Pre-Christmas fun!

We have been having a blast around here lately.  Christmastime is so full of fun!

My mom and I took the kids to see Santa:

Matthew started rolling on the ground?! Ha ha!

Joshua and Santa

Kathryn telling Santa that she wants a Rapunzel dress 

Matthew wasn't quite sure about Santa, but he sat on his lap for a minute

William and Santa

 Esther watched our kids one day and made Reindeer cupcakes with them. Aren't they adorable??

 And then  Karen came over and made sugar cookies with the kids one day:

And then we had a big party and made a gingerbread "Scene" and decorated all of the sugar cookies too:  

Isn't this great!! Ha ha! Notice the pile of  marshmellows.  The kids were told (ahem) that it was snowman poop... so it ended up all over. 

Catching Tim snacking!

Matthew was decorating too!

Karen and Kathryn making cookie art!

Ellen snacking! :)

A sample of  the cookies we made

We had a Christmas celebration on Sunday night, since my sister Margaret and brother in law Bob, were here for a quick visit.  What fun!  We did the whole thing, dinner, desserts, presents...

We always end our Christmas celebration with reading of the Christmas story and singing carols together.  A tradition I want to always keep. Our focus is on Christ as HE is the reason we celebrate!

Oh the wonder of Christmas! It is such a joy to experience it through our kids' eyes.


Some more baking, cleaning, decorating, wrapping, and the big days will be here soon!!

Thanksgiving!

Psalm 69:30

 ³⁰ I will praise God’s name in song
   and glorify him with thanksgiving.


The short list of Things I'm Thankful for this year:

1) Our Lord and His love for us
2) Family
3) Health in my baby boy! (It's been a rough year but praise God for his healing!)
4) Seeing to Lord's hand in taking care of so many who have needed healing and help
5) Provision of all of our needs

What a fun Thanksgiving we had this year!  I was so glad that my parents could join us at the home of my In-laws!  It never happens that I get to spend holidays with both sets of "parents" at the same time :)

I took no pictures.. oops! We were having too much fun!
In the days that followed we did the following:

Kids jumped in one of these:

We played a lot of this game: 

Went to see this movie (and LOVED it!):

Had a photo shoot with Sarah Stucky Photography  She is Wes' sister and really talented!  I am so ridiculously excited about the pictures and Christmas cards that are printing RIGHT NOW :)

We also did a lot of visiting and playing, some shopping, and enjoyed a worship service at Eagle ridge church and seeing friends there. 

Blessed! Happy Belated Thanksgiving :)

My Birthday

I turned 32 on November 20th.  Yep..that sounds old.  But I so don't feel it so that's what counts, right??















The rain changed our plans to go to Knotts Berry Farm.. but we're going to try to go sometime soon. 
 Instead, we went to  Red Robin for dinner as a family.  You get a free meal on your birthday so we go every birthday, lol :) 

I am also very spoiled with a wonderful family. The day before, we had a full on Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house to celebrate my birthday (and have an early celebration with my brothers family since they were going to be in Iowa on Thanksgiving).  

Then on Thanksgiving day we also celebrated all the November birthdays together with the Lennertz side of the family.  How I love and appreciate my family.  We are so very blessed. 

 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30  I wish I was better at this. Asking the Lord for Him to draw me closer to Him every day.

Gift Exchange

One of the sites that I love following for all of the GREAT fun and ideas is called Craftaholics Anonymous.  Linda hosted a handmade gift exchange this year and I decided to just do it and get involved.  And it was so much fun!

I met Michelle from Australia, and we emailed back and forth just a little bit.  Then we sent each other a handmade gift!  She doesn't have a blog, so I'm going to show both what I gave and what I received to link up the pictures.

I made a reversible quilted table runner for Michelle.  One side is Christmas: 

The other side is fall-themed!

I totally stole this idea and pattern from my incredibly talented sister in law, Sarah. And I hope Michelle likes it!

To wrap the gift, I used a piece of printed blue and white fabric, and added a ribbon and an aqua colored flower clip.  (Doubling as wrapping or for your hair, etc)

And take a look at what I received!  LOVE this!

Michelle sent a beautiful full tutu, a flower headband, and a hand painted ornament that says "Australia". 
Here is Kathryn modeling the cuteness!

Can you tell how much she loves this! Thank you Michelle, we love everything!!


 Linking up to share the gifts!

Craftaholics Gift Exchange