Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Driving with Hannah & Kate

What, what's that you say? Kate is actually now pushing Hannah out. Gasp...Hannah has to share her car now. Oh no. Yes, that's right. Kate has conquered her fear of the Cozy Coupe. I think that since it's at home and she can check it out more, she overcame her fear of the car more quickly than she's overcoming her fear of the horse. So once again, we are back to our normal little cat fights over their favorite new toy. (Thanks, Nanny & Grampy..haha).

Cruising around the house together, but not very happy about being squeezed into the car at the same time. Anyone want to guess whose idea that was?


Kate fell asleep on George the other night and since he wanted to spend some time bonding with his daughter, I let her stay. It was sweet.




We looked at 2 houses yesterday. One that has 3 acres of farm land, but the house isn't as large, but still bigger than what we have. We'd need to do some updating/remodeling (knocking out walls, etc.). The other was on one woodsy acre of land, but the house's floor plan was nicer and was a little more updated. If you think about it, please pray for us as we seek God's direction for our family & that our hearts would be open to wherever God leads, even if that means staying put.
This will probably be my last post (maybe) before the New Year, so HAPPY NEW YEAR if we don't talk before then!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas 2009

Wow, what a great Christmas season this has been! We had a whirlwind of celebrating Jesus's birthday that started on Christmas Eve. We attended our church's service with Hannah & Kate and they successfully made it the whole hour! Then we headed over to George's parents' house where we go every year. We eat chinese food and just spend time with all of his extended family & friends.

Opening up pajamas from the Lantz family-it's a tradition to get new pajamas on Christmas Eve
opening Aunt Erin's gifts


The girls with Aunt Amy

Kate & Aunt Erin
Kate & (soon to be) Uncle Dru
Rachel-how cute is she

Rachel & Sarah (her mommy)

Hannah & Grandma Schaefer

Hannah on her horse-so I have to pause here for a moment to explain the horse. Hannah loves this horse. George's parents got it for the girls at Thanksgiving. However, Kate is terrified of the horse. If we even get near it with her, she freaks out. She has gotten better over the last month, but she hates it, which of course, only antagonizes her Daddy to terrorize her with it.


Hannah & Rachel riding the horse
Mommy & Hannah (just a quick explanation of their shoes-I would never put my children in brown shoes with a black shirt, however, the black shoes that they normally wear with this outfit are not as easy to walk in and Kate has already outgrown hers)

Hannah
Hannah
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!
We did a short little present unwrapping and breakfast at our house. We woke up at 7, our normal waking time, and hopped to it!
Daddy waking Kate up

Hannah waking up...in their new pajamas

Daddy reading the Christmas story

Opening their stockings-they got board books

Their one and only wrapped present from us-a Little People house. Their other presents were clothing and they've been wearing those since I bought them.




Then, we were over at the Lantz's home by 8:30. Ben always makes wonderful breakfast sandwiches. We opened up presents and hung out for awhile while the girls napped.
Another present that Hannah absolutely loves and Kate is very wary of. She must not like toys that are bigger than she is. You can tell by the way she is holding onto Krista that she's unsure about this new car. They have definitely added some great upgrades to these cars since I've seen them in the last few years. One of them is a removable floorboard so their feet don't hang down and get drug under the car, which makes it so much easier to push them. The other is a lock on the door handle. Hannah has already solved that obstacle. She just climbs out the window.

Hannah
Hannah
By noon, we were over at the Schaefer's house and begun opening presents quickly. Rachel was ready for a nap and the girls were ready to eat lunch. Present unwrapping went quickly this year as Hannah and Kate's attention spans were short.
Kate with a Little People-we have Little People at our house out the wazoo
Matt, Sarah, & Rachel (her 1st Christmas)

Kate sitting on one of Rachel's presents

Daddy terrorizing Kate with the car

Kate riding the car the only way she will...on top
We were so incredibly blessed by all of our gifts! The girls got multiple Little People sets, a very talkative Elmo (which they love), adorable clothes, a toy laptop, books, and many other toys. I think they are on toy overload right now. George and I also went to see Avatar 3D last night by ourselves. It was a spur of the moment decision. It was good and the effects were definitely neat. Hope that your Christmas was as sweet and wonderful as ours! Thank you, Jesus, for the best gift that you could've ever given us...a Savior.


Thursday, December 24, 2009

It's not about him, It's about Him

The long awaited picture you've been waiting for is here...

I hope that your excitement over Christmas exceeds the level of excitement that Hannah and Kate displayed when they saw Santa. I do have to say that I was impressed that we didn't have full-blown breakdowns over Santa. Santa's elves did a great job at distracting them with toys that made cool noises. If you zoom in on the picture, you may catch a tear or two falling from Hannah's eyes, but Kate's blank expression is priceless. I love it!

As much as Santa gets hyped up at this time of year, it's really about Him, Jesus Christ. We are celebrating His birth and the fact that He came to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21~ I think). I don't know if I mentioned this last year, but we started a new family tradition of taking gift bags to all of the babies in the NICU. Yesterday, we made our 2nd annual trip. (I had my camera in my bag to take pictures & I completely forgot~sorry!) My Mom, Hannah, Kate, and I all loaded their little red wagon up with 7 gift bags plus goodies for the NICU staff and visited the NICU. This time Hannah and Kate got to show off their walking skills to their nurses and doctor. They were so excited to see how much they're grown. Our Bible fellowship class even got involved this year by donating some money and things that we stuffed the bags with. I just created an e-mail account so that the parents can e-mail us prayer requests for their babies.

I count it such a privilege and an honor (I know most don't see it that way) to have been chosen to watch the hand of God work so clearly in my daughters' lives as He took babies that weren't supposed to be born yet and grew them into healthy, active little girls. George and I got to witness 2 miracles first hand and it brings tears to my eyes to think that God would bless us so immensely. So we give back to Jesus because He gave us abundantly to us. That's the message and legacy that we hope to pass on to these families and to Hannah and Kate as they begin to understand that Christmas is not about him (Santa), but about Him (Jesus).

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Lane in Dover

There apparently has been a long-standing tradition in Dover, FL of which I knew nothing about until last night. It's called Christmas at Dover Lane. This family owns a lot of farm land. The son purchased used Christmas decorations from the malls after Christmas and it has turned into the quaint little Christmas celebration that it is. George's parents invited us out to it last night. We had a nice family time with the girls. It was cold (at least to us folks in FL). However, I would still classify 40's and 50's as cold. So we bundled the girls up in their coats and $1 Target hats and they were just the cutest little kids out there. Here are the pictures:

Ben & Krista-George's parents
Our Lantz family




Hannah looking at Kate & thinking "Isn't this the best thing ever?"


Kate was enamored with this decoration. She kept pointing to it.


Kate & Grandma Schaefer

Kate & Daddy

Kate & Aunt Sarah


Kate & Mommy watching the twirling reindeer

Kate & Mommy

Hannah & Daddy
Hannah & Nanny Lantz
George and I both agreed that it would be a fun little family tradition to start at Christmas time, especially since it's FREE!!!