A few Christmas break activities (alternately titled I know it's February but better late than never!)

Just a few pics of our Christmas break fun!

One of Josh's youth works at Chick fil a and was also playing Santa in Miracle on 34th Street for the Christian Youth Theater so CFA had a meet and greet! We of course had to make an appearance and meet the big guy! :)

Isn't he the best Santa? I thought he looked SO good! I'm not one for standing in line for hours to get a screaming pic of my kiddos so this was THE perfect thing for us! We ordered and while we waited for our food the kids got to have their picture made. Then while we ate someone was printing the pictures and brought us several copies! Just another reason I love me some CFA! :)

G was a little afraid so Josh had to get in the picture too! Later Annie said Santa sounded a lot like William (J's youth)! Too funny! We didn't think the kids would recognize his voice!

We spent the first few days of Christmas break at home and Annie invited her best buddy, Sarah over to play one day! Sarah's mom is the assistant principal at Annie's school and had to work some so Sarah got to spend the whole day with us! We had a great day! These girls are pretty much joined at the hip and they had a great time together!

We decided to make salt dough ornaments!

We spent a lot of time playing Just Dance on the Wii! (Those ornaments had to bake for 6 hours! yikes! Good thing we put them in early!)

Finally it was time to decorate! What fun!

Beautiful!

We also got to go Christmas caroling with our church! We had a great crowd and it wasn't too cold (even for this Tennessee girl)!

E and G decided they were too tired to walk so they rode in the wagon with the Bibles we were passing out! Hope nobody judged our wrapping skills after these two sat on them!

Trying to stay warm! :)

Josh's mom made these cute ribbon tree shirts for the girls! (And a snowman shirt for Jack)! They were pretty adorable!

I spent lots of time crocheting and trying to finish up Christmas gifts! Emma modeled this monkey hat I made for Daniel! :)

Cute!

Super SPECIAL!!

October was a big month for the Thompsons! Jack's first birthday, a trip to Chattanooga and a VERY special Sunday! Annie T. was baptized! :)

Two summers ago the girls and I (I was pregnant with Jack) spent the month of July at the beach. Josh was busy with the youth and the girls and I figured it would be much more fun to be alone at the beach than to be alone at home so we packed up and headed down! We were driving back from lunch at our favorite beach restaurant when Annie started asking some questions about Jesus. Our kids have all grown up in church-their dad has been on a church staff since Annie was less than a year old so they're the kiddos who are ALWAYS there, you know anytime the doors were open! Even though I knew that Annie had heard about Jesus and knew that he had died on the cross for our sins, I was a little taken aback at some of the questions she was asking and how much she seemed to be understanding. I was so nervous about answering her questions and guiding her through some confusing stuff. I wanted to make sure I did it in a way that pointed her to Christ rather than making things muddy and confusing-that's a tall order! Part of me really wished her dad was there-he IS a minister, you know. Surely he would be better equipped to answer her questions. I'm just a mom. After I answered all of Annie's questions we spent a few minutes riding in silence. Annie piped up from the backseat "Mom, I'm ready for Jesus to live in my heart." So we prayed. Yep, driving out Ft. Morgan road in our blue Honda Van Annie T. asked Jesus to live in her heart! Favorite. Day. EVER! I let Annie call her daddy and tell him and he was of course just as excited as we were!

Later I thought about what a privilege it was for me to be there and be a part of Annie coming to know Jesus. I still wish Annie's daddy had been able to be there with us and I'm sure that he would have done a better job answering some of her questions but if he had been there I might have just stepped aside and let him do all the talking, let him be one to pray that very special prayer with her. Oh how I would have missed being a part of that! I hope Josh is able to experience it with our other kiddos but I recognize how awesome it is that Annie and I were able to share her decision together.

Since Annie was still so young, we decided to let her take the lead on being baptized and joining the church. We didn't want to push her to do anything she wasn't really ready for doing. We also knew that her age would make some people question the sincerity of her commitment. (Not me! I was there. I know what a real decision it was.) It took awhile but this fall Annie started talking about being baptized. She had seen a baptism and wanted to be baptized too. We took her to talk to our pastor and he agreed that she had made a real decision and understood enough to be baptized.
SO on October 16, 2011 my Annie T. was baptized.....by her daddy! I cannot tell you what that felt like for Josh (awesome, I'm sure) but for me it was precious. To see her make a public profession of her faith in front of her church family and then be baptized by the man who loves her more than anyone else on this earth (except for me, of course) was just beyond words. Josh's parents had already planned a trip to visit so we scheduled Annie's baptism for the weekend they were going to be here. And my crazy mom and grandmother decided they just couldn't stand to miss it either so they made a surprise visit just long enough to see Annie be baptized and eat a little lunch! What fun!

Annie and her daddy!

This one just melts my heart! I love to see her little face looking up at him! What a sweet sweet moment between the two of them!