The Christmas Pageant

 When my whole family gets together for Christmas we always have a Christmas Eve dinner and a telling of the Christmas story.  This year all the kids dressed up.  Audrey was an angel.  

She told everyone that she was going to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High".  Except for when they told her that it was time she didn't want to.  I'm sure it was because all she knew was the chorus and she got confused when they weren't calling it the "Gloria Song".  I helped her along and she sang her first part solo ever.  I was proud of her for even wanting to sing in front of everyone.  She's already leaps and bounds ahead of her Mom.  

It was so nice to be with everyone that night.  There's something special about us all being together.  We may not agree on everything and we may even get on each others nerves every now and then but when we all come together like this I can't help but think that I wished that we all lived just a little bit closer to each other.  

I loved to watch all of these kids together being so reverent, Tessie as she sang, Jennifer with her sweet new miracle baby, James as he got in his Mom's face to give her a kiss.  This is what it's all about and I'm glad that I got to be apart of it.   

Singer

She's a singer and I can't help but love it.  Most of the time she doesn't sing the right lyrics, she prefers to make up her own.  She really never stops singing.  I think my sisters doubted until they spent some time with her during Christmas Vacation.  Sometimes I have to turn on the radio to get her to sing something else.  After hearing the same phrase over and over it's the only way.  I try not to sing songs out loud that I don't want to hear for the next few days.  :)  

I'm excited to teach her and see her grow.  We'll see if she decides to continue with it.  She seems to love a lot of things right now.  

Th Kindness Elves

Meet Audrey's Kindness Elves.  I know what your thinking...the whole elf on the shelf thing.  This is different.  Every morning Audrey would wake up to her elves doing something kind.  In their note they would challenge her to do something kind during the day.  Everyday they made mention of the Savior and the things that he did to be kind while he was here.  

Every morning she was so excited to find the elves and see what they were doing.  

Just a few of the things we did were:

Made cookies for someone who needed a cookie and a smile.  

Made a couple dinners for people in need.  

Watched someone's baby who had to go to the hospital.

Wrote love notes to Daddy.  

Wrote Christmas cards to cousins who are Audrey's age.  

Made Christmas goodies for the people in our neighborhood.  

and so many other things. 

I was a little nervous about this tradition over running my life, but it was so fun to hear Audrey talk about the Savior during Christmas and all the good things that we were doing.  It was so worth every note written.

I think that this one is a keeper.  

Community Christmas Festival

I've said this a thousand times, but I love where we live.  Our community had a Christmas Festival a week ago.  The kids got to read stories with Santa while they ate cookies and drank milk and then they each got to talk with Santa for a few minutes.  Audrey didn't really care to meet him.  She probably would have rather sat back and watched everyone else meet Santa.  It took a little while to get something that resembled a smile.  He was really nice to try to engage her but she was really quiet.  I'm surprised that she finally decided to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  

After we met Santa we went outside where they had a petting zoo.  Audrey loves things like this.  She went straight to the goat of course and started petting it, and then she pet the donkey.  If we were living somewhere else I would love to have a petting zoo in my backyard.  Donkeys are so cute!  :)

After the petting zoo we played on the blow up toys,  That ended abruptly when Audrey got smacked in the face.  I'm sure the child didn't do it on purpose, but it was enough to convince Audrey that she didn't want to play anymore. 

Then it was on to the camel.  Check that off my bucket list. Sweet!  Yeah, we rode a camel.  In case you were wondering, it's just as uncomfortable as it sounds, but it was pretty awesome to be up so high on such an interesting animal.  

We ended the morning by riding on the train a couple times and then we headed home.   A well spent Saturday morning with the two people I love the most. 

A Small Thanksgiving

Audrey got sick.  Really sick.  We'd planned to go to Jenny's for Thanksgiving but after Audrey came down with a fever and horrendous cough we decided not to spread it around.  For the first time in my married life we had Thanksgiving alone. It was a little too quiet. We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV while we cooked and Audrey played with her toys in the living room.  I made 8 pies which turned out to be a mistake because by the end of the week everyone was sick and I was trying desperately to make it through them on my own. They were delicious but it didn't happen.  I may not have a taste for pie for a little while.  

Thanksgiving evening we revisited leftovers and then we put Audrey down for bed early.  After she went to bed we had Paul's parents and his brother's family over for pie.  It was nice to have a little bit of Thanksgiving with family.  I felt bad that Audrey missed it.  My favorite part of Thanksgiving at my parents house was being able to eat as many pieces of pie as I wanted in the evening and then again for breakfast.  The pie lasted a little too long this time.  Maybe next year we'll only do 4 or 5.  

All in all it was simple.  Paul and I were talking when the day was coming to an end and we decided that despite the lack of people it was sweet to have our little family together celebrating Thanksgiving alone for the very first time.  

I'm so grateful for so many things this year.  I'm grateful for our new home.  I feel so blessed to be here and every time I walk in the door I have to pause and ask myself, "Is this really our home?"  It's been 8 years and this home feels more like home than any of the rest.  

I'm grateful that I have such a sweet little 4 year old girl.  She tells me a million times a day that she loves me and I have to thank my Heavenly Father every night that she is mine.  I'm grateful that I have such an amazing husband who is always there for me and who knows me so well and makes me want to be a better person everyday.  He makes me so happy. He is the best Daddy and the best husband anyone could ask for. I'm grateful that I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.  I'm grateful for the knowledge that he lives and that he loves me.  Everyday I try to be more like him.  I fail a lot, but I'm grateful that he is there to pick me up when I fall.  I'm grateful for the hope that adoption has given me.  I'm grateful that we have the ability to pursue it.  I'm grateful for so many other things: health, life, family, food, water, clothes, cars, and the list goes on.  I am so blessed.  

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as I did.  Bring on Christmas.

 Poor Audrey was so sick.

 Paul was my right hand man.  I've never been so impressed by the cleanliness of a kitchen.  Especially on Thanksgiving.  He's amazing!

Lion, Tigers, and Bears

Let's be honest and say, the only reason why anyone goes to a Zoo is to see the Lions, Tigers, and Bears....and maybe a Gorilla or two.  Our Zoo is amazing!  It's so large that it's hard to get through it in an afternoon.  You really have to make a day of it.

We went with Paul's parents, Jenny, and her kids.  We had a good time.  I wish I could say that I lined us all up and took a picture.  Why do I forget these things?  Next time I will be more present.  I was trying to rush through because I wanted Audrey to be able to see everything and in the process we missed some photos.  Audrey's favorite part is always the Bears and brushing the goats.  If we had some land I would definitely buy a goat because this girl loves her goats.  Especially the white ones....don't ask me why.  Give this girl a brush and a goat and she'd be happy for quite some time. Maybe I should rethink getting a dog.  

Mental note, always go to the Zoo in the Fall/Winter.  All the animals were out and active.  It was awesome.   The best part.  Paul got to come with us.  His days off are limited so I consider myself blessed every time he is with us during the week.  

Paul giving me his best fake smile.  

A Visit From Grandpa and Anna

Helllooooo!  It's been a crazy few weeks.  I feel like I'm so busy and I don't even know why.  Or maybe I do, performances for the community choir I help out with, people booking photo sessions like crazy, Christmas getting closer and closer, and on top of that a lot of sickness going on at this house.  

We got a surprise visit from Paul's parents for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I love it when family comes into town.  Audrey loves it too, it's just about the only thing she can talk about until they arrive.  Anne played and read with Audrey the whole time she was here. Paul was with his Dad working on the house and projects.  I know that Paul misses time with his Dad working on things so I'm really glad that he was able to spend time with him.  

Anne was the queen of play-doh.  She was building Audrey princess dresses and Audrey was decorating them. Audrey was a little frustrated when I pulled lunch out and she had to stop.  She made me promise that we would pull it out again, and we did, the next day.

I had a photo shoot this weekend.  It's a trial to find good spots to take awesome photos, but since moving here I have used the community a lot.   I love where we live.  One of my favorite spots is the duck pond.  Audrey loves to feed the ducks and I love how peaceful it is there.  

I'm sure the Ducks get a steady diet of bread.  A lot of them are seriously large!  So large that they have a hard time walking. I was curious what you're actually supposed to feed ducks...so I googled it.   :)  It turns out that things like: wheat, rice, barley, oats, and peas are a whole lot better for them. So we pack our bags full of wheat and rice and headed out.  I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of Audrey and her Anna.  

I'm so grateful that we had family for Thanksgiving this year.  Thank you Rod and Anne!  Come back again soon!