Merry Christmas! (Sorry no Card)

We have been getting lots of Christmas cards in the mail from family and friends all over the US with precious pictures of their family and updates on the past year of their life. I love getting these cards, seeing recent pictures, and reading updates, but I have felt a little guilty this year not sending our own out. We just didn't fit Christmas cards into the Frantz Family Christmas budget (which my wonderful gift giving husband neglects to observe half of the time), but we will try to work it in next year... so all that to say, sorry for those of you who might have expected a Christmas card! But I was thinking today, most of the people, if not all of the people, who we would have sent cards to read our blog, so though this is a little technologically informal - here is this years Frantz Family's Christmas Card and update (though if you keep up with us on here you are updated regularly!)

Photograph by Amber's photography (*to see more email me and I'll send you the link!)

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peache among those with whom he is well pleased!"

Luke 2:11-14

This has been a wonderful Christmas season for us. We are very blessed to go to a Christ centered and exalting church that has helped us focus our hearts and minds on Christ's first coming in becoming man and the expectation of his second coming! We have enjoyed a month of having nothing but Christmas songs, especially those great traditional hymns, played in our house almost constantly. We have had gotten to go to some fun Christmas parties, have friends and family over to enjoy the season, baking those traditional Christmas goodies, and watching good Christmas movies. Thanks to my creative and festive husband, we have also done some special things to celebrate. We made a trip to Bardstown and toured "My Old Kentucky Home" all decorated for Christmas. We kept our tradition of exchanging ornaments on the 9th, which started 2 years ago when he proposed. He even managed to make Christmas shopping overly fun... we took a trip to Target one night and split up for 15 minutes buying stocking stuffers while trying to avoid each other the whole time. We are looking forward to spending Christmas Eve with Michael's family, having our first Christmas morning in our home as a family, spending Christmas day with some close friends from church, and spending the week after Christmas in Mississippi with my family. It's going to be busy but a lot of fun!

A quick overview of the past year for us... it's has been a whirlwind of a year, but what else would you expect? January, February, and March flew by preparing for Baby Madeline to arrive with showers, getting her nursery ready and those oh so fun birthing classes. In April we celebrated our 1 year anniversary! In May we celebrated our birthdays, I graduated from Southern, and the our first precious baby girl was born. The rest of the summer is a blur as we adjusted to being parents. This fall has been busy as Michael has decided to finish school at Columbia Southern University, and should be done this time next year! He continues to work hard at the fire department and painting with a guy from church on his off days. I have loved being able to stay at home and devoting all of my time to being a wife and mom. In October we found out that we would be expecting another Baby Frantz in June! We are continuing to pray about the future that God might have for us overseas and are anxious to go but patiently waiting for God's timing and direction.
Madeline just turned 7 months old! I can't believe how big she is. She gained 2 pounds this past month, so the doctor is no longer concerned about her growth. Her sweet personality is really starting to shine through. She loves people, especially other kids, and she often waves and smiles at complete strangers. She has found that she can squeal and often does this, especially in the car singing to our favorite Christmas music. She loves to laugh and be very silly. She becomes the silliest and most talkative when she is getting tired (like a typical girl!), and can have a whole conversation by herself. She lights up a room by flashing her ear to ear grin. She has also found that she loves to eat and now eats avocado, oatmeal, apples, bananas, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes, peas, and green beans.

Hope you enjoyed our Christmas card! We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas. We are thankful for each of you in our lives! Here are a couple of pictures from our holiday festivities.

Family ornament exchange December 9th

Mike and Maddie braving the cold in Bardstown

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Well the Christmas season is finally here! We went to Mississippi for a little over a week for Thanksgiving and had a blast. We got to see Matt and Jen on the way home. We got to spend a couple of days in Columbus, saw some family and friends, had the first family pictures made. Mike even killed his first deer! We got to have lunch with our dear friends Andy and Melanie which was such a blessing! Then we headed to Pete and Susan's cabin in Yazoo County for Thanksgiving. The guys did a lot of hunting and the gals did a lot of relaxing! I would show you lots of pictures but the one thing I forgot on our trip was my camera! This is one that Erica took for us while we were there.

When we got back we started decorating for Christmas and finally got our tree up yesterday. Madeline is fascinated by the lights and ornaments. I can't believe that she is 6 months old! She is quickly becoming a little mover. She is trying to crawl, though most of the time it looks like she is trying to swim. She is constantly busy wanting to touch and feel everything. She has started babbling too. First words of course was "da da". It usually comes out "da da da da". At her 6 month check up the doctor was concerned about her weight and a couple of other things so he ran some tests for cystic fibrosis and some metabolic disorders. We found out while we were in Mississippi that the cystic fibrosis test came back negative, and we have not heard back about the other tests. It was a time of us really trusting God's goodness no matter happens. We are very thankful for our church family and everyone else who have prayed for Madeline and given us much support and encouragement. We are very grateful that Madeline is healthy and are having so much fun watching her grow! We hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating this season!