The Holiday Happenings at The Moons

Here's an update from the beginning of December until now... this really is a very busy month! We finally celebrated Jake's birthday with my family on Dec. 6th. We decided to start combining birthday's since my family has gone from 7 members to 11 (almost 12) and we'd be getting together all the time if we celebrated them all individually... so we voted and decided to combine birthdays and Jake and Jeff celebrated together. Jake asked for lemon cupcakes, but then all he ate was the pound cake Angie made for Jeff... go figure =) We still went around and honored Jeff and Jake separately... I'm so glad we're keeping that tradition... it's even more fun now to hear my husband be honored than to be honored myself! Mackenzie is in a new stage where she is very into "helping" mommy. That means when I fold laundry, she has to hand me everything out of the dryer. If there are clothes on the floor, she has to put them in the hamper... dirty or clean. I found both my sneakers in there yesterday! I don't know how she figured she was "helping" me by emptying my bottom drawer, but she does this almost once a day and I decided to let her have fun. She hasn't emptied any of my other drawers, so as long as it stays to just this one, I can let her have her fun and "help" me!

What's wrong, little girl?

Oh... did you discover that you can throw all your toys, books, animals, blankets, and cups out of your crib?? Now how are you going to go to sleep??

"Helping" mommy clean up the mess. I couldn't get flat enough on my belly to scooch under her crib... luckily my one-year-old was happy to help!

Jamie had a great idea this year and an instead of giving out presents, she had all her friends over to her house for a Christmas dinner. She did such a nice job making us feel welcome and lavished. Her house is so pretty... she really knows how to decorate! She did the coolest thing, under each of our plates she had written us a personal encouragement note and then given us three more little pieces of paper to write three more encouragement notes to people at the table. It was a great opportunity to look around and all these girls, some I'm close with, others I barely know, and think of something they could each be encouraged for... the hardest part was picking just three! The funniest thing is I encouraged Laura for the exact same thing she encouraged me for! It was a great night! Good fellowship and great food!

Here are Liv and Aubrey in Liv's room... can't wait to see our girls together next Christmas!

We got to babysit for Jake's sister's kids, Kayla and Conor. The cousins had fun together... although it looks like Conor had the most fun just being himself!

She really likes graham crackers all of a sudden... they can make almost any tears go away!

Here she is "helping" me again... although I really don't appreciate her help when I'm trying to type! Notice her pig tails are getting bigger!
And then there's our roof! We had a really heavy branch fall on our roof and it put a hole in the shingles and through the plywood. Water tripped through the insulation and the ceiling and onto my dresser. I noticed it Friday morning after all that rain on Thurs. Luckily the dresser wasn't ruined, but we totally need a new roof and bedroom ceiling! Jake poked a holing the ceiling to relieve the pressure and it just poured in. It's finally slowed to a drip and the insurance adjuster is supposed to come today... I'm really hoping we get good news about what they will cover! Pray, pray, pray!

That's all from us for now... but many more parties and plays and concerts and more parties to go until Christmas! Hopefully we'll continue to avoid the stomach bug that's been plaguing the church! Oh... and Mackenzie had her 15 month check up and Dr. Murphy said she was really smart and developing really well! She is back on her normal track of being 50% for weight and 75% for height... phew... she had fallen off her normal track at 12 months, but now she's right back where she was! She weighs 23 lbs. and is 31 in. She cried more for getting measured than she did for her shots! What a silly girl!