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Eagerly Waiting For Christmas!

And just like that we are on the doorstep of Christmas again!  That was fast.  Last Christmas we were celebrating the birth of our baby Caleb and now we've just celebrated his first birthday.  I'm really excited for Christmas this year.  Having kids has brought a whole new level of meaning and fun to Christmas for me.  I love it!  I am also looking forward to them getting a little older so we can do lots more Christmas type activities.  It's hard to do a lot of Christmasy stuff with a 2 year old and a 1 year old.  It's actually hard to do much at all!  They have us busy just looking after them.  It took us a whole week to decorate our Christmas tree.
 Grace liked the final product!  And she loves playing with the Little People Nativity set.  I purchased this last year.  Last year, she didn't really play with it, but this year she is really into it.  It's fun telling her about each of the characters and she seems to get that Jesus is the baby in the manger.
 I have been busy this past week getting ready for Christmas.  I think I may have overdone it with gifts for the kids.  In the future, I will have to reign it in.  Nobody likes spoiled kids!  Shopping for them was just so much fun!!  This year, for the first time for me and the kids, we will be doing stockings.  This is new for me as my family didn't do this for us.  We went ahead and filled the stockings ahead of time.  Jonas and I know that as the kids get older, we won't be able to do this or just have their gifts sitting on our bedroom floor.  It will all have to be very well hidden.
Grace was in her first musical!  Her preschool put on a Christmas Musical.  Grace's class were snowflakes.  She was a cute snowflake!!
The musical was about the story behind the candy cane.  Here is the true story behind the candy cane taken from www.justforkidsmagazine.com.
  A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, 
so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbolsfor the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy: white to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.
The candy maker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious
name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the 
staff of the Good Shepherd with which He reaches down into the ditches of the 
world to lift out the fallen lambs who like all sheep have gone astray. Thinking 
that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes.
He used three small stripes for the blood shed by Christ on the cross. So that

we could have the promise of eternal life.
I absolutely love Grace's preschool and am so excited to have Caleb attend there as well next school year.  The staff there truly love Jesus and that is so evident in what they teach and how they treat the kids.  It's such an loving and warm environment and Grace has been flourishing there.  In light of what happens in schools, I am so blessed to have Grace in this type of environment.
And our Christmas picture for this year.  This was the only good picture we were able to get of both the kids.  Grace was not cooperating!  We only got this picture because we bribed her with fruit snacks!!

Hoping you have a blessed Christmas full of peace, love and rest.  May you not get stuck in traffic, finish all your Christmas shopping and enjoy great time with your family and friends!
Blessings,
Beth

Happy Birthday Caleb!

 And just like that, Caleb is one!  His first year went by so fast.  He's such a big boy that he literally was only a small little baby for a minute!  He's such a joy to us.  So charming and so joyful all the time.  Well, except when he's tired and it's past his bedtime...
We had a farm themed birthday party for him.  I promised myself to make it easy and buy everything.  Well I got so excited that I couldn't help myself and starting making things.  The theme was so cute and so fun to make things for. 
I made a "corral" for the cupcakes.  I made lemon and strawberry cupcakes and added farm animals as toppers.
 I saw this idea for a barn backdrop on pinterest and just had to make one.  I bought a red display board, cut out the shape and added the detailing.  It looked really cute.  The cake was made by my friend's mom.  So cute and so yummy!
The little guy being sang to.
Trying to get him to blow out the candle.
 His first cupcake!
It's very anti-Mexican, but I do enjoy these pull strings pinatas.
The bounce house was a hit.  Grace has a blast in it.
 The kids had so much fun!  And that blessed my heart.  It was a lot of work and I was so tired by the end of the day, but it was all worth it to hear them laugh and see them having a great time.
And now, time to gear up for Christmas.  That will be a little easier now that I am on vacation.
Blessings!
Beth

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