Christmas Part 1

We enjoyed having Christmas at our home this year and having the McCanns here to celebrate with us. Here the girls are all dressed up and ready for Christmas Eve service.


This is the whole crew of us.


The girls were so excited when they woke up in the morning, Lucy woke up at 6am bouncing off the walls. We ended up having to wake up the little sisters to begin opening gifts.


Lucy showing off some of her new winter attire.


Everyone had to help out, to make sure that they could be apart of unwrapping of each and every gift.



What a blessing it was to focus our hearts on Christ's birth this year. We have been back in the States for 9 months now, but I have to confess that Christmas was another culture shock that I wasn't really prepared for. At first it was hard to get away from the consumerism mindset and Santa Clause, thinking I had to make the Christmas of a lifetime for my kids. But once I was able to step away from all that and set my heart on Christ, we had a wonderful Christmas, teaching our kids Luke 2, and worshiping our Savior on Christmas day.

Christmas prep

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, it was a full month of celebrating with our church, family, and enjoying our own family traditions. It was a joy this year especially to see our children begin to understand and grasp Christ's birth and the reason for our celebration. Here are just a few pictures of what we did this month:

Decorate our tree, what a joy it was to have a REAL tree this year and be able to get out many of our ornaments we haven't seen in 3 years. I love how all our ornaments have stories of people and places in our lives. This particular ornament was made by our young teammate in Honduras to celebrate and remember Anna's 1st Christmas.


Decorating sugar cookies with Dabo. This is a Christmas tradition I grew up with and although every year we have done it with our kids, it was extra special this year to have the "true" cookie maker in our household to help us.


The girls loved decorating the cookies and then we enjoyed sharing them with all of our neighbors.


We also went on a horse drawn carriage of Christmas lights, it was a cold wet night but worth it.


We had many great Christmas celebrations with our church. This picture was taken the night of the Hymns and Carols at our church, where the older girls sang "Go Tell It on the Mountain".


Anna enjoyed decorating and un-decorating the tree all month long. Good thing we received new toys to play with for Christmas, or she would be bored once we took the tree down.


Gannie and Aunt Curly taught the girls how to make Reindeer sandwiches.


Here is Aunt Curly coaching Lucy through the making of Hello Dollies, a traditional Christmas desert.


The girls enjoyed reading through many Christmas books this month, including this one, "The Night Before Christmas".



I will try to post pictures soon of our Christmas celebration with both of our families that we have had the past few days.

The School Show

For those of you who knew my Lucy the past 5 years of her life will be shocked to see this video, where the teachers called her a star. Literally for every performance she has ever had in her life, she has run from the stage, crying. But she was so confident sitting up front singing all the words to the songs, and smiling. I was so proud. I am thankful that the Lord has given her confidence in who she is.

November has come and gone

Because once again I have slacked off in my blogging I am going to try to recap the month on November for you, since somehow it is already December and Christmas is nearing the corner.

It started off with a wonderful family trip to the mountains, where the girls experienced their first time roasting marshmallows by the fire.


We also took a short hike to see some waterfalls.


And of course no trip to the mountains would be complete without a picnic at the meadow, one of my favorite spots in the world where my dear husband proposed to me.


Ellie, at the age of 3, got her first haircut.


Sean passed all of his ordination exams, which we celebrated with a key lime cheesecake.


Anna had her first trip in Cameron.


And of course we had to document the year she was born, as the year of being National Champions.


Lucy helped make her first pecan tarts, a Thanksgiving tradition for the McCann family.


And we all enjoyed spending a few days with Aunt Curly.


Although she wasn't Aunt Curly for one day after a hair cut, Anna didn't seem to mind though.

1 Year Old Fun

Just some sweet pictures of our girl on her 1st birthday. She is such a precious girl, full of spunk and personality.


She is now walking and I know in just a week or so she will be running.


Here she is saying she is 1, so seriously I might add.


She loves playing games with you and flirts with anyone who will give her attention.


Her favorite foods are pizza, spaghetti, beans, and blueberries.

Halloween

The girls got to dress up in their costumes several times this year for Halloween. I guess when you haven't ever celebrated Halloween before then you get really excited about it, because my girls were thrilled at every opportunity to get dressed up and get candy.

Presenting Princess Lucy


And Flamingo Ellie


Last but not least, Ladybug Anna



Our neighborhood had a Halloween parade in which we got to follow a fire truck and hundreds of other kids around the neighborhood and then joined together for pizza and jump castle fun.


We met up with my parents for a trip to the zoo and while we were the enjoyed Boo at the Zoo.


We had to get a picture of our flamingo with the others.


Oh candy bliss!


Sean always carves wonderful pumpkins and this year in celebration of a Dora Birthday party theme, he did not disappoint.



By the time it was actually time to trick or treat I think we were all Halloween out, perhaps we will pace ourselves a little better next year.

3 year old Ellie

Today we celebrate the last of our birthday girls. It was a little bit of a chaotic day, considering it was Sunday and Sundays are always hard. But we made sure to have a special moment in the morning and some yummy cinnamon rolls.





We love you Ellie Belly. You are a passionate little girl, who typically dances and jumps through life (literally!).

Happy Birthday Lucy

Today my big girl is 5! We woke her up this morning at 8:15 singing Happy Birthday, and she responded by moaning and going back to sleep, apparently once you hit 5 you like to sleep in :) We started the morning with birthday pancakes, then we went to a park for lunch, and by her request will order pizza tonight with cake of course.


Lucy we love watching you grow up and mature. You have such a mothering heart, loving and caring for not only your sisters but those closest around you. You love learning and are full of questions about this world. Although still timid at times, you are coming comfortable with who God made you and becoming more confident and bold. We love you sweet girl.

Anna Girl 1 year ago

Its amazing how much a baby changes in the 1st year of life! And yet time flies by so quickly, I look at these pictures and can not believe that this was a year ago.


Honestly this year has been a blur, moving from overseas back to the US, and you being a 3rd child are just some of the reasons :) But through it all you have shown how flexible and easy going you are.


Your sisters love you very much and take good care of you, always wanting to feed you and carry you around (as you can imagine this sometimes causes you to get hurt). You also love your sisters and enjoy most of all going into their room and waking them up in the mornings or after their naps.


You have so much personality, your dad and I think more than the other girls had at this age. You are very friendly and sociable with others. And as I have said before, you are into EVERYTHING, so curious and a little troublemaker. You have brought so much joy to our lives this past year.



We love you Anna girl, Happy 1st Birthday!

5, 3 and 1

I can't believe how big our girls are getting. Friday, the 21st, is the first of the birthday celebrations and our whole household is filled with excitement. What joy these little girls bring to our life.