Making Christmas Memories…

‘Tis the season for making memories!  Making and decorating sugar cookies seems like the “right” thing to do at Christmas.  Ha!  We had a preschoool party this past Sunday that we were supposed to bring cookies to, so the girls and I had fun baking and decorating!

Focusing on cutting out their cookies!

Selah did really well with a little help!

Even though it was still a big mess, the girls did so good and had a good time.  I would say this was our best baking time so far!

Henry was able to help us decorate the cookies on Sunday before the party!

We even got Daddy in on the fun! 

With their finished products!  They looked GREAT!

Saturday Mimi treated us to a FUN treat!  We went to see the Singing Christmas Tree at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.  I really don’t even have words to describe how incredible it was!  The kids loved it…even Selah sat almost completely still the entire 2 1/2 hours of the performance.  This is definitely a tradition I want to start by going every year!

Mimi with her sweet grandbabies!

This was my seat buddy!  We were all sitting in different spots because we just got the best tickets, and they weren’t all together. 

Sunday evening we had a preschool ministry Christmas party at church.  It was LOTS of fun, and this was the only picture I got.  ha!  Lovely!!!

iPhone Pics…

So, about a month ago, we finally got iPhones!  For some reason, I think that is what has slowed down my blogging because I never take my camera anywhere anymore, and I don’t take the time to get the pictures out of my phone.  Anyway, I finally got the pictures on my computer, so these pictures are going to be quite random.

A few weeks ago, Selah got hand, foot & mouth.  She was so puny, and I felt so sorry for her.  Neither of my girls have had this before so it was a new experience for us.  So, I texted this picture to Michael to tell him that we had a sick baby!

On another note, Selah LOVES ramen noodles…can you tell?

Something that Selah does that Myla never did is fall asleep outside of her bed.  Myla never really fell asleep anywhere besides her bed or the car seat, so I think it is so funny when I go to look for Selah and she is conked out in a random place!

Michael took the girls to a volleyball game, and they had a big time!

Something that Michael has been doing with the girls is going on hikes!  This was one morning when they were headed out!

I have no words…My Facebook caption was “I’m going to miss these days!”

Leaving the post office one day, Selah told me the sun was in her eyes and she needed the sticker under her glasses to block the sun!

The girls were VERY excited to find out that Mimi has kept my old dance costumes! Is this not hysterical?!?!

Dressing Elmo up with Halloween teeth!

Silly kid…that’s a Christmas decoration!

She LOVES to pose!

Ready for bed one night and Selah is snuggling with the stuffed animals we have bought for Ramsey.  She talks about him ALL of the time!

Mo and Myla at lunch when we went to see the Nutcracker

Can I just tell y’all that she is the funniest kid I have ever been around?

The girls and I on my birthday!!

Myla loves to take pictures of me with my phone…I guess I didn’t feel like posing.  Ha!

Loving some Chick-Fil-A ice cream!!

Missing Ramsey…

We are still waiting on our sweet Ramsey!  It’s crazy how much you can miss someone that you have never met!  Since he will not be with us for Christmas, we wanted to send him some goodies!  We sent a teddy bear that we were able to record a message onto so when he squeezes it, her will hear our voices.  The girls loved “talking” to him when we recorded our message!  We also sent a fun picture album with pictures of all of his family that doubles as a toy, so I hope he will enjoy looking at the pictures!  Then, we sent some My First Christmas pj’s, an outfit and a lovey!  I wonder if the Taiwanese nannies are going to think it is crazy that his name in on several things.  HA! 

As far as the process goes, we are waiting on a court date.  From what I understand, we have been submitted for court, we are just waiting on a date to be set.  Typically, travel would happen about 3 months, give or take, after the first court date, so we are really hoping we will travel in March or April. But, as we know with international adoption, anything can happen!  We’re just trusting God and HIS timing!  We also still have a good bit of fundraising to do, so we will focus on that after Christmas!  All I know, is that I am READY for him to be home, and I know that each difficult thing that we have been through on this journey will be WORTH it when we finally get to him!

“Lucy”, A Royal Visit, and The Oxford Christmas Parade…

Our Elf on the Shelf, Lucy, made her appearance on Monday morning!  The girls were so excited to see her, and they seem to be more into it this year than they were last year!

I was determined to do better this year with the Elf, and thanks to Pinterest I’ve gotten plenty of ideas!  The girls cracked up seeing how Lucy had colored on their picture.

This morning Lucy was up for some game time with friends!

Excited girls first thing in the morning finding Lucy!

This past weekend, our choir performed our Christmas concert, “A Royal Visit”, at the Ford Center on campus!  This was the children’s choir practicing before the first performance.  I didn’t get any pictures during the program since I was in the choir.

Myla absolutely loved singing in the show, and she had pretty much every song (even the ones the children didn’t sing) memorized since we have listened to the music so much!

On a side note, we found out on Monday that 46 people prayed to receive Christ as a result of the concert and Bro. Eric’s message. I was blown away!  It made all of the hours of practice WORTH IT!!!  Praise the LORD!

Monday night we went to the Oxford Christmas parade! The girls looked forward to it ALL day!  (Myla’s eyes are closed in every single picture lately…ha!)

You would have thought Selah was IN the parade because she waved so much!

Keeping a close eye on all the floats hoping for the candy!

It was a fun night even though it didn’t feel much like Christmas since it was 70 degrees!!!

The Nutcracker at the Orpheum…

The girls and I were in for a treat when we went to the Orpheum to see the Nutcracker with almost 50 other friends and moms from our homeschool group!

I always enjoy going to the Orpheum!  It is such a beautiful place!

Sage, Myla and Montana waiting to go into the doors!  The girls were so excited to be together!

Beautiful girls!

After the performance, which the thoroughly enjoyed, the girls had fun burning off some energy by skipping up and down the sidewalk!

We walked a few blocks to the Peabody to see the ducks and the beautiful Christmas decorations!

The tree in the lobby is massive and beautifully decorated!

Jamie and her girls!

Mo and Sage on these brass dogs that they got a kick out of!

Mo and Myla…they thought these things were so funny!

All three girls with sweet smiles!  We had so much fun!

Decking the Halls…

I really love decorating for Christmas…especially putting up my tree!  I love how so many ornaments have special memories and stories attached to them!

The hearth…I totally copied an idea I saw in Hobby Lobby with the present towers, and I love how they turned out.  This was before the bows were on them!  ha!

Believe it or not, this was the best picture I could get of the girls in front of the tree the day after I put it up.  LOL!

The girls got trees in their rooms this year!  They loved decorating them…of course, I had to help a little and spread the ornaments out a bit!  This is Myla’s tree.

And Selah’s!  Selah kept saying, “Mommy, my tree looks wonderful!!”

I just LOVE Christmastime!!!!!