Our Christmas

Our Christmas celebration started the weekend before with a trip to Indiana for my cousin's wedding. The kids looked adorable all dressed up but, of course, getting them to smile for a family picture was out of the question...so I just had to settle for one with the hubby and me. :)
They were, however, all smiles when we got the bubbles out!
Hanging out with Auntie Em.
Daddy and his little princess enjoying a dance together.
On Christmas Eve morning, we let the kids open their presents from us. Again, I tried to get a nice picture of the kids with their stockings this time, and again, I failed.
Oh well, at least Addie cheered up.
Luke with his Super Why puzzle.
Addison loved her new tiger puppet.
That afternoon we headed to Jonathan's parents' for the Athearn Christmas. All ten grandkids were excited to see what was under the tree!
Luke got some cool Legos.
Addison's not too sure about all the craziness.
We got to Indiana around 11pm Christmas Eve and of course opened our Christmas jammies!
Christmas morning we read the Christmas story while Luke re-enacted it with Meemaw's nativity set.
Next came stockings!
And then all the presents!!



Unfortunately, I got really sick Christmas night which put a damper on things. I wasn't able to go to church or to my mom's family Christmas Sunday. But by Monday morning I was feeling better and was able to enjoy the last bit of our time with my family before we headed home that evening. It was a wonderful Christmas weekend topped off by my sister's engagement! We're all so happy for her and her fiance. Merry Christmas everyone!!

O Christmas Tree

Wow, it's hard to believe Christmas is just around the corner! We've had our decorations up for a while (like since two weeks before Thanksgiving, which was my husband's doing believe it or not!). The kids love the tree with the train around it and all the lights. My heart just melts seeing the joy on their faces. Ah, the magic of Christmas! They've also enjoyed our count down calendar, moving the star each day closer to Christmas, and doing Advent together each week. It's so important to teach our children that while, yes, it's fun getting presents, Christmas is about more than that. Most importantly, it's about Christ's birth. They've enjoyed reading the nativity story and learning about Jesus' birthday. We're also striving to teach them that Christmas is a time to think of others. We participated in Operation Christmas Child again this year and Luke loved picking out toys and clothes and other items for a little boy his age somewhere far away. He even drew him a card, which was so sweet! I wasn't sure if he was fully comprehending that all the things we were buying would not be for him, but he did get it and was beyond excited to send them to his "new friend". I hope you all enjoy this wonderful time and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

We may be needing a tree soon...we're running out of room for all our ornaments!

Mr. Bear and Meeko playing some Thomas Go Fish. :)
Luke and Addison love having tea parties together and I love it when they get along!

The Count of Monte Cristo

It only took me three months but I finally managed to finish reading "The Count of Monte Cristo". I renewed it from the library so many times, they were probably beginning to wonder if they would ever get it back! Yes, it was just under 1200 pages but it is a fantastic read! It used to be one of my favorite movies, but now that I've read the book, I realize how much the movie is lacking! So, if you have some spare time, (and it probably helps if you don't have children to take care of too--ha!) I would highly recommend reading this! :)

Frankenmuth

November is a wonderful month if you work for the state of Michigan. Only one week in the entire month do you have to work a five day week! Thanks to Election Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving, Jonathan gets to be home a lot more! This past week he went ahead and took off Friday so he had an extra long weekend. We decided to head to Frankenmuth and stay in a hotel overnight with the kiddos. We had such a great time! We hit the Birch Run Outlet Stores, which if you have never been, are crazy cool. Tons of awesome outlet stores!! Though next time I will be going without my children, thank you very much. lol We stayed at the Bavarian Inn which, as you can see, is so beautiful!
We're finding that when you take two small children to a hotel, you have to be very resourceful and creative. For example, Addison does best sleeping when she can't see that we are still awake and having fun without her. That can be hard to do when you are in one basic room. My husband, however, is never without ideas and came up with this solution:
Transform the "hallway" into Addie's own personal bedroom! Yes, that is the comforter from Luke's bed that we managed to hang up. :)
Eating was a little tricky too but we just brought along the booster seat and fixed them up a nice little eating area.
Good morning Miss Addie!!
We let Luke watch a movie in bed...
He didn't last long, though! :)
This was our view from our room. We had a nice secluded patio on the ground floor.
And of course the kids loved swimming! This place had like four pools and a few hot tubs too!

Everything had a German feel to it (go figure!) and I loved the gazebo this hot tub was in!

There were also tons of games where you could win tickets and get prizes (just like at Chuck E. Cheese's!) so Luke was in heaven.
We made a stop at Bronner's which was overwhelming but fun. Now is not the time of year to go, however, because there were soooo many people!!!
All in all it was a great trip. Veteran's Day also happened to be a very special day for Jonathan and I. We were able to celebrate 10 years of being together. I will never forget that day, November 11, 2000, when Jonathan asked me to be his girlfriend and we started a journey that has brought us so much happiness!! :)

Our Halloween

Jonathan and I had a costume party with a group from church. Unfortunately my husband refused to dress up with me and went as a hockey player. Lame, I know. I had fun with my costume at least! :)
Luke was so excited about his costumes! My sister-in-law made these costumes for her boys a few years ago when they went as Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Luke got to dress up as Woody on Saturday....
and Buzz on Sunday!
And yes, I did say that she made these costumes! Some people's talents amaze me...
Addison was our little butterfly--what a cutie!!
They had tons of fun and got lots of candy! Of course, that means mom and dad are eating too much of it! lol

I Did It!!!!!

For those of you who don't know, back in July I turned 29. And I got to thinking. I'm going to be 30 in a year (gasp!) and there are a lot of things I want to do still. I know, I know, it's not like 30 is a death sentence, but I felt like there were just some things that have always been on the "some day I'll do that" list. Well I decided to make a list of "Things to Do Before I Turn 30". This list is on facebook, if you haven't seen it already but one of the things on there was to run a 5k. I hate to run. And I probably hadn't run a mile since college. But I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. So I decided to start training for a 5k race and to make it a goal to run one before the big 3-0 claimed my youth aged me another year. Well, today I can officially cross that one off my list! I ran in the 2nd annual Barry County pumpkin trot! What a feeling of accomplishment! I was so proud of myself because I did it! I'd like to do more when the weather warms up (I refuse to run outside in the cold) but we'll see how I feel next spring. :) And I have to say, I don't hate running anymore! I don't love it. But I don't hate it. Part of it is that we bought an mp3 player, which has made running so much more enjoyable tolerable. So anyway, there you go! Proof that if you set your mind to something you can accomplish it! Now I just have to keep plugging away at the other things on my list. I wanted to learn to play guitar and I'm taking (free!) lessons on Monday nights now. And Jonathan's going to take me out to learn to drive a stick shift, so that's another one I'll hopefully be able to do! And there are so many more that are coming together--it's really cool to see. Well, enjoy the rest of your Saturday everyone. I know I will, because I just ran 3.1 miles this morning and lived to tell about it!! :)

My Creative Little Man

Only a kid with lots of imagination could take these train tracks, his socks, and the kitchen floor....
and use them to play hockey! Luke amazes me with his creativity. He made this hockey stick out of his train tracks and loves to "skate" around the kitchen.