Christmas 2011

The story behind these gifts...

I believe all things given are from God. This year my heart's desire & prayer was, I really want Jesus to be first. In the midst of Santa & reindeer & elves & trees & lights & presents, how does baby Jesus come first to the little ones? When everywhere you go all you see is everything BUT Him! We started thinking of a giving list instead of a wish list.
One day I was sitting looking at all Zachary's trains thinking in the back of my mind, it would be really nice to get him a new train set & train table, that is a lot of money. He'd probably really enjoy a better set. And the thought passed. Next morning I get a phone call at 8:30am, it's my mom saying she's at a garage sale down the street they found while walking their new dog and there is a brand new train table with trains & tracks for $10.00 and do I want it? Do I want it? Of course! Oh my goodness!
I've also always wanted a table outside for the kids to eat on & she said there's a picnic bench, do I want that for $10 bucks, Yes!! Oh my word!
I knew this was straight from God, He knows the desires of our heart & knows we are trying to be good with our money and wouldn't or couldn't buy these sorts of toys.
So they brought it all over, I was so excited and amazed at all the trains he got to go with this table. Blown away really. Thank you, God!
The Dollhouse - well I've thought it would be nice to get Gracie a dollhouse. As I searched & searched online, this one was so her, bright colors, fun rooms, big & bright & fun. But super expensive. I had found a deal on walmart for 190, I waited to long to get it & they were sold out. So as I searched for other sites, nothing came close, cheapest I could find was 250. Ugh. After searching one night, Todd said well let's buy it, it's a nice one. The next day I had colored my hair & was planning to do something else but I found myself thinking about the house & went to look online and thought I'd better get it and then sank thinking, there has to be a better way. Then I hear Craig's list in my mind, aha! Didn't even think of that. So I went on and put the name of the house in the search and up pops one. Exact photo of it and then I think, oh well it's been here a while, let me see date listed, today's date, oh wow, okay well let me see the time, 1 hour ago, oh my goodness, hop on the phone, he answers and I'm trying to talk in code since Gracie is right there. I was the first caller, I knew it was from God! 70 bucks and a borrowed truck later, I have it driving home with my mother in law that night! Whoo hoo! I can't tell you the excitement.
So thank you, sweet Lord for these, they are above & beyond a blessing for Todd and I and Gracie and Zachary. No Santa got these gifts, that would rob the story behind these presents that only you could provide! Christmas day when we gave these gifts to them and they were playing & so excited, my heart was full and all I could think of was you, Jesus. We put you first and your presence & joy was overflowing in our hearts!

The work bench came from gramma & papa nut, the scooter was purchased with points from our credit card! Todd did buy the Hello Kitty guitar for Gracie through ebay because that was the only thing she had mentioned to him, he thought that would be so fun for her. The other thing she had asked for was a small, white puppy, so that is hiding in a wrapped package to surprise her.

Little miscellaneous fun things, Hello Kitty shoes, a matching hello kitty shirt for her and I, and new hair dryer. Bath colors for him, bath shaving sets for each of them, a puzzle for him & a few cars.

Flowers to mommmy from Gracie! The girl always wants to buy me flowers, so sweet!

All ready in the morning to go see what was waiting!!

We could not say one thing to get him away from this set, he played with it for a good half hour before he even thought about walking away from it!

Sweet story about this gift...we went to purchase a gift for her friend's birthday party and she picked out this horse & doll but she wanted it for herself also. It was a good deal but I thought Christmas is coming, she can wait. She wanted to know if Santa could bring it, I told her even better she could pray in her heart to God and wait & see what happens. We were in the car & she says, "mommy I prayed in my heart." I said, "oh good, what did you say?" "Well, I don't know I didn't talk, it was just in my heart." Cute, so then she says, will God tell Santa to bring it to me? I said yes he will tell Santa. And when he does who will you thank? She says, "God!" Then after pausing in thought she adds, "well I have to thank Santa, too because he obeys God and brought it to me." Adorable. When she saw she got this she was so excited!

Choo choos!

See mommy! Cheese!

WRENCH! He kept saying over & over! TOOLS...BIG!!

The Barbie on a bike she had no idea about. I heard her randomly tell 2 people she liked this and would like to have one but she never asked me. She was very happy!

Lunch with Gracie

Zachary's 1st Haircut

Before

The first official cut!

Good boy sitting so still. What you can't see is that he is bouncing in his seat a little because of the vibration when I put his chair up, he thought that was pretty fun.

Gracie had to cut his hair!

A big thumb's up for that!

After!

He gave me the biggest hug after, the best tip ever!!

It is a blessing to be a human jungle gym!

Tonight, among MANY sweet nights but I just felt I had to write. These two are just THE funnest, funniest kids. I just love them so much. I'm sitting on Gracie's bed and Gracie's bringing me books to read, so I tell Zachary to bring me some because he's really into books, too. So he goes to the book shelf & brings me Clifford. He's so excited. His favorite book as of last week is The Eye Book, which was Gracie's first all time favorite book, she'd request it all the time, and so does he. This wasn't anything learned by her because she's not as into it at 5, she still likes it and all.
So we're reading and then he's like "NNN, NNN" because that means he wants to nurse, so he nurses for about 2 seconds because he's really over it, he just won't admit it. He's a busy dude but he's still my baby. He gets this idea to sit next to me and start blowing zerberts, however you spell that, and he has done this many times before but tonight he kept giggling the cutest giggle after and these zerberts were so farty, no wonder he was giggling so hard. Gracie started in and we just had fits of giggles. They are amazing little people.
We were about to say prayers and I said, let's pray to God, and he said "Gaaa" and then starts singing his "Hallelujah" song, and looking up. I was in awe, when he sings Hellelujah he gets so into it like he means it, it's precious.
Well I got interrupted, Todd was on the phone outside talking & it woke up Zachary, he was in there screaming, so I got to rock his sweet tush to sleep. He is a doll.
When I see a baby part of me wants another, but part of me just feels like it went too fast with Zachary and can't believe he's really coming out of being such a baby.
He's a little parrot, this morning Gracie was sharing her silly bands and they are cats, so he said "Kitty cat!" He says "buck" for his buckle in his high chair, which is a constant cycle of him crying, I say "what do you say?" "PEEZE!" I unbuckle and he's so excited jumping in his seat and can't wait to buckle it back, then it goes all over again until I say okay we gotta get out dude, let's go play.
We were feeding our friends turtles and fish so he says TURTLE now, which is so stinkn' cute. He says PARK,and "BUG G G G G G" he loves to pronounce that G over and over.
Gracie is so big, a giant really. She is at the point now where I'm asking, were you really that baby I vaguely remember? Were you really a baby? Gosh, it doesn't make any sense. Her legs are never ending. They are Todd's legs, I just love watching them walk together, it's so cute, they are shaped exactly the same.
She loves her brother. She's always asking to check on him when she thinks he should be waking up in the morning or from his nap. She is very mothering or just likes to be a little boss, probably both, but she has the best of intentions with him. They play and laugh so well together. He LOVES her, too. His eyes just light up when she enters the room. He is the most affectionate with her, gives so many kisses and hugs and they snuggle. I think it's so special they have each other.

So I will close at this for now, there is so much I could say, but all in moderation with all things, I have got to get some organizing done around this house, I'm almost done, little by little.
I need to write on our family blog more often, everything is worth writing about, but it's hard work being a mama and some days it is enough to keep everyone happy & fed & I can't say clothed because they don't really care about wearing clothes around here. :)

Sanibel Take 2 with 0 Little People! And everything I saw reminded me of them.