The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This Christmas instead of being stressed I tried to focus on the many Christmas blessings instead of the hustle and bustle.  I must admit it has been a major blessing to be a stay at home mom instead of a working mom, because I have more time at home to wrap presents, find good deals on gifts, run errands, etc.  We were blessed with a wonderful holiday season (other than the stomach bug that struck our home the week before Christmas).  Some of my favorite Christmas memories and pictures are below-

1- Jackson LOVED Christmas lights this year, so we had so much fun driving around at night and looking at houses.  My favorite expressions of his were "Wow!"  "Look at those lights!"  "Awesome!"
2- Jackson was really excited to go see Santa and tell him what he wanted.
3- Will loved our Christmas tree lights, whenever we came in and the lights were off he would go stand by the tree, point, and grunt for us to turn them on (or he would just turn them on himself, even though he got many spanking for it).
4- We bought Jackson a singing Christmas dog from Hobby Lobby.  Watching the boys to dance and sing with it was hilarious.  Will did a crazy one legged dance at least once a day with the dog.
5- Getting all of the adorable handmade ornaments that Jackson made during MMO- My favorite was the Rudolph made from Popsicle sticks.
6- Reading Christmas stories at bedtime
7- Baking and decorating sugar cookies with Jackson (Will only wanted to eat them)
8- All of the fun and memories we made with friends and  family during Christmas gatherings
9- Listening to Jackson sing Christmas carols loudly from his bed each night after we put him to bed (Ironically he wouldn't sing at all at his school's program.)
10- Talking about baby Jesus and the Christmas story with Jackson.  He is starting to understand and really getting into it this year
11- Seeing Christmas through the innocent eyes of a child has been so much fun!

 Aunt Loni and Will

 Kolas and his reindeer ears

Playing Lord of the Ring Legos 

 Jackson pretends to be invisible during the MMO Christmas Performance

Who need gifts when you have an old diaper box 

Mema, Will, and Me on Christmas Eve 

Jackson rocks out with his new guitar 

 

Jackson riding the horse Johnny and Renee sent

The new shelves Brian built for Jack's room 

Will's 18 Month Appointment

Today I took my smallest munchkin to the doctor for his 18 month appointment.  We saw Dr. Humphries and our favorite nurse, Ms. Kacie.  Will has really grown!  He is 27 lbs. just a few lbs. shy of Jackson.  He is in the 98% for the his height and the 90% for his weight.  He is not saying as many words as he should be, but we are working on it!  I guess, sniff sniff, I need to try to eliminate his pacifier some during the day since it seems to be slowing down his speech.  He had a hard day, and he has been running a slight fever I think due to the vaccinations.  Hopefully he will be back to 100% tomorrow.

Praying for my Children

Praying for your children is so important.  I feel like praying for my boys daily is the one of the greatest gifts I can give to them.  Today I was on Facebook and the christian author, Lysa TerKeurst, posted the comment below and I really love it. 

Here are 3 prayers that I pray over my kids every day:

* I pray they grow up to be some of the most godly people in their sphere of influence.

* I pray that they would be caught when they make wrong choices. 

* I pray that God would save them from the wrong friends and save them for the right friends. And that goes for their future spouses as well.

I have currently been reading the Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartin.  She really encourages parents to pray for their children using scripture.  She always encourages you to make a prayer list/journal over things you should pray for your child each year.  I agree with Lysa and always try to pray for my boys to have godly friends and godly spouses.  Friends are so important in guiding the path of your life.  I truly feel God has blessed me with many wonderful friends who have encouraged me spiritually and guided me down the right path.  I have also had other relationships that were not a good influence on me.  If my boys read this one day, I hope you will look at your relationships closely and ask yourself and God if you are surrounding yourself with the right kind of friends.  We talk about this verse a lot in my bible study and I love to pray it for my boys and others-

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.