Early Christmas

we decided to celebrate an early Christmas. so we woke up this morning, the 20th and had our own quiet (well quiet for us) Christmas. Annie woke up at 6 way to excited to go back to sleep. So she and Tim headed out for donuts at 6:30, so mommy could wake up and not be too grumpy! =) when they came back we all woke the boys up! we ate donuts together and read the Christmas story together. Toby once again prayed the prayer to receive Jesus...it was part of the story and he just repeated every word after me without any prompting! He is really close to understanding! The closer he gets to 4, the sweeter he is becoming. he loves to randomly give me kisses and also punches, but i like the kisses a lot! Then we talked about what we are thankful for already and talked about being patient (toby knows this word: "ms. marie says being patient is waiting with a good attitude") while everyone opens their presents! it was our most successful opening to date! everyone waited and no one complained!

annie with a princess tank from Mimi

annie and her new Samantha American Girl paper dolls. i still insist that i gets to cut out all the clothes...tim isn't sure who likes this gift more...me or annie! =)

this is my favorite gift from annie...that she made and wrapped herself at school. she has been talking about this for weeks.

i mean seriously...do i need to say anything about this one. he is so cute! this is from aunt mandi! i think we will let him wear this one next time we get on a plane, which might be when we go to iraq!

these are the softest, cutest sheep from our beloved ms. debbie

what underwear?? i thought it would be fun. apparently not. the boys get excited about theirs, they had batman and superman underoos...don't worry though i am taking them back, i apparently bought briefs and those are huge, you can't wear them with the way they make little girl pants now, they hang out the top, so you have to get low rise briefs. did anyone want to know that? that was a free tip!

this is the best gift! this is from aunt mandi, who adores our kids and loves on them any chance she gets! this is a Holy Spirit inspired gift in my opinion. after she read one of my last blogs about annie feeling imbalanced she had this idea to buy a scale and give annie lots of little pieces that say fruits of the spirit on them and also some negative things like jealous, angry, selfish, etc. the idea is that she can now express herself a little better and figure out how to balance out her emotions. she puts on one side what she is feeling, i.e. scared and on the other side she balances it with a fruit of the spirit. today after she set this all up she put "selfish" on one side because she said, "we can't help but feel a little selfish after we got presents even though it is jesus' birthday" then on the other side she put joy, gentleness and patience. LOVE it! she absolutely loves it too! she got several other great things like paper dolls and a bead set and this is her favorite gift. it makes her feel way more in control i think! she really gets it too! Way to go aunt Mandi...Tim says, "market it and sell it!" =)

this is the amazing card that aunt Mandi wrote to annie to explain it all to her and empower her with some of the most amazing words ever!

toby's transformer jet!

this is him gasping when he opened the box! he was so excited!

jesse's new cape billowing in the wind!

CHEESE!

the first gift of Christmas...just what tim always wanted...clothes! especially the jeans on the right! he tried them on later and they were so tight. it was hilarious and they were shaped for a women's body almost. it was the weirdest thing. he looked so EMO!
Well that was Christmas #1, but all day we have felt like Christmas is over. in fact i was tempted to tear down my decorations before we leave! but i can't! it's not Christmas yet, it seems a shame, but we don't get home until jan. 6th and it will be crazy to wait that long...