In a few days my firstborn will turn 4.  4 years old, people!  While I can’t believe she’s grown up so fast, I also can’t really remember life before her.  I know Scott and I had a blast pre-kids…we traveled, hung out on our couch, hung out on our patio, hung out on other people’s patio, slept in on Saturdays, read the paper in bed when we finally woke up, went out for breakfast, went to Happy Hour after work, traveled some more…I mean, I KNOW what I did before kids, but The Reecer just seems like she has been a part of my life forever.  But before I get into a big ol’ blog about Reece, I need to finish Christmas.  I just can’t leave you people hanging.

And even though this blog is finishing up Christmas, it’s still approximately 50% Reece.

As I started typing this blog I couldn’t even remember what we did those last two days of our 12 Days of Christmas project (which totally wiped me out, by the way), but now I remember…

On the Christmas Eve of Christmas, we spread out reindeer food.  We also did much more, like Christmas with the Riddles in Plainview, eating Mexican Stack and watching the whirlwind of package opening with 20 + people.  Then…

On THE day of Christmas, we…sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  And we did, but instead of my plan of singing over cinnamon rolls and getting a start on the day by reminding the girls what Christmas is all about, I think we ended up singing it in the car rushing back to Plainview for more Riddle fun.  Here are some pics…

Reece only seemed to notice the Barbie...not the large thing the Barbie was sitting in.

Rynn, however, must have known this thing had power.

Watch out, Lubbock!

Reece asked Santa for an American Girl Bitty Twin, material (yes, she’s definitely my child), and a Barbie.

Rynn didn’t really ask for anything, but she got her own Bitty Twin, a diaper caddy (with real life diapers), and a trash can diaper pail.  We’re quite pleased with these gifts since Rynn now uses the newborn diapers to change her babies and Momma doesn’t have to dig Rynn’s own size 5′s out of the kitchen trash can when Rynn finishes changing her little darlings.

We also implemented the ’3 gifts per child’ idea that are from Mommy and Daddy.  I can’t believe how hard it was to stick with this rule!  While I did stick with it, I went way overboard on stocking stuffers.  Can’t help it…they’re my favorite things.

The girls also got a fantastic dollhouse from Granny, Granddad, and Uncle Landry that they play with daily and love!

Of course, aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles and many others helped contribute to a wonderland of gifts.  The girls love everything, and Reece will pull something out and say, “I’m gonna play with the (insert toy) that (insert name) got me for Christmas!”  SO glad she is appreciative of her gifts.  Scott, the girls, and myself are so blessed!

Brie and I knew each other more through mutual friends more than anything, but became closer as we kept up with each other’s blogs and on facebook.  I received a lot of positive encouragement from her when it came to parenting our strong-willed first borns.  Last time I saw her in person, just a couple of weeks ago, we laughed about our girls and I told her I expect her to let me know any tricks/ideas she has for each age since her strong-willed child is older.  We agreed that one day their stubbornness will be a gift.  :)

Brie did a fantastic job of documenting her days on her blog and I hope one day her girls and little boy will find comfort in her words.  I’m so thankful they were able to spend some quality family time together last week with a trip to Disney World.  What a wonderful memory to leave her girls with.

Most importantly, she is a true bride of Christ and displayed this daily.  The love she has for The Lord cannot be doubted.  She was a faithful servant and gave glory to Him in all circumstances.  The last blog post she wrote, on the very day of her tragic accident, is truly a product of Brie allowing God to use her as a vessel.  So inspiring.

Please pray an overwhelming blanket of peace will lay over the Gomez and White families.  Pray for Eric as he grieves and transitions to the role of Single Dad.  Pray for their girls who loved their momma so, and especially for Mali, who is at an age where she will feel pain that is way too real.  Pray she will continue to love and praise Jesus through this.  Pray for their newborn baby boy, Curran Blake, who is in NICU…pray that he will fight through this and come out unscathed.

Gorgeous girl, sweet family.

…we wore pj’s all morning, then did a little shopping, then enjoyed Christmas Eve Eve as a fam-i-ly.

PJ morning was wonderful, as always.  Reece, who normally is the one begging for a pj day, actually got out of hers first when she layed out scarves (pretending they were towels), put on her swimsuit, and had some fun at “the beach.”

After starting our Christmas shopping in October, I couldn’t believe I found myself at the mall two days before Christmas.  I blame it on my husband, who is making his gift selection difficult this year.  I ended up with the trusty ol’ Polo, along with a few other things.  Reece acted as my elf and seriously picked out everything I bought.  That girl has pretty good taste!!

Christmas Eve Eve (or Christmas Adam as I’ve heard of late…since Adam came before Eve and all) is kinda special for us.  Scott and I have always had our own little Christmas on this day, and tonight we enjoyed celebrating with the girls as a family before joining the larger Riddle clan tomorrow evening.  In fact, I must go because I now have a date to watch my favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation, now.

Happy Christmas Adam!

We followed it up at bedtime by reading out of Luke 2.  Daddy documented it, just for the sake of the blog.

Reece loves hearing the story of Christ’s birth.  Rynn was a little disappointed there weren’t pictures.

Here’s a good shot of Rynn attacking her big sis for sitting on her new bed.  There’s nothing like trying to read quite possibly the sweetest Bible story ever while being interrupted by screeches of anger and wails of pain.

3 more days, y’all!

One of my favorite things we do in the preschool department is have a birthday party for Jesus.  Preschoolers love birthday parties so much, so what better way to turn the focus of Christmas back to Christ’s birth than with a party for Him!!  Our friend who came and made balloon animals at Rynn’s birthday came to the church and told the story of that sweet night in Bethlehem while designing a manger with hay and baby Jesus to go inside.  The kids loved it!  They then went to their individual classrooms to decorate cookies and sing Happy Birthday.

Reece is holding the elf balloon that each child received from “the balloon lady.”

Later that evening, after Scott mowed the yard and turned on the sprinklers, Reece came running out into the garage with her swimsuit on.  She hadn’t seen a sprinkler in several months and just had to get a little taste of summer…

Now, it wasn’t freezing, but it also wasn’t all that warm.  Nothing could stop that girl though as she ran around for several minutes singing/yelling, “Happy birthday to Jesus, the Son of God!”  Then she went inside for a nice, warm bath.

On the next day of Christmas (I’ve lost count), we had planned…

…and we really did, but I didn’t take a single picture.  We had a great time hanging out with friends.

We also delivered our cookies to the assisted living facility that sits right behind our house.  In doing so, we found a friend!  Ms. Roan showed us around the facility and her lovely suite.  We’re glad we’ve made friends with someone there!

Reece LOVES to take pictures!!

Then on the next day of Christmas…

…we didn’t do a single thing that was on our paper chain.  Instead, we had a friend over and played, delivered more cheeselogs, enjoyed the warm weather outside, spoke about the wisemen who came to see Jesus, and tried once again (as we do every few months) to have Rynn sleep on the trundle bed instead of her crib.  It was a nightmare getting them stay on their own beds and go to sleep, but in the end Rynn slept on the trundle and Reece slept in her bed (until 5am, that is).  The verdict is still out on whether we’ll make that a permanent sleeping arrangement.  We’re tired!

Y’all have a great day and stay warm!  I have to figure out what our special activity will be this evening!!

Anyway, we have 7 days till Christmas and we’re on our 8th day of countdown.  Picture me singing (very chipperly), “On the 8th day of Christmas, the Riddle fam-i-ly did this…”

First, the cheese logs needed to be MADE (see, this is what I mean by the seemingly simple task being quite complex)!  Sooooo, let me introduce you to the Riddle Cheese Log Factory:

Speaking of Reece, our aspiring ballerina had her debut recital last night.  She had a ball, and even though she was distracted by the audience on several occasions, she really did great.  The picture quality is bad, but I do have to share…

(Front row, third from the left.  I’m not sure if she’s the only one on task or the only one not on task. )

Sweet Daddy took Reece with him to pick up a few Christmas gifts (and gave strict orders to Reece to not tell me what was bought, by the way), and picked up some flowers for her.  He said she was the happiest girls he has ever seen as she walked out of the market with a bouquet of flowers. That makes this bad mom smile.

Reece & Daddy on the carriage ride

Happy 8th Day of Christmas to you!!  (Oh, and I’m so glad tomorrow’s activity is part of church. )

We continued our fun-activity-countdown-to-Christmas with a cookie decorating play date at church.  Each child got two cookies to decorate  - one to eat there, and  one to take home.

We’re so thankful for good friends to share fun times with!!

Rynn cutting out our dough:

Step 1 is complete!  Now we just need to deliver them!!

This wasn’t entirely a group effort.  As soon as I whipped up the frosting/glue, Reece began enjoying the treat while I was left to glue the house together.

Soon baby sister woke up and joined in the fun.

These decorations are YUMMY!

Finished product:

Reece also received a special message from Santa.  It’s so cute and she watched it with wide eyes the whole time!!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/-aC_y_e9u9GaQe7loKz-zA

Reece’s interpretation of “watching out for your sister” is to tell Santa if she does bad things.  So funny!

Happy 11th day of Christmas to you!

And, as an added bonus, we’ve added a fun activity to do each day.  Today’s activity was…

Here’s Reece eating her candy cane and watching Veggie Tales’ Saint Nicholas – The Story of Giving with Daddy.

Happy 12th day of Christmas to you!