Preparing for a Birthday BASH!!!

This Christmas season has been wonderful for so many reasons and we have so enjoyed preparing for Jesus' birthday!!! Of course, we are so very thankful to be spending this time with the newest addition to our family :o). What could be a better reminder of sweet Mary and baby Jesus than watching your own little one enter the world during this season!?! And it's been really neat to watch Emerson this year as she has started figuring things out. What a blessing to get to experience Jesus' birthday through a little one's eyes! I love how the Lord teaches us so much through our kiddos! Here are some of the ways we've been preparing for the big birthday bash...

Helping daddy put up the Christmas lights! They both had so much fun and daddy was shocked that Emerson was able to really help...she's getting so big! I'm a little afraid she's going to think we should put lights up for HER birthday next year because she was so excited to do this for Jesus. Ha! Oh yeah, I bought that Baylor beanie before we even got pregnant with Em and she just now fits in it :o).

Posing by our girly Christmas tree in our pretty dresses...thank you Aunt Sarah and Miss Carol!

Decorating cookies on the cutie-pa-tootie place mat that Emma got her for her birthday...she really would have just eaten the icing with a spoon if I hadn't stopped her :o). And this is one thing that we will do for her birthday too.

Of course, we decorated our gingerbread houses and had a lot of fun with our friends.

We got a new Christmas book that she had memorized after only a few readings...that kid loves books! She loved for us to read this book and follow along and act it out with her nativity scene :o).

We did LOTS of crafts and coloring pages about Jesus' birthday. She loved the stickers the most. And you'll notice she's holding her baby Jesus from her nativity scene...rarely puts it down :o).

And our favorite thing to do right now is play with our nativity scene!!! I can't tell you how much she loves this and how many hours she spends "playing baby Jesus"! It's really all she wants to do. Em has learned so much about our Savior's birth this year and is truly starting to understand that Christmas means celebrating Jesus' birthday. I have loved rediscovering the wonder and awe of this miraculous story and I'm so thankful to be able to share it with her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!