Christmas Traditions Part 2 - Ginger Bread House and Winter Wonderland

So this is the second year that we've made a ginger bread house.  It's a lot of fun and the girls love it (and Nathan)  This is totally Nathan's thing... he puts it all together.  And helps the girls decorate.  I help to and take pictures. :)  We used all our leftover candy from Halloween (and probably Easter!)  It was great to clean all that out and I had almost thrown it out a couple days before we did this. 

Addy taking some candy :)  Here is the house all done complete with a laffy taffy and tootsie roll walk way!

We went to St. Augustine's Winter Wonderland.  It was really cute and pretty reasonably priced.  Admission is free and so are some of the activities and other things depending on what you wanted to do cost something.  We went with Nana and Papa and Lily and Nicholas came too.

The girls in the Elf Village.  This was a cute set up of a ton of little play houses.

Taylor and Daddy

Daddy and all 3 girls

Jack Jack

 They had "sleigh rides"

Papa and Addy

Daddy and Payton

Taylor

 Jackson giving Daddy pounds

The "snow" fall.... it was bubbles!  Guess that's what you get when it's 70 degrees in FL on Christmas!

Can you see the "snow" in Addy's hair?

 Daddy and the kids at the tree

Me and the kids at the tree

Ballet Performance

The girls have been in ballet since August.  We go once a week. They love(d) it!  Payton stopped doing it after about 4 lessons.  I wasn't sure how she would do since she is only 3 but wanted to include her if she wanted to.  So she hasn't been doing ballet for a while but to her she is doing ballet she loves to dress in her outfit.  So... Taylor and Addy have been practicing for this performance since October.  They love it!  And for some reason Taylor decides to not do ballet anymore... 3 weeks before this performance... SIGH.... not sure why.  She just says she doesn't want to do it anymore.  We tried talking to her about fullfilling her commitment and after this performance she didn't have to do ballet anymore. But we needed to give the teacher notice.  Everything went great and Taylor agreed.  However she didn't do it.  But its a learning curve for her.  So Addison is in ballet now and she is the only one who did the performance and she was sooo cute!!!! 


Taylor doing stretches before hand "trying" to do ballet. :)

 Time for the performance they line up.

 Is Payton really going to do it.... :)

Here is where she changes her mind and comes running to me...

 Addy did great.  Here she does her turn.

 At the end the girls blow kisses to the audience.  Addison blows 4 kisses :) It was hilariously cute!

I was so proud of Addison I seriously had tears in my eyes! 

So we now only have 1 daughter in ballet.  We've asked Taylor if she would like to do another activity and right now that answer is no.  So we'll see what the future holds! :)

Christmas Traditions Part 1 - Tree and Bethlehem

I love this time of year... I love Christmas!  We love to decorate for Christmas... I think Nathan enjoys it as much (if not more than I do) Nathan started decorating the outside of the house the week before Thanksgiving.  Mainly because of his work schedule and we would be out of town for Thanksgiving so we wanted to get a jump start on it.

We also have a few traditions each year that we like to do.  I'm hoping going to the Live Bethlehem will become a yearly tradition... it was pretty crowded so I don't know if I can talk Nathan into it again LOL!

So anywho... gotta have a tree to decorate! 

 and here is my mantel all decorated... I love having so many stocking hanging from there :)

At Ponte Vedre Beach a church puts on a wonderful very life like Live Nativity.  It is a whole city to recreate what Bethlehem was like when Jesus was born.  It is very life like, real animals, markets and at the end is Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.

Petting a donkey

Taylor was taken back with how "real" everything was....

 Showing us how they dyed clothes back then...

Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Fort Mill, SC with Boo and Carl (Nana and Papa)  We had a great time and alot of fun and relaxing!  The weather was great!  It was really cold last year and it was perfect this year.  Light jacket weather.  We spent an afternoon at a playground and the kiddos loved it! 

Addy and Daddy.... She cracks me up!

 
This is my attempt at a family photo... hoping for a Christmas card... not sure if any will get used yet.

The one below is my fav... just wish you could see Taylor and Payton's face...

All the kiddos climbing on Daddy which is just classic and quite normal for us.  :)

The one below would be good if you could see Jackson and Payton's face....

Which one???

We helped Papa and Nana decorate for Christmas.  Addy hung up all of Nana's stockings for her on the bar - it was very cute and she was proud of herself!  Cause quite an argument too b/c Payton thought it was hilarous to knock them all off... sigh...

Nathan outside decorating

Thankful

I am so thankful for many things in our life.  God's grace, Jesus, 4 soon to be 5 healthy children, an amazing husband who supports us and loves us. 

About a month ago at my normal OB appt I was measuring 3 weeks behind but the baby's heartbeat was perfect.  I had to have an ultrasound to see what was going on. This could mean several things.... that the baby is genetically small, or something more like low fluid and couple other scary things. Having gone through what we did with Jackson this really freaked me out.  (at 38 weeks with Jackson I was measuring a cm small, all his vitals were fine so the midwife assured me that everything was fine 2 days later I had an ultrasound to find that there was NO amniotic fluid and had to be induced right away, I was full term so things should be ok but the DR couldn't be sure until Jackson was here... everything was perfect and I count that as a miracle)  So I kept my cool about this baby... really I did. I was told to take it easy as much as I could and to eat more calories.... and I did.  I was waiting for the ultrasound appt (they had to call me) and got the appt a few days later, it was scheduled for 10 days later!  I had a COW!  Seriously I lost it....  After alot of phone calls and crying there was nothing that I could do but wait.... and I am NOT good at that.  I still think it's ridiculous!  And the OB office has heard that from me more than once!  Anywho...  The ultrasound showed that our sweet baby girl (is still a girl :) and PERFECT!  She is measuring at 58 percentile and there is no sign or reason why I am measuring behind... besides me :)  I am so thankful for this and happy! :)  I had really prepared myself to hear bad news... not sure what I was expecting... but it took me a few hours to digest that everything is ok.  I had my OB appt the next day and am measuring 2 weeks behind now.  So the countless prayers and me taking it easy worked!  I'm still trying to take it easy... and it's actually really easy to do cause for some reason my back hurts so bad this pregnancy!  I'm 34 weeks  and trying to get ready for her debut... We still have a few things to do but I can't wait to hold my baby! :)  There is nothing like it in the world!

Things kids say....

Kids sometimes say the funniest, craziest and sweetest things... I want to be able to remember this forever so I'm writing it down!

Payton has showed more of an interest in school recently.  So we've been sitting down together more.  One day in the van Payton says "Mommy I know what Cinderella starts with!  PAH-PAH P!!!"  She went through several words all NOT starting with P but to her right now everything starts with P. :)

Addison is obsessed with the number 100!  Everything is 100!  She says is with a ton of enthusiasm too.  Addy has also been talking alot about Mommy and Daddy being married....  She says "Mommy I want you and Daddy to get married again! So that you can be together forever!  For like 100!!!!"

Taylor one day while we were driving in the van was talking to her sisters...  She says "I close my eyes real tight, girls, and I use my imagination and that is how I can color the most beautiful rainbow!  I see pink with my imagination when I close my eyes!" 

Jackson is talking more... at 18 months old, he says... all done, thank you, I stink (for a poopy diaper), Mama and Dada although he calls Nathan Mama, more, uh-oh.  And he will do baby sign language for eat, more, please, thank you.  That's all that I've taught him b/c those are the most important to me... I need to know when he's hungry! LOL