Christmas (Part 1)

The Sunday before Christmas, we celebrated Christmas with Brian's family.  The kids had so much fun! Of course whenever we go over there, the girls go straight for the iphones!  They just love the "talking kitty."  Elizabeth helped them out by downloading a new talking Santa, which was a huge hit!  We also celebrated Caroline's 5th birthday! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Andrew chewing on a candy cane

iphone #1

iphone #2

Caroline and Mary

Caroline showing Andrew how to play "talking kitty"

Andrew wanted a turn too!

One of the few times she actually posed for a picture

Caroline reading her book

Caroline, Aubrey, and Mary

Caroline with her princess birthday card

Aubrey helping to bring in the presents

Andrew hanging out with Grammie

Caroline passing out presents

Checking to see if there were any more presents under the tree!

New Mickey and Minnie cups.

New wands and tiaras

Princess Aurora and Princess Belle

Brian going "Jamaican"

Aubrey giving Elizabeth a taste of her cupcake!

Something Bigger....

As I've been learning in my faith, I've especially wanted to pass that on to my children.  The hunger, the passion, and most importantly the relationship with Christ.  For Christmas I wanted the girls to see what Christmas was truly about.  I've never been great about sharing my faith with others, but I've also learned that while it is so important to share our faith, there are other ways to show God's love for us and through that hopefully open up opportunities to share.  I'm not really sure how I ran across this blog...I think I saw it on facebook from another mom.  This blog (Lil' Light O' Mine) was and is amazing! The idea is to do random acts of kindness for other people.  The blog provides everything! Ideas of what to do, tags to attach, and even a planning schedule!!  I loved this idea and I thought it would be a great way for Caroline to see, one, what joy you can get from giving to others, and two, some different ways to show God's love to others.  Living behind a Publix, we go there a lot, and many of the people in there recognize us because we are frequent visitors.  So we loaded up our candy canes and headed into Publix to share some "thank yous" with the people who help us out on a weekly basis.  It was so much fun! Caroline really got into it! We hit every person in Publix! The sweet ladies at the deli counter cried when we gave her one because she was so touched! It was really a great time!! After Publix, we took cookies to the police station and the fire station, and we finished up the trip with a candy cane stop at the post office and the library.  It's definitely an tradition that I want to do annually and maybe even a few times a year.  Because I found it later in the year, I wasn't able to plan as much as I would have liked, but next year, we will be prepared!!

A Miracle in the Making

One of my favorite parts of life right now, outside of my family, is my community group from church.  It's a very unique group (I use that in the most sweet way, to which they would all agree) filled with different people from different walks of life.  We meet every Monday night, and I mean every Monday.  We rarely take breaks and we've been together for two years now, but if anyone asks, we've only been together a few months...we don't want anyone breaking us up :-)  We did grieve the loss of one of our group families to a move to Illinois, so we're currently adding new group members to expand our group.

The reason I give this background is because our group has experienced many different highs and lows.  Being together for a significant amount of time with 4 other couples is bound to bring joy and sorrow.  For one couple, it was cancer found in their 8 year old daughter.  (Who is now cancer free!)  Another is following God's will to move across country with their family.  Another is a family celebrating an engagement of their daughter.  Ours was quitting my job believing and trusting that it was God's will for our family. (And He has totally blessed that decision, but that's a whole other post :-) And the journey for the last members of our group has been a long three year adoption process.

Brian and Karen began the process of adoption about three years ago to adopt a little girl from Bulgaria.  They have three other children, Abby (14), Ian (10), and Owen (8).  They knew the process would be a long one, but they continued with the process knowing it was God's will.  We came into the picture about a year into the process and continued their journey with them up through this point.

After almost three years, they got the call in May of this year for their referral. They got to go and visit with Mariya in June and were actually there for her second birthday!  After traveling to Bulgaria, it was all in the courts hands. They had to wait on the US court systems and the Bulgarian court systems to finish paperwork and wait for a call.  On October 25th, Mariya Ruth officially became a member of their family.  On December 17th, we were so fortunate to be able to meet them at the airport when they brought how sweet Mariya.  It was an emotional and exciting homecoming!  Here are some pictures and video of the big "reveal" day :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj6-D1pocGc&list=UUH7eivrYr0eCQWcZUqUjq6g&index=3&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euRnm_gxLvU&list=UUH7eivrYr0eCQWcZUqUjq6g&index=2&feature=plcp

Signs that Caroline and Aubrey made

Sweet Mariya!

The family

After being a little scared of all the people, Mariya went right for Caroline

Mariya and her mom

The Star of the Show!

Caroline's Pre-K had their Christmas play the last day of school before Christmas break.  Caroline was the STAR! No...literally, she was the star...you know...over the manger?

The play was so cute! They told the entire story of the Jesus' birth through song and through the children's lines.  My pictures are a little off because I was video taping and taking pictures at the same time.  Brian couldn't be there because of a meeting at work, so I wanted to make sure I got all of it on video as well as have still shots.  Oh and don't hate on Caroline's costume...I did the best I could :-)

Walking in 

Saying her lines..."I shined for all the world to see.  The wise men followed me for the King they wanted to see."

At the "Happy Birthday Jesus" party after the program

Two Ballerinas

Caroline takes ballet on Thursday at Compass Dance Academy in Tyrone.  It is such a wonderful organization! It has a lot of people from Operation Mobilization (OM) that is also located in Tyrone.  It was started by a wife of one of the missionaries at OM.  The teachers are wonderful and they incorporate God into all that they do.  Caroline enjoys it, but I have to say, watching Aubrey's excitement when Thursday rolls around makes my heart happy.  Aubrey is thrilled to go to watch Caroline on Thursdays.  She wears her Cinderella costume so that she has a "fancy" dress on like Caroline.  There are two rooms for dance there and Caroline's class is in one and the other is empty for that particular 30 minute time period.  Mrs. Sara always has the lights on and the air going so that Aubrey can go in and dance.  It is so sweet to watch her gallop and dance around the room while watching her every move in the large mirrors that encompass the room.  Here is a video of Aubrey dancing in the room while Caroline is in class.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKQwTSEnctM&feature=youtu.be

I set up all of that to say that on Caroline's last ballet class before Christmas, it was parent observation day.  They set up chairs for all the family to come in and watch in the studio instead of through the viewing glass.  Since there were only two girls there that day, her teacher asked if Aubrey would like to participate in class.  Aubrey was so excited she couldn't stand it! I was very impressed with her! She stayed with them and did most of the activities that the teacher told them to.  Of course, I was snapping pictures and videos the entire time.  I've posted a few below.  I have no doubts that next year when Aubrey is three, she will be taking ballet. 

Warming up (Aubrey is the little one :-)

Getting ready to dance with scarves

Caroline Turns 5!

Caroline recently had her 5th birthday party! I can't believe she is 5! Although I have two other children, it just seems like yesterday she was born.  In September, Caroline attended her first spend the night party at a friends house.  We felt very comfortable with the family because we know them very well.  The father works with Brian at Chick-fil-a, so the girls were in daycare together from the time they were born, and they also go to our church.  So when we began discussions about Caroline's 5th birthday party, there wasn't much discussion about what kind of party she wanted to have.  Brian and I discussed it and decided to give it a try! She had 5 friends come over, 3 of which spent the night.  It was actually a very calm and fun night! The girls enjoyed playing together, eating pizza, cake and ice cream, watching Cinderella, and painting fingernails all sorts of glittery colors!

Eating pizza

Aubrey with her "new do"

Strawberry Shortcake cake

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Caroline

Opening presents

Aubrey, Luci, Katie, and Abigail

Watching Cinderella

The girls needed a milk break after watching Cinderella!