The Christmas cards are all sent and the tree finally has lights on it! Life is grand. Today we had a family day at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was the kids' first time going and they all had fun. We were able to visit many of the exhibits even though we were there for 3 hours. Here is what we saw: Christmas trees from around the world (my favorite), a gigantic train set up (Caleb's favorite) , the US 501 (?)submarine (Madison's favorite), baby chicks, aviation everything (Archie's favorite), farm equipment, space equipment and information on the Apollo, and the children's museum(Christian's favorite). It was an eventful day.

To top it off, Madison and I attended our church's Christmas musical which really got me into the "right" Christmas spirit. The music was beautiful and the talent in the church is just amazing. I have not created any time to just sit and enjoy this Christmas season yet, but watching the musical tonight, made me really think that I need to- and I want to. I want to make sure that I don't allow the business of the season to beat me down, rather I want to spend some time marveling at what God has done- isn't it amazing that God sent Jesus to the earth and had him born in a stable and laid in a manger for the beginning days of his life? How humbling is that? That the King of Kings-gave up heaven- for earth---for us! Amazing! I hope that all of us will take some time to really think about God's love for us and what it still means for us today during this Christmas season.

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to:

Getting ready for Christmas! This is my favorite time of the year and the kids seem to also really like it. They loved unpacking the Christmas boxes to see what was inside. So far, the most favorite Christmas items they like to play with are the musical stuffed animals (hence the reason why they are in the picture), the garland, the lights, and the chocolate advent calendars- thanks Grandma Coleman!

Our annual tradition is to go out and cut down our Christmas tree with the Colemans. Christian found his own little tree that he did not want to let go of. It reminds me of Charlie Brown's little Christmas tree. Uncle Dave got a big laugh out of it.

After Archie chopped down our tree, Madison helped Daddy drag it to the car. See how hard they are both working?

The tree sat outside for a few days to dry off, and then sat for another week inside the house- naked and lonely. We always put the lights on the tree first before anything else, but somehow all of our lights that we had used in the previous years broke and we thought that we should fix them. After Archie and I both worked on the lights--it took about a week to actually sit down and do it- we decided to throw them away and buy new ones. In the meantime, Madison thought that the tree needed to be rescued so she took matters into her own hands- with parent permission of course. Here she is standing on the couch to put the garland on. While Madison was busy, Christian and Caleb stayed busy playing with the lights. Look how intent Caleb is playing with the lights in this picture. We finally bought lights for the tree yesterday and now I can officially say that the tree has everything besides the ornaments on it. Madison and I will start that first thing in the morning-she has been waiting a LONG time for this.

Madison had her Kindergarten Christmas performance last week. Since it was in the middle of the day, I took the day off and got to spend some extra time with the kids. Madison was so excited that she got to wear a twirly dress to school and that I curled her hair. Archie left work early and surprised all of us by coming to her performance. He had to leave right afterwards to return to work but we were all so happy that he made it. What a dedicated and loving father my children have! I picked a keeper!

This is something new. Christian has started to help me with the laundry. When I put the laundry away in the boys' room, I stand and hang up shirts on Caleb's crib and then walk over to the closet and put them away. Since Christian can't reach the top of the crib, he figured out that he can hang them lower. My little problem solver!

A few weeks ago Madison became a Daisy Girl Scout. They had a ceremony for all the girls where they received their Daisy pin and a certificate. Madison already has memorized the Girl Scout pledge and likes to recite it. Speaking of memorizing, Archie and I were so proud that Madison went to Awanna last week and had 3 verses memorized. She will have reached her first jewel this week and she is so excited. I hope that her excitement continues to grow!

The boys thoroughly enjoyed playing at the water exhibit in the children's section of the museum. The little yellow rain coats didn't keep them dry since they continued to dig their hands all the way into the water. They had so much fun.Both boys figured out that if you let go of the ball in the big tube, some wind will come and take it away--they thought that this was very exciting.

From the second floor, the museum is so beautiful so Archie took a picture of the main Christmas tree with some of the other trees next to it. You can even see the airplane hanging down from the museum's ceiling.