Christmas Time!

 I sure do love Christmas time.  It is truly a magical time of year.  This was our first Christmas to have with just us.  We were so excited to spend Christmas morning in our own home for the first time.  We set some fun Christmas traditions and made some great memories.  On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story and had the kids dress up and act out the nativity.  They thought it was super fun.  Andrew was Joseph.  Daniel was a shepherd.  Anna was Mary, and Jenna was baby Jesus.

 Daniel fell on his face the day before and got a bad scrape on his nose.  I think he was going for the Rudolph look.

I know it looks like they get along but don't let them fool you.

 Josh pointed out that baby Jesus was wearing a bow.  Ha!

 Jenna wanted her close up.  We can't leave her out.

 This is her crazy face.  Good pose Jen!

 Can't get enough of those smiles!

 Here we are on Christmas morning.  The kids were like....kids on Christmas.  ;-)

 Instead of commenting on every picture, let's just say that they all had a great Christmas and were super happy with everything they got.  Below is Anna trying out her new dog.  She is always begging us for a pet, but Josh and I just aren't pet people.  I figured that this was the next best thing....especially for this mama.

 I think Andrew's face says it all.

 Jenna slept through most of the fun.  Once she woke up, we got to snuggle and open her gifts.  We got her some new bedding that I am obsessed with.  I'll have to post pictures of her nursery soon.  I love how it turned out.

 I just thought it was cute how she was just barely bigger than the stocking.  I love babies!

 Sisters!

 This is the face I got every time I asked him to smile.  He'd close his eyes and then try not to laugh.

 Jenna got a bumbo, and by the look of it, she's not loving it.

 After Christmas, we went up to my parents house to spend some time with the Stewarts.  Always a good time.  Always.

 Anna got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas and this is her trying it out for the first time.  She LOVES it!!

 Sorry this picture is so dark.  Andrew got some tools from Gran and now he can help Daddy with all of his projects.

 I made my mom this door hanging.  I bought a jigsaw a few months ago and have been attempting to do a bit of monogramming for around our house.  I was really nervous to see if she would like it.  I wasn't sure if it was her style or not and didn't want to ask her and tip her off.  Turns out, she loved it.  Phew!

 We played some really fun games with some really yummy treats.

 Good ol' Rocky.

 We loved having Jacob and David there.  They are so fun!!

More to come....

Jenna Marie's Blessing Day

 I'm finally ready to get caught up on blogging.  It is amazing how quickly I get behind.  Life is fast paced and sometimes hard to keep up with.  Now that the holidays are done, I feel like I can catch my breath and get back into a normal groove.  We blessed Jenna on December 7th at our church.  It was a great day.  My parents got to come down for the occasion, which is always wonderful.  She looked beautiful and tender all dressed in white that day.  Like Anna, Jenna wore the same blessing dress that I wore when I was blessed 28 years ago.  I love that my girls get to wear the same special dress I did.
Jenna is an amazing baby.  I could kiss on those chubby cheeks forever.  She is so happy that she can hardly stand it.  Yesterday, I got her up from a nap and she just could not stop grinning ear to ear.  We let her cry it out this week and now she's sleeping for 13 hours at night.  Life is bliss again!  It only took Jenna one day to get it down too!  Here are a few pictures from our special day.

 Josh got pneumonia that week.  It was awful.  He would just lay on the bed, curled up in a little ball.  Josh is always on speed 10, so when I saw him just lounging around, I knew he must be really sick.  Poor thing.  He's better now.  That day, Josh went to church and blessed Jenna and then came home afterwards.  Maybe that's why she's crying in this picture.  She just didn't want to leave....  ;-)

 Grandpa is our baby whisperer.  He is so good with little Jen.  I think she took a liking to him.  What a sweet picture this is.

 Tender.

 Jenna is our third baby to be blessed on the first weekend in December.  It has just happened that way because of how their birthdays fall.  The first Sunday in December is also the day that our church puts on a Christmas devotional.  This year, as I watched the devotional and listened to all of the AMAZING music, I held my little baby in my arms and thought about Jesus.  I thought how Mary must have looked down at her baby the same way that I look down at mine.  Her heart must have been overflowing with love and gratitude for the miracle that she could call her child, just like mine.  Mary must have been able to feel a piece of heaven in her heart because of the angelic baby she held, just as I did.  I was listening to the choir sing, looking at my baby, thinking all of these thoughts, and just began to weep.  I was overwhelmed in that moment with love and awe at what a perfect, sweet baby I had been given.  It was tender, and a moment I hope to never forget.

 Jenna has my heart.  I'm so lucky I get to be her mom.

 I love this photo.  She seems to be really thinking about something.

 She thought about it, and gives it a thumbs up!!

It amazes me how with each new child we have, how my heart grows and makes room for another child to be loved just as much as the others.  Jenna is now four months old and doing great.  We love her.