Christmas Morning

For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder.—Isaiah 9:6

My sweetie and I love to hear our kids on Christmas morning. They are so excited to see all the goodies under the tree. We require them to make us breakfast and take a picture before they can open presents. Dad reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 before we open gifts and we pause to thank God for the ultimate gift of Jesus! Here is the famous Christmas morning picture.

Here’s one from a few years ago.

Oh my aren’t kids the cutest on Christmas morning…no wonder I got pregnant with the twins in January. Santa was very good to us. Look at all the presents under the tree.

Sydney

Jacob’s favorite Christmas presents were his skateboard, scooter and Indiana Jones 2 for the Wii.

Sarah

Samantha’s favorite gifts were her hot pink camera, easy bake oven and her twinkle toes shoes.

My sweetie bought me a new sofa and lots of other cool things. I will post a picture of my new living room when it comes in January.

3 months Pictures

Merry Christmas! I can’t believe the girls are 3 months already. Time sure flies when you are having fun and not sleeping. Ahh! sleep that should come soon. You both are doing better by getting up only once at night. The problem is that the 1 time is not always at the same time. I know this to shall pass and I am really trying to treasure our time together.

Here are a few pictures from our monthly photo shoot.

Sydney

Sarah

Enough with the pictures mom!

Sydney really wanted me to stop taking her picture, but here is one more.

Look at that sad face! I promise you’ll love the guy with the red suit and white beard in a few years. Thanks for putting up with me and my pictures. I can’t believe how big you have gotten!

3 months Sydney

Sweet Sydney

You love to be on your tummy and look around. You are free with your smiles and are starting to make sounds. You have the cutest high pitch voice.

You turn your head to hear me talk and love to look for your sister.

You are a very happy baby, but you are hungry watch out. You can go from 0 to 60 fast. You still wear newborn clothes and size 1 diapers like your sister.

Look at your beautiful eyes. You have the longest eyelashes. I am so happy you are a part of our family and I love you.

3 Months old- Sarah

Sweet Sarah

You love to be held and you have the cutest little smile. You like to watch Princess and Gameboy and they can make you laugh.

You eyes light up when you smile and you love it when I sing to you.

You love to play in your jumperoo toy and your feet have a long way to go before they reach the ground. You still wear newborn clothes, but you have graduated to size 1 diapers.

Look at your beautiful smile. It just melts my heart. I am so happy you are a part of our family and I love you.

School Parties

Princess and Gameboy were so excited about their Christmas Break and were lucky that both mom and dad could attend their school parties. Here are a few pictures from the big day.

It was so nice spend time with their friends and teachers. We are really blessed with great teachers!

Elf on the shelf

Princess has a very detailed list for Santa and the elf on the shelf has been on it for a few years now. She was so happy to get an e-mail from the big man this year that included a personalized message and this guy on the front porch. Meet our Elf.. his name is Pringle and his sole responsibility was to watch the kid’s behavior and report it to Santa each night. The next morning, they discovered the elf had returned from the North Pole and was now resting in a new and different place. Princess and Gameboy would race each other out of bed to try and be the first to spy him in his new position.

Santa explained that we were not allowed to touch him but talking to him was a different matter all together. We shared many secrets with the elf, and while he was under strict orders not to talk to them, the elf was under no such orders where grown-ups were concerned.

I sure hope the news is good and Santa visits our house again this year.

Deck the Halls

One of my favorite things to do each year is decorate for Christmas. This year proved to be challenging with the babies, so I planned on doing less. The problem is I still needed to take down all the decorations, in order to figure out what less meant. After unloading several boxes from the attic, I was sore. (How sad is that? I must start exercising again soon. Oh wait who has time to exercise with all this holiday eating) I decided every room did not need decorating, the stairs really didn’t need garland, and we only needed 1 Christmas tree. My sweetie built me this cool box to make my tree look taller last year and rebuilt it for me this year so it would fit in the attic. He finished the box, put up the tree and found his favorite chair to watch us decorate.

Gameboy was so sweet this year. He really enjoyed looking at all the ornaments. His favorites are the name ornaments and hung them all together on one branch he called the family zone.

Princess did not like the cluttered looked and tried to rearrange them several times, but Gameboy convinced her that the family zone was here to stay. We stayed up way too late working on the tree, singing Christmas carols, and drinking hot chocolate. I am happy with the final product and smile every time I see it.

Merry Christmas!

Volcano Project

Princess completed her first science project with ease. It helps that she has a wonderful teacher who really makes science fun. The boys went on one of the regular father/son trips to IHOP, and Princess and I got busy working on the task at hand. Lucky for me, Princess is a real type A person. She loves do get things done and done early. There is no procrastinating for her and she will nag you till you complete a project. She loves to be in charge and wants things done her way. She followed her teachers instructions and was very proud of the final product. I got the pleasure of watching hers erupt at the school demonstration and loved seeing the look on satisfaction on her face. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Wow! This is just the beginning of projects in the Swan house. I am thinking Princess should be in charge of them all.

Family Photo Shoot