Third Week of December (15th-21st)

Thank goodness we were healthy and got to enjoy a little more fun this week!

Saturday, December 15th

Today's present was Christmas stickers!

Isaiah enjoyed opening his gift box from Grandma and Grandpa.  His favorite gift in the gift box was his three new books...Put Me In The Zoo, Ten Apples Up On Top, and The Foot Book.  We have all gotten to read these books LOTS since opening them!

I stayed up late Saturday evening making special birthday brownies for Isaiah's family birthday celebration happening the next day.  I saw the idea on Pinterest, and of course mine didn't look as awesome as picture on Pinterest, but they were still cute.  Esther happily snuggled in the carrier while I did some baking.

Sunday, December 16th
Pastor Dave contacted us last week and asked us if we would be willing to share about God's blessing of adoption for our family in order to help support his sermon today.  We happily agreed to witness that yes adoption is worth it!  Isaiah was brave (or goofy) and kept wanting to talk into the microphone!

Here is the sermon summary from our church website : The message of Christmas is that God sent His Son so that you can be His child.  It was God's love for us as His children, His adopted children, that brought about the birth of Jesus.  God wants you as His Child, you are worth that much to Him. Paul writes to the Galatians about this Christmas event and how it shows us our worth to God. (Galatians 4:4-7)  The audio of the sermon includes our interview at the beginning and can be found at:  http://www.myflc.org/messages/20121216/
  

  

We attempted a family picture after church, but we didn't get the greatest...

After church we went over to Nonna and Pop's house to gather with family and celebrate Isaiah's 4th birthday.  Nonna made two big salads and we bought pizza from Papa Murphy's.  Nonna and Pop's big kitchen/dinning area is so nice for family gatherings!  Isaiah enjoyed opening more birthday gifts and eating his special birthday dessert!  It was a fun afternoon celebrating.

Aunt DeAnn happily held Esther while the rest of us ate...this girl LOVES to be held at all times!

Isaiah loves all the Christmas decorations around during this month.  I figured that as he gets older he might not appreciate a Christmas themed birthday party so I decided to do it now while he loves it.   I found TONS of cute dessert ideas on Pinterest that I was going to attempt to do, but with a newborn in our home I only successfully completed one idea.  Luckily Isaiah isn't on Pinterest so he didn't mind.

Isaiah loves candles, but he always wants me to blow them out. Silly boy!

We had a wonderful time spending the afternoon together and then we headed to our last small group meeting of the year.  It was great to hang out as whole families.  We had the kids with us tonight since we were working on completing our service project.   

Angela and Scott's daughter Emily LOVES kids.  She was very excited to get to hold Esther and Isaiah fell in love with her.  Even as I was working on this blog post Isaiah saw the pictures and said, "There's Emily"!

Rachel and Darrel's daughter Claire (who I watched in September and October) liked Esther too!

And since we had a full day he opened his day 16 present right before bed, but we still let him enjoy his Mater fruit snacks!

Monday, December 17th

It looks like my photo documenting has failed me because I don't have any knowledge as to what the day 17 present was...bummer!

While taking day 17 present pictures I must have gotten distracted by this beauty!

Ah, brother is giving his sister a love.

Later this week we have friends coming over for a play date and to help us decorate cookies so I needed to bake cookies that could be decorated.  Earlier this month I found a new chocolate sugar cookie recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to try. Today ended up being the day to make the yummy, but in my opinion, high maintenance cookies!  Isaiah had a BLAST playing and organizing all my cookies cutters.  Thanks to John and Jenae for a wonderful wedding gift that our family still enjoys many years later!

Tuesday, December 18th
We woke up this morning to small amounts of snow falling.  I thought Isaiah would enjoy it so I went in to get him (thinking he was awake, when really he was still asleep) and got him all bundled in warm clothes and out we went before Esther would wake up.  There really wasn't enough snow so he wasn't sure what to do and after just a few minutes he was ready to come back inside and have breakfast, oh well.

 

Our day 18 present was a knit hamburger and fries pretend food.  Nonna and I had picked this gift out earlier in the season at a craft fair we had attended together.  The lady who makes these amazing foods had a house fire the day after Christmas last year and so we wanted to support her and her family.

I believe it was this week that I discovered that I love putting Esther in dresses!  I thought tights would be annoying to put on and take on and off all day to do diaper changes, but they are warm, fit great (if you have the right pair - Carter's specific months are the best but Baby Gap is pretty good too) and they look adorable!

I had Esther "dress up" today because this evening we went to Campbell's preschool Christmas performance.  Isaiah thought it was fun to go to Campbell's school.    

Wednesday, December 19th

This morning I had a doctors appointment and this afternoon we took Isaiah for his 4 year old appointment.  He did better this go around at the doctor.  He willingly stood on the scale and let them measure him.  He wasn't a fan of getting his temperature taken in his mouth so they opted for under his arm and he figured that was better.  But the last part of the appointment included 4 shots and that was NO FUN!

He opened his day 19 present late again and it was food, a fruit leather so we had him save it to eat the next day.

Thursday, December 20th
Isaiah woke up with a low fever (thank you 4 year shots), but Sarah was still good with coming over for a play date and decorating Christmas cookies.  Sadly Brook had to cancel because Michaela was still feeling sick and had a bad cough.  Lily and Isaiah had fun playing, eating lunch, and then decorating cookies together.  Isaiah opened his day 20 present while Lily was there and it was Lorna Doone cookies, so he shared with Lily.

Friday, December 21st

When Sarah came the day before she brought a HUGE tub and a couple bags of baby clothes for me to go through and borrow some of Lily's baby clothes.  This little dress was one of the gems that I borrowed.  Esther looks so cute!

Isaiah's day 21 present was Oreo cookies...yum!

  

My friend Heidi whom I taught with at the Christian school (six years ago) and has since moved to Texas was back to visit family for the holidays.  I was lucky enough to get a visit from her.  She was excited to meet Esther and visit with Isaiah again.    Of course she brought wonderful gifts for all of us...thanks Heidi!

Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Chuck, Kelsey, and Kristin (several hours later) flew in today.  They are here for Christmas.  This is the first time Aunt Cheryl has gotten to meet Esther and she loved holding her.