Getting ready for little bro/sis

 We are getting so excited for Baby #3 to make his/her arrival in the next couple of weeks.  I am officially "full term", so baby can come anytime :)  We are thinking he/she will probably be born right around Valentines Day if we go by the past pregnancies and births.    Since we are being surprised by the gender this time around, we can't fully get the nursery ready, but we have been getting all the newborn boy and girl stuff out, washed, and ready :) Every day Hannah likes to help me get something cleaned or picked out, which has been really sweet.  She prays for "the newborn baby" everyday, asks me questions about what we will do when the baby comes, how the baby is going to come out (ah!!),  and wants to suggest names often. Whenever I am putting her to bed, she usually says, "Let's talk about babies." Seth talks about the baby a little bit, but I really don't think he knows what is happening!  Today he was lifting his own shirt up and said he was "cleaning his baby" as he rubbed his belly, ha!   I made the kids their big bro/sis shirts and we bought a "take home outfit" for each gender. The newborn clothes are so teeny tiny...can't wait for our baby to wear them!!!  I'm feeling really good still, which I am thankful for. Baby is moving a lot, seriously has to be one of the coolest things ever. Sometimes he/she is going so crazy I can hardly concentrate on anything else.  When Nate puts his hand on my belly though, the baby calms right down.  Pretty sweet.   Below is the most recent belly pic at 37 weeks. 

 And...a few snow pics from a couple weeks ago....

 Nate makes crazy big snowmen with the kids each year...

 Our version of sledding...Nate pulling them around in the yard :) 

Extended Family Christmas Celebrations!

 We were able to spend some quality time with both sides of our families over Christmas!   The kids love being with cousins.  It really is cute to watch them play together and see how much they love each other.

 First we had our weekend with the Ringger side.  We did a lot of fun things to celebrate Christmas!  Above and below is the "Birthday Cake for Jesus" that my Mom made and the kids blowing out the candles!

 Opening presents...

 And stockings in the morning after our traditional biscuits and gravy breakfast :)

 We heard a lot of music and singing over the weekend!  Here is Papaw with his little band...each child had an instrument and Seth was on the microphone, ha!

  Hannah just LOVES holding baby Joseph!

 We went to a Christmas play at the State Museum.  The kids had fun.

And the Clark Christmas weekend...

 All the Clarks  (+ 2 more to be born in 2013)

 With Great Grandpa Clark...

4 generations

 Making Christmas cookies...

Maggie reading the "Night Before Christmas" to the kids before they went to bed...

 Cousins!  They look so cute in their matching pjs.  5 Girls and 5 Boys...our new baby will be the tiebreaker :)

Hannah and Emery got new Cinderella shirts for Christmas!!

Josh and Seth opening up their new red capes!

 Seth on the Christmas chair...

 Hannah on the Christmas chair...

We were blessed with a wonderful Christmas!!!  So thankful for great families on both sides..  We made it through the holidays, and now we are looking forward to baby coming in February!!!  Yay!

Christmas Eve and Morning

 We were able to spend most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home this year, which was really nice.  Here are a few pics from our Christmas service at church.  Hannah sang "Away in a Manger" up on the stage for her first kids performance!  It is kind of hard to see her, but she is in the middle with a white sweater on and big black bow!  She was so so excited to go up on stage, talked about it for weeks, and then looked like she was about to cry while she was actually up there!!  Nate told her that if she forgot the words to just dance, so at one point she was definitely swaying back and forth :)  We were proud of her. She looked so cute up there.

Here is the picture of the two of them on Christmas morning before they opened presents. They were excited to see that Santa had come!

 On Christmas Eve, we told the Christmas story using the Nativity Scene.  They were excited to actually be able to play with it since we had to put it up to keep Seth from breaking off the heads!
They really were able to retell the story and loved talking about "Baby Jesus" throughout the holiday season.

 Putting out Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve!

 Opening stockings on Christmas Eve.  I think their favorite gifts were the snack foods, flashlights, and Dora/Superhero bandaids, ha :)

 Opening presents Christmas morning...Seth's favorite gift was his musical guitar and his stick horse that sings.  He jumps around and plays that thing all the time! 

 Hannah specificially asked for this "big baby" and was very very happy that Santa brought it for her!  She loves this doll so much.  She takes her everywhere with us, talks to her in a baby voice, calls her sweetheart...it really is cute to see her "mother" her baby. 

 Seth and Nate reading one of his new books.  Seth still is crazy about books!

 Hannah reading to Seth a Christmas book...

 Finally, Christmas morning we decorated a rice krispy train that Aunt Marianne had sent to them.  They had a lot of fun!  It was a great Christmas!!!!

Leading up to Christmas

 We had a wonderful Christmas, filled with tons of fun activities and family time.  I know it is already January, but I haven't had a chance to post Christmas pics until now, so here they are :)  More to come!

1.  Picking out our Christmas tree! It is such a fun tradition that we do Thanksgiving weekend every year! 

 2.  Decorating the Tree...Hannah and Seth were excited to get out all the decorations!

This little tree went up in their bedrooms.  It rotated between rooms each night :)

Seth loved playing with the decorations/snowmen on this table.  We had to put the nativity scene up higher because he broke two heads off within 30 minutes of it being out, but all of these decorations were free to play with :)

 3. Advent Chain activities-   We had three advent countdowns going on throughout Decemeber...a paper chain with activities to do each day,  a new Christmas book to open each day, and a sticker book.  The kids were so excited to do each one every day!! Above is one of our paper chain activities... "camping out" by the Christmas tree. We didn't actually sleep here, but we laid by the tree and let the kids tell stories about the ornaments.  It was interesting what they came up with :). 

Christmas countdowns

 And below, eating dinner by the Christmas tree. This made them really excited as well!

 4.  Santa...Our local firestation had "breakfast with Santa".  Seth was willing to give Santa a high five, but Hannah stayed as far away as possible.  She liked the thought of Santa, him in books, movies, etc, but definitely did not want to talk to him or sit on his lap!  She told us she didn't like how he says "ho, ho, ho"!  She did write him a letter asking him to bring her a big baby doll :) He answered her request!

 4. Christmas Parade-  Our local community has a Christmas festival and parade every year right around Christmas.  They have a "snowball" fight before the parade using these foam balls.