Santa or no Santa??

Let me start by saying I BELIVE!!  :)  This week during lunch there was an ongoing debate about letting your children blieve, lying to them, never telling them about santa at all, tell them at what age, will they be betrayed, etc.....  We had a great service in church today and I guess it confirmed my positon all week.  As parents we can chose to raise our children as we want!  It's called freedom and I am thankful for that.  Weather or not your children believe in Santa or not, I believe as long as you teach your children to reflect God's love and giving spirit during this crazy Christmas season then you do what you do!!  So thanks to a great ongoing lunch debate/conversation all week, an awesome service at Grace Church today, and a great Veggietales movie about St. Nicholas last night with Julian, I am happy to say "As for me .......I BELEVE"  :)
I believe that God gave the biggest gift when baby Jesus was born.
I believe that God gave the biggest gift EVER when he GAVE his son to die on a cross for all of us to have salvation.
I believe that St. Nicholas was a more generous man than I could imagine and it is something that I admire.
I believe that any symbol that helps us to remember the importance or giving selflessly is ok in my book.
I believe that being excited about Christmas is ok as long as we remember the reason for the season. 

I pray I can help Julian grow up in a way to have the generosity of St. Nicholas..  I pray he will always allow Christmas to remind him of God's greatest gift.  I pray he is a reflection of God's love and goodness. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope you have been good this year so Santa can stop by your house.  Last year's picture:

Happy Birthday Julian!!

I can't believe our baby is 2!  Terrific 2's..  bring them on!  We had a great birthday weekend.  We celebrated his birthday on his PaPa's day (the 4th) and we made sure to kiss and send PaPa a birthday balloon.  I always wish my dad was here to meet Julian.  I know they would be a trip together. My dad would be so proud. It was all Backyardigans this year.  Julian loves loves loves him some Backyardigans.  Thanks to a Pablo pan sent from Lawrence and a lot of cake making advice from Kel, we actually ended up with a cake that actually resembled Pablo.  Of course Grandma was here to celebrate and a lot of great friends came over and joined in as well.  We had a bounce house from my school which was fabulous because we used it alllll weekend.  Julian had a great weekend.  It is just amazing that 2 years have gone by.  He is so big and becoming more and more independent everyday.  He had is 2yr check up on Tuesday the 7th and he was still well above average on all measurements.  37 inches tall, 32.7 pounds, and a big head.  Once again we were able to Praise the Lord when we were able to answer Yes with 100% certainty to all the "check-up questions.

Can he throw a ball?  We wish we could get him to stop throwing everything.  It hurts.  Especially when it's a hard sippy cup flying unexpectedly from the back seat. ha

Can he kick a ball?  uh...  check!!  too hard and again we wish he would stop kicking everything.  Especially Emmitt.  Poor Emmitt

Can he run?   uh..  faster than me..  which is very embarassing when you are at a park and you child is running away from you.  hopefully when I am fully recovered I'll be able to beat him again.

Can he jump?  haha..  yes!  off of the top of the couch..  off anything..  no fear

Does he have at least 50 words?  X1000

Does he use 2 word phrases?  Some examples:  "Come on Emmitt,"  "No one's home,"  "You push,"  "In Car,"  etc.....

We are slowly introducing small bits of milk, cheese, and egg.  Starting with things that just have a little in the ingredients.  So far we haven't seen any crazy reactions. Yay!!

Oh! We are beginning the stages of Potty Training.  Julian will tell us "Poop" or "Pee Pee."  They are used interchangably.  He will go anytime you put him on the potty.  He is obsessed wtih flushing so whatever he has to do to get to flush he'll do it. lol.  So I am thinking we are really going to try over Christmas break to get this Potty training thing happening. 

We are so Thankful for being blessed with such a healthy happy baby boy.  We are so proud to be his parents.  I tell him everyday that God made him to do great things..  God made him to change the world..  He can do anything..  I can't wait to see what God has in store for him. 

Happy Birthday My Love!!