yes, it has been a little while. My mom reminded me tonight that I haven't blogged in awhile. Well, to be honest, November and December did me in! And, I am just now finally recovering and feeling like maybe I'm getting caught up (i'm afraid to type that!) What have we been doing?
Well, we traveled a 12-ish hour trip to Virginia to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family...we spent time with cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course Grandma and Roger Dean!
While we were there, we baked and frosted Christmas cookies...
We rode Uncle Matt's motorcycle...
We celebrated Christmas together, too, since we weren't able to return for Christmas. We even shared each others' germs, the week was full of germs - 15 out of 17 of us got sick over the week of and following Thanksgiving! That was not fun, but we were done with it by Christmas, so I guess that was a plus!
Then, we came home and decorated our tree and house for Christmas. Since we moved the week after Christmas last year, this was our first year to decorate with the kids when they will remember. I had great ideas about how much my kids would enjoy decorating the tree, when in all reality, they hung several ornaments and went back to playing...
After we got over our flu bug, we were busy with lots of extra activities to celebrate Christmas. Stanley was invited to fun day with his friends. They loved a scavenger hunt, making "snow", and just being boys!
Even 2 baby sisters got to join in the fun! Thanks boys for letting your sisters "tag along!" Clara was invited to a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party and she loved celebrating with her friends!
We started preparing the kids for our Disney trip over Christmas early on in December...we did a lot of coloring in this BIG Mickey and Minnie coloring book...
To start preparing for celebrating the true meaning of Jesus, we got this Little People Nativity set...the kids loved playing with the set all month long. They played with it until the day we packed it away for the year.
We had a special dedication service for Miss Clara with our small group. It was a special night celebrating Clara's life and dedicating her to the Lord with the support of our small group!
Our small group gave Clara a little New Testament Bible for her dedication - how special!
Our small group kiddos...what an energetic, beautiful bunch!!
As life has it, the same night we dedicated Clara, another couple in our group who are foster parents were sending off one of their little guys, it was an emotional night. This picture was taken during the prayer of sending, I'm not sure there was a dry eye!
We enjoyed the Christmas lights at Ballard Park, of course, the kids loved the train the best!!
I had to add this one, you can hardly see us, but we put the timer on and somehow it timed perfectly and took our picture right when all the lights of the tree lit up!
Something new we tried this year was to read an advent devotional every evening (or as many as we were able!) and decorate our own little advent tree. Most nights, it felt like an "epic fail" trying to get the kids to listen or sit still, but even if they don't remember the stories or the meaning in full, they loved the routine. They were always excited to put the new ornament on their advent tree and then hold hands to pray. Even Clara held her hands out to pray by the end of the month! Stanley did most of the praying!
We enjoyed a family day away in Birmingham at the McWane Science Center. The kids loved to play with the huge bubble makers...
Playing in the "snow"....
Watching the trains...
Watching the IMAX movie Rocky Mountain Express...even though there was some historical story telling about how the railroad was built, the kids loved the movie and loved hearing and seeing the trains all around them. Sweet Clara fell asleep in Daddy's arms (so precious!!)
And, then there's the "chronic" Mommy-has-to-take-pictures-by-the-Christmas-tree photo shoot when they are all dressed up for church...here's some of those shots, surprisingly they were troopers for the first few minutes of the photo shoots! :)
Making hot chocolate mix for his teachers at school, he loves to help!
Christmas craft day at school with mama and pajama day! It was fun to see him in his preschool environment...when I walked in they were sitting in their circle time and Stanley proceeded to introduce each of his friends by name. He's getting so big!
So this blog post might be getting too long, I will close this one for now, more to come! I may just try to finish tonight since I seem to be on a roll! :)
As always..
Thanks for stopping,
Kendra
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