Christmas Season

I have always loved everything about Christmas, but it's even better with little ones. Dax is enthusiastic about everything this year and Adelaide is a cute addition to all of our fun. We are truly enjoying the holidays as much as we can...

The elf returned this year! He came with another message from Santa reminding Dax and Addy that Jesus is the focus of this special season and encouraging them to be kind and thankful. Dax named the new elf Superman 2 (you may recall that last year's elf was Superman) and is thrilled to find him every day. The funniest place he showed up was Dax's underwear drawer - "Daddy, I was going to get underwear out of my sock drawer and I reached in and felt an elf, and it turned out it was Superman 2!" Superman 2 also brings us part of the Christmas story each day and Dax is just as excited to read his notes.

We spent last Saturday morning at the zoo for Snack with Santa. We enjoyed a little time looking at the animals and then had a snack and chatted with Santa. Dax was hesitant at first, but willingly sat on his lap and talked with him for awhile. Addy was really unhappy at first, but also warmed up to Santa quickly. It was a nice, low-key encounter.

In our days at home, we are feeling festive with Christmas tunes, (the best is when Dax hears the beginning of a song, jumps up and says, "this is my jam!" and starts dancing to it!) and art projects. Thank you, Pinterest, for keeping us entertained!

We can't wait for all of our holiday parties to start and are now just hoping for a white Christmas!

Child of God

Our sweet Adelaide was baptized this weekend! There was something extra special about doing it during the Christmas season - the carols, decorations and joy-filled energy made the service truly magical.

Although we got married and baptized Dax at my childhood church, Oak Grove, this summer we joined Christus Victor and decided to baptize Addy in our new church community. Pastor Kent was willing to involve my grandpa, which was important to us, and everything was perfect. 

Addy slept through the beginning of the service and woke up just in time to be welcomed into God's family. She was wide-eyed as Pastor Kent performed the baptism and poured water on her head, but did not let out a peep.

We could feel the love and support of our family, friends, and congregation and look forward to watching Addy learn about and build her own relationship with God.

With all of Addy's grandparents

Addy's Godparents - my childhood friend Courtney and Jake's college friend Eric

Talking to Pastor Kent after the baptism

After the service we invited our friends and family back to our house for lunch to celebrate. It was so nice to continue sharing in the joy of God's love.

Auntie Shannon found a necklace named, "Addie" for our little girl

Addy and Eric & Dava's daughter, Ellie, who were born one day apart

With Great-Grandma Marlys and Great-Grandpa Harry

GG Mert, GGPa Ed, and Auntie Cree

Thank you to everyone who came to share in Adelaide's special day.

Handymen

I mentioned in my last post that Jake was remodeling our basement shower. It was having some issues so he decided to take on the project and did an awesome job! With some help from both of our dads, he tore out the old walls, fixed the problems, added some insulation and installed new drywall and showerboard. While it still needs a few finishing touches, it looks great!

Before

After

Dax joined Jake on one of his trips to get supplies at Home Depot and they ran into one of the store's free kids' workshops. It was a lucky coincidence because Dax had so much fun making some Christmas stakes to display in our yard. He was a skillful craftsman hammering nails, using wood glue, and adding stickers to complete the job. As a bonus, Santa was visiting the store so Dax got to see the big guy before our official visit. He did not want to sit on his lap this time, but was conversational and we hope that will improve our chances of a cute photo next weekend!

Giving Thanks

We have never had more to be thankful for than we do this year. While we try to live each day with gratitude, it is always special to take the time to celebrate our blessings and we had a really nice Thanksgiving this year.

The past couple of years I have built the tradition of running the Turkey Day 5K as a healthy and energizing start to the yummy holiday. My typical running partner, Annie, is out of commission this year with Baby Boy O'Connor preparing to make his debut in January (another of the things we are thankful for!) so I convinced Jake to run with me. We weren't thrilled when we woke up to the coldest Thanksgiving day in many many years, but once we got running it wasn't so bad and it was fun to do together.

Note the frost on our hair, scarves, eyelashes, etc...

When we got home, Dax and Ads were excited to watch some of the parade. And I was thrilled to have some snuggle time with my two favorite cuties. We also asked Dax what he was thankful for and he responded, "My baby sister." Then before his nap he prayed, "Dear God, Thank you for all the animals. And thank you for the yummy food we are going to have at Grandma Mary's and Grandpa Mick's house. And we are going to eat it all up! Amen." Melt my heart.

In the afternoon, we ventured out in the cold again to the Schulz Thanksgiving. The food was delicious and the evening with family was delightful.

The festivities continued Friday with early morning shopping. Then we went over to Gma Amy's to help her set up her annual Christmas village. Dax LOVES the village and was happy to help place the people.

Twins in our vests

On Saturday we relaxed in the morning and then headed over to the Olson's for our cookie decorating tradition. Dax lasted a bit longer than last year, but preferred playing with Grandpa Phil to frosting cookies. He did, however, enjoy licking his spreaders after every dip and taste-testing the cookies!

Matching Christmas socks!

Playing with Auntie Shannon

 

You're going to frost how many cookies?!

We ended the weekend with a more normal day for me and the kids, but Jake spent most of Sunday re-doing the downstairs bathroom shower with Mick. It's still in progress, but they got a lot done and it will be nice to have it finished.

It was a busy weekend filled with so many people that we love.We are truly thankful.