December 2017

December started with our family's first broken bone!  The kids and my parents were playing "What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?" after we celebrated my dad's birthday, and during the game, Isaac lunged forward on all fours and rolled his thumb.  I had left my dad's birthday dinner a little early to go to a CC mom's night, and I didn't look at my phone until I left.  My mom and Dave had both texted me that they thought Isaac's thumb was broken!  We went to our pediatrician the next morning who immediately said, "Well, it sure looks broken."  The x-ray confirmed it.  That was a Friday, and they casted it the following Monday.  Then, because so much swelling went down in the following week, they recasted it the following Tuesday.  Isaac was a great sport!

The kids loved walking by all the Christmas decorations in our neighborhood!  Of course, the boys especially liked the "Christmas dragon" (is that a thing?).  Dave bought each of them Christmas lights to decorate their beds!

The kids were really into playing "store" in December.  They'd gather up random toys from their rooms and sell them to each other at the "store" in the running room.  Even Dave, Mom-o, and Pop came to shop!

We taught Emma how to play Mexican train dominoes over lunch!  (She won, of course!)

I took Emma to the Dollar Tree and Kid to Kid to buy Christmas presents for her brothers.  She knew exactly what she wanted to buy them!  

I didn't get a sweet picture of Josiah in his nativity outfit--my sister-in-law said this is how he feels about his smocked clothes! (Ha!)  It's still my favorite.  And, this is the best picture we had from our Christmas concert at church!  I so enjoyed playing flute in Countryside's performance of "The Word Became Flesh."  It was special that my parents and Uncle Jon attended one of the performances!  

And, again, this makes me wonder why we buy toys?  The kids had the best time building a zoo for their animals out of Dixie cups!

Emma's ballet class had a Christmas celebration day on December 11.  Her teacher selects such gorgeous and moving pieces of music!  Emma's teacher set up a manger with a baby Jesus in it and then the girls got to take turns dancing while cradling the baby and then laying Him back in the manger.  I cried so hard, especially because the music was one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Happy Birthday, Jesus." 

Emma and I had fun matching Christmas shirts that said "Merry and Bright!"

And then, our entire December changed when I got a call on Wednesday, December 13 asking if we would take placement of a two-day old baby boy!  When the intake worker called, I was in the middle of reading (and crying through) The Invisible Thread Christmas Story (our new favorite Christmas story this year).  The call came around 2:45 that afternoon, and at 5:30 p.m. the investigator was at our front door with a sweet baby boy!  One of the funniest parts was that Dave didn't even know that we were getting a placement that afternoon because they were jack-hammering at his job site, so he couldn't hear his phone!  My parents and Corrie came over that night to help set up the pack and play, the crib, and deliver groceries and goodies.  We were (and are!) so loved on by so many!  We had 3 weeks of meals from both our church and First Baptist Keller.  It has been so sweet having a baby in our home!

The rest of that week was a wonderful blur!  On Saturday, we went to a Santa Lucia breakfast at our friends Gene and Carmie's house.  Their entire family attends Countryside, and Carmie was college roommates with my aunt, Dodie, who lives in Minnesota!  (Small world!!)  

I loved seeing all her beautiful Scandinavian paintings and decorations throughout her home.

Their family was so generous to include us, and Carmie even made each of my kids stockings!

Isaac and Emma's choirs sang in church the next day, and I was playing special music with my flute quartet.  I was backstage, so I didn't get to see Emma and Isaac sing, but I took these few pictures on the backstage screen.  Isaac's choir had hand motions with one of their songs, and his big blue cast was evident to everyone as he raised his hands for the motions, especially because he was on the top row!  

flute quartet laughing and rehearsing :)

We went to my parent's house for dinner after church that Sunday, and my kids each opened one of their Christmas gifts from my parents early.  Josiah's was this wheelbarrow, which he loves!

We drove to Sherman on Tuesday, December 19 as our friends Julia and John adopted their precious son, Jamesson!  It was such a fun group of friends and their family who were all there!  After the court hearing, we went to a fun Mexican restaurant for lunch.  The kids all sat at a huge, long table and loved it!  We'd only had our foster baby for 6 days at this point, and I was very tired, but it was so worth it!  It was a special day.  The Lord has been so gracious to give us such sweet friends who are also fostering right now!  

The next morning we had a Christmas Book and Cookie party at our house!  I had planned this before we received our foster placement, and the other moms stepped in and brought all the food!  Each mom brought one of her family's favorite Christmas books to read to all the kids!  It was such a fun assortment of Christmas books.  I cried through "The Invisible Thread"--my kids aren't surprised any more when I cry in books, but the other kids were!  (I heard the idea for a Christmas book party from one of my favorite homeschool podcasters, Pam Barnhill.)

This is a real-life picture of my laundry room :) --Emma started doing a load completely on her own one morning!  

We didn't go see Santa this year, so Isaac said he'd be Santa and this could be his sleigh for the other kids.  

church on Christmas Eve morning

We went to Dickeys after church that morning, and on the way home Dave helped a girl who had car trouble.  The kids had such big eyes watching this!  

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house!  

This is a chocolate bar Emma bought for Pop at the Dollar Tree.

Isaac was SO excited about his new microscope!!

Christmas morning

Dave stayed up so late on Christmas Eve night wrapping the rest of the presents, finishing Isaac's Lego project, and feeding the baby.  I can't imagine how long it took him to completely wrap Isaac's 10' king cobra in paper and wind it around the tree--it made a big impression!

I was so excited for Emma to open her American Girl Kirsten doll!

Isaac bought Emma a matching pup to his own.  

We went to Kym and Bernie's for Christmas Day lunch.  Dave and Isaac played Isaac's new game of Battleship.  Emma and Amanda dressed up in Amanda's dresses and costumes for hours.  They kept parading downstairs in outfit after outfit.  Amanda would say, "Here's a beautiful bride!" or "Here's a beautiful princess!" and then Emma would enter the room.  They were darling!

Christmas Day swim--a family tradition!  (Poor Isaac couldn't get in because of his cast!)

I snapped this on the monitor of Isaac reading Josiah's new books from Christmas to him!

We went and saw "The Star" with the Ahners one morning after Christmas!  It was such a good movie!  This was Josiah's first trip to a movie theater, and he stood for most of the movie.

Emma and I had an afternoon out buying clothes for the baby.  She is a great shopper!

My "When Calls the Heart" accomplice Tiffany gave me a 2018 calendar with scenes from our favorite show.  One evening, Dave and I were planning for January, and he kept laughing about my calendar, ha!  I sent this to Tiffany and said Dave wasn't so sure about all things Jack and Elizabeth!  

Emma helped do all the bottles one morning--she is a great help!

We are having a lot of fun playing games with the kids right now!  Nana and Papa sent Candyland for Christmas, and it's a lot of fun!

Isaac got his cast off the week after Christmas! 

We had so much fun with friends celebrating Jenny's 40th birthday on New Year's Eve!  Her husband, Joel, worked so hard on a wonderful surprise for her!  We had dinner at BJ's and then drove out to Ponder for an after-party! 

 

Welcome, 2018!