losing teeth and learning patience

Caleb's tooth finally fell out the other night after being loose for nearly a month.  He had been chomping at the bits for it to come out already!  We got to have a lot of sweet talks together about having patience, and how God's timing is always perfect.  I tried to help him understand that even though sometimes we think we are ready for something, God has wonderful plans for us and everything will happen when it is supposed to.  So when the tooth did fall out, it was so nice to hear him say, in the midst of his excitement, "God just made my tooth ready and now it's out!"

And then the next night, another tooth came out.  It was his first top one that had just barely been loose.  It didn't fall out on its own like the last tooth - this one had a lot of help from a certain five-year-old.  His mouth was bleeding and tender this time, and he had a look on his face that showed he knew he shouldn't have done it.

Patience is such a hard thing to teach.  I suppose it's hard to teach anything that you struggle to learn yourself every day.  Of everything that I pray for and ask God to help me with on a daily basis, having patience is probably at the top of that list.  As wonderful and amazing as this mothering job of mine is, it most definitely requires more patience than anything else I've ever done.  I try to apologize to my kids when I lose it, and I try to let them hear me pray for help.  I try to let them know that we all need patience - it just looks a little different when you're a grown-up than it does when you're a kid.  But going to God for help is always the same.

Loving this sweet boy's smile full of holes.....

christmas brunch

We hosted Christmas brunch with Bobby's side a few days after Christmas.  Bobby did most of the cooking and it was so, so yummy - he did such a great job!  We had a blast putting together the Bloody Mary bar, and then we had a blast drinking from the Bloody Mary bar!  It was a big hit.  

I love how much fun the kids have together as they are all getting older.  Caleb and Makayla ask about their cousins all the time, and when they know that they are coming over to play it is all they can talk about.  The boys are all close in age, so they are all into the same things, which makes it easy!  Trains have taken a back seat, and the current interest of choice is superheroes.  

And don't worry too much about Makayla - she doesn't mind at all that she's the youngest or that she's the only girl.  She jumps right in there and tries to call all the shots!

christmas morning

|eating granmommy's cinnamon rolls.  i think she likes them|

Christmas was pretty wonderful this year.  I think the kids are at such fun ages and their excitement and happiness is just contagious.  But I will say that it is a lot of work for us parents, and there's a jolly old guy that gets all the credit!

Caleb woke up on Christmas morning at 4:46.  Yeah.  So he had a lot of time to kill while he waited for the rest of us to get up and going!  First thing we did was all pile up in our bed and read the Advent book together.  This was our first year to read it, but it will definitely be a tradition from now on.  I absolutely loved this book and the kids did too.

Before the kids tore into their gifts, they opened up their stockings and their new Christmas ornaments.  Every year we give them a new ornament that they get to hang on the tree on Christmas morning.  One day, when they are 40 and they move out, they will get to take all of their ornaments with them to hang on their own trees.  Another favorite tradition of mine, and I'm hoping it will be special to them one day.

Caleb was so animated this year while opening presents.  After almost every one his jaw would drop and he would exclaim, "I can't believe it!  That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!".  Makayla was much more calm through it all - I think she takes after her momma!
  

getting ready for christmas

Christmas seemed to sneak up on us more than ever this year - I guess because Thanksgiving came so late this year. But, we still found time to fit in everything that has come to be tradition for us.  We decorated the tree together, and I managed to look much calmer than I actually was since almost all of our ornaments are breakable and little hands just don't understand that!

We also decorated our gingerbread houses together.  Bobby was such a trooper - he had a huge migraine that day but he put on some sunglasses and a smile so he could be there with us.  He just wouldn't let me take any pictures of him in his shades!  We are really hoping to get those darn migraines under control this year!

The kids and I did a lot of other Christmas crafts and coloring like we always do.  I love how much they enjoy doing all of that with me.  We also love reading all of our Christmas books together.  We have built up a nice little Christmas library, so every year we wrap all of our books and put them in a basket.  We open one each night in December and read it by the tree.  That has definitely become one of the kid's favorite yearly traditions.

|at his school christmas party|

christmas at cheekwood

We had a pretty fantabulous Christmas this year that I need to post about, but I have over 300 pictures that I have to go through first! So today I've got pictures from our visit to Cheekwood. We went a few weeks ago and we had such a great time. Caleb declared it "the best day ever"! There was cookie decorating and different crafts for the kids to do - they just love that kind of thing (and I do too!), so we really enjoyed doing all of that together. We got to see some actual reindeer - they were absolutely beautiful! Seeing them just reminded me of what an awesome and creative God we have! The kids were very curious about them and their antlers. And of course we made a visit to see Santa, who was by far the best Santa we've ever seen.  Not that he's not the same Santa every year.  He just looked a little more real and was a little more friendly than he was last year.