Happy Birthday Jesus!

The Friday before Christmas the girls and I went to a birthday party for Jesus hosted by our good friends Rebekah, Tirzah and Jude.  We had a great time with all the kids and it was so fun watching our kids get excited about Jesus' birthday!  Rebekah had crafts, yummy food, movies and the kids' favorite - CUPCAKES!  When you're done looking at the pictures be sure to watch the video of the kids singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus!

Decorating Christmas Cookies

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is decorate cookies.  A couple Tuesdays before Christmas (the 9th) the girls and I made a bunch of cookies for them to decorate with their friends Jude and Tirzah the next day.  They really did a pretty good job, especially compared to last year!  I wasn't sure how it would go juggling the 4 kids and their decorating but it was so fun to watch them and their creativity and their different styles as you'll see in the pictures.  Oh and Madeline was responsible for cutting out all the names and ages - she was really proud of that!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Last year was the first year we celebrated Christmas just the four of us.  It was a different experience for me being that it was the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family in Wyoming.  But while it was hard it was also so fun and so special to get to start new traditions with Madeline and Ella.  One of those traditions was to start early and put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  So here is a little video of our day yesterday!  I had to use a lower quality for some reason so some of it isn't as clear as it should be - sorry.  Hope you enjoy!

"That Was Awesome, Let's Do It Again!"

This last Thursday morning we spent the morning at the big hill at Renaissance Park on the Riverfront in downtown Chattanooga.  We had seen other people's pictures and heard others' stories about how much fun they had doing this so we decided to give it a try ourselves!  There was no one else there so we had the whole hill to ourselves and had an absolute blast!   And despite the look of sheer terror on Maddie's face in the majority of these pictures she had the best time of all.  Everytime she got to the bottom of the hill we would hear, "Oh yea!  That was awesome, let's do that again!"  Enjoy the movie and as always please forgive my extreme lack of editting skills - I'm trying my best to get better!

Family Pictures

About a week and a half ago we got to have our family pictures taken by the amazing Rich Smith.  We had so much fun!  The last time we got pictures taken we went to a studio and got a few good pictures but Brett and I left feeling exhausted and frustrated by the lack of participation from the younger members of our family, and I'm willing to say they didn't leave feeling all that great either except for the fact that it was finally over.  

Our experience with Rich was as different as it could be!  We spent the afternoon at the amazing Chickamauga Battlefield where the fall colors were exquisite!  Rich does such a great job of making sure the lighting and composition are great but still creating an environment that is natural and fun and playful.  I left that day not feeling like we had just had family pictures but like we had spent an afternoon of quality family time!  It created such a positive mood amongst us that continued into the rest of our evening where we went out for dinner as a family and continued to just love on each other.  Thank you Rich for helping to not just create this memory but for documenting it so beautifully!  

Here are a few of my favorites but to see the whole slideshow click here:wheatcroft-family_01 or go to his website Rich Smith Photography and click on our picture at the right - and check out some of his other stuff while you're there!  The recent wedding pictures he did are phenomenal!   

God is so Good!

I just couldn't let this fall go by without posting some sort of documentation of the amazing colors we have down here in Chattanooga.  It seems everyday I look out and see this amazing landscape painted by our Almighty, Awesome God.  These pictures are of Lookout Mountain this past Saturday.  There was this beautiful fog that just sat on top of the mountain all morning and this is the view that we got to enjoy as we were doing some work at our new church site.  What a view we get to have from this amazing new place God has given us to worship with our church family!

Costumes and Puzzles

While we don't do the Halloween thing we definitely love the day after when all the costumes go on sale because we get to restock our costume closet!  The girls love to play dress-up, it often seems they are in a constant state of make believe - I love it!  Especially now that I have made the transition from step-mother to queen!  Anyway, here's a little slideshow of them modeling their new costumes: 

A couple of weeks ago Brett came home and wanted to go for a jog.  Being the good husband he is, he wanted to take at least one of the girls off my hands so Maddie got to go with daddy to the park to ride her bike while daddy ran.  Meanwhile, Ella and I went on a little date of our own.  We first headed to the mall to play for a little while and then took a walk through the toy store.   While there we found this amazing puzzle and I can honestly say it is the best $2.72 I have ever spent!  The girls will do this puzzle over and over and over again.  If I had to I would say that they probably do it at least 3-4 times a day.  It's a cool foam kind of puzzle so it stays together really well and they can move it around and if we wanted to we could hang it on the wall.  And of course being a proud momma (who is a math teacher and knows that puzzles are a great way to foster early math skills) I must brag that it is a 98-piece puzzle intended for children 5 and older.  Anyway, here they are in action: