Christmas 2010...Just over a month late:)

Here are my top 4 reasons for just now blogging about Christmas:)

1. I'm pregnant with our fourth. (...and I know that there are other mamma's out there with 5+ kids who homeschool, make their own bread, and blog everyday...but I'm definitely not one of them!:))

2. Our very generous and kind neighbor gave us an ipad for Christmas (CRAZY, right?!?) Because it is so easy to just check email and blogs on that thing, I rarely even turn on our laptop anymore.

3. I've actually made some new year's resolutions. The overarching theme of those goals is better time management...and I don't know about you, but the blogging world can zap my spare time like none other!

4. We've been internetless for a week now...our router died. And of course it did this right after I finished this post so a bunch of it didn't even save. Ugh.

...So here are just a few of the moments of Christmas 2010 that I managed to capture on camera:

These are from my attempt of a Christmas picture photo shoot. I wish I had an eye for photography. And I wish my kids would all smile at the same time...but as my MiMi says "you may want horns, but you'll die butt-headed." I love my MiMi:)

I made stockings for our family this year. We didn't have any and these only cost around $3.50 each!

My mom sent us a couple of wonderful family advent devotion books as she does every year. I loved this one (sorry- I don't know the name because it's already put up with the Christmas stuff.) It was very age-appropriate for our crew. The kids loved reading it together each night.

We were able to visit with Fred's family in NC the week after Christmas. We had a wonderful time seeing lots of folks and Fred even took J and AB sledding! We were able to meet up with Fred's Aunt Sandy, cousin Leslie, her hubby, and 3 precious little ones! Here are the dads and our 6 babes:) Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I took from the entire trip. Oh well...

I posted last year on how Joshua had arranged the nativity with Jesus in the manger and everyone else lined up looking at Him. This was the way Anna Bell arranged them this year, unprompted. I love it! ...Even My Little Pony got in on the worship and adoration of the Christ-child!

I cannot tell you how much I love the preschool at our church. Joshua told someone the other day that he went to school to learn God's Word...isn't that great?! Sure he's learning lots of other stuff too, but it is such a Christ-centered place, that learning God's Word is what sticks out to him. The Christmas presentation was no exception. It was such a sweet time of celebrating Jesus' birth. Here, Joshua is part of reciting a Christmas poem. His line was "A is for angel, who announced the baby's birth. That God had sent His only Son to come and live on earth."

My dad has received an Almanac every year for Christmas for as long as I can remember. Here he is reading some "fun facts" to Caleb. Maybe one of his grandchildren will inherit his love of facts/trivia:)

This is from the live nativity at the Christmas Eve service at church. I love this service...and our kids enjoyed it so much this year. They sang along to the Christmas carols and watched in wonder as the account of Christ unfolded. So sweet:) (Never mind the impressive black eye that AB is sporting...Joshua chucked a train at her...not so sweet:) ...Oh, and never mind the paci that my now 2 year old is attached to. Please don't' judge me...I will get rid of it. And because I feel the need to justify myself: he only gets it in his bed and when he's really tired...oh, and when I need him to be quiet at a store or doctor's office...one may wonder, who is attached to the paci? Is it child or child's mommy?:)

umm...Merry Christmas, everyone!