Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!

We have been having a merry month of Christmas fun and activities.

Our favorite Christmas tradition is to read a Christmas story almost every night. At the beginning of the month, I wrap up all of our Christmas stories, some nice, some fun. I've been getting one new one each year to add to our collection. The kids get very excited when it's their turn to rip that paper open.

I've also been trying to record a bunch of Christmas shows that are on TV. So the kids have had their fill of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Polar Express, and many more!

On Christmas Eve, we did our family Christmas program. It's a combination of scripture, songs, and pictures. It's so nice to sit and read the Christmas story from the scriptures and sing some great hymns. It always fills me the Spirit along with a chance to reflect on Christ and why we worship him.

This week, with the kids off of school, I've kept them busy with crafts. And they've come up with few of their own activities as well. Here are the highlights:

Courtney helped Dylan and Travis dress up as Santa and Rudolph. They did this in the garage while I was making dinner, so I had no idea what was going on until it was done. It made me laugh so hard. Hope you enjoy it also!



We made some ornaments out of Perler beads. They did a great job, even Travis getting into it.










On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies. Yum! Yum! They each chose one to leave for Santa, then promplty gobbled up the rest.
















Spreading out reindeer food in the front yard. It's almost time!!!






I love Christmas and what it means for my family. May your home be filled with peace and love and the spirit of Christ this season.

A bunch of little happenings

I haven't updated the blog in a while. I don't have too many pictures of recent events, but here's a few things that have been going on.


1. Here's my latest project. I painted the dining room (it's hard to see but there are stripes on the blue), and we added a chair rail and molding at the ceiling. I still need to do work on the chandelier and do some paint touch ups. But it's nice to have this much done. We were hoping to have it finished in time for Thanksgiving and a visit from Bruce's parents. I got the painting done, but the molding had to wait until after the big dinner.



Next will be the kitchen and half bath, then I'm done with the downstairs.


2. Just a few fun pitures. Courtney needed some shots of family for a school project and I thought these came out too cute to pass up sharing on here.




3. My sisters came to visit for a weekend in October. It was so fun and we laughed and ate and had a great time as only sister can. I didn't have my camera with me, so I'm counting on their pictures. You can check out Kim's blog for a great recap. (Her blog is private so sorry if you can't see it.) This is the only normal picture we have of all 3 of us. We (Jill) can't take a picture without being goofy!




4. I ran my first race on Halloween, a 5K. Some friends and I trained together in our attempt to lose some weight. We had a great time. I actually did a lot better then I thought, taking almost 1 minute off my mile time. My goal was to not walk at all, and I accomplished that, so SUCCESS!






I did an 8K charity race on Thanksgiving morning, but didn't run the whole thing. A friend and I walked about half of that one, but it was fun. We're going to keep entering these shorter races hoping it will keep us running regularly. If I could just stay away from all the yummy food that is so so bad for me, I wouldn't have to worry about this. But for now, where's my running shoes?

Soccer Star

Dylan played soccer for the first time this fall. He loved it. Just like with T-Ball, he had a smile on his face the whole time. There were a few kids that were really good and had obviously played a lot. Dylan couldn't keep up with them, but he never quit running the field. He even got a goal during his last game!!

Go Dylan Go!

Huddle time.

Celebration lunch. Can you see their faces when they got a look at the trophies? I love it.

So happy to add another trophy to the shelf.

Team Lynx.