A Social Network Christmas

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We kicked off our holiday season with Thanksgiving celebrating with Mawmaw and our friends Chris and Lindsey. Remembering how much we have to be thankful for, most importantly, our salvation and life in Christ, was a great way to begin to prepare our hearts for thinking on what Christmas truly means.

Christmas time is definitely one of my most favorite times of the year. This year has been especially fun because Maddie and Rivers are definitely LOVING everything about Christmas. She and Rivers both love singing carols and hymns, she loves helping me bake Mike's favorite Christmas cookies. They love seeing lights, opening the advent calendar each day, and talking about the baby who was born to save us from our sins (as they play with the nativity scenes in our home). Kids have definitely made the season more joyful as well as helped me really focus on teaching them the "Story of Christmas". We pray and try to make Him the center of our home during this time of year as we do throughout the entire year. Some things that have really helped us do that is Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb" CD. Madeline can sing the chorus on several of the songs from this now. The past few nights we have really had extraordinary opportunities to worship the truth that God became man. Our church had a wonderful time of reading Scripture and singing about the incarnate Christ, and last night Michael and I went to the Keith and Kristyn Getty concert at Southern Seminary and had an amazing time of worship. We hope you're Christmas season is full of the Comfort, and Joy, and Peace that knowing Jesus brings and you have a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family!

Look how they've grown...

Dec 2010 Dec 2009

Christmas card "photo shoot" was semi successful.

First snow day!

Little man all bundled up

Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my Favorite Things...

One of my favorite parts of this season is getting Christmas cards in the mail! It’s so fun to see how my friends and family have changed, grown, experienced in the past year. Last year was our first year to make a family Christmas Card to send out, and I plan on doing it again this year thanks to Shutterfly. They are having a promotion where bloggers can get 50 Christmas Cards for free when they write a blog about their new Holiday/Christmas Card collection. I have used Shutterfly for various different personalized photography products and am really excited about the chance to order our Christmas cards from them this year! I love creating our own Christmas cards because it gives me a chance to highlight significant moments of our family throughout the year. It’s simple because I just download pictures straight from my computer into the card, and its fun to create something that is unique for our own family’s personality. You can see some of the many Shutterfly designs here Christmas photo cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards or holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards. You can add 3 or more pictures on the cards. They have selections of flat photo cards, folded cards, or stationary cards. The designs are adorable and their collection this year has so much to choose from though, it is going to be hard to pick which design to use.
They also have wall calendars (you can find them here poster calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars ). I design and give one to my mom every Christmas, and I think that she expects one now :)
So if you need Christmas cards this year or some great personalized gifts, check out the links above. And if you have your own blog and want to sign up for this great promotion to get some free Christmas cards go here http://bit.ly/sfly2010!

Hubby's a Preacher

I just wanted to share a link to Mike's first sermon with anyone interested. He preached from Mark 14 on "A Faith that Serves" yesterday at our church, and though I'm biased, I think he did an amazing job delivering God's word! As a proud wife, just wanted to give y'all an opportunity to hear. Praise God for his work in and through our lives!

Just copy and paste the link below and it should take you right to the sermon.

http://kenwoodbaptistchurch.com/podcast/media/2010-11-22_mike_frantz_mark_14_39.mp3

Lots of time with Family!

We have had a month filled with visits/visiting my family. It all started in early October. My cousins Matt, Jennifer, and Emily came from Nashville for a visit. Matt and Jenn have a little boy, Max, who is only a few months older than Rivers. We really didn't do much but watch football and catch up because it was raining most of the day, but the kids had a blast playing and it was so fun to see them together.

Max and Rivers

All 3 kiddos together before bed

Not really a "family" pic, but this is one of my favorites of Madeline this month. For any of you who know this girl you know she LOVES her veggies. This carrot was meant to feed a horse Mike took Maddie to see, but she ate it and wouldn't share with the horses!

Mid October Marmie came for 5 days to visit us in Louisville and we had a packed, fun filled time with her. We went with the kids to the Zoo for their Halloween party. Madeline was a little confused and upset because all the animals were not out, but she ended up enjoying all the characters. Rivers of course was just along for the ride and had a blast.

Our Little Oompa Loompa

Madeline liked the "cowboy" and "astronaut" the best

Getting lots of great snuggle time with Marmie

We went to Huber's to pick apples and visit the pumpkin patch. Madeline loving not just picking but eating the apples!

In the pumpkin patch

Little man enjoying crawling among the pumpkins

Marmie drove back with the kids and I to Mississippi for a week while Mike stayed in Louisville building up some work days to join us for a vacation. He flew down the next Thursday to meet us for another week. I love that we got to spend so much time with Papa, Marmie, Erica, and Uncle Al. Since we only get to see them every few months the kids change so much so quickly. When we get to see them for such an extended amount of time, I feel like they really get to know the kids and see their personalities (good and bad)! Ha Ha! While we were there we got to see two of Papa's football games. Rivers wanted so bad to be a big boy and get out there and play football!

We also visited the pumpkin patch in Mississippi and Madeline experienced her first pony ride. She was a natural and loved it!

Aunt E and Maddie on the hay ride

We had such a fun time! We also got to see Granne and Mamps and the kids had a blast picking tomatoes and peppers from Mamp's garden. My batteries in my camera died so hopefully I'll get pictures from Granne soon to post. We saw lots of other friends and family, got lots of rest and good meals. Thanks Marmie, Papa, Erica, and Uncle Al for "putting up" with us for so long!

First signs of FALL

Well it's getting to be that time of year again! The weather is getting cooler (well some days at least), its getting darker earlier, and FOOTBALL has started. We even found these outside today while playing...

Yep... that's yellow leaves that are already starting to fall.

We've even started decorating our house for fall and are thoroughly enjoying being able to go outside without immediately sweating and getting eat up by misquitos.

Madeline helped me plant some mums

Hung our fall wreath

This past weekend was the kick-off of college football and of course we had to cheer on our Wildcats against the Cardinals. We were supposed to have lots of people over for the game, but we all ended up coming down with a stomach bug. We had our own little party anyway!

Game day Picnic

Madeline and "Lexi" our UK cheerleaders

Welcome Fall... We are so glad you are here!

Bruiser

I know... I am WAY behind in any kind of blog catching y'all up on life's happenings. I couldn't pass by the opportunity to post a pic of Rivers' first black eye. I am sure it is one of MANY to come. The kids spent the weekend with Marmie, Papa, Erica, and Uncle Al this past weekend, and when we met them on Sunday afternoon to pick them up, this is what Rivers looked like.

Our little Bruiser boy

Vacation slideshow

We had an amazing vacation to Miramar Beach, FL. I have been trying to get some pics up but my old computer (the one I have to download them to first) is getting slow, so its been hard for me to get a post up. I will try to get some of our favorites up this weekend. I created a little slideshow though that you can check out by clicking the link below if you would like!

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/mmsshareewelcome/p=824131279075591137/l=7658704014/g=126930880/cobrandOid=1000/otsc=SYE/otsi=SMMS

Rivers turns ONE!

June 18, 2009

This past Friday our little man turned ONE!!!!!!!!! WOW has this year flown by. Rivers has brought so much joy into our home. Anyone who knows him can testify that he is the sweetest most lovable baby! Its crazy how much little ones change in the course of a year. As you can see from the pics above and below, our precious baby is quickly turning into a toddler! It's been so fun to see his personality gradually show this year. He is our "quiet" one most of the time, but he is the happiest kid I have ever met (except when he is hungry, sleeping, or teething!) He loves to be around people, especially people he knows really well. He is SO curious about everything, and loves examining and studying things. He started crawling (well army crawling) around 10 months old and is into everything now. He is beginning to pull up and let go now, so I know its only a matter of months before he takes off and is a full blown toddler. He loves to laugh and his sister can make him laugh more than anybody else. He is an EATER. He eats twice as much as Madeline, and I think I'll be in trouble once he gets older! He is very affectionate, and loves giving hugs and kisses these days.

June 2010

We had such a fun day celebrating his birthday. We woke up and had breakfast with the Murrays and then went swimming with most of the Frantz cousins. Rivers had a feast of pizza and birthday cake for lunch. He demolished his piece of birthday cake... yes he shares his Daddy's sweet tooth. Not only was it Rivers birthday, but it was Will and James' 3rd birthday, so that afternoon we went to their birthday party. We had lots of fun celebrating the life of our little man. What a precious blessing from the Lord he is, and what a blessing it is to be his MOM! Happy Birthday Rivers, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Pics of BIRTHDAY
Hangin with the cousins

Some Pool time

Opening presents

Ready for cake

Mmmm... good

The birthday boys

Pickin Strawberries

Mike has an incredibly busy week this week, so on Saturday we took full advantage of his day off and had a Frantz Family Day of FUN!!!!!!! We shopped the neighborhood yard sale that morning. We found some great deals, but even better made some new friends! Then we went strawberry pickin at Huber's Orchard over in Indiania. It was a sweet treat... as you can tell from the kids faces!

Introducing Madeline to fresh picked strawberries

Workin hard!

"There are just so many ... can't I eat some!"

"Mmmmm. . . Good!!"

Brother liked them a lot too!

Our beautiful bushel of berries

Tractor ride back in from the fields

"I didn't eat many strawberries?!"

Top it off with homemade strawberry ice cream, YUM!

I think we can honestly say that Huber's is our new favorite Saturday spot! We finished the day with naps, an local cultural festival, and dinner with some of our great friends from church! It was an awesome weekend to say the least!