Joyeux Noel - in color :)

 Christmas this year was a blending of traditions and cultures, creating a stronger and more loving family. Helen and Daniel flew over from England, along with her parents and two brothers, to celebrate Christmas and the blessing of family. We ushered a new life into the world right before Helen and Daniel were joined in love and marriage, so we missed meeting her family this summer in France. Now having met and come to love her family, I love Helen even more than I did. Her family is so lovely and kind. I appreciate their love for beauty and family. On Christmas year this year we played charades and sang Christmas carols. We also enjoyed mince pies, eggnog and English Christmas cake which were fun additions to our own traditions.

Abigail making mince pies with Lynn

 Abigail fell and split her lip on Christmas Eve. No holiday pictures would be complete without some sort of injury :)

Tom making everyone delicious eggnog

 Baking cookies with Mimi

 Christmas morning!

Reading the last Jesse tree devotion.

I am so blessed to have such a lovely sister!

I'm also thankful that my grandparents were willing to drive over for the day to see us, braving the snow and cold.

Yummy traditional English Christmas Cake

 ...here she looks like a redhead. Hmm, I wonder who she gets it from?

Christmas part one :)

My grandparents graciously give gifts AND mailed them to the house, which made for less gifts we had to transport back in our minivan. The girls also got to open gifts in stages, so they enjoyed their gifts more. I also hoped it help them truly be "thankful". Christmas is such a sweet time, but we're finding that it's so easy for the day to just be about "stuff" and not about Christ.

Here's our little tree with all of the Jesse tree ornaments :) And don't you love the homemade wreath placed on top by our eldest. That's what happens when you have a teeny tiny artificial tree. Maybe we'll chop a real one down next year. This year was all about simplicity.

Reading with daddy.

Tabitha's big sisters were delighted to help her open gifts.

Jumping for Joy!

"More books I can chew on!"

 "I love my new doll!"

 ...both girls very excited about a doll house :) Lots of sharing in their future :)

Christmas festivities

The girls and I made Christmas cutouts. As you can see from the pictures, sharing and cookie baking provides lots of opportunities for sharing and growing together in grace, patience and forgiveness:) We frosted and decorated the cookies with friends the following day. I particularly enjoyed the company of friends and sending home the decorated cookies with two other families!

I'm not much of a plan ahead kind of lady these days, so when I asked about joining  a "Jesse tree ornament" group this year, the groups were full. At the very end of November, I learned that there was an opening and a lovely lady at church (who I don't know very well) gifted me a whole set of Jesse tree ornaments. It was such a surprise and blessing! I wrapped 25 ornaments and the girls took turns unwrapping an ornament a day to go with a corresponding devotional. I'm not sure who enjoyed this more -- daddy or the girls :) 

Here's Tabitha "listening" to the devotion too!

Hannah really enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree everyday. Thankfully, we only had two of the ornaments break. It's a good thing Daddy is super handy with glue!

Here Miss Abigail is snuggling with her daddy. This girl is growing up and becoming quite the helpful young lady :) She turns a big 5!!!! at the end of the month.

These last two pictures I took over our Christmas holiday. It sure is wonderful having daddy home!

As you can tell by all of the recent posts, I've had lots of blog catch up to do. I downloaded almost 600 photos off of my camera earlier this week, and I've finally had a moment to sit, look through them all and do some blogging. My mom made a surprise visit down to visit with my dad, so I've enjoyed having an extra pair of hands that free me up to do some solo grocery shopping and blogging.

We had a busy holiday season and I hope to get to the first of many Christmas postings soon.

Let it snow!

Our home feels like a tree house in the summer and a winter wonderland when it snows. The girls enjoyed the first snow of the year and made their first snowman! Okay, Daddy did most of the grunt work but both girls enjoyed helping put on the "Daddy Snowman's" finishing touches. Abigail called him a "Daddy Snowman" because he was so tall!

 Hannah even enjoyed the snow this year, though she only lasted about 45 minutes before she was ready to come inside :)

 And Rodney took Abigail sledding down the big hill!

Seven Months

Tabitha you are an affable, adorable seven month old. This month, you started clapping and waving. You get very excited when you see your sisters and doggies. You still don't enjoy being on your tummy, so even though you sit very well, I don't think you'll be crawling anytime soon. You also have two teeth! Your two bottom teeth took me by surprise, since you were a relatively "happy" teether,  and they came in four months sooner than your two big sisters. You're still almost a redhead. Most people who meet you for the first time comment on your strawberry fluff, though in your seven month pictures, it looks blond to me:)

First Food ~6.5 months

Tabitha turned six months over Thanksgiving, so we didn't get around to introducing solids until early December. Her first taste of bananas seemed promising, but her favorite food is still momma's milk. She has only recently started opening her mouth and swallowing avocado and peas, even though she's had many opportunities to try squash, pears, oatmeal and sweet potato.

Abigail helped me take pictures, which she enjoyed immensely. And then grabbed my camera to snap a couple pictures too. It's a little tricky feeding an infant, keeping track of a climbing two year old, monitoring my oldest using my very expensive camera and then trying to snap a couple pictures myself.

All four of us had fun!