Traditions

Since we'll be traveling to the Iowa tundra for Christmas (they are currently under a blizzard warning! Snow, here we come!!) we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve and Day as a family of four before we head home to be with family.  We have established some traditions that I love with our little family and we wanted to be sure we got to do them this year.

Last night we let the girls open one gift (I'm wondering when they will figure out that every Christmas Eve they open one gift and every year it's a pair of matching jammies) before we headed out on our jammie ride to look at Christmas lights.

Grammy and Babu called us on FaceTime right before we started opening gifts so we let them watch some of the fun!

Jammies!

Emma got some too!

 This morning after making some coffee and pumpkin bread, Justin read the Christmas story. We have been reading a small section from the story each night after dinner so it was fun to read it all together this morning.

 

Then it was time for the girls to open their stockings and the gifts we got them.

We told them there was one more surprise in the playroom...

They were super excited about the chalkboard/white board easel.

Of course Emma had to include her babies in the fun.

Thankful for these sweet gifts from God and that we have the privilege of being their parents.

More Advent Fun

We've been loving this advent season and have been having fun celebrating this season of anticipation as a family.

Here is some photo evidence of the fun...

For one the of the girls' gifts this year we decided to let them each pick out a gift from the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog to order for someone in need.  One of the verses Claire recently memorized was from Romans 12:13, which says 'Share with God's people who are in need.'  It was really fun for us all to put that into practice as a family.



It was fun looking through the catalog together.  Claire chose to get baby chicks and Emma picked out blankets.




We also made a gingerbread house.  Can you believe this is the first time that both me and Justin have ever done this??  Our sweet friends gave this kit to us so it was pretty easy to put together.  The girls loved it!







The finished project!

Work it, girl

We had fun watching Claire in action at her gymnastics class last week.  She just finished a six week session of classes and they let the parents come and watch for the last class.  Sorry for the blurry pics!  They were taken with our phones and from a distance so the quality isn't the best... but you can still get a feel for her performing cuteness.  ;)

Read it

If you are in search of a good book to read, will you please read Anything by Jennie Allen?? Oh.my.word.  It's like I'm having my own little come-to-Jesus counseling sessions on my living room couch every day during nap time.  This book is challenging yet easy to relate to. I feel like there are entire chapters where Jennie stole my life story and put it into words I was never able to form on my own.

I'm almost done with it and I have a feeling I'll just start reading it again as soon as I finish. ;)  There are nights Justin comes home from work and I blubber through reading entire chapters of it aloud to him. I take a screen shot of almost every page of the book because I want to remember that page.  It's that good.

One of my favorite lines from the book... (well, one of about 100 favorite lines from the book)..

"Something about Jesus changes everything - shatters what we thought we were going to do with our lives.  If God is real, there is no medium."

That line gives me chills, makes me cry, and freak out.. all at once!  Okay now, go read it!

More TN pics

My sis-in-law is a fabulous photographer and she sent me some of her pictures from our week in TN.  They are waaay better than mine... here are a few!  If you live in Chi-town, you really should hire her!  ;)

Love this one.

Grammy & Babu with all of their grandchildren

More dance party action!

Love this one of Justin & Emma!

The whole group!

Break from hiking to do a little 'gangnam style!'

Healing

So, good news on the Shoe front.  Yesterday Claire had a cardiology appointment which included an EKG, an echo cardiogram, and a general check up.  She has been followed with a cardiologist since we found out when she was five days old that she had a heart defect.

After a complete exam yesterday, we found out that Claire's vsd and asd have completely closed!  Jesus chose to heal her heart, close the holes, and we never need to see a cardiologist again.  After re-reading that blog post Justin wrote (linked above) the day we found out about her heart defects, I sit here in tears, rejoicing that after all the challenges we faced in the first months of Claire's life, she is a perfectly healthy four-year-old!  Thank you, Jesus! 

Advent season

We are officially decorated for Christmas and celebrating advent in this house!

It was fun this year to have a mantel to decorate!  Even Sadie gets a tiny little stocking.  ;)

Emma thinks the tree is the perfect spot for her babies to nap.  I find this scene almost everyday around here.

 

A couple of years ago I found this rockin' pink tree at a garage sale for $1 (remember that, Linds??).  The girls love putting all of their special ornaments on it and having it in their bedroom.

I found a really great advent calendar that we've started using each night to prepare our hearts for Christmas.  It has 24 small books in it that tell the story of Jesus, from prophecy in the Old Testament to the telling of His birth in the gospels.  Each night we read one book together, discuss it, and then hang it on our little tree. (I'm reusing the thankful tree we made for Thanksgiving.. perfect!) So far we have read about the holy land and the prophecy.  Tonight we read about Mary.

On Saturday we went to an awesome event at a church near us called 'An Evening in Bethlehem.' We arrived for the census and had to pay our taxes to the Romans. For the first part of the night, we could make our way through the marketplace where they had several activities and booths set up for the kids to explore.  They even had a real camel, donkeys, and sheep to pet. 

 

Everyone was dressed in costume and stayed in character.  It was really fun! 

 

Emma was all about participating in everything.  Claire was too concerned about baby Jesus to get involved.  She kept asking where the baby was and when we would see him.

Emma had her feet washed before joining this Jewish family for some juice.

At the end of the night, they put on a little skit acting out the nativity story.  Claire loved that part! Her face lit up and she gasped and covered her mouth when she saw Mary and Joseph making their way to the stable and baby Jesus.  It was a really fun way to start off the advent season.