Christmas Part 4 and 5

Part 4 of Christmas...Christmas Day in the afternoon was spent with my immediate family and mom's side of the family.

Papa helping Owen open his dump truck.The cool dump truck that he can ride on or push along. It also came with legos that you can put in the back.
Ma-Ma (my grandmother) opening her new jewelry.
Mom opening her Christmas dishes.
We started a tradition where Owen sits with the person who is giving him the gift. This way everyone got a turn holding Owen and got to help him. Here Mom is giving him this shopping cart that he can walk behind. He LOVES it!
He can't wait to get it out of the package.
Uncle BP gave him a fun book that sings nursery rhymes.
"Uncle" Cameron gave him a copy of the Polar Express.
Jeremy got the gift of Owen.
Opening some warm pjs with his great aunt Jen.
Modeling his Christmas pjs before we get in the car once again.
He LOVES his Uncle BP!
One last hug from Ma-Ma.
We were very thankful that they waited for us to open gifts. We were tired by the end of the day but we had an awesome Christmas.

Sunday we had Part 5 with the Millers (my maternal grandfather's side) come to Raleigh. We did the annual Dirty Santa game which is always fun with that group. I didn't do a great job of taking pictures that day but it was more of the same..Owen opening gifts.

Wow we had a busy week but it was super fun and we are blessed to have so many people to share the holiday with. I hope each of you had a great holiday and were able to celebrate the birth of our awesome Savior.

Christmas Part 3

Part 3 started on Wednesday with the Cox side of the family. This is the first time I can remember having a white Christmas, thanks to the snow storm they had earlier in the week. Sadly the whole family couldn't be together this year but we had fun despite the low numbers.

Grandma got lots of loving from her little buddy.They painted together.
They colored together.
Mommy and Owen
Our niece Madison was ready to open gifts. She sat so patiently!

We gave her this cupcake decorating set because she loves to color and she loves to help her mommy make cakes.

Emma opening her new digital picture frame. Now she has more pictures of her grandkids than she knows what to do with.
Emma and Morris gave Owen his first puzzle. It's a super cute Melissa and Doug animal sounds.
Madison gave Owen a tunnel and tent. I think she had more fun in it then he did. She even made her Mommy join her.
Emma made her grandkids sock monkeys! They were so cute and so special because she made them herself. She is one talented lady!
Madison playing with her cupcake set.

We had a great time though an ice storm kind of changed our plans. Hopefully next year the whole family can be together...complete with 2 new sister in laws!

Christmas Part 2

Christmas part 2 was just our immediate family of 3. Because we were leaving on Wednesday morning, the 3 of us celebrated together Tuesday night. Owen unwrapped his gifts from us then Jeremy and I exchanged gifts.

He needed help unwrapping.



I love his expression here!


Though we had fun, I look forward to next Christmas when he'll be able to understand it more and get excited about what he opens.

Christmas Part 1

Christmas was a week long celebration for us. It started on Sunday the 20th in Greensboro with the Piner side of the family.

We ate a lot as usual then the kiddos open gifts. Owen got lots of fun toys, but needed his Daddy's help.
He also received a super cute hat and gloves.
Aunt Wanda teaching him how to use his toy.
Owen thought it would be fun to get a difference perspective on the event. I think he really wanted to pull Daddy's hair.
Then the adults did a Yankee swap/Dirty Santa game. Heather decided to wear her wrapping paper.
Granny was super excited about her gift. We gave her an assortment of jellies and candies.
Then Owen played around of peekaboo.
Aunt Wanda and Mom
Uncle Glen then gave Owen some cash. He wasn't sure what to do with it.

We had a great time as always. Thanks Aunt Wanda for being a great hostess. :)

15 Months

Owen turned 15 months on the 28th. There isn't much different from his 14 month review but here is some noteworthy stuff this month:

• He'll get his weight and height measured at his doctor's appt on the 12th so I'll update you then.
  
• He is almost growing out of his 18 month pjs. He has a long torso though so can still wear 12 or 18 month pants though.
  
• He continues to cruise the furniture and walk behind all kinds of walker toys. He is really great at it but he refuses to try and walk on his own. Are we going to have a crawler forever?
  
• He is constantly "talking". He is using a lot more inflection in his voice as well. His new favorite syllable is da. Everyone is dada lately.
  
• He is in love with Little People sets. He loved his Nativity Story one and got the farm for Christmas. He love carrying the animals around.
  
• I think he is trying to drop his morning nap. He is taking one long solid nap in the middle of the day. Being sick kind of threw everything out of wack but we seem to be settling in to this schedule.
  
• He loves to give kisses and high fives.
• He has learned how to crawl the stairs. I think he could have before but we never let him. We now have to use a baby gate to keep him from going up them constantly.
  
• He does not like to wear shoes or socks and will take them off if at all possible.
  
• He is the most easy going kid. We were impressed that during the Christmas rush, he would be in a good mood despite a lack of schedule or nap. This made the week so much easier!

As always, he is a joy to us and we just love watching him learn and grow!

The Gospel According to Lost

With the 6th and final season of LOST quickly approaching, there is a lot of anticipation as to how the writers will end the show. My husband and I have been big fans of the show since the very beginning, so I jumped at the chance to review The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay for Thomas Nelson Publishers. As many Christians will tell you, there are obvious allusions to the Gospel in the show; therefore, I was interested to see what Seay, a pastor, would pick out and how he would relate the two.

Seay states in the first few pages that his purpose in writing was not to erase the mystery and answer all of our questions (because goodness, there are always more questions). His purpose was to point out what we do know and “embrace the mystery of things that are yet to unfold.” To do this, he walks you through a character study of each of the main characters while pointing out how their life or actions relate to Biblical characters or truths.

I believe he did a good job of seeing the Biblical correlations and pointing out new ones I hadn’t thought of before. I like how he gave an insider’s look into the little things that the writers of the show put in. Everything in the show is so thought out and purposeful. I wish Seay would have written the book the same way. I felt like his book lacked organization and he skipped around making random points as he thought of them. I also believe he came up short on pointing non-believers to the Truth. I think the book is a fun read for the die-hard fans, but I didn’t really see how he always related it to the Gospel as you would assume from the title. I felt like the book was a good recap of the last 5 seasons and really got me excited to see how the writers will conclude this awesome and thought-provoking show.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas
may you know Him more fully
through the love and grace
He so richly bestows

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Jeremy, Shannon, and Owen