Amazed!

Sometimes I look around me and I am amazed by the beauty that surrounds us.  So often I am pulled in so many different directions that I forget to look up and enjoy the world.  When I finally do I see something like this and I am reminded of God's love, which He manifests in so many ways, big and small!

Get Outside and Enjoy the COLD!

We had a fantastic time ice skating at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit.  Gage was pretty wobbly and uncertain at first but once we made him go around on his own hanging on to the rail he got the hang of what he was supposed to do and by the end of the night he made it all the way around the rink without holding on.  Carter wasn't afraid to skate hard and as a result ended up hitting the ice a number of times.  It was great entertainment for all!  Cam was a great cheerleader but was upset after a while that he had to be an observer rather than a participant... next year Cam!

Merry Christmas!

It was great to have my brother, Rustin, with us again for Christmas.  My boys absolutely adore him!  Once again they had a countdown til Rustin came which superseded their countdown to Christmas.  It's always great to be able to spend Christmas with family.  Carter and Gage fell asleep on the way to the airport to pick him up on Christmas Eve and as a result they had a REALLY hard time falling asleep that night. They laid in bed for 2 hours before they finally fell asleep!

I love the magic of Christmas morning with little kids.  Gage is at the perfect age and was so excited about everything!  All morning long he kept exclaiming, "this is the best Christmas EVER!"  Carter and Gage were so excited with everything that they had a hard time not opening up everyone else's presents for them.  Carter was thrilled that Santa brought him his King's Castle Lego set and I am sure will be devastated when he comes home from school today only to find that Camden destroyed it while he was gone.  Gage was happy to report that maybe Carter won't be so mad because now he gets to make it all over again!  

Carter and Gage picked out Nerf guns for each other.  Gage got Carter an automatic gun that shoots 3 darts per second.  Gage's is a semi-automatic.  They then picked out the smalled little pistol they could find for Uncle Rustin.  It made for some comical gun fighting on Christmas morning.  

In school Carter's class made gifts for their parents.  Carter was so excited to make his door hanger for his Uncle Rustin (should I feel bad that he didn't want to give it to me??)  He made a card and wrapped it up and it was the first present under the Christmas tree.  He couldn't wait for Rustin to open it and made him open it first.

Cam cracked us all up on Christmas with his inability to go without eating a banana while opening his presents.  This kid really is a little monkey!    It was a happy morning.  The boys received an air hockey table from their grandparents which they have loved and Rustin and Jared loved staying up til 2:00 in the morning putting it together for them.  It may have been less troublesome had it come with instructions!

I hope your Christmas was filled with love and joy!

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas traditions!  I love getting together with friends this time of year since our family is so far away.  Some of my favorite traditions are advent, gingerbread houses and Christmas caroling.  For advent we invited friends over each of the four Sundays before Christmas and enjoyed treats, Christmas stories and singing Christmas carols together as we celebrated the 4 weeks leading up to the birth of our Savior.  We had friends over to make gingerbread houses, resulting in a house full of children on a huge sugar rush.  I am confident that more candy entered their little bellies than made it on their houses.  Always fun!!!  And my favorite Christmas tradition of all is caroling.  Something that both Jared and I did every year with our families.  I love to see peoples faces light up as you stand on their doorstep and sing them Christmas songs.  "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!"

Where in the world did that kid get his ginormous mouth from?  :)

Merry Christmas!  We wish we could have shared some of our Christmas traditions with you!

Christmas Gift

I can finally share the advent calendar that I made this year.  I made one for me and one for my sister for Christmas so I had to keep it hush hush until she got hers.  It's based off of the one from PBK and I got some pointers from my super crafty friend Autie who made one last year.  It was lots of fun getting together with some girlfriends to make.  By the time I finished I was thinking it would have been worth every penny (plus some) to buy one from pottery barn but now that I'm done all is well in the world again and I have a super fun advent calendar and some great memories to go with it!

Sant-y Claus

The boys went to visit Santa at the mall to give the big guy their Christmas wishes.  Carter asked for Lego's, Gage asked for a surprise, and Camden smiled real big to win Santa over so he would be sure to get whatever he wanted.  Carter came home from school one day with a wishlist that was more than comical.  I had to remind him that he was only 7 and that I didn't even most of the things on his list.  His list included things such as a cell phone, a big screen TV for his bedroom, DSi, a bigger house, a piranha (yes, as in the fish), a swimming pool, an itouch, and Lego's.  When all was said and done he was thrilled with the Kings Castle Lego set that Santa brought him.  

I don't think this picture could be more precious!

Someone looks guilty!  The funny thing is it's the one with the biggest smile of them all that is the guiltiest!  Last year after Gage opened his presents he declared, "I was bad and Santa still brought me presents!"  It's a good thing he's sweet and funny and adorable when he's not causing trouble!