Our Holiday Blessings

Merry Christmas from all of us to you!! We are so blessed this year to have two healthy (besides Paxton's double ear infection) children who are so sweet! Paxton and Lorelei mean the world to us and we know God has given them to us to bring up to love and serve Him. Paxton is learning more about that every day as he gets older and smarter. He knows all about the birth of Jesus and can tell the story of Jesus being born in Bethlehem and there being wise men and shepherds and angels and a bright star. Paxton also has recently begun discussing with us about how Jesus died so that we could live with God in Heaven one day. We have daily discussions about Heaven and some of the things that go along with that. He is the one bringing it up and it has taken us a little bit by surprise that he can discuss this with us but we are happy to answer his questions and take it one step at a time. I am so proud of him and his loving little heart!

Lorelei also knows about baby Jesus, although sometimes she calls him Jacob, I don't know why? She loves our little play Nativity set that I got them this year and plays with it constantly!! Lorelei also has a sweet heart and at least right now is fairly easy going and easy to discipline. We have to remind ourselves that just a gentle "No Lorelei", usually does the trick with her. Whenever you get on to her she will say "All done, hi mama or hi daddy" or hi to whoever has redirected her. We are so blessed by our little miracle.

The pictures below are some from the holiday season and I am sure we will have many more after tomorrow. May we remember the reason for this holiday season, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Christmas pajamas 2007

Holiday attire 2007

Sweet Little Man!

Happy clapping Princess!

This is talking, singing, dancing Santa at my grandmother and aunts house. The kids love him! You can also sing into a microphone hooked up to Santa and he will move his mouth to your words. A big hit with Pax.

Singing some Christmas carols with Grandaddy!

Mama and Grandmama!

Yummm. . . who doesn't love a good chocolate cupcake?

A Night of Lights

A couple of nights ago we took the kids to a really neat park that has an annual Night of Lights Festival and Holiday town. We got there just in time for the parade. Paxton was really excited to see the Coca Cola Bear, a Gingerbread Man, Bob and Larry from Veggies Tales and of course Santa! We ate dinner at this cute little kitchen where they throw really yummy rolls at you, Paxton only dropped his once! I think he was so surprised they were actually throwing food and it was ok, that he didn't know what to do with it. After dinner we rode the holiday train. On the train we sang Christmas Carols and stopped to watch a show called "the Gift" which was all about Jesus' birth. The train also went past tons of light displays including the twelve days of Christmas. Following the freezing train ride, oh did I mention it was an open air train, we watched a holiday laser show and saw some fireworks. Oops, I almost forgot to mention Lorelei's favorite part of the evening, the Snow Angel or Princess as Lorelei likes to call her. It's amazing that even at 20 months she is fascinated with Princesses. She stared this one down and would not take her eyes off her. She even went to get her picture taken with her, Paxton refused to go. The snow angel usually makes it "snow" every year, but alas, water restrictions would not allow a snowfall around here!! Anyway, it was fun family Christmas evening. Unfortunately, mommy got very very ill after we got home and has been stuck in bed for two days, thus the reason for the delayed post! Thanks to Grandmama and Daddy for being great subs!!

All bundled up waiting for the parade to begin.

Daddy and Lorelei riding the train.

Mommy and Paxton are on too!

Baby Snow Angel!

Handsome man!

Lorelei and the Snow Angel. Lorelei would not let go of her wand after the picture. I had to pry it out of her hands.

Lorelei staring down the Snow Angel- Fascinating!

Christmas goodies!

This past weekend we did a family project. Josh and I decided that Paxton was old enough to understand the spirit of giving. We thought that one way he could understand this concept was by participating and delivering Christmas goodies to different friends and family. I found a cute recipe on the bright ideas website (MARS co.) to make Christmas tree brownies. So we bought all of our supplies and set aside Saturday to the making and delivering of the brownies. First we made the brownies, then cut them out with a tree cookie cutter, iced them green and finally sprinkled M&Ms on top. So 4 hours and 75 + brownies later we had some real cute goodies! Paxton did a great job helping and Lorelei, well, she just didn't understand why she couldn't eat them all!

After the kids' naps we delivered the brownies all over town to different friends and families. After we had finished, Paxton kept thinking of more people he wanted to take the brownies to. We had to explain that we were all out and that maybe we could give them some next year. This morning on the way to school he said "Mama, Ms. Cathy and Ms. Tammy really like brownies. I think we should take them some of those yummy brownies, they would love it!!" Too bad, no more left, but don't worry we didn't forget to give his teachers a present!

Yeah!! All done! The final product.

Who's got a beard that's long and white?

Santa does!! We took the kids to the local mall to see Santa this week. We somehow always seem to get there when Santa is feeding his reindeer (ie. off for dinner). Anyway, we had to wait a while and Lorelei was wild!! She ran from one end of the mall to the next while Josh and I took turns chasing her. Paxton did an amazing job of sitting in the stroller patiently and waiting the some 45 minutes that we had to wait. When we finally got to see him, the kids did a great job with Santa. Paxton kept wanting to touch Santa's beard (we have a book about Santa's beard being fun to touch), but Santa was not into that and kept telling Paxton to please stop. Other than that the pictures went great. Paxton gave Santa his lengthy list starting with binoculars (which Santa was quite surprised that this little guy would want some) and ending on a whole band of instruments (guitar, saxophone, new drums). Hmmm.... not sure Santa will be getting him a whole band this year, especially since we already have some of those anyway! So here is the picture of the kids with Santa and the carousel we rode after we saw Santa. Oh yes, I must add, Paxton is wearing a tie because he said he wanted to be daddy's twin that day, too funny!

Paxton is really into pretending he is own his cell phone lately. He is always having lengthy conversations on his cell phone. This morning he told us he needed to charge his phone because he had been talking too much. I wonder who he gets that from?

Little Miss Modest!

Paxton always chooses the ones that spin. He loves to go around fast. As for me, I can't even ride the carousel because it makes me feel sick!

Our First Family Pictures

Ok, I know that Lorelei is 19 months old but this is our first time for a professional family portrait. Honestly, Josh and I never really wanted to be in the pictures so that is part of the reason why we don't have any family shots. However, we felt it was finally time. So a couple of weeks ago we got these done. I was shocked that any turned out ok. Lorelei refused to cooperate and after all of our bribing with Paxton he felt the need to make it difficult as well. Anyway, luckily the guy took about 85 shots so we found a few that turned out well.

In other news we have been battling the nasty RSV thing. Lorelei and Paxton are on a nebulizer, steroids and antibiotics. It has been a lovely weekend. Steroids can do crazy things to small children. Not wanting to sleep is a big one! Anyway, hopefully we are on the tail end of this and can have a healthy holiday season.

Christmas show

Paxton had a Christmas show this week at his school. He was adorable in his little reindeer shirt. Each age level sang a couple of songs and then the whole preschool, which is quite large, sang a few songs together. One of the songs Paxton's class sang was Rudolph. He got to watch Rudolph on TV this week and eat popcorn in front of the fire with mommy and daddy on Tuesday night because he had a great day at school. It was really fun and tonight we are planning on letting him stay up again to watch Frosty. A new tradition perhaps?

Anyway, thanks to Lala, Pam, Von, Grandmama, Granny, Daddy and Lorelei for coming to Paxton's show! It was great! I think Lorelei got a big kick out of it too! She was super wiggly, as usual, but would stop and watch when the kids sang. I can't believe that this time next year I will have two kids up on that stage!!

Aunt Pam and Lorelei waiting to see Pax!

Grandmama, Granny and Lorelei, who was making her rounds from person to person before the show began!

There he is! Holding Ms. Cathy's hand, leading his class into the auditorium.

You can see just some of the many children up on the stage!

A Wacky Shoe Day!

Ok, so Paxton got these cute fireman rain boots a while back and he has been dying to wear him. Of course it NEVER rains here and they are still a little big, so I always say no when he asks. Well today I decided since we weren't going anywhere he could wear them! He LOVES them (thanks Aunt Amy and Uncle Jerry)! Meantime, Lorelei has a new fascination with Paxton's Lightning McQueen Race car slippers. Today she got them out of his drawer and actually put them on herself! Since they were humongous on her, I got out a smaller pair (Paxton has insisted on the same ones for a while now) from last year and let her walk around with those. So we decided it was a Wacky shoe day! Of course both of their shoes were off within minutes because they were so big and the kids couldn't walk in them but it was still fun and I got some cute shots!