Tis' the season to love your neighbor

I am still in denial that Christmas is this week. Not that I am not ready or excited for it, but I don't know how it crept up so fast. This season has been busy, busy, busy, as I am sure most of you can relate. December always gets crammed with so much stuff that sometimes I forget to breathe. With that said, I wanted to make sure that we got in one of our Neighborhood Block Parties before the end of the year.

It's always easy to do movie nights in the fall, but once the weather gets a little colder, it's not as easy to have everyone sitting on the lawn for 2 hours at night while they shiver to death. Still, I didn't want November- February to pass us by without connecting with our neighbors. So our little neighborhood team,  decided to do a day time Christmas block party. Simple and sweet. We did it during the day from 2-4 and the weather was perfect (cold but beautiful). We served Christmas cookies and hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course). We had a bounce house for the kids, ornament decorating and some Christmas tunes playing. It was super easy to throw together, set up and tear down. Of course the majority of our guests were kids. In our neighborhood the kids roam free, but we are happy to give them something safe and fun to do. It's also neat to slowly get to know them and have them get to know us over the time frame that we have been doing these parties.  We did however get to meet yet another new neighbor, which is always fun.

When people come for the first time to one of our block parties, they tend to ask why we do these. This week a lady asked if we just had a lot of money to blow (hahaha..that made me laugh). The truth is, we want to make a positive impact on our neighborhood and build relationships with those God has placed right next door or down the street from us. It's so easy to overlook people and get tangled up in our own lives. These block parties are serving as a fun way to love on people (one of God's greatest commandments). So, here are some pics from our Christmas Block Party. We are always looking for new and fun ideas to do for these parties, so if you have any that can be easily replicated, let me know.

   

"Joy to the World"...Dixie's version

On Sunday the kids at our church will be singing 2 Christmas songs. Dixie has never performed in front of an audience, and although our church is small, I just know she'll freeze up. My girl is as shy and timid as they come (she didn't get that from me).When we got home from church this past week, I caught her singing "Joy to the World" or at least her version (combining the 2 verses below) at the top of her lungs since they had just practiced that morning. I knew I had to catch what I could on camera because I will be shocked if I see it happen on Sunday. Luckily after I snuck up on her and embarrassed her, she still did it for me again. I'm not quite sure what most of the words are that she is singing, but she has the tune down. Here are the correct words:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

And here is my sweet girl's version. Oh the innocence of children..I love it!

"Little Man's" 1st birthday

While my little guy doesn't officially turn 1 until the end of the month, we went ahead and celebrated his first birthday along with his cousin, Ray. They are exactly 2 weeks apart and it made for a fun celebration and half the planning and preparation on my part..bonus! Plus his birthday is 3 days before Christmas which is way too much chaos at once.

 I get sooo excited about planning my kid's parties. It was one of the many things that I really looked forward to when I had kids. Knox's was in the making for about 6 months. Once I decided on the theme and found lots of ideas on pinterest, I knew for sure this was it.

We had a "Little Man" party, which seems to be very popular in the little boy party world. It was easy to throw together; just some ties, top hats and fake mustaches and we were ready to roll. I cannot believe that my boy has been in my life for a year already. This has been the fastest year of my life..no joke! I feel like I was literally at the hospital with him yesterday and now here he is looking like a toddler and rubbing his first birthday cake in his eyes:( Here are some snapshots from the fun filled day.

The invite (ordered from Etsy)

Chocolate mustache sucker favors

I made the little food tags the night before to add some flair.

 My little stud muffin!

The photo booth with props. Wishing that we would have stood in front of a more solid background, but oh well!

My cousin Shannon and I (the hostesses)

Knox just wanted to eat the mustache.

 

Had to include the baby

The birthday boys

 Having fun opening presents

                                    

The organic smash cakes made by Shannon. They liked the bananas and icing, but didn't eat much of the cake.

                                       

Chocolate in the eyes = not fun!!!

All of the little cousins in our family. Needless to say, family events are always fun and chaotic.

Dance party 

My sweet little curly q in Daddy's tie.

Happy 1st birthday Knox Armstrong!!!!

Sugar, flour and LOTS of sprinkles!

One of the Christmas traditions that we started when we got married, is making and decorating homemade Christmas cookies. It is one of my favorite traditions because it is fun and there is a yummy treat at the end. The task has gotten a little harder with babies. You can't just sit and decorate like you used to because they need your attention or are spilling the entire bottle of sprinkles on the floor (thank you Dixie Jean:) It is still a great time of family bonding though. This year it was neat to watch Dixie get really into it and want to decorate the entire time. Knox wanted nothing to do with the cookies...not even eat them (is that child really mine??) He did however enjoy playing with some of the cookie cutters.

 It's always fun to see how everyone decorates their cookies. For me, I sit down thinking that I am about to create a masterpiece and by the time I am done, it looks like a 4 year old decorated my cookie....maybe that's why I taught Kindergarten. My favorite part though is eating the cookies the next day dipped in milk..who would've thought? This is one tradition that is going to stick around for a while. Next year, Knox will join in the festivities of decorating while the new baby will be in their highchair screaming their head off and playing with cookie cutters:) Hmm....I think I may ned to invest in a bigger table.

Dixie and Daddy cutting out cookies

 Even the grandparents get in on the fun.

 3 generations

 Knox wants to make the candy cane one

My Dad and his mad Christmas tree decorating skills

My little brother Dayne had more fun sneaking eating the dough than anything. But he did manage to decorate a few.

She enjoyed this cookie more than you know.

Nanny and Grandpa Ricky