Merry Christmas! 3 weeks ago, we learned I was pregnant. We pulled the girls out of school and brought them to the ultrasound with us to share in the excitement. Since the news of being pregnant was such a huge surprise to us, we decided to be different and find out the gender of this little one. I asked the ultrasound tech to tell us by sealing it in an envelope for us to open on Christmas. We all anxiously awaited the opening of that envelope! When I asked the girls last week what they were most excited about for Christmas, I expected the typical response...."opening presents" I was pleasantly surprised when they both agreed that they were most excited about opening the envelope. Warmed this momma's heart! Well, read on to learn what we learned tonight...
Part of our Christmas service at church includes the 3 yr. olds wearing nativity costumes and standing up front as the choir sings.... Well, today was the day! This is my 5th year doing this with the kids and I've learned to relax and just enjoy their innocence and individualities! They've taught me this and I've learned that no amount of practice can prepare you for what 3 yr olds may do just before performance time! ...First service, I had one little boy who insisted on being a frog, I convinced one boy to be a wiseman by calling it a "superman" cape, & a little girl who wouldn't dress up as Mary...but WOULD carry her own version of baby Jesus....a stuffed cat with wings! The manger fell off the stool and Mary enjoyed sticking her tongue out (in a sweet way, ,really!) Oh boy:)!! ...After first service, Tom had to quickly leave as he felt another kidney stone attack coming on. (Turned out to be a false alarm!) So, this left me with all three of my own kids (Thomas has been sick so we didn't want him in the nursery and the girls didn't have SS today) and a room full of 3's to get dressed! Thank goodness for good friends ( Aimee & Liane!) Second service involved a real live baby (Alese Spakousky) and a shy shepherd who kept pulling his head scarf over his eyes! Oh...and just before we walked up front the fire alarm went off!!! I held tightly onto their little hands and didn't make any mention of evacuation. They got it shut off in just a couple of minutes...thank goodness, disaster averted! Working with preschoolers is completely unpredictable and always guaranteed fun....must be why I love them so!
I was invited to do a Christmas family photo shoot
Each week, we light a new candle on my great aunt Edna's advent wreath. This week, we learned about the Bethlehem candle. The girls decided to dress up as Mary and an angel. Ella wanted to know exactly what Mary said when the angel told her she was going to have Jesus. I grabbed this picture of her looking it up in her bible. Precious!
Our baby is ONE! Thomas enjoyed a birthday breakfast of waffles, whip cream & blueberries....He sees food as a multi-purpose hair-styling tool as well! We had a few friends over and he did great at his party. 
Oh...it's been awhile hasn't it? My goal for winter is to get back to "blogging"....ok, it's ONE of my goals!
The girls could hardly wait to rake...ah, if only I could get that excited to work!!!!!! They had a great time jumping and playing in the leaves this weekend. I let them enjoy them 100% and didn't bag anything yet. Thomas enjoyed them for the most part too. The funniest part of the night was when Claire shouted up the stairs, "Turn on the water for a bath, mom!" I told her it was already on and Thomas was taking a bath. "Great!" she responded and proceeded to march upstairs with her clothes plum full of leaves! I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was going to take a "leaf bath!" Well, I'm all about fun, but did draw the line here. Nice try, though!
Last week, Claire had a kdg. tea party with some friends and Ella had her own version of a school tea party...rootbeer floats and a treasure hunt in the woods! Claire wanted real tea cups and a fancy table. It was a beautiful day, but all the girls wanted to do was play tea party (after the real tea party, they had their own version....there were many plastic cups and much water poured!) Ella's friends stayed inside only long enough to eat and then went on a treasure hunt in the woods. Oh...how wonderfully, different my girls are!
