Candle Light Service

Peter sang in the service on Sunday night.  It always brings us such joy to see the littles praising God.  :)

Downtown Christmas tree

It's that time of year again!  It has been our tradition to go to Sundance Square in the heart of downtown Fort Worth and see the big Christmas tree.  So here we are, soaking up the lights, the cool air and the general cheery atmosphere...

Happy birthday, Jesus

So Peter and I are studying the letters of the alphabet for pre-school.  This past week was the letter "H".  And it just so happened that "happy" and "hat" starts with the letter h.  So, we made "Happy birthday, Jesus hats"! It kind of snowballed from there into a full on party for His birthday.  Which I was very tickled with.  Anything that can convey the true meaning of the season to the children is welcomed as a good idea.  The kids really got into it....

Justin's hat....

 ...Peter's hat.  I had a hat too (not shown)  :)

 We made a cake and I told the kids to go to their room and pick the toys that they thought Jesus would like on His cake. So cute what they came up with...

Jane celebrated too!  :)  Happy birthday to the One who was born to give us life and rescue us from our sin!

Decking the Halls

As soon as we got home from Thanksgiving we decorated the house for Christmas.  After the fiasco of the real tree last year, we opted to pull out the sweet little fake one from the attic.  

 Baby's first Christmas...watching all the boys

 I think they thought the boughs were swords.

 Time for ornaments...

 ...and beads and lights.

We put lights up outside too....hard to see, but I think they look pretty.  

 Watching Charlie Brown Christmas....always a classic!

 And we had the first fire of the year.  So cozy to be together on the couch while the temperature drops outside.  :)

And the stockings are up!  Jane finally got an official one, so the mantel is complete.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....

....my BIRTHDAY!  I must say that turning 32 has been one of the best birthdays yet!  My husband wrote an amazing blog post just about me and he sent me 10 thank you cards in the mail thanking me for the all the things he loves about me.  The day was full of other surprises in including a million sweet Facebook messages, emails, phone calls from family, yummy Starbucks and lovely candles from my friends.  I got to spend the day doing just what I wanted to do including.....

.....snuggling with my newest blessing.  Snug as a bug in a rug!

And I didn't have to cook!  The boys and my sweet girl took me out to dinner.  I got to choose.  I chose Chili's.  I love their chips and salsa and the boys love chicken and french fries.  Everybody wins.

I even got to hear "Happy Birthday" sung to me by the waiter!

And got chocolate molten cake....mmmmmm.

My parents bought me a super sweet new camera.  I have spent many hours taking pictures of everything from the moon to the carpet fibers to learn all the settings.  All but this picture, of course, are the ones I took with it....it's wonderful!

And Yeeehaaaaw, ya'll!  I got me a pair of cowboy boots!  I have been breaking them in around the house and they were finally ready to wear out for my birthday dinner.  Brent, Brent's parents, and GG all pitched in to get them for me. Love!  So this birthday was a wonderful day of celebrating God's goodness to me and reflecting on how much I love the friends and family he has placed in my life to strengthen me and for me to pour out on them in return.  Birthdays are great.  I think I'll do it again next year!