Christmas Day 2014

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

The girls woke up around 9:30am on Christmas morning and Reese was so excited. Nora was still a little tired and didn't care about opening up gifts.  Reese was so excited opening up her stocking and Nora just wanted the food that was in her stocking. She was just a happy camper eating her fruit and yogurt covered raisins and didn't really care about opening up gifts. 

 The gift that Reese had asked Santa for this year was a Happy kitten named Mittens. She was so excited when she finally opened it up. Nora liked to rip slivers of papers off her gifts and it would take her forever so Reese would run over and help her out. Nora got really excited when she saw the jeep and scooter for the American Girl doll. She thought they were for her and refused to accept that she was too big to ride on these cars. I was laughing so hard. She finally succeeded and was having a ball.

 Nora kept trying to put the helmet on that was made for the 18" dolls. I finally gave Nora her bike helmet and she was a happy camper.

 Nora and Reese's new kitchen from Papa Gichan and Nana.

 The girls like to order food through the window. They are so fun to listen to.

Christmas Eve part 2

One more fun thing that happened on Christmas Eve was our surprise visitor. Our friend Scott showed up on the front porch on his horse with a bag full of presents. We opened the door to a huge horse on our front porch. The girls were so excited to see Jack (the horse) and Scott and get a little gift. 

Growing up, my mom always let us open up one gift on Christmas eve, which was pajamas. I did that the last couple of years, but then I realized that it would make more sense to let the girls open up their Christmas pajamas early in Dec so they could wear their cute holiday pjs throughout Dec. I  think I will start the the Christmas Eve pajamas when our kids no longer wear the cute santa pajamas. 

This year, I had a lot more sympathy and gratitude for all the sleepless Christmas Eve's my parents had when I was a little girl. My Dad and Step mom bought this kitchenette for the girls and it took me 5 hours to put it together. I always love to see the reaction on the girls faces when they open a gift and so it is worth it to me to put it together ahead of time. I remember one Christmas when I was younger, I woke my Dad up at 6:00am on Christmas morning and he and my brother had just gone to bed at 5:30am. They had been putting together a waterbed for me all night. What a great Dad and brother. As the hours ticked by and I was trying to make everything perfect for Christmas morning. I quickly realized that my girls didn't need anything for Christmas! They honestly would be happy if they opened up a candy cane. We have blessed with so much and the sweet baby boy that will soon be joining our family is more than we could ever ask for. He has brought such meaning to this Christmas season. He has helped me focus on what is really important. Around 2:00am, I finally headed to bed, said my prayers, and laid down in bed. I started thinking about our Savior. The humble circumstances that He was born and the strength and courage that Mary had. I then started thinking of Lizzie and her baby. My heart flooded with love and gratitude and I just started crying. I thought of her strength, courage, and the sacrifices she was making for her precious baby. I then started thinking about her baby boy and my heart flooded with joy and love for him. I could feel how much Heavenly Father loves this precious baby and that He is a chosen spirit. I felt what a responsibility it is to raise this chosen son of God and that Heavenly Father trusts me and has prepared me. I started to feel all the things that Heavenly Father has in store for him. As I thought about the baby ( I'm going to call him Ren, because that is what Lizzie calls him and we have not picked out a name yet) tears just streamed down my face and my heart felt like it was going to burst open. 3:00am passed by and thoughts continued to flood my mind about Ren and what Heavenly Father sees in him. I am humbled beyond belief that Heavenly Father and Lizzie will entrusts him to our care.  I am so grateful for these tender mercies in which Heavenly Father allows me to see what He sees. 

Christmas Eve.....

 This picture of Reese was taken the Sunday before Christmas. Reese looked beautiful in her Christmas outfit. I was at home with Nora because she had pink eye. Great time to get pink eye, right! Ron was singing in the choir during sacrament meeting, which meant Reese got to sing with the choir as well. I heard she did a great job! Good job Reesie!

 Christmas Eve is full of fun meaningful traditions. On Christmas Eve, we always go to Ron's parents house and his mom makes her famous prime rib and then we play chimes, dress up and act out the nativity, read Luke 2, sing all the Christmas songs in the hymn book, then Ron reads "How the Grinch stole Christmas" and his dad reads, "The Night Before Christmas."
This year was a little different because 2 of Ron's sister's and their family moved out of state. Therefore, we had a lot more adults dressing up in the nativity and we had to hold 2 chimes each  to play a song. We were able to Facetime during reading time so all the grandchildren could hear Ron and his dad read the Christmas Eve books. I didn't get very good pictures of all of us dressed up with our nativity costumes on because I was in the nativity, but Reese was Mary and held baby Jesus. Nora and I were wise men, but Nora was the wise man with pink eye and didn't feel good so she just laid on the couch instead. Christmas Eve is always a special night because we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas! Reading Luke 2 and singing the Christmas hymns always bring the spirit which testify of our Savior's birth and His ministry. It is always a special night!

We are chosen....

In December, we were able to visit the lights at temple square. It was extremely busy, but amazing once we were able to find parking and start walking. Reese and Nora absolutely loved looking at all the lights and they love to be near the temple so it was the perfect match. We also were able to see the lights with two very special women. We spent the night with Sadie, Nora's birth mother, and another sweet woman that I am so grateful for. I am going to call her L for the time being and she has chosen us to adopt her sweet baby boy. Words cannot quite express my love and gratitude for L.  I can't quite explain it, but I felt L was there before we even knew about her. When all the craziness was going on with Lola and Portia, I started getting these promptings about a birth mother that I didn't know. These promptings really didn't make sense at the time, but as things continued to spiral downward with Portia,  I continued to hold on to these promptings I was having about this birth mother that I felt was out there and would contact us soon. I remember, one day in October, telling Ron that I felt that this birth mother was going to contact us any day. It was less than a week later that we received an email from L. It was such an answer to our prayers and it once again strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father is in charge and He has a plan. When we met L, we immediately fell in love with her! The more we get to know her, the more amazed I am by her selflessness, courage, strength, testimony, and how much she loves her baby boy. She is beautiful inside and out and the more I pray for her, the more I feel how much Heavenly Father loves her and her baby boy. I hope she feels His love daily. I pray that this sweet baby boy will know how much he is loved by L and by us. I know that Heavenly Father is keenly aware of our family, L, and her precious baby.  I have so much more I want to write about, but I am going to wait for another post.

Christmas traditions and activities

 I have said this before, but I love Christmas time. Christmas has been in full bloom at our house. I love all the Christmas traditions and being able to celebrate these traditions with my kids. I don't know if you want to call it a tradition or not, but I will call it a tradition because we do it every year. The girls always help me decorate the tree while we listen to Christmas music. We then decorate their Christmas trees. The girls love looking at all of the ornaments and asking who gave them certain ornaments. Reese's tree is a Barbie tree. I always wanted one of these trees because when I was little, my aunt and Grandma collected the Hallmark Barbie collection. These ornaments were barbies in beautiful floor length gowns and I just loved looking at these beautiful ornaments.

Nora's tree is just that. A tree all about Nora and all of her ornament. Ron's tree ( or until we have a baby boy to take over) has marvel comics super hero ornaments.

I have loved:
 - making ornaments
- visiting the nativity at the temple
- making a service Christmas countdown
- playing with the polar express
- dancing to the music on our Christmas tree
- decorating gingerbread houses
- 12 days of Christmas
- memorizing Luke 2
- making salt dough ornaments to the girls to give to people
- making paper Christmas trees to send to our missionaries.

Here are just a few of our traditions and I love it.