Christmas!

(Our Christmas Card this year) ;)

We had a wonderful & relaxed Christmas! It's such a joy to celebrate the birth of our Savior; a weary world rejoices indeed! I'm so thankful for the gift of Jesus, who is the very reason for the peace & joy in my life.

Our kids could hardly sleep on Christmas Eve's Eve because they were so excited for the days to come. :) Sunday morning we went to church and then drove out to Josh's parent's house. Great Grandma Fegles had just gotten home that afternoon from a hospital stay! So we were extra happy to have her and Great Grandpa there. She's a trooper!

While the kids were opening presents Selah was making me smile. :)

And then she was so excited about what was in that box. The perfect gift from Grandpa & Grandma:

Grandpa Mike had just had knee replacement surgery, and Grandma Chris was recovering from a bad fall, and they still managed to host a wonderful Christmas for us all and lavish us with thoughtful gifts! They are amazing. Thank you Mom and Dad Fegles for such a wonderful time all together! 

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was this book, Blessed are the Misfits by Brant Hansen. Thank you Mom and Dad Fegles! He's the author that wrote my FAVORITE book I read last year, Unoffendable. I read the first three chapters of this one Christmas morning and had to read one of the chapters out loud to Josh because I was just so blown away. I can't recommend Brant's books enough! I wish everyone would read them. :) 

The next morning the kids woke us up (too early according to our tired bodies), and they were ready to bound down the stairs and open their stockings! 

We always have a scavenger hunt with one group gift, so we had the kids kick off the morning with that. They ran all over the house finding clues. :)

They found a lego set that was an addition to a fun lego chicken game they like to play.

Stockings!

You always have to have an orange in the bottom! Tradition! :) And a box of sugar cereal. Did anyone else have those things in their stockings growing up? 

Over Christmas break we watched home videos of when the kids were toddlers and we lived in our Tigard house. It was so sweet. There was video of Jude sleeping in his toddler bed, and dancing to Psalty with Josh, and "reading us" truck books. I can't believe my little boy is this big, handsome kid now! xo

Selah has requested a coat just like mine for a year. She and I always look for one, but Josh actually found one a few weeks ago! And he found Ben a leather jacket too, which he always says he'd like to have one day, along with a cool surfer haircut. ;)

The gift the kids were most excited about this year were legit walkie-talkies. They have been playing with them for hours on end since they got opened! They wanted something that they could run around the farm playing with, and enjoy with friends too.

I'm so thankful for this guy!! Life with him is such a gift!

We spent that morning and afternoon relaxing, playing games with the kids, and I took a nap! 

Then that afternoon we headed over to my mom's. I told her that we'd be arriving in our pj's. ;) Ha!

We had a wonderful time eating dinner. Wayne made the best clam chowder I've ever had! Along with an incredible ham and mashed potatoes and yummy salad. Matt & Gina serenaded us with a Christmas song while Matt played piano. Then Selah played Silent Night. We got to watch the kids open gifts, then the adults, and we got to FaceTime with Caleb and Jen who were in California with her family. Then we played catch phrase and had a lot of fun before heading home to crash. Thank you Mom and Wayne, and Grandma and Papa for such a lovely Christmas!!

We also got to walk through Gandma & Papa's house, that is almost finished being built, and it is lovely! I'm so excited for them. 

I'm so thankful for the gift of family. And we're looking forward to celebrating Christmas in January with Dad and Janet and that side of the family! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! xo

Ben's Birthday & Pre-Christmas Days

We've had a week full of Christmas parties, last minute shopping, baking, gift wrapping, and best of all celebrating Benjamin's 7th birthday! 

He was SO excited to open his birthday presents that he woke us up asking to open his gifts! We thought that sounded like fun, and that would give him a few hours to play with his gifts before we went to see the new Jumangi movie.

Ben danced before opening his presents. :) This boy is such a gift to our family! He is our high energy, life-loving, optimistic, joyful boy. He's attentive to others' needs, loves to negotiate and enjoys building things.

Granddad Kevin and Grandma Janet stopped by and surprised us with Uncle Tim in tow, too! They brought Ben his $2 bills, which the kids always look forward to. We had a great time getting to visit with Uncle Tim, Dad and Janet for about an hour.

The day before Ben's birthday Grandma Jill came by and picked up the birthday boy to take him on a little date into town to pick out a Lego set. He was super excited about that little tradition.

We had a great time at the movies and laughed a lot.

Ben picked out this fun cake this year, and I love this series of pics that capture his personality so accurately. :)

Josh and I recently went to his company party. We had such a fun time and won a Nike gift card in the raffle.

One evening when Josh and I were out running errands I came around the corner wearing this thinking it would make him laugh and all he said was, "how many people do you think put that on before you?" Ha!

We've driven through the Pepsi lights many times this season. We always love it!

Sidetracked while shopping for cousin Nora... :)

We had a great last week of school before Christmas break. Our charter school that we're a part of had an ice skating day. The kids LOVED it! They fell a lot, but still asked to visit the rink again.

Our school got us museum passes, so we visited right after ice skating.

It was geared more for younger kids, but we still had a lot of fun being there.

Jude does therapy twice a week for speech, social skills, and fine motor skills. He had a lot of fun playing games during his last sessions of the year.

One morning before school started I walked into the sunroom and found Selah sitting just like this watching her bunny. She looked so grown up and mature sitting there. :)

We've been having fun reading through some great books that teach a lot of history and geography.

My friend Mauria made my day and came to visit with her precious kiddos! I'm so thankful for her friendship and how we can always pick up where we left off. What a gem she is!

Our kids dove into the legos together.

My friend Bethany, and her two boys, have been over to visit a lot in the last few weeks. We just love their company and I'm so thankful for her boys. My kids really look up to them as they are a little older. They've all been busy building cool forts in the backyard.

Bethany's son built this fort all by himself!

And speaking of building things... the house out at the property continues to come along.

We're excited for Christmas this weekend! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! xo