Losing her 1st Tooth

Catherine lost her first tooth yesterday! It has been a little bit wiggly for a few weeks and on Thursday she noticed that it was leaning sideways. With a little bit more wiggling, it came right out! I feel all sentimental. It means she's growing up. I remember when she got that baby tooth; it was a long night of crying! And now it's gone!! She sure does look cute with her toothless grin.

Such a small little tooth--this is in her hand.
We had a little dilemma about the tooth fairy because Catherine and Will were having a slumber party in the basement with Jay last night. So she made a note with arrows and put it on the stairs.
My mom made her this cute tooth fairy pillow for her birthday the other week (Just in time!). It was great to hang it right on the door and has a little pocket for her tooth. The tooth fairy left her a dollar. She was surprised because she only expected a penny :)
We figured it was good for the tooth fairy to come last night, because if it had been tonight the tooth fairy and Santa may have bumped into each other!

Visit with Santa

We took the kids to Chick-fil-A on Tuesday night to see Santa.

Catherine hopped right up there and was very excited to see Santa. She decided that day that the one thing she wanted to ask Santa for was a Barbie. Unfortunately Santa's elves have been finished Christmas shopping for quite some time now, so it may be a Christmas miracle if a Barbie shows up.

This is the first year that Will would sit on Santa's lap and didn't freak out. He still was a little timid and didn't really want to talk to Santa. The only thing Will wanted to ask for is a shaving kit, so he and Santa talked about how Santa doesn't shave too much these days.
Anna willingly sat in Santa's lap but she refused to look at him. I don't think she quite knew what to expect. And who knows what the sweet girl wants for Christmas!-- probably anything that Catherine and Will get since she seems quite intent on taking their toys these days.
Merry Christmas, Santa!

Kids and Christmas

Christmas with kids can be an interesting struggle. As Christians, we want the focus to be on the birth of our Savior Jesus. Of worshipping His glory and His majesty and the wonder of it all. But then there's also all of our cultural celebrations of Christmas--Santa, gifts, cookies, family traditions, travel, etc. Trying to do it all is enough to make anyone (or at least me) exhausted by Christmas morning. How do I balance this? How do I teach my children to keep their eyes on Jesus while also going to ChickfilA to see Santa?

A few articles I read this year suggested getting rid of anything Christmas that does not specifically point to Christ--no Santa, perhaps not even a Christmas tree. Or if you do a Christmas tree, it should only have the Jesse ornaments on it. While I actually understand all of their arguments and it sounds fine, something in it seems lacking to me to completely bypass the cultural celebrations too.

Today I read this article: "Of Kids and Christmas"

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/of-kids-and-christmas

I highly recommend reading it. It is one of the best perspectives on engaging Christmas with all its hustle, bustle, materialism, and chaos while still keeping Christ the focus. And it's written by a mom with 5 small children. I figure she can relate. So I thought I'd share. Merry Christmas!

Great Anniversary Weekend

Jay and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary this Wednesday.

To celebrate, just the two of us headed to Asheville this past weekend. We spent part of our honeymoon there and it's always a special place for us to go and relax.

We went to the Grove Park Inn and had lunch in the Great Hall. We walked around

and looked at the gingerbread houses and Christmas trees. (They host an amazing Gingerbread House competition every Christmas. Truly amazing what these people can make.) Then we sat in the rocking chairs, read our books/magazines, and Jay even took a short nap.

Then we went to The Cove (Billy Graham's conference center) for the Andrew Peterson

"Behold the Lamb" Christmas concert. We had dinner there, went to the concert, stayed the night, and had breakfast the next morning. We love AP's Christmas album. I listen to it year round and we've always wanted to hear it in concert. It was great. I highly recommend checking out if you aren't familiar with it. It tells the Christmas story in the context of the whole Bible and how Christ was the fulfillment of what was promised in the Old Testament. True and celebratory!

Then we headed back to Union to pick up our kiddos. Thanks to my family for watching everybody. It was so nice to be away that I didn't even take my camera out of my purse. That's unusual for me but I think Jay appreciated it! There's nobody else in the whole world I'd rather spend time with than Jay, and we relish our time when it's just the two of us.

Happy Anniversary! Here's to many, many more years.

They are so cute when they sing

On Sunday night, Catherine's choir at church sang in the children's Christmas program. The picture below shows about 1/2 of the choir, so there are maybe 20 kids or so total. Sitting halfway back in the sanctuary, I could hear Catherine singing above all of them. And she was so dramatic with her hand motions. She took the whole thing very seriously and loved it. She especially liked singing "gloria in excelsis deo" and said that she gets so carried away, she doesn't know when to stop singing!

Today at school, Catherine and Will had their Christmas program. Catherine's class performed the nativity scene (which is often called the "activity" scene at our house). Catherine was the announcer, in the form of a horse from the stable. She did a great job reading and singing.
Will's sweet class sang songs about bells--Ring those Bells, Jingle bells, and one more I can't currently remember. They made bell shirts with their handprints. He was so excited to be in the program like Catherine and sang so loudly and proudly. (He's in the middle of the front row, in case you can't find him the excitement below.)
Catherine's class then each had 1 letter of Merry Christmas and had a description of Christmas for that letter. Catherine was A--A is for the angels who sent messages from above. Our sweet girl does not have stage fright. She spoke loudly and clearly and I think loves being in front of people.
Then they all sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas".
Super sweet to watch them sing. I always feel so proud when they do things like this. I guess that's just what mommies are supposed to do.

Catherine's Birthday Party

Catherine will be 6 tomorrow. To celebrate, she invited a few friends over on Saturday to have a fancy tea party for lunch.

We set the table with the Christmas China and roses. Catherine made each person a place card with their name.

The girls all wore their prettiest party dresses. (Will of course wore his suit.) They got all fancied up in Mimi's (Jay's grandmother) jewelry. Catherine has her entire jewelry box full of costume jewelry.

They looked beautiful with their earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and brooches.
Even Jay got a little dressed up :)
Jay and I served them lunch. We had fruit, veggies, and sandwiches and Pecan Pie muffins for dessert.
Sweet Catherine had a great time!

She enjoyed opening her gifts from sweet friends.It was a wonderful way to celebrate her birthday!

Going to his office

Will is still in his fashion phase of dressing up like a real daddy. We have now added a real suit coat to his ensemble. He also has learned how to tie his tie by himself. Isn't he handsome?