Christmas blessings

We were so blessed this Christmas with beautiful weather and family to share the day with. Christmas Eve we took the children to the Bee movie. Then Christmas morning my Mom came over for our traditional Christmas breakfast and to watch the children open their gifts. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching them play outside on their new outside toys. Gabriel received an electric scooter and bike, Landen a bike and a skate board and Lilly a new scooter.
Christmas afternoon we made sugar cookies with homemade frosting YUMMY!!!
Then two days ago more goodies came by mail from Brian's parents and siblings. Now each day this has been the mail that the children have awaited the mystery of what Aunt Sarah and Uncle Richey were going to send to the boys Hmmmmmmm.
Landen received all of the magnetix things that he had picked out in the store. Good job guys reading his mind. He has already put them together and they are so cool.
Gabriel LOVES lego's and Uncle Richey used to be his Lego inspiration so Gabriel was really hoping for some more lego's. Boy was he surprised when he received 3 awesome lego kits WOW! He started immediately creating and did not stop until the wee hours.
Lilly went ecstatic with her charm making kit, purse designing kit and 8,000 beads. Daddy and Lilly made charms immediately and to be honest I don't know who had more fun?
What fun memories we made this Christmas.

Christmas joys

Lilly played the handbells for the first song and then sang a lovely Christmas carol.

I have been enjoying watching our children embrace all of their Christmas activities with such excitement. It's Jesus birthday don't you know? This has become Lilly's phrase lately for her little classmates.

This past weekend we were so busy with 3 different parties to go to, Lilly was in our church play, and then a surprise trip to McAdenville to see the lights. This week will be filled with even more fun filled events which I will be posting through out this week. But I am glad to see that our children haven't forgotten the real reason behind Christmas.

This morning I was up early to get our little ones off to school and then I had to get the van to the garage for a check up. After that I was on the run to go back to the school to celebrate Christmas around the world with Lilly and lunch with Gabriel and a quick hello to my big guy Landen in his classroom. Then I ran back to the house to wrap up a couple of gifts and over to visit with one of our neighbors who was in need of some cheering up. Now I am back at my home and ready for a nap because after the little ones get home it is home work, dinner and then off to watch Gabriel in his school play. Might I say we are busy at the Wagener house?

Although a nap sounds really great right now I am convicted by it. My sweet husband worked all weekend with no complaint. He worked yesterday morning/afternoon and when he got home the children were jumping on him and he played with them and then yesterday evening he cheerfully surprised the children by taking us to McAdenville. Now he could have come home after working all weekend and taken a nap but he didn't he continued to bless us cheerfully. So, I am now going to bless my husband and clean up the house and work on making him a nice dinner because he deserves to be blessed.

How can you bless your husband today?

Spring is in the air

The children had so much fun trying to catch crabs here while we were fishing at the pier. Landen caught a fish while the rest of us caught crabs.
Lilly boogie boarding

Yes, it certainly feels like spring is in the air down here in the south. It reached a record high yesterday of 81 which is crazy for December. With temperatures like this it makes me wish that we were at our condo on Ocean Isle. Listening to the ocean waves and watching the children search for sharks teeth and ride the waves. (These pictures were taken this summer I forgot to reset the date when I replaced the batteries.) I can almost smell the ocean on days like this.

This past weekend we spent much of Saturday afternoon picking out the cabinets and flooring for the new house. It is fun doing it this way where someone else does all of the work and you just sit there and point at what you would like done. Our last home my dear hubby had to renovate the WHOLE house and although he likes to be busy I do believe that even he is excited about someone else doing the work well, maybe? Brian's joke to the builders has been I will probably be the first one to get kicked off of the construction site. I admire having a husband who knows what all of the wires and pipes mean in a blue print and where the proper placement should be. I have learned a lot already and we haven't even broken ground yet. I have learned that if you are not on top of your builders you will have your A/C unit right outside your living room window to view every time you look out your window, and what the difference is in your sub flooring on the 2nd floor and why we are upgrading it (Sound and Stability) and why we are using architectural shingles. I certainly am clueless with out my husbands knowledge. I was asked a question already about the structure and I commented "I am just here to pick out the colors".

While having fun picking out the cabinets Lilly let us know that she wasn't feeling so well.

We ended our Saturday afternoon with our Princess getting sick. Lilly was sick all Saturday evening and Sunday morning. This is only her 2nd time geting a tummy bug and she handles it like a trooper. I have been washing everything in the house and sanitizing ever since to make sure that no else gets it. All of our neighbors and friends have had it so I guess it is our turn =(

We need to take some pictures of our property to post so you can see where we are building. Maybe next time.