Christmas Fun

Charity saying good morning to everyone.

Josiah opening his stocking.

Charity opening her stocking with Papi.
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This Christmas was really special... having a 2 (almost 3) year old, that really understood that we were celebrating Jesus' birthday, being so thankful for Josiah's health as we celebrated his first Christmas, and all that we have been blessed with. It was a really fun day. We started the day bright and early when the kids woke up at 6:30...ugh! Troy and I were so tired! Oh well! Here are some highlights of our day.

• The kids looked so cute in their new jammies.
• We had our traditional Christmas breakfast, Grammies' Cobblestone cake, and egg casseroles wtih my family.
• We had a birthday cake for Jesus. Charity was so proud to blow out the candles.
• Every gift Charity opened was her favorite. She was so sweet... and had to play with everything as it was opened. She was very thankful... made her parents proud!
• Josiah enjoyed his wrapping paper as he opened gifts.
• LONG nap after everyone left!
• Delicious dinner and Lillian's House with Grandma and Papa.
• A walk in the wagon before bed... we saw our neighbors outside having a snowball fight and we were able to feel some snow! (2 days in a row after sledding and playing in the snow at church on Christmas Eve)
• Early bed times for all of us!

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Cheesy Christmas Smile

Enjoying some play time... with sister's shoes (gross)

Playing with new toys... magnetic dress up princess dolls.

Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox postcard

Charity's First Hair Cut

I took Charity to get her very first hair cut today. We went to Cool Cuts 4 Kids ('cause its pretty close to the house.) They do a special thing for the first cut... a lock of hair and a special picture of the client in the "chair"! Then the lady did Charity's hair and put in a pretty bow! The kids sit in a special chair and they can watch a movie and for the older kids they can play xbox 360. Nice expereince for a first hair cut. Here are some pictures of our little beauty.

Silliness

The last few weeks have been so much fun and extra silly... just wanted to share a few picture highlights.

Here is a video of my little crawler!! 3 days of crawling!! We are so excited to have our mister mobile... he is getting pretty heavy to carry around these days!

Silly Charity after a day of braids (yes, she is sitting on the potty!)

Charity testing out her skills as a photographer!

Celebrating Advent with the kids is imortant to us! The first Sunday of advent we talked about the angel coming to Mary and telling her about having God's special son and naming him Jesus... we ate the lesson in biscuts during dinner!


Josiah's discovery of the tupperware cupboard... the stuff was everywhere!!

Holiday Recipe Exchange!

We had so much fun getting together and tasting all the wonderful creations!!

Mmmmm!

Preparing our Hearts

The month of December is such a fun time as we prepare for Christmas. It is hard not to smile at all the beautiful decorations and the twinkle lights (one of my personal favs), even when there are hundreds of people pushing their way through Target and you could totally kick yourself for needing dishwasher soap!! Through all the madness, I find myself feeling so excited. I am so enjoying seeing Charity learning about God's special gift to us, his son Jesus. She is taking it all in, and watching everything that we do as well... Are we embracing Jesus, or the shopping season? Hmmmm, makes me really think about all that I do, keeping my heart in check!! I am happy to say that we are keeping it simple and I hope that we are showing our children that Christmas is about our savior being born on that very first Christmas. We are doing some special advent activities this year to help teach the Christmas story and I really want to have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas (Charity really loves and understands the concept of birthdays). We'll see! In our efforts to really embrace the Love, Joy and Peace of this season, we have been having a lot of fun doing special things!! Making Christmas cards and special gifts for our friends and family, having a recipe party to exchange fun holiday recipes and fellowship with good friends, cooking together, singing Christmas carols, and enjoying walks and looking at all the beautiful (and crazy) decorations!! All in all, I know the desire of my heart is to come before my King and give him the very best of me.