Better Late than Never

I really should have posted some Christmas pics by now, sorry to all of you who are anxiously sitting in front of your computer screen waiting on them - HA! The holidays are so hectic to begin with and we also have two of our kiddos' birthdays in the months of November and December, so come the end of the year we are all drained (physically AND financially)!! So consider this my catch-up post... pictures from Ella's 3rd birthday, Caleb's 5th birthday and Christmas.

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It was fun having our Alabama family at Ella's party this year. They happened to be here for Thanksgiving already on the day we had her party. We started the day with our family birthday breakfast tradition - Ella picked cinnamon rolls as her breakfast of choice and she opened her presents from us (some pajamas and a pair of Strawberry Shortcake shoes). We had a lunch celebration at our house after church with pizza and other snacks and, of course, a Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake. We also celebrated our neighbor Jacob's 4th birthday at the same time since he and Ella share the same birthday. Christina (his mommy) brought some fun games for all the kids to play outside during the party.

Caleb didn't want a big party this year, so he opted to pick a few friends and go to a movie and dinner. He said he wanted Carrabba's (that's my boy!) but of course that wasn't an option for so many people. That morning, he chose sausage, eggs and strawberry muffins for his birthday breakfast (I am waiting for someone to want their meal from a restaurant somewhere). He opened his Star Wars dress-up trunk and Nerf gun (don't tell him but that was a hand-me down from someone!) Later in the afternoon, he and four of his friends went with Scott for a boys only trip to see the movie Bolt and then we all met up afterwards with family and friends at Sonny's for dinner. They have a party room that we were able to use for the festivities. It was a lot of fun and so much easier on me not having to do a whole lot food-wise or decorating-wise. I got him Star Wars cupcakes and we provided a gallon of Sonny's banana pudding for everyone and then everyone ordered their own food if they wanted anything. One neat thing that happened was that the 3-D wasn't working properly during the movie so Scott got 12 rain checks for any movie, any time, any age! So while it wasn't necessarily inexpensive to take all the boys to a movie and dinner (although cheaper than a big party at home), we ended up with lots of free movie passes to use in the future!

Killing time between the movie and dinner

Isn't my man handsome in his new glasses? :)

I can't believe our little man is 5 already!

And finally, Christmas! I never knew how enjoyable this holiday would be once we had children. We started our celebration a day early when Grandma and Grandpa spent Christmas Eve Day here with us. We opened presents and then my mom cooked us a yummy meal. It was a really fun visit. Christmas morning we woke up (not terribly early, I might add) to Caleb in our bed and both girls asleep. We opted not to wake Ella up - she gets a bit grumpy when she is tired and I wasn't ready to deal with that on such a busy day. Caleb was content playing with a couple of his new toys while Ella and Lillian slept and I made breakfast - monkey bread and sausage balls (so nutritious, I know). We had our present-opening frenzy and then enjoyed breakfast while we watched the Macy's parade. Scott opened toys for the kids while I started Christmas dinner - I decided that I wanted to eat around lunchtime this year so I had to get going pretty early!

A neat hand-made present from Grandma

Getting ready for bed Christmas Eve

Christmas morning

Helping Grandaddy open his presents

Caleb helping make homemade rolls for Christmas dinner

So many things about the day reminded me of how much we have... first of all, to have THE reason to even celebrate Christmas... to have an amazing family to share holidays with, to be blessed with a husband and children I don't deserve... we were also included in some neighborhood provisions like a free Christmas meal and the opportunity to shop at the Christmas Store which sells toys at 75% off retail price - both of those things are HUGE blessings financially to us and it also humbles us to be reminded how much people in our church and city care about and give to this community. God is so faithful to provide for our family in so many ways.