Merry Christmas Sugarplums

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

Merry Christmas! Hope that you all have enjoyed the start of a glorious season!

We spent a few days away as a family and I can't tell you what a trip to the beach does for my soul..... It is an amazing healing balm. We were so blessed to receive this short, little trip as a special gift and it blessed our family immensely! We prayed for the weather to be beautiful and warm and could not believe how warm it was while we were there. Grateful me.

I did not care a thing about food or a meal or shopping or anything like that. I just wanted to sit on the beach and watch my four precious ones soak up the sun, play in the sand and splash around in the water and thank Him for allowing us this time together as a family. I have grown to cherish every precious second of it since our family time has been shortened to only the weekends over the last 18 months.

I also took a few pictures.

Hundreds of pictures I mean....... of their tiny hands and feet. Of them playing and dancing and splashing around together. Oh my gracious, how I love to be behind the camera......

I love it so much I think I could almost.....almost take a leap of faith and make a small career out of it.

But family first and we will see what the Lord has in store.

I have serious e-mail debt. If you have written me an e-mail and have not heard back it is not because I chose not to respond. It is because I desire to write you back in a special response and even enclose a prayer as I usually do. I do not like a short, quick response. I want to write and respond with whatever the Lord prompts me with and that takes time......and so my apologies. I still respond to every, single e-mail.

And it makes my heart sing that you would take the time to write to me. To share your heart, your struggles and your stories. It is a tremendous blessing and I thank you for trusting me.

Let's see. I know what the baby is!!

And I'm having a fit to share it with all of you and have some special pictures that go with, but have no way to upload any pictures on my sweet friends' computer. But soon!

We are overjoyed with excitement!!! Squuueeeeeeeeeeeeal!

I have tons of pictures to share!! You may remember that we lost our computers due to some serious electrical issues here. I am thankful that we had all of our pictures backed up!! But we still haven't purchased a new computer yet. Soon hopefully.

We are also in the middle of moving. We finally found a place and thank Him every day for blessing us with a new place to call home. Thankfully our new place has an office so Big Daddy can work from home now! The plan is to work one week here and one week there. Which means he will be home for about 10 days at a time.

I may hear the angels singing. Glory!!!!!

18 months of doing everything solo!!!! I think it's over. I have no concept of how I survived it all.

By His Grace Alone.

My sweet Bella Grace auditioned for the City Ballet Nutcracker back in the early fall and made it! I am so proud of her!! This was a huge leap of faith for her. She is incredibly shy and introverted but has such a love for ballet and for music. We wanted to give her the opportunity to at least try out and knew if she could get past her fears she would love every second of it! She was hesitant. She shed a few tears. She didn't know anyone. She needed encouragement , love and support and we poured it out! I am so proud of her for overcoming her fears! Opening night is next weekend and I will be sitting in the audience with a huge arrangement of fluffy pink roses tied up with pink tulle and sprinkled with glitter! Cannot wait to watch her do what she loves to do.......

Our December is filled with many Nutcracker performaces, school Christmas programs, a major move, Christmas, a birthday and a 21st birthday in January as well as the arrival of this precious newborn baby!

I am in full nesting mode and we are moving in starting this weekend. I have been busy gathering things for our new little one as well as going through everything and editing ,sorting and organizing!!

I even purchased those itty, bitty newborn diapers over the weekend. Big Sigh.....I can hardly wait.......

We are so thankful during this special time of year and I am so thankful for each of you who stop in and visit. I recently celebrated three years of P and G and cannot believe it has been that long! I love writing here as well as following along with as many of you as I can. The blog world has been a tremendous blessing for me personally. So thank you again to each one of you for sharing your heart with me, for leaving such beautiful and encouraging comments, for your continued prayers and for allowing me the privilege to pray for and encourage you. I consider it a tremendous gift.

Many blessings to you and your family during this joyful month!