A Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, filled with new traditions and a great time with both of our families! It started last Thursday evening, when we got together with my sister's kids to make Christmas cookies. Starting last year, my family started the tradition of not doing presents anymore...instead we do a service project and then some fun activity as a family. This year, we made Christmas cookies to hand out to some folks at a nursing home and then sing Christmas carols to them. The kids had a blast hand decorating all the cookies, and then the next morning, we bagged them up, put on our Santa hats & reindeer ears and headed over to the nursing home. I think we all really enjoyed it, I just wish I had gotten some pictures of Elijah talking with the elderly - he did a great job!


Then on Friday evening, we all headed to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags for our fun family activity! We had so much fun walking around, enjoying the shows and riding the rides (except me, the pregnant woman, couldn't ride anything!). Elijah, on the other hand, was quite the daredevil - complete opposite of me at that age. He rode everything he was tall enough for and was disappointed that he couldn't ride the Bobsled and Shockwave - ha! He rode the Mexican hat, tea cups and mine train to name a few - and the one I couldn't believe he rode was the Conquistador - the big pirate ship that swings really high back & forth - I hate that ride but he loved it! We even stood in line an hour to ride the snow hill - it lasted about 2 seconds but Elijah had a blast. We were exhausted at the end of the day but it was all worth it!





We ended the time with my family on Sunday evening with a brisket dinner, and grandparents can get the little kids one present each. Here is what my mom gave Elijah: Superman sheets! I have never seen a kid more excited about sheets - he was beaming and jumping up & down when we got home to put them on his bed! He has slept on them every night since ( I should probably wash them soon :-)
This Christmas Eve, we were blessed to stay at home, just the 3 (soon to be 4) of us. We had not done that since Elijah was born and we all really enjoyed it. We made tomato basil soup and watched Elmo's Christmas Countdown on TV, then started a new tradition this year. We threw Jesus a birthday party in hopes that Elijah would understand the real reason for celebrating Christmas. I thought it went really well and he really enjoyed it...then Daddy read the Christmas story from the Bible while me & Elijah acted it out with our nativity scene figurines. Here is a picture of Elijah blowing out Jesus' birthday candle and him with the present he wrapped up for Jesus.

Here is a typical sleepy "Christmas morning with my stocking" picture. He had fun digging in his stocking, and then he & Daddy played swords with the Star Wars light sabers that Daddy got him.



We quickly got dressed and then headed to Jason's parents house for Christmas day. We had a great time visiting with them. Elijah's favorite present at their house was a kid's digital camera - he LOVES it and took pictures all day long! I am still having to stop and smile all day at our house. :-) I guess I know how he feels now. Even baby brother got a few gifts this year - it's hard to believe that next year we'll have an 8 month old crawling around everywhere!


While there, we received some great news! Jason's brother, Brad, and his fiancee Nova were getting married in May, but had decided last minute to move it to January 11th! They are just wanting to save their money for something else and have a very small simple family wedding. They asked Jason to officiate and he is very honored but nervous- this will be his first time to do a wedding. So in just a couple of weeks we'll have a wedding weekend, and we are so excited about it! We just love Nova and can't wait for her to become an official family member. Sorry, no pictures of them...I'll have to get some this weekend. We are all going to Jason's grandpa's house in Little Rock, AR this weekend for New Year's. We are leaving tomorrow morning, so I'm sure I'll have pictures of that when we get back. Jason is very close to his grandpa and we always have a great time when we go, plus Elijah's middle name, Mabry, is after him. Have a great weekend and Happy New Year from our family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here are just some random things we've been doing lately - nothing real exciting.






We rode the train to eat lunch with Daddy at his work.




















We decorated the Christmas tree.














































Awwww, my sweet dog Trigger (with his scary eyes!)














Reading books with my good friend, Ellie.
Okay, the cursor won't go where I want it to go...again! Elijah is more & more excited about his baby brother - he talks about him, kisses & hugs him and asks me when he's coming all the time! I think it is starting to be more real for him. Last weekend, Jason and I saw this great documentary called What Would Jesus Buy. It is about American consumerism, especially around Christmas time. It was very eye-opening, funny and just had a great message! Soon, I want Jason to blog about his thoughts on it. It was only in Dallas at a specific theater for a week, so I'd definitely recommend it, but I don't think it's there anymore. Sorry!

Tickled Blue

We found out this morning that we're having another precious little BOY! He was just adorable kicking and moving around - weighing 13 oz and 8 inches long. His profile picture looks a lot like Elijah's did. I am so curious to see what he's going to look like when he comes out! We are so thrilled for Elijah to have a brother & playmate for life, and especially glad that baby brother is healthy - praise God! Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks, with some lovely stretchmarks left over from Elijah - yikes.

This is his profile shot with his face to the right. For those of you who read earlier, I fixed the sonogram pictures - they look way better!




Here is the proof that he's definitely a boy! There is nothing to this picture except bottom and boy part sticking out! That's right, he's very proud! If we had decided NOT to find out the sex, it would have been impossible because I figured it out almost as soon as she started the ultrasound. We are so stumped on boy names - any suggestions would be fun! Don't get your hopes up though - we didn't choose Elijah's name until a few weeks before he was born and will be keeping this one's name a surprise as well!

Thank you God for this amazing blessing, and we can't wait to meet you in April, beautiful little boy!

The 3 Little Elves

I know some of you may have seen this before... but not of us! Elijah was laughing hysterically this morning at his aunt Lauren portraying an elf, that we had to do it. He got the biggest kick out of it and I wanted to share it with you guys. :-) You should try it yourself...it's a cheap laugh, and laughter is pretty good medicine!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1117011013

Ebay

I just loaded a bunch of collectibles on ebay to make some Christmas money, so....get on there and bid on my stuff! :-) My mom will also be putting some items on here over the next couple of weeks. Here is the link to the items: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZcentralestates

A Gainesville Thanksgiving

We had a fun time with Jason's family this past weekend. Here are a few pictures...


Playing Dominoes with Uncle Brad













Reading Christmas books with Aunt Laur-Laur










Reading his Daddy's favorite book with Nana & Grangoat
















Snuggling with Daddy's Grover from when he was little

I can't believe it SNOWED....

on THANKSGIVING!!! Elijah braved the snow for a few minutes - you can barely see it in these pictures, but hey, it's Texas...we have to freak out over the littlest bit of snow, right? :-) Needless to say, the kids thought it was way cool! We spent the day with my family and will be with Jason's this weekend. Hope you all had a great Turkey day and enjoyed your family & friends. We went around and named some things we were thankful for - being the wealthiest country in the world, we have SO MUCH to be thankful for! I just pray that I am using my material blessings for others and to God's glory!


"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving!" Psalm 95:2

Side note: How about them Aggies today?!?! Way to kick some tu behind! WHOOP!!!!

17 weeks

Just a fun picture of Elijah. I went to the doctor today for another check-up on Baby. Everything went just great - we heard the heartbeat again (fast and furious) and Elijah thought that was really neat! My next appointment is in about 2 1/2 weeks when we'll have our 20-week sonogram. Jason and I are still at odds on whether or not to find out the sex of the baby. I guess you'll know in a few weeks what we decided! :-) I can't believe it's almost time for that already - even with how sick I've been with this baby, it is amazing how fast a pregnancy flies by!

After my doctor appointment this morning, Elijah, my mom and I headed to the zoo. Jason had an assignment from school that had to be done at the zoo, and since it was half price day on Wednesdays, we decided to go today. We had a good time...the weather was great and it wasn't very crowded; although I haven't walked that much since I found out I was pregnant, so I was pretty tired by the end. I figure this is my last time to take Elijah to the zoo before it gets cold and maybe until after the baby is born, so I was glad that we had to go. His favorite thing this time was feeding the goats some leaves - he wanted to stay there all day but we finally dragged him away! Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving, if I don't post until after that!

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...

I bet you can guess who Elijah was this year for Halloween - complete with the curl in front! We had a great Halloween, complete with making cookies, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Saturday night and a Fall Festival at church on Halloween night. Here are lots of pictures in no particular order - I couldn't decide on which Superman pictures to put up so I picked a lot of them because Nana got so many good ones! Also, check out Jason's pumpkin that he carved - Arnold Schwarzenegger - it is AWESOME! Be sure you click on that picture to enlarge it so you can see it better - he was extremely proud of it, although I'm still not sure why he chose to carve that. :-) Hope all of you had a great Halloween too!