Tis the Season for Lots of Activities

My kids are used to getting in bed at about 7:30 every night. Our schedule has them in bed early, and they usually sleep until around 7:30am. I like to have the quiet evenings with Manly, and it's great for the kids to get a good night's sleep. It's tough, however, when the Holiday season hits.
We have lots of Christmas parties, practices, and family get togethers once December hits, and we like to take the kids to see Christmas lights on the evenings we don't have other things to do. This makes for late nights and tired babies. They've been so good during this time, though. I'm so proud of their good attitudes and great choices.
Here are a few pictures from our ventures lately!

We hosted our Small Group Christmas Party. Manly really captured the kids attention with a special Christmas story.

My big girls in their matching Christmas tree shirts.

Silly faces are their new thing...

Brubbs trying his hand at a silly face.

Our first snow of the year. The kids played our there for all of 5 minutes. Brubbs was not a fan. Obviously.

Bethlehem Revisited. It's a fantastic program a local church does for the community every year. Free and so much fun!

Mia and Momma all ready to go to Bethlehem.

Our "tour guide" taking us into the city.

The little girls in jail.

KK weaving a basket.

More basket weaving.

The fisherman.

Addison getting her head band.

The girls using their shekels to buy jewels! They give each child several shekels at the gate. So fun!

The spice store.

The toy store.

Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Isaiah yelled, "BAY-BEEEE JEE-JUS!" Addison said, "Are you really the real real Mary?" KK said, "You're pretty MARY!" Olivia left her shekels as a gift for the newborn king. Such a sweet night! If you are in town make sure you head over to Antioch this week. 6:30-8:30 tomorrow and Friday.

Christmas Flash Mob

Today our choir at church had a flash mob between services. It was quite nice and caught a LOT of attention from people leaving service or getting to service. I think it surprised everyone, because we've never done anything like it before. It was nothing like the one below, but still fun and everyone seemed to like it.

We did the flash mob to advertise for a Christmas concert we are participating in this coming Friday. If you are in the area you should check it out. It's going to be great with a mass choir, drama, and lots of Christmas cheer.

I like thinking about...

This morning I made the kids blackberry oatmeal and sat down to feed Mia while the older kids were eating. This is the part of the day that the best conversations usually come out of the kids. Today was no exception.
We've told the kids that once Olivia turns 8 and Emma Claire turns 6 we'll let them get an outdoor dog. I know they still won't be old enough to REALLY take care of it, but I had to come up with some sort of number for them years ago when they were asking daily for a pet. Now that number that seemed forever away is only a year away, so they talk about their future dog from time to time now.
This morning Olivia was talking about how she'd be in charge of feeding/watering and walking the dog, but she'd take turns and share privledges with her sisters if they were sure they could be responsible. They talked on and on about what kind of dog we might get, and what it would look like, and if the dog would be a boy or a girl and what it's name would be.
Finally, Olivia wraps up the converstation by saying, "I love thinking about the future."
Emma Claire, always with the last word, says, "I love thinking about OATMEAL!"
Olivia rolled her eyes and went back to eating her oatmeal. Under her breath she says,  "Seriously?!"
Love those girls!