Merry Christmas

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas Time

We had a great Christmas this year. The kids were really excited and we had a blast. We opened presents from Grandpa Tony and Gigi on Christmas Eve and then headed to Church and dinner. (Not the best idea, but that is for another post).

Christmas Morning we tore into more presents and just took it easy. My family came over for our non-traditional Christmas dinner. We had steak and shrimp on the bar-bey! YUM! It was a wonderful time! Check it out!

Christmas Pictures

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December Pictures



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Playing Catch Up

Well I figured that before I posted Christmas pictures, I probably should post Halloween and Thanksgiving pics, so here you go!

Halloween



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November/Thanksgiving



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For the dogs

Holiday Fever

Do you have it? I know I do. I love, love, LOVE the Holiday Season! I love it all; the craziness, the shopping (not in crazy lines or on black friday), the gifting, the receiving, the eating, the tree, the lights, the snow. Yes, even the snow! I love it all. One of my favorites is Christmas music! Day after Thanksgiving that music is playing and pretty much doesn't stop until Jan 01. One of the neat things about this year is that Olivia is really old enough to start 'getting' Christmas. She loves all the "pretty lights." We have been talking about Christmas being a celebration for Jesus' birthday and how much we love Him and how much He loves us! It is so cute to hear her singing happy birthday to Jesus! We have stacking pyramid blocks and she calls those the "birthday candle" and blows it out after singing to Jesus! PRECIOUS!
She has Psalm 100:2 covered!
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

I am so excited for this time of year! I hope that you are really enjoying it as much as I am.

Grace and Peace to you this Holiday Season!

Christ is Born!!

Really?!

This morning the kids were playing in their room while I was getting ready. A pretty normal situation. Lulu was also in the room with the kids. Sometimes this happens sometimes it doesn't. It really depends on it Olivia lets her in the room or not. Well, unfortunately for Lulu, Olivia wanted to play this morning. I was packing our bags and getting ready to head our for a massive day of grocery shopping (at least 4 stores!). Everyone was ready, so I thought. I walked in the kids room to get their shoes on and go, and what did I find!!! Olivia COVERED in Vaseline. I just stood there, I had no idea what to do, and then I just started laughing. And then I looked and Lulu was COVERED in Vaseline. Lulu had this look of "you let me play in here, and do you see what THIS kid did to ME?!" Poor puppy. Of course, I had no idea what to do, so I started laughing even harder. I grab Olivia and Lulu and tossed them in the bathroom. Josh managed to stay fairly clean and just had a chunk on his cheek. There was some down the side of our Alligator stuffed animal and that was about it as far as the room. I went back into the bathroom and had forgotten to take the Vaseline away from Olivia, so she was putting more on Lulu. Apparently Lulu had a dry coat and Olivia was helping out. Well, needless to say about 100 paper towels later and 2 baths for Lulu we are all nice and clean. Note to self: take the Vaseline OUT of the room BEFORE letting the kids play in there!














Okay the pictures don't really show but there were globs and globs on everybody. The jar on the counter was virtually full and is now next to empty!

Visitors

We have had quite the month of visitors. For Josh's birthday Gigi came in from PA (where she was for part of the summer) and Tony & Soheila came up from FL. We had a great time visiting with them. We always wish we had more time, but a grateful for the moments that we do have with them. Thursday night Tony and Soheila flew in and on Friday they along with Chris took the kids to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum. It is a great museum and the kids loved it. I was sick and decided to stay home and rest as well as get the house ready for Josh's party the next day. Stink on being sick! Gloria came in on Friday. We all partied for Josh's birthday on Saturday (check out pics here). Sunday we went to the Three Cedars Farm and went pumpkin picking. We got pie pumpkins (which I later turned into pie glop and then a fabulous pumpkin pie...yummy!) Tony and Soheila left on Monday. :( After such a crazy weekend we took it easy. We stayed home and made pumpkin bird feeders. And Tuesday Gloria and I had our traditional shopping trip. (She doesn't have lots of room to travel with, so she gets the kids their presents when she gets here.) Phew! Just remembering all this makes me tired. Gloria left on Wednesday and it took a good 4 days or so for Olivia to realize that they were all gone. She kept asking for Gigi or Grandpa Tony or So-so. She still does. It was such a great weekend and I was glad that they were all able to come.

We love you and Miss you!

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