esther victoria is born

esther victoria was born on dec. 27 @ 4:20 am. she weighed in @ 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. we are so blessed to have another little one in our family. God bless everyone and have a happy new year!!!

happy early birthday

dec. 17 my daughter will be 3. olivia my dear, you are so precious. you are my little princess. you make me laugh and when i think about the future you even make me cry. i just have to tell you that i love you and that you will not date until you are 32. thank you for allowing me to be your father, and i love you. by the way, this is my little cinderella. this was her birthday outfit from my mom and dad. i just had to put this on this blog so that all you princes out there could be jealous. God bless you all!

our tree

here is our finished product. we were so excited about putting this tree up this year. i don't know what it is about putting up a stinkin' tree, but it will just put you in the holiday spirit. my favorite part of putting up the tree is first being able to use a saw (since i don't do that very often) and the other thing is putting on the star at the end of it all. that star represents one thing to me and that is the birth of Jesus. He is the reason for this season. this last week we watched a charlie brown Christmas. that is my favorite Christmas movie. when charlie is trying to find the real meaning of Christmas and everywhere he turns there is commercialism. snoopy is drawn in by the decorating, sally (charlie's sister) wants everything under the sun and lucy tells him that he needs to be busy doing things. they all think that this is what Christmas is really all about. when charlie doesn't find happiness in any of these things, he finally has enough and shouts, "does anyone know what Christmas is all about?!!" linus steps up to the plate and tells him what it is all about. he tells the real Christ-mas story from luke 2:8-14,

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And , lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And
the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.'
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.'"

this is the real story of Christmas. this year as you are out and in the lines and getting really annoyed with the whole thing, just remember why we celebrate Christ-mas. May be that will help you get into the holiday mood.

hunting a tree

we had a great time going out and picking a tree. we did it on a day that it was snowing and that made the experience that much better. we are excited about our 10 1/2 foot tree. hope all of you had the same experience as us with shopping for a tree. God bless!

merry christmas

it's been a while since i have posted anything, so i thought that i would catch you up on our lives. a couple of weeks before thanksgiving we were having some drainage issues in our bathroom. i love plumbing so i thought that i would give it a go. okay, so i don't love plumbing, but i am too cheap to call a plumber so i thought that i would give it a go. needless to say, the look on my face in the second picture tells you that it did not go well. i was yelling and screaming and luckily the kids were up because if they hadn't there may have been some choice words that would have come out of my mouth. anyway, just to let you know our downstairs bathroom sink is still out of order to this day, and i have no motivation to make it work right now.
on a lighter note, things are going well. we just got back from vacation in new jersey with jess' family and we had a blast. it was good to get away for a week, but we are back to the same ol' grind again. we have a tree, but i'll post some pictures later to show you those. the kids are getting big and jess is about to plop esther out anytime now. hope all is going well. God bless!!!