Christmas

This year for Christmas we decided to get each one of our kids 3 gifts, symbolizing the 3 gifts the wise men gave to Jesus. 

Myrrh - something for the body

They each got a pair of jammies symbolizing the gift of myrrh. It is a tradition for them to open their Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. 

Frankincense - a spiritual growth gift

They each got a devotional book or Bible symbolizing the gift of frankincense.

Gold - something precious to them.

And then for their gold gift they got to choose something. Karis - a new baby (her old one got lost!!) Juliette - a Rapunzel doll and Ella - a fish.

It was simple and fun and we plan to do it again next year!

This little guy was happy with his new car ramp.

Opening their stockings on Christmas morning.

Juliette with her devotional book, "A Parable Treasury".

Ella's book is called "Thoughts to make your Heart Sing".

When she found out her fish was a male, she named him "Peter".

Dadda and Peter in their matching cords.

Our Christmas dinner crew.

Ella loves to sketch her fish and write books for him.

Decorating Jesus' birthday cake.

Some other traditions that we keep are:

-the Jesse tree advent

-riding the Christmas train

-going on a Christmas light driving tour (with popcorn and hot chocolate)

-watching a movie after church on Christmas Eve

-going for a Christmas morning jog as our breakfast cooks

-having baked French toast on Christmas morning

-giving a special gift to Jesus

And a couple of days before Christmas we had dinner over at Sean and Miriam's. We are so blessed by their friendship and the way they love us.

Jesus

On Christmas Eve Peter started saying "Jesus". During our advent reading that day, whenever the word "Jesus" was read Peter would repeat it. It's a little hard to hear in this video, but it is really precious to hear him say "Jesus".

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." - Luke 2:11

Pre-Christmas Fun

Last week we visited Dadda's school for crêpe day. Our friends Corinna, Sophie, and Penny joined us as well. All of the girls put their French into use and ordered their crêpes in French.

Ella completed her Frozen lego set from Grandma. 

And Juliette completed her Friends set.

And Momma and Dadda completed Karis' Little Mermaid set. Thank-you Grandma!!

So far Peter has only knocked one of the sets over :)

On Friday we decorated Christmas cookies with the Wiens.

Despite being 6 months younger, Caedmon is now the same size as Peter.

Peter loves to be read to.

Our Advent readings have been so special this year. The girls are very into the readings and have been asking some great questions. Our family discussions have been so much fun. 

Bookworms.

The girls opened their gifts from Grandpa Clark. They love Monopoly Junior and ask to play several times a day. It is at the perfect level for them. Thanks Grandpa Clark!

Every now and then this chatty little girl gets removed from the girls' room and put in our bed. This way she can go to sleep and (hopefully) stop chatting non-stop. Then I get to transfer her from our bed to her bed. The other night I took a picture of her all snuggled up with Peter rabbit.

I love this picture. Wearing his "Handsome like Daddy" onesie and Dadda's shoes. Peter can walk amazingly well wearing Dadda's shoes.

Pete's Circuit

Peter loves to grab our stool, drag it over to the couch, climb over the couch, run to the stool and repeat... We call this Pete's circuit. He often works up quite the sweat in the process.

In other news Peter cut 6 new teeth in the past week and a half. For Peter and for Spencer and I, this experience was about as fun as it sounds ;) But we are thankful that he now has all of his one year molars!! We are also feeling thankful that he was his smiley self again the past couple of days. Oh yes, and we'd also like to thank infant Advil!

Violin Recital

Ella and Juliette had their first violin recital tonight. Ella played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Juliette wasn't feeling quite ready to play on stage, so she opted to come up and take a bow instead. They were both very courageous to get up there in front of the audience and we are proud of them.

Here is a video of Juliette practicing at home. She has improved so much!

December Fun

We did some Christmas paintings the other day.

This is Ella's painting of a donkey, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. She said "baby Jesus has a lot of black hair because most newborns are born with lots of black hair."

Karis was interested in mixing all the colors together to make "a very beautiful color."

And Juliette painted a rainbow and wrote "God loves us."

4 in a tub :)

Our baby boy recently dropped his morning nap. So he gets sleepy around lunchtime. I can never get enough of these snuggles.

And we had a nice visit with Grandma Jo-Ann last week.

The girls were invited to a little ladies formal tea party for their friend Alaina. Ella and Juliette attended the party and Karis got all dressed up and had a date with Dadda.

Here is my baby bump at 27 weeks.

We had our community group wrap up last Thursday. The kids decorated gingerbread houses and we sang Christmas carols.

Here is a picture of us waiting to get on the Stanley Park Christmas train. Peter showed less patience than his 3 big sisters. We had a fun night riding the train with Grandma.