Christmas memories

So many wonderful memories from this Christmas I want to write down and not forget. First, there had been reports of possible snow on Christmas day for a few days before and I honestly wasn't really expecting any. However, I was pleasantly surprised when around 8 am Christmas morning it started snowing and kept coming down all day and in to the next! I've lived in Alabama my entire life and never seen a white Christmas. What's crazy is that we've had snow at least once every year for the past 3 years - my kids are going to think snow in Alabama is normal when I can only remember 3 or 4 times we had snow when I was a kid. The boys went out and played for a bit but they aren't quite old enough to really appreciate it. The snow wouldn't stick enough to build a snow man so after that plan failed it wasn't long before they were complaining about the cold and ready to come inside and get warmed up with some hot coco :)
After we ate our cupcakes it was off to open up our presents. At first the boys were so sweet and wanted to open up and play with every gift they opened. James was funny because as he was opening his gifts he would tell John-Mark "it's about God" - I think he definitely got the point this year that Christmas is about Jesus :)
The boy's each got a "big" gift - a bike for James and train and train table for John-Mark. After they had opened up all their other gifts from us and my mom and Papa Steve I took them to brush their teeth while Jeremy set up the big gifts. They walked in and each walked straight to their gifts without any talking. I must admit I was expecting a bigger reaction but isn't that how it goes. The one that I got the biggest reaction from was sweet Gracie belle. My mom got her her own stuffed chair so she can sit with the boys and watch cartoons. She knew immediately what it was and was sooo excited!!

This is what "tickled pink" looks like in a picture:)

James enjoying his new Cars sleeping bag -

My mom made the boys these super cute Cars book bags - James loves to collect all his favorite toys and carry them around in bags or boxes so he was pretty excited to have this book bag!One of my favorite dollar tree finds were these shields and swords for the boys - next week we are going to have a little fun lesson on the full armor of God with these :)And after all that - next to her chair this was Gracie's favorite place to be - pulling all the paper out of the trash :)

My dad has been so excited to get the boys a trampoline this year. He brought it down a few weeks before Christmas. The boys were so excited about their new "bouncy thing" and wanted daddy to put it up ASAP. Unfortunately is was super cold and rainy for the next several days and Jeremy was super dad and put it up one cold and sleet filled day. The boys haven't been able to play a ton in it because of the cold weather but I am super excited about warmer weather and being able to send them out and let them jump until they are worn out!
Jeremy had the entire week between Christmas and New Years off which made all of us SUPER HAPPY!! WE love it when Daddy gets to stay home with us! A few days after Christmas we headed south to spend some time with Jeremy's mom and even made a quick trip to Cedar Key to visit Jeremy's dad's side of the family that we haven't seen since James was an itty bitty baby. More pics of our trip and our fun in the snow.
I can't believe another Christmas season has come and gone - and I can't believe my babies are 3, 2, and 1! We're about to start potty training John-Mark and Gracie is going to start walking any day now. For a time it seemed like we would be in pregnant, baby world forever and now it is quickly slipping away. I watched a family in Target the other day and there was a sweet boy about 9 years old laughing with his dad and I had a glimpse of a few years down the road. I told Jeremy "James is almost 7!" to which he corrected me that he was not - but he is - I know it will only be a blink of an eye, only a few more Christmas' will pass before they are 6,7, and 8. Oh, I'm rambling - how I love these babies!

James' new funny
-All of you that have spent any time with james know that he is a TALKER - talk, talk, talk and there's always something funny coming out of his mouth. My new favorite (which is starting to get old because he says it often) is when he doesn't get his way he will say "mommy, you just don't understand me" - ha! I think this started from me telling him I don't understand what he's saying so now when he doesn't get his way he just assumes that I must not understand because if I did surely I would let him do what he wants!
John-Mark's favorite thing to tell me when he gets in trouble for messing with his brother or sister is "I just playing mommy" with this big grin on his face like this makes everything ok.
Side note on John-Mark - about a week before Christmas we realized his tonsils were extremely swollen. We found out it wasn't strep - just a virus and needed to run it's course but he was pretty miserable. He has been a snorer since birth it seems and Jeremy has always been worried that he doesn't sleep really well because of it. Now we're pretty sure his enlarged tonsils are part of it. We are in the process of eliminating dairy from his diet to see if that helps any - then we may have to go the full gluten free diet - which is probably best for all of us but it overwhelms me to think about. But just say a little prayer that diet changes will help give him some relief.

Our Family Traditions

7 years ago when Jeremy and I married we made the decision that we wanted to be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning if at all possible. We also started our own little Christmas tradition of going to our church's Christmas Eve candle lighting service and then dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. 7 years later we've done it every year and this was the first year that we did it as a family of 5! My mom and Papa Steve joined us as well and we had a great night. All the kids loved the Hibachi and of course James talked our cooks ear off asking 1000 "why's" and John-Mark barely moved as he watched closely everything that was happening. Gracie was a trooper as well and just loves being with everybody!

James trying out the chop sticks -

After a fun night we came home and started a new tradition - my mom and Papa Steve gave the kids a recorded book of them reading the Christmas story - it was so sweet to watch them listen to it and realize who was telling the story. (Gracie was already down for the night but she'll love this next year too!)

We have a family tradition of celebrating everyone's birthday with cupcakes for breakfast. We've been talking for weeks about Jesus' birthday being Christmas and James has been ready to celebrate!! I know they don't fully get what we're talking about but it's a start. A few nights ago Jeremy stayed up late building a train table for the boys and left his tools laying out and the next morning when James got up and saw them he asked "what are you making for Jesus' birthday?"
So, this morning the first thing we did was sing Happy Birthday Jesus and enjoy some yummy cupcakes :) Having not grown up in a Christian home these are things that I am so excited about sharing with my babies and I pray they will be traditions that they cherish when they have children of their own one day.
After that it was time to open their presents - more pictures of that to come :)

Merry Christmas!

My heart is so full with love for my family and thankfulness for my Savior -
"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19

Cutie Pa-tootie!

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE having a little girl to dress!! So. much. fun! I think I take a picture of her everyday in each new outfit I dress her in. This winter her style is mostly jumpers and leggings which is soo stinkin' cute and keeps her warm. Since she's not walking yet I don't do a lot of long dresses because she just gets mad when she tries to crawl in them. Yesterday was a pretty chilly day and I remembered these blue jeans we have that are lined in fleece and thought they would be cute. For some reason I'm not really big on blue jeans for baby girl even though the boys where them 90% of the time - but guess what - they are just as adorable on her as her little jumpers and leggings!
She is giving me a huge grin here because she is so proud of herself - yesterday for the first time she started pushing toys and walking behind them!
How adorable is this sweet little pink sweater!?! She looks like a big ball of cotton candy!

My happy, happy girl!

Relaxin' in her brothers Elmo chair - check out that leg kicked up and her chair leaned back!

Today my baby girl is officially 13 months old! Yesterday she started drinking everything out of sippy cups and I was able to pack up all of the bottles in the house and get some cabinet space back! I realized that this is the first time in 3 1/2 years that we don't need bottles anymore! Kind of sad and happy all at the same time.
This is a picture of what goes on here most days- one of the kids gets an idea of something fun they want to do and then the others follow along. On this day John-Mark got his hands on my whisk when I was emptying the dishwasher (it is hanging in the front of the picture under the table) and started making "eggs" to which James joined in and got a big container to mix the eggs in - then they ended up under the table where Gracie followed along and here they all are - playing and entertaining each other - Love it!

Christmas time is here!!

So, as soon as we wrapped up Thanksgiving we started full ahead with Christmas! I even went to Wal-Mart at midnight on black friday to get James a bike! I have never participated in this whole black friday phenom but it wasn't too bad. While the babies were all napping I put up the Christmas tree. The boys were SO EXCITED when they woke up and we had our very own Christmas tree in our house! They have no idea that gifts come with Christmas - they are just loving all the lights and seeing Santa every where (aka Christmas as James refers to him or muffin man as John-Mark thinks - don't ask, I have no idea) James doesn't seem to realize that Christmas is the season but he thinks it's the person of Santa and he'll ask me "what is Christmas doing? Where is Christmas? and on and on - this is an improvement from last year when he thought Santa was Jesus :)
Every year I like to get the kids matching Christmas pj's. This year my mom made them for us and they are super cute!! What do you think:

I can never just show one pic - I think you need the full effect of how many pics it takes to get a good one :)

John-Mark wanted to take a break from picture taking to give his big brother a hug and kiss :)
This is why you should never teach your kids to say "CHEESE!"Also, with the holiday season comes the annual family Christmas photo for the Christmas cards. One of my dear friends Anne-Michelle came over and took them - she just does pictures for fun but I think she does an awesome job!! These are some of my favorites!

Gracie Bell is almost 13 months and I thought I would add a couple notes just about her. Jeremy thinks for sure she'll be walking with in the next two weeks - I'm not so sure but she is super proud of her new learned ability to stand up without holding on the anything. She gets up, gets her balance and then gives you the biggest grin and claps for herself, which usually causes her to loose her balance. One of my favorite things she does right now is take her baby dolls and hold them to her chest and pat them and say "ohhh, ohhhh" whenever we say "love the baby" - melt my heart baby girl!! She is a very smart girl and will bring you almost anything you ask her for - her baby, shoes, etc. Just this morning she pointed to her shoes and said "shooooze?"

This girl loves to swing!

Could life get any better? My 3 sweet babies clapping and singing about the Lord with Miss Patty Cake - we love her!