Christmas Time Is Here...SO MUCH FUN!!!

How we have been spending our days this Christmas season....

All dressed for church

Painting a Christmas tree with a fork

Making a Christmas tree with an ice cream cone, green icing & decorating it with candy

The finished product

Frosty the snowman is living in our house right now. Jack was excited but a little nervous when he saw a snowman in our house. Sweet boy.

We are doing our daily advent with a devotional called "A Meaningful Christmas" and adding  the corresponding ornament to our dining room Christmas tree for each days devotional.

This summer I worked on making this felt nativity for Jack to play with at Christmas time.  I pulled it out today and he loves it!

We parked at the end of the street in Frisco Town Square to watch the dancing Christmas lights.  Amelia sat in my lap to watch the lights...

....and Jack poked his head out the sunroof to get a better view.

We took the kids for a wagon ride and walked throughout our neighborhood on a warmer evening last week before the ice storm blew in to look at Christmas light.  So much fun! 

Jack has enjoyed some evenings of hot chocolate.

Mom-mom brought over this musical moving carousel for Jack.  He LOVES it and will just stand there watching it for a long time.  He loves music and movement!

Amelia wore her Christmas night gown I made her (that coordinates with Jack's PJ's in the picture above).  I had been searching for the perfect pajamas for them with no luck.  But I came across these patterns and decided to give it a try.  I'm in love!

We had a movie night with Cami, Madi & Mom-mom during the ice storm and watched "The Grinch"

Along with hot chocolate, Jack has also been enjoying some cups of egg nog.  He loves using this mini mug since it is just like what Daddy uses to drink coffee.

LOVING these days!!!!

An Icy Start to December

The evening of Thursday, December 5th an ice storm came to town.  Really, there was no snow at all that I know of even though it looked like snow out the window. It was just ice.  We could hear it pounding against the house all evening and it continued through the whole night as we slept.  When we woke up the next morning the ground was completely covered in ice!  All plans were cancelled - the cookie exchange/Birthday Party for Jesus we were going to have at our house that morning, our bible fellowship classes Christmas party that evening, Gift of Christmas rehearsal Saturday morning.  We were iced in!  Barrett had already scheduled to have this Friday off months ago so he could get some Christmas shopping done.  He still took the day off, but zero shopping got done.

 Jack got all bundled up and  was set to go play outside.  Each time he would look outside he would say, "snowman day!"

 Those toys that are outside....completely stuck in the ice!  There was no getting them out! And now 5 day later they are still buried just the same in our backyard.  That little yellow handle sticking up out of the ice near Java's nose it the handle of one of Jack's riding cars.  The rest of the car is hidden under several inched of ice. Today is also trash day but our back gate won't open due to several inches of ice built up against our back gate.  We tried shoveling it but it seemed like a lost cause...so we will hold on to our trash for another week it looks like :-/

 Friday morning we enjoyed a chocolate chip pancake breakfast to stay warm.  Amelia sure enjoyed that!

 Cami & Madi slid over to our house to play on our sled out front then came in for some hot chocolate to warm up!

  I bought this sled at a resale shop for a couple dollars in the middle of the summer when it was like 100 degrees outside with high hopes that maybe we would be able to use it one day.  Sure came in handy!

 Hannah gave the kids rides on the sled out front of our house.  Such fun memories!

 We took Amelia outside some, but she also enjoyed watching the boys play from her cozy spot in the window.

 By Sunday afternoon the temperatures were just beginning to get above freezing. We had to get out of the house to make it to our dress rehearsal for Gift of Christmas, so we got out the shovel and dug through the 1-2 inches of ice on the driveway.  We both agreed it was kind of fun, but only because this never happens around here.  If this was a common occurrence, the shoveling of snow would no longer seem so fun I'm sure.

 It was actually a blessing and I was very thankful for some extra time at home to just enjoy Christmas time!  I had been a little overwhelmed with such a busy schedule.  Everything on our schedule was all fun stuff to do, but this was nice to just be forced to stay home, and enjoy the small things that we could do at home to celebrate the season.

Our family in the Ice Storm - December 2013

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We bundled up the Saturday after Thanksgiving and went to the Christmas tree farm (otherwise known as Lowes) to pick out the perfect Christmas tree for our livingroom.

Our 2 kiddos helping to pick out the tree.

(Just looking at this picture now and wondering, "Where did these 2 big kids come from?"  I thought I had 2 little babies.  Time, please stop moving!)

 Jack mainly had fun running throughout all the trees while Barrett and I picked out the tree.

 Amelia, just doing her job of looking super cute :-)

 This is the one!

 Watching daddy tie the tree to the top of the car...

 We made it home and the tree was still there! Another successful trip home with our Christmas tree!

 Time to decorate

The tree ended up being a lot smaller that we thought it was going to be.  But hey, it's still beautiful!

 Jack loved hanging the ornaments...

....and Amelia enjoyed pull off the ornaments!

(Although I should add that overall she has done much better than I ever expected) 

In Everything Give Thanks

We had a great Thanksgiving 2013!

We started off our few days of eating turkey on Wednesday the week of Thanksgiving by celebrating with Barrett's side of the family.

 I love it that Jack is old enough to now help out in the kitchen with us and that he really enjoys it too.  Not too bad that the 2 men that live in my house actually enjoy time cooking in the kitchen.

Making cornbread dressing with GramPam

Amelia was trying to climb up the step stool to help too.

Turkey's in the oven

 Pulling apart the turkeys wishbone

Thanksgiving Dinner! The best meal of the year!

 All the Walch cousins

This was Amelia's FIRST Thanksgiving!!!  Yes, she had her first birthday just 2 days BEFORE Thanksgiving this year but wasn't born until 4 days AFTER thanksgiving last year. So oddly enough she went her whole first year with no Thanksgiving holiday.

 I love that Amelia was able to wear this turkey shirt that I had made for Jack to wear a couple years ago. 

Looks like the combination of eating all that Turkey and reading the Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book really worked at getting Jack to go to sleep.  He was worn out after a fun day!

Early morning snuggles with Pa-Pa & GramPam Thanksgiving morning.

 And a wrestling match for the kiddos. This is how it normally goes...Amelia tackling Jack. :-)

I always look forward to watching the parade on TV each year.

On Thanksgiving day we took the long journey (down the street) to Mom-mom & Pepa's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  Jack pulled the wagon loaded up with green bean casserole and cheesy corn to our next celebration.

Mom-mom & Pepa

The little boy table - Griffin, Oliver & Jack

She loved her turkey dinner!

The whole crew. We even all fit in one room this year!

 Jack (2 years & 11 months old) and Amelia (1 year & 2 days old)

 Eliana & Amelia

I may be crazy, but I did it (along with my parents, Hannah & Alex). We went to Walmart for a super quick shopping trip Thanksgiving evening.  I haven't gone out for black friday shopping in years and never intended to ever go on Thanksgiving.  But with a combo of a couple incredible bargains and football games going on at home, I figured...why not give it a try.  Success!  It was crazy, but we got what we went for and were out within 30 minutes. 

Our family

Thanksgiving 2013

There are SO many things to be thankful for this year (and every year) but I am especially thankful for this perfect little family of ours this year.  I couldn't ask for a better husband or 2 more precious children.  Some days (okay, many days) seem so crazy and hectic but there is NOTHING in life I would rather be doing than being a wife to the best husband in the world & getting to be a stay at home mommy to my little ones. What an honor!  I have no idea why the Lord has been SO good to me but I am thankful for each new day we are given together as a family. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!