White Christmas

We had the biggest surprise Christmas day... Snow! Brock was so excited when he woke up from his nap and saw it was snowing outside. Since all his shows have snow in them, he has been asking me where our snow is. I told him it's too warm in Texas. I'm so glad I was wrong.

We went out two times and played in the snow. He loved throwing snowballs and even made a snow angel with Daddy.

Jeremy brought Ryder out in his new bike trailer. Brock threw snowballs at him of course and both boys thought it was hilarious.

We even got Brock's new four wheeler out. Too bad it doesn't have snow tires. 

Christmas Day

Well, I am just going to keep it real with these first two pictures. 

Brock is a cutie but unfortunately he has his finger in his nose a lot of the time. Oh well. I just pray he grows out of it. 

This picture just makes me laugh. Brock loves to hold baby Fisher, but Fisher does not always love to be held by Brock. Brock was sweet. He would give him little kisses and say how cute he was.

This is just about the cutest Spiderman I have ever seen.

Brock's big gift was this big four wheeler Power Wheels. He loved it!

He loved this harmonica. Beth Anne and I kept laughing at his lips. We thought he might rub them off!

And here is a happy boy!

Christmas Morning

Brock had come to our room in the middle of night. About 6:30 Kevin leaned over and said, "Brock, I think I heard Santa!" So we jumped out of bed and headed to the living room.

Nana and Papa came over and helped Brock open his gifts. It's so fun they live so close and can run to our house at 6:30 in the morning.

Brock thought all his gifts were "awesome!"

It's fun to see his excitement.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We baked cookies for Santa (and maybe had a little taste too)

I made Lego Soap to put in Brock's stocking. One of his friend's has some and he talks about it all the time.

Kevin got his bike all ready to go.

Stockings all full of fun things.

Bike, check! Tent, check!

Grandpa

Grandpa wasn't able to get out and come see us on Christmas, so Lauraleigh and I went to see him. He and Chipper dog were doing really well. I am glad to know he is being cared for and has his little buddy with him all the time.

Candlelight Service

We have been so blessed to be apart North Richland Hills Baptist Church for the past year. We have met wonderful people and have a new great pastor. 

They had a "Family Friendly" Christmas Eve service that our whole family went to. It was perfect...30 minutes! 

Brock managed to hold up his candle without starting a fire, yea!
I hope these memories of celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus' birth, sink down into his heart.

Merry Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful time at my Mom's house on Christmas Eve. The boys played and played and played. Daniel and Brock seemed to be glued together all day. They played trains, basketball and bikes. And that's not even including all the new toys they got. 

My mom decided we were going to have a Mexican theme. We had yummy Mexican food and even had a piñata. The boys loved that!

Brock was just a little excited about all the candy ;)

One of the best moments of the day was when we gave Mom and Dad our gift from all of us... A new swing. We even burned all of our names in the wood. They were SO surprised.

Christmas Lights

We have had such a wonderful Christmas season this year. Brock is at such a fun age! He gets so excited about everything. He has especially loves looking at lights. I heard about this drive though light park in Grand Prairie. Nana and Papa came with us and we had a great time. We made sure to get there right when it opened so we didn't have to wait in line. I have heard it can get really crowded.

The lights were great and at the half way point you could get out. There was a special light show and walk through thing, but we didn't do those things. Brock did want to ride the rides though. He loves rides. He rode the dizzy dragons with Kevin and the carousel with me. The rides were free too!

This light tunnel was the finale. It was really neat!

But the best part was that Brock literally ran to see Santa! I don't know what changed his mind. Up until now he didn't want to at all. Actually he cut in front of another girl, but thankfully she and her mom were understanding and let him stay. He told Santa he wanted a bike and a tent. Good thing he's been such a good boy this year!

Hope

This has been a weird week. I haven't blogged in a while. Kinda been in a funk. One week ago a horrible tragedy happened in Connecticut. 20 children and seven adults were killed in a school. So sad. It took me a while to wrap my mind around it. I have been thinking about how God didn't make this happen. Satan did. He's evil. There is evil in this world all around us. I can even see it in Brock's little sin nature. He lied to me the other day. It was one of the first times he just told me an outright lie. You know, we all need Jesus. Brock needs Jesus in his heart just like that gunman did.
I read a really good article reminding us that Jesus came into the world on a dark night in a dirty place. Kinda like where we live now.
I know we are not supposed to live our lives in fear. We are supposed to joyfully live our lives in hope of the day Jesus returns and destroys the evil one.
I hope if I was ever put in a hard situation like those parents my hope would remain in God the Father.
I was leaving for work the other morning and noticed how beautiful the sky was. It was a picture of God's nature. Love, hope and beauty. May we all be reminded of God's Love for us this Christmas season.

Celebrate Christmas

I love this time of year. I feel like I am doing everything I can to make Brock like it too. I want him to enjoy the lights, music and activities Christmas time brings. Of course I want him to first and foremost know we celebrate because if Jesus. Without Jesus all the other Christmas activities would be meaningless. That's why I especially enjoy "Jesus" Christmas activities.
Yesterday we went to a "Happy birthday Jesus" party. The kids had a blast. They played and ate birthday cake, sang "happy birthday" to Jesus and listened to the story of Jesus' birth. We sang Christmas carols and enjoyed being with other families from our Sunday school group.
Then last night we went to he walk through live nativity at our church. They had free camel rides too! I didn't think Brock would even entertain the idea of riding a camel but he did. He begged to go. So he and I rode the camel. It only lasted a few minutes but he loved it! I was proud of him for trying something so new and unusual.

Climbing Brock

Brock is turning into such a "little boy" these days. No more baby things. In fact, I took him to our park this weekend and he climbed a tree! It was very low, but still! He also loves running through the leaves and throwing them over his head. He could play outside all day long. Sometimes I wish we lived on a farm and just had tons of land he could explore. But then I know I would just worry he would get bit by a snake. Maybe I will just be glad we just have a nice city park so close by ;)

Gingerbread House

I bought a little gingerbread house and train set for and I to decorate this year. Kevin was gone so I was trying to put it together, take pictures and keep Brock from eating all of the candy at once. Brock quickly lost interest and ran off leaving me to do most the decorating, but he loves to look at it on the table and he especially loves to sneak little bites of candy off of it. It's a fun tradition that I hope he looks back on one day.