Today

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was one of the best we've ever had. We are so blessed! On Christmas night Christian came to me crying. He said he felt bad that we spent so much money on his presents. We talked a little bit and he was trying to articulate that he felt so thankful he just wanted to cry. Sweet boy. We talked about how that's how we should feel about Jesus and the gift that he's given us. It should make us feel just like that...so overwhelmed with thankfulness that we just want to cry. He really got the Jesus part of Christmas this year.

We were heading out to the Christmas Eve service at church and Christian is his true tell-it-like-it-is fashion said "I really don't want to go to church but I know that Christmas is about Jesus so we really should go to make sure he knows we're excited about His birthday."

I never have to wonder what Christian's thinking.

We're having a low key day today. My goal is to get some laundry put away and to plan out our family devotion time for January. I don't know if you're on pinterest, but I've "pinned" a bunch of great ideas for teaching your kids about having a relationship with Jesus. You can check out my pins over HERE. And if you're local, I'm so excited about a great opportunity that I've been given on January 13th!!! On the 13th at 10:45am at our church I'm going to be teaching a one hour class on how to introduce your kids to Jesus and how to make Jesus a part of the daily conversation in your home. If you want more info or if you want to come and have never been to our church, please let me know!

Merry Christmas!

Last Day of School

 When you finally get out of school for Christmas break you've got to do something to celebrate. So Christian had his friend Carter come home on the bus with him!

 The boys played outside for about 5 minutes...it was freezing.

Suddenly my idea of making crafts and having hot chocolate sounded good to everyone (when I first mentioned it, the boys sort of rolled their eyes).

 McKenna is the sweetest thing. Whenever Christian has a friend over she thinks they're her best friend too. She wants to do everything the boys are doing. Thankfully, Christian has pretty nice friends who include McKenna or are at least tolerant of her trying to tag along.

 We decorated Christmas stockings.

 It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Happy Birthday Jesus

 It's important to me that we have a Happy Birthday Jesus Party each year.

Even though it's busy and was pretty hard to fit in this year, I always want to keep it a priority because it's a good tangible way of keeping my kid's focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

 McKenna & Addie!

 Snacks, crafts, games & friends.

 Bryson making a craft.

 Kate showing off her creation.

 We played our favorite unwrap the present game.

 It's always a good time.

 

 It's always good to have an older kid playing this game, otherwise we might never get it opened.

 

 Christian takes this game very seriously.

 But so do I!!! Notice the duck tape on that box! I make sure it's hard to get opened!

 Ellie won!

 We tried to get Will to eat a cupcake.

 He never did eat it.

 He thought about it, but he typically doesn't like any kind of baked goodies. 

What's wrong with him?

This is our sweet friend Madison who spends time at our house every week!

We were happy she could come to our Happy Birthday Jesus Party this year.

10 Years

 On Saturday night, Ryan and I went on a rare date to celebrate the 

10 year anniversary of our engagement!

(Thanks, Mom & Dad for babysitting)

The night we got engaged we talked about having kids and what our lives would be like.

We didn't even remotely dream big enough.

We both agreed that it doesn't get much better than this.

Our kids, our home, our families, our church, our marriage.....

man we have it good.

Praise God for his FAITHFULNESS!

McKenna's Preschool Pagent

 McKenna was so excited about her preschool Christmas program.

 PopPop and Grandmom were able to come and Daddy and Will were there too.

 McKenna with some of her friends.

 McKenna and Krysta were the sheep.

 Our little buddy Gwen was Gabriel.

 The whole flock.

 It was pretty much adorable.

 McKenna really gets into the singing.

 After the program there was a little reception. I had a seat for McKenna at our table, but she wanted to sit with her friends (this was the first time that's happened).

 McKenna has a very special relationship with her teacher.

McKenna and Gwen always talk about how they want to have their teacher over for a playdate.

She's that fun! We are very blessed to have such amazing Christian women as preschool teachers.

Capturing the Precious moments of Christmas....

 This was one of those moments....

I only had my cell phone.

Just look at Will looking up at my mom.

Oh melt my heart.

 McKenna was singing, playing the piano and dancing all at the same time.

That girl cracks me up!

His little fingers were just going wild.

It's Christmas Time in the City!

 

 My sister texted me these pictures and I thought I'd throw them up on the blog for all of you to see.

I know you all love seeing Amy's kids!

Amy and Rob took their kids to New York City to see all the Christmas sites!!!

I can't wait to have kids old enough to do that with.

Nate loved riding on the subway :)

 

Sophie, Charis, Emma, Nate & Abby wish you all a very Merry Christmas from Time's Square!