Leading up to Christmas

Posts and pictures leading up to Christmas:

November 27, 2022

Every Christmas season seems to come faster and faster the older my kids get. It feels like each year we have all these things we want to do and then all of a sudden, it’s the week before Christmas and we’re trying to squish everything in all at once which can end up feeling stressful instead of peaceful, and I prefer peace. 😆❤️

This afternoon I kinda had a moment, standing in the garage, crying to my husband about how I feel like I only have a few more Christmases with ALL my babies still living under my roof. 😭

So we had a little family meeting with the kids and decided to make a Christmas bucket list of all the fun things we will do this season as a family to make all the memories and soak up every moment we can. 🥹

Today we went and got ornaments (it’s tradition for them to pick an ornament each year). They couldn’t find anything that really stood out to them so we ended up getting 5 nutcracker ornaments (one for each kiddo) to put on the tree and then bought hot chocolate bombs and candy canes so we could head home and watch The Nutcracker, drink coco and eat homemade gluten free pizza (Tony makes theeee best gf pizza)!! ❤️

December 2, 2022

Moments like this make every effort and class taught and samples sent and videos and trainings and scary steps in an unknown business so worth it.

To have him home with us full time so he can do story time at noon with this little guy who only knows life with mama and papa both home. It’s something I’ll never take for granted and I fully recognize God’s hand of blessing and grace in. He took our brokenness and made something really beautiful out of it. 

December 4, 2022

We put on some  Christmas cheer and went to take some family pictures at a local Christmas tree farm. 🎄❤️

December 14, 2022

My very favorite guys in the whole wide world! 🖤

We went up to grandpa’s to help stack wood tonight. He’s our very favorite. Lion is obsessed with him too. He asks to see him everyday and calls him often, sometimes on a real phone, sometimes on a play phone. 🤣 You can hear him telling grandpa in the video, “Grandpa! I did it!” 😍

Tony’s been able to build a back porch, a back staircase and the front steps recently which has given us some special trips up to the cabin. (My man is crazy talented and even though he hadn’t ever built them before, he drew it out, measured everything and DID IT anyways!🔥)

Fun fact: this is the house Tony grew up in, was homeschooled in and helped his dad build 32 years ago.

December 15, 2022

Christmas craft day 🎄

December 16, 2022

Tonight we marked off a couple more Christmas bucket list items with the fam! We took a drive to the mall (which we haven’t been to a mall since we lived in Hawaii) and then went to see Christmas lights! 

Every year we have all these things we wanna do and then, all of a sudden, it’s a couple days before Christmas and we didn’t do any of the things. 😬😂

So this year we started early and I’m actually proud of how much we’ve accomplished. 🤣

The last time we went to see these Christmas lights were when our girls were little so it was a first for our boys! We got there early (4:45pm 😆) so no one was there yet (hi, I’m an introvert 🙋🏼‍♀️) and Lion was LOVING all the lights that were on his level and could care less about all the big displays. 😂

December 18, 2022

My beautiful girls. I’m the luckiest to be their mama. They overflow with so much grace and love and kindness and Christ-likeness. They have hearts of gold and are genuinely grateful for the simplest of things. They don’t have a materialistic bone in their body. Maybe it’s partly because they remember life when we literally had nothing else but love to give them. They remember the days of homemade gifts when we couldn’t buy anything that year for Christmas and to this day they still have those homemade things that are treasures to them now. They remember when we couldn’t buy a Christmas tree and the grocery store by our house gave us one they threw away by the back garbage cans on Christmas Eve. BUT WE WERE SO GRATEFUL. I cried that Christmas because GOD STILL PROVIDED for us in humble but beautiful ways. These girls remember our hard years but the part that makes me overwhelmingly grateful is that their memories of our “hard years” are retold by them completely different than we tell it and with the fondest of memories. As parents it was painful to walk through, but our children don’t remember that stuff. What they remember are the homemade treasures and laughter and cozy moments of blanket forts (like the years we couldn’t afford heat and we lived in blankets) and snuggles and time together. 

If you’re in a hard season this Christmas and feel the guilt of not being able to give your babies the world you want for them, let me encourage you, mama to mama, the good stuff, the stuff they’ll remember and treasure are the free stuff that you can create in any season. It’s the story times and snuggles and song singing and dancing in the kitchen with them. It’s the laughter and HOW YOU MAKE THEM FEEL when they walk into a room. You are their continual gift by the joy you pour into them. 

And someday, you’ll be standing with your babies that aren’t babies anymore and you’ll be in a new season of life and what you’ll cherish and remember are the years spent with them and the memories you created in the everyday, not the toys you couldn’t afford. ❤️

They’ll remember the good stuff of how mama made their house a home and safe haven and celebrated life with them.

December 19, 2022

Moriyah made an incredible flourless chocolate cake tonight while we watched It’s a Wonderful Life and had hot chocolate with extra marshmallows with all the lights dim and just the glow of the Christmas trees around us. Oh, and lots of blankets.  

The holidays with my babies are so special. 

6 more sleeps till Christmas!! 🎄🤍 Are you guys all ready? We still have wrapping presents and baking to do!

December 23, 2022

My goal in this new year is to purpose in my heart to not complain verbally but to verbalize praise and to align my words with God’s Word. With our words we speak life or death. We make covenants, contracts and agreements with our words. I want to be a woman and mother that uses my words continually to praise, bless, encourage and speak life over those around me, my home, my family and my business. 

I have so much anticipation and excitement for what is ahead in this coming year and believe that God is on the move, orchestrating things seen and unseen. I want to be so connected with His voice and fully align my thoughts and words with His words above any others. 

I want to receive everything He has for us so I’m purposing in my heart to remain close to Him, to intentionally position myself to hear Him by going to the places He tends to meet with me most and to praise and give thanks throughout the journey by seeing the good, not looking at the lack. I want to be like Mary who, after hearing the good news of what she was called to, that ultimately would also usher her into being misunderstood, judged and criticized said, “my soul magnifies the Lord”. No matter what’s ahead, my soul will magnify the Lord. 

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.” Philippians 2:14-16

December 24, 2022

Christmas Eve service 

December 25, 2022

Here’s our Christmas card we printed but didn’t send. 🙈😂 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, from our family to yours! 

Here’s the best news you’ll ever hear: 

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” Luke 2:10-11

“For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

-John 3:16