The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it's time to start thinking about Christmas.  I actually started decorating slowly the week before Thanksgiving because we are in Wisconsin for the whole break.  I want to come home and it all be done!  The kids had a great time helping us decorate this year, especially putting ornaments on the tree (and so far only two have broken).  They have a couple pairs of matching Christmas jammies including these dog ones.  They were very excited to wear them which I think helped with them posing for this cute picture. 

I do have to share a cute Hannah story.  The first thing that went up was our Nativity.  I put it together one evening after Hannah went to bed.  The next morning, she was so excited to see it displayed.  She saw it and said, "Mom!  There is baby God!  And his mommy and daddy!"  I asked her what their names were and she replied, "Mommy and Daddy!"  Why I guess you are right, Hannah. 

It did make me think about the wonderful gift God gave us by sending Jesus.  And not as a king or government figure or powerful leader, but as a baby.  A baby who did have a Mommy and Daddy.  Who was Cameron's age once and probably loved getting into everything possible.  And Hannah's age once and full of questions and wonderings like any almost four year old.  Thank you, God, for providing us this amazing gift as we stop and celebrate Jesus' birth throughout the next month.

So Full of Thanks

We have so much to be thankful this year including these two wonderful blessings.  First and foremost, we are thankful for Jesus Christ.  We are continually working on keeping Christ in the center of our home and raising our children to love and serve Him.  We are also thankful for our wonderful families.  They are always there for us and support us through every step of the way.  We both have great jobs that help us provide for our family.  We truly love  what we do and we both see our jobs as a way to show God's love to those we work with.  Our family is well taken care of in so many ways there are too many to name.  We are blessed!

A Thanksgiving Family Feast

Hannah's preschool has a special Thanksgiving program each year.  Our day care provider told us it was one of her favorite events and I now can totally agree!  The church provides a turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls and drinks.  All of the families bring a side dish to share as well.  When we arrived, the preschoolers met in their room to get dressed, the three year olds are Indians and the four year olds are Pilgrims and got ready for the program.  Then they came into the gym and sang several songs for us and prayed for our meal.  It was so cute!  Hannah was in the second or third road and kind of hard to see, but here is our little Indian getting ready to sing.

After the program, the kids joined their families for the dinner portion.  Cameron was ready to eat at this point!

The whole evening was so much fun!  We have been so impressed with not only the curriculum Hannah is learning, but the activities for both her and our family.  We are so blessed by Zion Preschool!

A Very Hungry Birthday Party

Our sweet nephew turned one year old this past weekend!  We headed up to Kyle and Nikki's Friday night to celebrate him on Saturday!  My sister-in-law is an amzing birthday planner and cake maker.  She has helped me with all of my kiddo's cakes and decorations and Jordan's party was so cute!  She did a very hungry catepiller themed party and it was so cute.  Here is the dessert table with some cute pictures of Jordan's first year strung above.

And a close up of the cupcakes -- oh my, so cute!  And yes she did pick through a container of sprinkles for the legs and antennas!

 A few of Tim and Nikki's cousins came with their kids.  The grandmas and great grandma took the kids on a parade with some fun kid instruments.  Such a fun time!

Here is the birthdy boy getting ready to eat his cake!  He did a good job of digging right in after we sang Happy Birthday to him.

 Before everyone left, we were able to get a quick picture of great grandma and grandpa with six of their eight great grandchildren -- all under the age of four! 

We had such a fun day with Tim's family and most importantly celebrating our sweet nephew.  We love you, Jordan!

Our Sweet Girl

As Daddy was doing bedtime tonight, I came in to snap a quick picture.  Then we all snuggled in for a self-portrait.  I can't believe this sweet girl will be four in a couple of months! 

Movie Night & an Ulterior Motive

Last night we had to "Fall Back" with day light savings time.  I remember last year, this led to many weeks, maybe even a month or more, of Hannah getting up at 5 something.  I was dreading it this year!  Tim went to a football game so the kids and I had a movie night in hopes that keeping them up late meant they would sleep in a little in the morning.  We got out their sleeping bags from Santa last year and snuggled in for a movie.  They may not have stayed in here the whole movie, but they were too cute to not take a picture of!  And they both slept until 6:30 or so this morning!