Christmas Eve 2010

On our way to the George's for a fun Christmas Eve

playing games

Looking at lights and having a LOT of excitement

cutie girls - Lucy and Karah

Lucy and Jason being silly

hugs

On our way home we drove around looking at Christmas lights.

snacking on some cookies before bed

Milk and cookies for Santa - we also threw our reindeer food out in the snow for Santa's reindeer.

We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Tu Tu Cute!

Lucy's latest birthday gift - a sweet tutu and ballet slippers from Aunt Mim, Uncle Dean, and Cousin Tallie. (oh and she says it's also from Mr. Craig!)

Christmas in Oakley

Oakley had a Christmas celebration this year - there were horse-drawn carriages, carolers, and movies all day at the 20th Century Theatre. We met some friends and ended up at Skyline for dinner. We had a nice walk to town, looking at all the Christmas lights.

Secret Santa

My Secret Santa this year really rocked it! It was so much fun to open up my gift this year.

• a headband and scarf from H&M
• an animal print tank (to make me sassy)
• a cowl neck shirt
• Trader Joe's peppermint green tea
• a v-neck sweater
• a book
• chocolates
• a bag full of goodies for Lucy

Callie you are a dear friend and a great secret santa! I'm so blessed to have you as a friend!

Shamokin Sleigh

Nana and Pappy came for an early Christmas visit. We had a wonderful time making cookies, sharing presents, going shopping and out to lunch, and looking at Christmas lights. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great visit!

decorating cookies

Opening a present with Pappy

Uncle Eric bought Lucy a puppy

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lucy Mae!

All dressed up for her big day. We had a Mommy-Daughter day - I took Lucy to the Bon Bonerie for lunch. We had such a fun time!
love her little purse?

She loves their PB&J

They gave Lucy a special treat for her birthday.

Licking a lollipop - her absolute favorite

Our GG (Megan) came over and brought Lucy a Bingo game. We had a fun night playing this game over and over!

Happy Birthday to our big girl!

More Snow!!

She is truly a winter baby! Lucy loves the snow - and it's hard to get her to come inside. Thanks to Uncle Willy and Bethany for the cutie hat and mittens!

The Birthday chaos continues....

Opening a present from Grandpa and Grandma!

Birthday Party Fun!

Lucy's snowflake party was this weekend, filled with fun friends and treats. We don't have many pictures to share - too much excitement and we forgot about the camera. But friends and family from afar can see the fun Lucy had for her day.

All I heard for 3 days was, "My snowflake cake! My snowflake cake!"

yummy party food!

just another "cake ball", Mommy??!

These 2 gals were picking away at the cake - the evidence is on their faces!

Where's Jesus?

Once we knew that Lucy was coming along - we really wanted to make sure that we led her to know what Christmas is really about. JESUS! So we've been focusing a lot the last 3 years on Jesus and making Christmas about others. As a personal choice, Matt and I don't exhange gifts for Christmas - and at times we are overwhelmed with what we have already. My friend, Megan, shared with me a few years back that while she was a nanny to a family, each child recieved the 3 gifts of Christmas and then one big gift for the family to enjoy. We really liked this idea, so we started this for Lucy. I'm making her think really hard about her 3 gifts! She really, really wants a fin. yup...a fin. In one of her cartoons that she watches, the girls turn into mermaids. So she really wants Santa to bring her a fin. I've researched on how to make a mermaid fin - but it's just not going to happen!

Ok so anyway - back to what Christmas is really about! We put up our Nativity scene (I'm trying not to be completely upset by the fact that all the figures are white with blonde hair). We left one missing piece.....baby Jesus. I read a story a few years back about how the parents would make a big deal about the Nativity scene and each morning during Advent they would ask their kids to go see if Jesus came yet. It became more of a big deal as each day the kids went looking for Jesus. To their surprise, Christmas day came and the kids didn't run to the tree to see what was under it for them....but ran to the Nativity to see if Jesus was there. (and He was!) I knew then that's what I wanted to do some day for my family. To show them that Jesus is our greatest gift.

Here is a picture of our so-not-politically-correct Nativity scene. (no Jesus yet!)

Here is the daily devotional we are doing with Lucy during Advent. It's so cute and comes with very short story from the Bible, a prayer (oh so sweet hearing her voice pray with me!), and an activity.

And, hey, just because she's so cute! This was on Dec. 1st - and it was snowing/flurrying. But sadly no flakes made it into the picture.

If you are interested in having a 'different' kind of Christmas for your family to enjoy - google some more ideas. It can be so easy as to making cards/cookies for neighbors, providing Christmas dinner for some people who are alone for the holiday, volunteering at a local food bank/shelter, donating to Toys for Tots or Operation Christmas Child.

Enjoy!!! this season that leads up to the birth of our Savior!

A Thankful Thanksgiving!!

We headed to Michigan again for our Thanksgiving break! Our week really flew by - I'm amazed that we are already home. It was filled with a lot of talking, a lot of game playing (esp. Cribbage for Matt and Dean), and a lot of food. Yum! I made Thanksgiving dinner for the fam with a little help from Tallie. I love doing this every year. We also had a chance to visit with some friends that we left behind a few months ago. We had lunch with some of Matt's coworkers and I had a girl's night! SO many things to be thankful for!! God's blessings are so amazing and He has made life so very sweet.

For some pics of our Thanksgiving time - go here. I'm the cook - my sister is the photographer. :) Loves her!

So now we switch our gears to the next holiday. I caved and put up our Christmas lights before Thanksgiving - we can't do anything Christmas before Thanksgiving - we love fall things way too much. But it was nice out - so I figured it was easier to do it then than freeze while doing it later. I started decorating the house today during Lucy's nap. This week we'll go pick out our Christmas tree. I can't wait for the fresh tree smell in the house. So much going on until Christmas - my mom and dad are coming for a week and we are planning Lucy's birthday also. Crazy that our sweet, little girl is going to be 3!

Oh - and now it's time to change the blog music to our Holiday Hoopla

Halloween 2010

Daddy took Lucy around the neighborhood for treats while Mommy gave out candy with the neighbors -all on our front porch! Lucy walked up to the houses saying, "Bzzzz!"

taking inventory the next day

Whew! I think I am all caught up on posts for now and may not visit blogger again for another month!

Big Girl!

Our girl is truly growing up! She officially moved into her big girl bed about a month ago - has transitioned to big girl undies and is refusing to sit in any type of booster or high chair. Here are a few pictures of Lucy's new bed and bedroom (still in progress).

I love that she is using my old bed from when I was a teenager.

Pumpkin Carving

We hosted a pumpkin carving party for our neighbors and friends - we had to do something with those great pumpkins from the farm!!

The Maxam's

The Ernst's

Funky Halloween food

Uncle Josh stopped by for a visit

Fall on the Farm

Farm fun and pumpkin picking with some fun friends!