Cousins and BFFs

Delaney Joy and Sarah Faith... I just adore these pictures of the two of them.

A visit with Santa Claus

and yes, Delaney is missing.  If you know her at all, you shouldn't be surprised!   Poor Delaney; she is afraid of her own shadow.  But her sweetness makes up for it... Santa said that he will still bring her gifts.

And now for the decorating and adorning...

Mom, can I eat this now???!!!The good stuff.

Hannah took this picture. Good job, Han! Love this picture! And this one, too...we had to get little E in on the action!

New home construction!

Today we drove out in the cold rain to buy a gingerbread house kit. The kits come with everything you need to make a beautiful, perfectly decorated house. (insert laugh here!) Of course we had to purchase seven more bags of tiny candies, to ensure that we would have enough candy for the house and to satisfy the hungry construction workers.

And here they are... bubbling over with anticipation!

We took great care in setting up the dishes of candy. And sampling them. After I mixed up the frosting, the girls had to taste that, too. Yum!!!It shouldn't surprise anyone that Bryan did the construction. Emma didn't participate, but she did watch from her chair. And she looked awfully cute doing it!We didn't realize until after we had set everything up that we would have to wait a whole hour! for the house to dry before we could decorate it. More pictures to follow later!

Honey, why is the dog getting so chubby these days???

The magic of Christmas

Exploring is what Emma does best these days. Her current obsession is, of course, our Christmas tree. After all, who can resist the sparkly white lights, the shiny glass balls, the colorful ornaments...

This red ball kept her occupied today for a good three minutes. onto bigger and better things...

Party girl!

She knows what to do!On Saturday we celebrated Emma's 1st Birthday with some of our family and friends. She really seemed to enjoy having everybody here and she did nothing but smile and laugh the whole time. She loved every moment of it, but she could barely stay awake for cake!

I love this picture of our girls with their cousins, Tyler and Julia

Our big girl! "Look at me!"Emma with her Gram, Great Aunt-Bunny, and Great-Uncle RogerBryan and Uncle Bob (BFF's!) some random photosFamily shot with Pop and GramEmma and her friend KolbyKaleb, Bryan, and TylerEmma had lots of help opening her gifts!more random pictures

Happy 1st Birthday, Emma!

Whenever any of our girls celebrates a birthday, I get very sentimental... typically I well up with tears just thinking about how our family has grown and changed over the past six years. Bryan and I know full-well the heartache and brokenness that infertility brings. Years and years of loneliness and longing was, at times, almost too much to bear.

God makes many promises to His children; promises to love us fully and unconditionally, to teach us and to grow us, to carry our burdens for us, and to give us a hope and a future. We clung tightly to those promises and held our breath while we waited (and waited, and waited!) to see what He had in store for us.

And now? Who would've thought!? God knew... He knew from the beginning of time. He has blessed us in ways we cannot even begin to comprehend. He has proven Himself faithful again and again. "Gratitude" is not sufficient enough to explain my thankfulness to the Lord for choosing to bless us with three amazing daughters. But gratitude is what I feel. Thank you, God, for our family. Thank you for showing us that Your plans are far greater than our plans. Thank you for Emma Hope. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord. ~Psalm 113:9