Christmas Morning

Because I know that blogs are way more about pictures than words - at least this one is - here are pics of Christmas morning. Cadence and Shaun both racked up on the gifts this year! Shaun was pretty much oblivious but Cadence was way into the whole present thing. I loved that all my sisters and their husbands were together at the same time for the second day in a row. We all know that it will be few years before we get to have Christmas together again so we cherished every moment and took the longest amount of time in the history of the Wilson family to do it :)

We are Family

Christmas Eve is quite possibly my favorite day/night of the entire year. For as long as I can remember we have gotten together with my Mom's entire extended family for a night of fun and laughing and eating - lots of eating. So, this post is mostly just pictures of Christmas Eve and Gran and Pop's. The only picture that I would write about at all are the first 3.

Cadence's favorite and most impactful gift of the evening was given my my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Joe. If you know Cadence, you know how much she loves dolls, barbies, and princesses. Well, this gift was a combination of all 3 and was so EXCITED!! It was a Madame Alexander original doll that really shouldn't be played with at all. However, seeing Cadence's face as she opened the gift made us instantly decide that there is nothing more valuable than the looks on her face as she processed her emotions over her new baby. Seriously, all the things you envision about Christmas morning and how excited your child will be about all the thought and preparation that has gone into gifts for her came out on this doll and it was fabulous! Thanks Aunt Debbie for making Christmas come a night early for Cadence :)

RANDOM PICTURES OF THE NIGHT

SNOW!!!

The last day of School for Christmas break we ended up getting some snow! It was actually alot of snow - for us - but I took pictures early in the snowfall so it doesn't look like much. Daddy got out of school early and Cadence was so excited to he took her out to play in all the snow. It was lots of fun until Daddy threw a snowball that went down her jacket and so then all the snow fun was over. It was a nice before Christmas surprise for us and it equally nice to leave the snow and drive to the tropics of FL (pics to come in the next few posts) Until then, enjoy the ones of Cadence and Chris playing in the snow.

Advent 2009

This year we have started a new tradition in the Andersen home with the lighting of Advent candles. Every night Chris reads to Cadence out of the Jesus Storybook Bible - something every family with small children should own - but we wanted to really focus on God coming to earth this season and how that plays out in our world. Or at least as much as we could make it work in Cadence's 3 year old brain. So, after much research we found this Advent family devotional that we adapted to fit the Andersen's for this year.

Cadence has loved the candles - lighting them, staring at them, and playing in the smoke afterwards like she does HERE :) She has appropriated a candle to each of us and so on Sunday nights when we light a new one she will say "oh this is Shaunie's candle" or "we're lighting mommy's candle now" Hers is the pink one and so she's been pretty bummed that it still hasn't been lit. But that will all change this week.......

On a more spiritual note, it has been fun to watch her really "get it." To play with baby Jesus, "Mary mother to Jesus", and also talk to her babies and barbies during the day about the importance of loving her family and friends like Jesus would - just like her daddy does with her at night. I LOVE that Jesus has become so accessible to her - not a far off creature that we talk about but someone who is becoming more and more a part of her every day conversation - with us and her other "friends" (the barbies and babies)

Personally, I think that it has been really helpful to focus every night as a family on Jesus coming and what that did to the world over all and our individual worlds as well. I know for me with all the hectic-ness of the holidays, having a 3 yr old and a sick 4 month old in the house, plus teaching lessons, managing our home and all that that involves, I have really enjoyed this Advent season knowing that Jesus came to join us in this hectic-ness in order to be our Savior and our Peace in the chaos. After so much reflection this month as a family on Jesus and what His coming to earth accomplished I find myself more than ever looking forward to His return and find myself singing o Come, o Come Emmanuel longing to see Jesus, my Peace Hope and Life-sustainer, face to face.

Birthday Party for Jesus!

We had our annual Birthday Party for Jesus last Friday night. It's so fun as Cadence and her friends get older because they're really trying to figure out this whole Jesus thing and are always excited for a party. I know that Cadence LOVES baby Jesus this year and is so excited that it is His birthday. She has a harder time transferring Jesus in the manger to Jesus on the cross but that will come with time. :)

So, for our party we had a mix of old and new friends. All of whom wanted to dress up in princess clothes for the party. So, first and foremost, everyone picked their dress.

We watched Miss Patty Cake (well most of it) and everyone got to open a present just like Miss Patty Cake did.
We then had everyone decorate their own cupcake to eat. It was lots of fun and everyone liked eating the icing (especially Ali)
Then we all lit a candle on our cupcake to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. To watch a video of them singing click HERE


We're so glad it's Jesus' birthday and that something so profound can even appeal to our little girl and her friends. My prayer is that as Cadence gets older that Jesus putting on skin and coming to earth to have a relationship with His creation will impact her not only at Christmas time but for eternity.

I GOT IT!

After many unsuccessful attempts, we actually got a picture of Shaun smiling while being held by Cadence. She drive him completely crazy the majority of the time, but he loves her. If he hears her voice, or she walks over to talk to him (or irritate him) his whole face lights up and he just smiles so big! It is so sweet to watch them interact. Maybe one day I'll get it on video so I can share...................

Fashionista?

Cadence has been all about picking out her outfits and putting the accessories with it lately so I've tried to capture them for when she graduates or gets married or something like that when you need embarrassing pictures of your child :) So, until that day, you can enjoy them here!

Family Day

This season is ridiculously busy for us this year. I don't know if it's an extra kid, or just the fact that Chris and I have committed to make this Christmas season very Jesus and family focused that we feel the time together is so limited and short! So, because of feeling this way, Chris took the day off on Thursday for us to spend together and have a relaxed time together as a family to do fun stuff.

Here are some pictures of us making our ginger bread Christmas tree on a school day in the morning! So fun!

The finished product!


Shaun isn't really impressed with things like decorating gingerbread trees so he just slept instead