Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is already 2010!!! The start of a new decade! At the end of this decade, we will have teenagers! There is going to be alot happening within the next decade, and I am sure we will have to hold on tight for this crazy ride. But, lets just focus on this next year. Hmmm - there is going to be a lot happening. The worst thing that keeps plaguing my mind, is the start of school for my girls! I have been dreading this year since 2005 - yes, when they were born. And now, come August, I will have to say good bye to my first babies! Sniff, sniff - alright enough of that (there will be lots of blogging about this!) This year, we will be experiencing all of our little Finley's firsts. Her first crawl, sitting by herself, first steps, first words, first foods, and first birthday. It is so exciting to celebrate all of these things with a baby! Let's see... my friend Sarah will have a baby and my sister will have her wedding. Maybe there will be a move for us (that is if this crazy market takes an upswing)! Resolutions?? I don't really love making resolutions, because they are so hard to keep. Goals? One thing that I really started working on last year is grocery shopping. I have been trying really hard to cut our grocery bill in half. So, my goal is to continue this weekly and get better at that. The main goal I have is to be Jesus! Now to completely understand this goal, you would have to listen to Pastor Kenn's sermons because he has been preaching this for a while now. But I am to be Jesus to everyone and everyone should see Jesus through me. I am to be holy and blameless. Holiness means "to be set apart to the service of God." It means to be different in character but also implies action. "There is a way in which holiness means us to be different, and then to act differently." - I need to be Jesus in both character and action. Daily I will have these goals. Daily I need to remember that I am to be Jesus to everyone around me. Even though some days I do not even leave this house - I am to be Jesus to my children and teach them how to be Jesus to others. This is a big goal, but I am up for the challenge! I hope everyone has a terrific New Year - I know this will be a great year!

Toodles Rachel and Paul

My sister, Rachel, and Paul left yesterday and are headed to Australia! What an amazing adventure!! They are actually still flying (I think)! I am very excited for them to spend 6 months "down under" - I would love to do something like that! Anyways, if you look to the left, there is a link to their blog that she will be updating while they are there. There is also a link to their wedding website too. So check in and see what is happening with them.

Merry Christmas

What a terrific Christmas we had! I love being a parent at Christmas - it makes it so fun to see your kids light up with all the wonderful presents that you got them! We made it another year Santa free! I really don't want to encourage the whole Santa thing, because I really want to instill in my children the spirit of giving and that it is Jesus's birthday! I love kicking off the Christmas season with our Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes. The kids love buying gifts for the kids whose Mommies and Daddies can't. And this year it was really neat to be able to track our boxes. All our boxes went to Madagascar!! We got the email the day before Christmas Eve that they were there. I showed the girls all the pictures of kids in Madagascar and they were thrilled to see the stacks of boxes that looked just like theirs and all the kids waiting to get one! Another awesome experience we had this year, was buying gifts for a family in need in our area. Our Sunday School class was blessed with the opportunity to help out the sweetest family and it was so fun to have our kids involved. There was a little girl who is a year older than the girls and a little boy who is a year older than Harper. This made it perfect to shop for them. Carly, Chloe, and Harper got to pick out things that they thought would really make them happy on Christmas morning. They also helped wrap the presents and deliver them! I think this made an awesome connection to see how great it feels to help others and to put them first! The whole month of December was exciting and they were just excited to give! I didn't want to mention gifts to them because I didn't want that to be all they were thinking about - I didn't want them to want anything. We did go and see Santa, but that is just for the pics and the girls really wanted to conquer that fear of not crying. I don't want to take something away from them, but I just don't want to push the subject either. Well on Christmas morning the girls woke up and came into our room (they had no clue that there would be presents). I said Merry Christmas to them, and Carly's eyes got big and she said so excitedly, "IT'S JESUS'S BIRTHDAY!" I was so happy to hear that! She wasn't excited for presents, she was excited for the birthday of Jesus! I loved it. So, we told them we had a party for Jesus and we went into the living room and there were all the gifts. It was a great Christmas season and I hate that it is over.

Here are some pics of our Christmas gatherings:

Christmas Eve entailed going to my parent's house. It is always a loud fun with 8 kids 7 and under!! We had a terrific time.

Here is Finley with Oma
All the little "Grand Dears"

Here we are singing Christmas songs for advent - great memories! You may be wondering why all these kids are on beach towels - that was their "space" during gift wrapping. This way we could all see the gifts and the kids wouldn't get frustrated with others too close.

Reagan

Our wrapping paper was pretty tough to unwrap. After Kaitlyn finally got her gift open, she had to show off her muscles!

Carly and Chloe admiring their gifts - Carly got a princess dress up chest and Chloe got an easy bake oven!

Harper thanking Grandma for his cool race car!

Finley opening her first gift for the season - a lady bug outfit!

Christmas Eve night - preparing for the party!

Our sweet babies!

Chloe bought Carly some wings at the Dollar Store! She loved them! We take the kids every year to the Dollar Tree to buy each other a Christmas present. They have so much fun decided what to purchase - it is always hard to pick out 1 gift! Then they come home and wrap it and put it under the tree. They know exactly what each one will like and enjoy being something special for them. Last year the girls ended up buying the same thing for each other and this year they had the exact same thing in the exact same color for Harper - I did have to intervene on that choice - he did not need 2 blue tractor trailers!!

Chloe opening her crown from Carly

Finley sat next to the Christmas tree and just played with this ornament - she had fun!

Chloe riding her bike inside - it was raining all day so the house became an indoor track!

Carly loving being a big girl!

Finley relaxing with her Cabbage Patch kid from Grandma and Grandpa

After we opened our presents at home, we went to Grandma Kay and Grandpa Eddie's house for lunch and Christmas. They got the girls these princess Barbies - they LOVED them!

They also got them a playhouse! They were thrilled and I know they will be in it daily!

Santa Visit

Well we made it!! Our first time where all our kids did NOT cry when near Santa!! Harper never has, so he didn't care one bit to hop up on his lap. Carly and Chloe stood next to him and were so proud of this major fear they conquered! They were so cute walking up to him. They had it all planned out - they would stand next to him, smile big, and then walk away. We were so proud of them - and they were too. As soon as the pictures were over, they walked away, talking so loud (almost yelling) about how proud they were of themselves for not crying! It was very fun and is kind of sad - our pics of our big cry baby girls with Santa, came to an end!

And here is our sweet Finley! She did so great sitting with Santa. She just blew her little bubbles and looked unamused! She is so cute! We had to get her picture with the big guy all by herself so that we could document her 1st Christmas!

Finley Gets Dedicated

On December 13th, Finley got dedicated at church. She was so cute and really listened to everything Pastor Kenn said! She just ate her dress and watched him intently. God gives us so much, and this baby is an amazing gift! We are thankful for all 4 of our precious gifts and we only hope to raise them up to honor Him! It was a beautiful dedication and we know our church family will be there for us always. Thank you Lord for this beautiful child. Thank you Lord for our loving family and friends. Thank you Lord for our wonderful church that will help us raise our children. We are truly blessed!

Praying for us to raise this sweet angel in a way that will Glorify the Lord! What an amazing task He has given us, and we except the challenge!

Uptown

We took the kids uptown last week to see the singing bears. They were excited to ride "the train" - Charlotte's blue line lynx system. It was VERY cold this day! We actually gave them a Christmas present early (which they liked unwrapping a present early) - their coats. We rode the Lynx and then walked downtown a little bit, saw the bears, and then ate lunch at Bruggers. It was a fun thing to do and the cold made it really feel like Christmas!

Here is Grandma fixing Harper's glove - they all had to sit with her!
Finley can't believe the things we make her do! She just looked at everything and fell asleep as needed - she was wonderful!

Family pic in front of the enormous Christmas tree uptown

The singing bears - it was kind of quiet, but nice!

My 3 amigos getting ready for the show to start.

3 Months!

I can't believe our sweet little Finley is already 3 months old! She is such a wonderful baby! She just goes with the flow - and this family's flow is fast and loud! She smiles so much and will give the heartiest little laugh when tickled. She has rolled over from her belly to her back several times. Sleeping through the night - she did that around 6 weeks! We just love her cheeks! I could eat them (I occasionally do)! Carly, Chloe, and Harper continue to help me out with her and love her so much. One day I went to go check on Carly at nap time (Finley and Carly sleep in the same room at nap time) and she was just standing next to Finley's bed watching her sleep - it was so sweet! I want these kids to be so close - and I think that is panning out just fine!

Here she is posing for her 1st Christmas ornament picture!
The girls and I were playing dress up - we stripped their baby dolls and used our real life one~

My mini lifeguard

Harper taking his sister for a stroll in his stroller - he went very slow!

For more 3 month pics of our sweet angel, visit Deanna Devine Photography - they are so beautiful:

www.deannadevine.smugmug.com/Portraits