Christmas 2013

I apologize ahead that this will be a long post...  I haven't posted since November and we have been super busy with Christmas fun!

We always love the Christmasville festival, especially our annual tradition of going to the parade with our friends, the Ray family!

Tinkerbell, aka "Elfie", our Elf on the Shelf made a re-appearance this year.  Robbie had more fun than ever with it!

We repeated one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  Both girls empty out their piggy banks and sort and count the coins. This year we learned that Campbell has been hoarding quite a bit of money :).  They then use their money to buy each others' Christmas gifts, tithe the dimes to our church, and then donate to a charity. I always love the reactions they get to paying with change and I also love how their baggies of dimes look in the offering plate at church

 Campbell had a Christmas performance at school which was great.  They performed songs in 3 languages: English, Spanish, and Chinese!

That night she had her Christmas gymnastics performance.  I stayed home with a sick Maggie but Robbie was able to go with my parents and his parents.  She did great!

Maggie and I perfected the selfie...

We had fun at the annual Singing Christmas tree for kids and Cookies with Santa.

 

The girls helped me with our Christmas cards.

We had a fun surprise visit from our friend, Pickles DaClown!  I don't think the girls realize how lucky they are to have her for a friend.  They have known her all their lives so they just know her as "Miss Pickles" and she just happens to be a clown who makes amazing balloons.  Pickles gave them the coolest hats that I will have to post pictures of as soon as I take them!

We enjoyed using our new camera lens to take our Christmas card pictures of the girls.

 Merry Christmas from the Comptons!

Wonderful Nine Years

 

Today marks the anniversary of the most joyous occasion in my life.  Nine years ago, the most beautiful person I know made me the happiest man on Earth when she said "I do."  Every day with Martha has been a gift, a blessing.  In addition to being a godsend, she has given this world two beautiful girls.  A lot of people do not know this about Martha, but she is one of the strongest women that I know.  The strength of her faith and commitment to our family is astounding.  Martha is such a positive role model for our girls and all three of us are extremely lucky and blessed to have her in our lives.  I know that I need to be a better husband and that I need to do a better job showing Martha how much I love her and how much I appreciate her.   I know I don't say this enough to her, but I am so madly and deeply in love with her. I've had nine incredible years with Martha and I can only imagine that the next nine years are going to be even better.  Martha, happy anniversary, and I love you with all of my heart. 

Fall Fun!

As the weather has been getting cooler and the days getting darker earlier, I have made a specific effort to make sure the girls still spend time outside. This afternoon after Maggie's nap, despite temperatures in the high 30s, I bundled the girls up and sent them outside.  Robbie helped them rake some leaves and then they had a blast playing in them!

They also climbed a tree with a little help from Daddy!

And then they buried him... :)