On the fourth day of Christmas, my family and me....

Went to Zoolight Safari. I feel like I've stumbled upon a big secret- the Zoolights keep going AFTER Christmas day and almost nobody goes! This will be our new tradition. We've gone before Christmas before and it is a madhouse and way too crowded with too many lines. Tonight- no lines, no fuss- just fun.
When you walk in there is a snow machine and we were the only ones playing in it...

They had fun stuff to do like a mirrored maze, a rolling cart race, and face painting-

Julia's "wadybug"-

A hayride through the lights-

And fun times on the carousel and train-

And the dining room is open so we ate dinner there (usually it's closed after 4:00)- so I'm just saying- you still have two nights to go if you are interested. P.S. If you are wondering how we weathered 30 degrees with these babies- you are looking at one layered little bambino- we're talking long johns and socks UNDER fleece footy pajamas UNDER lined wind pants, sweater, shoes and hat UNDER a blanket. I think if anything he was in danger of being too hot. :)

Is it just me, or could you eat him up too? My happy little fella.

I wanted to add that today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. I've thought about it all day- about the time when King Herod had all little boys age 2 and under slaughtered in order to try to kill the Christ. When you read the Scripture about "Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more", you can't imagine the suffering. Little chubby, nursing baby boys martyred. It is a tradition for people to be especially grateful for and kind to their children on this day and remember that Christ himself said that we must change and become like little children to enter the kingdom of God.

May your days be Merry and Bright...

Merry Christmas! Hope you had an awesome day. Allow me to indulge the "scrapbook" part of my blog as I try to remember Christmas! Christmas Eve we opened up birdhouses brought to the kids from BB and Poppy.

They LOVED painting them and put them by the fire to dry.

That night we had a yummy steak dinner and drove around to see Christmas lights. The best part of the evening was Tuck Tuck learning to walk with his walker!
This morning we woke up excited for Christmas. Julia enjoyed her new pink bathrobe and ladybug kickball (Marky got a frog kickball). I don't have a lot of pictures of Marky that aren't blurry- Julia keeps messing with the camera and now all my pictures are blurry. I've got to figure out how to reset things.

She was super-excited to get a new "weapster" from BB and Poppy. Now she doesn't have to fight with Marky to use his.

Her "big" gift was a beautiful music box that she absolutely fell in love with and sat and watched all day. I can hear it playing now over the baby monitor- she slept with it.

Tucker just got a couple toys, but totally surprised us by playing with them a TON. Usually babies ignore the toys and go for the wrapping- not T-man- he knows where the good stuff is.

Here he is in front of one of BB's awesome gifts for Marky- an ART CART! Every drawer is self-contained with a lid and can be carried to the table for crafts. It was stuffed with tons of paper, pipe cleaner, crayons, markers, snowballs, finger paint, etc. It's the perfect gift. Marky also got a Star Wars ship, star-turtle, and tinker toys, among other things.

Mommy was thrilled with her gift given to her by her Santa (pictured below)-

It was a DYSON! I could write a book about my love/hate relationships with the vacuums we've purchased over the years. This one shows a lot of promise.

After the gifts the kids sat and worked on their new peel-and-stick mosaics while BB and Mommy got lunch on.

Mom and Dad left after lunch and we napped and played all afternoon. This evening we went to mass- the church looked gorgeous for Christmas. And little baby Santa, all worn out from bringing good cheer, fell fast sleep with visions of biter biscuits dancing in his head.

Merry Christmas!

Rejoicing with You!

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. ... For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end."

Isaiah 9:1, 6-7

Christmas Card 2009

Well I am actually pleased with this year's Christmas card. After the day of threats that it took to get these kids to actually smile at the camera instead of being silly (and it was me the photographer while Marc and my mom took turns wrangling the kids and trying to keep Tucker from crawling away) you would have never known they would have turned well-
Marky, age 5 1/2

Tucker, age 11 mos
Almost used this one for Julia, age 3 1/2
But went with this one....
Merry Christmas from the Ayers!

Five Christmas Friday

Friday was whirlwind Christmas celebration day with FIVE different celebrations. Yes, I said five. First, Julia's little kiddie Bible Study had their Christmas party. We learned about being "herald angels" and sharing the good news. They dressed as angels and paraded around and we said, "what's the good news?" and they would say "Jesus is coming- prepare your hearts!" Here is Sissy and her buddy Michael dressed for the party.
After that party I took Julia and Tucker to Marc's office for their annual sing-a-long in the lobby. Tucker put on a great show of clapping, waving and flirting. We dashed off from that party over to Marky's school for his kindergarten Christmas party, which was also pajama day. Marky showed off his crafts from the year and we said goodbye to his teachers because we are not going back in January. For a number of reasons (mainly I thought we were moving) we have decided to just homeschool in the spring.

From there we went to party #4 at the church- the homeschool Christmas party. They had skits from the nativity stories and Julia happened to still have her halo from party #1 and was an angel. Marky was supposed to be a shepherd, but I forgot to bring anything for him to wear. My sweet friend Lori saved the day by giving him shepherd garb. I love this picture because it captures Julia's essence- she just marches to the beat of her own drummer and it's a beat that makes her so happy. And Marky is Mr. Due Diligence- so responsible and conscientious.

My precious babies-

Mommy's angel (most of the time)!

Mr. T. spent the day crawling all over the gym floor. You could hear the slap, slap, slap of his little hands hitting the court! Don't get onto me about his socks- YOU try keeping socks on this baby.

And finally, Friday night we celebrated Christmas with our dear Aunt Shana. She is working all weekend and heading to Mobile for Christmas so this was our last chance. Shana really is our family, and she spoiled us by getting presents for ALL of us twice over! The kids FLIPPED out over their gifts- especially Marky's lego star wars and their tent and tunnel.

Even Daddy got a new sweater vest and movie. I got, among other things, a fancy monogrammed snuggie that I have used EVERY NIGHT since. Then we all went out for a family dinner to Lonestar.

Last night we had a Christmas dinner with special friends (they took our pic)

And then this morning we had our "Happy Birthday Jesus" party at church. I LOVE this time of year. I love celebrations. I love getting together with people you love. I love making memories that I will cherish. And blogging about them. :)

We need tidings of comfort....

Tomorrow morning is Noah's BIG MRI that will determine if they need to up the radiation levels (which could cause long-term damage to his brain) or if what they are using is working. PLEASE PRAY!!! We want the cancer GONE! Also- the poor baby is starving to death. Literally- they are admitting him into the hospital tonight. His weight is in the 5% and his height in the 95%. He weighs now what he weighed at 2-years-old. My sister and brother-in-law are living a parent's worst nightmare! Read more....

Moses said to the people, "the Lord will fight for you, you need only be still." Exodus 14:14.

Jesus, I trust in you.

December this and that....

Traditions continued this weekend as we made our annual Gingerbread house.
The big secret to the success of this year's house- a baby medicine dropper- I highly recommend using one for detailing...

Volia!

And here's to another year with a ridiculous Santa pic. As you can see, Tucker had lost his socks by the time we got to Santa and while we sat there waiting for the photog to "git" her camera ready, he decided Santa was no bueno. Marky went along with it, sort of, just so he could get the old man's ear before Christmas (to ask for a wii- the answer is still no), and Juliabug was in Daddy's arms crying. Why do I go every year? It's just what I do, okay?

Today was Marky's class Christmas thingy- He got to play chimes in an ensemble so I was proud of him. His teacher said he was "trustworthy" and was one of only two boys in the class that got to stay in the ensemble! ha!

P.S. I wanted to mention that last summer I organized all the books in the house and got all the Christmas books in one bin. It's been such a treat to have them all in one place (which is now on the fireplace). After Feast of Epiphany I will probably put them all back up together- I want to do this with all the seasons. If wishes were horses.....

Our church is having a "Keep Christ in Christmas" poster contest for the Happy Birthday Jesus party on Sunday. Marky apparently got one in his class and did it ALL BY HIMSELF. I had NO PART in helping. He brought it to me finished today-

I turned it over and saw this- "Marc Ayers! 3 wise kings and seprds and baby jesus is born." My precious 5-year-old. I always think it's sad for them to not be babies- but it's such a treat for them to get so thoughtful and independent too.

And at least I have my little baby super-hero who loves to wrestle and get snuggles-

Sorry for the random smattering....I just need to have a place to save these pictures. Resolution 2 for 2010- start REALLY scrapbooking....somehow.....

Prepare the way....

I'm sad I haven't been documenting the things we are doing for advent. Usually I share a lot more and I don't' want to forget. We are doing the usual- the advent wreath. We sing the prettiest song as we light it that I learned in our church atrium-

Light one candle for hope

One bright candle for hope

He brings hope to every heart,

He comes, He comes!

Light one candle for peace (joy and love) and so on.

The scriptural advent calendar-

And finally this year I buckled down and did a Jesse Tree. I didn't start it in time and was going to scrap the idea all together-until I saw this website where you literally just print them off and cut them out. I thought I could at least do that! I decided to do a bulletin board instead of a tree because I wanted to be able to see them all and say "remember when we began in the garden, and then to the ark, and then ....." and walk them through the timeline. Marky reads the scripture and reading (when we do it- we keep forgetting- I think it's because of its location in the dining room. I want to be more consistent!)

I decided to add a back to the ornaments so I could put the verse reference and summary on the back.

Then I laminated them. My BIGGEST REGRET is that I didn't put a number on them so I could put them in order without having to look on the paper. I'm hoping to reuse the bulletin board for something I haven't thought up yet during Lent. :) I went with Shana to Hobby Lobby and to find stuff to make the bulletin board and was so discouraged because it was packed and there was a line in the fabric section and the baby was losing it so I thought we'd have to scrap the project. And there on the clearance shelf was one yard of purple fabric and a roll of gold trim- side by side! Thank you Lord for little happys.

Sunday night we celebrated Las Posadas at a local convent. We walked from door to door asking (singing) for room in the inn while carrying candle lanterns, and the innkeepers would sing that they had none. One of this year's innkeepers was none other than- DADDY!

At the last door, the innkeeper says he has room in his barn and we all rejoice and go inside and have cookies and hot chocolate-

Here is Sissybug with her lantern.

Marky's class went to the Nutcracker today. I got him a book about it and he's already read it twice. He LOVES the battle with the mice and the soldiers. :) Marky, Julia and I also went to see Santa in Space at the Birmingham Children's Theatre. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I did. So there's my update of what we've been doing the past few weeks. I wish I felt more "on top of it", but I still feel like I'm just hanging on and getting through the days. I want a "PLAN AHEAD" sign in my house. That's my 2010 resolution!