophia if she saw the leaves, and laughing when she would try to eat some.  :)  And Sophia was just excited to be outside, giggling when the wind blew and content to sit and smile at the world around her.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Our 2013 special ornament

So far, we've managed to continue our little family tradition of having a special annual Christmas ornament to commemorate the year... This marks our eighth year of doing this!  Pretty soon, I'll have to find a different way to display these ornaments...  :)

2013 was a big year of change and growth for our family.  Both David and I have had exciting new challenges professionally -- me with my new job ventures, David with his ever-evolving responsibilities in campus ministry.  Sophia continues to grow and change in leaps and bounds every day, adding new words and new motor skills seemingly by the minute.

But perhaps the biggest, most obvious change to our family rhythms this year was the introduction of formal school for Joshua.  Starting preschool has brought so many exciting and wonderful changes in our little guy's life.  He's grown so much in vocabulary and art skills and other immediately obvious "learning" skills.  But it's also been amazing to watch him grow in understanding in so many different ways -- from complex sentence structures, to empathy for other children, to remembering what he's done during the day and being excited to relate extended stories about what he did, it's all been such a joy to watch!

And having Joshua in school three mornings a week has opened up a lot of time for the rest of us.  It *is* a bit of a scramble on school mornings to get Joshua fed, dressed, and out the door by 8:15.  But once he's there, I've had some really sweet one-on-one times with Sophia.  And when she's taking her morning nap, I suddenly have decent stretches of time to catch up on life.  :)

So we thought that it would be fitting to get a little school-themed ornament this year, to remember the beginning of this new season in our family's life.  We're so thankful that Joshua's first experiences of school have been predominantly positive, and we pray that he'll continue to enjoy his time learning and exploring and growing through his entire school career!

2013: Adding Sophia to the Father's Day mix!

Every year since he was born, Joshua has taken part in my little Father's Day tradition for David -- my attempt to get a cute little triptych of photos with letters spelling out DAD.  By now, Joshua is somewhat used to the drill, and he got really excited about playing with the big D and A when I brought them out this year.

And thankfully, his sister isn't nearly as persnickety as he was.  :)  (Remember Father's Day 2010 and 2011?)  It did take a little doing, but we managed to get some really sweet photos for this year's collage!

I took the kids out for our first attempt early in the morning, in order to take advantage of the lovely morning light pouring into our backyard.  It was already really hot outside, and we were running really close to Sophia's nap time, so I was a bit concerned as we headed out -- but the light was just so perfect that I had to at least give it a try.

I put out a blanket for the kids to sit on, and tried to speed up the process by giving them each a letter to play with, figuring I'd be able to merge or split photos as needed in post.  And then I made the grave tactical error of trying to get them to switch letters.  Joshua was very, very upset that I wouldn't let him hold both letters at once, and then he got even more upset that I wanted him to let Sophia hold the D.  And then poor patient Sophia, having endured several minutes of sweaty heat plus a big brother trying to steal the fun new toys away from her, finally reached the end of her rope and clearly just wanted to go to bed.  So I gave up for the morning -- I'd taken a bunch of photos, but wasn't convinced that I really had anything worth keeping.

So I tried again later in the afternoon.  The light was decent, and the kids were in better moods, so I had high hopes!  I also did a lot of prep work with Joshua beforehand, which I should have known would be necessary -- I told him that we were going to play with "just one letter at a time," and that he could play with them both once we were back inside.  He dutifully repeated the "just one at a time" mantra over and over again during this second afternoon session.  :)  And I caught some really playful moments between Joshua and Sophia this time around!

Later that evening, I looked at the photos on the computer monitor.  And I actually really loved a number of the shots we got during *both* sessions!  What can I say, our kids are super adorable and photogenic even under difficult conditions...  :)

So I put together two different triptychs for David.  He ended up choosing the morning set as his favorite, so that's the one I'm having printed out for him, but I wanted to share both, just because of how stinkin' adorable our kiddos are!




And just because I get super weepy when I look at the whole progression (look how LITTLE Joshua used to be!), here are links to all of the Father's Day posts: 2010, 2011, 2012.

Hope you all had a lovely Father's Day, celebrating the wonderful men in your lives!

Easter 2013

We celebrated Easter this year with a variety of kid-friendly traditions and fun events -- it's so sweet to watch Joshua grow in understanding of some of these traditions and take part with such enthusiasm!

Just to start things off on a cute note: here's my favorite of the "official" Easter photos I took of Joshua and Sophia.  :)


The kids and I have been part of a wonderful playgroup of Christian families with kids all around the same age for the last several months -- Joshua looks forward to going to Elliot's house every Thursday now!  So the Thursday before Easter, we spent time decorating eggs with the kids and talking about ways we can teach our children about the resurrection.  I always come away from these playdates with much food for thoughts -- which is seriously impressive, given the amount of crowd control and distraction that comes with wrangling all these small children!  :)

It was Joshua's first time decorating eggs, and he was fascinated by the process.  The moms did the dying part in the middle of the dining table (out of reach of curious little hands!), and then the kids used markers, stickers, and stamps to decorate the eggs.  Of course, Joshua kept turning to me every few minutes to ask me to wipe his hands... I have no idea where he gets this fastidious bent.  ;)






Then on Easter Sunday, after a lovely morning service at Westerly, we had a potluck dinner with our Sunday small group.  And we had a little Easter egg hunt for the toddler boys.  :)








The baby girls were a little less enthusiastic about the egg hunt...



...but still incredibly cute.  :)

We had a really lovely dinner together -- it's funny how we all collectively pull out all the stops whenever there's a food event!







And we managed to get one decent group shot of all of us!  (Including special guests Tae and Jeff, in town for a visit!)


We're so thankful for the wonderful community we have here in Princeton, and all the beautiful ways we were able to celebrate the resurrection with our family and friends.  He is risen indeed!

This year's Christmas card

We finally sent out our Christmas card about a week and a half ago, so it's probably safe for me to post it here now.  :)

In preparation for this card, I finally, finally got a photo of all four of us together!  It only took over three months after Sophia was born for us to get a family photo... I was using my 85mm lens, and wanted a nice shot with some of the last leaves of autumn framing us, so I set up the tripod about 150 feet away and had David corral Joshua into position.  Because my remote battery was dead, I had to use the 10-second self-timer on the camera -- which meant I hit the shutter and then SPRINTED (while trying not to jostle Sophia) to get in position in time.  It's a miracle that this photo turned out as well as it did.  :)

So here's the 2012 Keddie family Christmas card, front and back:


And just because I love it so, here's a larger version of our family photo!


Wishing you a lovely Christmas, from our family to yours!

More Christmas crafts!

I figure this is likely to be the only Christmas I'll be a stay-at-home mom.  So I've been having fun playing a little Martha Stewart and actually doing some of the Christmas crafts and activities I've been pinning on Pinterest.  :)

One of the projects I did with the kids was a handprint Christmas wreath, inspired by this pin.  (Though there's no way I was going to introduce glitter into the equation -- hello, crazy mess...)  I traced out both of the kids' handprints onto pretty green cardstock -- which was a little harder than I had anticipated.  Sophia doesn't have the best limb control, and Joshua kept wanting to lift his hand so he could see what on earth his crazy mama was doing to him this time.  ;)  And then one Friday evening while David was at PEF, I cut out and traced and cut out and traced and cut out a bunch of handprints.  The project wasn't particularly difficult, but it was a lot more time-intensive than I thought it would be -- cutting around tiny finger tracings takes a long time.  :P  But I had already started, and wanted to see the project through, so I spent a few hours hanging out on our couch, watching old episodes of "Friends" and cutting out handprints and gluing them together into a wreath circle.  :)

The next morning, I showed Joshua the wreath, and had him stick gold star stickers all over it.  He went around a put a sticker on each of the light green Sophia hands, put a few on the red bow, and then threw a minor fit when I tried to convince him to put some stickers on the dark green Joshua hands.  So I sneaked a few little stars on the dark green myself and then hung the wreath up on the wall before Joshua could crumple it in his zeal to protect it.  :)

But I think all the effort was worth it!  Look at the cute wreath over our TV!


Thankfully, my other Pinterest-inspired project was much easier.  Inspired by this pin -- and by "inspired by," I mean "completely blatantly stolen from."  :)  I got a length of holly garland from Michaels and wrapped it around our dining room chandelier, and then tied a bunch of mini ornaments to the chandelier with white ribbon.  Super fast and easy, but with high visual impact -- exactly the kind of project I love!


And finally, a simple holiday card display idea.  We used to put all of the photo cards we received up on our fridge, and leave them there the entire year.  But that was in our old apartment, where our kitchen was gated off and the fridge was a toddler-safe zone.  Now that our fridge has become a toddler magnet play area, we needed a different place for the lovely cards we get from friends and family!  So this year, I tacked some wide red ribbon to the wall, and I've been attaching photo cards with mini clothespins.  We've managed to teach Joshua not to pull at the ribbons, and we've had such fun telling him all about each of the faces displayed on our wall.



I love having such holiday prettiness all around us.  :)

Christmas Vespers 2012

Every year, one of the Christmas traditions I look forward to the most is the interfellowship Christmas Vespers service.  This year, I was able to go because our dear friend Andrew came over to watch the kids while they slept.  He's about to become a first-time father in just a few short weeks, so it was good practice for him!  (And it helps that the service starts at 9pm -- the crazy-late college student schedule meant that both the kids were put in bed before I had to leave!)

This year's service was as beautiful and moving as ever.  It's such a blessing to be able to take a moment in the midst of the busyness of the Christmas season to just sit back, meditate on Scripture, and listen to and sing beautiful music.  The richness and beauty of Christmas tradition becomes once more solidly grounded in the promises of Scripture, and I come away feeling refreshed.

And I just love the music chosen for this service!  I usually have the carols and special music stuck in my head for weeks after Vespers.  :)

Joy has dawned upon the world
Promised from creation
God's salvation now unfurled
Hope for every nation
Not with fanfares from above
Not with scenes of glory
But a humble gift of love
Jesus born of Mary

Sounds of wonder fill the sky
With the songs of angels
As the mighty Prince of Life
Shelters in a stable
Hands that set each star in place
Shaped the earth in darkness
Cling now to a mother's breast
Vulnerable and helpless

Shepherds bow before the Lamb
Gazing at the glory
Gifts of men from distant lands
Prophesy the story
Gold -- a King is born today
Incense -- God is with us
Myrrh -- His death will make a way
And by His blood He'll win us

This year's Christmas ornament

In case you couldn't tell, I really love traditions of all kinds.  :)  And one of my favorites of the little traditions we've created as a family is the annual Christmas ornament.  Each year, we pick or make an ornament that represents one of the milestones of the year.  Now that we're finally living in a home with a staircase, I decided to put them all up together in a pretty little display:


Starting from the top, we have our 2006 bride and groom, 2007 NYU Law ornament, 2008 Fitz-Randolph gates, 2009 stork, 2010 Joshua ornament, 2011 Joshua handprint, and then this year's ornament:


A lovely embroidered ornament commemorating our little Sophia's first Christmas!  As our 2010 Joshua ornament was an Etsy find, I figured it was appropriate to look for another handmade Etsy item for Sophia, and as soon as I saw the embroidered work in this particular Etsy shop, I knew this was going to be this year's ornament!

I love that both of our kiddos have a lovely handmade ornament celebrating the year in which they were born.  And one of these days, if I'm ever on top of my game enough, they'll have ornaments that are actually hand-crafted by *me*.  ;)  But until that day comes, I'm thankful for all the pretties that can be found on Etsy!

And it goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway -- we are all so thankful for our dear little Sophia.  2012 is the year David and I became parents to a daughter, and Joshua became a big brother, and this sweet little ornament is a fitting milestone marker for this year!

Our 2011 Christmas card

This year, we simplified things a lot for our annual Christmas card.  No professional family photos this year, and, unfortunately, not enough time for a handwritten note like we did last year, which really disappointed the etiquette stickler in me.  But know that we thought of each and every one of you fondly as we put together and addressed our cards this year, and that we wish you all much joy this holiday season!




(By the way, that photo of Joshua on the back of our card is hands down my favorite image of him from this year.  And we thought it was the perfect photo for spreading some holiday joy!)

Merry Christmas to all of you, dear friends and family!

Christmas Vespers 2011

Sunday evening, December 11, was the annual interfellowship Christmas Vespers.  And as always, it was such a beautiful service!  There were a record-breaking 38 students in the choir, which sounded absolutely majestic in the soaring splendor of Rockefeller Common Room, singing music beautifully arranged, as always, by Jamie Rankin.  We also had a harp, several string instruments, a percussion section, some woodwinds, and Rob Dunlop '01 coming back for his umpteenth year as the French hornist.  :)










The readings, though familiar, always bring home to me new facets and applications of the Incarnation.  And we had some seriously powerful soloists this year!  The songs chosen for this service always move me to tears, and this year was no exception.






David Buschman gave a touching message on how the Old Testament comes to a point or apex with the birth of Christ, which then spreads the message of God's salvation to all peoples everywhere -- the hourglass view of all history, if you will.






It was so restorative, in the midst of this busy season in our lives, to come together in worship and be reminded anew of God's great gift of grace.