December Daily | 25

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests." Luke 2:14

Merry Christmas!

We had a pretty good Christmas Day. We got up and checked out our stockings, ate waffles {and yogurt} for breakfast, and got ready for a special Christmas Day service at church. And, of all days for me to rush out without my camera - the day that one of BB's friends was getting baptized! {sigh}

After church, we came back home for a big Christmas lunch and some play time and rest time before heading over to Grami and Papa Snow's house - the SuperHeroes were definitely hard at work.


I realized, after it was all said it done, that I didn't go real crazy on the photos this year like I normally do... but I did go pretty heavy on the videos. I'm okay with that... because I kept having another verse from Luke run through my mind so much yesterday and today:

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19

I couldn't help but have a little bit of understanding of what Luke meant - I don't want to quickly forget all these little moments from the past two days. I want to remember them, love them, and hold them in my hands and declare them the special treasure that they truly are.

Merry Christmas, Here's to Many More!

December Daily | 3 {Nov/Dec Family Birthday Party}

December is a big month for birthdays in our family. Not only are we celebrating HIS birthday and the joy that His birth brings to the world, but we also celebrate Noah's birthday as well as my sister's, Ben's brother and sister, our SIL, Ben's Grandmother, and even my uncle {though, he's techinically November}. Today we had the November/December Birthday Party for the birthdays on my side of the family.

I can hardly believe that our little superhero is going to be FOUR in just a week. It's unreal.

As soon as he saw the finished cake {he was standing nearby the entire time I was decorating... mostly because I think he wanted some icing}, he exclaimed, "That's the coolest and best cake EVER, Mommy!"


I'm so grateful that little things like a decorated cake still rank up there as "cool". ♥

These two have a special love for their cousin Amanda. They are always SO happy to see her and she is always so willing to play whatever they want to play with them.

{The costume didn't come off the entire party. Or day Or weekend, for that matter.}

Aunt Jessie and Uncle Bud - the other two birthday peeps!

Ellie, who had been walking around the kitchen all day asking for "Take, Mommy. Pease! Take. I'own take, pease." finally got some cake too. ♥

Halloween

The kids were SO anxious to get into their costumes and even though I had to wake them from their naps to make it to our first stop, they were in fairly good moods.

On the way to trick-or-treating at Jessie's office, Noah and I had the following conversation:

N: "Mommy, there's bad guys at Aunt Jessie's work."

Me: "Oh really? Man, what should we do about that?"

N: "I'm gunna get them with my big muscles!"

Oh, that boy!

Yeah, he most certainly showed off his muscles:

Afterwards, we headed over to Aunt Connie's house to trick-or-treat them.




The highlight of the stop was when Connie and Mickey blew up the inflatable that the church gave them to use. Instead of doing a big church festival, their church has the congregation do "mini festivals" in their neighborhood. Which, personally, I think is a FANTASTIC idea! I mean, when else do you have all the neighborhood come knocking on YOUR door?

Our next stop on our way home for dinner was Aunt KK's house. By then, we didn't have shoes, socks, masks, or hair accessories.

But we definitely had our bags.

After dinner, we all loaded up into the Sequoia and headed to our church for the Fall Festival.

Noah. had. a. blast. He wanted to play every game, do every activity, and was over-the-top-excited about every one's costumes.

Ellie, not so much.

Though, she did have her moments.

Here's a few clips from our day:

Happy Halloween!

Stanley Family Photos

Seriously. Long day. Ellie woke up still running a slight fever. A slight fever, but fever enough that she couldn't go to school. Which was a bummer, because really, all I wanted to do during my "day off" was sleep and get rested up for the evening's photo shoot.

Unfortunately, even a nap during her naptime didn't happen.

On the way home from dropping Noah off at school. Ellie got sick. While sitting in Noah's carseat.

I only have two carseats.

Luckily, Nana was able to leave work a little early so that she could stay home with a still sleeping Ellie so I could go pick Noah up from school in the one dry {and clean} carseat.

I didn't get to rest up, but lucky for me, my family is pretty easy to shoot.

Connie and Mickey just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. When Mom and Daddy-Man were celebrating their 20th and Connie and Mickey their 5th, they all went to Hawaii for a week. I'm fairly certain they wish they were there again!

{Andy wasn't quite in the mood for family photos, but I still like this one anyway!}

And, despite me not feeling too well still, the photos turned out pretty good - doesn't hurt that the kids are too cute! ♥

The Septembers

Today was "The Septembers" birthday party. Grami, Ellie, Mom and Connie all have their birthdays in September, so we typically do a big family party for them. Truthfully, I just didn't feel up to throwing a second party for friends, so we used all the goodies we had bought for that party for the family party.

Nobody seemed to mind.

Being the youngest of the Septembers, she was definitely the attention getter. {Sorry Connie! Looks like Connie-fest has turned into Ellie-fest! ♥ }

Particularly when she loves a certain little Chipette doll as much as a certain Aunt was hoping that she would.

And it didn't hurt that she was also opening up presents that arrived today from her Daddy.

Or maybe it's just the fact that she was so darn cute that she was such an attention getter.

"The Septembers"

Meanwhile, while the adults were opening presents, the Little Ones were definitely having fun. {Don't worry, Noah got down as soon as I said "cake time" "Get down off the chair, Noah.".}

I'm still having a hard time believing she'll be two Monday. It's surreal!

We couldn't help but laugh when she immediately took her baby OUT of the toy pack and play and put herself in it. If only she'd stay as well in her own bed!

Happy Birthday Septembers!

77.

After taking the kids to school today, I stopped by KK's house to see Grami on her 77th birthday. KK had decorated for the occasion. ♥

Connie and Megan stopped by with cupcakes while I was there. Sweet treats and sweet kisses were had by all!

Happy Birthday Grami! We love you!

Deployment Gifts | Month Three {And a Party}

Ben requested that we give the kids their deployment gifts a couple of days early this month, so that he'd be able to stay awake for a while with them.

They LOVE getting their gifts from Daddy. And think the "close your eyes" part is super fun. Although Ellie usually can't contain her excitement and her eyes are almost always half-way closed while she bounces up and down on the bed.

Noah just adores his Batman and Ellie was hardly seen without her new jewelry all day.

Thank you, Daddy. We love and miss you!

♥

After naptime and dinner, we headed over to Aunt Connie and Mickey's house to celebrate Megan {Mae-Mae} turning four. I couldn't help but giggle when we didn't even make it through the front door before Amanda was passing out hugs to her very willing and elated to see her second-cousins.

Made me smile and remember a page from one of my favorite Cynthia Rylant books, The Relatives Came.

A certain little birthday girl, however, requested that no one sing her Happy Birthday. And then promptly turned on the shy routine when we belted it out.

As you can tell, Noah loves a birthday party... and wanted to have the front row seat for both blowing out the candles and opening presents.

Happy 4th Birthday Mae-Mae! We love you!