A fun and festive month!

December is always such an amazing month! Of course it is filled with birthday celebrations, choir performances, Christmas parties, Santa Claus, our elf on the shelf, cookie baking, and present wrapping.....but more importantly it is filled with the Love of our Lord who gave us the most precious gift of baby Jesus. Oh how thankful I am for that gift. All else pales in comparison. And oh how thankful I am that my children are old enough to "get it" now. Walking through Wal-mart, buying presents for his sisters, James looked up at me and said "You know, Mommy, Christmas is really all about Jesus..."  Driving to see Santa Clause one night, Grafton said "You know, it's okay if Santa doesn't bring me any toys because Christmas is about baby Jesus and that is what is really important."  As we were getting ready for church one Sunday morning, Price pointed down to the smocking on her dress and said "Baby Jesus! Yayyyyyy!" Yes, baby girl, Yayyyyyy! Yay that God sent His son to us that blessed day.

So yes, we have had an amazing month filled with lots of love and laughter and singing and baking and playing and family fun, but we have also remembered our precious Jesus who was born on Christmas morning. Lots of pictures from our month....

Grafton's precious school picture- I LOVE it 

 Look at this girl! Isn't she a hoot!?

 At first I was a little annoyed that I had to be in our Santa picture this year....then I realized that this may be my last year to have a little one too afraid of Santa to sit by herself. I put on a big smile and thanked God for that moment that I got to share with my little Loves. Time is ticking by too fast...it was nice to take a minute to remember how special each moment is.

 Our elf was a MESS this year! Snowflake rolled our tree with toilet paper, made towers out of solo cups, had a hot tub date with Barbie, shaved his face with Daddy's razor, decorated our kitchen with streamers, left presents for the children, ate more marshmellows than we knew existed, and gave the kids so many laughs that all the time and energy put into him was WELL WORTH IT! Seeing the smiles and excitement on the kids faces was priceless.

 Family time!

 We went out for ice cream and ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus!!!

 We love making ginger bread houses...such a fun tradition

 Our Christmas card pictures this year

 My sweet kids singing in the church choir program! They did awesome!

 Mommy's girl! She is an absolute blast!

 Santa came to Goose Creek!! What a fun night of seeing Santa again, eating cookies, playing with friends, and being goofy kids!

 I loved being able to help with Grafton's Christmas party! I'm thankful that DeeDee can keep the little ones while I sneak away to spend special time with my Grafton girl! Her class is just precious this year, and they have some fun and silly times together! I did the craft for the party- handprint ornaments :) We had cupcakes and fruit, Christmas bingo, and lots of acting silly!

 Pops came in town and spent the morning with us before Christmas. The kids loved their presents and loved playing! They were definitely spoiled rotten!!

 We also had a fun time visiting GG and Pop in Clarksdale and getting to play with some sweet cousins.

 James is so so ready to be big enough to hunt with Daddy! He wears his camo, watches hunting videos, and helps Daddy clean the ducks! One day soon, sweet buddy...

 I love these little people!