Jesus is the Reason for the Season

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was so fun to see Micah enjoy all of the things that go along with Christmas. He Loved the music.... All of it. He, like Stacy, Loves Christmas Villages and even got a lighthouse this year. Micah, like me is a giver and loved shopping for people. He chose some interesting things that I couldn't pass up, so I bought some things just for kicks. I was Finally able to find the Little People Nativity set this year at the right price. Micah Loved it! Tuesday Clause brought it for him and he was So excited, he even chose to take it to share day at school. Everytime he sees stars now, he says "it's the star of Jesus." I just loved him learning so much. We woke up bright and early Christmas morning and Micah was So excited. He got a scooter, a lot of books, some clothes, cars, racetrack, legos, and the list goes on. Stacy and I bought ourselves a LCD TV this year. I also got Stacy a new ipod nano, since he passed his ipod touch to Micah. I got a bread machine and some new bedding.... Love it!

After we opened gifts here, we headed to Nut's new house to celebrate.
It's always fun to have all of the family together, but it seems like it doesn't happen as much as it used to. There were a lot of presents, a lot of good food, and a lot of fun. One of the most fun things that happened this year other than the Gingerbread house competition, was something that Daddy came up with. He had all of the cousins draw names. Then he took them shopping and with $15 a piece, they got to choose what they would buy their cousin..... The key was, parents could have No say in what what was chosen and the ages range from 3 to 14..... (I chose for Patton) Some funny gifts were given like this pink bird thing...
But the best story was what Micah got for Christian. As soon as Micah drew his name, he knew exactly what he wanted to get him.... walkie talkies. For some reason when Daddy and Micah went to Target they could not find any walkie talkies, so what Micah came home with was (keep in mind Chistian is 14) a rubber Toy Story ball, a school bus book on wheels, a wooden toy tow truck, a magic 8 ball, and two other games. I have a feeling Micah was thinking of things that he would enjoy, not Christian. We ended up returning those "gifts" and exchanging them for the walkie talkies that he wanted to give him all along. We had so much fun with this.
Here are the sisters
And the cousins minus Patton
The Robinsons
Nut in her mask of many wears
The Rents
Daddy and Patton
The Whole Fam
And the owl. Nut and Jerms had the owl last year, and it brought them a new house. 2010 has to be the roughest year that I've ever had in my life, I was SO thinking that The Robinsons would get the owl this year. I mentioned it to Nut several times, but the Rosburys got it instead. Here is Rowan and the owl.... I'm still really sad (can you tell?) Good luck to the Rosburys!

Robinson Ranch

Last year we had our first ever Gingerbread house decorating competition with the fam. Last year everyone bought premade houses and decorated them. This year I thought maybe it would be fun to make a house instead of simply decorating one. I googled Gingerbread houses and found a really cool barn. I stopped looking and decided that Stacy and I were going to build a barn. It turned into mostly me building the barn, but Stacy kept me company and actually built the silo himself. Neither of us had ANY experience building anything out of cookies before, but I don't think it turned out bad at all.... What do you think?

Christmas Eve

This year just like all years past we went to Pa-Paw's house.
Although not everyone showed up, we still packed the basement. It was good to see family that we do not see quite often enough, and even meet the newest addition. My sweet cousin Emily has a son a month younger than Micah, and a darling little girl a month younger than Patton. Not to mention one between :) Isn't she darling?
Micah's personality really came out on Christmas Eve. Before we ate, Micah asked Mama if he could pray. He had asked me several times earlier if "we say a special prayer." (On Thanksgiving, we say Psalms 100) I wasn't sure why he kept asking, but apparently it was because he wanted to pray. Micah has gone through phases where he has wanted to pray all of the time, wanted help praying, not wanting to pray, and now he's back to wanting to pray all of the time. I was not sure what to expect, but he chose a blessing that he learned at school. In front of a basement full of people he prayed "Thank you Father."
After we ate it was time for the children to do their thing. I wasn't sure if anyone had planned any parts this year. The Rosburys had been real sick..... and well, that's the majority of the children now. I didn't have Micah learn part at all, but he really wanted to sing Silent Night, so I let him. Here is Micah singing and Ian saying Luke 2.
After the children said their parts it was time to sing the 12 Days of Christmas. Here is Micah waiting patiently, he was 11 pipers piping.
After we sang, it was present time. Micah was very proud of his nutcracker. He named him Kris Kringle.

Party Time

The last day of school before Christmas break was Party Day for Micah's class. Stacy was able to attend again! He missed Every special event last year due to work, this year he has been able to make it to 2 so far. The first thing that the kids did was a Nativity wreath. It looks really cool, but had probably 50+ pieces, and was more of a parent craft than a child's. After the wreath was finished the kids heard a Christmas book, then they did a book swap and ate lunch. After lunch they decorated sugar cookies and made candy canes out of pipe cleaners and beads.
I was really worried about what we would do during this extra long break from school. If it were just Micah, we could easily fill our time.... but adding Patton to he mix, makes me think twice about "just runing to Target." So far the break has flown by though. Last Monday we had lunch with Sarah and baby Noah, Tuesday we watched Hannah, Wednesday we finished our shopping. Thursday we baked/ dipped things for Christmas. Friday was Christmas Eve at Pa-paws, Saturday was Christmas. Sunday was a Snow day. We have even enjoyed spending time with Stacy, as he has some time off.

Ho Ho Ho

Last Friday I took the boys to have Santa pictures taken. As I've probably mentioned in all years past, I LOVE this Santa. He comes to a small studio in downtown Winder. He is the sweetest guy. For Micah's first trip to Santa, I was very nervous, being that he cried most of the time.... I was sure I was going to be paying for a picture of a crying baby. Instead I ended up with a very melancholy Micah. Not happy, but not crying..... he was just there. This year, I was not at all afraid of what Patton would do. I was sure he would do great.... It was Micah that I was worried about. He has become quite the cheesy boy when it's come to pictures recently. I was worried for no reason at all. Look what I got!! I LOVE IT!

Baby Noah

I was beyond excited when Sarah called me to tell me that she and Kyle were having a baby. I was even more excited to learn that it was going to be a boy. Sarah and I have been friends since the 2nd grade. I am SO hoping that Patton and Noah will be great friends as well. Sarah's water broke while she was shopping at Kohl's last Saturday. Noah was born on December 5th. He is a tiny little thing. He was 6 lbs. 8 oz at birth. His tiny little head was about the size of a softball if not smaller, and his hair.... My goodness, he was and still is a doll baby! I was able to visit him on his birthday.
Micah and Patton got to visit when they came home. Micah must have asked Sarah 5 times if she let "little people hold Noah." He was SO proud to hold two babies! He sure does love babies and always has.
There are 3 months between Patton and Noah..... Look at the size difference! Don't you just LOVE his hair?!
I have been trying to do a little catch up, so look below for several new posts :)

Way Behind

I feel like I have been Way behind on my blogging recently, but I have several good excuses. The First being my surgey, second is as soon as surgery was over and we attended Micah's Thanksgiving party, Patton got sick. I'm not surprised in the least but there is NOTHING worse than having a sick child/ baby. It was awful. He still has a little bit of a runny nose, but there is nothing that you can do for a little bitty other than a humidifier and saline spray, which we do constantly.....Now there's a Christmas party this week.... Poor Patton Boy. That leads to the third reason I've been behind, when Patton got sick he passed it to me. Mine began on Black Friday. We finished about half of our shopping and even bought ourselves a TV for our Christmas, but due to the fact that I just didn't feel good, we didn't finish. Believe it or not, I am STILL shopping and Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. Thank goodness for Publix and giftcards :) My cold lasted for about 4 days. I don't like being sick at all, but one of the most miserable sicknesses is a cold.... watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing= unhappy Miriam. Lastly, as a mother of 2, I don't have very much free time at all. If I'm not feeding, changing, or holding Patton, I'm playing with Micah, or cleaning. At night time, when I finally do get to slow down and relax for a bit, I've been working on a new Blog Book. I LOVE the way the last one turned out, it's just VERY time consuming. Anyway, now that I think I'm almost caught up, I'll do better.
It's almost Christmas. I was SO hoping to get some real good pics of the boys for a Christmas card this year.... But as you can tell, I just ran out of time. I was hoping to get some good outdoor shots, but it just got TOO cold Too early. So at the last minute I decided to go to Kiddie Kandids. We used to love them when Micah was a baby. They would take a ton of pics, but narrow it to the best 6 so it wasn't so overwhelming. They would then, print your pics while you waited. I LOVED them! Apparently they went bankrupt due to the fact that their printers were SO expensive. They were bought out by Sears. They no longer print your pics while you wait. Now you wait 15 days. They now take 60+ pics, AND have increased their price as well. The good thing was I made sure that I bought a package that included a CD. I was given the CD, came home, loaded the pics, sent one to Costco.com and had my Christmas cards the next day instead of 15 days laster.....I mean that would be WAY too close! One of the good things that came out of this was.... I joined their "Baby Club." It costed $10 and it means if I wanted to go every day for the next 365 days, I could, and I'd get a free 8x10 everyday. You will not find me inside there everyday, but I WILL take advantage of it, and I'll have them take some when I go back to pick my pictures up.... I may as well go evey 15 days. :) Our photographer was not the best by far, but out of the 60+ pics, she got a handful that turned out okay. Here are the ones I like.

Thanksgiving Day

Every year for Thanksgiving lunch we go to my Pa-Paw's house. I was SO glad that I was allowed to eat "real" food again. I made sure not to stuff myself, but I greatly enjoyed a lunch of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rolls, and squash casserole. After lunch we spent some time outside. This year the weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We got some good outside pics, and Patton got to meet Pa-Paw for the first time. That evening Micah spent the night with The Rents so that Stacy and I could wake up extra early for Black Friday fun.