Life with a Brother...

These pictures really need no words...

If you have a little boy in your life,

you get it!

~

These two are actually the best of friends...

if you find one,

the other is always close by!

If James isn't right by Angelina's side,

she runs through the house yelling,

"Jame, Jame, Jame!"

And if Angelina simply runs up town with daddy,

James will get all teary eyed and say he

just misses her so much!

That said,

they also annoy the bajeebers out of each other...

They fight like they might truly strangle the other...

I guess that's just the life of

siblings...

Bell Ringing 2014

Every year we take a few hours shortly before Christmas and ring the Red Kettle bells for the Salvation Army...

Bell Ringing is something the kids always 

look forward to...

we all dress up as festive as possible!

I am pretty sure James was the very best 

Bell Ringer ever!

James was dancing around yelling out to people

"Step right up and get your candy cane!"

He would also hold doors open for people 

and boldly hand out candy canes and ask people 

to put money in the kettle!

The girls were good volunteers, they were 

just a little bit quieter!

Bell ringing is hard work though...

good thing we brought snacks of grapes and jelly sandwiches!

We were hoping the sound of the ringing bells and 

the festive reindeer ears would make baby Dex want to be born...

but he was pretty cozy in his mama's belly!

~

Just a little side note...

I just learned that all the money raised from the 

Red kettle drive,

is what sets the funding the the entire year for the Salvation Army...

And the list of everything they do with that money is 

very long...

food and clothing for families, emergency shelter, 

job training...

all in our local community and beyond.

So, next time you have an opportunity to donate to 

Salvation Army,

make sure you do!

St Lucia Day

St Lucia day is a huge highlight at our house...

it ranks right up there with Christmas morning!

We celebrate with a big breakfast in bed...

we have been doing this since Elsie was little tiny!

The girls each wore their Lucia crowns and 

James was supposed to wear his Star Boy hat...

but instead he wanted to just 

lay on the floor and eat his 

breakfast like a dog...

not sure why, but it made him happy!

We always decorate the room with plenty of candles...

and the St Lucia statue...

such fun and special memories being created...

We also decorate gingerbread houses every year on
St. Lucia day...
Usually this is a Daddy project...
but this year daddy was away at work.

We also turned sugar cones upside down and 

decorated a whole forest of trees for our 

gingerbread house...

the kids had SO much fun and 

created a huge sticky mess in the process!

By the time we got done with all the 

decorating,

bath time was in order!

~

Love all the special little things are involved in 

the Christmas season...

so many memories...

and so fun now that the kids are old enough

to talk about all the Christmas memories from past years...

All these cozy feelings are priceless.

a Little Santa Magic

Santa...the magical man...

I hope Santa never looses his magic in my 

children's eyes!

Even Elsie is still truly mesmerized my Santa...

They know that Santa has many helpers

who pretend to be him...

but they also know that the 

True Santa and Mrs Claus

comes to the local bank a few days before 

Christmas every year.

This Santa is clearly the real deal...

The kids always get dressed in their 

fancy Christmas eve clothes and 

fix their hair all pretty and are on their 

very best behavior before going to the bank...

When we left the house, all three of the kids 

announced that were too scared to go sit on his lap...

Angelina was dramatically telling us that she would cry!

However, when we got to the bank,

all three of the kids marched right over to 

Santa and sat on his lap and 

told him what they wished for!

I was a little surprised...first year ever with no tears!

James stood in front of Santa and Mrs Claus talking their ear off for quite some time...

and clearly this is the real Santa because look at how 

intently they are listening to him!

B/W of our life

Hopefully I'm really truly back in the 

blogging groove this time!

Turns out the computer we bought on the Black Friday sale,

didn't let me edit pictures like I wanted to do...

but, because Jon spoils me,

he gave me another computer for a Christmas/Birthday gift!

A fancy computer...I'm almost scared to use it!

I am so excited to be able to edit pictures and blog again!

I feel a little sad about all our 

Summer adventures that I didn't get a chance 

to blog about...

so I might be skipping around a bit and 

posting summer pictures 

along with our Christmas pictures...

this is our Life Journal,

so I have to document it all!

Happy 2015

~