Weekend of the 10th-12th!

Friday morning, Aubrie, myself, and my dad went shopping to finish up his Christmas stuff for my mom! (and for me to help him pick out my present...Got some Totally cute new boots ;)

Friday night we ate popcorn & watched Christmas movies!

The girls got surprised! We purchased the Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure to watch!

Saturday-Aubrie hung out with me, while Todd worked and Madyson played at Grandmommas!

When Madyson got home, The girls made their Christmas presents for the family.

Sunday was my aunt's 65th birthday! Every year we always decorate her house for Christmas on her birthday! Here is Todd helping Toby (her grandson) put the star on top of the tree

After some cake, we all loaded up to go to church to see the Choir perform this year's Christmas musical.

This was so special for us. We had Todd, myself, and both girls, Todd's mom & step-dad. Todd's grandmother, my aunt, uncle, cousin/his wife, their 2 children and my mom and my dad!

This is a huge blessing because my dad does not come to church often, nor does he speak of his beliefs openly. I have been praying for him and his faith. He made a first step of willing coming to this performance. My heart was overjoyed! 

The performance was amazing! God has blessed our church with great musical leadership and an amazing group of singers, orchestra, tech crew...I mean it was TOP NOTCH!

The performance was musical but also told the story of Jesus' birthday through drama. Can you imagine that night? Can you imagine being a shepherd out in a field, tending to your flock when all of the sudden an angel...AN ANGEL appears out of nowhere and says "DO NOT BE AFRAID!"

Seriously? I mean I would have screamed...probably some not so God pleasing statements...or I would have wet my gown.

Then the angel proceeds to say "I come to bring you news of great joy which shall come to all people! For a child is born in Bethlehem a Saviour who is Christ the Lord."

How awesome would that have been? Do you know what my favorite part is? That God sent these angels out to the field to the shepherds. The dirty shepherds that were low on the totem pole. The ones that cared for the animals. Written proof that God doesn't care about your social status-when he has something big to share-he wants even the "shepherds" to know.

This weekend was a blessed one! It defiantly helped put me in the Christmas spirit!

The Broadus' celebrate Christmas!

Welcome! This is our home. It's quaint-not fancy-and very comfortable!

Come on in!

This is the angel tree that sits in our entry way!

This is a paint by numbers my great aunt did ALONG time ago. When we put my grandma in the nursing home, we found this when we cleaned out her house. I love having something so personal hanging in our entry way!

Next you enter our den!! This is our family tree full of ornaments from 1984-2010!! 26 years of collecting!

 Here is our fireplace! My biological dad brought that mirror to me back in October! I am planning on putting it in our girls room-but for the time being I mounted it in the den. 

 I collect snowmen! Todd collects Nutcrackers-this is our little table with the best of both worlds and our girls pictures with santa!

 This is our Christmas card table! Madyson picked out the snowman holder. She says "those are her friends on the cards!"

 Here is our dining room! It has a santa theme!

 This is our Nativity scene! The girls moved in some extra sheep. My parents bought this when they first got married (31 years ago) and Now i have it! I love it because the girls can play with it and wont break it!

 It sits on my reclaimed cedar chest with my snowmen and one of Todd's nutcrackers!

 The is the "girls tree" in the playroom! I gave full responsibility of decorating it to Madyson(4) and Aubrie(2) you can see shoes, crowns, necklaces...very fit for a princess

 The "man tree" in the bathroom-no fru-fru here =)

Now-a look at a few of our ornaments!

 Love the homemade ones!

 My first ornament!

 The red bell was on my great grandmothers tree. The little girl in the background is my sister's ornament

 Can you spot the B? It was on top of our wedding cake

 Aubrie Kate's first ornament

 Madyson "hid" hers in the tree so Aubrie wouldn't break it!

My mom made this ornament! She use to make ceramics! I have 2 of these and love them so much!

Well Thanks for looking! Come back real soon!

Christmas Traditions

Do you see a theme with this months post?

Christmas. Its not my favorite time of year, but I do enjoy it! I thought I would share "The Broadus Family" Christmas Traditions!

2010 schedule
Nov. 21st the Christmas Tree and decorations go up. I do it the weekend before thanksgiving so I can actually be thankful during the holiday...not stressed.

Nov. 26th: Sister Black Friday Shopping. My sister and I have done this for about 10 years now. Its our time, without kids!

Nov. 27th: Pictures with Santa: our new favorite spot (Bass Pro Shops!)

Dec. 4th: Community Christmas Parade

Dec. 5th Church and afternoon Nutcracker performance

Dec. 10th Family Movie Night: Muppet Christmas Carol, Christmas Child, (when the kids are alseep: National Lampoon Christmas Vacation

Dec 11th: Homemade Gift Making Day: Mail Christmas Cards

Dec. 12th: Church, Continue to study the Christmas Story: Church Christmas Musical

Dec. 16th: Snack making night!

Dec. 17th Pass out snacks to Sanitation workers, postal employee, police station, firestation

Dec. 18th: Visit Maw's Nursing Home, take snacks to her workers, bring happies to the residents

Dec. 19th Church, Continue to study the Christmas Story

Dec. 22nd: Christmas Cookie Night!

Dec. 23rd: Christmas Light Ride!

Dec: 24th: Family Christmas Party

Dec. 25th: Christmas at Grandmomma's

Dec. 26th: Church: Afternoon at home to play

Dec. 30th: Tree comes down

If you notice we have a trend in our family. We spend the month of december doing activities that are family oriented, that serve others, or that are teaching about the Lord. I think that is the best way to celebrate the birth of Christ!

What are some of your Christmas traditions!?

CSN $55.00 give-a-way!

Thank you to everyone that entered to win!!! We will be doing another give-a-way after the holidays!!!
*For information how you can be apart of CSN's mom blog give-a-way/reviews. Email me at thebroadusbunch@gmail.com!

Christmas is about giving!

A few weeks ago I was given a $55.00 gift code to use at one of CSN's 200 online stores! I purchased the most adorable present for my girls (can't tell you...you'll have to wait until Christmas!!) I order it on Monday and it arrived on Thursday. Talk about fast shipping! With the holidays coming up, Todd and I want to bless one of our readers with a $55.00 gift code to use at your choice of CSN store! They have everything from Toys, to shoes, to house decor, even flat screen TV stands!

To win: all you have to do is leave a comment below! It needs to include your email address so I can send the winner the special code! That's it! I will draw a winner on Friday!

Merry Christmas!!!!

A full weekend!

This weekend was the most amazing, exhausting, fun-filled weekend I have had in a LONG time!

Friday I was busy working away on the signs for our ballet studios Christmas Float when I got a text that read, "I have an extra ticket to Chris Tomlin tonight, sorry its last minute, but if you can go let me know" Um...Hello? Chris Tomlin? Yes 'mam! The text was from a friend Sarah from the women's bible study I did the past few months. As the day went on I thought to myself, I wonder who's going? Well when I arrived, there were a lot of the girls from the bible study there and we all headed out to see Chris Tomlin. He is my obsession on KLove. He is one of the artist that I absolutely love. He is amazing. And boy, did I need amazing!

Rewind a few days before. Life was starting to catch up with me. I was loosing track of my faith. I was planning things and doing things and forgetting what I was suppose to be doing...spending time with God. So when I received the text from Sarah, I didnt care if I was going with her and her husband, I was going!

Chris Tomlin did an AWESOME performance. I laughed, I cried (alot) I worshiped and I did it with a group of Godly women. A group of women that supports each other, that prays for each other, and that has a rule of keeping what is said between them private and that is a hard relationship to find. I felt blessed to be there with them!

After the concert we got to go BACKSTAGE...yes (jealous!?!) and meet Chris Tomlin. He was adorable.
Here I am with him

(EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!)

Once we all purchased cd's, compared pics, had a group of teenage girls take our pic (we all knew that they were thinking..."oh my that's us in 10 years") we headed for Ice Cream (i mean, its the holidays...no calories)
We shared stories, swapped ideas, I gave an impromptu twitter lesson...then we headed home!

I had to run to wal-mart before going home (aubrie was out of pull-ups, she still wears them at night so I am not washing sheets everyday)

When I got home, I had to finish the signs...bedtime around 3:00am (eesh)

Saturday I had to be at the dance studio at 9:00am. (got there around 9:15)

We worked on the float ALL DAY!!! We won the parade last year, so this year we were the host float, the first ones in the parade, the shining stars...it had to look good ;) We finished the float around 1:30 and had girls showing up at 3:00pm for hair and make-up! We had "The Grinch Stole Christmas" Theme and all the little girls were "cindy loo hoo"

Look at Miss Madyson...they were playing shrek on my phone

Madyson and her friend Skyla

Part 2 of the float

the back part of the float

The parade was over around 7, by 7:30 I was at home in BED.

Sunday,  we had Church. Neither Todd, nor myself could get it together. We arrive 15 minutes late (not a good thing when you teach @ 9) Church was heart wrenching. I really can't go into details but needless to say, i have been crying a lot this afternoon over a family. I need to help them and need God to show me how. (can you please pray for that today)

After church, I had planned to go to the Nutcracker with the girls and Todd's mom, BUT our house was disgusting and I don't mean toys and stuff everywhere... I mean a sink FULL of dishes, laundry piles taller than aubrie...So i made the decision to forgo this performance (sad because I love the nutcracker and had a whole thing planned for the girls) and instead Todd went in my place. He enjoyed it, Madyson loved it!!! Aubrie slept through the first act.

Exhausted? Because I know I am! Work this week and breaking out some holiday traditions this weekend. (Movie Night, Christmas Present Making (grands beware You are getting some cute homemade gifts this year).

Do you have Christmas family traditions? What are some of yours??

Christmas Choir Open House

Last night was Madyson's Christmas Choir Open House at Church.

This is a sneak peek for parents on what the kids are learning and such.

Madyson's teachers are so precious. The hosted a Christmas party after and had everything decorated so cute! I did snap a few pictures before my battery died =( so here they are!

Madyson, Sam, Hunter, Joseph, and sara-anna's leg

 Hunter, Joseph, Sara-Anna

 Ms. Social probably about to get Sam in trouble

Holly, Reece, Madyson

The Scarf Song

 Swishing her tail. She was so excited to get the "pink" one

 sara-anna had to coordinate.

 Ms. Darlene sat in on the rhythm stick song. Its her favorite.

 Tap them on your toes!

The best shot I could get of cooper and konner