Christmas FUN

Is it January, already?  Where does the time go?  We had such a fun, and jam-packed Christmas this year, its always so sad when it ends!  Though the weather decided to rain almost every weekend in December (and we had 3 solid days of CRAZY ice)- we still managed to do lots of fun Christmas festivities. Zoe, of course, loves doing anything Christmas related.  She also knows so many Christmas songs- I think she knows more than Justin.  We did advent boxes this year and read a bible verse along with the next day's fun activity every night.  She LOVED this and was not happy that it stopped after Christmas.  We were fortunate to have both sides of our family at our house this year.   It was wonderful having everyone all together - crazy is good right!  Christmas Eve we had 15 for dinner and 12 spend the night.  We had special visitors from Kentucky! (Charlie, Tete, Bethany, Jason, and Julianne).  I threatened Dad and Charlie to take their keys if they thought of leaving and going home for a "nap"! But it really was great to to have so much family in our home.  And also great not to have to pack back up to move to the next house for Christmas part 2!  Zoe and Julianne (8) hit it off and Zoe practically disappeared while she was here.  I think they unloaded every single drawer and shelf in her room playing dress up but Im so glad they had a great time together. Don't get any ideas though Zoe girl- you cannot grow up that fast!  Daddy and I were laughing because usually you want to be at the center of OUR attention all the time.  Or at least one of the grandparents!  I think of everyone, Chaser had the most fun- EVER.  He played and played and played.  He totally loved Christmas morning and was dive-bombing in the paper.  Not really a soft landing, but he thought it was great.  Santa brought him a car garage (and Zoe a Rapunzel dress) and Chase played with that garage non-stop for days.  I think he also liked having so many people around.  He was just happy happy happy the whole time (as long as he was fed!).  We got the kids a fort for the backyard and Chase is all over it.  Zoe likes to take her dollies up into the top level and play, but is less "busy" on it than he is.  Not that we expected otherwise! Zoe is also loving her princess castle,scooter,dress up clothes and her new disney music.  I cannot tell you how many times we have listened to the Frozen soundtrack in the last week.  I mean, countless. "Mommy- turn on frozen!" Even Chase (who still grunts to get his point across most of the time!) knows some of the words.  Every time they sing "Love is an open door"  Chase "sings" "DOOOOOOORRRRR"  - though Zoe says he is not singing pretty - ha.  I, on the other hand, think its absolutely adorable.  I just want to freeze him in time right now (ok, maybe with a little more speech) because he is just my little sweet angel.  I know, Ive said that before.. Cant help it :) He says more words now- my favorite - Zoe or in Chase speak "Da-tu" Not really sure how he got Da-tu from Zoe- but its still pretty sweet now that he can "ask" about her or call her by name.  He also says Lala "yaya", gigi, pops "pa", pappy "pa pa", and some other typical words like shoes, bus, etc.  Tonight at dinner all the sudden he pointed to the cheese and said "cheeeeeeese"  - So proud :)  Zoe girl as always is my little princess and every morning brings me a dress that she wants to wear.  She always wants to know "whats the plan" for the day!  Even if we are going somewhere she has to wear cinderella or some other dress "just for a few minutes".  She is all about dressing up with shoes, accessories, everything.  And of course the very second we enter Loli's house, she wants to play high heels.  (they have a "plan" for playing that too!) Though- she did hang pretty well when the boy cousins all arrived at our house for the second round of Christmas.  I think she finally is not overwhelmed by them all- only took her a few years :)  Of course Chase just falls right into the mix.  All the kids received big "outdoor" toys so we spent lots of time scootering, biking, and driving Zoe and Chase's new power wheels around the block. Thank goodness the weather was nice!  We all had a great time together.  Like I said, crazy is good.  We wouldn't want to be boring! 2013 was a great year- busy busy, but very, very blessed.  We have so many things we want to do, get taken care of, cross off our list, it seems like it will never end, but at the end of the day, these things will all be forgotten - but we will remember these sweet times with our kids, and our family and know how God has immensely and abundantly blessed us.  

"O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation!"  Psalm 95:1