Family Yearbook (Catching up #2)

I read through all the writing prompts that Tara added for month 1 of the Family Yearbook, and most of these I will be writing about ,but some I may skip over because they really don't fit our family or I just really don't have anything worth posting about that topic. So my yearbook may or may not have as much included as other yearbooks you see. But, I plan to pour my heart into every post and share as much as comes to mind (heart). I also plan to go back and add pictures to some of my posts ...so be looking for that:)

Celebrations~~~~~Birthdays are always a fun time!!!!!!
Samantha-Jan 1Katie's-Feb 2Ashley-Aug 4Jonathan-Aug 4Jacob-Aug 13Bailey-Aug 16Sandy-Aug 17Brent-October 18Anna-Dec 2Jesus-Dec 25

We celebrate other birthday's too!We celebrate most Holidays...some more than others. ~~~~~

New Years- We don't really celebrate New Years. We usually celebrate Samantha's birthday instead and it just happens to fall on New Years.

Groundhog Day- We don't really celebrate it. We celebrate Katie's birthday on that day because that is the day her birthday falls on.

Valentine's Day-Is one we do celebrate. Hubby & I usually go out and celebrate it with a dinner the weekend before and we swap gifts like candy and cards. He bought me a gold locket necklace last year...It was sooo sweet:)

I usually always have a little kid's party at my house every year,that way Jacob can swap Valentine's cards and gifts with all his friends(I had one for my older kids too when they were young). Hubby always gives each of our children a gift just from him and I always give them a gift just from me. So it's a sweet day! A day for showing the ones you love just how much you love them.

ST.Patrick's Day-We don't really celebrate it. However, this past year we found Jacob a shirt that said, "Don't Pinch"...he enjoyed wearing it that day.

Good Friday-Is more of a sad day. Us Christian's can't help but think of the sacrifice Jesus made. On this day our minds are on that and even though it is a good day, it is also a sad reminder.

Easter-It falls right in line with the Good Friday. However, we Christians should rejoice on this day because on the Third day Jesus rose. I love Easter. It is one of my favorites. We usually dye eggs, have eggs hunts, go to parties, pretend an Easter bunny came, dress up in new clothes, and we always attend Sunday morning services.

Mother's Day-Is another day I love. We try to spend this day with our moms. We usually pick them up some kind of small gift and card and we take it to them. It's a way to say, "Thank you" for being a wonderful mom.

Father's Day-Brent usually goes to Alabama to see his dad and I go to Mom's to see mine:) I have two dad's but the one that lives with my Mom is my "Dad" because he's been there for me when the bio one hasn't been. I am blessed.

Memorial Day-Is not a holiday that I would say we celebrate. It is more of a holiday set aside to remember all the ones who sacrificed so much for us. It is also a day I remember their families and all they too sacrifise everyday. How can we thank them enough?

Independence Day-Better known to us as the 4th of July. I love this day!!! We always spend it together as a family and we always go to some park to watch their firework show. Our family always dresses up in shirts that are either red, white,blue, or all three. We eat together and play together! It's just a good ,fun family day!

Labor Day-I like this day! Usually everybody is off of work and we hang out, cook out, watch movies, and we usually spend the whole day together as a family.

Halloween-To me is just a fun day for kids. Some people look at this day as an evil Holiday,but I think it's just like any other day...It's what you make it. We've chosen to make it a fun day for kids. We usually have a little party around this time at our church, but we call it a Hallelujah Harvest instead of Halloween. We usually get together with our church family for hay rides, cake walks, trunk-or-treats, etc

On Oct 31, we wait until right at dark and we take our children house to house to collect candy. We only go to the people's houses we know. The kids usually dress up in cute outfits like clowns, cowboys, cats, characters, etc It is just a fun day. Last year, we made our own hay ride and our neighbors joined us on it as we went door to door collecting candy. I also usually have a party with Jacob and his friends the Friday before.

Thanksgiving-Is another all time favorite of mine. It's the day for giving THANKS. We all should celebrate this day because we all have so much to be thankful for. We usually spend half the day of Thanksgiving with Brent's family and the other half of the day with mine. We all cook and bring a couple of dishes and we put them all together for one giant meal. It is always a sweet day and a day I look forward to every year.

Christmas-Is the time we celebrate Jesus' birth. It is a celebration of his life. It is my favorite holiday of all. We pretty much celebrate it through all the month of December. The first or second day of December we decorate a Christmas tree(sometimes more than one tree). We also decorate our home with anything related to Christmas. We spend the whole month watching Christmas movies in the evenings. We also usually build a gingerbread house, bake cookies to cut up in shapes of Christmas tress, snowmen,etc, We set up a nativity in reminder of the true meaning of Christmas,we read Christmas stories, we go to look at light displays, go to Christmas plays, have tons of parties, swap lots of gifts, and take tons of pictures.

Since our families have grown and some have split it has became hard to celebrate them all on Christmas, so we usually do a party every weekend until we've been to see every side of the family tree.

On Christmas eve, we go to my mom's ,eat dinner, swap gifts, and just spend the evening together. After that we normally come home. The kids go to bed and Hubby & I usually spend the evening together listening to some of our favorite Christmas music (we leave it playing all night) and as soon as all the kids are good and asleep we set gifts out around the tree for each of them from us (aka Santa Claus). Christmas eve has always been a sweet time Brent & I have always shared .

Christmas Day- The kids are always up first and we spend this day at home as a family. Brent usually goes and gets us breakfast and we all just lounge around in our PJ's all day and watch the kids play. We usually have tons of leftovers from all the family parties, so we eat on them all day. But the one thing we make sure we do on this day is to Thank God for all He has done for us this year. We also sing "Happy Birthday Jesus". After all, it's His big day and we are just so fortunate to have Him.