blessed this Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. Mike's parents came from California and stayed with us for 4 days, and it was so nice having them here! They didn't have any problem "watching Maggie Claire" while Mike and I ran errands and had to be at all 6 Christmas Eve and the "Eve Eve" services. She had the best time with them, and today was looking for them when she woke up. They would have stayed longer, but they are moving to Denver next week, so they had to get back and pack up there house! She is the new CEO of MOPS {mothers of preschoolers} and we are all very excited about her new job!

Here is our family at the Christmas Eve service!

I wore my hair curled like this 3 days in a row. I'm thinking it should be my new hairdo for 2012 to spice up my "mommy look" a little bit! :) Right before we were leaving for church, I realized I never made Maggie Claire a headband to wear- I whipped this adorable one up really fast and it turned out too perfect! :) {I'm loving us in our matching pink too!!!}

Me, Mike, Maggie Claire, Mike's dad, sister and mom :)

Mags decided to stick her tongue out for the pictures of me and her. Then because we were all laughing she kept doing it. This totally sums up her personality! my sweet and silly girl! I love her and this picture of us!

My memaw came in town for Christmas too! Here is our 4 generations picture! Memaw, Maggie Claire, my mom and me!

Christmas day we woke up and did Christmas with Mike's family, and Maggie Claire got a cute little pony to ride! Of course, she loved it and loved the fact that it plays music.
After presents and breakfast at home, we headed to my dad's mom's house {Mama Nell}. She lives about 2 hours away, so Maggie Claire took a short nap on the way there and a LONG nap on the way home! I was so thankful she slept for just about the entire 2 hour drive on the way home! Here is me and a few of my cousins that were there. I should have taken more pictures, this is the only good one I got! Here is Meribeth, Madelaine, Blair, and myself. I brought headbands that I made and they each picked one out! so cute! :)
The last stop on Christmas day was at my mom's house. My grandparents, 2 uncles, and my brothers all came over to join the fun! I think there was a total of 18 people there, so it got really crazy {but to fun} when we were all opening presents! Here is Maggie Claire trying to chase after her big cousins, Jack and Tate. They had the best time together!
My mom got Maggie Claire the "over-sized" pottery barn chair for her room, and of course she loved it! Tate wanted to join in the chair too! :) They are so cute together, Maggie Claire loves Jack and Tate so much. She tries to keep up with them, and loves loves loves to hug and kiss them. In this picture, she is "patting" him! so precious!

We had a great Christmas Week. Mike and I have the rest of the week off work, so we will be enjoying this sabbath!!!

Thankful for our Lord and Savior who was born to celebrate this special holiday and then died on the cross for us to celebrate his returning soon!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

christmas overview 2010

Our Christmas was wonderful! All I could think about this Christmas is how blessed we are! We spent our Christmas with our families, and we had fun. It really was a whirlwind, and I feel like I didn't get as many good pictures as I would have liked to have taken. but I guess I can dress mags up in her Christmas outfits and take some more pics of her! hehe :)

Here she is in one of my favorite outfits that my mom got for her, with her christmas tutu and all! It's mudpie, and if you haven't seen their stuff, it's some of the cutest stuff ever & my mom loves it all, so I have a feeling MC will be wearing a lot of these cute outfits! :) and well, I can't complain because it sure is adorable!

When you work in ministry at a church, you all know the joys of Christmas Eve services. Well, at the campus that Mike & I work at, we had a christmas eve eve service, and then 4 christmas eve services. Needless to say, we were at church a lot around Christmas, and then we had church the day after christmas too, so we were worn out & ready to just be home! It felt good to have nothing to do when Monday came rolling around. Plus, Mike has off all week, so we are enjoying being home together! Here is a family picture of us at the Christmas Eve Eve service that we attended. MC had a different dress for the Christmas Eve service, which I never even got a picture of her in that dress. {she had a blowout in the church nursery, so when we left she had pjs on}But, I will put her back in the dress and take a picture because it was so cute on her!

Us all together with Mike's family. So sad they are moving away in less than 2 weeks! :(

We enjoyed being with them a lot this holiday season! Also, for Christmas, they gave us a paid vacation to fly to California anytime next year to visit them! {super excited about going to Cali for vacation}

Christmas day we went to mama Nell's house{my dad's mom}, and then later that night we went to Brad & Beth's and did Christmas with them, my dad & family! I managed to not take any pictures, but we did have a fun time.

On Sunday we did Christmas at my mom's house after church. We stayed all day long, the kids napped{MC not so much}, and it was fun hanging out with my brothers for that long period of time! I did manage to get a few pictures of my nephew, Jack decorating a gingerbread coookie with my mom. Oh, he had the best time! He kept wanting to eat it though! He had sprinkles everywhere- it was so cute. :) My mom loves doing stuff like this, I know she can't wait to have MC and Tate doing these kinds of things with her too. She's such a good Oma to Maggie Claire. I wish we would have gotten a family picture with my mom, I feel like I don't have any pictures with my mom & MC! We need to get one soon! :)

Ok, last but not least, here is everything Maggie Claire got for her first Christmas{well, some of her toys were actually already being put to use in other places so they didn't make it into the picture}. She got so much stuff that me & her dad didn't have to buy anything! {we are enjoying this while we can!} She got a lot of books, dresses, pjs, baby dolls, & toys! My mom got her a little pink back pack with her name on it! {it's to the very left in the picture} I can just see her wearing it to church w/her diapers in it when she starts to walk carrying her sippy cup, oh, I can't wait for the little cute things like that! :) MC is very much loved by her grandmas, aunts, uncles, & cousins! :)

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as much as we did! If you have a Christmas post, add your link in a comment & I would love to read all about your Christmas w/ your family & friends! It's hard to believe that the new year is just a few days away! Bring it on 2011! :)

a few more days...

...until Christmas! Today we have family coming into town from St. Louis. Mike's grandparents haven't met Maggie Claire yet, and she can't wait to meet them either! They will be here this afternoon. The rest of our week is jammed packed with spending time with all of our families, doing Christmas Eve services at the church, and celebrating our Savior's birth! What a wonderful time of year it is, and such a special event to celebrate. I always look forward to going to Christmas Eve service as a family! We are actually attending the Christmas Eve Eve service {on Thursday night}, but we'll be at all the other ones. I'm working the nursery and Mike will be doing candle lighting and whatever else is needed- probably helping with the overflow rooms.

I wanted to show everyone some of my decorations around the house... this first picture is my favorite of our three stockings hanging. Isn't Maggie Claire's stocking adorable??? I designed it, and my friend Emily sewed & monogrammed it for me! Of course, she had to have ruffles on her stocking!

Our beautiful Christmas tree! I love our tree, it is very big! It's definitely too big for our little apartment, but it was free {it's a hand-me-down tree from my grandma} I love how full it is, I get lots of compliments on it. This might be the last year we have it though... I think we might be a smaller one on sale after Christmas. This one is just really old, a pain to put together, and the needles are falling of everywhere! But don't you love the white star tree topper? I scored that last year at Target after Christmas for %75 off. :)

The reason for the season...

Our front door wreath

Of course, Maggie Claire has a tree. It's pink, sparkly and has cupcake ornaments on it. Fits her perfectly! :)

I hope everyone is enjoying this week of Christmas with all the festivities going on!

Isaiah 9:6

"For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

my two favs

This week has been crazy busy, and I feel like this entire month is just flying by!!!! I thought that being a stay at home mom, I would have hours and hours of extra time to blog more. Well, I was totally wrong! It's been a week since I've blogged, my house is a mess, there is laundry & dishes to be put away, Christmas presents to be wrapped, and a few paint, bake, & create orders that I'm trying to finish! Where has December gone?? Christmas is next week! I can't believe it! I do love this time of year though. It has been REALLY cold for Charleston weather. We are use to 60s & 70s not this crazy 30 degree weather! We have been going to Christmas parties, baking goodies, & mailing Christmas cards! {and receiving them too!} I absolutely love getting Christmas cards in the mail. It's probably in my top 5 things I love about Christmas.

I snapped this picture the other day when Maggie Claire was hanging on the couch with Mike. I thought it was really cute because they matched with their gray hoodies & jeans. I love that jacket on MC, it has ruffles on it & it's sparkly. Oh, they are so cute. Love them- they are my two favs!

I'm so thankful for our little family this Christmas season. We are just enjoying Maggie Claire's first Christmas as a family! It's also Mike's parents last Christmas in Charleston. Yup, that's right, MC's grandparents are moving all the way across the country to Orange County, California the 1st week of January. We are so sad that they are leaving, but we are excited for them in their new area of ministry at Saddleback Church! We are soaking in every day we get to spend with them before they move. Looks like we will be traveling to California for our vacations now for visits!

a visit with the jolly man.

Maggie Claire went to go see santa claus for the first time. She didn't cry or even fuss! She just sat there and held on to his fingers! She was dressed in one of her cutest Christmas outfits, it has adorable ornaments on it!! Oh, she is just so precious!!!

This guy is a nurse at my mom's work and he dresses up every year as santa. They have a "cookies with santa" event where you can bring your family to see santa for free and they print you out a picture!

{All of these pictures were taken with my camera, I haven't scanned in the one that they printed out for us}

Here is all three of the cousin babes. They are just adorable!

Jack{2 1/2} , Maggie Claire{2 months}, Tate {6 months}

Tate couldn't resist MC and wanted to get her. I'm sure it was all of her pretty bows & ruffles!

Jack wasn't so sure of Santa. This was his third year of visiting this santa claus at my mom's work, and he's still not convinced that he's a good guy. hehe. Notice Jack's bull douser on Santa's knee, that is how santa reeled him in! oh, it was so cute!

Notice this santa suit is not your typical santa suit, I think it's an old English santa suit. My mom and I were talking when we left and we decided that we like the regular santa suit better. You know, the pretty Coca-Cola santa suit!

My mother in law said that it looked like Santa came to take pictures in his silky nightgown. haha. that just made me laugh!

Speaking of santa... you have got to watch this video on youtube. It's pretty funny, {warning: it has a few curse words} but it's called grandpa ruins christmas for kids This crazy grandpa goes off about how santa isn't real!

I remember going to see santa when I was little and it's so fun now that I have a child to do fun things like this during Christmas! To us, Santa is just another event or decoration, I don't ever really remember believing in santa. Do you take your kids to go see santa?

pretty & perfect

Yes, I have an ornament on my tree this year dedicated to my blog. I might have squealed a little too much when I saw this in a gift shoppe the other day when we were with our friends. I had to have it, there was no question about it & I absolutely love it. It's pretty & perfect! Plus, it has sparkles all over it which makes it even more perfect.

What has made you extra excited this Christmas season??

just doing life together...

Every Monday night we have a life group that meets. We have been apart of this life group ever since we have been married, which has been a little over 2 years. Last year we started the tradition of going to the festival of lights in our town together as a life group! A couple in our group have family members who own absolutely charleston, a company who rents out big party buses for events and special occasions, and we got to have one for the night! It was so fun!

Here is me and Mike on the bus.... (this picture was taken with my phone, poor quality)

On another note, look how long my hair is! My hair hasn't been this long since high school! I guess this is what prenatal vitamins will do to ya!

Here is our entire group. Our group hasn't always been this big, three couples just recently joined in the past 2 months. Actually this was the first time that everyone was together- all 16 of us! The festival of lights is a drive through deal, where you look at all the lights, but halfway through you can get out and walk around and they have stuff to do. There are big fire pits to roast marshmallows, so we brought our own fixings to make s'mores & hot chocolate. {they charge way too much- like $1 for 4 marshmallows- rip off!} We really had such a great time!

This is the crazy sand sculpture that was on display at the festival. I told Mike to not take a picture of it, because it is just going to waste space on my laptop. So I decided to make the picture serve a purpose and show it to all of you- It is pretty impressive and it is huge! I guess I'm just not the kind of person that takes pictures of random things. I like pictures of people and their faces, not dumb sand sculptures! hehe.

Here is our entire group again in front of the trolley that we took! A pretty good looking bunch of people! I'll name everyone from left to right:

Travis & Lisa, Leland & Mary, Matt & Ashley, Joel & Annette, Garrett & Lauren, Robert & April, Stew & Ashley, and Mike & me.

Such a fun way to get into the holiday spirit! Have you done anything fun to get in the Christmas spirit?? We did put up our tree{s} this weekend... I'll post on that later!

oh what fun...

Yes! Christmas is right around the corner, so I am definitely already thinking about Christmas cards! I have been making photo Christmas cards ever since Mike & I started dating. People thought I was crazy giving out Christmas cards with pictures of me & my boyfriend on them But, I guess I just knew that we would be together forever, so now I love looking back on them every Christmas! This will be 5 years of doing Christmas cards together, and this year is extra special because we are now of course adding Maggie Claire to our family Christmas cards! Oh, I can't wait! This year I am thinking that I will be using Shutterfly's Christmas cards because of the great selection that they have!

Here are a few that I really like:

This is one of my favorites. I love how the brown looks so elegant and unique. I also love how the message of the card is Christ centered, exactly what Christmas is all about! Shutterfly has an entire collection of religious Christmas cards that are great to remind people what Christmas really is about! I also like how you can use 4 different pictures. I might have trouble picking 4 pictures to use though! I think the classic beach family pictures would look perfect in this card, if that's your style!

This is a fun Chistmas card and is one of shutterfly's flat stationary cards, which I really like because they are not printed on photo paper, which in my opinion makes the cards look more elegant! I also like how the "merry christmas" font is on top of the photo. Too cute!

These holiday story cards are also another option that I am liking! I've never done a letter that goes along with the Christmas card, but I think this is a great idea because you can tell all your friends and family everything that has been going on throughout the year! Plus, you can put 3 pictures on it! How cute!

Well, those are my top picks!

Have you decided where you are going to get your Christmas cards from??