January Pics

Here are some pics we've taken since Christmas!

We had the Wraggs over, the blindfolded one is a game where the kids played guess the marshmallow flavor and chubby bunny :) Then the guys got competitive and had to play themselves.

 We got to spend New Years Eve with the Bruces:

 Our sweet neighbor bought us a delicious standing rib roast for Christmas, here it is in it's glory. No wait, you had to taste it, it was delish!

 Our kiddos playing together.  Oh Brynn's poor bangs, they are so long yet so thin. She looks wild in a head band but clips won't stay in!

 Sure mom, I'll smile: - um slightly less pained son.

 They like to have mommy race them around in laundry baskets!

 No I'll take a picture of you mom.

 Brynn's first ponytail:

 The weekend before class started, we had scheduled to go to Naples, FL again for a few days to get away from it all before everything got busier again. Here are the kids in the hotel. We had so much fun there that we came home a day early. Ha - our kids were so excited they didn't go to bed til 11 2 nights in a row and no naps for 2 days. We were exhausted so came home to get away from vacation a day early! It was still a sweet time, just not what Jacob and I had in mind for a relaxing, goal setting weekend.

 Beach in Naples:

 We've had a little bit more cold weather lately and both kids strongly dislike wearing sleeves. Truett is constantly claiming, "No mom, I'm so shweaty - I don't need that" all the while shivering :) Brynn just angerly screams.

 Kids love watching dad mow the lawn - and I love it too :)

 This particular night was super cool as daddy caught a little snake and brought it over to share:

 Even Brynn touched it!

 They love this car. Brynn now opens the door and climbs in and out all by herself.

 Look how big she's getting! She can stand on her own and walk with one of us lightly holding her hand, no steps on her own though.

 Goofy Truett:

Quotable

Kitchen dialoge today:

Susie to Truett: "What am I gonna do when you're too big to carry? That'll be sad." 

Truett: "Mom. You can pull me with a rope." 

Christmastime

This was our first Christmas not being in Oregon. We decided to stay in Florida for a host of reasons this year, the biggest reason was that last semester was Jacob's heaviest school load thus far in seminary and with all the happenings over the last year, we really didn't feel like it would be the best decision for our family to travel cross-country. Although we missed our families (except Paul who stayed with us for Christmas too), it definitely turned out to be the right decision. We were able to catch up on some family time and a bunch of house/life projects that slipped through the cracks over the last months.

I wanted to fill you all in on what Christmas looked like for us in Florida! It was really special for me to be the mom this year, making sure we were all prepared with gifts and food! There were many late nights leading up to Christmas!


This is Christmas Eve Eve, I stayed up til 2am getting all the last minute preparations done - while watching Elf though so don't feel too bad for me. Here's my frozen peppermint cheesecake prep:


Just a pic of my girl:Jacob and Truett handcrafted a wooden bed for Duck-Duck (just like Courduroy's Bed!)
Truett's first candy cane with sister watching:
Jacob, Paul and Truett decorating the tree:


On Christmas Eve, I stayed home to bake and cook - the boys left and I think they played racquetball outside? Yes this is what we do on winter Holidays in Florida! Christmas Eve afternoon we were blessed to have our sweet friends Matt, Johanna and baby Alice join us for dinner and dessert before we all headed out to church! We had a great time and we're so glad we have such good friends as we're so far away from family!

Brynn and Alice:



Johanna and I with our babies:

Truett and Brynn:


Jacob, me, Johanna, & Matt:


Johanna was very kind to keep reading books that Truett brought to her! And Alice to share her momma!


Here was my Christmas Eve table! Truett made all of these candy cane reindeers for the place settings! I enjoyed having him help me out. The ONLY sad part was that it is a Compton family tradition to do Christmas poppers on the Eve but I couldn't find them here :( Turns out that is a Johnston family tradition as well. But we feasted on lots of yummy food - we had ham, potato casserole, rolls, fruit salad, salad, green bean casserole and dessert! Johanna brought more than her fair share which I really appreciated!

Off to church we all went to enjoy a Christ exalting, beautiful service! After church we got to Skype with the Liedkies while we opened our presents from them which was really fun! And we had an impromptu get together with the Torres', we invited them over to partake in our plentiful leftovers! So fun to get to hang out with our wonderful friends on Christmas Eve! Here is Truett preaching to them:

Now for Christmas morning  - here's the stockings all ready!

Compton family traditional Christmas morning breakfast: Orange frost drinks, egg casserole and scandinavian cinnamon rolls! Yum.

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year - we got to go to church again after stockings and breakfast! Again - a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Had to share this face of Brynn's - this is her "unjust" face. Like if you put her down and she wants to be held! Totally funny.

Oh good - just what Truett needed, a microphone.

Thanks Uncle Paul for this family portrait!

Brynn playing with the kitchen from Grandpa Mike and Gramma Janie! We also got to Skype with them on Christmas day and open presents in front of each other. Thank you technology!

After church it was naptime, then all 5 of us loaded up in the car and headed down for Christmas dinner with the Dawsons! Mike and Jill got all of us very generous stockings and the kids each got outfits and a special toy. Were are consistently blown away by their generous hearts and love - what a great example for us! 

A goal for next year would be to try and figure out how to make Christmas even more Christ-centered. We read about the coming of Christ during the month of December to the kids and sought to instill anticipation, but I definitely felt like that pile of gifts was stealing plenty of attention. I know that the biggest thing is that my kids will pick up on if mom is more concerned with food and gifts, or about celebrating the birth of Christ. So, the first place I plan to start is cultivating anticipation in my own heart!! But nevertheless, it was a joyful celebration and a sweet first Christmas in the sunshine state!