The kids and I spent the first day of December at the zoo! The temperature was in the seventies, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to go see the animals. David and Emma both love the zoo. Emma loves it more now as she can identify the animals and imitate their sounds. 🙂

My pretty little red heads!! 🙂

The weirdest sight of the day! By far! The gazelle standing upright and looking out over the fence! 🙂

This week has been very busy, and a little unusual. Andrew has been under the weather most of the week. I feel like I have been trying to keep everyone fed, dishes washed, and kids safe… it’s been a week of survival! 🙂 Maybe because I am feeling tired and slow right now!! Samuel could technically arrive any day now, and we can’t wait to meet him! Emma is so funny! When we ask her who is inside mommy’s tummy, she says, “Mickey Mouse”! I have no idea where she got this!! I hope she’s not too disappointed when we bring home Samuel instead! 🙂

I can’t believe this Sunday marks the first week of Advent! I did manage to do some decorating earlier this week, and I have our advent wreath all ready to go. Advent represents a time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus. Tomorrow we will light the candle of Hope!

We will also do a little devotional with some activities for the kids each day of advent! This year I am going to use a series put together by Focus on the Family. (You can click on the link to download it for free.) I won’t go into great detail about our Christmas beliefs and traditions as I believe I did that last year. Our main goal is to teach our kids that Jesus birth is the reason for Christmas, and the importance of keeping our focus on Him during the season. It is increasingly more difficult to do this when all around us seems to be focused on the “other things” of the season. Hopefully we will be able to instill in them the true joy of the season!

Here’s some more photos from today. The kids wanted to take their picture with “Snowball” the polar bear. 🙂 They actually tried to smile for their picture!

With Hope!

PK