Holiday Whirlwind

Whew...this past week has been packed with craziness, but overall, we had a nice Christmas.  We headed to Sikeston/Kennett for a few days at the end of last week to spend time with Justin's family and then spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Bolivar with my family and family friends.  The kids got so much stuff that this week has been spent organizing and putting away toys they no longer play with.  It is still a work in progress. :)  I haven't had time to edit any pictures yet and to be honest I wasn't very good at taking a lot of them, but I will post them when I get the done.  I almost have all the Christmas decorations put away and plan to finish that up this weekend.

Videos for School

Season's Greetings

A Few Pictures

These are a few pictures from our church Christmas party this past Sunday.  Both of the kids did great with Santa and it appears they might get one more chance to sit on his lap this holiday season on Sunday.

A Busy, but Wonderful Weekend

Whew!  That's all I can say after our weekend.  We had a lot to do, but in the end it is all worth the memories we are making as a family.  Friday night, Makenna and I had a girls night.  We first headed to McAlister's for dinner, or as Makenna likes to call it the sweet tea place.  We then headed to my school to see the annual December production put on by the talented WMS drama club.  This year the show was Charlotte's Web and all I can say is WOW!  It was incredible and Makenna thoroughly enjoyed it.  To wrap up the evening we headed back home, got in our jammies, snuggled in bed, and watched the Christmas episode of Punky Brewster.  I absolutely loved that show when it aired when I was young and I randomly found the dvds of season 1 and 2 at TJMaxx for $3 each.  Justin made a lot of fun of me, but Makenna and I love to watch these shows.  For me, it brings back memories of how I wanted to be like Punky and have her colorful coat and shoes, and for Makenna, it is just a show she enjoys.  I think part of the reason she likes it is because she knows it was one of my favorite shows, but I really don't care--I have a Punky watching partner and that is all that matters.

Saturday morning we did some chores around the house and then we headed to Silver Dollar City mid-afternoon.  We met Nana, Shelby, and Shelby's mom, Lori, there and we all had a great time.  The City is so pretty all light up for the holidays.  I did take a few pictures that I will post once they are edited.

Yesterday was church in the morning and then last night we had our annual church Christmas party.  Each year we "adopt" a foster kid, or two, or three, to buy a $20-$25 gift for.  This year our family purchased a gift for 3 children and it is so cool to go shopping as a family for these gifts.  Of course, Beckham is too young to understand, but Makenna is now to the age that we can explain what it means to be a foster child and why we are buying toys, etc. for someone other than her or Beckham.  Our church provided a gift for aroudn 130 kids and groups, etc. donated an additional 100 toys to be given to foster families.  Santa and Mrs. Claus also made an appearance and we just had a great time hanging out with our church family.  Once again, I will post pictures when they are edited.

Tonight, Makenna had her first ever Christmas program.  She has been super excited for this and she has even practiced the songs several times at home to help her prepare. 

The rest of the week is pretty laid back for us, but I do have a goal to be done with my Christmas shopping by Saturday.  I just have a few more things to mark off my list.

Establishing a Family Tradition

Since we had Makenna Justin and I have often discussed traditions we want to have for our family.  I am very much about family traditions, so this is something that we have both decided is going to be an important aspect for our family.  Sure we definitely have our traditions during holidays, but possibly my favorite tradition we have established so far for our young family is movie night.  At least once a month we try to have an evening we let Makenna--and someday it will have to involve both children--pick at a movie.  Sometimes we all gather in our bed and watch the movie and other times Justin grabs a pizza on his way home from work for dinner and then we immediately follow it with a movie, popcorn, and soda.  Tonight was our pizza, popcorn, and movie night and we have all been excited for it all week.  Unfortunately, Beckham hit the sack before the movie began because he didn't have an afternoon nap, but we are definitely looking forward to him being old enough to join in on the fun.  Tonight's movie of choice was actually on TV...

Image courtesy of http://modoration.com

We absolutely love Good Luck Charlie and the Christmas movie was definitely worth watching.  It is one show that we can watch with Makenna that is a good family show so when we learned that tonight the Christmas movie was going to air we mark the date on the calendar as a family movie night.  If you haven't checked out the show I would highly recommend it.  The actress that plays the mom is honestly one of the funniest I have seen.