My little sister Amber turned 30 earlier this month. It's hard to believe! She still looks like she just turned 20.

Here are some pics of our newest member of the family, Little Miss Trouble Abby. We call her "Abby" for short. She loves to bite, jump, chase, bite, and "smiff" (as Samantha says it).

As a Christmas present, we gave some of our family some pictures of all the cousins together. Chris and Melissa were so nice to agree to the idea and came to our house and took the pictures. The kids started off strong, but by the end of the "photo shoot," there were tears and screams of "No more pictures!" But it was all worth it because some of the pictures turned out really well! All of them are just growing up too fast.

Here are a few Christmas memories to share with you!

1) Caleb was Santa in his school play. We were SO PROUD of him.

I will include a few more pictures from the play later. And you can watch the DVD
with us anytime you come and visit! :-) 2) Here is Samantha in her Christmas jammies.
3) The kids "cooking" Christmas cookies. 4) Tim and I were able to go to a
Wake Forest game just before Christmas, and we had a great time. The Deacs won!

Merry Christmas, everybody! To our friends in Serbia, we miss you and pray for you each day. We know your Christmas is not until January, but we are thinking of you and what precious gifts you were to us from our Father. It is also a blessing to be with our friends and family here during this Christmas season. It is one of our most favorite times of the year, and we are trying to enjoy and treasure each moment. May God bless you!

The kids made some cute Thanksgiving decorations at school. It was hard to decide what to throw away and what to save for next year. How do you like the turkey Samantha made with an apple, Froot Loops, and a marshmallow?

Here are the kids enjoying some fun in the leaves.

The morning after her birthday, Samantha got to open her present from Uncle Chris and Aunt Becky. Before opening it, she had to wrestle with Caleb (her regular morning work-out). Samantha's special uncle and aunt gave her a Dora tennis racket and some Dora tennis balls! She absolutely loved them, and Caleb thought it would be a good idea for her to begin practicing right away (inside, of course). We need to work with her on keeping her eyes open, but she can smack the ball surprisingly far.

Samantha had a little help with opening presents from her cousins at the party. After opening two presents, she decided that she wanted to go ahead and get her Papas to open those two presents so that she could play with them. The cousins didn't mind opening the other presents for her. :-)

We had such a blessed time with family on her birthday. Tim's mom made the birthday cake. Isn't it beautiful?

The joy of trying to get a toddler to smile a "pretty smile" on her birthday!

Our little girl turned 3 on Tuesday, and we have had a fun week celebrating her special day. Here are some pictures from her preschool class. The kids seemed to enjoy the cake (I love the picture of the boy facedown in it), and it was cute to watch Samantha's face when they all sang to her.

This Halloween, we went to Nana & Granddaddy's church and enjoyed their "Trunk or Treat." The kids had a great time saying "trick or treat," getting candy, playing games, and watching a puppet show. They were also thrilled with all their "loot" when we got back home.