Merry Christmas!

"And on the very first Christmas Day, God said to you, 'I love you more than anything in this universe!' " ~ From Ytreeide's Advent Storybook, "Jotham's Journey"

Winter Storm

K trying to get down from the front porch.

We are estimating we got around 20 inches at our house.

T wanted to see how deep the snow was. He used his arms to measure it.

L climbing up one of the big drifts.

The children finally made their way around to the back yard.

The children love the snow and spent a lot of time out in it today. I guarantee they will be out in it tomorrow too!

Christmas Packages

Thanks to Mrs. Jimmie Ruth, Lauren LOVES her gummies. Whenever a package in the mail arrives from our sweet friend in Arkansas, she knows there will be gummies inside!

Thanks Mrs. Jimmie Ruth! We love you!

Christmas Tree Decorating

Once all the snow melted and the tree was dry, we began to decorate.

The children each get a new ornament every year, and they also make homemade ones too. Each year I love to hear them pull them out and reminisce and ask us questions about when they got certain ones, or how old they were when they made the ornaments. One day when they are grown and have homes of their own, they will get to take all their ornaments with them.

Dad and I picked up a cute Christmas ornament while we were in New York City last week. I like it!

T, K, and L enjoy decorating the tree, and we were done in no time!

Christmas Tree Cutting

The beautiful snowfall we had yesterday created a beautiful opportunity for us to go to a local tree farm, choose and cut down our own Christmas tree.

The children sat on the hay bales and waited for the tractor and wagon to come pick us up and take us to the field where we could find a beautiful Douglas-Fir.

L's favorite part of the day was not getting the tree, but riding on the wagon.

We hopped off the wagon, and within minutes we found the tree we wanted.

Dad cut and cut and cut while K held back the branches. He almost gave up, but K cheered him on. He wanted to stop mid-way through (not really) but K told him, "You've already started cutting down this tree, you have to finish."

Mom and the kids posing by the tree after we all yelled, "Timber!"

K pulled the wagon the whole way to the van.

But she wasn't any help when it came time to tie the tree down to the top of our van.

The Boy in the Kitchen

T helped me out in the kitchen during our Saturday homemade pizza night. He told me he thought a bacon pepperoni pizza would be good, so I let him make it.

First Snow of the Season

The children enjoyed getting out and playing in the snow today! We just returned home with them around 1am this morning. It was a special treat for them to be welcomed back to a winter wonderland at their home.

T said the only thing that could make this day MORE perfect is if it was Christmas Day so he could open the presents that Grandma sent home with us! But, the beautifully wrapped packages will stay under the tree until Christmas morning (much to his dismay).

Thanksgiving 09

We loaded up the minivan and visited our families in Missouri for a few days. The drive from our home to Southwest Missouri is 17 hours. When Dad is behind the wheel you stop for two reasons: to get gas and to go to the bathroom. Seriously, he doesn't want to waste prime driving time for dilly dallying around restaurants and convenient stores! Our first day of driving we spent 11 hours in the car, and ate packed lunches and snacks in the car. Once we got to the hotel, the children enjoyed playing in the pool while Dad picked up a pizza for us. The second day of driving was only around 6 hours, and this day of driving seemed like nothing to the kids!

As I type this the children are actually still in Missouri. We will meet Grandma tomorrow at a certain location along I-70 to get them back. Grandma volunteered to watch them for a few days because Dad surprised me (Mom) with a day trip to New York City for our 10th wedding anniversary. Plus, Grandma had not had the children since July 2008. The children enjoy spending time with her because she has a fun yard to play in with trees and tree stumps to climb on, a dog, some cats (one cat that used to be ours), and some horses. On the return trip back home, since it was just Heath and I, we drove straight through.

Time with Mommy's Family

Time with Daddy's Family

Here's one picture from our NYC Trip

Our Thanksgiving trip is over, our trip to New York city is over, and we go pick up the kids tomorrow. So, it's "back to life, back to reality" come Sunday morning. When the children return home we will do the basics in school (reading, writing, and math) everyday. Along with our school work, we will start our Advent traditions, decorating, and baking!