Christmas Morning

We had such a fantastic Christmas morning. We wrapped all Lily's gifts in Hello Kitty wrapping paper so she would know which ones were hers. 

Jason really enjoyed buying Xander his presents this year. He got this helicopter large enough for action figures to ride in. Every present he opened was followed by an "ooo wow!", "this is awesome!"or "I can't believe I got this!". 

 We need to work on Jason hiding the remote for the camera. :) 

 Our children definitely have different opening present styles. Xander is perfectly happy to unwrap a present, open it, and play with it awhile. He could easily stretch opening presents into an all day event. Lily on the other hand just loves the opening. She wanted to rip open one right after another and since she knew which presents were hers she just kept going back for more. We like to take turns in our house, so we were having to tell her to wait because it was not her turn. At one point she walked over to the tree, picked up one of Xander's presents, took it to him, and said, "Open it. Ok, my turn now." 

 Lily opening her big present. Although it is really for Xander too. 

 Her favorite things about the kitchen are the phone and pretending to wash her hands. 

I felt so blessed to have these two kiddos to share Christmas with. 

Woodland Lights

We spent a fun "family" night with our some of our very bestiest friends the Comer and Schulers. We started the evening at the Schulers eat taco and then headed to Woodland Lights in Centerville. It was a really warm evening for December in Ohio. 

 The kids loved the free fair type rides. Xander is going to LOVE Disney world when we go there in February. 

 Lily and Amelia really wanted to ride the flying person ride. Lily kept saying, "me too" (which I hear a lot lately). She does not like to miss out. 

 I wasn't planning on letting her ride anything, but Jason was nice enough to sick her on. I told Xander to look out for her and if she tried to get out to keep her seated. 

 Xander wrapped his arm around her and kept it there the whole time. My heart melted as I watched them go around and around. Lily was so happy and Xander was taking such good care of her. I love the way the love each other. I love how in the end Xander is so protective of her. 

 You would have thought this ride was crazy and dangerous. It wasn't, but it did kinda whip you around the corner. The boys would yell and laugh. 

We ended the night at Cold Stone for ice cream. I am so beyond thankful for our friends and the memories we are making. 

Lighting Up

It was warm this year on the first day of December, so my Jason decided it would be a good day to clean the gutters (which is no easy task at our house since we live among the trees) and hang our Christmas lights. My younger brother, Will, was nice enough to lead us a hand. 

 Xander really wanted to be on the ladder or roof, but was still happy to help from the ground. 

 Lily thought it was pretty funny Dadoo was on the roof. 

Preschool Project

Xander brought home this cut out angel from preschool over Thanksgiving break and our job as a family was to decorate it. Well, we could have done it on our own, but I am not the artsy type. We called in the reinforcement...enter Grandma! Grandma with her construction paper and very large container of glitter. Xander said he wanted a rainbow angel. So, they made a rainbow for her to hold. Then Xander wanted to coloring the skirt red and green because those were Christmas colors after all. 

 My mom also cut out a little angel for Lily to decorate. My mom is big on making sure no one is left out. I love this next picture because it shows just how happy Lily was to have her hand in all that glitter. 

Lily was very into her little project and worked very hard. 

Happy 1st Birthday, Chelsea Sampsel

Last weekend we headed up to Westerville (just north of Columbus) to help celebrate this cute little lady turning one. We are so happy the Sampsels (Brian was Jason's roommate at Cedarville) live closer to us now. Although every time we get to Columbus I feel like we should be there and it is still another 25 minutes, that is the longest part for me (and Xander). Xander and Christine had a good time playing together. 

Chelsea wasn't all that thrilled about he cute cake, but hey it's her party. Now if you were playing a word association game with Lily on the other hand and you said "birthday" I could almost guarantee you the next word out of her mouth would be "cake" or "kitty" because she is having a hello kitty birthday party here soon. 

I love this picture of Grandpa Sampsel taking pictures of Chelsea opening her gifts and Xander with the play camera. 

We headed home from the Sampsels about 3 because I wanted to put the lights on our tree. Our tree decorating this year was a muli-day and stage process. We bought the tree and put it up inside for several days. We put the lights on it on a Saturday and then the following Tuesday Jason, Xander, and I decorated it (sorry Lily you were asleep). If I was a photographer or crafty these Christmas light pictures would be cuter, but this what you get people. I wanted to wrap them up together, but they didn't want to. 

The Day After Thanksgiving

Who can resist a slot car track? Not this Grandpa. Xander invited Gramps over to come play with his new track and Gramps was happy to take the opportunity. 

 Even Grandma got in the action, although she quickly realized like I did that you end up being the one the fixes the track and retrieves the cars.

 Lily's black eye (from falling off a chair and hitting a table) is getting better everyday. On a side note I LOVE these personalized hair clips I bought her off etsy! I ended up ordering four... I know too many. I got one with Lily Bug, 2 with just Lily, and one with Lillian and one for my niece for Christmas. They are super cute. 

thanksgiving day~stop #2

After a delicious lunch at my mom's sister's house we headed down to the farm to Jason's parents house for another huge meal and fun with family. My SIL's, Renee, family joined us this year.

Gram made each of the grandkids their name out of Jello jugglers...yum! 

 Xander and Lily watched silly video clips with Gramps on the computer. 

 Xander took his Captain America costume with him from home, but Lily enjoyed wearing it around. She is pretty super. 

 Jason's cousin, Mark, happen to be in town from San Diego and spent Thanksgiving with us. Xander enjoyed showing him Star Wars Angry Birds. 

 Lily and Gramps relaxing after a long day and Lily playing on his iphone. 

Just Another Day

Xander found a rouge ladybug in our house and decided to befriend it. He has played with for quite some time. He really wants to keep it and wanted me find it some food. I had to think about that one and then look it up. I mean who has ever considered what a lady bug eats before. They actually eat other small insects incase you were wondering. It is getting really loved on right now by two small children so I am not really sure if it will see a next meal. 

 Apparently Xander was getting too much camera attention so Lily grabbed this mask and asked me to take her picture. Do you see all the posted notes I let her stick to the window earlier in the day? Nice. 

happy thanksgiving~#1

Jason used his Menards rebate bucks to buy slot car track that was on sale. He had one as a kid.  Jason and the kids spent Thanksgiving morning assembling it. Xander was really into putting the white stickers that were the dashes in the road on and was pretty disappointment when we had to leave and he had to stop. He hates to be stopped in the middle of a project. I can relate. I love watching them play, but I realized quickly that if I didn't leave the room I was going to be the one putting the cars back on the track every time they fell off. 

 Jason always claims he is getting the toys for the kids, but he loves them just as much. 

For our first Thanksgiving Day stop we headed to my mom's sister's house. Here is my mom with her sisters Judy and Angie. My Aunt Angie has breast cancer too and unlike my mom's it is an aggressive kind. Even though she caught it early and had a double masectomoy it managed to travel through her blood stream. She is undergoing a second round of chemo now. However, this chemo seems to having a positive results. I have to be honest and say I pretty much hate the words, "breast cancer" and "cancer" all together. They went from something I never really gave much thought to to something I think about often. We continue to pray for my aunt. Her son, Matson, is only eight and I know her goal is to see him get married one day. 

 Ok, all that to say we really did have a good day and it wasn't sad or somber like I had pictured it in my head. My mom brought Xander a Darth Vader action figure, which he of course loves. 

My parents also gave the kids a card with two dollars a piece. Lily carried her money around for quite awhile saying, "money, money, money". She also pointed to George Washington's face on the front and asked my dad who it was. If you show her a dollar now she is point and say, "George". 

 Here is a picture of me, my younger sister Nora, Mom, and Lily

 Lily loves her grandma

 Here is my family (minus my youngest brother). This was on the only picture where my dad wasn't making a silly face. 

I feel like I have so incredible much to me thankful for. I have to say ever since my mom was diagnosed a little over a year ago I have never been as thankful for my health as I have been this past year. I teach our kindergarten Sunday school class at church and recently there was a lesson on Naaman. They lesson started out with telling that Naaman was a very very rich man, who had a wife, and children but he was sad. He was sad because despite all his money he had a sickness that no one could cure him of. It really hit home. If we are sick it sheds a different light onto everything else in out lives. The good news is the God that healed Naaman is still healing today.