Bladen (4 years old) woke me up early this morning by putting his hand on my face & saying 

"Mommy, Mommy, I made breakfast for the family.  Come & eat the toast I made." 

He proceded to wake up the rest of the family & was THRILLED to "feed" us his toast.  The kitchen was a disaster.  Bread was open & hanging off the counter, bread slices were carefully laid all over the counter & kitchen tables, & each piece of bread had 1/4 a bottle of pure cinnamon dumped on top. There was a stool next to the stove where he had climbed up & searched my spice cupboard for the cinnamon.  Bless his little heart.  

We all sat down & forced our "toast"

(aka flaming hot cinnamon bread)

down & thanked him for thinking of us. He was SO proud!  Later this morning I pulled him up to the counter on a stool & REALLY taught him how to make cinnamon toast & showed him how to work the toaster, how to butter the toast, & I let him taste the difference between cinnamon & cinnamon/sugar.  He's SO excited to try to make "real" toast for us again tomorrow.  I love my kids. Seeing him want to do things for us & for his 4 year old self to have the initiative to try something like this on his own really makes me proud.  I love you Blade.

Christmas Fun

 Christmas morning is always fun no matter where you are.  This year was a first for us.  We've never spent Christmas by ourselves in our own home before.  We've always gone to family's houses or had family come to our house.  It was sad not having any family with us Christmas morning, but we still had each other & that made everything wonderful.  We spent the entire morning opening gifts.  The kids get 3 gifts from us because Christ got 3 gifts the day he was born.  However, the kids still have grandparents & Aunties & Uncles who send gifts to them.  We had a blast.

There were SO MANY pictures that I just picked a few to put on here otherwise you'd be bored to tears seeing pictures FOREVER.  But we had a wonderful Christmas & we are SO grateful for our friends & family all around the world.  Thank you all for your love & your gifts.  We miss you all. 

I got Cadence a dress to wear for her talent show
audition.  She's singing "Let it Go" from the movie
Frozen & she wanted to dress up like "Elsa."  This
dress looks pretty close to Elsa's dress.  Cadence
was thrilled.

My mom bought me a nail polish rack for my
bathroom.  Yes, I hoard  nail polish.  This guy
holds 96 bottles & it's already almost full.
My name is Dani & I LOVE nail polish.

Auntie Tarrish sent Bladen $20 & a toy mustache.  We tried to
get him to wear his mustache & he cried & screamed because
he didn't like the way it felt.  He was literally scared to death of it.
We felt bad for laughing, but it was hilarious.

My transformer lover.

Auntie Char gave us an amazing family gift: a popcorn machine
for family movie night & night games in the summer.
We're going to have a blast with this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Canyon LOVED his sock monkey from Auntie
Tarrish.  Can't you tell?
(he really did. . . he was just so sick)

Craiger was NOT scared of his mustache.

We got a couple family games from family this year too.
We're playing them all for New Years tonight.  The Potters
LOVE games.

Cadence's gifts 2013

Cadence loves all her new gifts.

Lorien's Gifts 2013

Lorien is thrilled with EVERYTHING.

Taya's Gifts 2013

Taya is SO excited about her castle & her many new toys.

Bladen's Gifts 2013

What a happy little boy Bladen is.

Some of Craiger's Gifts 2013

The rest of Craiger's Gifts 2013
He wouldn't sit still for a picture with his gifts though.  He
just wanted to play with his train, fire station, airport, & garage.

Canyon's Gifts 2013

A sick, but sweet boy enjoying his new toys.

Trek's Gifts 2013

My Gifts 2013
Trek got me a Dyson Vacuum & my daddy got me a beautiful
red peacoat as my "daddy gift."  It was a great Christmas.

It was a beautiful Christmas.  And even though there were lots of new presents & toys to enjoy, we are always grateful for the greatest gift we've ever received: our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!