Christmas Day 2010

Christmas day was such an enjoyable day for the McInerny family! Santa brought presents for us to open along with stockings full of goodies!! The kids LOVED it!! After we opened our presents we got ready and headed over to Mee-Maw's house for the rest of the day.

When we got to Mee-Maw's house the kids immediately saw one of their presents - a rocking horse! Actually TWO rocking horses, one for each of them!! They each had a cowboy hat too and they loved it! They got on the horses right away and rode them for about 10 minutes. I love that Mee-Maw bought two so they could each have their very own! Thanks Mee-Maw!! :)

Here's pictures of us opening presents Christmas morning at our house:

Opening gifts at Mee-Maw's:

Choo choo!!!

Visiting the Indiana State Museum at Christmas has become a tradition for us. It has a really neat Santa scene with a train. I think what I love most about it is that the train looks like it's made for kids, but adults can ride too! Levi absolutely LOVES it and thinks it's cool. They also have a really good Santa, but we didn't go to see him this year. We just waved to him through his window!

We really enjoyed looking through the museum. Mallory got to take her nap and we got to look at all the fun things. They currently have a Titanic exhibit that I really wanted to see. Scott said he will take me and walk through it with me. I'm really hoping he does!

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Merry Christmas!! It's here! It's here! It's finally here!!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Christmas becomes so intense once you have children. I feel like I've been thinking about Christmas for years! Levi and Mallory are sound asleep and I am "shut-in" my bedroom while Scott is in the living room wrapping my present(s). I feel like I've been in a whirlwind of wonderful over the past few weeks and it's been lots of fun. We've been to see Santa...three times. We've ridden Christmas trains...twice. And we've shopped, and shopped, and shopped!

I always try to keep the true meaning of Christmas at the surface, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus. I have to admit that I fell into a world with gifts and Santa in the forefront. My heart was pretty much broken at church service this evening when it dawned on me, just how much I have left Jesus out of the equation. Levi talks so much about Santa and what he's going to do tonight. I wish he were talking about Jesus and the night he was born. It's not that Levi doesn't know the story or who Jesus is, but sometimes in this world it seems easier and maybe even a little more exciting to talk about Santa coming and bringing presents. But shame on me, letting that happen. My Lord, who was perfect, flawless, an unblemished lamb, came to this earth to save me, a sinner. I'm so not worthy, but yet He loves me anyway. I guess the awesome thing is that God still loves me, even when I mess up. And He's there to encourage me and show me the direction I should go. I love that He helps me parent my children. After all, He is the most perfect Parent of all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not being too hard on myself. I am so thankful for the Spirit God has given me and I want to be obedient to his calling. I want to grow and be more like Him. I'm tired of backing down sometimes. I'm tired of not standing up when I should sometimes. I'm so glad I get second chances.

Levi and Grom at her school waiting to see Santa.

Mallory feeling Grandpa's scratchy beard.

Mallory and Levi holding hands, walking up to see Santa.

Here's Levi looking at Santa while we were coaxing him to sit on his lap! He wasn't too sure about it! lol

I was so shocked at Mallory's reaction that I didn't get a very good picture!
Mommy, Mallory, and Grom
Such a handsome boy!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

My "Little" Boy is THREE!!!

On November 29th, Levi turned 3!! We celebrated his birthday at home with one of his favorite foods - bacon!! Lol - he is such his Daddy's boy! And we had cupcakes - which the "Cupcake Man" brought for him! The Cupcake Man is an imaginary man that Levi made up. Where he came up with this idea, I don't know! He calls the cupcake man on either his pretend cell phone or Daddy's cell phone and orders everyone he knows a cupcake. He of course chooses an appropriate color for each of the recipients and politely hangs up. Only to make another call to the Cupcake Man for yet another order! I just so happened that on Levi's birthday Mee-Maw ran into the Cupcake Man and he had a special surprise for Levi. Six HUGE cupcakes!! One was red because Levi "loves red." He pretty much says that at least 3 times a day. And we all got to eat some of the cupcakes. It was alot of fun!






Then on December 5th, Levi had his friends and family over for a very small get together. We played games and opened presents. He wanted a dinosaur party, so dinosaurs it was! My good friend Brandi was kind enough to make an awesome dinosaur cake which Levi loved!! He's such a big boy, playing with big boy toys, and still not wanting to share them with Mallory! I guess I can't blame him!