Last of 2012

It's January 1st! I was hoping to post one last time in 2012 but it didn't happen. So here's to a new year full of blessings and good things! I know we have so much to be grateful for and look forward to this year.......moving into our new house, leading the Girls' Journey in July, a trip to Kauai, and lots more. I'm hoping this year to actually print out the blog since I've been doing it for almost 7 years now, so that I have a hard copy of all these memories. Now onto the pictures....

Late November we made salt dough ornaments for our Christmas tree. The kids had fun doing it. I tried hard not to let my artistic OCD get in the way and perfect every ornament they painted. It was hard!

The end products. This year I loved our tree. It was full of old ornaments, new ones, and a lot of handmade ornaments that the kids or I had painted.

Spending time outside on our little cul-de-sac at our rental. This has been the best area for the kids to safely play and ride their bikes in. Grayer has mastered riding his bike with no training wheels. He's kinda crazy actually. A little bit scary, but as long as he has his helmet on I let him go for it. Sophia took the dogs for a nice long walk this day.....up and down our short street! Ha!

Grayer and his best buddy, Charise, hamming it up for the camera with their candy canes hanging out of their mouths. They have the best time together.

Red Eddie made his comeback this year. We love our little elf. With him this year came a letter from Santa to our kids and Santa's favorite book about Christmas. He let them in on a little secret this year......there's no naughty and nice list! It's all about grace and forgiveness and second chances. He asked them to help teach Eddie about God's love. We had a great month with our little Elf until he went back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve.

Made a short trip to Ruidoso the first weekend of December and stayed with the Stewarts at their cabin. The kids had the BEST time just playing outside in the woods, building forts and swinging from trees. We met up with 3 other couples that are our friends and went through the Journey to Bethlehem and then saw the Ruidoso Light Parade. It was a great weekend with friends. This is our kids with Dathan and Kacy.

Sophia and Dathan swinging in the trees!

 Here's most of the kids......minus Brenna, Noah and Adah.

I had made chicken noodle soup to take to Ruidoso and had leftovers that wouldn't fit into freezer bags. The dogs happily helped me out with that one! Had to put their ears back into their collars to keep them from getting wet in the bowl.

I love love love this picture! One night after the kids went to bed Sean and I were watching TV. I picked up Zoe (a feat in itself) and put her on my lap. She was OUT in about 2 minutes, breathing out of her mouth and everything. She stayed like this for an hour or so until I couldn't feel my legs and made her get down.

I had 2 other little elves help me decorate the tree this year! I went crazy and clipped all 1000 lights off of our tree by hand with wire cutters after about 1/2 of them kept going out. At least now we have a tree we can use for a long time and just string our own lights.

Gotta love Grayer's choice of clothing for the night......boxer briefs and an elf hat!

Sean and I went to Houston mid December for a wedding he was in. His best friend from childhood finally got married! Got a quick picture of us with him in his tux.

We got back into Carlsbad Saturday night to have our kids' Christmas program at church the next morning! Grayer was a newsboy and then he was Joseph in the manger scene. Sophia had her first singing solo as an Egyptian princess with Joni Moyers. They did awesome! It's such a joy to see your own children involved in church and doing things for Christ.

Just playing around with instagram!

Sophia's class had their Christmas party and did a little gift exchange. She was pumped about this makeup kit.

Had our annual Christmas sugar cookie decorating with all of our bible study friends/kids. Every year I think the decorating time gets shorter and shorter. They lasted about 15 minutes then wanted to go outside to play. And apparently Greg and Delaina's dog, Marley, ended up eating all the cookies off the counter later that day! So funny!

Christmas morning was pretty low key at our house! This was the first year ever Sophia woke up on her own. We still had to wake up Grayer for all the excitement. Santa brought a disco ball light they had been begging for and each a Kindle Fire. The progression of the next 3 pictures is priceless. Sophia is checking out what she got, we turned it on and she saw the words "kindle fire" and her look of shock, and then her huge smile at how excited she was.

Grayer with his Bubba at mom and dad's

 Sophia and Sissy

Enjoying breakfast during Dad's time off of work. We love this time of year because Sean gets about 2 weeks off of work. It is so much fun to be a family at home and not have routines or schedules for a little while.

Sophs and I had a girl's date and went to lunch and then to get pedicures. She is so precious with that little dimple in her cheek!

Our friend, Tessa, took our family pictures. This is one of the preview ones she sent to us. I love it! We are so, so blessed! When you can look back on a year and say you were all healthy and you had time together and made memories I would say it was a great year. 2013 will be a good one for sure! Happy New Year!