Christmas Fun Part 1 - Parade

Our little town has a Christmas parade every year. It is a fun tradition. :) This year (and last) our church float won third place! Way to go! The theme for this year was Happy Birthday Jesus! Austin and Audrey had a blast riding on the float and throwing candy to the on-lookers. Ainsley and I decided to stay home that day and let the other A's have a fun morning. Here are some pics my hubby was able to take for me. :)

Looks like lots of candy was eaten as well! ;)

They had a great day!

The Christmas Journey

For the 2nd year in a row we loaded up the kids and drove them to FBC McKinney to go through the incredible Christmas Journey of the life of Christ. It is so much fun and so well done! We decided to go through the journey on a hay ride this year and the kids loved it! They even got to drink hot chocolate on the ride. :)

Two very cold but excited kiddos. :) Austin couldn't wait to go. He remembered it from last year and kept trying to explain it to Audrey. "Audrey, did you know that after Jesus was a baby He died on a cross for us?" Audrey - "Yes, Austin I knew that already." Too cute!

Sweet Ains all bundled up.

Letting some energy out. :)

It's hay ride time!

A soldier in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem

Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus

Jesus being tempted by Satan

Jesus teaching the people

The last supper

Jesus praying in the garden

Jesus being arrested

Jesus on trial (Austin got into this part yelling that Jesus was innocent. Precious moment for me knowing that our son was "getting it". Nothing better!

Jesus dies on the cross and then at the end of the Christmas journey they had Him show up to the disciples after He has risen from the grave. Such a powerful and wonderful experience for our whole family. Thank you, FBC McKinney for reminding us and so many people what the focus of Christmas should be!

Gingerbread Cookies Galore!

Audrey and I had so much fun this year attending a Gingerbread Cookie-making Party for the 2nd year in a row. She was still one of the youngest girls there and she did such a great job diving into cookie making! Here are some pics of the party:

Audrey with one of her longest friends since we moved to Anna. Ani is always so sweet to Audrey and we love her and her family bunches!

Decorating pictures

Rolling the dough for some yummy gingerbread cookies!

Thanks for inviting us Ava! Her mom works hard every year to get this party together (lots of dough making ahead of time!:)

Every time we ask Audrey who her best friend is or which friend she wants to pray for at night it is usually sweet Delaney. :)

I LOVE this girl!!

Cute group pic of all the girls who came!

Ainsley is 2 1/2!

Our sweet baby girl is officially 2 1/2! She is such a beautiful and joyful girl! I think she is a keeper! ;)

Smiley Ainsley.

LOUD Ainsley.

Adorable Ainsley.

Playtime Ainsley.

Trendy Ainsley.

Happy Ainsley.

We love this little ball of energy to pieces and we are thankful she is ours!

Great Wolf Lodge= Awesomeness!!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we planned a little stay cation family get-a-way and decided to head to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for the first time. Our lives have been so crazy and busy it gave us something to look forward to knowing that our kiddos were in for a real treat. :) We planned to head out Sunday morning and for Andrew to take that day off, but the Lord had different plans. The guy Andrew had asked to preach for him called us on Saturday afternoon and was sick. SO, my amazing Hubby decided rather than lay the day on someone else, we would just go to church and leave a little later. It is a great feeling to love your church and the people in it so much that it is not a big deal at all to go on your "day off". LOVE that! AND Andrew preached an awesome sermon about heaven that touched many people that morning.

So, the minute we got into our room at the Great Wolf Lodge we put on our bathing suits to go and play! The kids were so excited about this 'secret trip'. (We didn't tell them where we were going b/c we thought it would be too hard for their little minds to grasp the concept of an indoor water park.:) We are so thankful that the Lord provided in such a way so that we could have this time together.

85 degrees is my kind of weather at the end of November! It is amazing how they keep the water park at that temp all year long!

This boy was in heaven! He just made (and I mean we almost had to beg the sweet old lady) the 42 inch mark so that he could ride some of the bigger tube rides.

Everything in the park was so great for each of our kiddos. Even down to the fact that there was NO ONE there the entire time we were! It was so awesome to have pretty much everything to ourselves and no waiting in line. We loved every minute (except the issue with getting our two year old to sleep both nights. Could have done without that.;)

LOVE this sweetheart! She went down a few slides, but mainly liked to just sit with Mommy and watch her big bro and sis go crazy. She loves bath time, but she's not really a pool girl yet. :)

Both of these boys had such a blast! I still can't believe that A-Town is riding 'big kid' stuff!

Sweet Audrey - LOVE this child! It is such a joy as a parent to watch your children have so much fun!

The 1st night after we went out to get some yummy Mexican food we got the kiddos in their pj's for a fun story time provided by the hotel.

Our family of 5. :)

Every time we passed this bear Austin would jump on it and say, "Mommy, take a picture of me!" Too cute!

Ains having fun in the wave pool.

Daddy and Austin on one of the tube slide rides they did a million times. (Mommy even joined Austin several times. :)

On your mark, get set, GO! Always a competition with these two. :) LOVE watching their sweet friendship grow and grow. Don't know what they would do without each other!

LOVE this pic!

Can't say enough great things about this trip. It was just what we all needed and we will definitely be going back next year!