It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Zack finished the decorations outside last weekend! I love coming home in the evenings to our Christmas display! :)

We squeezed in a visit to see Santa in between our children's program dress rehearsal and Seph's birthday party yesterday.  The boys were able to tell Santa and Mrs. Claus exactly what they wanted.  The top two things being an Ipad (Z) and a Nintento Switch (M).  Maddox has also requested a "real puppy"!  haha  You can see below what happens when you add a three year old to the mix!  I can't wait to show Eli these pictures when he is older! 

Dad even got to eat lunch in my car.... something I was not able to do in his car growing up! ;)

The biggest activity of the week was Zander singing "Christmas Shoes" with NewSong.  He was asked  about two weeks ago to join them when they came to our church.  He did such a great job on the stage singing his solo.  I was so impressed with his ability to get up there and sing with a very famous band.  We had practiced the song each day leading up to the event.  I realized the night of the song that I hadn't had him practice the instrumental version.  He had always had the lyrics included for him.  He also never ran through the song with the band prior to the performance that night.  He walked up on stage when he was told and did an amazing job singing in front of many people!  We prayed beforehand that God would be with him, calm his nerves and that his voice would be used to point others toward Christmas and Jesus.  I could not be more proud of him for taking advantage of this opportunity he was given. 

Talking with Eddie Carswell, writer of the song "Christmas Shoes", before the concert

Zander with Billy Goodwin, the voice behind the famous song "Christmas Shoes"

Some of Zander's friends from school were there Friday night!

My co-worker sent me this picture as we left school one day!  Zander decided to use my umbrella and it's so cute to see his little shadow followed by his little brother!  It was pouring rain that morning.  You can see there was no need for umbrellas that afternoon. ;)

Zack has been reading a kid-version of the Iliad with the boys before bed.  Each boy has their own copy!  It is so sweet to watch and hear while I'm checking off the nightly to-do list.

These cousins continue to enjoy our mornings together before school!

We added a new ottoman after Maddox stood on our coffee table and went through the glass last spring!  It stores their nerf guns inside and is a great seat for Mario Kart racing!  I am equally excited that if a child stands on it, they won't go through glass!  Maybe one day we can have nice things again! 

The boys enjoyed celebrating Seph's birthday with bowling and laser tag!  M broke 100 on his first game of bowling with a score of 105.  Z came in 2nd in laser tag behind Uncle Chris!

Google sends the cutest collages.... check out these three little ducklings (what I call them as they are getting out of my car each morning at school) over the years! ;)