Joyful Days

I have lots to catch up on.... Early December our church did their annual children's play. My kids got to be part of the angel/manger scene at the end. Grayer was a very stoic shephard as you can see! He loosened up on the last song and did the moves. Sophia was an angel (on the right). Her small size still gets me every time. She's so petite. We are blessed to be part of a wonderful church home with good leadership.

Grayer is coming along in his fine motor skills (which makes this OT mama happy!). He is tracing letters on this placemat. Letter formation may not have been correct, but he did every one of them and even held his marker with a decent grasp! Go Grayer!!

Our little family had a lot of fun this year with our elf, Red Eddie. The kids named him when he came to us the day after Thanksgiving. We did Elf on the Shelf this year and learned that our elf is very mischeivous. He did something new and silly every night and the kids got a kick out of finding him in the morning. Some of his shenanigans included:

-Making donuts out of cheerios and sprinkles

-hanging up the kids' undies all over the tree

-printing out their picture and drawing silly faces on it

-riding Grayer's frog like a bull with a leash

-making snow angels in rice and beans on the countertop

-swinging from a rope off the ceiling fan

-tea time with stuffed animals

-reading Cooking Light

We will definitely be seeing Eddie again next year when he decides to come visit us again. Until then, he's safely at the North Pole:)

Sophia's class had their Christmas party that I went and helped with. This was her sitting arrangment last semester, with Joshua and Elyse.

With two of her best pals- Ashley and Destiny

We had some CRAZY snow here on Christmas Eve! It snowed 14 inches, which is not common at all for us. We took advantage and made a gigantic snowman and did snow angels!

Sinking in the snow it was so deep

Christmas morning! Santa brought a pop up tent, suitcases for each of them, a keyboard for Sophia and a laptop toy for Grayer

Got to spend some time with Aedan before they left for Thailand to join my cousin, Trent. We will miss them but know they have a purpose and a great journey ahead of them!

I downloaded a new app on my phone that lets me edit photos to make them look vintage or black and white! I really love how they turn out!

Reese and Grayer at the park one day; we have loved having our Wednesdays spent with Nicole and her sweet girls. It's sort of becoming our routine (at least every other week).

We went to Kaleidoscoops after school last week and had fun taking pictures of each other. Sophia told me she likes to wear her headband like this because then it looks like a tiara! I love her sweet smile in the picture of me and her together.

We stopped at Runyan Ranches last weekend on our way home from a weekend trip to Alamogordo and fed the goats and alpacas and fish. Those animals are C-razy!!! They tried to eat the plastic ziploc bag we had food in! This goat in the picture with Grayer was pawing at Sean's leg like a dog. Hilarious!

Got to spend some time with the Stewarts in Alamogordo! We love our sweet friends and wish we could see them more often. Even though we are apart by distance, old friends are the best friends. Our kids had a blast together. Grayer was pumped to have a boy to play with:)

White sands was beautiful although the sand was packed and COLD! We caught some serious air during our sledding adventures. Sean hurt his tailbone (no surprise since he was flying down the hill) and we all face planted at least once at the bottom. Was a great time.

Love love this picture of Dathan and Kacy with my kids! Life is good and God is faithful! We are blessed as we begin 2012.