Christmas is a week away

We have been enjoying this time of year so much. I love doing things with our children, they're so excited about everything, they love being with us and have the greatest attitude. I really hope that they stay that way, otherwise, I don't know what I'll do. We took this picture with Santa and Mrs. Clause at the Gilcrease Orchard last night. We've gone the last couple of years and it's really great. There was hardly anyone at the orchard since it was so cold. For those of us who are used to hot weather most of the year because we live in the dessert, 38* is pretty cold.  They make these really good small apple cider donuts and kettle corn and we love eating a couple of them when we go. The kids like to eat the kettle corn while riding the wagon. Ezra screamed while he sat on Santa's lap for like 3 seconds. I think everyone of our kids as babies have cried while being held by Santa.

Massey this past wednesday at Pack meeting got a few belt loops and is only a requirement away before finishing his wolf rank, after that he'll just be working on his electives until he turns 9 yrs old and moves on to Bears. He loves Scouts, and having his friends there really helps.

Ezra is starting to look more like a boy, we went to the park last week, the weather was beautiful and he loved playing in the sand pit. He was crawling everywhere, he tried eating a handful of sand once but after he learned that it was gross he stopped putting it in his mouth.  I love this little baby, he's growing too fast and some days that makes me sad; however, seeing how fun it is to have kids a little bit older and experience the freedom of not having to worry about naps.. it's kind of great. So big news for this kid is that he finally takes a bottle, he's been drinking whole milk for a couple weeks now since he hated formula.  This is very huge since Jordan and I in about 3 weeks will be going on our 4-day anniversary cruise in January and I've been working really hard to wean this baby.

I am so happy to have the blessing of being a mom at this time. I'm very tired right now but I feel at peace. All four of our children are currently sleep and I love that tomorrow and the next two weeks I get to have them all home. The house gets super messy in like 5 seconds and there are little messes everywhere. Everyday I make them pick up all their messes and it's not fun but I hope that one day they'll thank me for teaching them to clean up after themselves. Tomorrow, we'll go to Aunt Britta's house to decorate gingerbread houses and like always, it should be lots of fun.  I'll post some pictures next week.