Advent Activities

During the waiting time before Christmas we have been very busy! Josh and I have many things we want to keep as traditions for our family including...

Placing the first Christmas Card of the season in our card holder

Cutting down our Christmas Tree at the Radde Christmas Tree Farm

Decorating our beautiful new tree

Setting up the Christmas Train

Setting up our Nativity Scene (picture courtesy of Roy Carney)

Doing puzzles with Daddy

Visiting the Mayborn Museum all decorated for Christmas

Trying on the reindeer antlers

Creating an Advent chain, reading from our Advent book, and eating the chocolate from the Advent calendar

Visiting the Train Display in the North Park Mall

Baking cookies for Santa!

New Orleans

Just before Thanksgiving Josh attended the Society of Biblical Literature conference in New Orleans and I tagged along to make it a mini vacation for us we had a glorious time! Since Roy was born we haven't had a night without kids, Roy has only been away from us when we were in the hospital having Lillian. It took some planning but we did it! my parents flew down from Wisconsin to take care of the kids and we were off!

We drove down with another couple, the Wilhites. They attend our church and David is a professor at Truett where Josh went to seminary. Our plan was that the men would attend the conference and Amber and I would fill up our days with shopping. Each day Josh got up and went to a morning session at 9:00 then he and David met Amber and I in the lobby for lunch about 12. After lunch the men returned to attending sessions and Amber and I walked around the French Quarter and shopped until we were tired, it was amazing! At about 5 or 6 we returned to our hotel where we would wait for the men to return and then head back out to find a spot for dinner. It was amazing to just throw on a coat, (not put 2 wiggly children in their coats) sling my purse over my shoulder (not my diaper bag) and head out the door. I was shocked how quickly 4 hours of shopping can fly by! I bought Christmas presents and souvenirs, and found a really fun little yarn shop called "A Quarter Stitch" (a highlight for me) where I bought severals skeins of really beautiful yarn.

On our third day Amber and I took a street car down to Magazine Street where we had heard about more shopping and a 'sweets boutique.' It was most definitely worth our time and Sucre (the sweets boutique) was amazing!! I've included pictures of the special desserts Josh and I got, they were as delicious as they were beautiful!

the French Quarter where Amber and I walked each day

me by the Mississippi River!

one of the many 'Human Statues' around the French Quarter

the view from our hotel room

Josh and I standing by the window in our hotel room

Josh's amazing dessert from Sucre

my amazing dessert from Sucre, who knew a dessert could be so shiny you could see the reflection of the trees in it!

Even though we had an amazing time and I enjoyed my kid free days and nights we were thrilled to be able to come home to our little monkeys! I wouldn't trade the slobbery kisses, and wiggly hugs for a million shopping days!

Milestones

Roy and Lilli have both recently reached some pretty helpful milestones.

Lilli can retrieve things when asked. This morning we were getting ready to leave and Roy only had one shoe in the living room so I helped him put it on. I asked Lilli to go get me the other one from the hallway and away she teetered, coming back with the shoe! I thought, this is amazing I should try it again. So I asked her to go get Roy's coat from the bathroom and low and behold she teetered away and returned with his coat. Roy and I were both very surprised and thankful to have such a cute little gopher helping us out.

Roy can now answer the phone and hold a complete conversation with someone. The other day I was in the shower while Lilli was napping and I heard Roy knocking on my door, I decided to finish my shower and check with him when I was done. It took me a few more minutes but he was still knocking and when asked what he needed he told me "Mom it's Tracy!" I wasn't quite sure what he meant so I said, "Is Tracy here?" He replied, "No mom she's on the phone." I quick put a towel on, opened the door and sure enough there he was talking on the phone to my friend Tracy like he was a little man. Tracy told me he told her all about his day, how he had Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch and how he was going to meet her at the museum later. Maybe next time you call you'll be lucky enough to have a conversation with our little secretary!