Christmas Marathon

This Christmas was a whirlwind! Kasey, Rob and Henry moved to town, Baby Cam was born and Mommy got sick on top of the standard 15 Christmas parties, but it was a lot of fun. I think Maelie's favorite part was her Christmas lights. Sweet Uncle Drew and a friend came over one freezing day and strung up some lights around the house and she LOVES them. I can't think about taking them down because I know it will make her so sad. She loves to help Daddy plug them in each night and talks about them everytime we pull into the driveway. She also got obsessed (who's suprised?!) with Ms. Patty's yard in Diamond Loch - it has a huge Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. I had to call Patty to let her know that someone wasn't casing her house, we just had to drive by it a lot - even during the daytime :)

Making a gingerbread house - I think at least half of the candy made it on the house!

Snuggling with Daddy at the McKillip Christmas lunch

Opening presents at Grandma Dane's Christmas

Baby James and Baby Sister at Mommy's birthday dinner

Gigi bought her a Bitty Baby that she loves.

Shhh! Bitty Baby's sleeping in her "bajammies"

She LOVED Santa! I was so excited. She had not acted crazy about him all season but they were good friends by the end of their visit.

Checking out the princess castle Santa brought her.

Gotta love that hair!

Papa came over for Christmas lunch

After dinner and presents at Grammy's we all loaded up and went to look at Christmas lights - and Cindy Lou Who!

Relaxing after all the fun with a book and Grandma Dane

Meeting Baby Cam - she was so sweet to him!
After we left she asked if we could have a boy baby instead of a girl one, but she was okay when we told her no :) I can't wait to see her as a big sister!

Cam, Cam, He's our Man!

I cannot believe how much you can forget just how tiny babies are! Cam came on the 21st and he is the cutest little thing ever. It makes me want to cry to think about how sweet our God is to give us such precious gifts. Even though he was a little over a month early, he is so healthy and we know that is just another sweet gift from Him. It is so exciting to watch someone you love so much go through this experience. Lauren is so amazing at every role she has in life - wife, friend, daughter, etc. that I cannot wait to see her in action as a Mommy.

Have you ever seen anything cuter?!

Sweet Mommy!

I didn't get a picture of Josh with the Cam-ster, but he is one cute Daddy! You can just tell that he will be a great Dad. Cam is so lucky to have these two as parents.

5 Reasons My Husband ROCKS!

I haven't mentioned him in awhile, and while I know this is primarily Maelie's (and soon to be she-who-cannot-be-named's) blog, I feel like I need to give a little shout out to the man behind it all every now and then :)

1) He works his fanny off for us. Lately, I have been reminded several times what a charmed life I lead, and I know that a lot of this is possible because of how hard he works. And, while he does love to kid around about my "20% of the income" he makes me feel like what I contribute financially and otherwise is important and never makes me feel guilty about my time at home (even on the days when we do NOTHING except maybe have lunch with someone :)

2) He is such a great Daddy to Maelie. She is a fickle little thing and somedays she loves Daddy and somedays she is not that into him, but he is patient and never gives up even though I know sometimes it hurts his feelings. I think that is really paying off lately, because I have been told a few times to "come back later, I'm playin' with Dada." I can't wait to see to see him in action with a new one!

3) He loves God and is such a strong leader for our family. My favorite time of day is our family bible time each night, which we end with Daddy praying over us. It is so sweet to hear him pour his precious heart out to our God and know that Maelie is getting such an amazing example of a godly man in her life. He does a pretty good job of walking the walk all day long, but those night time prayers with him are my favorite.

4) He is such a good friend. You can tell by all the good friends that he surrounds himself with what kind of friend he is. One of our friends, Blake, is in from out of town - he is such a great guy, I even suggested naming Maelie Blake before we found her name. It has just made me look around and be thankful for the godly men that Kyle surrounds himself with, real true guys who have a great time, but all love teh Lord and aren't afraid to be the kind of true friend that keeps you accountable. He is always the first to lend a hand or an ear to his buddies, and I'm thankful to be counted in the group :)

5) He's getting me a MAID!!! Hello, I could have only listed this one I'm so stinking excited about it. It's hard for even me to remember sometimes that I'm not really a stay at home mom - I have an amazing job that lets me work some flexible hours, but I still have a full time job. Every now and then I look around our house and get pretty discouraged because of course that's the first thing that goes if something's going to go :) however, he decided that with a new little person joining our family and a whole new set of responsibilities on my plate this would be a great idea. I can't wait to have that burden taken from my shoulders. Plus, it makes me feel very loved, appreciated, and taken care of. Thanks, honey!

Funny for the Day

Maelie made a bell today in music class and in the car I heard her singing (to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat)
"Ring, ring, ring your bell
Jesus Christ is boring
Ring, ring, ring your bell
Jesus Christ is boring"

I died laughing and then tried pretty ineffectively to convince her that she may have misheard the wording. Maybe I should reevaluate our curriculum at school...

Note to Self...

...never try to have a conversation with your two year old about the less priveledged at 11 o'clock in the morning. We were at WalMart the other day grocery shopping. As we checked out I told Maelie we were taking Grammy lunch and talked a little bit about what we might eat. As we headed out, I gave Maelie her dollar to put in the bucket and tried to have a real life-changing, eye-opening conversation with her about how we give our money to the man with the bell because some people don't have any food. "Like us?" she said. "I'm really hungry - I think I want chicken minis." After some careful explaining (we have food in our cart, and food at our house, and Daddy works hard to make money so we could even buy food at the supper store if we wanted to, etc.) I'm still not sure she exactly got it, but she did tell me she thought that giving other people food would make Jesus happy, so maybe she got enough of it...

Imagine That!

Lately, Maelie has been cracking me up as I watch her imagination come to life. Here are some examples:

"Mommy, look, an airplane! I wonder if it's flying to the airport in Maryland to Kasey and Hendwee?"

"I want Elizabeth to go to Chick-Fil-A with us." me - "Well, Elizabeth is at her house." mae - "Well, the pretend Elizabeth is in the playroom and she really wants chicken minis."

On another note, it seems our little period of obedience and good behavior has come to a close. I know there will be another one soon (surely!!) but for right now we are in a period of tantrums, nos, a new scary face with wrinkled up nose accompanied by a growly voice and hyperdrive ocd-ness. All of this means a lot more spankings :( so pray for all of us as we work on obedience and sweetness. Oh, you've gotta love the highs and lows of the twos!!!