Christmas 2011

¹ "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.
⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 1


What an amazing miracle! And what a hopeless people we would be if this weren't true. But thankfully it is true and we have hope and life in Christ!!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating our Savior. We went to church with our girls in the morning. I led worship and the girls took part in a Christmas story in the nursery! The service was a great reminder of how wonderful our Heavenly Father is. What better place to be on Christmas morning than in God's house, surrounded by God's people!

After church, the girls were excited to come home and open gifts. My parents came over to open presents with us. The girls loved everything they opened. Ava's favorite gift was her suitcase with a pillow pet inside, from Grandma Ross. Allie really liked her princess backpack from Mike and me, and Hannah just loved ripping the wrapping paper off everything, even gifts that weren't hers!

In the afternoon we all took naps. Around dinner time we went over to Mike's parents where we were given so much! Allie and Hannah got Barbies from Braden and Coben. Ava was given nail polish and a Barbie puzzle from Alyssa. Grandma and Grandpa and Auny Amy all got the girls a lot of really cool stuff! Everyone was so generous and the girls were super excited.

What a great day we had celebrating with family! Merry Christmas everyone!

Grandma with her new slippers 

Play dough! 

All three girls received their own Biggby cups. 

Allie's favorite gift: a princess backpack. 

Hannah's new pillow pet from Grandma. 

My mom knitted me this hat and these gloves! 

Mike hates when I sit in bed and read, so I bought him this mask so the light doesn't bother him! 

Christmas with the Epleys

Joe bought Kathy a metal detector that she could use on the beach out East. She loved it! He even had a sand box ready with different things in it so she could test it out! 

Ava and Noah 

Alyssa and Malachi 

A well stocked dessert table! 

Cousins! 

Christmas Eve 2011

What a wonderful Christmas season it has been. We had a wonderful time on Christmas Eve with family and friends. We started out by going to the afternoon family service at our church. Once again, the kids were able to sing on stage. Unfortunately, Allie had strep throat, so she watched from upstairs in the old sound room. Ava loved singing, and Hannah loved watching!

After the singing, the kids were able to participate in a play of baby Jesus in the manger. Ava was a cow!

After the service, we went over to Jeff and Tara's for dinner. The girls had a great time playing with their cousins. They received such great gifts. Thanks Rosses!

Gingerbread Houses

We continued our tradition of making gingerbread houses with the Epley family today. Kathy outdid herself this year. There was so much more candy, more cookie houses, and tons of icing. The kids had a blast and ate way too much candy.

Mike made this gingerbread mansion. 

Here's the rest of our houses! 

Mom's group Christmas Party

We had a Christmas party with our mom's group at my friend Holly's house. Holly woke up early to make a million sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. Allie, Maya, and Hannah all dressed up in their red dresses. They were super excited to see all their friends.

Here's the big group of kids! 

Hannah with Noah and Nathan.  

Allie and Maya decorated their cookies. 

Hannah decorated a cookie too! 

Merry Christmas

I finally got my Christmas photo! Let me tell you all about it. So I took all those other pictures with my camera that's on it's last leg. I picked out my favorite, went online to Walmart's website, ordered 30 pictures, thinking I was doing site to store in 1 hour. Well turns out I didn't do 1 hour, so the pictures weren't going to be in till Wednesday the 21st. So I tried to cancel, Walmart sent me an email telling me how to cancel my order (wait, I thought I just did that). So I went back to the site to cancel it AGAIN, and they had shipped my order in that small amount of time. So fine, that means that my pictures will probably be here early, which they were. I picked them up last night and it was the wrong picture (what was I doing when ordered these!?) and all 30 were really blurry. Mike just told me to give them out anyway. I could just hear family when they opened the card, "why on earth would she have chosen this picture, it's blurry!?"

So I woke up today, determined to get a good picture. I called three people I know who have nice cameras. My good friend Jackie ended up taking this adorable picture of the girls, which is NOT blurry! Thank you Jackie, and Merry Christmas to all!!

Side note: I'm not mad at Walmart. I recognize that most of the errors were on my part. So if anyone would like a cute, albeit, slighty blurry picture of the girls, you know where to turn:)

Our attempt at a Christmas Picture

Every year, after Christmas, I buy Christmas cards that are really cheap, with the intension of sending them out with a photo the following year. I probably have about ten packs of cards I haven't sent out for the past five years. This year I'm determined to get on the ball. With three young children, it's almost impossible to get a decent picture, where each one is looking at the camera, and smiling:) I think I got some good ones though! 

I think this last one might be the winner:

Merry Christmas

(Just in case I slack again, I'll say this is my Christmas card this year!)