Birthdays and Holidays

This month has flown by...
so prepare yourself for a long catch up post =)

The last week of Oct and first two weeks of November we had a new friend staying with us. Sawyer is a newborn I kept while he was waiting for his spot in daycare to open up. He was a blessing to have, and another reminder of how the Lord provides for us financially.



During the same time we tried round 2 of Potty Training. (We attempted it late in the spring and quickly realized that Mary Beth simply did not have the verbal skills to tell us when she needed to go, so we postponed until this fall. Stephen schedule is a lot lighter in November/December so it was the best time for us to focus on it.) I am happy to report that we have had much more success. It took 4 long weeks of being very consistent before she really started getting the hang of it. With her personality our biggest struggle is still her not telling us, but as long as we remind her and take her regularly she does really well. The last two weeks we've gone from 1 accident a day to now only having 2 or 3 accidents a week. Yay Mary Beth!





Besides potty training, Mary Beth (28 months) is really working on her numbers and colors. She is counting to 10 well and is about 50% on naming the right color. So far her favorites seem to be yellow and things that are brown and pink. She still loves coloring and doing puzzles.





Jackson is 13 months old now. He has really improved with his crawling and we think that walking is not too far off. He has gotten 2 new teeth (12 total) and had a cold this month but through it all he has still been my sweetie.



In the middle of the month we had the awesome privilege of participating with our church family in Opperation Christmas Child. Mary Beth was the most precious thing ever. We went to dollar tree to pick out some toys for her and Jackson to each have a box. I cried twice, just watching her excitement and joy to pick things out for a precious little girl that we'll never have the ability to meet. I pray that in the years to come we have many many more precious moments like this as we find ways to involve our children in ministry.



On the 19th, I celebrated my 28th birthday. Stephen and I had a wonderful afternoon out with lunch and a movie [THE BLIND SIDE Amazing. Wonderful. Must go see it.] My mom celebrated her birthday on the 20th, so we met my family in Commerce for lunch.





On Thanksgiving we celebrated with amazing friends! (Forgot my camera so no pictures.) We had 10 adults and a bazillion kids running around - it was awesome. Thanks Laurel for hosting - you rock! After naps we started decorating for Christmas. We got the tree up and a few decorations out around the house while the kids watched the new veggie tales Christmas movie. We finished up Friday morning and let Mary Beth help decorate a little tree for her and Jackson. They LOVE their Christmas tree!











Saturday after thanksgiving, Stephen's parents, brother and sister in-law came up for a quick visit. Mary Beth really enjoyed showing off all her new tricks and attached herself to Papa (we're sure it had nothing to do with the extra snacks he was giving her=)









Please forgive my lack of posting, as you can see I have no excuse - just been sitting around doing nothing this past month ... lol
I love life when its busy. I love being on the go. I love having family in town. I love hosting people in our home. I love it all and feel so blessed with all the Lord is doing in our family.