Random Pictures from December

December has been a fun and busy month, and the best it still yet to come. We can't wait!

A Few Art Projects From School
This is an ornament that Elijah's teachers made for us at school. This made me cry because it made me stop once again and realize how blessed we are by Elijah and smile because once again he is so serious, which is not Elijah at all. It is hanging on our tree right now with great pride. Also, each child made a gift for their parents and was told not to open it till Christmas Day. The gift was even wrapped so I couldn't peek. Elijah kept saying "No no open, Mommy"




Christmas Lunch/Party at school on Thursday
I love how much food Mrs. Joyce and Ms. Lisa gave the kids. I guess they wanted to make sure the kids didn't go hungry. :) All joking aside, we LOVE Elijah's teachers!!
Dessert time - Not sure what is up with his facial expression. The sweet young girl sitting by Elijah is Evie. She is the only girl in the class but she holds her own with all those boys. Love that!


Painting Christmas ornaments to put on his Christmas tree


Madeline is One
We had the privilege to be a part of Madeline's 1st birthday. She was so cute and her mom, Whitney, did such a great job with the party.


A Trip to the Zoo
On a recent visit from my parents, we headed to the zoo for the morning. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed seeing the new Africa exhibit.
Two of my three favorite guys!




We have no clue why, but Elijah had to touch the fence any chance he got. Strange we know but sweet.


Spotting Papaw and Mommy

MOPS Annual Moms and Kids Christmas Party

I have enjoyed being a part of a local MOPS group this year. This past Friday they held their Mom and Kids Christmas party. It was a fun time and Elijah enjoyed listening to the story of Baby Jesus' birth and completing all the craft projects. He also loved running around the gym - got to love boys!

Making Christmas Picture Frames

So intense on what he was doing :)
Elijah and Brayden working hard on their frames
Showing Mommy his frame
Our friends, Mrs. Shannon and Brayden

Cookie Decorating

Decorating his pine cone orniment

Movie Night

About a week ago, I put on the movie “Polar Express” just to see how Elijah would react to it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by his reaction. Not only did he like it, he actually watched a lot of it which is pretty impressive considering the attention span of a 2 year old. :) He loves the train in the movie!
So last night he asked me to put on the “choo choo” movie. When I saw that he was really watching the movie, I decided to turn it into his own special movie night with snacks, fire going, and friends to watch the movie with him. I had the best time sitting there and just watching him.

This was the first time Elijah has ever had popcorn. I have always been leery of it because of it being a chocking hazard but popcorn and movies just go together. So I gave him just a few pieces to try. He ate it but the verdict is still out if he really liked it or not.


Down to the last piece

But decided to give it to Puppy Dog (yes, that's what he named him)


When Byron is gone, Elijah always sits in his Dad's chair. Too sweet!

Elf on the Shelf Update:
Today (Thursday) was Elijah's first morning to search for Jingle Bells. It was so funny how quickly he spotted him. I loved the big smile he got on his face when he did see him.
Quick story about mine and Byron's stockings ...
Our first Christmas together as husband and wife we made each other stocking. Yes, we are talking about picking out the fabric, using a pattern, and hand sewing them. Fast forward 20 years later and we are still using them. Last year we finally got our names monogrammed on them. Red one shown is mine that Byron made for me.

New Christmas Traditions for our Family

This year we since Elijah is at such a fun age we decided to add some new Christmas traditions for our family.

We added an additional stocking for Baby Jesus. Then on Christmas Eve all three of us will write up a gift(s) we can give Jesus. (Example: Mommy having a devotional time every day) It is so cute to see Elijah go over to the stockings and says who’s belongs to whom and to hear how he says Baby Jesus- precious!

Also, today we started our “Elf on the Shelf”. Our elf's name is Jingle Bells. Elijah came up with this name all on his own, no help from Mommy at all and he is officially registered with Santa Claus. I'm looking forward to watching Elijah search for Jingle Bells tomorrow morning.

We also started a countdown calendar to Christmas and Elijah reminds me every morning about moving the star. However, next year I plan to use a cute Advent calendar with small surprises instead. I think Elijah will really like that.

We are going to add reading the Christmas story from the Bible at bedtime on Christmas Eve along with our other Christmas story.

Finally, this year I thought it would be fun to have new festive holiday pajamas for all of us to wear on Christmas Eve. Any excuse for shopping right? :)

A few of other traditions we started last year with Elijah were: putting cookies and milk out for Santa, riding around and looking at lights on Christmas Eve, having his picture taken with Santa, reading the “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and being at our home on Christmas Eve and Day. We love our family very much but Byron and I felt very strongly that we wanted Elijah to be at his home Christmas Eve and Day. (For those of you who might not know, both of our families live out of state)

It is so fun to start new traditions with Elijah at this special time of the year. But most importantly to us is this…God gave us his miracle Jesus and through the grace of God we were given our miracle, Elijah!

This picture doesn't really go along with this post but this was Elijah's 1st school picture and I forgot to post it. It was taken in October and even though he is SO serious in the picture, we LOVE it of him!

A Few of our Favorites - 2 Year Old Pictures

For Elijah's two year old photos we had Lauren, Studio S, take his pictures and we are so glad we did. She did a great job! We have used Studio S before and were thrilled with the results then as well. Lauren was so patient with Elijah even though he was running around after ever 2 shots. Thanks Lauren!


I was glad that we were able to get some holiday pictures too.





We loved this one so much that we have it at the top of our blog. :)




We tried to take some pictures outside but it was so windy. But Lauren was still able to get some cute shots.


I love this one- this is SO Elijah!

Santa Claus has a message for Elijah

To Elijah Love, Santa
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/XD01OLT-4Vc05NglhhiXVQ

Santa Pictures 2010

Today I took Elijah to see Santa. He did a great job telling Santa what he wanted and seemed very at ease with him. No tears, just lots of smiles! I even got a cute video of him talking to Santa that we can show his Daddy sine he wasn't able to join us.