A North Carolina Christmas, Part 2

 Next in our North Carolina Christmas trip, we got to see my Grams.

As we were getting the girls ready for the day, Bekah decided that she wanted her hair in a ponytail. Grams wanted to make sure her ears were covered. So we made her a little bonnet from one of Grams's scarves and she loved it.

Grams and her youngest great granddaughter

 Here is Grams opening her presents. She requested only pictures of the girls this year, so we started a photo album of each girl that we can add to as the girls grow and a canvas of our updated family picture.

 We also saw Grandpa, Cici and Family on our trip to NC also.

 Ethan and Bethany had fun playing together. Here is Bethany "reading" her book Emily picked out just for her.

 Here is Bekah opening her gifts with Andrew and Emily.

 Nothing like a Princess Dance Party game to add to the fun for Rachel and Emily. We all enjoyed watching them too. Bekah took a turn as well but I didn't manage to get her picture.

We enjoyed visiting with Grams and had fun with Grandpa and Family too. We love you all and we look forward to seeing you all again in the spring!
 Still more fun to come with the family as we visited Brent's family celebrating Christmas and New Years in the same day and then celebrating Rachel's birthday (early) with the family.

A North Carolina Christmas, Part 1

 This past week after Christmas, we were able to travel back to North Carolina to visit with all the family. We headed to Mimi and Pop's house first, where Mimi got lots of hugs from all the girls.

 They also enjoyed some reading time with Aunt Ashelyn

 and some play time with Pop.

 Pop also cooked his yummy big breakfast for us.

Here are the girls sporting their new rain coats from Mimi, Pop and Aunt Ashelyn. They also got matching rain boots as well. They even found a matching rain coat for Bethany, who had fallen asleep by this point.

 

My sister and I share a love for reading and as part of my gift she wanted to take me to a bookstore she had found that she likes a lot and let  me pick out a few books as part of my Christmas gift from her. Here are Bethany, she and I headed from the bookstore.

We had a great time visiting Mimi, Pop, and Aunt Ashelyn as the start of our North Carolina Christmas. We love you all!

Sister Shopping

No, they are not shopping for new sisters...they were shopping for each other's Christmas present! I purposely saved this post until after Christmas because sometimes the girls look at the blog and I wanted them to be surprised by their gifts for each other.
They were each given a very small budget to buy gifts for each of their sisters and we talked about the importance of giving gifts, not just receiving them and about how to pick out a gift each of their sisters would like. Then off to Dollar General we went.  Bekah went in with me first while Rachel and Bethany waited in the van with their Daddy. Then we switched and I brought Rachel in. Of course, I was Bethany's shopper for her sisters this year. With just a few gentle reminders, that they were picking out things their sisters would like, the big girls actually had their gifts for each other picked out pretty quickly.

The big girls then each took a turn hiding their presents and wrapping them where their sisters could not see them.

Sister gifts were a big hit! As you can see, Rachel really liked the gift Bethany "picked out" for her this year.

Bethany was highly entertained by the turtle toy Rachel picked out for her

Bekah liked her baby dolls and her big sister already got her to agree that they could play with them together!

What fun to see them thinking of and being excited about blessing their sisters! We pray they always continue to be the best of friends and realize what a blessing from God their sisters are to each of them!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:10-12

                                          
 
I finished wrapping presents a little after midnight and Baby Jesus made it to the manger to be there when the girls woke up this morning. We are feeling very blessed with our new little one this year and have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Bethany's First Christmas with her!

Merry First Christmas, Bethany Joy!

 We didn't get an incredibly early start to the day (thankfully!) and we enjoyed a family breakfast before we started on the gift exchange. Brent cooked us some very tasty omelets to start the day!
Then there was reading the Christmas story with Daddy.

 This year we switched things around. We opened our wrapped gifts from each other first and then the girls got their surprise gifts from us. We have chosen not do Santa with our girls but they do get a couple of surprise gifts from Mom and Dad. Rachel has called Santa "the Christmas man" since she was small so this year's gifts came from "Daddy Christmas man" or "Daddy Claus". This year I also set out their surprise gifts and covered them up since I knew if they got up before we did they would be in the gifts likely and there would be no more surprises!

 I tried this year to do a keepsake gift, a clothing gift and their toy gifts. Bekah got a little dancer necklace since she takes dance and the little girl on the necklace looks like she is in first position for ballet. Bekah decided to go into first position while wearing her necklace.

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

Bethany helped me unwrap my gifts including a beautiful handmade vase, bowl and star

 Bethany seemed to be a fan of her new prop mat which is great because she is not a big fan of tummy time at all!

 We started two new family traditions this year. One is a short family hike. It was much sunnier today than most of this week and we bundled everyone up in their snow suits and ski attire so they would stay plenty warm and headed out for a little family hike this afternoon.

The other new tradition was to have our bigger meal on Christmas evening and we all dressed up a little bit to make it special. We had a really yummy supper together and finished with the "Happy Birthday, Jesus" cake and song for Jesus's Birthday.

 This has been a special day for us celebrating Jesus's Birth. As we were hiking, Rachel and I were walking on the trail together and talking about how awesome it was that Jesus, who made everything and had everything, was willing to give up everything for us and come be born in a cold and smelly stable in Bethlehem.

 How thankful we are that Jesus was willing to give up everything He rightly deserves to save us from everything we rightly deserve when we trust completely in Him! Thanking God for His indescribable love for us today on Christmas and everyday! Merry Christmas!!

 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of       God in Him.                 2 Corinthians 5:21

Christmas Eve

 Merry Christmas Eve!

Bethany Joy's first Christmas Eve

 Today we enjoyed a special time as a family on Christmas Eve together. We wrapped a few presents since I hadn't gotten to that yet! The girls wrapped their presents for each other ( More on this coming up...)

 Rachel read her Bible for awhile and we prepared for this evening's Candlelight Christmas Eve service at church

 We had a great service including lots of Scripture reading and carols

 Our family sang "Away in a Manger" as has become our tradition each Christmas Eve service. Bekah was just a little younger than Bethany the first time we did this and Rachel then in 2011 was close to the same age Bekah is now.

 Often we go outside at the end of the Christmas Eve service but this year all of the service was held inside. It was so beautiful to see and a blessing to hear our church family singing "Silent Night" in the candlelight. What a wonderful reminder of that first Christmas night !

 After the service we took time to get a few family pictures including baby in a manger. I have a picture of Bekah just like this as well. Bethany was her usual happy self  about this.

 We headed home to prepare Christmas Eve lasagna and take a few (dozen) pictures to get all the girls looking toward the camera!

 

 Then it was bedtime for the girls so Mom could finish wrapping their presents! They read their new Christmas books with their Daddy before we tucked them in

All ready for bed in their Christmas pajamas

 Our manger is all ready for Baby Jesus's arrival in the morning. We are so thankful for our Savior and looking forward to celebrating His Birthday!

"But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;  for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."   Luke 2:11