Sunday, December 30, 2012

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas! We had such a wonderful time celebrating with our family this year. Aunt Glory, Aunt Jewel, Uncle Marcus, cousins Aidan, Isaiah, and Eliana came to our house along with Grammie and Grandpa Kipapa. The kids had such a fun time together!


 Benjamin has really been into playing board games lately. He likes Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, and Trouble.
 The boys are bundled up for playing outside. I think they were only out there for about 5 minutes because it was so cold.

 Playing at the park with Grandpa Willy.

 One of my favorite things about Christmas this year was our Advent ornaments. I did an exchange with 23 other women. We each did 24 of the same ornament and then met up to exchange them. Benjamin really enjoyed it each day, and it really helped me to prepare my heart for the most important part of the season.

 On Christmas Eve we went to the kids service at church. And we finally made it to the Swank Christmas Eve party this year for the first time! The kids had a wonderful time playing outside in the tent and watching Christmas movies. Later that night, we came home and sprinkled oatmeal and glitter on the lawn so the reindeer would find their way to our house. We set out candy for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. And Benjamin didn't argue a bit about going to sleep! Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa and made our way to Natchitoches to see Gran and Poppy.


 As you can see Benjamin really enjoyed all his presents!




 New jammies!
 Playing the Magna-doodle with Gran.




Happy Birthday, Jonathan!



 It's hard to believe my baby is already 2! We had a birthday party for him at our house, and he had a great time. The kids bounced in the bounce house, ate cake, and had a blast. The only major bummer was that Benjamin had the flu, so he was quarantined upstairs.








It's November!


Or...late December, and I'm late on posting pictures! We've been very busy as usual. This month was the Team RWB Veterans Day Race Series that Brandon and I have helped with this year. I ran with the boys while Brandon set up signs and helped with logistics. Then we went to Dallas for the birth of our sweet new niece Eliana.






Benjamin celebrated Thanksgiving at school and they dressed like pilgrims and Indians.

We also celebrated our friend Elijah's 1st birthday at the park!

Happy Thanksgiving!


We went to Natchitoches for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with Gran and Poppy and Uncle Trent and Uncle Trevor. I took tons of pictures of the boys and these are some of my favorites.

Just after feeding the ducks.



We got Jonathan a bounce house for his birthday. More pictures to come from the party...
We also decorated for Christmas - "Merry, merry!" say my reindeer.