Oh man!!

OK this is my second post saying that I'm sorry for not updating this thing. Turns out I'm not that great at blogging. For some reason, my days seem so short and cramped. I feel like I rush through everything, especially during Christmas time. I love Christmas but there is always so much to do. Time sneaks up on me and the next thing I know, my sister's getting married and Christmas is here. So this week has been extremely crazy. I have been at the mall almost everyday. I still have millions of presents to wrap and a lot of them have to be mailed out. URRGGH!!! I'm so far behind!!! BUT - I LOVE this time of year!!!! Asher is really enjoying it and he's so excited about Santa coming. He actually sat on his lap at the mall. It took some convincing but he was excited. When Santa asked what he wanted, Asher whispered, "Presents!" Simple enough!! I just can't wait for him to wake up and see his presents from Santa.

Speaking of presents, this year I have really realized just how blessed we are. I'm so thankful for God's faithfulness in our lives. We are in a place where we are able to give Asher presents for Christmas when a lot of parents can't do that for their children. My heart aches for those who are in hard situations this year. I want to share this story... Adam volunteers every Friday at a school in north Tulsa. It's definitely in a low income part of town. The kids in this school are really sweet but they have a hard life. During Christmas, the principal puts every class up for adoption. Some of our friends and family have joined together and we adopted a second grade class. We have 20 kids and are only allowed to spend $35 on each kid. I know this is only fair but it's so hard! It breaks my heart because I know that for some kids, the presents they recieve at school will be the only Christmas they have. I know that there is SOOO much more to Christmas than presents (especially remembering the TRUE meaning of Christmas) but I can't imagine a child not knowing the joy and excitement that Christmas brings. It reminds me of the kid on the Polar Express who sings the song about Christmas. He says that he knows Christmas is supposed to be all these wonderful things but he has never really seen it. Anways, I'm just so excited to be able to be a part of it. God is so good to me! I'm so proud of Adam for the time and energy he puts into making those kids feel special.

Christmas Time!!

I am so so so so excited that it is Christmas time!! (Yes I know that Thanksgiving isn't even here yet but in my mind it's already Christmas time.) This is the first year that Adam and I will really be able to enjoy Christmas in our own home. We have been college students for the last 5 years and we had a whole month of Christmas vacation. After finals were over, we usually left home and went to spent the holidays with our families. That was really nice and I liked the month vacation we got but we never got to enjoy Christmas in our home. I always decorated for Christmas but it seemed like such a huge effort to only enjoy until the second week in December. This year I'm also having major Christmas decorating withdrawals because I didn't get to do ANY last year. Adam graduated last December and we were in the middle of moving. Our whole house was in boxes and that included the Christmas stuff! I was very sad because that's just not me. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love decorating, baking cookies, wrapping presents, listening to the music. My list could go on and on. I'm also super excited for this year because Asher is at the age when Christmas is really going to be fun. He loves going to the stores with me to look at Christmas stuff. He loves all the huge lawn decorations. (Adam will be forced to Clark Griswold the outside I'm sure.) He also loves anything that has music to it, like all the dancing Santas. Any time he sees a Santa figurine he says, "Kissmas!" However, I am a little sad because I don't think that the whole "sit in Santa's lap for a picture" thing will be happening this year. We already tried and he ran as fast as he could and hid behind Adam's leg. Santa even tried to give him candy and he wasn't falling for it. He loves Santa Clause, just from a distance. I am also buying new decorations this year. I told Adam that I have never done this before. Most of my decorations are hand me downs. I do have some stuff that my Grandmas have bought me but I'm just in the mood for some new ones! I just bought new ornaments for the tree because my old ones are all red and silver and since we don't live in Lubbock anymore, I dont want a Texas Tech tree. (Don't worry Red Raiders, I still love you just don't want you overtaking my Christmas tree anymore!) I am planning on decking the halls this coming week. My husband doesn't know it yet so either he'll read this or he'll just come home to a big surprise. Needless to say, I'm so excited for this Christmas season. I wish it could last forever!!!

Halloween

Last year Asher was Nemo for Halloween. He was the cutest Nemo I have ever seen! (I'm not biased right?!) So I had my hands full this year trying to top Nemo. I love little kid costumes. They are all so cute. It's hard to decided what to get but Asher is obsessed with pirates right now. His favorite movie is "Pan" and he walks around all day singing, "Yo-ho Yo-ho a pirate's life for me!" So it seemed liked the only logical choice was for Asher to be a pirate. We bought the costume a month early and I absolutely refused to let Asher wear it before Halloween. There's just something about two year olds - food, dirt, juice, crayon, etc. - always finds a way to attack their clothes. I did not want to ruin the costume and have to buy another one! So it set in the closet and when I finally put it on him, he was so excited! It came with a sword so of course we all got stabbed in the leg at least once. Now he was all dressed and we had to decide where to go. Well, lucky us! The aquarium here had a huge pirate themed indoor trick-or-treat. Asher loved it! He was a little scared of all the pirates at first. Guess he was surprised at what a real life pirate might look like but by the end of the night he was taking pictures with them. My parents came with us and we all followed Asher back and forth through the aquarium. To top the night off, my parents took Asher back to Oklahoma City with them and Adam and I had a weekend to ourselves. So relaxing!!!! Thanks mom and dad!