Christmas Ornaments and tree decorating.

I love Christmas! I love everything about it. I love the decorations, I love the music, I love the feel of Christmas. I love the real reason for Christmas, Jesus, and I love that we get to celebrate him.

I like to put decorations and the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and I take them down the weekend after new years. I would leave them year round if I could.

This year I had the girls make ornaments for the tree. We did the snowmen out of their hand prints. So 2011 but so what, we are a little behind. We also made reindeer ornaments out of their fingerprints but they didn't turn out so well. The girls got to tell me how they wanted their snowmen decorated. I am too much of a control freak to let them color all willy nilly on their precious hand prints. I may have a problem. :)

We started a tradition where the girls get to pick an ornament to put on the tree. I actually let them pick, the control freak may guide them just a little, and then I date them and put their names on them. We started this when Claire was 1 because we were in an apartment her first Christmas and we didn't even have a tree. We do not have a first Christmas ornament for her and it just seemed silly to buy one after the fact. Anyway, here are the ones the girls picked this year.

Claire

Quinn





Hobby Lobby ran their Christmas trees on sale for 50% off. I decided the girls were going to get their very own trees and they can decorate them however they want. They are cute little 3 foot trees and they have a stand and everything. The girls loved the idea. Claire did her tree in purple and Quinn did hers in pink. How stinking cute!!So they decorated their trees while their control freak mama decorated the family tree. Win, Win!!

 

 

Merry Christmas!



Claire is 4!

Goodness gracious I can not believe that my baby girl is 4. She is no longer a baby...she isn't even a toddler any more!! (enter tears here) Where has the time gone?

We were able to celebrate her birthday on her birthday, just the 4 of us. We had cake, opened presents , and went to Chuck E Cheese. We only played games then we were off to Mazzios to have real pizza. For her birthday she got Princess Yahtzee Jr. (a favorite game of us all), Tinker Toys (did you know they make them in pink? Claire loves to build things.) and a big girl bible with her name on it.

A little about Claire Bear. She loves to sing and perform. She makes up songs all the time and she loves to have us listen to them. Then she asks "Was that a good song?". She enjoys playing mommy and baby with Quinn and you guessed it she likes to be the mommy. She LOVES to draw or color. She is really good at drawing and painting. I wish I could save everything she makes but I get 4-5 drawings a day and there just isn't enough room. She is still a very picky eater. I was hoping this would have changed in the last year but instead it is the same if not worse. Now she tells me she isn't eating what I made even before it is on the table. Uggg! She occasionally will make decisions based on what she is wearing. If I ask what color sucker do you want, she will look down and see what she is wearing. If she is wearing blue then that is the color sucker she wants. Make sense to me, does it you? She loves her friends and she loves church. She knows what days we go and she looks forward with great anticipation. This makes me so happy and I will surely remind her of these times when I am dragging her to church when she is older. "remember when you would cry if you missed church?'.

 

Here are a few questions I asked her and her answers.

 

Favorite Color?- Pink and Purple

Favorite food?- Broccoli and noodles

Favorite drink?- Water and Chocolate milk

Favorite T.V. show? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Favorite Princess? Aurora and Rapunzel (her favorite colored princess because they are pink and purple)

Favorite song? Jingle Bells

Favorite person in the Bible? Jesus

Favorite Bible story? Moses

Coolest person you know? Rachel (I just knew she would say me.)

One wish? All my friends could come to my house again

When I grow up I want to be... Cupcake maker

 

Claire, I love you something fierce! You have changed my life and I am so blessed to be called your mama. I pray for you every night as I kiss you while you sleep. I pray you will accept the Lord as your Saviour first and foremost. I pray you will be a girl/woman of faith and strength. I pray you will light this world on fire for the Lord...girl, you can do it!! I pray I can be a loving, encouraging, and godly mama to you. I love you, Claire Bear! Happy Birthday!!

 

This picture cracks me up. This is will be Jared again in 12 years! Ack!!

 

 

 

Whoooo's having a Happy Birthday?

Claire and Quinn both share their birthdays with a cousin. Crazy how that happened. Anywho...Claire shares her birthday with Maddox (November 24th). Their cousin Grace's birthday is November 21st. So during our Thanksgiving with family we had a super party for all three girls. Since Maddox was the one with the most significant birthday (she was turning 1) then Autumn got to pick the theme for the party. I bet you can't guess. Ok fine, it was owls. So cute! Claire turned 4, Grace turned 3, and Maddox turned 1. How fun is it going to be watching these girls grow up and getting to celebrate their life every Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful for all 3 of them. Love them!

 

 

Happy Birthday!
Claire, Maddox, and Grace.

 



Dance Dance Dance

Claire had her first dance recital with Jenks Dance Academy. It was like a mini one. They only danced one song, tap. It was held outside at the Riverwalk. Thankfully it wasn't too cold. Claire did awesome!! She didn't seem nervous at all but I was nervous enough for her. I wasn't sure what she would do but I should have guessed that she would be great. She loves to sing in front of people so I'm not sure why I thought dancing would be any different. I was so proud and I realized I am for sure one of those mamas that cry when they are proud of their children. I already know that Claire will one day be embarrassed by her emotional mama. The big recital is in May. We have been measured for and ordered the costume. They will dance one ballet and one tap number. I am so excited!! So proud of my little ballerina.

 

Such a big girl!

With her friend Kaitlyn that also danced that night.



Operation Christmas Child

This is the second year that our MOPS moms have participated in Operation Christmas Child with Samaritan's Purse. Our church also participated as well. So Jared and I thought we could let our girls fill a shoebox for two special little girls that we don't even know. It was such a blessing to watch the girls pick out things for their boxes. They wanted to put way more than what would fit. Quinn kept saying "my girl needs this in her box" and "I want my girl to have candy.".Claire couldn't believe that there were children who were not going to get presents for Christmas. It was so wonderful to get to talk them about how much we need to be grateful for and how much God loves us and how much He loves those sweet children that will be so happy to receive their boxes. I am not sure how much the girls really realized what we were doing but I do know we are going to instill in them the importance of helping and loving others even if it is just a small shoebox. I am already looking forward to this new family tradition.

Ready to fill the boxes.

Claire's box.

She wanted to draw a picture and put it inside. It is a picture of a girl and she wrote her name on the top.

Quinn's box.

She needed to but a drawing in too.

Taking our boxes to church.
Lord, we pray for those sweet girls that received these boxes. We pray that they will see you and feel your love through these toys my girls picked out. I pray for your protection over their lives and I pray those girls accept you as their Lord and Saviour.



We love SamSam

Smiling

Samson is our Golden/mix puppy. Technically he is not a puppy, he will be 7 years old in April. The girls love him. Quinn a little more than Claire. Claire is still cautious and does not like that he smells her every time she goes outside. He weighs about 75 pounds so I can justify her cautiousness. I mean his head is almost as big as she is. Quinn will chase him around and bug him. He "loves" it! However, he does love the girls outside and he loves to, what I call, protect and watch over them. I know he was jealous when the first little human arrived but now he thinks of them as family. The girls call him SamSam instead if Samson and he doesn't mind one bit.

 

Watching over my girls.

You want a piece of me? Huh?

I'm Back!

Holy macaroni!!! It has been months since I have been on here. I would like to say it is not my fault. See...blogger told me I had used too much space and it wouldn't let me download pictures. What?!?! No pictures? Who do you think you are talking to. I can not write a post without at least one picture attached!! So I asked around to see what I needed to do and I got the answer. This is where it is now my fault. I got busy and didn't try and fix the problem and so now it is 3 months later and here I am. Three months behind and a ton of posts just waiting to be posted. Plus, I need to print out my blog into book form for the year. I think the problem has been resolved. We will see. I apologize to the few that follow me for your feed will be bombarded with pictures of my girls and family. It's a good thing we are a somewhat good looking family. ;)

Carpel tunnel...hello again! Here we go...

(I am breaking into a sweat because I am NOT posting a picture!)