Blessed

So far, this Christmas has been filled with magic, wonder and family... all the way from down the street to Juneau, Alaska! 

Morgan and Dylan, the sweet and adventurous cousin-duo from AK were the height of conversation around the Sowa household for weeks! Dylan and Morgan entertained and won over the hearts of Emma Rose and Porter all over again on Christmas Eve!

Grandpa Jerry was so thrilled to have everyone that he decided to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" for the whole family! It was by far the best night-before-Christmas ever!

The next morning, Santa visited our home... and was real enough to honor Porter's wish for a big bouncy ball and a red marker.  He even left Porter half of one of his cookies, ensuring his goodness and real-ness!

Emma Rose's favorite Christmas-morning present: fancy shoes...Mama's girl, or what?

And Porter was equally thrilled about the shoes...

Until (to Daddy's relief) he got a big, huge truck.  He was so adorably excited about everything this year...

 Emma Rose hammed it up the night of Christmas with the Leavitt family.  She was in 7th heaven entertaining all who would watch her.

Caroline, one of the CO cousins who is just a year older than Emma Rose, is the "big girl" that Emma Rose adores at any and all family gatherings.

...But on the way to the Christmas celebration, both Porter and Emma Rose fought over who would be able to hold baby Haley, a year behind Emma Rose, first!

A funny picture of Porter's favorite cousin, Ansley:

Here is a picture of Emma Rose, guarding her new, favorite toy, a vacuum cleaner (if only it were real...)

What a fun Christmas this was...the kids were at SUCH a fun age together. 

We are so blessed by our family; sometimes we forget how much love and possibility and fun we are surrounded by in the midst of the day-to-day-ness of life and holidays.  We are so grateful for our family.  More than anything, we are grateful that Jesus was born to show us how to, as we tell Porter & Emma Rose, "be nice to others just because we love them."  How many amazing blessings we have in family and friends, and our God.

9 Days 'til Christmas

Is this a face that says "Ready for Christmas," or what?

 Though the snow hasn't been promising, we've had so much fun getting our winter on.

Corey and I took the kids up skiing - they BOTH had a blast, and Porter's showing signs of an early skier!

Porter has had more fun working on being nice so as to make it onto the "good" list. We've adopted an Elf on the Shelf, which Porter has named Rapunzel. Porter will catch himself in the middle of not being nice, stop and say, "Mom, you're beautiful.  Dad you're handsome... Do you think I'm still on the naughty list?"  He wrote a very special fill-in-the-blank letter to Santa that Rapunzel left for him, requesting a bouncy ball, a red marker and a crane for Christmas, in addition to a special wish for Daddy: Snow!  Today we took the kids to see Santa at the Golden train museum.  

Emma Rose said "Hi Train!" to each new train she encountered.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were waiting in a red caboose.  The kids hugged and waited anxiously for their turn:

Nonetheless, while the experience of the museum, the train ride, and waiting to meet Santa was so much fun, actually meeting Santa was a bit traumatic for Emma Rose.  "SCARE ME!!!" she kept crying when we got close to Santa.  "Maybe next year," assured the jolly man.  

Still, as soon as she was clearly off of his lap and back in my arms, she was all smiles and told Santa, "Tank you."

The next 9 days, we hope to find filled with more and more wonder and excitement as the kids wait to see what this special time of the year brings.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Welcome Winter...with the help of Veggie Tales

Here are a couple videos to prove how much the kids enjoy their Veggie Tales:

Emma Rose does this EVERY time the credits come on:

And here Emma Rose makes "Gigi" rock out:

We took the kids to the pool when the weather dropped this weekend.  One pre-water pic was all we could handle. Both kids were absolutely out-of-control - Porter went down the water slide at least 10 times, and Emma Rose insisted on following big brother to the "big-boy" side of the pool.

Both kids were thrilled about the snow; Porter shoveled a path for his sister.  Welcome winter; I hope you can keep up with the enthusiasm and energy of Porter & Emma Rose!

Halloween...part 2

What a fun Halloween the kids had!  They went to Trick-or-Treat Street, where Porter got to flirt with his favorite friends, Ellery & Sofia.

Emma Rose had her own fun checking out her friend, Ryker.

I know this isn't the best quality picture, but it was SO fun to see Porter & Emma Rose trick-or-treating, hand-in-hand...

Porter has had more fun with his magic hat...

Here are a couple fun pics of the kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

The kids each got to pick out 3 pieces of candy, and the rest went to the Great Pumpkin, who brought Emma Rose some beautiful jewelry, and Porter a back-hoe, in exchange for the rest of their candy.  

So fun to watch them truly love, care for and enjoy each other!