Santa Came to our House!!

We always do our stockings first. The kids hung them up in our entry hallway so that is where they opened them. It was soooo exciting!

I love Jagger's face in this picture. He is definately our most excitable child and he did NOT disappoint!

James does love his DS games!

A shooting game....oh, the joy!!

A Bakugan Battlefield...now we just need to learn the rules. Oh forget it...we'll make up our own!

Kaylee LOVES Guiness Books and was thrilled to receive one from her Nanny and Papa.

Kaylee and Daddy enjoying the Guiness Book. Unfortunately, Jim took his turn with the stomach flu in the early hours of Christmas morning and didn't get over it for 3 days (hence the look on his face and him laying on the couch in all of the Christmas pics!).

Oh no!! Our house is being invaded by Storm Troopers!!

It's just Jagger! Here he is defending his Star Wars tent from his Nanny and Papa in his Storm Trooper outfit from Mamaw and Papaw. Beware!!

And then we lost our Jimmy for the rest of the day. He made appearances throughout but never for very long. It was a very sad day not having him around! We even saved Christmas dinner for the next day...and a picture of it for the next post....

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Eve

Since Kaylee took her turn with the stomach bug in the early morning of Christmas Eve, we decided not to go to Christmas Eve service at church. Instead we read the story of Jesus' birth at home and then drove around the neighborhood looking at lights. Normally there are jammies all wrapped and waiting for us when we get home from service and luckily they were still delivered while we were out looking at lights (now if we could just figure out who puts them in our drawers...top contenders are Mrs. Claus or one of Santa's elves).

And here we are trying to get the perfect Christmas Eve Jammie Photo....

After pics we snuggled on the couch and watched the Christmas Story. Everyone had seen it before but me. It was awesome. I loved watching my husband laugh so much...he must have had a lot of memories going through his head because I didn't find it nearly as funny as he did. I really enjoyed how old fashion it was though. Very cute.

Once the movie was over (Jagger started in the middle of the movie) the kids began begging to go to bed so that Santa could come. We had cookies and carrots out and the kids were camped out in our bedroom by 8:30. We could hear them whispering and giggling for a while but they were all asleep by 9:15. And they didn't even wake up until 7!!

Then Santa came....but that will be another post.....

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

So, with all of us being sick over Christmas Break we never made it to the mall to see Santa. Luckily for us, Chick Fil A came to the rescue!! While I was taking my turn with the stomach bug, Mr. and Mrs. Claus visited our local Chick Fil A and Jimmy, being the awesomest daddy that he is, took the boys (Kaylee was feeling much too old for that sort of thing this year!!).

Now, it was done in "Daddy Style." There are no cute Christmas shirts on the boys and there is not a picture of them all together, but at least they saw the Big Man!!

Jagger was soooo excited for Christmas this year. Check out his silly face!
I love how Mr. and Mrs. Claus are leaning in to listen to his list. Gotta make sure they get it all on the list!!

James, always one for procrastinating, was still thinking of something to say that he wanted. That boy!!

Oh, looks like he thought of some stuff!!

What a fun idea....gotta love Chick Fil A!! The boys had a blast. And daddy got his tummy fed while mama was laid up in bed. Perfect night indeed!

Teacher Gifts and School Christmas Parties

I did a post back in September where I showed you how Kaylee and I took pictures of things at the park that looked like the letters of her name. We had so much fun doing the activity that we decided to do the same thing with Kaylee and James' teacher's names for their Christmas gifts and frame them.

Here is Ms. Madison's. Kaylee was so excited because Ms. Madison pulled her aside and told her that this was the most creative gift she had received as a teacher. Well, you couldn't wipe the smile off of my Kaylee's face all afternoon!!


And here is Mrs. Twiss'. There were two extra spots so we put in a picture of apples and a picture of pencils to make it all fit and give it that "teacher" quality. It was fun to see the teacher's have no idea why they were receiving frames of random things and then watch their smiles grow as the children showed them the letters. Very cool!


Here is Kaylee enjoying a SUPER-ICED cookie at her party.

And a picture of James and Jagger in their cool matching shirts at James' Christmas party.

I love school parties! The kids had a blast and lasted on their sugar high for a VERY LONG TIME!! It was a perfect way to end the year and start off Christmas vacation. Now we have 17 days to get refreshed before we go back in the New Year.

My Superheroes

Here are three of my favorite Superheroes showing off their moves....

A Rare Insider Glimpse...

I don't often speak publicly about the issues I have faced having an adopted child and two biological children. I also don't speak about the issues that come with a child that spent the first year of his life in a hospital and an orphanage in a foreign country. Sometimes I feel like I will be judged. Sometimes I feel like it's James' story to be able to tell one day.

Then there are the seasons where all of the issues are so big that I can't see through them to the big picture anymore. I'm in one of those seasons right now. My heart is breaking for me and for my James.

I shared my deepest darkest fears with my friend Julie this morning. Her response was to ask me some tough questions and follow up with some serious friendship. Then she sent me this clip. I can see different people getting different things out of this. For some it will be about you and the work you do. For me though, it was as though God shouted something to me about my James. Watch first.

So what did God shout at me??

He told me that my James is a Cathedral. He is going to be so much more than I could ever imagine him to be. God is building him and all I have to do is love him and together we are building someone AWESOME!! James will be okay. And so will I.

Another Lost Tooth

For those of you that are friends with me on Facebook, this is a repeat. But he's soooo darn cute, how could I resist??

James lost his first top tooth. Third tooth overall. He really struggles with loose teeth. They make him nervous and he says they really hurt when he wiggles them. So, he likes to sit with me and work on it together. It can take hours!! And this one did!! He was so brave though and we never wiggled too much.

When the tooth finally came out he didn't know what he wanted to do. Go look at his smile? Look at his tooth? Swallow the blood or wipe it off? He gets a little freaked out by the whole experience. He was very excited after the initial shock though.

And he was thrilled this morning when he woke up to $2 under his pillow.

Such a big boy James!!