Birthday Party for Jesus

Every year (except last year when we were in Taiwan) Braylen and I have hosted a birthday party for Jesus right before Christmas. This year we moved it to the church since we invited 24 kids! 21 were able to attend. We had a great morning. The kids made 2 crafts, played Pass the Present, sang Christmas carols, heard the Christmas story, got to wrap Beth Winer up like a present, decorated and ate sugar cookie stars and opened Jesus' birthday gifts that they donated to the 4,5, K department at church! I was busy most of the morning leading various activities, but I was able to snap a few pictures! Thank you, Mamaw and Papaw for helping me with Alea!! We love putting Jesus first each season. I hope these will be memories my girls will have for life and want to continue with their children. Get ready, Alea's friends, next year you will have a party too!!

Adoption Day

Friday, December 21st was Alea's first adoption or gotcha day! It is hard to believe that this time last year we were in Taiwan finalizing her adoption. In some ways time has flown by and in others it seems like forever ago we were there. We celebrated her gotcha day with Mamaw and Papaw this year. We set up a Taiwan table with some of the things we bought there. We had cake together, Brad bought her a poinsetta and Mamaw and Papaw bought her a bear. We love our little Alea. She is so precious and is doing so much now. We cannot imagine life without her in it! Thank you, Jesus for completing our forever family with Alea Tyan-Ling Grace Fleck!

We Saw Mystery Santa!!

Braylen's Letter to Santa: Dear Santa Thanks 4 my
stable. Have some candy. Braylen


Alea's picture for Santa




Watching Santa walk up the driveway






















Tonight, we set out cookies and candy for Mystery Santa. We saw "him" come!! The girls loved watching "him" come to our front porch, take cookies, candy and letters and leave a package. The girls got Mary and Joseph for their nativity set. We got angels, shepherd, sheep and Joseph for ours. We took lots of pictures and video taped "his" appearance! Thank you, Mystery Santa!!

Sesame Street Live!

I have had so many things to post about lately, I haven't gotten around to posting our big day 2 weekends ago! We took the girls to Sesame Street Live! Elmo Grows Up! Tickets were pricey, but we had a blast! We have always wanted to go and decided this was the year, probably the last year Braylen will be into Sesame Street and the first year Alea really likes Elmo. We had a great time. The girls LOVED the show. It was 90 minutes with an intermission in the middle. Alea was glued the first half and started losing attention the second half. Zoe and The Count came to our seats and greeted the girls! Braylen was not on the aisle when Zoe came and I was trying to get her out there so she could meet her too, so I do not have a good picture of it, but I was ready for The Count! Enjoy pictures of our day on Sesame Street.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

I should have taken pictures when it was daylight out, but I didn't think of it! Brad went out about 6 and shoveled our sidewalk. He did drive down the drive and to the gas station to get some pop! Our road is really drifted and bad. Only 4 wheel drive vehicles can make it down it and even at that, Brad had a VERY hard time getting through. Just a good night to stay in!! We are guessing we got 10 inches of snow. It is blowing and drifting now, so in some areas we have much, much higher amounts! Maybe we will have a WHITE CHRISTMAS....

Mystery Santa is a Brave Santa

Well...our mystery Santa showed up again last night in the middle of a Snow Warning!! We were pounded by freezing rain and then heavy snow. We got a call from another household in Anderson who has Mystery Santa showing up there as well and they told us to be watching because Santa came to their doorstep in the storm! We thought surely he wouldn't come since it was already midnight and snowing, but low and behold this morning there was a package on our front doorstep. It had some reindeer poop on it! I think the reindeer were a little overworked last night, Santa!

This mystery Santa had some help making deliveries last night, he had Rudolph to guide his white sleigh thanks to the Andersonville Elves. See the picture above!!! This is fun, mystery Santa, even though we have you figured out!! Braylen still doesn't know who you are!!

We now have the wisemen in our stables. Hmmmm...what will come next????

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's

Yesterday we celebrated our first family Christmas at my grandpa and grandma's house. Braylen had fun playing Santa by getting to pass out all the gifts. The girls love all their new things and are having fun playing with them as we are snowed in today! Thank you everyone for a great day! In the evening, we took Braylen to Alvin and The Chipmunks movie. It was great! We loved it and plan to buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Cuddlin' with Kiki

Last Friday night, before starting Gingerbread Houses, Alea fell and bumped her head. She really didn't hit hard and was being a drama queen. I ignored her, but Kiki felt sorry for her and ran to her and picked her up. Alea has never really warmed up to Kiki before, so when she laid her head on Kiki's shoulder and cuddled for a good 5 minutes or so, Kiki drew it all in!

Mystery Santa visits again...

Today we got animals to add to our stables! The girls got a cow, sheep and shepherds. Brad and I got a camel, sheep, shepherd and donkey. This is so cool!! Thank you Secret Santa!! Braylen is so excited she can barely contain herself!!!