Glory to God in the Highest

Merry Christmas! We pray that this Christmas is a wonderful time of reflecting on the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us when He wrapped himself in flesh and took on the form of a man... "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

It has been so nice spending extra time with our family this week. On Thursday afternoon we tackled making cinnamon rolls from scratch. It is quite a long process, but Pioneer Woman's cookbook walked us through it! It was great how much the boys wanted to help. We were baking them for Christmas morning breakfast, but of course we have had a few already!


Tonight after Christmas Eve service at First Baptist Euless, we came home and let the boys open one present...pajamas and slippers. Here they are with their new loot!

Visit with Santa

We took a trip to Grapevine (Christmas Capital of Texas, or so they claim) on Saturday. Peter's mom was in town, so we did a little shopping and enjoyed the decorations on Main Street. We walked in one store and Santa Claus was sitting there! Joshua was very excited to see him...let's just say that Gabe was not so excited. Santa asked Josh what his name is, how old he is, and what he wants for Christmas. My shy son, who does not usually give strangers the time of day, answered all of those questions confidently!

"I am four years old."

"Hmmm. I would like a pogo stick...a sleigh like yours...and a Christmas tree in my room." Santa gave Joshua a sleigh bell on a ribbon, and told him he can hang it on his Christmas tree in his room when he gets it.

And a final picture with Santa. We did not get any pictures with Gabe and Santa...he did not even want to go in the store!

Gabe-isms

It is obviously time for a new post...my how this last year has flown by! I'm not going to try to recap 2010 on the blog, but I did want to post a few things about what the boys have been up to as we are getting ready for Christmas. This post is titled "Gabe-isms" because Gabe seems to have a way with words lately!

Since August, the boys began asking to play with a plush nativity scene and all of the people are finger puppets. They really enjoyed it last Christmas, but it has since been put in a box somewhere in the attic. They have continued asking for it several times a week, in which we respond, after Thanksgiving when we get our decorations down from the attic. The cute part is that Gabe asks for "the activity scene when baby Jesus was boring." Josh is probably the one who taught him "activity scene" but he is now able to say "nativity scene." We are hoping that Gabe learns this year that the nativity was anything but boring!

On Wednesday night we got all of the Christmas boxes down from the attic and Peter & I were so excited for the boys to find the nativity scene. I mean, with all of the anticipation built up since August, they should be ecstatic to finally have it in their hands! Here is a pic of them following Peter up into the attic.

And the moment we've all been waiting for...

See the nativity scene in the top left corner of the box? Yes, that is Joshua reaching for something else in that same box. They did not care at all that they were finally getting to see and play with the nativity scene! (Note: they have since played with it)

2nd Gabe-ism: When talking about the Christmas story last week, we were prodding the boys to tell us the parts of the story that they remember. We asked, "Who were Jesus' parents?" to which Gabe replied "Mary and Jo-fish"...followed by lots of giggles from Joshua and all the adults in the room.

3rd Gabe-ism: We were unwrapping ornaments to put on the tree and Gabe pulled out this ornament...Gabe said, "Dad, can you fix my 'cracker nut' please?"

And a few things about Josh...He has become quite meticulous in some things, like hanging ornaments. He loved it this year! Notice the high concentration of ornaments in that one area.

I walked in the kitchen to find Joshua had neatly organized all of the magnets on the refrigerator by color! Love it!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Gabriel!

Happy birthday, to my sweet, baby boy! We can't believe you are already 2 years old. It seems like yesterday we were checking into the hospital at this time to wait for the c-section. You have always had a fun personality that attracts the stares and laughter of those around you. That has been multiplied in the last several months as you have learned that you can make silly faces or that you can dance a jig in the living room, and people laugh at you. Whatever you do, you are having fun!

Recently you have decided that sleeping in your crib is not so much fun and you prefer to sleep in bed with your big brother. It is very sweet that you love him so much and want to be with him at all hours of the day and night!

You are a smart boy and you love to talk! You repeat as much as you can from what you hear around you. You can count to five, know your colors (most of the time), and are very good at matching games. It is so fun to see each development you make!

You are a joy to our family, and we cannot imagine our family without you! Thank you for being our sweet, cuddly boy!

Love,

Daddy and Mommy