Molly - 3 months old

I know this is almost 4 months overdue, but I just got this put together. The dress Molly is wearing is the first thing we bought when we found out we were pregnant - with Merritt. We didn't find out the sex of our first child until he was born, so we held onto the girl stuff we had purchased - with high hopes. The photos were taken by my friend Jen. She finally has her photography business officially going. Her website is http://www.jengillumphotography.com/ Thanks Jen. You're the BEST!

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Enchanted

One of the things we got to do this month was go to the El Capitan for an Enchanted party. Thank you Nina (and Erin and Onne) for a very fun Christmas party. I went to one of these parties in 2001 when I took Kayla Sharp to the Princess Diaries party. They sure have changed. When Kayla and I went, there were about 75-100 people who, after the movie, went to a tea party. We were served tea sandwiches, treats and different drink options. All of the Disney princesses were in attendance and came to talk to us (and pose for pictures, sign autographs, etc), table to table. Now when you leave the theatre and enter the after event, it is like a small amusement park inside. There is a jumper, a couple of different sized climbing walls, an apple throwing suite, an arcade that doesn't require quarters, and much more. Of course the Disney princesses were all there, including Giselle from Enchanted, but they don't meander the room, they have stations now, like at Disneyland, and you stand in line to see them. You can still sit down and be served a meal, but you have to have a private party, which is what we did. I think most everyone who attended the movie went to the after-event. But we waited until after our meal to go to the event and it wasn't too crowded. We didn't have to wait in line (more than one person ahead of us) to see any of the princesses and the boys were able to play without much of a wait also. Here are a couple of pictures...

Mason's favorite part of the evening was the climbing wall. He climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed... Every time he got to the top and slid down the other side to the bottom he was climbing to the top again - for an hour straight. Sometimes Merritt would join him, but Merritt enjoyed all of the options.

I think this was one of the highlights for Merritt. We waited until the very end of the evening for this picture so that we wouldn't have to wait in line (and waste time that was otherwise spent playing), but Merritt made sure that we didn't miss this photo opportunity. He sat and talked with Giselle for quite awhile before posing for the picture.

You probably noticed that there isn't a picture of Mason with any of the princesses. That is because he hid behind me every time we got up to one. He wouldn't even talk to them. I've never seen Mason act shy like that. Oh and thank you grandma for letting us borrow your camera. My camera had a dead battery when I took it out to start taking pictures.

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Merry Christmas!

I hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas. We had such a nice relaxing day at our house today. I was a bit concerned that today might be a hard day for me because I haven't been to bed before 3am for the past 4 nights in a row and last night was 5 am. But honestly this day was one of the better Christmases I have had in a long time. Here are a few pictures of our season...

Molly didn't want to look at the camera much. She was pretty entranced by Santa. If you've read Bruce's blog though, you know that we finally did get a good picture.

The next few pictures are of the kids helping us decorate our home..

I know this picture of the boys is a bit blurry, but I had to post it. Bruce caught this as Mason had just slipped, telling Merritt what was in the package.

We had two Christmas trees this year. This is the one the boys were decorating in the pictures above. This is what it looked like this morning when Bruce and I finally went to bed. (We weren't up wrapping gifts. I was finishing Mason's stocking and Bruce was making Jesus' birthday cake, and then we cleaned).

We don't have a fireplace at our new house, so the stockings get hung on the TV console with care... (notice Mason's finished stocking. I'm pretty proud of the finished product. Molly will get a needlepoint one to match the rest next year - I'm already starting it!)

And here is Jesus' birthday cake, our nativity that gets a new piece every day for 7 days (the last gift box being opened on Christmas morning before we open any other gifts), and in the basket behind the cake, the Christmas cards we receive. I love this picture, because it holds our family Christmas traditions in it. Every Christmas we do this nativity; we eat Jesus' birthday cake for breakfast; and every year we keep the cards we receive in the basket for the whole year. We pull one out every night we sit down together for dinner and pray for the family it represents.

And finally, this picture of Molly was taken this morning as she was enjoying Christmas morning too. (Notice she is crawling. She started that last week.)

I hope you have had a blessed, Christ-centered Christmas season, and that if the season has gotten away from you without you even realizing it, that you can take some time this week - before the new year starts - to see God, to put your focus on the wonder of Him, the blessings that He has given you, and know how much He loves you.

"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness." Psalm 29:2

I don't know about you, but that's how I intend to start off 2008.

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