Christmas Memories!

What an amazing Christmas it was. We woke up on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought under the tree. Then we each opened our presents after checking to see if Santa and the reindeer ate their snacks. Prince Caspian was the only thing Tink asked for from Santa so we put that on to watch while Gidgi and I got dinner ready. Gidgi made us dressing, sweet potato casserole (the good kind with the nuts and brown sugar on top...my fav!), and a layered salad. I threw together a green bean casserole and added that to the ham that Jeremy's work provided us with. What a feast we had. Since our friends/neighbors were packing up we took a large portion of the feast to them to enjoy. Oh, it was so hard saying goodbye to them. We are going to miss them so much. But we know that God has plans for them and we're excited to see what those plans are.

Around 4 o'clock we packed, loaded, and headed to Montgomery. We ate in the car some food that I fixed because we knew nothing would be open. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the wonderful day. Friday the kids rode the mule (not a real one, it's kinda like a golf cart) all throughout Pawpaw's land. They even rode the back-hoe and tractor with Pawpaw. They love going to Nana and Pawpaw's because it's like going to Disney World...only cheaper. Nana and Pawpaw cater to their every whim as well...pretty sweet deal for them. Saturday Jeremy's brother and sister in law came down with my nephew, Luke. How much fun it was to have everyone all together.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Year. We'll be eating lots of black-eyed peas and cabbage in this household!!!

Jill

Twas the Night Before Christmas....

I love this time of year!

I love sitting with my children and reading books in the rocking chair.

I love making them hot chocolate on a cold day (not that we've had many of those).

I love taking all day to make sugar cookies from scratch and decorating them right before we eat them! Yummy!

I love to bake at Christmas. Really, I don't bake all that much during the rest of the year. There is just something about this time.

Traditions are important to us at Christmas. Of course, we can't always keep them all...but we try! For Christmas Eve we have a pretty good set of traditions. First, we attend our church's Christmas Eve service. This service has changed from year to year but I love them all and always look forward to it. This year was extra special because some of our very good friends (and neighbors) were baptized on Christmas Eve. What an exciting and bittersweet time for us. See, Tisha and her family have become like family to us. We've been neighbors for less than two years but God brought them into our lives for a purpose and we love them tremendously. They moved to TN yesterday and we knew that the Christmas Eve service would mark their final time in our church. Praise God that the entire family recently accepted Christ and most were baptized Wed. night. What a wonderful, exciting time. We also celebrated the Lord's supper and for me it was one of the more meaningful events of the year. God is so good to us and I truly thank Him for this blessed year.

Once we got back home we continued with our normal traditions. First, we read the Night Before Christmas. My mom read this very same pop-up book version to me ever since I can remember. She gave the book to me and we still read it each and every year. We also read a book about Jesus' birth. We actually read two different ones this year because we like them both. Next we put out the reindeer food (I mean the reindeer have to eat too! They're the ones doing all of the work!) on the front porch. The kids love to check to see if the food was eaten on Christmas morning. Finally, we set out the cookies and milk for Santa that we made earlier in the day. This year it was chocolate chip cookies and a couple of mint chocolate chip cookies. I think Santa liked them.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we always make a gingerbread house at some point during the holidays. Well, this year we had a bunch of the neighborhood kids over to help us on Christmas Eve. We didn't plan it but they showed up and had a wonderful time. I just left them to it. It turned out pretty good. I put a couple of those pics on here as well.

I'm sorry that my pictures are all out of order. I have no idea what has changed with Blogger but I can't drag and place my pics where I want them anymore. Maybe when I get time I'll figure it out...until then just enjoy the pics all jumbled up! :)

I'll post pics from Christmas Day later. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!


Jill

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Last night was our annual "Happy Birthday Jesus" party. Tink and two of her closest friends host a birthday party for Jesus each year. We invite all of our friends to come celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with us. They decorated a manger scene with stickers and ate cake and cookies. We asked each family to bring a toy to donate to the local children's hospital as well.

We had the pleasure of having our Children's minister at church read the Christmas story to all of the kids. My favorite part is when all of the kids stand around the cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. It always brings tears to my eyes. At the end of the party there is always a special visit from that man in red. It was a wonderful night!! We're so blessed to have such amazing friends in our lives to share this time with. Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Jill

A Christmas Dream!

This afternoon was Tink's final performance of A Christmas Dream. She dances for the premier Christian ballet company in the world. We're very proud that she is a part of something so special. A Christmas Dream is basically the Nutcracker with a Christian theme. Instead of the Clara receiving a nutcracker it's Katherine receiving a Bible. Instead of the Nutcracker fighting the Mouse King it's Michael, the arc-angel fighting Beelzebub the deamon. And Katherine goes to heaven to visit Jesus where all of creation dances around her. Tink was a bird this year. It is an incredibly powerful and beautiful performance and I hope you all get the chance to see it sometime. We will have the DVD if you're interested. It's a great way to put the true meaning of Christmas back into our hearts.

Well, here are some pics! Jeremy's parents and my mom came to today's performance with us. Tink already can't wait until next year when she's an angel...they have a bigger dance part!

Grief

I just wanted to update everyone....yesterday Jeremy's grandfather passed away. This was very unexpected and the family needs lots of prayers. I'm trying to write this on just a few hours of sleep so please forgive any mistakes. We took Princess with us to Montgomery yesterday (we knew she'd help add a little light into the darkness). We drove back today to be ready for Man-Man's neuro check-up tomorrow. We'll leave the Dr. and go back to Montgomery tomorrow for visitation and the funeral. Tink and Man-Man don't know yet. They will be told in the morning. Please pray for safety for all of our travels. It's almost 5 hours each way. Please pray that we can get in early for Man's check-up so that we'll be able to leave in enough time for Jeremy to make visitation. Please please pray especially for Jeremy's family. This is a very difficult time for them and I pray that God guides us all through this, giving us His strength, grace, and hope. Please pray most of all that HE will be glorified above all else. May His loving arms surround all of us and help us through the next few days, weeks, months. I thank God for such loving friends and family that I can count on. We'll be home on Thurs...after all, Tink has ballet recital all weekend!!!!

Jill

Christmas Time!

What a wonderfully busy week we've had! Monday night I had the college student leaders from our church over to our house for a Christmas dinner/party. With the help of the adult leaders and some wonderful ladies from our church we were able to host over 20 students and serve a wonderful meal eaten on china and Christmas ware. That was so much fun for me. I love the college students and can't wait to have them over again. They are such a delight to our family and our church!

On Tuesday I attended a ladies night at both our church and Donna's house. The church function was great. We ate pizza and watched the movie, The Christmas Card. Afterwards, some of the girls from our S.S. went to Donna's for a planning meeting. Well, you know what happens anytime girls get together. We ended up staying out way past our bedtime!! YEAH!

Wednesday brought choir parties at church and the opportunity to see Man-Man sing in his choir. Since he's 4 he doesn't sing in "Big" church so once a year we get to go into his choir room and watch him. He was shy for the most part and hid in Daddy's arms. But I loved watching him and all of his friends. He's got a great teacher and they have tons of fun.

Thursday I took Tink and Man-Man to see the Nutcracker. They love watching the dancers and they're very well behaved considering how long we had to sit there just to wait for it to start. I was so proud of them. We had a special lunch at McDonalds after...what a treat!

Friday we went to see a fabulous production of A Christmas Carol. New Stage theater is a local theater production who puts on this...along with many others...each year. It's a highlight of our holidays and a tradition to go see it. I believe this is our third year in a row. Also on Friday night DH and I had our S.S. party. How great to be able to get together with all of our friends for a night without kids. We are so very blessed with amazing friends and a wonderful church home.

Tonight we gathered with about 20 of our friends and family to watch the local Christmas parade. Sweet Alicia and Tania brought hot chocolate and Alicia made awesome M&M's cookies. The kids had so much fun. This, too, has become a tradition for us. I love this time of year! We have so much fun together as a family and such wonderful memories shared with friends. Most importantly though we remember the reason that we gather at each of these events. That God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Make some wonderful memories this Christmas season!

Thanksgiving blessings!

Thanksgiving recently become one of my favorite holidays. I mean, I always loved it before but the past few years I've come to appreciate it more and more. God has given our family so many wonderful blessings and to take the time to give thanks to our Heavenly Father is so important. My desire is to make each day a day full of thanksgiving and love. Why only once a year?? And on that thought...why can't we eat dressing and turkey in May???

I also love Thanksgiving because it's the ONE holiday where we don't travel. Usually we just have dinner with my mom and we cook a huge feast just for the 6 of us. This year we invited my precious friend and neighbor, Tisha, and her family over to share the holiday with us. Tisha's mom was visiting from TN and we had a wonderfully full home on Thanksgiving Day. I am so thankful that God placed this family in my life. They have just meant the world to me and they have ALL recently been saved!! Praise God! He has really been working in their lives and I cry every time I think of their precious family. They'll be moving at the end of the month but I know we'll stay close always.

Here are some pictures of our blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Princess at 14 months!

Photo shoot in the bathtub!!! My baby is growing up so fast. She's almost 15 months old now and she is so much fun. She loves her brother and sister and gets into anything and everything. She is the happiest baby I've ever been around and such a joy with! I love you Princess!

Tink's Baptism

After a crazy weekend in and out of the ER for Man-Man it was wonderful how God showed that He is the one in control by planning Tink's baptism for that same day. He's great like that, isn't he! My mom wouldn't have been in town to be able to keep the girls at the last minute if Tink wasn't getting baptized this past weekend. Yes, I know we could have called upon any of great friends but I would still have worried more about them. DH's parents were already coming in from AL for the day to watch the baptism so they just left a little earlier. And most of all, this was a glorious and wonderful time in our family's history as our oldest child showed her obedience to her Savior through Believer's Baptism. That is the most important thing! Man-Man was great. The Dr's released us without concern. We were able to give all of the credit to our Lord and further prove that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose"!

ER again!

Just a quick post to update everybody. I'm working on 4 hours sleep so it'll be quick. Prince took a fall last night and began vomiting. We just went through this with Princess one month ago so we knew after the second time he threw up we needed to go. We went to Baptist and they were great. We had a CT scan withing 10 minutes of arriving. No brain swelling or bleeding. But there was blood behind his left ear. They did x-rays on his skull and found a long fracture going up his skull from his ear...about 4-5 inches in length. Meanwhile he's still vomiting. They put an INT in him (iv) and gave him nausea meds. They transferred him to UMC to be admitted or for 23 hour observation (because they have Peds ER and Peds Neuro) via ambulance (due to liability reasons). They then needed to get blood. Unfortunately they couldn't get blood to draw from his INT so they had to draw blood from his AC on his other arm. UGHHHHH!!!! And please tell me why they felt the need to rebandage and retape his entire INT BEFORE they tried to draw from it....sorry...it's the RN coming out in me. I didn't want my baby stuck needlessly. He was a trooper though. We are so very proud of him. Dr. Ray-Dios was the Neurosurgeon on call. He came to talk to us at about 130 am. He's great! BTW the fall occurred at 7:30pm...long night. He told us the fracture was a hairline fracture and that if there was going to be any swelling or bleeding it would have occurred by now. The main thing to watch was keeping him hydrated. I was dreading a night in UMC with Neuro checks every 2 hours or so. He discussed it with the on-call ER DR. and they agreed to let us go home. We are continuing to monitor him but he's had no S/S of any neuro probs at all. He's great and he remembers every single thing about the fall and the events at the hospital. We got home this morning at 3am and we're still walking zombies. I'm taking him back a week from Friday to be checked and we'll continue to have checks routinely for about a year to make sure the fracture is healing correctly. I'm sorry this is a very long run on paragraph but I don't have the energy to click the shift and the tab key. I'll write more later but that's the main gyst! He's great, we're great, God is AWESOME! And we're just going to all wear football helmets forever1

Oh, Tink DID get baptized tonight. We're so proud and it was an amazing experience. I'll write about that and upload pics tomorrow.

Good night! Thanks for the prayers and please keep praying.

Jill

Dinosaurs!!

My mom and I took the kids to the Natural Science Museum earlier in the week to see the Dinosaur exhibit. The kids had so much fun. I think Prince enjoyed it most of all. At first he thought the robotic dinosaurs were real! It was cute to see his reactions. They loved looking at the bones and the replicas of real dinosaurs. We also got to see the fish, snakes, alligators, and other animals that are there all the time. What a fun and exciting day. Tink is learning about invertebrates in science so it was a great way to reinforce the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates. She would walk around showing me what each animal/creature was. She also found some insects and arachnids that she was able to tell me the difference between. We're having so much fun in school!

Yes! It is only November!

O.K. I know a lot of you just think I'm crazy but I am so ready for Christmas! I just get so excited this time of year and I can't help myself. We are almost finished with our Christmas shopping and yes, in the next week I hope to talk my husband into putting up the tree. I know, I know...it's not even Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving....the turkey, dressing, giving thanks to the Lord for all He's done for us. But that only leaves four weeks to celebrate the best/most magical time of the year. I just need more time than that. SO I'm putting up the Christmas background and the Christmas music on my blog. I hope it gets you in the Spirit like it does me. And I'll enjoy and treasure Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks as well...I'll just do it around my Christmas tree!!!

Jill

Joining the church!

Well, tonight was the night! Tink felt the call to "walk the aisle" this morning but since Daddy was running sound during church I asked her to wait until tonight. She was excited all day. She even planned to sit up front so she wouldn't have to walk so far. Daddy and I just kept quiet, asking her subtle questions to make sure she was ready. We wanted this to be her decision and we weren't going push her. Well, we walked into church and I asked where she wanted to sit. She said, "on the front row since I'm going to ask to be baptized". Well, she really meant the FRONT ROW. I talked her into the third row...telling her the front row was reserved for the ministers. She said there were "like a thousand seats" on the front row and we didn't have that many ministers. Yes, she is very bright. Not much gets past her. But she settled on row 3. When it came time DH and I just stood up to sing without making a fuss...she looked at me and said she wasn't going. I told her that was fine. But before I could give it a second thought she looked at her Daddy and said she was ready. She led the way and didn't look back. We were so proud of her and she was so very excited. She is bubbling with joy right now knowing that she is about to be baptized following Christ's lead and His example. We should all remember the joy that is in Christ and the sacrifice that He paid for us to have that joy.