Christmas Day

We started Christmas morning by reading about the Incarnation of Jesus from the Bible and we sang a few hymns. After we were done Jason told the kids how every good and perfect gift comes from God and since God gave us the greatest gift of all (His Son Jesus) we also want to give good gifts to others so lets give gifts to our grandparents. They ran over and got the gifts for Papa T and Wita and were so excited to watch them open their gifts.

Softest towels EVER. We put a few aside for Baby A.

Kenya had so much fun opening her gifts.

Once Judah figured out how his pez dispenser worked he was pretty much done opening gifts and just wanted to eat the candy.

We take Kenya to the Dollar Store every year and let her pick out gifts for her family. This year Wita took her and this is what she got for Papa T.

Papa T rocking out on the drums and Jason setting up Judah's computer. I have got to video it but Judah gets email (you pre-program it to send emails to him) and now he yells "EMAIL, HI JUDAH..." that is what it says when he gets an email and he has it down. It is so funny. Thanks Papa T and Wita he loves his computer.

Then we went to Momo and Gramp's house for our Christmas celebration. The kid were so excited to open more gifts. My Mom got Judah the coolest Toy Story game if you have toddlers-preschool aged kids they will LOVE this. HERE is the link. They can play several different games with it like hide and go seek and one of the games they have to find whichever character Woody calls out. Kenya and Judah both LOVE to play with that toy!

My Mom also got Shrinky Dinks for Kenya. They are plastic designs that you color (Kenya's were horses) then you bake them in the oven for three minutes and they shrink down to a little tiny size. They are so cute. Kenya has spent a lot of time coloring and baking hers.

We were so blessed this year by how many of our family members got gifts for Baby A. He got an ExerSaucer, books, a soft car, soft blocks, 2 tubs of aquphor, a blanket and pillow set that is super soft, a super soft pillow pet, a gift card to Target from his friend Sydney and a hand made ornament. It was so neat to see our family and  friends include Baby A this Christmas!

After all of this we went to church and our kids passed out :) Our Pastor taught on the birth of Christ and it was a great message. You can listen to it HERE!

I hope you all had a very blessed Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We went to my sisters house for about an hour Christmas Eve and exchanged gifts with the kids. I am so bummed out I didn't get any pictures. I am so excited my sister, brother in law and nephews live right next door to us. They moved here from Tennessee a few months ago and I am soooo excited to have them live so close to us. I missed so much of the boys growing up but I am so excited to make up the time now.

Saturday afternoon we (our family and Jason's parents) headed to Jason's Aunt Ana and Uncle Dan's house. Aunt Ana always has such neat things planned to make great memories with the kids.

This was the DREADED ginger bread house. I know I just said great memories but this thing was almost impossible to put together.

Here are the happy ginger bread house makers before the hard work began.

And here is whose left after they realized they couldn't get the walls to stay up. 

Aunt Ana is brilliant though and used string to hold it together ha.

Judah is not impressed he just wants to eat the candy.

Kenya had a blast making this house even though she looks mad here :)

Haha what a pose!

Aunt Ana promised snow and oh boy did she deliver. She got instant snow at the Christmas Tree store and all you have to do is add water. It was so much fun to play with snow on Christmas Eve!

Snow Ball fight!

Watch out she will get you.

Remember how Kenya doesn't like to get wet??? Well she doesn't like snow either apparently. Judah loved it though.

I thought this was cute but didn't think he would throw it at me.

boy was I wrong!

Kenya and I have been talking a lot about people in other countries that don't have enough money for food. I told her that her Uncle Dan collects money for Penny Manna and they help feed kids who don't get to eat. She started collecting her money to give to her uncle Dan as soon as she found out she could help. I wasn't sure if she was going to go through with it but Christmas Eve she asked me if I brought her purse, I gave it to her and she took it right to her Uncle Dan. She handed it to him and he said, "what is this?" She said, "It's yours." He said, "No, it's yours." She said, "No, it's yours to feed the kids." It was so sweet and I was so proud of her. She put all of her change in the Penny Manna jar then she pulled out all of her dollars which I didn't know she was going to do. Uncle Dan told her to keep those for herself but she said, "No, I want to give it for the kids to eat." I started crying because at the tender age of 5 she has more compassion than most adults (including me sometimes). I sure do love this girl and I was so proud of her!

That night we went to the candle light service at their church. It was such a great reminder to keep our eyes on Christ during the busy Christmas season. Both of the kids fell asleep and slept through the whole service.

Judah, Wita, Papa T and Kenya :)

Our family. I can't wait until Baby A is in this picture next year!

The Eve of Christmas Eve

Almost 2 years ago some very good friends of ours moved in with us while they were waiting to transition into their new home. There were 8, soon to be 9, of us living in our small house and we had a BLAST. Calida was pregnant with their 4th child and Judah was 3 months old at the time. We loved living with them and were so sad once they moved out. We have remained good friends, in fact they lived next door to us for about a year before moving into their new home.

We started having our own Christmas celebration with them last year and we plan on continuing to do so every year.

Maycee, Kenya, Judah, Moriah, Silas and Alysah

Such sweet friends!

Haha funny picture!

Kids enjoying their gifts.

Silas with his cowboy :)

Making homemade sopapillas with the kids.

Judah had so much fun getting dirty.

oh man this is a funny one too...

ya so we were making them at 10:12 at night... that's how we roll :)

They turned out sooo good and the kids had a blast!