Merry Christmas 2023!

We had two very excited boys this Christmas season! While they might not have gotten everything on their wish lists to Santa, they showed a significant level of gratitude for what they were given, appreciating the gifts and all the family members that went out of their way to make Christmas extra special.  We are so thankful for the greatest gift, Jesus' birth, providing a light in our world of darkness, giving us a hope for the future and a way to be with our heavenly father forever. 

Anxiously awaiting the "go ahead" to run down the stairs and see what Santa brought!

Santa brought a family set of laser tag, see picture evidence of our epic battle on Christmas Day!

Santa brought Zander a smartwatch that calls, texts and has GPS tracking in anticipation of his middle school years starting in 2024!  Santa brought Maddox a Pokémon watch that has an alarm, can take pictures/videos and voice recordings along with Pokémon booster packs!  Our stockings were filled with lots of our favorite sweet treats!

The boys enjoyed some outdoor battles as well with their gel blaster guns!

I always love when we make our Happy Birthday Jesus cake! The boys enjoyed decorating this year! Let's just say they might not have a future in cake decorating.. haha

This Christmas has been hard.  Dealing with the loss of loved ones that were not able to join us this year for festivities and even stopping for a moment to notice our precious chocolate beagle was absent from our Christmas morning picture (the first time since 2009) made my heart ache.  I thought this post from Proverbs 31 Ministries summarized my thoughts well.  May others that are dealing with grief over the absence of loved ones this Christmas season be comforted by this prayer. 

Merry Christmas from the Houstons!

Christmas Break Has Begun!

These boys have already had one week off to enjoy Christmas Break! I worked a couple days at the beginning of the week and tried to entertain these crazy kids while being productive for work.  We played board games, broke open geodes, cashed in our money from GranDan (and saw Mommy's name as part of the SECU Advisory Board), made new purchases, dropped off donations with classmates, and had friends spend the night.... all by Wednesday!   

Austin and Jackson got to spend 24 hours with us:  they bowled, had a nerf gun battle, played Uno Mega Hit Attack, played video games, watched movies and ate plenty of junk food!

We added another friend that was at the bowling alley at the same time... Mommy was really outnumbered!

Our boys did a great job raking our leaves the next day after their friends left.

Thursday evening, we enjoyed the Botanical Garden lights!

On Friday, the boys played at the track, testing out their skateboards and playing soccer and football.

We also made slime!  (You can tell the boys are using all of their new gifts they got from our family members that we got to see last weekend!)

We met the Williams family at the park and ran into another one of Zander's best friends, Nathaniel!

We had date night Friday night!

On Saturday, we got to make Christmas cookies at Grammy and Grandpa's.... always a favorite holiday tradition!  We joined Daddy that afternoon for a movie and to look at Christmas lights in the area... a bonus is that we have found some displays that include a soundtrack attached through the radio station 88.1.

We spent Christmas Eve at the Bakewells.  We enjoyed delicious food and the adults opened presents.  Grammy and Grandpa gave Daddy and I a beautiful picture of Burke that my cousin, Kaitlyn, had created for us.  It is perfect! We miss him so much! It is hard to believe it will be three months without him tomorrow, on Christmas Day.

Letters are written to Santa, carrots are out front for the reindeer, Santa has his milk and cookies and we heard the bells on Santa's sleigh ringing outside as the boys headed to bed.... we are ready for Christmas! :)

Countdown to Christmas!

We finished out the school week with Christmas parties!  I love that I can stop in each of the boy's classes to help with their holiday festivities! I will miss Z being with me next year!

Right before Christmas break, Zander went up to block a Hail Mary pass from his teacher and got a sprain in his wrist.  He has been rocking a wrist brace to ensure he takes it easy... as you can imagine, it is hard to keep him still. ;)

We headed back home for the weekend to celebrate with the Cantrells and the Houstons.  We love seeing all of the extended family over the holidays.  We missed PawPaw being with us this year.  He is always loved and forever missed. 

We had our church's Candlelight Service last night.  I always love singing about the birth of Christ!