I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas....

This year we were able to stay at home and not travel for the holidays. We missed family so much, but it was nice not to be out on the road driving or flying. Daddy had to work Christmas Eve, but he was off on Christmas Day and the following Sunday! We were able to celebrate long distance with our Arizona family via skype on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning it was just our little family. We had a breakfast of hot apple cider, homemade "Cinnabon" cinnamon rolls, and fruit salad. Then Daddy read the true Christmas story from the Bible to the kids. After that we opened stockings and gifts. This year was the 'year of the camera' at our house! Luke and Ben both got "Real" kid safe digital cameras and have been torturing every inch of our house and member with the inspection of their lenses! Even Gracie got a camera toy, and Mommy and Daddy got a very nice camera too! (See if you can tell which pictures are with the new camera and which are with the old! :))

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We got snow Christmas evening and just about all day Sunday. Church was canceled and we took the chance to play in the snow and sled with our good friends and neighbors, Andy and Emily.











Gracie was not too sure about the snow and being cold...



but Emily finally got her to smile!



I am sure I would not enjoy snow so much if I had to deal with it all the time, but we are so glad we live in a place where we get to enjoy it every once in awhile!!

Later Sunday evening Daddy finally had a chance to put together Gracie's trike that she got from Grandma and Grandpa and she LOVES it!!!!




Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Fun

We have been way too busy around here to blog....so this is my attempt to "catch up" on our last few weeks preparing for Christmas with a few of our favorite pictures.

The boys getting ready to help decorate Christmas cookies...



Enjoying the fruits of their labor with a glass of milk!




It has been a really cold winter here. Gracie loves hats and hoodies, and she will always pull a hood onto her head if there is one on her sweater/shirt.



The boys enjoying some hot chocolate!




Getting ready for church.




This last weekend we made a quick trip up to Virginia to celebrate Christmas with Jeff's family.

Getting in the Christmas spirit!






Playing with Grandma.



This year Jeff's parents decided to give all the grandkids bikes! Even Gracie got a trike to ride!





The boys love their bikes. We can't wait for some warmer weather to actually go outside to ride!

Here are the six Morgan cousins together....missing baby boy due soon! :)



Here are the cousins last year for Christmas! (Gracie is there...you just have to look under the hat! :))



We hope you are having a joyous season leading up to Jesus' birthday! Just as a funny story....this week I took just Ben with me shopping while Daddy was with Gracie and Luke. The checkout lady kept asking him if he was being good for Santa to bring him gifts. She asked him if he is supposed to be good/nice all the time...and Ben told her Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another". He also shared the story of Jesus' birth, where He was born and the angels telling the shepherds not to be afraid. I think he kind of took the unsuspecting checkout lady by surprise! The boys know about Santa, they enjoy seeing decorations of Santa, but they also know he is not the focus of Christmas. Recently we watched the Veggie tales movie about St. Nick. The boys loved it and we highly recommend it!

Gingerbread

Last year when Grammy was visiting the boys were able to make a gingerbread house with her. Well, to continue the tradition she sent us a kit for a house and some gingerbread men. Much to our dismay, the pieces from the house were broken and all misshapen. Mommy tried her best to make them into a house, but Daddy with his construction background was at work and Mommy's best efforts looked nothing like a house!

On a brighter note....the gingerbread men turned out great (and much less stressful for Mommy!) The boys had a blast decorating (ie eating candy) the cookies. We even got to skype with Grammy in Arizona while we decorated so she could still be a part of the tradition!

First Snow!!

Today was a really good day. It was one of the first days in a long time that our whole family has been home with no work, appointments, school, soccer, or planned activities. That doesn't happen very often! We guarded this day carefully as it is the only one on our entire December calendar!

After a quiet morning and a few errands we came home and had lunch and were getting ready for naps when we looked outside to see snow!!! Usually if it snows here it is in January or Feb! The boys were so excited and Gracie got to view her first snow! It was too wet to go out and play but we enjoyed watching it from inside and then all went to take naps! Yes, that is the best part of the day. Every member of our family took a nap today, including Miss Clara. Even baby brother cooperated and let Mommy sleep! Ahh, the simple joys in life!

When we woke up we found that some of the snow had actually stuck on the ground!



Gracie's first snow.



While waiting for dinner, the kids enjoyed some reading time with Daddy. They all miss him so much while he is working. They just soak up the time with him when they get it. (So does Mommy!)



Such a simple, but wonderful day!

Gracie's B-Day Party

On Saturday we were able to celebrate Gracie's first birthday. On her actual birthday we had pumpkin pancakes complete with whipped cream for breakfast!

Here is a picture of Gracie and Mommy at 8:36 am on the 24th.....exactly one year from the moment she was born!



On her birthday was also got 1 yr pictures taken which are adorable! Here is Gracie with her Daddy on her birthday getting ready for her photo shoot!



On Saturday we had our family, Jeff's parents, Aunt Gentry and our friends Andy and Emily over to help us celebrate. It was such a joy to watch Gracie enjoy her first birthday. She oohed and aahed and hugged and kissed every gift and card. It was so fun to be able to celebrate even with family far away. Gracie was sent love from Arizona, Georgia, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Hawaii!





She was not a huge fan of her birthday cupcake, and refused to get messy with the frosting. She kept nodding her head yes that it was yummy (she says yes and no now with head nods) but she ended up trying to just throw the cupcake off her tray! (I promise, they did taste good everyone else enjoyed them but Gracie doesn't like getting messy!) She also covered her ears as we sang Happy Birthday to her!




Most of Gracie's toys are all understandably hand-me-downs from her two big brothers. So after her birthday we now have enough pink in the house to even out the odds a little! Happy Birthday sweet girl, you are such a joy to watch as you love every detail of life!

Visit with Gentry

With Jeff working all week, and Gracie's birthday, Thanksgiving was a blur for us this year. We are so thankful for the family and friends God has blessed us with. We are thankful for Daddy's new job this year, even though it means he has to work lots of holidays! On Thanksgiving we had an early lunch before Daddy went to work.



We also enjoyed having Aunt Gentry here for the entire week! She spoiled us rotten, we kept begging her to stay as a nanny, but she was determined to go back to school and finish her degree! Thanksgiving night when Jeff was at work and the kids were sleeping, Gentry helped me put up all our Christmas decorations too!

Here are a few pictures of our week with Gentry.

Wake up Aunt Gentry and play with us!!



This visit was Gentry's first time to meet Gracie! The last time she visited is when we found out we were pregnant with Gracie!




Aunt Gentry was a great help, especially with the boys. She watched movies, read a TON of books, and played with her nephews.



Here is a picture of the kids discovering the Christmas decorations that Gentry helped me put up.



Thanks Aunt Gentry for spending your Thanksgiving break with us even though it makes for a tough week getting ready for finals! We love you!

Our Gracie is One!!!

We can't even believe it is time already to say our baby girl is one year old! This year has flown by!

New this month for Gracie: She is not walking on her own yet, but her new favorite thing is to walk behind rolling toys. She has added "Ma" translation "more" to using the sign for more. Her favorite game is to drop toys and see how many time her patient brothers will pick them up for her, she often says "uh-oh" before she even drops them just to make sure she has their attention. Her one year well check up isn't until next week, so we are not sure of her growth stats yet. She is still wearing size 3 diapers, mostly 12 month clothes, and size 2 shoes (she has tiny feet, don't know where she got that gene! :)) She is starting to balk at baby food, and wants to be eating whatever we are eating with her hands, she does not like getting spoon fed. She loves broccoli (like her brothers), and she adores celery! If she is starting to get fussy on a car ride, all her brothers have to do is sing the ABC song and she is one happy girl trying to sing along. She gives the sweetest hugs and kisses too.

We are going to celebrate her special day on Saturday when Daddy is not working, so we will update with pictures next week. Here is a video montage of our first year with our baby girl. She is an absolute joy and delight, and is a never ending source of smiles for this family!

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The simple joys

This week Aunt Reagan sent us a box of goodies for upcoming birthdays, etc. Well, as usual, our children adore the box! Thank you Aunt Reagan for such a fun toy with hours of entertainment! :)

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School Fun

In our Morgan preschool, we have been working through the story of the Mayflower leading up to Thanksgiving on Thursday. There is a wonderful book I found two years ago written by Barbara Rainey called "Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember". The book has the story of our Thanksgiving heritage. It has in larger print a telling of the story that is geared towards younger children, and then additional info in smaller print for when children are older. We also have checked out additional books from our library. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, but so often it gets passed over by the upcoming Christmas holidays. It has been fun to slow down and really focus on this holiday and all the things we have to be thankful for. We have a "thankful jar" that the boys draw pictures of items they are thankful for to add to our jar. Our intent is to look over the pictures together as a family on Thursday.

Anyway, just to make you smile, here are a few photos of pilgrims and indians from our Morgan preschool of higher learning! (Don't laugh, Mommy is not very artistic and we ran out of construction paper, but I try.....we need Aunt Kamie the artist to live closer than Hawaii!!)