Merry Christmas to all!

For the past several days, our home has been full of Christmas spirit. The neighborhood kids are a daily fixture in our home. These 2 girls in particular, are very good with Helaina and treat her like their little sister. Helaina and the girls exchanged Christmas gifts on Saturday morning and baked cookies in preparation of Santa's visit. Helaina insisted that Santa prefers chocolate chip, so those were made to order. The girls did a good job mixing and putting the dough on the cookie sheet. Despite my best efforts though, Helaina snuck in a few bites of raw dough and a fork licked squeaky clean!

Milk and warm cookies after lunch.

Christmas Eve at Amo Jack and Auntie Georgette's

Our family

With Teta and Seedy

Silly girl

Zachary's first Christmas. It's hard to believe that this little man is only 8 months old. It seems he's been lighting up our life for much longer. He is such a good boy and was made perfect for our family. There is not a minute that goes by that this boy isn't smiling. He softens the heart of his strong-willed older sister, and he melts my heart with every toothless grin. Our first Christmas as a family of four...it was the best yet!

If you ask Helaina, her and Santa are tight. She was certain, that Santa was going to leave a few cookies for her to enjoy Christmas morning. And he did not disappoint. By 6:30 am, Helaina had successfully treated herself to 2 chocolate chip cookies. We had to leave a note for Santa reminding him that Helaina would like to share his treats.
We have so much to be thankful for...the holidays can be tiring and stressful. However, when I have my moments of calm and quiet, I realize that there is so much life happening in our home everyday. The Holy Spirit is moving in each of our heart's and at times, I can literally feel all of God's love carrying us through our days. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Blessings

Babies, recent births, and birthdays are just a couple of the many Christmas blessings this holiday season.

We had my parents in town this past weekend for an early Christmas gathering. They helped watch the kids while Randy and I worked on Saturday. Sunday we spent the morning celebrating Randy's dad's birthday at a Christmas brunch and ended the day exchanging gifts and enjoying their company.

I told myself that I would be better this year in teaching/sharing with Helaina the real meaning of the season. Right after Thanksgiving, her and I rounded up some toys around the house and dropped them off at a local church that was sponsoring a toy drive. While we are home during the week, I try to keep the television off, and we play/sing Christmas carols for most of the day. At night before bed, Randy and I tell her a Christmas story that has biblical meaning and we say our prayers together. I don't know how much of these traditions she can relate to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but I do know that I have a strong urge to improve my teaching skills by this time next year!

Helaina giving a "thumbs up" for all gifts she is about to open

Having more fun in the box...typical!

Zachary's First Christmas


Celebrating Seedy's birthday

Our latest Christmas blessing...baby boy Khoury! He arrived yesterday (Tuesday) and we were thrilled to visit him at the hospital. Mark, Christina, and baby are doing well.

8 months

Our 2 1/2 year old is blossoming into quite the social butterfly! Her cousins, Emann and Rana, called Friday afternoon to invite her over to their home for a gingerbread house extravaganza. Rana's fellow hockey teammates were among the participants, and they made Helaina feel like she was one of the girls. I left her with her new fiends and made a quick Target trip with my mom. Upon separation, no tears, no whining, no looking back; she was in candy heaven. When we returned to pick her up, she had made (with the help of her friends) this beautiful creation.

Helaina and Zach's swimming classes have concluded for the year, but the recreation center has open swimming on Saturday afternoons. To fight some cabin fever, with the help of my parents, we took the kids to the pool. We certainly have 2 small amphibians for children! We are looking forward to Helaina's new swim class in January. She is moving up to the older group, and by the last week of class, sometime this February, our hope is she'll be swimming independently!

Loves the water just as much as his sister!
Zachary turned 8 months old this week! This kid is checking off the milestone's daily! He's saying "mama" and "dada" and several other babbles. It took him a little longer to get the speech going, but it's started and it's nonstop! Music to our ears. Zach is pulling himself up on everything. He doesn't like to sit still any longer, always on the move. He doesn't enjoy crawling any longer, and prefers to hold our hands and walk around the house. Could our son be walking on his own at 8 or 9 months old...I've only heard of these kind of babies through other mom's...surely our son won't be one of them?!? Lastly, it is very early to determine, but he uses his left hand for everything. We have several lefties in our families, myself included, so it's quite possible we have another one in the making.

Polar Express

It's Christmas in Michigan, and what better event to attend than The Polar Express? The Archer family traveled from Indiana to spend the weekend with us. Auntie Katie researched special holiday events in our area and to our delight, the The Polar Express was in town. It was such a magical event for the kids and the adults.

Aiden and Helaina holding hands on their way to the train. Helaina refers to Aiden as, "my friend.
Hot chocolate and cookies for all.

Auntie Katie, Aiden, me, and Helaina

"All aboard!"

Riding the train

A visit from Frosty

And then, a special visit from Santa. Santa was jolly and brought bells for the kids and serenaded us Christmas carols.

However, Helaina was quite disappointed with Rudolph's visit. With big, alligator tears in her eyes, she said, " I don't like this reindeer. He only has 2 legs, Santa's reindeer have 4 legs like Najeeb. Can we go to the restaurant (aka mall) and ask Santa where his other reindeer are?" Bless her little heart, so observant.

An afternoon of holiday fun, decorating Christmas cookies. It was more like eating the icing and the candy straight from the bottle, but hey, they enjoyed every minute.

It is always so nice to spend quality time with our friends and watch our children grow together. So thankful for our friends who are willing to drive and make time to share their family with us.

Christmas Lights

And so the story goes...

Santa heard Helaina asking for beautiful outdoor Christmas lights. Santa didn't know exactly where Helaina lived because there were no outdoor lights guiding him, so he delivered a variety of lights to one of his elves, Auntie Abla. Auntie Abla told Santa that she would help him finish his Christmas work because Helaina had been a good girl this year. And in a matter of hours, Helaina's house was shining, just in time for Santa and his reindeer. Helaina couldn't be happier...thanks Auntie!

He is young boy in an old man's body! Seriously, he likes to hold the remote control and watch t.v. It's adorable!

I guess when you turn 2 1/2, you mysteriously forgot how to smile like a normal human being. The best Christmas smile we could get, but a beautiful one...we love you pretty girl!

Photo with Santa

No smiles, but more importantly, NO TEARS! Zachary will do anything his sister is doing, and today, it was sitting on Santa's lap. Helaina didn't want anything to do with Santa last year. We had to take a ridiculous family photo with Santa because Helaina wouldn't sit on his lap unless all of us were with her. This year...well that is another story! Santa is no stranger to her. After the photo, Helaina had a nice long talk with him and each time we passed him, she shouted, "Hi Santa!"
Two funny stories from the mouth of our daughter...

The indoor decorations have been up for some time now. We've had good intentions for the outdoor decor, however, not a single light shines. Every day, Helaina asks, "Daddy where are our outside lights? Why aren't they on?" I laugh. Randy laughs but feels guilty. Tonight, driving home from the mall, Helaina sees several houses with their bright, colored lights. Helaina says, "Look at the beautiful lights! Our house doesn't look like that. When are we going to have outside lights?" I laugh. Randy laughs and feels even more guilty. I'm guessing we'll have outside lights no later than Sunday.

If you know Helaina at all, you are fully aware that she LOVES to eat. Fruits, vegetables, pasta, cheese, meat, fish, sushi, smoothies, condiments, chocolate, chips, cookies...I'm pretty sure there isn't anything she won't eat. She loves to shop too. I believe she associates these outings with some kind of treat. Not exactly the kind of parenting I approve of, but it's reality. Before we left the mall, she was begging us for a slushie. We have never bought one for her, but she's had a few sips here and there. Tonight, we caved. She walked herself right up to the cashier and ordered a "small, cherry slushie." We payed, and the lady handed Helaina her slushie. Helaina says, "Thank you for my slushie. (slight pause) This is the most beautiful slushie I have ever seen!"