Christmas Fun!

So many pictures, so much fun, so many blessings! 2012 was a wonderful Christmas.  Here's a recap through pictures:

Several lazy days at home with the kids playing together in their Christmas pajamas.  

Christmas Eve at Amo Jack and Auntie Georgette's.  They always have an amazing spread of delicious food, and with our growing families, it's a special night spending time with our loved ones.

Helaina and the love of her life, cousin Alex!

Amo Jack and his grandson, Caden.  Helaina and Zach's second cousin.

Christmas morning at Seedy and Teta's, and look who rang the door bell!  Santa came bearing gifts for all.  Helaina kept hugging him and sitting on his lap and asked to sing Christmas carols together. Zach likes Santa too, but from afar.  We'd say, "Hug him" and Zach would respond, "five" (aka high five).

What a special treat that the kids will remember for ever!

Uncle Nate and Aunt MaKayla gave the kids Carhart jackets.

 
Randy and me at the Walter Christmas in Indiana.

And another special treat while we were visiting Indiana. My life-long friend, Kelly, visited with her adorable son Louis.  Such a handsome little man.

We spent the last several days in Indiana celebrating with my side of the family.  It's been a great few weeks, but it will definitely be nice to get back into a routine and a little less sugar for the kids!!!

Christmas Memories

In the midst of the recent tragedy in CT, our hearts are extremely heavy, thinking about the innocent lives lost and the heroes that are among us.  Every day for an entire week, I would become teary-eyed each time I thought about those young children and their families.  Since becoming parents, we've realized the importance of embracing each day and living in every moment.  This is it! These are the moments! Our children are literally growing and changing every single day, and we are beyond blessed to live it, to share it, and witness it.  We initially started this blog mainly to keep in touch with our family and friends that are scattered throughout this world...Indiana, California, Texas, New York, Palestine, Spain, etc.  But over time,  I've come to appreciate the blog for much more than just a means of staying in touch.  Weekly, I'm able to take an hour of alone time to look through the pictures from the week and count my blessing for all that God has provided for our family.  And one day, when our children are grown and hopefully have families of their own, they too, can read this blog together, as it will forever be a reminder of all the people that have loved them so deeply.  

This Christmas has been very special.  The kids are filled with joy.  They are so precious.  They love Jesus, they love Santa, and they love everything that we do together during the holiday season.  In just a few short weeks, Helaina memorized 2 complete verses of "Joy to the World" and sings it throughout the day.  She sings to her brother when he's crying, she sings to herself while she's playing, and she sings herself to sleep.  It's beautiful!

This week, Santa visited all the houses in our subdivision, and he came bearing gifts for all the kids.  Helaina kept hugging his leg and saying, "I love you Santa. Thanks for coming to see us!" 

Zach loves him too, but still needed to sit on mom's lap to feel comfortable.

Helaina serenaded Zach and me at her preschool class on Thursday morning.

Our first snow of the season came on Friday morning.  It wasn't very much, but enough to cover the ground and let the kids out for a little sledding.

Helaina and her neighborhood friend, Grace, took turns pulling each other across the yard.

Helaina slept over at Seedy and Teta's house on Friday night.  Saturday morning she went to work with them at the airport.

 
She made her own lunch at Taco Bell.

In the middle of the airport for a few days during the holiday, they had singers perform Christmas carols.  For a small donation, Helaina was able to get on stage and perform for all the people.  She had such a great time!

Lucky, lucky girl Club Room with Seedy.

After a long few days, this is what tired looks like!!!

Saturday evening, we traveled about 45 minutes to get to The Polar Express.  Helaina and her friend, Aiden, rode the train last year during Christmas.  They LOVED it and thought Zach would be old enough to attend this year.  Unfortunately, after we drove all the way out there, we were informed that they could not get the train to run and there would only be treats and some visiting with Santa and his friends.  Hot chocolate makes everything better!

Quite a nice ending to our weekend. Aunt Abla came to visit.  We had dinner together and did a little gift exchange.  Now we'll get some rest and get ready for the rest of our Christmas festivities.   

Nativity Play

Helaina and her sweet friends, Isabella and Alina,  participated in our church's annual nativity play this past Thursday.  Helaina had to attend two rehearsals prior to her actual performance as an angel.  It was such a heart-warming night together with our family and special friends.  Afterwards, we attended a dinner at the church hall that included a surprise visit from Santa Claus! Another Christmas tradition that I absolutely have fallen in love with. 

I love this picture!!!  Helaina is all ready for the show.  Alina wondering what the other kids are doing on stage, and Isabella a little older and a little nervous that so many people will be watching her.

Uncle Omar came to see us!  The kids were literally waiting at the door for him until he arrived. Unfortunately, he'll be on call Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so he spent a couple days with us before the holiday.  After he gave the kids some special treats, he helped Helaina build a ginger bread house.

My parents also came to visit this weekend.  Each year, they like to come one weekend in December to share some quality time with the kids before Christmas since our family doesn't travel to Indiana till after the holiday.  They babysat while Randy and I attended our work Christmas party on Friday evening.  Then they took the kids to a breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning, and we spent most of today exchanging gifts and enjoying all our new goodies.

Zach saying, "Oooohhhh Airplane!"

Helping Grandpa open his gifts

Hugging her daddy

I think Grandma likes her gift from the kids.

And Zach is pretty attached to his new car!

Holiday Fun

This Christmas, the kids are able to understand so much more about the true meaning of the season.  We thoroughly enjoy teaching them all the beautiful and blessed things of Christmas with the hope that new family traditions are being created.  

Our newest evening ritual is lighting the advent candles on the advent wreath and reviewing each candles meaning and significance.  The Catholic advent wreath is slightly different than the Orthodox wreath for the advent season, but none the less, it's a joy to do each night at dinner with the kids.  

At this age, Zach is primarily concerned with blowing out the candles as you can see from the video below.

   

Our little man has had quite the appetite lately.  On this particular day, for breakfast he had 1 egg with ketchup, 1 piece of toast with jelly, 1 banana, 1 glass of milk and within an hour he was begging for a snack.  

Had to post this for my brother and MaKayla who bought him these awesome work boots last Christmas.  He's just now fitting into them, just in time for the winter season.  Such a hunky guy!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't have the weekend that we had hoped for.  Randy was called into the office on Saturday for an emergency sewer issue. After a long and stinky 10 hour day with Jeff, they finally resolved the issue.  To all the women, in case you ever wondered about proper disposal of feminine products, the toilet is NOT the proper place!
Our evening was much better as we took Helaina to The Polar Express in 3-D at the IMAX.  We all loved it.  It is such a neat movie, especially this time of year and in 3-D.  But alas, germs struck us again as Helaina was up in the middle of the night vomiting.  I think just the 24 hour flu bug, but the poor thing had a rough night and morning.  

Tis the Season

Christmas carols, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas lights, Santa, Advent, Advent wreath, stories about Jesus, his birth, and his family, the Elf on the Shelf, cookies, shopping, presents, wrapping, and parties...to our children, this is their favorite time of the year!

A picture of Helaina being very resourceful in order to hang her window clings high enough that her brother won't be able to touch them.  

Decorating the tree, Helaina style

Spending lots of mornings and evenings in nothing but our pajamas

Today we had the honor of attending Matthew Khoury's Baptism and 1st Birthday party.  I simply cannot believe that he is going to 1 in just a couple weeks.  Helaina and Zachary were beyond excited to attend both events and Father George was great in including all the kids in the ceremony.
Matthew just before being immersed in the water with all the kids looking on with excitement.

Sweet, sweet faces. 

 The newly Baptized boy with his mom.

After the Baptism we attended Antonio's for a lunch and birthday celebration.  What could be better than lunch, cake, and ice cream with your cousins?!?

All the girls playing doctor in the middle of the restaurant.
                                      

The birthday boy!

Poor guy, the other kids couldn't keep their hands out of his cake.

Such a special season and such a special day for all of us. We are beyond blessed and very thankful for all of God's love and mercy.