Merry Christmas!

It's early! Santa has been to our house and the girls got open one special gift from Mommy and Daddy right away. Their American Girl dolls:







It's a very happy day here and it's only begun. Merry Christmas!!!!

The Nativity

(from Luke 1-2)

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying , "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen them, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who had heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

(from Matthew 2)

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born kind of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

...they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the chid was When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then the opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Marshmallow Shooters

The girls got some gifts early from Jaimie today. She was watching them for a couple hours while Matt and I finished a little shopping. We returned to a full on assault.

Christmas at the Zoo

Snowflakes

Abby and I have been busy making snowflakes the last couple days. She made a couple in Art class at school, which reminded me that I have a bunch of really cool templates, from when I was teaching, on how to make really cool ones. We've been decorating our back door with them. We've actually added a couple since I took this picture. Abby is getting very good at it.

Merry Christmas!

The bulk of our Christmas cards should have made it to their recipients by now, so I thought I'd share our card with everyone. I love it. It is by the designer Erin Condren, who I had never heard of until the last few months, and then it seemed like she was everywhere! Her designs are bright and fun, which is what I was looking for this year, after doing black and white last year. Not to mention, it uses one (actually 2 if you count the back) of our beach pictures, which means I definitely love it. :)

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

Luke 2:10

Wordless Wednesday

Gingerbread House Day at school

Peek a Boo!

When we were in Tennessee over Thanksgiving, we took some pictures with all different configurations of family.... all the kids, everyone, each family unit, etc. This is my favorite of our individual family. I need to get it printed up and framed, I think.

Just another Manic Monday...

I don't know about you, but our family is recovering from a VERY busy weekend. I mean, we are very popular party people, you know! Just kidding. But, we really did have a crazy busy weekend. It is that time of year.

I realize I have been a bad blogger lately, but I decided that was okay. Blogging is a fun thing I do, not a chore.

I DO have some fun pictures and stories to share with you today, though. A week or so ago, I was driving to pick up the girls from my Mom after a weekend without them. We meet half way, so it's about an hour and a half trip for each of us. I got stuck in traffic, because of a wreck. But, I had this to sit behind. I should add that I don't even like Miracle Whip (or mayo), but this cracks me up. What a cute advertising campaign.

On another note, winter has hit. I decided to dig through Abby's closet for a pair of old slippers that she had outgrown to see if I could find them, AND to see if they would fit Lily. Score on both counts. Lily loves them. She is to be called Monkey Girl, because she has monkey jammies and monkey slippers (her words, not mine). She still has trouble with the flip flop part, but she loves to "skate" on the kitchen floor.

We've also had some magic happen at our house in the last week or two. At least I consider it magic. We have had that leap, where Abby is reading books on her own. Not little phonics readers from school, but real books, all on her own. It's magical. The first time, it was Santa Mouse, and she surprised even herself, and there has been no stopping her since. I LOVE it.

It is so different to see it from a parent's perspective versus a teacher's perspective. I mean I taught for 8 years, but when you teach you are so focused on the teaching part. This part is way better.

We are looking forward to getting through this week because then everyone is home. Matt and Abby are both off for two weeks. I can't wait. We have lots of fun holiday plans. Until then, I have lots to do.....

Have a great week!

She's a Koala!

I realize that the title of this blog probably makes no sense to you until I tell you that Abby is in the Caterpillar level at Gymnastics and last night they tested all the girls to see what level they register for next session. Guess what?! She has done so well and really taken to gymnastics that she is already ready to move up! She is so excited!

This morning I decided to read the description of the next level and, whoa. She's really going to be learning some stuff. Here it is for you family members:

KOALAS

This is a one hour intermediate level class for children who have mastered the basics. This group is ready to work on backbend pull-ups, round-offs, handstand forward rolls, front limbers, pullovers, back-hip-circles, shoot through, cartwheels and handstands on the balance beams and handstand flat backs on the pit.

Pretty cool, though, right?

Waiting on the dentist

Christmas Ideas

Have you decorated for Christmas yet? If I'm judging by Facebook, it seems like we are the last people on Earth to decorate. Usually, if we are in town for Thanksgiving, we pull out a lot of the decorations Thanksgiving weekend, however, we never get the tree up this early. We usually put ours up a little bit later than a lot of people.

We are planning on getting our stuff out this week as soon as we have time and everyone (meaning Matt, too) is in town to help. I've been doing some thinking about changing where we put our tree, but I haven't decided for sure yet. The girls are going to see their other grandparents this weekend, so Matt and I can do some Christmas shopping away from prying eyes. Maybe we'll get some decisions made this weekend.

I mentioned yesterday that I was perusing Pinterest for some new ideas. I put them together in a collage to show you. Aren't they fun?

Thanksgiving Recap

I've been a little absent on the blog lately, so I figure we're due for a little Thanksgiving recap.

This year we made the trek to visit family in Tennessee. It has been WAY too long since we have been down there. We left as soon as Abby got out of school on Wednesday. We hit horrible traffic trying to get across the Ohio river into Kentucky. It took us almost about an hour and a half to make it about 7 miles. Not a great start to our trip. We ended up breaking up our trip and finishing Thursday morning.

We had a great Thanksgiving. The girls had lots of time with their cousins. Abby played soccer outside well into the darkness with Kyle and Tucker. Don' t let the dress fool you, she kept up with them! We even had a "photo shoot," but I haven't seen all the pictures yet.

We ended up having a family gathering of some kind each day we were there. Phew! That's a lot of family! :)

Some not-fun parts were that both Abby and I woke up with pink eye on Saturday, so I had to make an unscheduled call to her pediatrician to get them to call in a prescription. They said it was their 8th call for it. Apparently pink eye is going around! Our trip home was awful. We left Matt's parents home and not even 5 minutes later, Lily threw up. We turned right around and got her all cleaned up. I was then a nervous wreck. It turned out, I think she just gagged and choked herself, but at them time we didn't know that. It also rained the ENTIRE way home AND our 7 hour drive took 10 because of traffic problems. I also come home with an awful head cold that was just started when we left on Wednesday. Did you know that when your ears are already clogged up, that going through mountains really hurts? Yup, no fun.

That all said, we had a great time with family, but we are also a bunch of homebodies and are glad to be home.

Next up, decorating for Christmas! I've been perusing Pinterest for some new ideas!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As we head into Thankgiving, I just wanted to wish everyone a happy one!

Also, if you are looking for something for the kids at your "Feast", here is a link from a post I did last year with some neat printable Thankful placemats.

Toilets

This is what I found in our downstairs bathroom this morning: