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| We started out our Christmas season at the Deanna Rose light display with hot chocolate and donuts, of course! |
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| Ava was determined to get a bite of that Krispy Kreme donut! |
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| It was a perfectly mild evening to sit outside and enjoy the beginning of another Christmas season! |
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| We went on a Journey to Judea with our small group. This was definitely a highlight of our Christmas this year. It is an incredible, 45 minute walk with a reinactment of many of the events Scripture ..... from Genesis to the emtpy tomb! |
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| We put the Christmas tree in our office this year so we could shut the door and not worry about it tumbling to the ground! Ava reminds us A LOT of Isaac in that she is super busy, independent, and love to have her hands on everything. However, this Christmas we learned that she is different from her brother.... she is super 'handsy' as we call her but she's not destructive. We totally could have put the tree in our living room. Whenever I lost sight of her, I would quickly check the office and there she'd be with an ornament in her hand! :) |
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| I think the boys' Christmas highlight was probably decorating the gingerbread house. I'm always surprised each year that this is such a hit. It started out sweet, focused and very colorful..... |
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| Sidenote: Had to get a picture (not a very good one!) of Isaac's 4 staples in the side of his head! Apparently Isaac came up with the idea of playing football with Nerf guns. That is, using the Nerf gun as the football. Well...... that idea came back to bite him, or at least split his head open. Life with boys, never a dull moment. Thankfully Joe was home for this incident... I can handle blood but not when it involves my own children! |
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| ...and it quickly turned into a icing-in-the-mouth, gingerbread-pie-in-the-face kinds of project! |
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| There was some serious laughter and a whole lot of mess to clean up afterwards! |
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| Isaac's pre-K Christmas performance was absolutely, breathtakingly, super duper SWEET! Prior to his perforance when I asked him what his part was he said, "I'm part cow and part sheep!" Hmmmmm, I think he was a donkey and a migty cute one at that! |
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| Isaac with his two delightful teachers, Mrs. Kurz and Mrs. Ferguson. Seriously these ladies are two of the sweetest I've met! |
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| Photo op with my girl!!! Ava LOVES buttons and lights so all of the fun Hallmark pieces that Mimi has bought for us got tons of use this year! |
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| Joy joy loves music! Here she is clapping right along with the beat! |
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| When I look at this sweet face, all is right in the world! |
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| A favorite tradition has been to let the boys draw names and buy each other a gift to open on Christmas Eve! Ava needed a little help but I'm sure by next year she'll know just what to buy. |
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| Reason for the Season! We celebrated Jesus birthday first thing with candles in muffins |
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| Christmas Eve got a little too late so the kids exchanged gifts in the morning. |
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| Wyatt giving Isaac a thank you hug for the legos and candy canes that Ike picked out and bought for Wy guy. |
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| The best kind of gifts are definitely the homemande-with- love kind.... |
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| LOVE Wyatt's piece of art that we'll have for Christmases to come! |
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| This little guy is sulking becuase Sleeping Beauty hasn't given him his gift yet (a downfall to having Ava draw your name for a gift! She sleeps til 10am!). Waiting on a woman..... teaching him this principle at a young age! |
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| And Isaac gave us a homemade gift too! We were spoiled! |
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| Someone shared their bubble gum and Micah was happy again! |
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| Joe worked long and hard to having Ft. McCulley finished by Christmas morning--even painting it red on Christmas Eve. Is that a dedicated Daddy, or what? So we let the boys open their stocking upstairs and then sent them on a hunt for the rest of their gifts which were waiting for them in the 'fortress' as Isaac calls it! :) I think they had a little clue as to what where the special hiding place was. Even though the project was covered up by a toy shelf the entire time, they heard Joe hammering away when they would sneak out of their beds at night! We still need a curtain and a Ft. McCulley sign but it is otherwise complete, with a dimmer switch light and all. Let the adventures begin.... |
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| What was inside the Ft? Mostly Nerf guns! |
