Christmas came quick this year! We got home on December 7th and the first week felt like a total blur! By the time we got our barrings, Christmas  was nearly here. We celebrated with my family the weekend beforehand.My brother’s family came down with the flu, so they were unable to come 😦 We missed them so much, but were thankful to reschedule for next weekend. I came down with the stomach flu so I popped in and out of the festivities. The kids loved ever minute of it and my parents made it really special for us all and took care of so much of the weekend (Julie and I have been busy with the boys, so it was such a treat not to cook!)

 

Nativity Play

Swapping little boys 🙂

Michael the good sport playing Santa

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Jude continues to let us know what he likes and doesn’t like when it comes to food and drink.  He has figured out that he gets an easy laugh with his reactions.. and he LOVES that!

The 3 kiddos were so sweet on Christmas morning. I love seeing them come down the steps each year, one of my treasured memories- they are so excited and happy. Jude joined right in and enjoyed every bit of it. The kids are so patient with him and they seem to find so much joy watching him experience each new thing. It’s so cute and we are thankful for it!

Sibling Love

Lovin on baby brother

Cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning hot chocolate (Jude couldn’t resist)

I will post more photos of Christmas when I have time (who knows when that will be?!) 🙂

We celebrated Jesse’s 6th Birthday on December 27th. I can’t believe he is already 6! He is getting so big- all of his clothes are all of a sudden too small. We are so proud of him- he is such a loving little guy.. He is quick to hug and kiss his baby brother at every chance he gets. We surprised him with a new Skylander bike. He loved it and wasted no time riding it, too cute:

A couple days before Christmas, Ava was able to drop off her donation to FCCS. Thank you again to everyone who helped. She was beeming when we carried it all in. She was so, so happy! The lady who worked there was so nice and took the time to ask Ava about the donation and she was able to share her story of God calling her to raise money for children at FCCS. The sweet lady asked to shake her hand. It was so awesome to see her do what God called her to do, despite all of the challenges she faced in making it happen.

Ready to deliver the gifts!

Things continue to go well.. we are so amazed at how well Jude has adapted to his new environment. He still throws those fits, but we see them much less frequently. He unfortunately decided he wanted a toy from the zoo after this photo was taken and things went downhill fast. Ava and I were separated from Michael and Jesse, to make matters worse. The point of this story is that Ava totally took her role of big sis seriously and helped me when I was nearing an emotional outburst in response to his emotional outburst (We’ve all been there, right, mamas?) Anyway, she was like, “Mom, let me help you, I’ll push the stroller, you carry him.. it will be fine. Don’t let it get ya down!” She’s pretty great. We made it!

Blurry Photo of us at Wild Lights (before Jude threw a tantrum and I threw an adult tantrum)

Again, he is doing great. He loves to laugh and he does it often. Jude loves attention and loves to play. We are so thankful for him 🙂