I am going to post our Christmas pics on the blog, but I will not be emailing them out, you can just visit www.cranstonfam.blogspot.com to check them out. There are way too many to send in an email and I know you'd probably appreciate me not overloading your email! Hope you all had a great Christmas! We love you!
Amy, Mike, and Emma
Sunday we had an early Christmas with Mike's side of the family in Birmingham. We had alot of fun, the two girls Emma and Chloe got to take turns being Santa, bringing gifts to each person.
Mike helping Chloe put on her new Christmas necklace from Emma!
Emma helping mommy open her gift, it's nice to have a little helper these days especially since my tummy is ever expanding!
Emma was so excited to get her new "mommy" zebra from Christie and Jamie, she has a baby one at home and kept asking to get it a mommy.
Mike modelling his new sunglasses, what a cutie!
Enough said!
Jamie likes to kid Mike and Johnathon about having cabbage patch dolls when they were little boys (granted they were boy dolls dressed in GI Joe outfits), he thought they'd be so excited to get their own little dolls for Christmas! Thanks for the laugh Jamie!
Emma helped Daddy open all of his gifts too!Yep! That's right, yesterday marked the day that I have been alive for THREE DECADES! In other words.... YES, I'M THIRTY NOW!.. I'm hanging on (by a very fine thread, mind you) but never-the-less hanging on to the age old saying, "With age comes wisdom", you may not see any grey hairs on my head but I know I've got at least 3! One for every year Emma's been alive :) And after today, I probably have at least 3 more!
All joking aside though, yesterday was a special day! My parents came up to help us celebrate. It was a very special day to me, I really enjoyed being with them and Michael was so sweet, he gave me beautiful roses, took me shopping, and Mom and Dad treated us all to dinner at Macaroni Grill. I'm truly excited about this time in my life. I'm very thankful for the life God has given me and the lessons he has taught me along the way. And I'm looking forward to what this next stage of my life holds!
This is a tradition we've started with our family b/c I just think it's so much fun! According to German tradition (Mike's mom is of German descent), St. Nicholas visits little boys and girls on the eve of the 5th. That night, the children sit their boots by the front door and in the morning they'll wake up to find St. Nick has filled them with lots of goodies! So, to make it our own we all placed our boots by the front door right before bedtime but of course only after we read a couple of Christmas stories, watched a Christmas movie, and drank some hot chocolate! It was such a fun night! It took Emma a while to go to sleep, I haven't figured out yet if it was the hot chocolate or the excitement of getting her boots filled with goodies!
This is how Emma sat all the boots out!
St. Nick came and he even left some snow from the North Pole!
Yesterday, Mike and I celebrated our 7th anniversary! It seems just like yesterday that I was sitting here typing up a blog about our 6th! This past year has really flown by but it has been one of the best yet!
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart........Psalm 37:4
Adding the glue to our dough mixture.
Mommy's pile and Emma's pile, Emma is kneading and patting hers.
Gosh, I need a hair barrette for this child!
