Tagged...

My friend Jennifer tagged me...I think this is the first one I have done.

So here it goes.
1. Go to your pictures folder.
2. Go to the fourth folder.
3. Choose the fourth picture.
4. Explain the picture.
5. Tag four people.

This is M just after she was weighed on her BIRTHday! Isn't she just adorable.

I tag...Tonya, Holly, Sherry, and Denise. Good luck girls.

Merry Christmas...

from Our Family to Yours.

We hope this Christmas finds you happy and surrounded by the ones you love.
We are thankful for family, friends and most importantly
the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas!

NYC here we come...

So last night we celelbrated Christmas with our group of friends (8 couples) and
had a blast. We started the night at an Italian restaurant for dinner...it was fabulous.
Then we headed to the White's for a white elephant gift exchange.
The gift exchange is always a time for lots of laughs and wondering who will end up with the
craziest gift. I have to say there were several.

However, this was not the end of the night. The husbands have been very busy cooking
up a little surprise for the wives. They gave each of us an envelope and we had to open them at the
same time. After a few seconds we realized that the guys were sending us to NEW YORK CITY for a weekend in January (no husbands, no kids). MERRY CHRISTMAS to us! So the 8 of us (Stacy,
Stephanie, Cassy, Kim, Tonya, Katie, Christy and I) will be leaving in about 3 1/2 weeks for 2 nights and days in the Big Apple. We cannot wait!

Thanks, B! This is the best gift...I love you very much!

Introducing Duke...

Meet Duke.
He is our Elf on the Shelf.
He showed up sometime during the day on Thanksgiving
and has been back in a new spot every day since.
The girls LOVE getting up each morning and looking for him.
Some days he has been easy to find, and some days we have to search for him high and low
(well really only high because if M could get a hold of him then we would never find him again - and well you aren't supposed to touch him either, or he will lose all of his magical powers).

So, we are counting down the days till Santa comes and Duke leaves again until next year.
But for now we are enjoying seeing him around the house, telling him our secrets
and showing him all the great things we can do.

I sure hope he is giving the Big Guy a good report from this house every night.

A's Class Play and Christmas Party

A's class did a Christmas play for the parents Friday morning.
It was so cute. They each had a part and were just fantastic.
Here is her teacher, Mrs. S giving directions before the show.

Here are A and her best friend R waiting to get started.

Here is the class getting anxious. They were also "starving" since they knew the Christmas party was taking place as soon as the show was over.

Here is A getting ready to get her food and enjoy her party with her friends.

Great Job, A! Your play was AWESOME!

R's Reindeer Ride

Thursday night all the Kindergarten teachers at the girls'
school went on a "Reindeer Ride". They went to each child's house
to wish them a Merry Christmas and give them a present.
R was so excited and could not wait.
She was the last stop (since we live so close to the school) and ran
out the door as soon as we saw them pull into the driveway.
Here are Mrs. F and Mrs. S with R.

What a fun time! Merry Christmas Mrs. F and Mrs. S.

Our Outdoor Decorations

The girls have been wanting outside lights for Christmas.
B kept telling them that we would wait until after Christmas to find them on sale.
Well, the other day he found them on sale and came home with some for the girls.
They were so excited when they got off the bus and saw him putting them out in the yard.
After dinner we went and got the reindeer and presents to go under the spiral trees he bought.
Now, we are ready inside and out.

Thanks Daddy for getting us such pretty lights.
We love you very much!

Christmas Decorations at the Historic Courthouse

Before heading to the Walk Through Bethlehem (see post from Wednesday) on Saturday night we took the kids to the nearby Historic Courthouse to see all the decorations and Santa.

I mean, who cannot see Santa enough these days.

Here is a shot of our girls and my brother's boys as we were getting ready to see all the lights.

R and M (my nephew) decided they needed a pic of funny faces.
And then so did A.

All of them in (or by) the sleigh.

A and R talking to Santa. They keep telling him that they want surprises.

I guess we will all be surprised to see what he brings.

M still does not like being too close to Santa.

Maybe if I cover my eyes he will leave.

Maybe next year....

Church Christmas Play

Sunday night we had our annual Children's Christmas Play and Party at church.

A and R were in the play as presents. They both did a good job remembering their lines and

speaking so that everyone could hear them.

Here is A...she was gift #14, a board game.

She is saying her lines.

R was gift #18, a doll house...here she is saying her lines.

Here they both are singing at the end of the show.

And although you cannot see this picture very well, it is because M took off running toward me as soon as Santa came in the room.

Too funny....

Good job, A and R! We are so proud of you!

R's Christmas Performance

On Monday, R had her Kindergarten Christmas Performance at school.

She was so excited and did such a great job.

The sang about 12 different songs and were so cute.

Here is R (front with red pants) getting ready to begin.

Here are the 3 classes that performed on Monday.

Here she is again doing hand motions to a song.

This is a picture of her 3 best girl friends in her class.
They have been known to get quite silly together.
But who could resist such cuteness.

What a great show, R!

Even Santa showed up at the end of the program. The children were so thrilled.

They did not know he was coming and their faces were priceless. Sorry no pics of that..I

picked up the video camera at that point so that I could get Santa on video too!

Walk Through Bethlehem

On Saturday, my parents, my brother and I took our kids to the church where A, R and my

nephew M went to preschool. They were having their Walk Through Bethlehem.

The kids loved it. We all got a chocolate coin to pay for our tax into Bethlehem. We got to keep ours though since our guide paid an extra tax for all of us.

This first picture shows some of the stores we visited first. They were making bread, jewelry, candles and more.

Then we walked a bit further to the stable where Mary and Joseph were staying.

We got to see all the animals.
These animals belong to my dad's friend, Kitch...(he also works with my dad and brother).
(R calls him chick...he gets a kick out of that). The kids have been to his house several times to
see all of his animals, and they were just as thrilled to see them in Bethlehem.

Here is Kitch with his bull.

The angels singing to Jesus.

The Holy Family.

The kids just could not wait to see Baby Jesus.

I was excited to see that they really got the meaning of Christmas...Jesus!

Visiting Santa

We went to see Christmas lights and to visit with Santa a couple of weeks ago.

A and R are such pros at visiting with Santa. M, on the other hand, wanted

NOTHING to do with him. You can see B holding her (to the right of the "Santa helper" who got in the way of the picture). Yeah, the pics are blurry...it was also pretty dark and you have to stand way back if you are taking your own photo and not purchasing from the company.

Here you can vaguely see B squatting down with M hoping she will warm up.

It was a no-go....maybe next year.

However, A and R told him that they like surprises. They must get that from me....B always tries to find out what he is getting. Not me, I like to be surprised.

HO HO HO, Merry Christmas!

Look at me...

Look at what M has been doing lately.

She loves to take the gate down at the bottom of the stairs and scurry up the stairs

before anyone can catch her.

Then she tries to close the gate at the top of the stairs so that the person following her cannot
get to her. She is thinking that she is sooo big.


I just don't have a picture of her crawling under the closed gate at the top and sliding backwards down the stairs. I am too busy at that point holding my breath until she gets to the bottom or climbs back up to the top.

20 months is so much fun for all involved.

Christmas happenings...

...well the Chrismas season is upon us and we are trying to celebrate any chance we can.

Wednesday, M and I went to see my nephew's program at his preschool.

Here he is waving to him mommy and daddy. It is the only good picture I got of him

before my batteries died. He did such a good job singing all the songs.

We are so proud of you K!

We Love You!

New Style

If you will take a look you may notice that R looks a little different these days.

Yes, she got a haircut and EARRINGS!

My mom and I took her last Saturday to get them done. After a brief bit of hesitation,

she got them done. She is now so excited.

She has even made sure that Duke (our Elf on the Shelf) has seen them because she

wants Santa to bring her a pair of butterfly earrings for Christmas!

You look so cute and so grown up, R! Love you!

Mr. Charles...we miss you already!

Our dear friend, Mr. Charles, passed away (unexpectedly) in his sleep Saturday night.

We just cannot believe it. He was such a joy to see each Sunday at church.

The girls are also very sad. Mr. Charles always greeted us with a smile and a hug, and usually a quarter or two for the girls. (He supplied their weekly ice cream money for kindergarten.) They came to watch one of the girls' softball games back in the Spring. When he got there he told them that if they hit a homerun he would give them $5. Well, this was tball and their first season, so he felt pretty comfortable with his statement....However, BOTH girls hit their one and only homerun of the season that night....of course he paid up too!

Last night we attended the visitation, and it made it more real for all of us. I just kept hoping someone would say this was just another of Mr. Charles' practical jokes...but it is not. I know that he is in Heaven watching over us, but that still does not keep us from missing him here.

Please pray for his wife of 52 years, Mrs. Martha Ann and his son Jeff and his family. Many dear friends are also grieving Mr. Charles' passing...Until we meet again.

We love you, Mr. Charles!

Happy Birthday, Mom/ Grammy

Today is my mom's birthday....

Mom I love you very much.

I am thankful for you even when I don't show it.

Thank you for loving me, B and our girls like no other.

We are truly blessed.

I hope you have a wonderful day (and that all of your students are nice to you at least today).

I Love you Forever and Always,

Me

Happy Thanksgiving...

...from our Family to Yours!

We hope that you have a wonderful and blessed day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Softball...

...is finally over! Who knew it was going to last so long?

Although, I have to say that it was soooo much fun.

We had our Fall Classic tournament this past weekend in the freezing cold and some rain.

Boy, was it exciting.

R played 3 games (1 Friday night and 2 on Saturday) and was done.

A played 5 games (1 Friday night, 2 Saturday and 2 on Sunday) and ended up in 3rd place out of 16 teams. They were so close to that Championship game. The two teams that beat them played in the final game for the title, so that says a bit about A's team.

They both got medals for playing in the tournament. This was so exciting to R. She kept telling B thank you for giving her a medal (he is the head coach for her team). I think her favorite part of the game is shaking hands after the game is over. So much so that Friday night as I went in to check on her and pull her covers up I heard her talking as I left the room (all 3 girls talk in their sleep). I turned around to see what she was doing and she had her arm out and was saying "Good game, good game" in her sleep. It was so cute!

Although Spring season will be here before we know it, the girls do not want to be reminded that it is over for now. They love it that much. I do love that we are not rushing in from school each day to eat a snack, do homework, change clothes and rush out to ball practice. Honestly, I am also running out of quick and easy dinner ideas that we can all agree on. So, we get a week of slowness and then the holiday season will be upon us and we will be running around again.

I love every minute of it, and am trying not to stress over it because I know that all too soon I will be asking where the time went and when did the girls get so big.

Happy Engagement Anniversary, Hon!

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day that B and I got engaged.

Hard to believe, just flown by so quickly...

I Love you, B!

1st Softball Tournament

This past weekend A was in her very first softball tournament.

Her team did pretty well. They played 4 games and finished in 4th place.

They won 2 and lost 2. The first loss was by only 1 run...it was a nailbiter of a game.

The second loss was played without the coach and his daughter who went home Saturday evening and came down with a stomach virus. So, the girls had someone new pitching to them.

She played GREAT and had a lot of fun. She was really looking forward to the tournament and

at one point the thought of losing and having to play a lot of games in one day was very appealing to our softball loving girl. However, she soon realized on Saturday, after playing 3 games, that it was more tiring than she thought.

She had a couple of other firsts in this tournament. She usually plays 2nd base, but got to play shortstop in the Sunday game. I hear she did a fantastic job (I had to miss the game due to M's naptime and R not feeling so well). And in their 3rd game on Saturday, she slid into 3rd base and was SAFE! Really, she should have been out, but who are we to argue with the ump when the call goes our way. hee hee She was so excited and I think a little shocked as well.

This coming weekend our park is hosting a Fall Classic Tournament. This will be R's first tournament. She is looking forward to it as well. This is a double elimination tourney as well, so we will be there for at least 4 games (2 for each girl). I am pretty sure there are 10 teams in R's division, and have heard rumor that there are 18-22 teams in A's. This one is starting Friday night. Hopefully we will find out tonight when our first games begin. Will keep you posted...

I've Voted...

I am happy to say that I voted a couple of weeks ago, but have been saving the

stickers that I got (the nice lady gave me extras for the girls). So, this morning we

headed up to Krispy Kreme to get us a free star shaped donut. YUMMY!

Here are some other freebies you can enjoy today all for doing your duty and voting:

Krispy Kreme is offering a free star shaped doughnut with patriotic sprinkles. www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html
Shane’s Rib Shack is giving out a free three-piece chicken tenders, fries and 20-oz. Drink. www.shanesribshack.com/locations.asp
Starbucks is offering a free tall cup of freshly brewed coffee to voters. www.starbucks.com.
Chick-fil-A restaurants will be giving away free chicken sandwiches on election day. www.chick-fil-a.com
Ben and Jerry’s will be offering a free scoop of ice cream. www.thefreebieblogger.com/ben-jerrys-free-scoop-of-ice-cream

Enjoy, and Happy Voting!

Trunk or Treat

On Sunday night we had a Costume Contest and Trunk or Treat at our church.

The girls had a blast.

Here are A and R waiting for their costume prizes.

R is a Snow Flake Princess and A is a cheerleader.

M is wearing the hula skirt and cocount shell bra that

my parents brought her from Hawaii this summer.
Here are some pics of the children walking from trunk to trunk to get candy.

This is Mr. and Mrs. Wages, some really good friends of ours from church.

They LOVE to spoil our girls just like they were their own.

We had a great time and of course the girls got more candy than they could ever eat.

But don't worry, they are trying real hard to eat it all.

Pitching a FIT

M has learned the art of pitching a fit.

This is a rite of passage for all toddlers.

Unfortunately for her, we usually just laugh

at her because she is so cute.

Here she is starting in on the crying...

throwing herself onto the floor...

starting to give up when she realizes I am taking pics

and laughing, but not giving in to her.

Bless her heart!