Andrew Family Christmas 2011

What a fun Christmas season we had this year! Isaac (4) and William (2.5) are at such fun ages! They enjoyed the magic of the season and understood the real meaning of Christmas. We actually did less holiday “stuff” this year and instead focused on spending more time together as a family and with other family and friends!

Our holiday season started with the annual Mount Vernon Christmas Parade… 

Then it was off to McLean’s to cut our own tree…

and this year the boys helped decorate…

We watched a lot of holiday movies (Frosty & Polar Express were their favorites). We made cookies for our neighbors, enjoyed lots of playdates and parties, went to Skagit Valley Gardens with Nana to look at the Christmas trees and of course drove around looking at lights. We did a lot of stuff with our church, Mount Vernon Christ the King and enjoyed a few neighborhood gatherings as well.

As for Christmas itself, we had it pretty quiet. Went to Christmas Eve service and then back home. Sonny and I finished wrapping the day before (first time done that far in advance and it was AWESOME! Plus we started a new tradition, wrap the boys presents TOGETHER while watching a Christmas movie and enjoying a nice bottle of wine!) In the morning, William was up at usual 6:45 time and we all ended up WAKING Isaac up a bit past 7! I guess that won’t be happening again.

Anyway, out of MANY pics, here are a few highlights from our Christmas…

This picture is to represent that EVERYTIME William opened new PJ’s (he got 5 or so) He HAD to try them on and this is what most of our morning consisted of!

This is the one time of year I get Sonny Steelers stuff (note the pants from a gift opened earlier)

For dinner it was off to Nana & Poppy’s…

We are looking forward to more celebrating this coming weekend with my brother flying in for a visit!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & will have a blessed New Year!

Love, The Andrew Family (William, Sonny, Carmen & Isaac)

3rd Annual Christmas Family Tradition…

Wow, third year already! Though this sometimes stresses me a bit, I DO love this family tradition of making cookies just for our neighbors at Chirstmas time! I look forward to the day where I get more help from the boys – though this year, Isaac was more than just a taste tester! Again, we were blessed with a clear night to deliver these goodies to 27 neighbors!!! Almost everyone was home too – a big plus!

If you’ve missed the past year’s posts or you want to know how this got started, you can see it here….
1st Year ;  2nd Year

So, per the usual, here is the step by step

1. Bake all the cookies with a helper…

 

2. Prep everything for photos (and to make bagging easier) :)

3. Yum…(but don’t touch!)

   

  

4. Evenly distribute into cute, festive bags and line them up…

 

5. Write out the cards, give an invite to church and make sure the message is centered on Jesus!

 

6. Get your Santa hats on and deliver them door to door. Then come home and enjoy hot cocoa & leftover cookies!

From our family to yours…”MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

My little soccer star…

Playing…

Playing in the puddles behind our house.

Playing at new parks.

Playing among the flowers.

  

Playing sports.

 

 

 

Playing at the beach.

S’ More Please…

The first s’mores of the season were on our new firepit in our backyard! Since we plan on NOT CAMPING with small children, we had to make our backyard suffice for a few years…

They were finger licking good…

and messy but oh so much fun!

We Call Him Boots…

and we wish he would get better soon! William’s been sick for almost a month now with a prolonged ear infection (first round of antibiotics didn’t work) AND two viral colds He’s just not himself and I am eager for the day where I get this grin again…

Welcome to the Family…

The family of Christ that is! Sonny and I professed our faith in Jesus Christ this morning by being baptized at our church with friends and family in attendance. It was absolutely wonderful and we were so moved at how the Holy Spirit spoke to us through our pastor! We praise God for everything He has blessed us with and for what He is currently doing in our individual lives, our marriage and for our family!

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of your, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” – Acts 2:36-39

We both chose a verse to be prayed over us before our baptisms. Each verse is very unique to us in reference to where we’ve come from and what we hope God has in store for us in our future. Again, God gave us these verses specifically this week and they are so perfect.

Sonny’s verse: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10

Carmen’s verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

Thank you to all our friends and family for your support in our journey thus far. It was awesome to share this experience with each other. I know it has strengthened our faith and trust in God and our entire family will benefit.

God Bless – The Andrew Family

Sonny giving his reasons to be baptized…

 

Pastor Cliff getting the words from the Holy Spirit!

Praying over Sonny…

Dying to his old self to be brought up alive in Christ!

The Holy Spirit speaking through Cliff…

Praying over Carmen…

Dying to her old self to be brought up alive in Christ!

So Happy!!! Praise God!

We did it!!!

BAPTISM VIDEO – has a pretty funny start to it!   Also, you might need to turn up the volume to hear

It’s an Andrew Family Christmas…Part 2

Christmas Eve…

Christmas Morning…

We were so blessed to give the boys a BIG Christmas this year. In part because everything William got was 2nd hand (we’d been saving Isaac’s old toys for a few years). I think this will be the last Christmas this big as I don’t want them to remember and have over the top expectations. At least we did spend a lot of time celebrating the true meaning of Christmas and Isaac really got that this year!

(forgive the darkness in the beginning - you can hear Isaac’s excitement though!)

Too much Christmas…

An afternoon surprise after much needed naps…

More Christmas Celebration…

With Sonny’s Family

Santa Train 2010

On December 18th, we took our first Lake Whatcom Railway Santa Train. The website had discounted tickets because the train was missing a part and wasn’t going to move this year. However, Santa would still be there and would sit with each child. We thought that would be perfect for Isaac (he’s super sensitive about new things and we were afraid he’d freak out if we went on a moving train). Anyway, we surprised him with it (so he wouldn’t get too anxious). Once on board he started getting panicked and wanted to get off. Just as we were seriously considering letting him off, the train started moving! AND…Isaac settled right down! We had a blast and it’s now on our tradition list!

I LOVE this. Makes me want to cry with pride that Isaac enjoyed it so much. New things are a quite difficult for him and this just felt like a huge milestone!

Watching out the window before we started rolling

William is enjoying all the festivities (banjo player doing Christmas Carols, trainmaster taking tickets and of course Santa)!

Isaac is now VERY into this thing!

Excited to show off his shirt to Santa. He is patiently waiting for Santa to make it to our part of the train.

He’s HERE! It’s our turn…Isaac could hardly stand it!

William on the other hand…not so excited.

Awwww…

Look, a CANDY CANE…my favorite!!!

At the hlafway point, walking around getting poses with Santa

Walking the tracks

Relaxing all the way back

Ahhhhh…what a great time!

2nd Annual Christmas Family Tradition…

It’s that time of year again…when we  bake and deliver cookies for all our neighbors with a specific message about “Jesus being the reason for the CHRISTmas season!” This year, I made goodie bags for everyone on our street. No snow this time, but the dry cold weather was nice!

On a side note, this kitchen is SOOOO much easier to work in than the last one. There was lots of space for everything and it was nice to have a place to keep all the cookies away from 4 little boy hands!

Of course one of the best parts of it all is coming back home and enjoying some leftover cookies and a cup of cocoa with our family of four!

First you make pretty bows of red licorice…

then stick them on a coconut rice krispie wreath…

make sure you have a taste tester in line…

start your gingerbread reindeer with chocolate covered pretzels as antlers…

again, a taste tester is EXTREMELY important!

Arrange all your cookies beautifully and take lots of photos

 

 

 

 

 

Put them all together for staging…

carefully put an arrangement of everything in bakery bags…

 

with a note to let your neighbors know what may trigger allergies…

then line them all up…

 

bundle up and deliver door to door paired with a Christmas card!

 

Come back inside your WARM home and enjoy some hard earned leftovers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Here’s a link to last year’s post: http://andrewfam.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/a-new-family-tradition/