Ballet Watch Day

Rachel began ballet back in September and she has loved every minute of it! On Wednesday, after her ballet lesson on Tuesday, she begins to ask me how many days until ballet again. Then by Sunday, she announces to me that the next day is Monday ..."and then Mommy, it will be Tuesday and I can go to ballet!!"
The first Tuesday in December we had the opportunity to go inside the studio for Parent Watch Day. She was so excited to show us all she has learned.
Rebekah watched for just a little while and then she wanted down to dance too. Hard as it is to believe, she could be taking dance in 2 years too!!

She showed us her arabesque, passe, and even had a chance to give a special spin on her own across the "stage" and then curtsy.

Rebekah decided since we wouldn't let her dance that she would find a friend on the other side of the glass to play with. These two were so cute as they were mimics of each other!

We enjoyed getting to watch Rachel dance. We are very proud of our little ballerina and looking forward to seeing her dance in her recital in the spring!

Christmas Fun

The first couple days of December found us quickly decorating as we prepared to have families from church over for our Deacon's Christmas lunch. We headed to get our tree. The tree farm we go to is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and actually is the tree farm that we used to come get our Christmas trees from, even when we lived in Colonial Heights. I didn't realize until after we moved here that we now only live about 20 minutes from here.

I called about the white pines that they usually have and we headed out to pick one out. After looking for quite a while, we figured out there were no white pines to be found. We ended up with a Concolor fir. After we got it home, we realized there was something pretty unique about it. Our whole house smelled like oranges. We googled it and sure enough, instead of the typical "Christmas tree" scent, Concolors smell like an orange!

Next we headed to the Lexington Christmas Parade. I think both of these pictures are so funny! Neither girl would look at me because they didn't want to stop watching the parade to get their picture made!

We did get the lights on the tree that night after the parade but decided to save the decorating until the next morning.

Rachel is old enough this year to really enjoy helping to decorate and she is good at it too. Rebekah enjoyed the little Wake Forest Deacon "Christmas man" (this is Rachel's name for Santa) for quite a while.

This is Brent and Rachel getting ready to place our Christmas nail. This idea came from the book "Redeeming the Season" and it a great read for ideas for truly focusing on Jesus each Christmas. Our Christmas nail is an ornament we place in the center of our tree each year that only our family knows is there. It is a reminder to us of our Savior who came as a baby, lived a perfect life in our place and willingly gave His Life on a tree for us that each of us might be forgiven of the wrong we have done when we come to Him by faith.

                                          "For by grace you have been saved through faith; 
                                                         and that not of yourselves,
                                                                  it is the gift of God;  
                                                         not as a result of works, so that no one may boast"
                                                                  Ephesians 2:8-9

                                                               First Peter 2: 24 says 
                      " who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, 
                                                       that we, having died to sins, 
                                                        might live for righteousness
                                                 —by whose stripes you were healed."

Play Time

Last week, we enjoyed having Molly and Hannah Coiner over for a visit. We had been trying for a few days to figure out a time to get together and finally were able to pick out a time. Rachel was thrilled- she loves playing with babies and I think enjoys spending time with little ones besides just her sister. She also kept helping by bringing Hannah  toy after toy for her to try.

 We got everyone still enough at snack time to grab a picture of all of us. We got Rebekah and Hannah standing side by side. As you can see, Rebekah is a few months older but Hannah is very close to the same height already!

While Rachel helped Hannah play, Rebekah was content to play on her own today. I sat my camera on the couch while I was helping Rachel with something and I began to hear "click, click" Guess who had found my camera and decided to take a few pictures on her own? If you look closely at the top edge of the picture, you can see the edge of her head...

Thanks for coming over, Hannah and Molly! We had fun visiting with you all!

Big Girl

 Since around Thanksgiving, we have seen Rebekah really trying new things and wanting to do as much as she can on her own. She is attempting to use a spoon, sometimes with more success than others.

 We decided to wait until after our long trip to NC, in case she got really tired, to put her in the forward facing car seat. Here she is getting strapped in her "big girl" seat for the first time. That is her big sister she is giving that sweet smile to. They can actually pass toys back and forth to each other now.

 She was very proud of herself. Here she is clapping after getting in her seat

 Since we have changed our format of  our Sunday night church services are doing Word of Life with Gopher Buddies, Rebekah is going in Gopher Buddies with Rachel and I. Here she is enjoying her banana split for snack in Gopher Buddies. Notice she is shoveling it in with both the spoon and her fingers.

 She is officially walking too. In fact, she is almost running at times now and will try to go anywhere SHE wants to go.

 She is even trying a big girl cup sometimes. This usually goes well when she is drinking out of it but usually the spill occurs when she sits it down and tries to use the cup to make music against the table!

Rebekah Faith, We Love You and are so proud of all the new things you are learning!

Thanksgiving

 We had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled to North Carolina to visit with our family there. We headed to Troy, NC to visit with Brent's family first on Thanksgiving Day. His extended family (aunts, uncles and cousins and his parents and siblings) all still gather at his grandparent's home on Thanksgiving Day. We were especially blessed with year that his granddad (Big Papa to our girls) was able to be at home this year. Last year, he had gotten an infection, had a prolonged hospitalization and was in rehabilitation over Thanksgiving. So we were all so thankful he was home on Thanksgiving this year!

                                                     

These T-shirts were our pre-Thanksgiving project this year. Rachel and I had a great time putting them together while Rebekah napped one morning.All was well until I realized I didn't have fabric glue...yes, I had to put them back together after a Walmart trip for glue!

Uncle Alvin, Cousin Melanie and Aunt Annette

Rachel playing with her cousins and uncles

We had a great time visiting with our aunts, uncles and cousins as well. Owen and Aidan even played a duet on their fiddle and banjo for us! They are both doing a great job!

Bekah was not feeling her best (gotta love teething) and she was glad to be held and her grandparents were glad to hold her!

The girls with Uncle Jared and Aunt Brooke and Uncle Jason and Aunt Brittany

Thankful for time with Big MaMa and Big Papa

McGuirt Family, Thanksgiving 2012

       On Friday, we held Thanksgiving at my Mom's house with my family. My family has switched to Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving so we can be with Brent's family on Thursday. As my grandmother says "I don't care which day we do Thanksgiving, as long as we are together."                       

Mimi getting hugs from Rachel

 Rebekah is now officially walking and she loved the steps at Mimi's house. At home, we have a full flight of steps and she can only sit on the bottom step. At Mimi's there are 3 carpeted steps with a wall and she went up and down (and up and down-you get the idea.)

Mom and Ashelyn

Grams and I

Pop and Bekah

 We had a great lunch together. My mom and my grandmother are both wonderful cooks! Brent was so glad to get some of Gram's field peas (one of his favorites). Now if I can just get my grandmother to write down her recipes. She tends to cook with a pinch of this and dab of that-I have told her I might need her to be a little more specific in her recipes for me!
In the afternoon, we headed out with my sister to downtown Fayetteville for "A Dickens Christmas." For the last several years, the day after Thanksgiving, Fayetteville has had this celebration downtown. We started out going to it because my sister sang with her high school chorus in it for a couple of years. Now, it has kind of become tradition to go. This year we were able to make it to the Children's Museum as part of this too (yeah for $1 admission this day). Aunt Ashelyn helped my girls make Victorian ornaments (yes, she made Bekah's for her).

 Finally, it was time for the tree lighting and this year... Fireworks!

Photos by Brent McGuirt Photography

On Saturday, before we had to head back to Virginia, we got together with my Dad and family for lunch. We had a good visit with them as well

Grandpa, Ethan and Bekah

Emily and Bekah

Grandpa, Rachel and Rebekah

Our Family,Thanksgiving 2012

             We had a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting with all our family. We are so blessed with all the blessings the Lord has so graciously given us this past year and each and every day. We are thankful most of all for Jesus, because it is by His Grace alone that He saves us and gives us any good thing we have!

" Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17