Merry Christmas 2014

M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S!!!

{morning}

The calm before the storm:

Here they come...poor kids had to wait patiently upstairs while we turned on the Christmas lights and made coffee!!!

Even Rosey and Franklin enjoyed some new treats and a new bed.


We finally got all of the Christmas morning mess cleaned up and organized.  MiMi, Katie and Carson arrived around 10:30 for our Christmas celebration.  Although we decided to have appetizers only this year, I still decided to set the table like I did for the Nutcracker Ballet.




Brendan and Jackson let me borrow a few of their Nutcrackers. :)

I wanted a photo of the kids by the Christmas tree, but that never seemed to materialize.  I did snap these with my iPhone as we were singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.







They were sweet!

After everyone left, there was definitely that feeling of a bit of a let down.  We jumped on the new trampoline for a while and had some leftovers for dinner.  We watched "Cool Runnings" Christmas night, and just before bed, we surprised the kids with 2 more presents to open.  We had gotten them Snowshoe sweatshirts when we went on our trip at Thanksgiving.  We also gave them each a new pair of flip flops since we are heading to South Florida for the week of New Years! :)

Emma snapped this photo of me and JC with my iPhone....

We had such a blessed day.  We all got more than we deserve.  We are very thankful and were so happy to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

I am especially thankful this year for our sweet children and our health.

Christmas Eve 2014

M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S    E V E!

Our extremely full and blessed day started at MiMi's house celebrating Christmas with my grandparents!

Then we went to JC's parents' house and celebrated with his family.  We had a delicious meal and of course opened presents!

Next we attended our church's Christmas Eve Candlelight Service where Brendan and Jackson served as ushers.

Then we came home and ate dinner and made Reindeer food.  After sprinkling the Reindeer food, setting out Santa's cookies and milk and magic key, and finally, Santa Mouse's cheese, JC read The Night Before Christmas and Santa Mouse! 

Of course, JC's all-time favorite Christmas movie, It's A Wonderful Life was on the tv!

Another favorite tradition is that the kids get to open one present each on Christmas Eve night before they go to bed.

This year they each got a cross with a special verse!  Brendan's is of course, the baseball home plate.  Jackson's is the soccer cross, and Emma's is a porcelain cross with her first and middle name hand-painted.

Emma's verse is Numbers 6:24; Jackson's verse is Psalm 96:12; and Brendan's verse is Phillipians 4:13.

Jackson has been sick this Christmas with a nasty cold.  He actually started the going to bed process voluntarily,  poor thing.

Finally, all the kids were asleep, and Santa was able to work! :)

Winter 2014

In true North Carolina fashion, our temps have been extremely up and down the past two weeks.  We have really enjoyed the warmish temperatures, but we are not looking forward to the cooler weather coming this weekend.  I wanted to post some photos of the two snows that we have had this winter.

It's been a wild winter for us!  Now we are ready for spring and warm weather!!!