12-31-13: Christmas Recap 2013

Christmas was nice this year. Truly, I think having little ones just adds so much spice to everything! I just loved having the time to spend with the girls and Andy--and as an added bonus, his grandparents got to visit this week also, which was nice.

As a recap, we continued our tradition of everyone getting one new ornament to signify something special about the year--here's what we got:

Andy: guitar.

Not only did he finally get that Taylor acoustic he's been wanting forever, but he also got the chance to lead worship in a lot of different settings this year--youth choir tour, normal worship services at Bethel, the band led worship at kids camp, etc. He is a busy, talented guy!

(As an aside, I really wanted to find some kind of ornament to represent healing/glory to God, but everything was kind of morbid. Honestly there is nothing more major that happened in our whole family's life this year than his not having cancer---I am SO grateful and thankful to God and I doubt I will ever stop being awed at how he moved in our lives. Wish I could have found a non-morbid way to memorialize that on the tree.....)

Juliana: baby doll 2013.

My little girl is a born mommy! She LOVES baby dolls! Will carry them around, light up at seeing them and even kiss them! This was the only ornament I found with a baby on it. So glad that she is a part of our little family this year!

Anna Claire: Cinderella.

It's been a Cinderella kind of year! Anna Claire is a princess through and through! She loves dresses and dress up and to be pretty! She loves Cinderella but as the year progressed she also started liking the Little Mermaid very well also--never more than second place though! I got her a Cinderella ornament that I thought would be sturdy enough for her to play with....WRONG!  Notice in the first picture that she has a superglued neck and superglued torso and no arms at all.  Poor Cinderella....

So the second ornament is the "keeping" ornament that goes up high on the tree!

Rhonda: pregnancy.

Biggest thing for me this year is our precious surprise baby Eliza Joy! I feel miserably pregnant at this point but we are so excited nonetheless!

And of course, our annual family picture ornament:

Anna Claire got crafty this year and here are some of the ornaments that she got to help make at church, Sunday School and mothers morning out:

Mom bought us this cute family snowmen ornament at the Christmas Made in the South craft show:

And I got this painted/decoupage (not really sure which) Ostrich Egg of the three Wise Men.

And this Goofy ornament for Anna Claire since she really likes him right now....

And lastly, our Christmas card:

This was a special gift for Andy this year - I took some of his worn out tee shirts and sent them to Granny and Aunt Carol and they made them into a quilt for me!  I just love how it turned out!  He was so surprised that I even had kept many of them - we have blocks representing everything from high school marching band to Cowarts Baptist and on to many of his adventures at Bethel!  Neat memories!

My favorite gift was my Origami Owl locket that Andy picked out all by himself - SOOOOO special!
I'm still working hard at my Jesse Tree ornaments--I'm hoping to have them complete by springtime!

12-31-13

Anna Claire says giraff-E.

Juliana say mama, dah!, bye, ruff and woof, bow! (Don't know what that means) and now FY! (For fry initially but now I think it can mean more of any food. :-)

She is a doll!

12-23-13

Watching Rudolph again with my two babies. So blessed.

12-22-13

Really feeling bad today. Hoping to feel lots better with a good nights sleep. I can officially say that I am ready for this baby to come! I am OVER being pregnant. :-)

A little extra emotional tonight too--a touch of meloncholy and i absolutely hate that. It seeps the joy right out of you for no reason at all. Guess it's pregnancy hormones but I hate it nonetheless. I just live in such paranoia about serious illness ever since Andy's sickness and that is so unlike who I was before that event. It is NOT who I want to be!

12-19-13

Tonight we watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty and the very mediocre Frosty Returns. Fun night with our girls! Can't believe Anna Claire was so into them! She loved them all!

12-17-13

One month from today our little family of four will become five!

I'm just about physically ready. I think I've turned the corner from uncomfortable to miserable in the last day or so.....although honestly, no pregnant woman should be working as hard as I have been working.....Dr. Lazenby would NOT approve. But you do what you have to do, and I have to get this house in order.....a little closer everyday, and tomorrow Hannah comes to help so it should be a very productive day!

12-17-13

Tonight we went to look at Christmas lights. We had heard of four or five houses in the area with big displays so we headed off in search of them! I really enjoyed it--hadn't ever went out purely for that purpose and it was fun! Anna Claire really liked looking at the lights, although she was obsessed with wanting to get out to touch them--especially the blow up Santas, reindeer, etc!!

Mom visited this weekend and we made lots of progress on my post-renovation-whole-house-organization-project. That was a relief, even though on the surface it really doesn't look a lot cleaner. It is getting there....very slowly but surely. This has been one of the most physically and mentally demanding household projects I've ever taken on. First the chaos and disarray of construction itself. The constant cleanup of debris, displaced items and sheetrock dust. Then having to clean all the new spaces and discover how to incorporate new furniture/decor into those spaces. Trying not to refill those areas with junk, etc. I have taken probably ten boxes of stuff to the rescue mission. Could have had a yard sale, but frankly I do not have the stamina.

12-09-13

A girl after my own heart: Anna Claire says, "Mommy, I watch bunny!" It took a few minutes of figuring, but she meant BUGS Bunny....girl has good taste!!

This is what I found when I walked into the living room....Anna Claire had put antlers on Junia....and she apparently didn't mind a bit!

12-8-13

Laughing at Larry's....