CHRISTmas Focus

I love family traditions...carrying on one's from my own childhood and adding lots more to our new family. Christmas is the perfect time for traditions and adding new one's too.
But along with our fun traditions of elf on the shelf, reindeer food, & hot chocolate movie nights I want to be adding traditions that help us to keep our focus on Jesus. He is the real reason we celebrate Christmas after all. I want to make sure that Jake understands that we don't just have Christmas to get presents. There is so much more we should have our focus on at this time. And those things are so much more important then the gifts under the tree(although, they are fun too & will be including in our Christmas celebration).

Yesterday we kicked off our Christmas Advent count down. I searched pinterest & several other places on the internet & found lots of very cute ways of counting down, but just wasn't sure what I wanted to use.

We have started Truth in the Tinsel an Advent experience for little hands. It looks like it is going to be lots of fun to do with Jake each day. It includes a short reading(today we read Isiah 9:2-7) & then there is an ornament craft to go with it. All the crafts are pretty simple & include most things you already have around your house. Along with a short little section to talk about what you read and a suggestion to do more together.Truth in the Tinsel is great for us to do as a family each morning.  Last year we did a Jesse tree & a family advent book I had picked up at Lifeway. I am still doing the Jesse tree devotions as part of my daily quiet time. The Jesse tree devotion is by Ann Voskamp(if you know me, you know how wonderful I think Ann is) and a great way to really focus on getting into the spirit of real Christmas. And her devotional is free!

I also wanted to have fun things to do each day as we counted down. A fun little activity we could do sometime throughout the day. Here is our list of things we will be doing over the next month.
1. Open a book-I love the idea of counting down to Christmas with 25 books, but we only have 8 Christmas books around our house. So I wrapped those 8 and spread throughout the month I have included open a book.
2. Make a fun breakfast with Mommy(we made red velvet pancakes this morning...not enough red food coloring, but they still tasted yummy).
3. Open a book
4. Decorate tree with hot chocolate & a fire(w got our tree last week, but have been waiting for daddy to be home to decorate it)
5. Polar Express Movie pj & hot chocolate party
6. Buy yearly ornament
7. Shop for Hope for Christmas
8. Make gingerbread nativity
9. Visit Santa
10. Journey through Bethlehem
11. Fun trip with mommy & daddy(haven't decided if we will do Stone Mountain Christmas or Pettite Creek)
12. Write Letter to Santa
13. Bring letter to the Macy's Believe Santa mail box
14. Drive around neighborhood to see lights
15. Make ice cream cone trees
16. Open book
17. Cookie decorating party
18. Christmas activity with Daddy
19.  Open book
20. Make neighborhood gifts
21. Deliver gifts for neighbors
22. Make reindeer food
23. Jesus birthday party
24. Church & visits with family
25. Read the Christmas story & open presents

So it lead me to want to include both our advent activity and our fun activities into the same Christmas countdown. Each day of our advent activity we make a craft and each craft needs certain materials(Amanda has included a list of all the materials you need along with a list by day in Truth in the Tinsel...really no thinking on my party). I didn't want to have to be searching around for our materials each day before we could sit down and do our activity. I was also trying to use what I had around the house(I was trying to hurry and get it all together on the 30th in preparation for the 1st). And from this was born our white lunch bag Christmas countdown. In each bag is our print out from Truth in the Tinsel & the materials we will need for our craft. On the front of the bag I made a small pocket out of scrapbook paper and tucked a tag into the pocket. On the tag is written the activity we will do each day. In a few of the bags there are also small treats like a chocolate kiss or Christmas sticker that I thought Jake would like finding in the bags too.

Workin' Man

With a Pawpaw in the landscape business and always working outside all the boys want to be working men. They where working man pants(khaki cargo pants like pawpaw wears to work) and of course you can't forget the working boots too.

My nephew Tyler decided he wanted to have a Willow Green(pawpaw's company), working man party for his 7th birthday. Pawpaw, of course, was all about him having a this kind of party. Pawpaw took to planning a real outside boy party.

The boys had races picking up leaves and putting into lawn bags, wheel barrow & lawn mower races, team races to put get bricks to the top of a ladder, and making hand prints in cement. No working man party would be complete without tools for prizes & each boy went home with their very own real tool set.

Surrounded by Love(shower)

Here are some other pictures from Lily's shower.

We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who love us and already love our sweet girl. It couldn't not have been better to celebrate Lily with all these wonderful people(and those who couldn't be there too).

 Jake showing all his sister's new pink & pretty stuff

 Just had to share...trying to get a picture with Jake...and in Jake fashion had to make silly faces in them all

 A group of wonderful ladies...family & friends

 My mom & sisters

 The beautiful lady who put it all together...Thank You Vickie!!!

Amber...who was taking pictures and wasn't in our group shot.

Showered with Love(details)

My friend Vickie threw us the most beautiful girly baby shower. It was so exciting to see all the details she put together. She blessed us with a knitting themed baby shower with a touch of vintage to go along with it.

Started from Psalm 139:13 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

She really is that creative to make a whole shower from a Bible verse. And it all looked so beautiful together.
Because breakfast might be one of my favorite types of food(is that a type or just a meal?) Vickie served   delicious breakfast food. And some may think baby shower games are cheesy, but I happen to think they are fun. And it seemed everyone enjoyed the games Vickie put together too.

Family Pics

We recently had our family pictures taken. My sweet friend Vickie did a great job on them. I don't want to give away what will be on our Christmas cards this year...so I am sharing some of the outtakes. Jake was being very silly on picture day. We got several of him making funny faces.

3rd Trimester

28 weeks...we have started the 3rd trimester!! That means Lily is almost here.

I have probably said this with every monthly update, but I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. And I know with Thanksgiving only 2 weeks away and then Christmas it is going to seem even faster. This time of year always goes so fast...I am determined to try and slow down to enjoy every minute. I want to take in all the Holiday fun with Jake since this is his last as an only child. I also want to take in every minute of this pregnancy(especially since it seems this could be the last). I want to remember every kick, every feeling, & even every discomfort.

My goal is to have her room finished by Thanksgiving. With last weeks painting and this weeks furniture delivery it looks like we will accomplish that goal. This will definitely help in being able to enjoy this season and not have to worry about getting everything finished in time for Lily to be here.

Are you wondering about her name? If we aren't friends on facebook you may have missed the official announcement. By a very small 1 vote we have a name winner....LILY KATE is our baby girl's name. As I have said she has been Lily for a long time, but we weren't sure about spelling or middle name.

Everything is going great with only a few discomforts. The biggest being heart burn. I had some heart burn with Jake, but it has been terrible this time. Over the last couple weeks it seems no matter what I eat, or drink I am likely to get heart burn. I have to say I am so glad that the only time I get heart burn is when I am pregnant...not sure how people deal with it all the time. It is so painful!!!

She is moving a lot, but already seems to be in a schedule. She moves a little in the morning when I first get up. I occasionally feel her throughout the day. Then just as it has been for a while she moves a whole bunch in the evening. I am excited to go to my Dr. appointment on Friday. I will get another ultrasound and will be able to see how she is positioned. At my last appointment her head was on my right side and butt was on my left, going all the across my belly. I can't tell if she has moved to be head down...I feel her moving all over my belly making it hard to tell which is what moving.

My wonderful best friend is hosting a baby shower for us this weekend. I am so excited to celebrate our sweet girl with our family & friends. I am sure I will have pictures to share from then.

Am I missing anything? Do you have any questions about this pregnancy?

Pumpkin Patch

I realized I never shared pictures from the pumpkin patch. So here they are...our fun trip picking out the perfect pumpkins.