Twas the night before Christmas....

*UPDATED*






and all through the house, not a creature was stirring....except maybe a four year old!

Merry Christmas - hopefully we are all snuggled in our beds and sound asleep soon!

Merry Christmas

For unto you, in the city of David is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord!



Note: Matthew made a face because he just KNEW I was going to digitally add a cartoon image of a Santa hat on his head.

Making Gingerbread Cookies

Morgan had her FIRST official sleepover this week. As part of the fun, we made gingerbread bears! These will be a tasty treat for Santa!

Colorado Pics

We just spent a few days in Colorado playing in the snow, looking at Christmas lights, playing at the Children's Museum - and overall having a great time. A few pics are below:

Happy Thanksmas!

Because we have family in multiple parts of the country, we spread the Christmas Season throughout the month of December. We just got back from 'Thanksmas' in Colorado. We had a great time (see the video below - especially the last 30 seconds!).



Mama, Papa, and Mimi - Thanks for the visit - we love you!

Fall Pics

I figure I better share the fall pics as I already have winter pics and Christmas pics piling up!!

Happy 5th Birthday...

to our first nephew, Jackson!!

'Tis the Season

Merry Christmas

Morgan wants to be a chicken...

Morgan wants to be a chicken...Morgan wants to be a duck....

Playing in the bird nest at the zoo

QUACK QUACK QUACK!! (hopefully now you won't have this song in your head the rest of the day! If you do, you may want to keep the butt shake to yourself)
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32

I turned 32 last week - at least I can say I will always be younger than my husband! To celebrate, we went to the zoo with the kids and family on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time. My husband and mom spoiled me with flowers, but my real gifts are my family and friends.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!

Pics from the zoo coming soon....


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Happy Fall

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Fall is here

We finally have put the shorts away and filled our drawers with pants and sweaters

We even were able to break out our new favorite jackets from Amma

Plus, the kids look adorable in them!

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Family

Isn't it great to have our cousins nearby?

Otherwise, how could our moms make us sit in silly poses to take pictures when we rather be playing at the park!

Maybe some day we will understand?

But until then, I bet our moms will keep making us take pictures when we rather be playing!

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Fearless

Hmmmm....should I walk down the slide?

Yes, I think I will!

Weeeee...that was fun!

I think I will do it again!

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Our own little monster mash!

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Creativity

All this painting makes a boy hungry for a nutella (yummy treat!) sandwich. Although, he probably has more on his face than in his tummy. Seriously, where has this stuff been my whole life? Is this stuff new or did my parents deprive me of this growing up???
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In case you live under a rock...

It has rained here...a lot. However, things have dried out.

Thankfully, there is a lot less of THIS going on...

Thanks to everyone who has called or emailed to check on us - we are fine and dry!

Sadness

I guess sad things happen in our lives to remind us not to take things for granted. Unfortunately, we were reminded of this today. A mother of Morgan's classmate was killed in the floods earlier this week. It was just a few short weeks ago that Morgan's classmate, her brother, and her mother celebrated Morgan's birthday with us. It is with tears in my eyes and sadness in my heart that I write this. We pray for her classmate and family during this very difficult time in their lives. We ask that you do the same. Thank you all.

http://www.ajc.com/news/lawrenceville-mother-pleads-for-144738.html

If anyone knows what we can do to help this family, please let us know.

Compassion

Special greetings and thanks to you from your child Olupot. He says, that he is doing great at school. He says that last month he welcomed gifts that you sent to him. He says, that he was able to buy 3 turkeys. He says, that by Christmas time those turkeys shall have grown so big that he will sell it and buy a cow so that he is able to get milk out. He says, that the weather is not good and that there is drought and likely to be famine. He is requesting you to pray that the lord provides them with rain.

This is our child Olupot from Uganda. We received this letter today but it was written in April. We ask that you pray for him and his family.

We encourage you to sponsor a child in need. Brian used his birthday money to sponsor Olupot - We have had him for a year and a half now. This year for Brian's birthday, my parents sponsored Aziza from Tanzania. For more information, go to Compassion International (click here). We would love for our Compassion Family to grow!

Morgan's First Soccer Game

Today Morgan had her first soccer game. And by first, I mean first time ever playing soccer. And I use the term 'playing' lightly.

Because the weather has done nothing since rain since Tuesday, the outdoor fields were drenched. Thankfully, instead of canceling the games, we were able to move the first practice game indoors!

Game time prayer

Morgan made 6 goals before the game started

Let's go!

Below is a video of the 'game' - another term I use lightly. The girls really didn't know what to think at first-and none of the girls on our team seem to be any bit of competitive. Thankfully, when she played with the boys later on in the game, she stepped it up and started getting into it (a little bit anyway!). We look forward to the rest of the season - and a little more action!

The real family photos

I find it interesting that you never see 'real' family photos. The family photos that you always see are the 'perfect, happy, everybody is looking at the camera' type photos. Our photographer sent us her favorites, which are here. I received the full CD of portraits today. Well, if you are wondering what a typical day for us includes, just look at the photos below. These better capture 'who we are' than the perfect ones. I thought they were worth sharing!

*no babies were dropped or harmed in these photos

Family Photos

Last week we had family photos taken by a friend of a friend while we were in Colorado (Thanks Jaime). We try to do this at least once a year or so - especially when my Grandma is in town (four generations!). Because we were in an open space, near a park, Matthew had his mind set on looking for puppies. He missed many shots - the ones you do see him in, he had a mouth full of gummy bears as a bribe. Thankfully, we did get some nice momentos....

Some of our favorite pics are below: