Catching Up...

How did it get to be the middle of December already? I guess the same way I lost the whole month of November. We had a great and cold Thanksgiving. It snowed before Thanksgiving and then was about 10 below the whole week. We are loving all things Christmas in our house right now. The gals were so excited to get the decorations up this year, we started before Thanksgiving. We have been trying to really get the true meaning of Christmas into the gals heads. They love talking about Baby Jesus. Gracie's birthday is on the 20th and we keep asking her whose birthday is coming up and every time she says, "mine and Baby Jesus." I bought a gingerbread house kit and we had a blast creating it one night. There was also an awesome live Nativity that we went to. It was a real spiritual experience to me to walk into a barn and see the scene and there in a manger Baby Jesus way laying. He really was born into the most humble of circumstances- how blessed we are to celebrate his birth this season!!

Gracie cracks me up. One night she put 2 of our stockings on and was walking around the house saying she was Santa.

The live Nativity was rainy and muddy but we had a blast. Thanks Keith, Shawna, and girls for going with us. I have to explain the picture of Sean- he came straight from work and had barely gotten new, white shoes that he had worn once maybe twice- so he covered them with grocery sacks. The gals thought it was so funny and were kinda embarrassed by it. They also talked us into going on the hay ride- it was a fun night!

One night after we had gone to the Nativity, Gracie wrapped her blanket around her and said, "Look mom, I'm Mary." She also had a complete and total meltdown one day. She said she wanted to go and see Baby Jesus again and I told her it was over. And she started crying as hard as I have seen her cry- huge tears were coming down her cheeks. She then said to me, "I just miss Jesus so much and I just love him so much." I got tears in my eyes as my 3 year old testified of her love for her Savior.

The house is all decked out and we are LOVING it. We went to Preston on Monday for FHE to see the Hollingsworth's house. If you have never made the drive up there to see it, you really should. They have a couple field's filled with wood painted scences from Disney shows, Shrek, Mickey. This is a tradition that my parents did with me and now we are doing it with the gals. They LOVED it and we drove through it 3 or 4 times. (Up next, Gracie's 3rd birthday!)