Christmas 2018

Christmas this year was super low-key and quiet. Nana and Papa were in PA with the de Wolfe Family and the Hein Christmas was scheduled for the 30th. And when I say "quiet," I mean intimate and amazing. We had a really wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent prepping homemade cinnamon rolls and stuffed turkey and sides for the following day. We went to the early candlelight church service, came home and ate a simple dinner, laid out cookies for Santa, read Christmas books and the bible and went to bed early. It was great!

Kids bible story on stage (flashlights too)

LOVE these sweet babies!!!

Aaron and I tapped and began painting the hideous trim in our dining room once the kids were in bed.  It was one of those crazy times when you just do stuff because you have the time.

Santa came in the wee hours of the night and delivered lots of awesome presents!

There was even a special gift for a very special daddy!

Everyone woke the next morning refreshed and full of joy! We began by reading the bible about Jesus birth and thanking God for sending his son to Earth to live with us and ultimately allowing us to be able to have a relationship with Him by his death.

Then, the kids got to go through their Santa gifts and stockings. Morgan and Cayleigh both got a Wellie Wisher doll, Zachary got a Paw Patrol station and Brooklyn got a mommy and baby Orca Whales.

Aaron got a basketball signed by Dirk Nowitzki!!!

Aaron got a basketball signed by Dirk Nowitzki!! And we went one after another opening up gifts from each other and Nana and Papa and others. It was so much fun and memorable to see each ones reaction to the wonderful things they got! What a blessing it was! 

The remainder of the day was spent playing with all the new toys, games, gadgets and so forth that we got. It was a great Christmas!

We celebrated with the Hein family the following weekend and that was just as fun! Great food brought by everyone, lots of laughs, fun games and more gift stealing during our Chinese Gift Exchange! The kids had their our Chinese Gift Exchange and they loved it! It was so fun watching them do something new this year!

I don't say it enough, but I am so thankful for family and how truly fortunate we are to be surrounded by lots of love. We are fortunate to have lots of gifts to open on Christmas and even more fortunate to have a relationship with Christ.

A Very Merry Christmas 2018!

Morgan's 5th Birthday!

I can't believe Morgan is 5 and will be starting kindergarten before we blink! This spunky and sweet girl is the most helpful and loving sister/momma to her brother. She requested a Chuck-E-Cheese date for her birthday, so Nana drove up and hung out with us during the day and into the fun-filled evening of games, pizza, tickets and cookie cake! We had a wonderful time celebrating our youngest princess. She sure has grown up so much this past year and we love her silly personality.

Happy 5th Birthday, Morgan Alese!!

Morgan also had her well visit during her birthday week and is doing fabulous! She weighs 40.4lb (56th percentile) and is 43.75in tall (76th percentile). Her blood pressure was 102/69. Praise the Lord for her healthy check-up!

Girls Christmas Performances

Brooklyn had a holiday bell choir performance at her school where they did a few songs and accompanied the choir on a few songs. Nana and Papa came up that night to see her and they did a great job.

Our children's choir at our church sang a couple songs and accompanied the adult choir during A Sacred Christmas night. Papa was able to come see the big girls sing.

During practice, the girls happen to be standing close to one another, but that wasn't the case once the came back in later to perform. 

So thankful that Papa could come and worship with us with songs of the season. It was a great night!

Morgan had a visitor time at her preschool and Nana was able to come and be her guest. They did a craft, made a snack and got to look at her work posted around the class. She loved every minute of her time with Nana!

And our littlest miss was chosen for a speaking part in her preschool Christmas Program! She nailed it!! With a new Music and Spanish teacher this year, we got to hear some different songs than when Brooklyn and Cayleigh did theirs. The kids were so adorable and it was a fabulous program!

She was the very first speaking part of all the kids. I was proud of how brave she was. It warmed my heart tremendously watching these sweet babies singing praises to the Lord!