2013 Coming to a Close

It's hard to believe another year has passed.  What a wonderful year it has been too.  I love to reminisce on the 31st and think about the blessings that have been in my life over the last year.  Truly, more than anything, I think of all the fun times I've had with my family this year.  I always love time spent laughing with Ryan and talking with him about our hopes and dreams.  Ingrained in my mind are the looks of excitement as the girls heard and then saw the ice cream truck coming down the road in NJ.  They couldn't wait to get a treat!  At 7 and 5, they are at great ages; they are just lots of fun!  They are such precious gifts to me, and I thank God daily for them.  We have such great times playing board games, telling jokes, making art projects and cooking together.  They are pretty easy to travel with now too which of course we love.  We had such fantastic times in NJ and PA visiting the Douglas family, Philadelphia, Sesame Place and Hershey Park.  We also traveled to New Smyrna Beach, Gulf Shores, Chattanooga, Jefferson City and Birmingham a few times.  I absolutely love saying our prayers together as a family each evening.  It makes my heart burst when I hear their sweet voices asking God to bless people in China, Africa and Alaska and thank Him for His blessings.

Of course, I consider myself very fortunate to have visited China this year.  You can read about that trip by clicking here.  I can clearly see the faces of many people I met along the way.  It was amazing, and I hope to have the opportunity to go back.  Ryan was blessed to go on a teaching trip to North Africa for a week, two mission trips to Alaska and one conference in Alaska.  I know he is anxious to return to each area next year too.  We were excited that the girls had their first mission trip to Clarkston, Georgia in April; that was a great experience for them.  I pray our family has many other mission opportunities.

I tend to not make new year's resolutions.  In all honesty, I know tax season will be in full swing very soon; it's nearly impossible for me to stick to any changes during those months.  Knowing that, I've decided to work on an attitude adjustment this year.  I want to intentionally create more joy and gratitude in my life.  I have so very much to be thankful for, and I know I often take it for granted.  I intend to take the time to notice the people, things and opportunities that make my life better and recognize it.  Additionally, I think this will help me keep an attitude of joy.  I really don't think I can thank God enough for this life and His blessings.

I pray that 2014 will be a wonderful year for your family as well.  May you always see the blessings!

Tennessee Time

I always love getting to visit with my family in Jefferson City.  This year though, there was an added bonus.  Granny turned 90 while we were there!  We drove up the day after Christmas and went to dinner that evening to celebrate.  What a fun evening!  We all enjoyed catching up with one another and a delicious dinner at The Chophouse.  It was great to see Deanna, Matt and baby Haleigh who had flown in from Washington state!  We took a few family pictures while we were there, but I haven't had a chance to upload them from Ryan's camera yet.  Hopefully I'll get that in soon.

Friday was beautiful.  The girls had a blast playing in Granny's huge front yard, exploring and climbing her big tree.

 Nancy also took all the kids and me up to her school.  She has done such an amazing job there!  This looked like the most fun place to be; there were all sorts of cool centers for them to play in.  Everyone liked putting wax paper on their shows to ice skate like Lily is in the picture below. 

 The construction zone was really neat.

 McKayla, Molly and Lily spent lots of time up in the reading area.

 Mia and Zac put on a puppet show and explored all the other fun areas together.

 Everyone was excited to go outside and play!  The swings were a big hit, of course, but Mia also loved riding a scooter around the little track.

 On Friday night, our family had its Christmas celebration which was really nice.  We did a laid back dinner and then opened presents together.  The girls gave Granny big hugs for their awesome presents: Minnie Mouse walkie talkies for Mia and an American Girl gymnastics set for Lily.

 The flowers we sent to Granny to wish her a happy 90th birthday.

 I enjoyed spending time talking with Granny.  She told lots of great stories about her time at Oak Ridge during the war; that's where she met my Granddaddy.  She is such a wonderful lady, and I am so thankful for her.

Christmas Day

We had such a wonderful Christmas Day, and I hope your family did too!  The girls slept in our room on Christmas Eve, so we would know when they woke up.  This was honestly the one night in the past year that they chose to sleep in!  They both stayed asleep until about 7:45 which was awesome; they are typically up at 6:30!  When they came out, they were thrilled to see Santa had stuffed our stockings and left a few gifts by their tree.

 Examining their new toys.  Lily was excited to receive a Princess Anna costume, purple desk lamp and turquoise lap desk.  Mia was thrilled to receive an astronaut costume, talking Toothless and a Viking costume (both from How To Train Your Dragon).

 Showing off their new costumes.

 

 Ready to open their stockings.  Both girls received Tervis Tumblers which they loved and have been using nonstop.  They had a few other similar items too: Bandaids (Jake and Monsters Inc), owl coin purse, chocolate reindeer and stickers.  They had some unique items too: Lily had Lego Minifigures and Animal Sets, M&Ms, Rainbow Loom glitter bands, bookmarks, pen and journal.  Mia had Octonaut figures, VeggieTales CD, Despicable Me 2 DVD and Pez dispenser.

 After stockings, we all opened presents which was fun.  The girls each received 3 gifts.  Lily received the Lego Dolphin Cruiser, Mandala Designer and Goldieblox and the Spinning Machine.  Mia received a remote control car, Disney Junior Puzzle set and Hungry, Hungry Hippos.  Both girls also received a new book: Mercy Watson for Lily and Mr. Magee for Mia.

 Next up was opening gifts sent down by Grandpops and Grandma Jan.  They are always so generous, and we appreciate all they sent.  The girls were excited to receive lots of new American Girl items (several different types of clothes, a scooter for Mia and roller blade set and piano for Lily) and Legos.  Lily was also thrilled to receive a voice-activated password protected journal; she loves it.  Mia received some fun goodies as well that she is enjoying.

 

Ready to start putting together the Dolphin Cruiser; she has been dreaming of this for months.  It turned out really cute!

Daddy and Mia started putting together the Lego train set.

 Once all the presents were opened, we all relaxed, ate some homemade peach bread and the girls started playing with their new toys.  Though there was lots of excitement, it was pretty quiet and relaxing which was just nice.  After a little while, I completed getting food items ready for our get together with my family that afternoon and evening.

 

I always love this family time together at Mom and Dad's house.

 Lots of fun to open more presents!

 After opening gifts, we enjoyed a delicious meal: our traditional brunch which is simply awesome.  I look forward to this all year!  After eating, we enjoyed being with one another and Mom had fun reading The Day the Crayons Quit to 4 of her grandkids.

What a wonderful Christmas day!

ACCA Christmas Program

ACCA puts together such a sweet Christmas program each year.  Mrs. Lindemann organizes and teaches all the kids, and they do a great job.  We were all so excited this year as both girls had solo parts to perform!  Unfortunately, earlier in the day of the performance, Lily was diagnosed with strep throat.  Since she was still contagious, we couldn't let her attend which meant she couldn't play her piano solo.  She handled that news well though she was certainly disappointed.  Here are the girls before we left; Mia looked beautiful in her dress, and Lily didn't want to be left out of the picture taking!

Here is the program with both girls listed.

Hopefully this video will come through and you can see and hear Mia deliver her Bible verse.  She did a great job!

Mia's PreK class performing with the Kindergarten class.

 Waving their bells proudly in the air.

 Thanking Granna and Papa for coming (and a big thank you to Bama for staying home with Lily!).

 Mia with lots of her precious friends.

 So proud of our precious girl!

The Christmas Countdown Tradition Continues

I love our Christmas Countdown tradition!  This is our fourth year in a row.  I always have so much fun planning the days out, and the girls can't wait to find out what the surprise is each day.  The last three years we have used a cute little red stocking as our calendar, but we found this one at our church's bookstore, and we all four loved it, so this has become our new calendar.

I usually only put one picture from each day's event on this blog post.  This year though life has been unusually busy, so some days I have added a couple pictures instead.

Day 1: Decorate the house.  We put up our tree, the girls' tree, three nativity scenes, window clings and fireplace snowmen.  Our family tree is always decorated with ornaments from our travels which I love.  It's so much fun to pull out the ornaments each year and reminisce on the fun we've had.  This picture shows our four from this year: the drum from North Africa, panda from China, chocolate bar from Hershey's and ball from Sesame Place.

 Day 2: Make stick puppets and put on a show.

 Day 3: Make stain glass ornaments.

 Day 4: Roast marshmallows for s'mores.

 Day 5: Pick items from the World Vision catalog to help someone around the world.  Lily selected sending a family five ducks while Mia selected giving a lady a sewing kit so she can sew clothing for her family or to sell.

 Day 6: Make gingerbread houses.  We had much better success this year as we bought completely preassembled houses from Michael's.  We just added the frosting and candy.  For the record, I helped Mia with her door, but she did most everything else herself.  Lily did the entire house by herself.  It was lots of fun!

 Day 7: Movie theatre day!  We went to see Frozen at Atlantic Station, enjoyed lunch at Which 'Wich and then admired the big tree.

 Day 8: Fingerprint painting.  Messy but so fun!

 Day 9: Dinner from the North Pole.  Grilled cheese Rudolph sandwiches, reindeer snacks (carrots and hummus), tree jello and Santa hats (banana, strawberry and mini marshmallow).  To drink we enjoyed a strawberry smoothie with snow cream on top.  Yummy!

 Day 10: ACCA Christmas program.  Unfortunately, Lily was diagnosed with strep throat earlier that day so we not able to participate.  I hope to put up a whole post on this evening though because it was so precious.

 Day 11: New books!  Mia received "God Gave Us Christmas" while Lily received "The Crippled Lamb."  These are two of my favorite Christmas books.

 Day 12: Coloring some Christmas pages.

 Day 13: The Nutcracker in Chattanooga.  Our friend, Kaitlyn, was one of the clowns with Mother Ginger in the performance, so we went up to watch her.  She did a great job!

 Day 14: Disney Live at CEPAC.  This was a princess and pirate show, so the girls loved it.  It was starring Princess Sophia and Jake and his pirate crew.  It was so much fun!

 Day 15: Hand and footprint painting.  Lily made the angel while Mia made the manger.  Lily's thumb made the baby's clothing, and Mia's thumb made his head.  As I noted on Facebook, this picture may not be perfect, but the baby in it didn't come for the perfect people!

 Day 16: A trip to Lenox to ride the Pink Pig and see Santa.

 Day 17: Telling Christmas jokes.  Some our favorites: What says "oh, oh, oh?" (Santa walking backwards) and What's an ig? (an Eskimo house without the loo - these jokes were from a British website!).

 Day 18: Dinner with Annie, Eric and Lucy Worrell.  Annie was Lily's Pre K and Kindergarten teacher.  We absolutely adore her and her family!  She is now a stay at home mommy to Lucy, so had a little get together to catch up.  What a fun evening!

 Day 19: Game night.  We all had fun playing Blokus and then some tickle time!

 Day 20: Movie Night at home.  We enjoyed watching the newest VeggieTales movie staring Merry Larry.  We all savored hot chocolate or apple cider too.

 Day 21: Milkshakes at Steak and Shake after Lily's piano recital.

 Day 22: Meme's Christmas Party.  Meme surrounded by her great-grandchildren.  We are so blessed to have Meme as the head of our family.

 Day 23: Making Christmas cookies.  Lily made Nutella Peanut Butter, and Mia made a Sugar Citrus.  Both were delicious.

 Day 24: All sorts of Christmas Eve fun!  We started by delivering the cookies to our local fire station and to four of our neighbors.  Both girls had mentioned wanting to be kind to our neighbors, so we took them some of the cookies we had made.  Everyone was so appreciative, and the girls were really excited to show generosity to people living nearby.

 Dinner included Christmas pizza in the shapes of gingerbread men, stockings, bells and snowmen!

 Next up was getting on new pajamas.

 Now it's time to hang the stockings.

 Can't forget the cookies and milk for Santa.

 Or the carrots and water for the reindeer.

 Notes left by the cookies for Santa saying thank you.

 All the presents are under the tree, and it was time for bed.  The girls spent the night in our room again this year as we all anxiously awaited for Santa to come by.

I love our Christmas countdown!