Merry Christmas!!

a little bit of november and december...

we still haven't finished all of our Christmas celebrations..we are headed to my parents' this weekend. so i'll do Christmas posts next week once its all wrapped up.

 life is crazy, as always. so adding the holiday "hustle and bustle" only adds more to our life. if only the world would slow down to truly celebrate Christ this season...and i'm preaching to myself too! in november, i had a plan. this year, i was going to be done decorating and gift shopping by december 1 so that we could slow down and truly reflect on the gift of Christ for the entire month of december without the distractions of needing to buy gifts, etc..and not only did i utterly fail by having it done by december 1, but i was still shopping 3 days before Christmas. i only had a handful of gifts to buy this year, and i still couldn't get it all done before the week before christmas. did you know that its hard to take two children shopping, and its 10 times harder to take three??!! so my shopping trips were in quick spurts. and if i didn't already have a specific item to go buy, forget it. there is no "looking around, getting ideas, oh maybe they'd like this." its i came for "this" and i'm out of here before brooks needs to eat, brody needs to potty, carson wants to go to "chick a way" and before all three combined start fussing because i couldn't meet all those needs at that exact moment. so you see, life is crazy. but in a good, normal, mom of 3 boys kind of way.
so here's a little of our life over the last month...

 he's just cute 

 matt intricately placing the lights on the tree. this took 1 1/2 days.

 i adore my mantle and stockings. 

 Carson placing the star on the tree...

 Brody placing the star on the tree...

Matt correctly placing the star on the tree.

 Carson was ALL ABOUT decorating the tree...or should I say..decorating one branch.

 Watch the progression...

I think this one branch had about 10 ornaments once he was done with it.

 Brody liked decorating the back of the tree.

 Dre-Drea stopped by during the process

A couple of my fave ornaments....

Tis the Season {Part 2}

*This is a long post with lots of pictures. Just warning you.

We kicked off the season on Monday, November 29 by decorating the house. We invited 2 sweet girls from our Hope Group over to have dinner and help us. Unfortunately, Aselle was swamped with school so Beth came alone. We baked cookies that afternoon and she got to see my non baking skills. It was quite funny. And all I was doing was using a box mix and cookie cutters. Nothing too difficult here people.

We cooked dinner together, played with the kids and when Matt got home he unloaded the boxes from the attic. With Mariah Carey Christmas (duh!) playing on the ihome and White Christmas (my all time fave Christmas movie) in the dvd player, the house slowly transformed. It was fun watching the tree slowly go up and how excited the boys were. They were such helpers to Daddy and Carson even danced around the room he was so excited. We ended up getting a later start than planned so we only got to the lights that night. By the end of the night, we had stockings hung, winter dishes on the shelves and the others packed away, and the tree up with lights strung.  Oh, and the star on the tree bc that was Brody's special job before he went to bed.

Beth helping the boys hang their stockings.

 Carson getting ready to start his happy dance.

Carson mid happy dance. I wish you could see his face!

 The boys giving daddy a high five for putting up the tree.

 Trying to help.

Beth helping me unpack my winter dishes. I get so excited when these come out. And bc they are winter and not just Christmas dishes, I can use them through January :) 

One of my favorite parts of White Christmas. *Matt said to note that he did not watch this movie and had no part this shot being on the blog.

Carson enjoying the Nativity Scene. 

Brody was so proud of himself for putting the star on the top. He had been waiting all evening for this moment.

I finished decorating the tree the next day during naptime. I tried doing it with the boys but it just didn't work. Brody hung a couple but decided he would rather do other things. Carson just decided it was way more fun to take them all off and watch them crash down to the floor. We've already had a couple of casualties. 

 I think we need to rearrange our stocking colors.   

I got a lot of my ideas for this year's decorations and new traditions from Kirby's post last year. I decided to try to make the Christmas Family Photo Frames. Basically you deco podge frames with either wrapping paper or Christmas scrapbook paper and put family Christmas photos in them from each year. I couldn't find a picture of just Matt and I from our first Christmas. And our second I was big and pregnant and probably never took pictures. We did take one that was on our Christmas card from that year but I can't find it. So I decided to start with the first year we had kids. So I only created 2 this year. Each year I will make a new frame and add the previous year's Christmas photo. I am excited about this fun new element of our holiday decor! I will say though that this was not as easy as I thought it would be. I think I'm just not as good at this stuff as I thought I was or hope to be. But overall, I'm super happy with how they turned out. Beth was a great cheerleader and motivated me to keep going bc I was ready to throw them in the trash! 

Apparently the Apels have more influence on our holiday that I ever knew! A few years ago, they gave us this elf so we could start our own "move the elf game." I don't know what's it actually called but that's what we call it. You set the elf out at Christmas and its never mentioned. When you see it, you just move it to a new spot when no one is looking. It has to be in plain sight and in the living room. I forgot I had put it out on Carson's stocking and noticed this morning that it was in the fruit bowl on the bar. So I moved it here. And when Matt notices, it moves again. So if you come over, join in on the fun! 

Some activities we have planned for December:

Expedition Express to go look at Christmas Lights (again, copied from the Apels. Sorry, they just have really good ideas and children that are a year ahead of ours so they are a great resource! I can't wait to make some golden tickets!)

Watching Christmas Movies

Making Graham Cracker Houses (not a fan of gingerbread)

Making a Christmas Card Prayer Box..so send us a Christmas card so we can pray for you all through next year!

Baking gifts for our neighbors

Birthday Cake for Jesus (Brody talks about this one all the time and asks when we can make it!)

And a few other surprises that I don't want to spoil! 

We are very excited to start celebrating this Christmas season with our children. We love seeing how excited they get by seeing the tree, the stockings and talking about Jesus' birthday. Come celebrate with us all month long! We have lots of fun things planned and you are welcome to join us! 

Tis the Season {Part 1}

Everywhere you look on the web, blog posts are popping up about Christmas. Well-known bloggers as well as small time, stay at home moms like me, are blogging about Christmas decor and traditions. Its just that time of year. Everyone is getting excited to celebrate the coming season. Our houses are adorned with trees and wreaths and the stockings are hung.

But something else I've noticed as I read all these blogs and sites..and its only because they are all Christians....everyone is remembering the real reason we celebrate.

Jesus.

Its so easy to get caught up in the decorating and shopping. I'm not gonna lie, I absolutely LOVE IT! I love the feeling of my home with cinnamon candles burning, lights twinkling, and the Little People Nativity strewn across my living room floor. [We believe in a "hands on" approach to learning the story of Jesus' birth :) ]

But there's so much more to it than that. We want our children to know the TRUE meaning of Christmas. That God sent His one and only Son into the world. That He came to save us from our sins. He died on the cross and rose on the third day. That all the other things are just fun ways we use to celebrate Christ and that we want to incorporate Christ into all those things..from decorating to gift giving.

This is the first year that Brody actually understands all these things. So this year it was SUPER important to be sure to make sure the birth of Christ is at the forefront of our Christmas celebrations. So we found a few ways to have a daily reminder of why we are celebrating this month. We aren't doing an actual advent study so I found a few things to use to teach Brody this month.

Tools:
God Gave us Christmas Book
I stumbled across this book at Toys R Us on Black Friday and really love what it has to say.

Big Picture Story Bible
Brody loves reading this Bible in general, but he always goes to read about "Baby Jesus" all throughout the year.

Coloring Pages
The site looks weird at first, but if you scroll down, there are links to print coloring pages that tell the story of Christ's birth. They also include the corresponding scripture.

Today, being December 1, was the first day we started. We read the "God Gave us Christmas" book, and then read a few pages in his Bible to begin the story. I got my Bible and we talked about God's promise of a savior (Isaiah 7:14) and how the angel told Mary she would have a child. (Luke 1:26-38) Since his attention span is short and I want him to actually remember the story, we stopped there and colored a picture of Mary with the Angel. While we colored we talked about who Mary was and what the angel was telling her in the picture. It was so sweet hearing his little voice tell the story back to me.

Tomorrow (and the rest of the month) we will review the previous day's story and add on to it until we get through the entire birth of Christ. I have coloring pages for each major part of the story to really help him see it all. Today he absolutely loved the time we spent doing this so I'm looking forward to sharing this with him the rest of the month!

Santa:
We decided that we aren't doing Santa. We don't judge anyone that does or think that you are wrong for "doing Santa." And we aren't telling our children that Santa is bad. To them, Santa will just be another make believe character like Lightning McQueen and Buzz Lightyear.  When the little bear in "God Gave us Christmas" mentions Santa, his mother explains to him first of all that Christmas isn't about Santa, but also that Santa was originally known for generosity and care. That's supposedly who St. Nicholas was and if that's true, there's no problem in thinking that there used to be a really nice man who helped the poor and cared for the needy. But we all know that's not who the modern day Santa is. We just feel that Santa puts so much emphasis on receiving gifts. Yes, our children are getting gifts for Christmas. But we don't want that to be the focus. Christmas gifts aren't a reward for being "good little boys and girls" like the songs about santa say. Jesus was given to us without strings attached. He was God's gift to the world to save us from our sins. You should read these posts here and here if you are questioning the "Santa" thing yourself.

If you're worried we're going to ruin Christmas for your children, don't worry. Its not like we go around telling little kids that Santa isn't real. And Brody doesn't even understand who Santa is this year so he won't be ruining it for your kids in the preschool. He's been asked by sweet sales ladies if he's ready for Santa and he just nods, clueless to who this Santa person is. He has seen pictures in ads or out and about and he calls him Christmas Man. Which then sparks the perfect opportunity to talk about Christ and Christmas.

Coming up...Tis the Season {Part 2}...Pictures of our Christmas decor and stories of decorating our house with 2 small boys.

Oh Yes I Did...

turn this on today.

I'm all high tech now and have it in my itunes. No need to bust out the age old CDs. So while I'm cooking dinner for our church potluck tonight, I'm jamming to Mariah Carey Christmas. I post about this every single year. Because its my all time fave Christmas CD. The girl has some pipes. 

I know its only November. And don't worry, I'm not forgetting about Thanksgiving that is next week. But this time of year just gets me so excited about the coming season. The time to celebrate Christ's birth. I hope to have another post in the next few weeks about our Christmas crafts and traditions. 

But I just thought you all should know that I'm already listening to Mariah. In my mind, once Mariah is playing, its Christmas time!! 

Christmas Outbreak

We had fun plans for Christmas this year. Brent and Leigh Ann were going to be here all day Christmas Eve so Matt was off work. We planned to hang out, take family photos, and play games. We were going to be at Matt's parents' Christmas morning and then off to other family parties. Well, what was going to be a fun filled couple of days turned into the most memorable Christmas in history. On the Monday night before Christmas, Brody came down with a stomach virus. I woke up with it on Christmas eve morning so while I stayed home sick in the bed(and by the toilet), Matt took the boys on to his parents to start the celebrations without me. Because no one wanted me to be alone on Christmas eve, Matt came to get me later in the day once I was feeling a little better. Probably not the best idea...

Christmas Eve night the virus spread to Matt and his mom. So instead of getting up excited on Christmas morning, Dena and Matt had to stay in their beds. So instead of celebrating Christmas, Allen and Brent watched the kids while Leigh Ann and I prepared food for the other family Christmas gatherings that day. By Christmas night, the virus hit Brent and Leigh Ann. The next day we found out it hit a few more people. By the end of Christmas weekend, it had spread to over 20 people in the family. All by coming in contact with one of us who had already had it or had been exposed to it and the symptoms just hadn't showed up yet.  It was horrible. I have never seen something so contagious. So needless to say, if I ever get sick on Christmas eve again, I doubt anyone will care if I'm home alone.

We finally got to celebrate Christmas with Matt's family on New Years day. It turned out to be a great day. We spent the night at Matt's parents on NY Eve and got to hang out and play games. We woke up the next morning just as if it was Christmas morning and finally got to celebrate. And what was even better, we didn't have to rush off to other Christmas parties but instead got to just enjoy the time together. And you see no pictures here because I forgot my camera. I know, seriously, how does that happen?

This year was a real reminder that its not about presents and excitement and parties. While all those things are fun, its truly about the birth of our Savior. Christmas happened whether we were feeling up for it or not. Thank you Jesus for coming to save us. Thank you for being You even though we couldn't truly enjoy your birthday this year.

Christmas in Lumberton

The weekend before Christmas we packed up and headed to Lumberton to celebrate with my family. Although the visit started out a little rough, it ended up being a great one. When we got into town on Friday night, we met up with everyone for dinner at one of our favorite Mexican spots. I think it was the first time in a while that all of us...my parents, brother and his gf, sister and her husband, Matt and I, and the kids...all had dinner together. It was great! After dinner we headed back to my parents to have a pretend Christmas eve by playing the Wii and drinking hot chocolate. Chase and Shelley, my sis and her husband, stopped by their house on the way to pick up her dog so he could hang with us that night. After being there for only a short while, the dog escaped out the front door and ended up getting hit and killed right in front of Shelley and my parents while they were looking for him. It was tragic. Shelley took that dog everywhere with her. It was her baby. So the night was cut short as they went home immediately. And that put a damper on the evening for the rest of us so we didn't play many games.

However, the next morning was pretend Christmas morning and it turned out great. Shelley and Chase came back over early to enjoy breakfast and gifts. Brody hasn't quite grasped the concept of Christmas yet so everyone was waiting for him to get up since he decided to sleep in. The day then lead us to both sets of grandparents houses for lunch and dinner. We had a great weekend celebrating with everyone.

This was waiting for Brody boy.

Carson was up bright and early, excited about Christmas.

Brody finally decides to make his way into the living room.

And makes a b-line for the 4-wheeler.

He's already a pro.

Once he started finding his gifts he was ready.

And definitely got the hang of things quickly.

Uncle C brought his big 4-wheeler out to Nonnie's just so Brody could take his first ride. He LOVED it!

Macy, Logan and Brody. Quite a crew.

I just thought he looked cute here.

At Nana's, Brody mastered his ping pong skills. Look at his face!

Sorry there's not many pics of Carson. He pretty much slept the whole time and wasn't interested in opening gifts.